Saturday, 21 September 2013

More Greetings From Scotland


We’re staying in Scotland for another couple of weeks. We love it here and with new granddaughter Melody only arriving last Saturday there’s plenty to keep us busy helping Sarah and Duncan. Next weekend it’s my 60th birthday and we’ve booked a big house just outside Edinburgh so that it’s not too far for the new baby to travel (although the rest of the guests will have a bit of a trek).



Rose came to stay with us at the caravan yesterday. The arrival of a new sister is not the easiest time for a two-year-old so we tried to give her lots of fun. She played on the playground before helping us with the tea. Although we have had terrible WIFI all week (hence the paucity of blogs) we managed to go to the site’s Games Room where we found enough signal for her to Skype her cousin Catherine. It was nice to see the two and one year old communicating (after a fashion) with waves and bye byes. Afterwards the signal was still strong enough for us to visit YouTube and download the Muppets with Harry Belafonte singing The Banana Boat Song. I am sure that this will become a firm family favourite.



This morning we took her to Forgan’s in St Andrews where they hold a Saturday Kiddies’ Ceilidh. Rose was a little reticent to try but by the last few dances she was reeling with the best of them.



Sarah, Duncan and Melody joined us and we had a bite to eat before Rose left us after what was, for us, a very enjoyable twenty-four hours.




In between family times I’ve managed another four or five hours out with the detector and found this great silver coin of Robert II c 1395 (another of those medieval cartoon portraits - this one looks like Apu in The Simpsons ) I went to see the farmers on Thursday evening and showed them everything I’ve found. Both husband and wife are really interested in what turns up and I will be sharing the finds with them (if they are not claimed by the Treasure Trove unit who decide on all finds made in Scotland).



We also had a trip to Cineworld in Dundee to see The Way Way Back a film from the team that brought us the fabulous Juno and Little Miss Sunshine. This is a “coming of age” movie about fourteen year old Duncan who goes to spend his summer at his mum’s boyfriend’s beach house with his mum, said boyfriend and the boyfriend’s older teenage daughter. Duncan is an awkward boy but his life blossoms when he befriends Owen the charismatic Peter Pan owner of a water park who becomes the father figure that Duncan lacks. The usually “good guy” Steve Carell plays the wicked stepfather Trent brilliantly and we feel for poor Duncan as he struggles to come to terms with his mum’s terrible choice. Allison Janney is excellent in her role as a boozy loudmouth neighbour and the film mixes humour and pathos perfectly to create a tremendous summery feel-good movie.

I’ve also been reading a lot during our stay and will be recommending a few novels to you in another blog

No comments: