Yes, I positively tore through my 'to do' list over the last couple of days. Al always calls it a 'todo' list, which makes me laugh. But then, he is dyslexic and I should not mock the afflicted.
Anyway, we got a surf during the only consecutive three hours without rain on Friday night. The waves were non-existent at Seacliff and looked utterly shite at Pease, but actually turned out to be quite good. I do like Pease, it is so mellow. The new short hair proved its worth by not getting in my eyes at all and while the half dozen or so blokes out there tackled clustered out the back I sat a little bit further in a picked off some great little waves from a reliable peak. I even remembered to cut back and stay in the pocket - possibly the first time I have ever had my wits about me to think anything more than 'Ooh ooh I'm on the waves! I'm on the wave! I'm....oh. Off the wave.'
Sadly my arm muscles cannot compete with my enthusiasm and I had to go in after two hours lest my entire arms break off at the increasingly frayed shoulder point. I wasn't cold though! I got changed and took a walk on the beach, meeting a guy who had got the bus from Edinburgh with his board(!). Turned out he was a student doing an internship with some friends of Al. He was from Shetland, which meant he was very friendly and talked to everyone - not a usual Scottish surfer trait. Al and I both agreed he reminded us of little Ant, our surf instructor in Fuerteventura.
At that point, Al came in and we were treated to a massive rainbow. It stretched right across the beach so you could see the whole arc and the fainter double rainbow outside. It was really quite spectacular. So then we went and ate some chips overlooking Belhaven and the sunset. How romantic.
All that, and the weekend not even properly begun!
As usual, surfing had tired me out and I passed out so deeply that when I woke up in the morning I was in exactly the same position I had fallen asleep in. Saturday dawned rainy and shite as usual, which was quite reassuring and also meant that I could concentrate on various boring tasks I'd been meaning to get done for months. In some case years, in fact. I took some dry cleaning in, including my lovely winter coat. I took my brown strapless dress to the little tailor man at the top of the road, who pinned it all up and agreed to take it in so it wouldn't fall down embarrassingly during a dance at Helen and Colin's wedding. I went to Sainsbury's and I called in at the TV aerial shop on the way back. Unfortunately this was closed, but since I was on a roll I called a few other places when I got home and left a message, as well as calling my upstairs neighbour to check whether we had a communal aerial and if he would let us in to the shared hallway to connect me up. I made and ate some potato salad. Finally, I cut to size and fixed in place the metal strip that covers the join between carpet and laminate in my kitchen doorway.
Then I had a little nap over Rebus.
I was awoken by the 'bing-bong' of my phone which makes a noise like a doorbell when I get a text and I can't figure out how to change it. 'Twas from Al, who was visiting friends who have just had a baby. I was invited to come and admire said baby. I duly drove to the wild west end and met the gorgeous Clova. I didn't have to lie about her being cute or anything. Maybe I am getting broody. We had pizza and took it in turns to hold Clova, who didn't throw up on anyone. She was particularly content on Al's lap, where she fell asleep on her back with her arms above her head, much as I had done the night before.
We left Darren and Jane to it and headed back to Al's, where he had an article to write for his website before bed. As we turned in at 1 am, he pointed out that they would have just given Clova another feed...and would be up at 4 am for the next one. Suddenly, I felt less broody.
We had planned to either go for a bike ride or to the National Portrait Gallery yesterday, depending on the weather. We woke up to yet more torrential rain and I lost at paper, scissors, stone, so had to make the trip out to the corner shop for bacon and the paper. I was so busy moaning about this that it took Al to point out the front page of Scotland on Sunday featured a terrorist attack on Glasgow airport. As usual, the Scotsman had blown this out of all proportion with its hilariously Scotland-centric bias (the headline this morning revealed 'Terrorists were not Scots'), but it was still a shocking story. The fact that one of the attackers had been wrestled to the ground by a taxi marshall came as light relief - you don't mess with the Weegie taxi ranks and get away with it!
We read the papers and ate artery-clogging combinations of bacon and carbohydrate while the weather did strange things outside: rain, then hail, then bright sunshine, then a thunderstorm, then sunny again. We eventually ventured out to the portrait gallery to see the Naked Portrait exhibition, which I thought was rather good and quite thought provoking. There were a lot of portraits that were self-indulgently pretentious - especially photographs - but enough that were interesting and different. I liked a self portrait by Alice Neel, looking like a typical slightly grumpy old lady, complete with butterfly specs on a chain - but naked. And some simple monoprints by Tracey Emin: I am intrigued by the sort of talent that can with just a few brief lines create a picture that not only recognisably looks like something but also conveys some emotion. In general, the whole exhibition was a welcome reminder than we come in all shapes and sizes.
Back home, I finished off the edges of my kitchen floor. This involved cutting and sticking scotia over the ragged edges of my laminate. It's quite straightforward apart from the corners where, if you want a seamless join, you have to cut the scotia at an angle. Having managed to saw beautiful right angles completely the wrong way round not once but twice I decided that only two walls really needed edging and the rest looked neat enough already. I celebrated with warm coronation chicken - a recipe given to me by Hils that I was trying out myself for the first time - and a dvd of 'Walk the Line'. Both of which were very good.
At work this morning, I find a metal detector and extra security men installed in reception. It seems the terrorist threat has well and truly come to Scotland.
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