Summer? Blink and it's gone. Or was it a dream?
Posted: Wednesday, 15 August 2007 |
You know you should never take longer to cook a meal than it takes to eat it. So says my boyfriend anyway. (but then I’ve never seen anyone cook as fast.)
But this is not actually the point I’m trying to make. I’ve been sitting here at my computer wondering how to begin this blog, thinking about my summer and how it started, and it reminded me of how much I had been looking forward to the holidays. But in a few days time I go back to work, and my summer will be officially over.
So, the question is: did I spend longer anticipating my summer than experiencing it? And if I did, is it a bad thing?
Looking back, it seems like it whizzed past me in a blink. But actually it was a long and lazy summer, which started for me with the Shetland Race (see my previous blog), and has only stopped this week.
The day after school finished I set off to stay with my bloke in Norway for a while o the summer. I was supposed to be flying to Aberdeen from Sumburgh, but flights were affected by the fog so I took the ferry instead. We were treated to a great show by the Coastguard helicopter crew on board Oscar Charlie while they were on exercise, lowering their winchman and a stretcher on board the ferry.
The following day I flew to Bergen and stayed in Norway for 3 weeks. Now before you go thinking jealous thoughts, I must say that this was not really a holiday, this was sort of ‘normal living’, my bloke working most of the time, and I had to find some things to do to occupy myself. Which is actually something I find fairly difficult to do adapt to, as my life usually tends towards the frantic. I had known before I went that I would find this hard, and I did.
However, I did manage to achieve a few things during my stay. For example: we went on a few short evening trips on the peedie boat, including one to Osterøy; I discussed future youth trips with the skipper of the Dyrafjeld, a beautiful 118 year old norsk sailing boat; I shopped; we painted the boat house; I mastered the art of asking for things in shops in Norwegian; I shopped; I missed a few buses, but caught more; we painted the house; I shopped; I cooked, I gardened; I shopped; I made a few friends; I met some of my blokes family members; I shopped; I wrote an article for Shetland Life Magazine (wayhey my first ever ‘article’!!); we went sailing for a weekend and I nearly got decapitated by the boom; and oh yes, did I mention? I shopped too.
ANYhoo, heres a few pix o my 3 weeks in Norway.
Oscar Charlie on excercise, Bressay in the background.
Bergen
The sailing weekend.
We went as far south as Stord....
...and met up with a few friends!
Party time in a place called Titlesnes (I think that's the name, Dag??)
Don't know who she is but she was one of many who visited Titlesnes to go to the Vassendgutane outdoor concert. It was a lot of fun, and not so different from an Unst night oot.
I had my kids for the second half of the holidays, so I returned to the UK with my boyfriend and his son, to meet up with my bairns and spend a week in Orkney, then we all returned to Unst for the following week. The weather was ok I suppose, as it just rained a little on most days, with only one day being ‘a day o dirt’. Which would, of course, be the day we chose to spend on Hoy. Here’s the pix from the Orkney and Shetland ‘bits’ o my summer.
We did the usual tourist trail thing...
The Ring o Brodgar
Bishop's Palace.
The bairns in the fire.
Going for a dip at Skaill. (After dragging the kids round Skara Brae of course.)
After visiting the usual suspects (Maeshowe, Skara Brae, Ring o Brodgar, Tomb of the Eagles, the Cathedral, some ruined castles, etc etc) the kids couldn't take any more old stone...
So we went to Binscarth for a swing in the trees,
and they went for a swim and barbeque at Walkmill.
At the Picky Centre, here the bairns are trying to figure out how to get back into the hire car that Number 2 son had very carefully locked us out of. Thankfully the car hire company rescued us.
Warebeth beach with the Kame in the background.
Yesnaby.
Not Mac, but close enough!
The Stenness Monster!
The week at home here in Unst was more relaxing, no frantic visiting, just the occasional swim at the beach and, of course, we had MAC!
Trying the surf at Norik
What we lacked in sunshine we made up for in enthusiasm. (And of course, the boys had wetsuits, that helped a lot!)
Well. Maybe I should attempt to answer my earlier question. Did I spend longer anticipating summer than experiencing it? Maybe, yes.
And is that a bad thing? Definately not. I'm already working on Summer 2008!
But this is not actually the point I’m trying to make. I’ve been sitting here at my computer wondering how to begin this blog, thinking about my summer and how it started, and it reminded me of how much I had been looking forward to the holidays. But in a few days time I go back to work, and my summer will be officially over.
So, the question is: did I spend longer anticipating my summer than experiencing it? And if I did, is it a bad thing?
Looking back, it seems like it whizzed past me in a blink. But actually it was a long and lazy summer, which started for me with the Shetland Race (see my previous blog), and has only stopped this week.
The day after school finished I set off to stay with my bloke in Norway for a while o the summer. I was supposed to be flying to Aberdeen from Sumburgh, but flights were affected by the fog so I took the ferry instead. We were treated to a great show by the Coastguard helicopter crew on board Oscar Charlie while they were on exercise, lowering their winchman and a stretcher on board the ferry.
The following day I flew to Bergen and stayed in Norway for 3 weeks. Now before you go thinking jealous thoughts, I must say that this was not really a holiday, this was sort of ‘normal living’, my bloke working most of the time, and I had to find some things to do to occupy myself. Which is actually something I find fairly difficult to do adapt to, as my life usually tends towards the frantic. I had known before I went that I would find this hard, and I did.
However, I did manage to achieve a few things during my stay. For example: we went on a few short evening trips on the peedie boat, including one to Osterøy; I discussed future youth trips with the skipper of the Dyrafjeld, a beautiful 118 year old norsk sailing boat; I shopped; we painted the boat house; I mastered the art of asking for things in shops in Norwegian; I shopped; I missed a few buses, but caught more; we painted the house; I shopped; I cooked, I gardened; I shopped; I made a few friends; I met some of my blokes family members; I shopped; I wrote an article for Shetland Life Magazine (wayhey my first ever ‘article’!!); we went sailing for a weekend and I nearly got decapitated by the boom; and oh yes, did I mention? I shopped too.
ANYhoo, heres a few pix o my 3 weeks in Norway.
Oscar Charlie on excercise, Bressay in the background.
Bergen
The sailing weekend.
We went as far south as Stord....
...and met up with a few friends!
Party time in a place called Titlesnes (I think that's the name, Dag??)
Don't know who she is but she was one of many who visited Titlesnes to go to the Vassendgutane outdoor concert. It was a lot of fun, and not so different from an Unst night oot.
I had my kids for the second half of the holidays, so I returned to the UK with my boyfriend and his son, to meet up with my bairns and spend a week in Orkney, then we all returned to Unst for the following week. The weather was ok I suppose, as it just rained a little on most days, with only one day being ‘a day o dirt’. Which would, of course, be the day we chose to spend on Hoy. Here’s the pix from the Orkney and Shetland ‘bits’ o my summer.
We did the usual tourist trail thing...
The Ring o Brodgar
Bishop's Palace.
The bairns in the fire.
Going for a dip at Skaill. (After dragging the kids round Skara Brae of course.)
After visiting the usual suspects (Maeshowe, Skara Brae, Ring o Brodgar, Tomb of the Eagles, the Cathedral, some ruined castles, etc etc) the kids couldn't take any more old stone...
So we went to Binscarth for a swing in the trees,
and they went for a swim and barbeque at Walkmill.
At the Picky Centre, here the bairns are trying to figure out how to get back into the hire car that Number 2 son had very carefully locked us out of. Thankfully the car hire company rescued us.
Warebeth beach with the Kame in the background.
Yesnaby.
Not Mac, but close enough!
The Stenness Monster!
