This way or that?

I'm always intrigued by the different ways we do things and trying to figure out the reason why. If there is one!

What set me off on a train of this thought was 'unstacking' the dishwasher. See, I was replacing glasses in the kitchen cupboard, and setting them rim upwards. My observation is that plenty people set glasses, mugs, cups and so forth rim downwards. Does this originate from open shelves, when you didn't want dust or insects to settle inside, I wonder? Isn't it better now that we have doors to our cupbards, and won't they last longer if you set them rim upwards?

And then there's the business of putting cutlery inside the dishwasher, or into the dish drainer for that matter. Most people I think put the handles downwards. I tend to mix it up, here, so as not to spike myself. So, the tines of the forks go downwards and the blades of the knives too.

Now that I've set you all topsy-turvy, I'll get back to my writing. :-)

Snow day

Thanks to my ballet training, I have good self-discipline. Which means sometimes I drive myself too obsessively, these days, mainly with my writing.

Today we have a weather warning, with freezing rain and wet snow making the road conditions treacherous. People are advised to stay off them. Although I don't have to go out, I decided to give myself a snow day and simply relax with one of those two good books I was given for Christmas.

Kind of a busman's holiday. Good for mental health and at least I can justify the skiving by telling myself reading fiction is always a learning experience as well as a pleasure for me.

Burns night

Well, we kind of did this last night when we went to a concert that will be repeated tonight. The middle piece the orchestra played was the Max Bruch 'Scottish Fantasy' which includes the tune and rhythm of 'Scots Wah Hae'. I wondered what the words meant, so looked it up on wiki and discovered... Scots who have. Read it up if you're interested, as it also has relevance for what's going on politically in Scotland right now.

Since reading Georgette Heyer's 'An Infamous Army', for me Scots Wah Hae always conjures up the vivid image of marching to the battle of Waterloo, leaving Brussels in the early hours of the morning, a battle field where many of those braves will lose their lives.

Last night I did see one woman wearing a tartan skirt (Royal Stuart). I'm sure I told you that my great-aunt claimed we were entitled to wear that because we were descended from Bonnie Prince Charlie. However, she had a tendency towards social ambition so I'm kind of discounting that. I know lots of people are into genealogy these days but although I love historical novels, as far as my own life is concerned I'm... well, more concerned with the present.

And on a last note... although I've tried snails and frogs legs, I've never eaten haggis. How about you?

At the screen again!

The trouble with having a break from technology and being in holiday mode is that the real world is addictive. But I'm back. For a bit, anyhow. As I'll be having a great deal of regular writing work to do, I've decided to blog regularly for a month and then give myself a month off.

Visiting old haunts in Johannesburg, the Garden Route, Cape Town and then Sussex and London brought strange feelings, feelings of familiarity and home-coming along with the recognition that these places belong to my past. The energetic vibe of Johannesburg was great after that overnight flight that even the Flight Attendant thought was long! The sheer beauty of the Garden Route and then Cape Town and environs just blew me away. Of course, I have it all in my memory but somehow to experience the views of the mountains, the plains, the oceans struck me as breathtaking... especially in that sunshine so sharply bright.

And London! We went to see the stage production of 'War Horse' and caught a taxi between Victoria Station and the theatre. This meant we drove around past Buckingham Palace, down the Mall, through Admiralty Arch and up to Trafalgar Square. And I was back in my teenaged and early-married life, uplifted by the grace, beauty and grandeur of the buildings.

Ah yes.

So I began to worry: how would I feel when I got back to North America? Folks, it feels good to be home.