YESSSSS!!!!!!

No, not because the Queen Mother is dead, bless her, but because I've finally got my printer working (touch wood). The computer shop didn't find anything wrong with the USB, and after a lot of tooth-grinding and uninstalling and reinstalling, I've managed to fix it myself. Just printed out a humungous picture very briskly. Whew.

The good thing about all the hassle was that in desperation at being offline for so long, I dug out my old computer and booted it up. And had a brainwave -- maybe Faye would like this! She's been talking about getting a laptop. So I phoned her today and she's thrilled. I was going to get a new monitor anyway, so that's just a mouse and keyboard to add and we're away. So the plan is to go down to Oxford in May, set the computer up for her and give her a crash course.

I've had an extremely lazy and enjoyable week off, didn't go away in the end but stayed in my favourite place -- home. The weather has been great, so I've been for lots of long walks. Also got the boiler serviced -- it needs some work on the flue, so the man left a DANGER AT RISK notice on it. Also had the car's handbrake fixed. Bertie ended up in the footwell a couple of times today due to the now excellent braking.

What else? Nothing! Hah! Lovely.

OK I'm just going to unplug my computer and take it into the shop, and since I'm on holiday this week that's probably it from me for a few days at least.

Ta ta!

Slow start to the week's activities, mainly due to having been suckered in to watching some of the Oscars last night. How weird is it? First there's the compere, Whoopi Goldberg, then there's another compere or two to give away each prize, plus extra comperes thrown in to announce little bits of film. Then, for no reason I can think of, there are Donald Sutherland and Glen Close bursting in to announce the ad breaks (on a great big olde-worlde microphonic apparatus), and bizarrely, they seem to be also acting as security guards for the statuettes, which are stacked on racks behind them.

Of course since the show is on BBC2, which doesn't have commercials, they have to fill in the ad break time, so there's a studio with Jonathan Ross and assorted celebs droning on.

So anyway, I got up late, walked the dog, then got on to my phone calls. The Window Advisory Service is deep in dealings with Roxburghe Windows' insurance company to see who's going to deal with outstanding customer complaints. Oh. Dear. The woman I spoke to couldn't give me a time frame but asked politely for my patience. Hmm.

The computer firm are blaming a) the printer and/or b) Windoze for my printing problems. I'm to take the computer in to the shop so they can hook it up to a printer there and check it out. I've backed up in case they decide to wipe the hard drive -- that does seem to be their solution to most things.

Then I mixed up some fungicide and went round spraying things with it.

Then I was hungry, so I had an early dinner (grilled salmon steak, mash, carrots and cabbage, delish). Then my boss phoned and said not to bother coming in next Sunday, he'll take Wednesday off instead and work Sunday for me. Hurrah! Even more days off. That's me off right through to next Monday now.

Right now I'm going to have a shower then check out movie times. I might see The Royal Tenenbaums, or either In The Bedroom or The Son's Room. I would have definitely gone to In The Bedroom, except that I watched some live streaming video of the Oscar Red Carpet at work last night, and Sissy Spacek's nose made me feel sick. You can see up her nostrils from the front, you know? It's a bit Michael Jackson. Ewww.


Judge for yourself

I might go to Bridge of Orchy and stay here, or I might go to Rannoch Station and stay here. Both come with personal recommendations and both take dogs.

I usually stay in B&Bs rather than hotels because they're usually friendlier, but these don't sound too bad. And someone also suggested doing a walk I've wanted to do for a while, Corrour to Rannoch Station. You get the train to Corrour, just one stop, and walk back. Previously I've stayed at the Corrour station bunkhouse or at the youth hostel at Loch Ossian, and the one time I planned to do the walk to Rannoch Station the snow was so deep I couldn't see the path & decided not to risk it.

Bridge of Orchy is on the West Highland Way, so there is plenty of good walking there too.

If there are no sheep, Bertie can roam off the lead. He ignores any animals bigger than himself, such as cattle and deer. Corrour is a shooting estate, so it's all deer and ponies. Not sure about Bridge of Orchy.

