Mary Njoki has a big friendly smile, and a character and energy to match. She organised a fundraising ceilidh last night for the Greenbelt Movement, which is an environmental conservation organisation, and Gallmann Conservancy, in the Old St Paul’s Church.
There was a busy programme, including a candle procession in memory of Wangari Maathai, African dances and music, a ceilidh band, a raffle, games, snacks, cakes, etc. A large audience attended, and everyone had lots of fun.
Some time ago I wrote a short story about Ross the Boss and Caroline on 199, about when, as a student, I used to babysit for people in Edinburgh. That, IMHO, is the best story I’ve written, but come to think of it there’s not really a great deal of competition.
In the early-to-mid-sivinties I didn’t seem to have much of a love-life, so I ended up being available to babysit most Friday or Saturday nights.
One family I babysat for was the Pidgeons. That was their surname. In fact, the very first time I babysat was for the Pidgeons, who were just arrived from Canada. They had two kids, Matthew and Rebecca. Matthew is now an actor.
The first time I babysat for the Pidgeons, he was a baby, and at some stage during the evening, after his parents had left, he needed his nappy changed.
I was a student. I had no idea how to change a nappy, so I phoned Jean (Ross the Boss’s mum) who had suggested me as a babysitter, and ended up with one hand on the phone, and one hand on the nappy stuff, “So, Jean, I’ve taken the old one off, what do I do next?” “Yeah, so I’ve done that, but it doesn’t seem to connect at all. Are the three corners really supposed to fit together? Really? It doesn’t seem to be anything near that.”
Matthew survived. I almost did as well.
The Pidgeons moved to a nice flat in Dublin Street, and I babysat there occasionally for a couple of years or so. As another coincidence, Lindsey and I later went to some of Mum Pidgeon’s yoga classes.
Many years later I was watching a movie, The Heist, and I exclaimed to no-one in particular (the room was empty), “I know that gal!” I watched the credits, and it turned out it was Rebecca Pidgeon alongside Gene Hackman (one of my all-time favs). BTW, has anyone been in more movies than Gene Hackman?
So, I’ve no idea how, except that (admission time) yesterday I was Brian Wilson tune-surfing, and I came upon this:
Wow! That’s a great cover version, and what a lovely voice she has! When I used to babysit the Pidgeons, Rebecca was always very theatrical, jumping around, play acting, and full of life. She’s hardly changed at all, apart from growing up, obviously.
She’s also recorded this one, by Warren Zevon, one of the all time greats.
Matthew and Rebecca would likely be totally embarrassed if they read this, but I’m sure they are, thankfully, far too busy and successful to be reading my retirement blog.
Well, it was very nice having Jamie and his partner Kat back from Ghana for a while. Things are always a bit of a whirlwind when Jamie’s around.
We all enjoyed some excellent food at Auchrannie House Hotel, on our recent, extended family trip to the Isle of Arran.
The best scampi I have ever tasted
Patrick Richardson, the author of In Search of Landfall: The Odyssey of an Indefatigable Adventurer, was brought up in Edinburgh during the 1950s, went to North Berwick and Ely for his holidays, learnt to swim at the Portobello indoor pool, frequented the Portobello outdoor pool, had a parent who liked Edinburgh Zoo, went to Edinburgh University where he came into contact with Malcolm Rifkind, frequented the Meadows Bar, and voted for Jonathan Wills for rector. Some very similar things in that list to my own experiences, though Patrick is a little older than I.
Our paths almost certainly crossed at some stage during those times.
Since then, he has travelled the world, met all sorts of people and written In Search of Landfall.
I went to his book launch a few months ago, and enjoyed his presentation. His story In Search of Landfall is also enjoyable, though at times, especially when he talks about his past affairs of the heart and body, possibly a little too detailed for comfort, if you get what I mean.
What an excellent hill Goat Fell, on the island of Arran, is. Last weekend, we took the track from beside Brodick castle, and it didn’t take too long to get to the top, at 874 metres, making it a little short of a munro. A very warm day, even though it was the middle of September.
It was quite busy at the top.
The last few months, and in particular the last ten days leading up to the Scottish Referendum, have been – well – dramatic. I’ve never experienced anything like it, in terms of saturation and involvement. Perhaps the nearest, for me, was 1968 and the student unrest of that year. I was slightly too young to be part of that one.
For many people outside Scotland there has probably been a little bemusement at events here. I’m aware that some of the Scottish people, and people with Scottish connections, I know who are currently living outside Scotland (Alison, Helen, JD, Rob, etc) have picked up well on the issues and their importance, but many others probably haven’t.
Now, we have a majority of people in Scotland who probably feel relief rather than anything else at the Referendum result, and slightly less in the minority who voted ‘Yes’ to independence, who feel disappointment. But it would appear that one thing that both lots agree on is that things should not, and will not, be the same again. Perhaps there is even a new Zeitgeist within Scotland, and it may well spread to other parts.
During the recent and varied discussions, some in the ‘Yes’ camp started to talk about a butterfly revolution. Well, it may be that that is still on the cards, but in a slightly different form than the Yessies perhaps originally wanted.
For my own part, I voted for the first time in my life. Having previously said that “I’ve never voted in a national or local election. I never will” after much thought, I decided that that statement referred to general and local (representative) elections, rather than referendums, and I still stand by it.
We saw an immense amount of Referendum activity over the past few weeks within various social media, which must have bewildered some people elsewhere. Brian Kelly aptly summed this up yesterday by saying, with his usual great awareness and humour, “What was Facebook used for before the Scottish referendum?”
Gordon Brown’s speech was the most passionate one I’ve watched. There were some excellent speeches and appeals by others, on both sides. This past week we had some friends from down south staying with us for a few days. They were not expecting what they saw in our normally rather apolitical household – exclamations such as, “Have you seen what Gordy said!” and “Did you see Eck’s response today!” and “Tommy’s a nutter!”
Many other things are ongoing elsewhere in the world, and many of them unfortunately currently involve violence. In Scotland, we seem to have shown that it is possible to work towards a resolution of very opposing issues in a peaceful way. Look at the way these two chaps, Canavan and Boyle, shake hands at the end of their discussion, for example. Let’s hope that that sort of thing continues, as there are still many things to sort out.
I have started to read World Order, by Henry Kissinger.
He is not someone I would normally read, or expect to agree with, but I was impressed with his historical analysis of the current situation in the Middle East. It is heavy going, and I’m not entirely convinced with his perspective towards European history, and I don’t expect to agree with his proposed solutions for continued world order, but there are many insights, such as: “The Westphalian concept took multiplicity as its starting point and drew a variety of multiple societies, each accepted as a reality, into a common search for order. By the mid-twentieth century, this international system was in place on every continent; it remains the scaffolding of international order such as it now exists.” This order is, of course, currently under threat by entirely new concepts in the Middle East, but I’ve still to read what he says about that.
The Machrie Moor stone circles, on the island of Arran, are impressive.
The area around the Machrie Stones was occupied from around 3500 BC until around 700 BC.
