Marks Grans Blog

 We left the house twice yesterday and not for shopping.  Well, actually that's not strictly true, one was indeed for shopping but not my usual shopping! The first outing was to a nearby and relatively new park near us.  It's a very well laid out park called Cuningar Loop which is built across the river from the houses which were built for the Commonwealth Games and are now privately owned.  The river is the River Clyde and it takes a big loop at this point, hence the name.  The park has an adventure playground, climbing rocks and a bmx track for the kids but it also has very wide paths round some stunning scenery and a boardwalk along the riverside.  Because it's fairly new, just finished last year, its still relatively unknown and underused.  The entrance is also off the beaten track down a small road, although it's well signposted from the main road and not many have found it yet.  That suits us just fine at the moment and the dogs love it!...

 I sabotage myself all the time!  I'm full of plans to 'do' things, then I don't.   I've never been heavier than I am at the moment and it's annoying me.  I want to lose weight yet I crave chocolate!  At the moment there are tins of Roses, Celebrations etc in the supermarkets (at the door of course) and I cannot resist buying them - for presents you understand - well, thats what I tell myself when putting it in my trolley!  However, although I put them away in good faith, once I look at the list of people I buy gifts for I realise they are all either diabetic or on a diet and would not thank me for a tin of chocolates!  Oh well, I'll just need to eat them then! I want to get fitter too.  I started running up and down our stairs in the house and I did get marginally fitter for a while.  I could feel it when I walked up a nearby hill on a dog walk.  I could make it all the way to the top without puffing and panting!  Then I reali...

Did you watch 'the debate'?  I had no interest in watching it, especially as it was on in the middle of the night here, however, you know that thing where you make plans and they say God laughs?  Yes, that thing.  I headed off to bed as usual at about 11pm.  My usual routine is to read a bit till I find myself having to reread the last bit (cos I was actually asleep!), put the book down, turn off the light and off I go to the land of nod.  On the whole I sleep ok.  Like everyone, I have nights when I struggle to get to sleep, my pillow becomes a brick and the bed becomes very uncomfortable!  Last night was one of those nights.  I did the usual, turned out the light and instantly realised I needed to go to the toilet!  On my return I found I was wide awake.  Hubby was still up watching the news but I shut the bedroom door to block out the noise of the telly and tried to get over to sleep.  Nope, it wasn't happening.  I lay for a...

 Today was my daughters 40th birthday.  Today was also my friends funeral.  I had a nice day. This morning we went to visit my daughter to give her her presents.  We had a lovely socially distanced visit.  Her husband has erected their gazebo in the garden in the event people pop by with birthday wishes and gifts for her.  We stayed for an hour and left.  I've not heard from her since to find out how the rest of her day went, however I'm sure I'd have heard if it went badly! My friends funeral was also today, however I have no idea when it was.  I was upset by this initially.  I know we can only have 20 people at funerals at the moment and had no idea if I'd make the cut or not but I did not expect to not hear about it at all directly.  Her husband sent an email to one of the girls in our Art group and told her the funeral would be today but not a time or any detail.  He said there would be a commemoration zoom meeting sometime late...

I'm feeling very melancholy this week.  I feel near to tears a lot of the time and can't settle to the things I want to do.   When my friend died I felt I should stop wasting so much time.  It reminded me we don't know what's round the corner of life.  I was supposed to have a Facetime chat with her on the day she died.  We'd planned it just 4 days before. We had no idea she wouldn't be here for it.  If that doesn't remind you to enjoy every minute nothing will.  However.  It's all very well thinking the thought, its quite another doing the deed.  Thinking I find very easy!  Doing stuff not so much.  I don't think I'm particularly lazy.  I don't sit around doing nothing.  But I can footer for Britain.  Do you know the word footer?  I'm not sure of an alternative word. In Scotland it means to waste time, doing wee bits of things but nothing big or complete, it means you're moving and doing stuff but nothing o...

 My friend died today.   It was very quick and completely unexpected - well in so far as it was not expected quite yet.  She had lung cancer and in January was given about a year to live.  We thought she might make it through Christmas but it wasn't to be. She had quite an advanced cancer back in 2015 which they managed to get on top of with chemo and radiation, however it was clear it had already spread when they had to remove quite a lot of lymph nodes before they found one clear of the cancer.   That said, she had 4 very good and healthy years after that.  Her hair grew in pure white but with a completely black 2 inch wide stripe down the back!  It was amazing and brilliant!  She and her husband had a few amazing holidays.  They did a train tour round Europe, travelling, at one point on the Orient Express.  They did a tour of India,  had a trip to Italy and many other smaller trips to islands in Scotland, England and Wa...

 Although I have no plans to blog again regularly I felt I should balance my last quite depressing missive with something a bit more uplifting. I was reminded of 'olden days' school trips on the blog 'Random Thoughts'.  In those days the teachers took us off on all sorts of adventures with not a care for health and safety. One such trip took us, a group of very silly schoolgirls of about 15 years old, a 'walk' up a Munro in Scotland.  I don't remember which one it was or what month we went, however I think it must have been springtime as we set off in lovely weather. I had my new serious school shoes on.  Brown lace up brogues.  That was as close to walking/hiking shoes I had.  For the first while it was ok.  It started off with a gentle incline as hills often do.  As the incline got steeper there began to be snow on the ground and by the time we got near the top we were knee deep in snow!  I often wonder now why we kept going as I don't reme...