Undiscovered Scotland

I'm thinking of going away this week, just for a few days, and someone drew this site to my attention. It's "a combination of business directory, accommodation listing and visitor guide. It includes a comprehensive range of links and a large and growing collection of in-depth and illustrated feature pages about places to go and things to do, and mountains to climb".

Great photos too.

Lunch yesterday at Tapas Ole, yum yum. Last month I had grilled sardines at Fishers in Leith; they were sour, bony, dry things, covered in crumbly oatmeal. At Tapas Ole they came fizzing and sizzling on a griddle, moist and tasty. Everything was superb, from the squid rings to the omelet to the meatballs. Triple yum. Afterwards we all went back to John's for coffee -- he and Penny live just along from the restaurant -- and it was after 4pm when I got home.

I made a mess of the rotas again, gah, I can't believe it. It's like a recurring nightmare. But the good side is that I've got next week off -- I made the mistake by copying over an old rota without changing the week off I had that month. I may go away or I may stay at home, I'll see how I feel. It will be a week of sponteneity interspersed with catching up on chores.

Like I have to hassle the Window Advisory Group again about the french doors. The seal has come out on one of the doors, an ongoing problem the company that installed them was meant to be fixing. I phoned them yet again the week before last to discover they've been taken over by another firm. The Window Advisory Group is "getting back" to me on what happens with the guarantee. Grrr. Oh, and I have to get a new wing mirror for my car - the passenger side one was broken off at the weekend. And then there's the garden. And I could do with some new summer clothes. And I really should get in touch with Kate, and Sandy, and phone Fiona in London ...

I'm going to be busy.

I live in such a friendly town, it astonishes me. Like today, I set out with the dog and first of all we meet the MS lady's son and her three dogs (multiple schlerosis, not Microsoft). Tigger barks and huffs and carries on like Margaret Thatcher, but otherwise they all get on famously.

After a play session Bertie and I head off to the marina. En route the bridge maintenance crew pass in their truck and toot and all wave. This tooting and waving thing is because I walk past them sitting under the bridge in their truck nearly every day. The older bloke who always sits in the middle has a shih tzu. One day they were all asleep in the cab, they looked so sweet I nearly took a photo. (I didn't because the engine was running and I thought, what if they're all dead?)

So we walk along the road and the bridge maintenance crew come back along, having done a circuit through the marina, and toot and all wave again. Then we're on the path up to the water treatment plant and Bertie goes on alert and disappears. It's my next door neighbour down by the water with Marble and Lazlo, the gun dogs from the house at the end of the street. Big hysterical bum-sniffing session ensues (the dogs, ha ha very funny). As Frances and I are yoo-hooing, who should drive up but Bridie with her Butch, more waving and tooting.

So I walk round the path and meet up with Frances at the jetty and we walk on together. By the marina office we meet Susy the Yorkie being carried by her owner, who lives in the sheltered housing. Back out on the road, the bridge maintenance crew go past yet again, toot toot, wave wave. I'd love to have their job, what a life they have. You never see them actually doing anything.

Then just as Frances peels off to take the dogs home, her neighbour on the other side, owner of the elderly cats, drives up.

Part of the reason I got a dog was the social aspect, and good grief, it really works. The British love dogs and if you've got a dog, everyone talks to you. Even people who don't have dogs talk to you. I think it's partly because it's something to talk about, but also it helps people recognise you.

Like the checkout woman who served me in the supermarket yesterday: "Is your dog all right?" she inquired. "Errr, yes..." Then the penny dropped. Her dog, Wallace, a frisky young Staffordshire, had tried to hump Bertie the day before. "I was soooo embarrassed!" she trilled, going bright red at the memory. This was the day after the Audrey Hepburn dress-up session. Coincidence? I wonder.

Bertie's been living at my house for a whole year today. Happy anniversary, Bertie!


Why the long face? (That's my favourite Bertie joke. He doesn't get it.)

Since I'm busy Photoshopping, I'll give you the "shipwreck" pictures. They're pretty convincing, I think.


