shopping, a phone call and a visit

Yesterday I went shopping for wedding presents for the Aussie girls and their fellas. I don't want to give the game away just yet, but I got them each a very traditional Scottish item which I hope they'll like and be able to use! Earlier in the day I had a call from their dad, Ian, to sort out arrangements for when I arrive in Oz, in a couple of weeks!!!

He is going to drive to the airport to pick me up at half past midnight and take me to Clare's place. After a few hours shut-eye he's back at the airport again to collect the girls' brother Paul, and Sally's fiance Andrew. Then all four of us will head down to the town where the wedding is to take place on the Saturday.
I have to say sorry to the other members of our clan (well family really. We aren't a clan as such in Scotland, though we do have a tartan. - I digress!) as I won't get to see everyone this time. I will be heading for New Zealand a day or two after Clare's wedding, and only getting back in time to fly down to Adelaide - for Sally's wedding - where once again Ian will meet me and take me to the guest house. Again, a day or two after the wedding I'll be heading back home to Scotland. However it won't be long till I see Sally and Andrew again as they are soon to be coming over here to work - albeit in Glasgow - for a couple of years.

The parents of the brides on their last visit over here

I'm looking forward to getting to know the Kiwi rellies a bit better this trip, as well as meeting my nearly cousin in Invercargill and seeing the sights as I head back north again. Did I say it before, that my plan is to hire a car and drive my way up? There's so much I want to see that I didn't see last time, and places I want to visit again.

The forecast was for snow today, and apparently the newspapers are full of it. It seems it's officially a white Easter because they have snow in London - but what am I looking at outside my window just now at 6.30 a.m? A very green Green! Admittedly there is a light covering on the hills beyond the town, but otherwise not a drop of the white stuff! No need to wear the wellies to work, then!

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It's much later in the day now, and I have been to work, and then out for the rest of the day. Because it is Easter Sunday there were lots of visitors in town.... from Northern Ireland - or as they'd say in their accent, Norn Arn - England and other parts of Scotland, including quite a number from the Glasgow area! The accents are the give away! I have to say I enjoyed the shop being so busy with folk looking for last minute Easter eggs and hot cross buns, coughs and cold remedies, bottles of wine, newspapers that aren't published on a Sunday (!), cakes and scones for Easter tea, batteries for TV remote controls, etcetera, etcetera! What wasn't so much fun was that the emergency door was forced open three times by people who thought it was just a hard-to-open regular entrance/exit - despite large notices on both sides that say THIS IS AN EMERGENCY DOOR ONLY, or words to that effect! Michelle told one woman that her friend had just forced the door open (with a baby's pram, no less) and set off the silent alarm to the police. The two of them scarpered off along the road, with pram, before we were inundated with men/women in blue who might want to apprehend them! No we didn't get an invasion of coppers, because Michelle had just spun them a line! No alarm, no police, just a very cross supervisor who was ready to scream at having to secure the door seals for a third time!!

After work I drove up to visit Vina's family, the first time I have seen them since the funeral. I hadn't been able to psyche myself up to visiting, and had to force myself to face it today. To put you in the picture, Barbara and Alistair, and their two kids, Rachael and Ross, live in the main house these days, since Vina and Willie had an extension built to the back of the house to be their "granny flat". Willie was out but daughter Barbara was at home so she made me a mug of tea and we had a long chat about how we each felt about not having Vina around, and about Vina's and Willie's different reactions when the cancer was diagnosed. Vina wanted really not to have treatment, but we both felt she only accepted it for Willie's sake and that of the hospital staff, as they were all so keen for her to have it. Barbara said she felt as if her mother was all the time fighting against the treatment: not wanting to take pills, not drinking the medicine that could have helped her through some of the pain. Barbara regretted in some ways that her mum had agreed to the treatment, but also said that perhaps if she hadn't had it, then we'd all have been wondering now if it might have worked. She expressed anger at her mum for leaving them. They say anger is an emotion you go through when you lose someone. I have only felt great sadness and regret when something has happened that I'd normally have shared with Vina, and things are constantly cropping up, when I say to myself, I must tell Vina.

Vina would love to have heard the news about my trip. Barbara would have wanted to share the great news that Rachael has been selected by the National Youth Theatre, one of only 260 youngsters chosen from the whole of Britain and Northern Ireland, to take part in one of several musical productions to be presented around the country this summer. We are all so proud of her and wish her lots of good fortune! Vina always said, when Rachael was tiny, that she ought to be on the stage, and so it proved to be. She's done well in local theatre, and now it seems likely she could be on her way to big things - on the Edinburgh Festival fringe, no less!!! Go, Rachael, go! So, tonight the family, Willie and I all went out for dinner at a local hotel, where the toast was "Rachael!" I've had another lovely night, when amongst so many other things we talked a lot about Vina, and though sad, were able to laugh a lot too.

Talk again soon.