The week at home here in Unst was more relaxing, no frantic visiting, just the occasional swim at the beach and, of course, we had MAC!
Trying the surf at Norik
What we lacked in sunshine we made up for in enthusiasm. (And of course, the boys had wetsuits, that helped a lot!)
Well. Maybe I should attempt to answer my earlier question. Did I spend longer anticipating summer than experiencing it? Maybe, yes.
And is that a bad thing? Definately not. I'm already working on Summer 2008!
Meeting Monica
Posted: Friday, 31 August 2007 |
Last Sunday, while I was oot and aboot taking photos, I met a lady called Monica. She made quite an impact on me. Not because she could’ve talked the hind legs off a donkey, not because she is a seventy-year-old single lady travelling the length of the UK on her own, and not because the camper van she was driving was old enough to be on my childhood tv shows. It was because, to me, it looked like she was in Control Of Her Own Life.
Does that seem a silly thing to say? Is being in control of your own life totally obvious to everyone but me? I now strive to be in control, but this is a fairly recent development for me, and I spent a large part of my adult life oblivious to the whole concept.
So I have great admiration for those of us like Monica. She, in her own small way, is brave, adventurous, independent, and loving life.
Here is a link to her own short video story, do have a look, it’s not long, just a couple minutes, and worth it. (I am trying to make this a live link, but so far I have had no success in this IB skill. Even after reading the Help section. If it’s not live, please just cut and paste into your address bar.)
As for me, I now enjoy the things I like, and practice saying No to the things I don’t. It doesn’t happen like this all the time, and life can still fling crap in my direction occasionally, but I am gaining in confidence all the time, and having loads of fun along the way. It can be a steep learning curve sometimes. I have dreams for the future, when more of my time will be my own, and although I know that the ideas I have may never happen, the possibilities that lie in front of me are endless, amazing, and exciting.
Anyway, Hi Monica! I had a great time meeting you!
Here are some of the photos I was taking when I met Monica.
(I have since been trying to perfect the 'flooer-photo' technique, by making use of my tripod. The result was more in focus!) And no, sorry, I don't ken the names of the flowers, but if you do, please enlighten me in a comment.
p.s. This being International Blog Day, I’m supposed to recommend 5 blog sites for your to look at. Well, sorry, but I actually don’t know any, I’m just Island-Blog-Addicted, not Blog-Addicted.
Does that seem a silly thing to say? Is being in control of your own life totally obvious to everyone but me? I now strive to be in control, but this is a fairly recent development for me, and I spent a large part of my adult life oblivious to the whole concept.
So I have great admiration for those of us like Monica. She, in her own small way, is brave, adventurous, independent, and loving life.
Here is a link to her own short video story, do have a look, it’s not long, just a couple minutes, and worth it. (I am trying to make this a live link, but so far I have had no success in this IB skill. Even after reading the Help section. If it’s not live, please just cut and paste into your address bar.)
As for me, I now enjoy the things I like, and practice saying No to the things I don’t. It doesn’t happen like this all the time, and life can still fling crap in my direction occasionally, but I am gaining in confidence all the time, and having loads of fun along the way. It can be a steep learning curve sometimes. I have dreams for the future, when more of my time will be my own, and although I know that the ideas I have may never happen, the possibilities that lie in front of me are endless, amazing, and exciting.
Anyway, Hi Monica! I had a great time meeting you!
Here are some of the photos I was taking when I met Monica.
(I have since been trying to perfect the 'flooer-photo' technique, by making use of my tripod. The result was more in focus!) And no, sorry, I don't ken the names of the flowers, but if you do, please enlighten me in a comment.
p.s. This being International Blog Day, I’m supposed to recommend 5 blog sites for your to look at. Well, sorry, but I actually don’t know any, I’m just Island-Blog-Addicted, not Blog-Addicted.
Blogs fae a thirty-something mum of 4 born in Fife, brought up in Orkney, and living in Unst.
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