OK so here's what we saw.


And here's a closeup of the "ship" that has "run aground". I can't find a normal pic of the same scene, but I can tell you that in calm weather that jetty isn't black, it's sort of beige. It doesn't look anything like a ship.

Once again, blame Pinky.

To quote her email: "I hope he didn't hate dressing up too much." Well the answer is that he hates dressing up just as much as the cat did when we were kids. Pinky probably doesn't remember forcing it into a doll's nightie and pushing it around in the pram, but I do. The things pets do for food!


"Houndstooth? Is that supposed to be funny?"

"These glasses don't fit right. I am so never working with you again."

"Ow! Get your hands off me! I'm calling my agent!"

Stylist's confession: I Photoshopped out my hand in the picture posted yesterday.

This is Pinky's fault.

She's bought a red sports car, you see, a convertible, and she's invited Bertie over for a spin. "He'll have to wear a styley head scarf and sunnies though", she said.

Got up early this morning and drove Faye to the railway station. Last time she visited I ran late and as a result she missed her train. This time we got there over half an hour early, so we had time for a coffee. I don't think she's had a restful journey ... as she was putting away her luggage and saying goodbye, a dozen schoolgirls were climbing on, some wearing plastic policemen's helmets. Oh dear.

After that I spent an hour noodling around in Homebase. I bought a very dangerous-looking item, a Stanley knife with a saw attachment. It's to use as a pruning saw -- Faye gave me a lesson in rose pruning while she was here. After I got home I put it to good use, clearing a lot of dead wood from the big rose bush at the front. I also got some oriental poppies, some hyacinths in a pot (marked down), a new toilet seat and a new cistern handle. The old seat didn't fit properly. The new one does! And the old cistern handle was leaking. The new one doesn't! Very satisfying. The new seat is also black, swish.

We had a very busy few days before Faye left, though I ran out of steam in the end. Visited the Deep Sea World aquarium, Butterfly World, a big garden centre and Arthur's Seat. I thought about going up to the Highland Wildlife Park but decided against it, it was a bit far. Faye went to the zoo last week, but didn't see wolves. They have wolves at the wildlife park.

Tate -- the Tate Gallery's wonderful website.

Browse, browse, browse ... it's very quiet at work tonight. We always think nervously about the Queen Mother at times like this, too scared to go home early, just in case.

It's nice to have pretty pictures to look at in the meantime. Like this one by Blake:


(Later: hmmm... it seems to have disappeared...)

Disappointingly I couldn't view anything by Patrick Heron, one of my top favourite artists, because it's all copyright to his estate (he died in 1999).

Browse, browse, browse...

Here we are! Serigraph.

Or even better, Rumbold Vertical Four: Green in Green with Blue and Red: September 1970


The article that last picture is illustrating is worth a look, Letter from London, on artnet.com.

I love the internet.

It's stopped being gorgeous, but at least I got a little weeding done. There's a new weed invading the front garden -- there were only a couple of them last year, they sort of crept in the front gate. But this year there are a lot more. I don't know what they are -- low, flat rosettes of green leaves that spread out on runners. They have shallow roots and thin, easily-broken red stems. The bindweed isn't as bad this year, though. I'm going to fill the beds with rockery-type plants that will spread out. The beds are looking really feeble.

The bluebells are coming up patchily, because last winter I didn't realise what they were and grubbed a lot of the bulbs out. Tsk. They'll spread back again, I guess. Or I could dig them all out and replant them out the back, by the back fence. They'd look nice along there. Then I could fill the main front bed with lavender and hostas. Or something. (My one hosta is dead, I think.)

A couple of weeks ago I hacked back the dog-rose hedge at the front and it's coming away nicely. It was really scraggy. Next year I might cut it back even further, and dump some compost round the roots. The lovely red climbing rose at the front is also doing well. The hydrangeas I dug up and transplanted last year are all racing away, and the cut-price rock rose is thriving too. And of course there's garlic everywhere. So it's not all a disaster.

Tomorrow Faye and I will go round a couple of garden centres -- the beds at the front look really dry and thin, so I'll get some bags of compost to put on them, plus some plants. Then we'll go to the movies, maybe Lord of the Rings again, hee hee.

I didn't do any gardening today, it was too freezing and windy. Instead I walked the dog for a couple of hours, then fixed some links on my website and did a virus scan. A layzee day.

Gorgeous spring day, sunny and almost cloudless, but nicely fresh and crispy. I didn't do a lot, though there was plenty I could have been doing, like weeding the garden. The front especially needs a good going over.

Whew, back at work for a bit of a rest.

Faye arrived without any mishap. Bertie was quite startled to see her; just as well we were at the railway station! What a coincidence! Etc. Poor dog, his life is one big surprise after another.

The weekend in brief:

Saturday: Drive up around the Fife coast to St Andrews, one of my favourite day trips. We stopped off in Elie for lunch at a nice cafe, had a brief walk, hurried back to the car to avoid hypothermia. It was blowy and freezing, snow on the hills. Stopped again in Crail; this time we were caught in a hailstorm just before we reached the car. St Andrews we went for a longer walk on the beach, a fantastic stretch of sand right by the golf course. Bertie was thrilled. That night we watched a video I bought last week, Asoka. No kissing please, we're Indian! Also weirdly non-violent violence.

Sunday: Raining, so we decided to visit that famous Scottish landmark, Ikea. En route we passed the Ingliston Sunday market so on a whim went in for a look. It was almost empty of stalls. I had just bought a 6in adjustable spanner for £1.75 when we found out why -- it suddenly started hailing ferociously, with thunder, lightning and strong winds. "This is the third time I've cleared everything away," said the stallholder gloomily. At one point a big rubbish bin was blown over and rolled across the vast empty swathe of tarmac -- right into Faye! Ikea was much more civilised. I didn't buy much, but got a nice utensil holder for the kitchen. Went back home via Peebles and Pennicuik.

Monday: Another outing, this time to Culross, across the firth. First we did something insane. While giving Bertie a pre-excursion walk, we both saw what looked like a shipwreck. It was blowing a gale, so it seemed conceivable that a ship had run aground across at North Queensferry. I took photos with my little camera and I tried to take some with the big one but the batteries had gone flat. We got in the car and drove across the bridge, parked by the harbour and went looking for the shipwreck. There was no shipwreck. We walked to every possible vantage point and it had gone. Thus was born the legend of the ghost ship; we even saw the crew, Chinese or possibly Filipino, walking single file along the road, hauling all their worldly goods in wheeled suitcases. Bertie was scared of them -- dogs can sense the presence of the supernatural. After that we headed on upriver to Culross, where we staggered around buffeted by the wind seeing the sights, and had lunch. Then on across the Kincardine bridge and back round to Blackness, to walk Bertie, and home via the New Hopetoun garden centre for a browse. Faye bought some gardening gloves. In the evening she treated me to a wonderful meal at Sweet Melinda's, a great little restaurant in Marchmont.

That's all for now. Duty calls...

Nothing much to report. Faye arrives tomorrow for a 10-day visit, so today I did a bit of housework -- the floors downstairs get so filthy (muddy paw-prints and drool, mainly) that I sometimes give up on them when the weather's bad -- pointless to spend an hour cleaning them when they get dirty again straight away. And I'm certainly not going to do it every day! I did my ironing too, another job I put off until it's worth doing.

So the house is sort of clean-ish, though not exactly sparkling, and there are fresh flowers too. I'm going to the supermarket now (love 24-hour shopping) for bread and milk and veg. All ready for a warm welcome...


Bertie will be so thrilled. He loves Faye.

The de-cluttering project is coming along nicely. At the moment I'm sorting out my photo-mountain. Thank goodness I have a digital camera now. Monday night I spent filing negatives and sorting through packets of pictures (while watching TV). I had had a lot of the negatives sitting in a heavy cardboard box. Unfortunately the box was on the floor next to the radiator that leaked a few months ago. A lot of the negs are ruined -- they were from old-format cameras (a Box Brownie and one with a folding bellows lens) and wouldn't fit in the 35mm storage sheets I have, and now they're all stuck together from being wet. Almost all the 35mm ones are ok.

I found some cheap albums in an op shop and have almost filled them already. I need three or four more, at least! I know an answer would be to scan them in to the computer, but I honestly can't be arsed. And anyway there's something nice about flipping through a photo album, isn't there? I haven't even started going through the huge box of photos, just did the ones that were still in packets.

Since I got the digital camera I've taken over 1,300 photos -- I haven't kept them all, sometimes I take ten photos and delete them all. But that's the real joy of a digital camera, you can snap away merrily and see the results straight away. No waiting to finish the roll and get it developed to see if the pictures are worth keeping. And you don't have to worry about the cost of developing your crap random pictures.

The computer course is drawing near an end. It's become even more frustrating since we got to the stuff I really want to learn about. The tutor doesn't differentiate between useful information and useless information -- in fact sometimes he gives more time and attention to the latter. Like today, he showed us some code that only works on one browser anyway and had us spend five minutes typing in the example (to "confirm" his notes), blithely saying, "I can't imagine any circumstances you'd want to use that in." Then he skimmed over the next section, which was code you'd want to use quite often.

Another thing that had my jaw dropping was when he referred to something I'd seen in the books I have on CSS and hadn't understood. "I don't understand this terminology, you'll see it in some of the books but I don't really know what it means, so I don't teach it."

Still, his manuals are quite clear, and what I've learned is a good basis for going on to work from the books. I think next week may be the last class ... yes, I just counted up and it is. He's not going to work for the university next year, says they won't pay him enough, but he'll be running classes himself, on Javascript and using databases. Um, I don't think so.

Bertie went to the vet yesterday, he's got conjunctivitis again. He loves the vet, she gives him biscuits. He may have forgotten all the bandages and needles and the dreaded giant plastic hood, but he sure remembers those biscuits.

So last night, thrilled with my newly-fixed computer and having installed the Eudora email program, I downloaded the picture of Pop kindly sent by Trevor and printed it out. Lovely! Now I'll just print out these other two family pix for the nice three-pic frame Anthea gave me ...

AAAAAAAAARGGGGGGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Back to the drawing board.

I fixed my computer! Everything works now except Outlook Express, the email program, so I'll just go back to using Eudora. Hey ho. I'm so pleased I managed to fix everything else though, it's great being back on the net. And I did it without having to phone the shop and grovel to know-it-all 16-year-olds. Phew.

Drama at work: there's been a fire at the printing plant. We're still waiting to hear whether they can print a paper, and if so, what size it will be. It was all just about ready to go when the fire broke out, so basically we'll have to dump half the stories. All that work, for nothing!

I checked the tide tables last night and yesterday's tide was pretty high, 6.1ft over chart datum. This afternoon's was predicted to be even higher, 6.2ft. It certainly looked high as I left town just before 4pm, and it wasn't due to peak until nearly half past.

Faye phoned tonight, she's coming up on the 8th, staying for 10 days, hurrah. She's such a great guest, and Bertie absolutely adores her.

UKHO EasyTide Tidal Prediction

Tide tables ... I've been trying to find out how high the tide was this afternoon, because I forgot to look it up in the tide table before I left home. But this site just does predictions; useful enough but not what I wanted to know.

The thing was, the tide was the highest I've seen it. The tides do normally vary with the moon phase -- neaps (small range, after half moon) and springs (large range, after full and new moon) -- and the effect was probably exaggerated by a swell, but the waves were slopping up over the harbour wall, in the little old harbour this is, I didn't go to the marina today.

It's been raining (and snowing) a lot lately and as I've said before, everywhere I go walking is a marsh. The groundwater seems to be high and maybe that affects the level of the river -- add that to a spring tide and whoops! wet feet!

Happily I'm just far enough back from the shore for it not to matter. People right on the water might be a tad nervous ...