Category: Reasons to be Cheerful

And there’s reason #1 right off the bat.  Half-term finished here in Shetland – officially on Monday but then the teachers had 2 days of “In Service Training”, the bane of every parent who thought they’d sorted out their childcare, so they actually went back on Wednesday.  Homework started for some, others will pick that up again Monday.  So things are sort of back to normal.  Making packed lunches, kicking the kids out to get the school bus, not having to wonder “what am I going to do with them today?”.  Perfect.  Of course, it also means their out-of-school activities have started off again – swimming, karate, fencing, violin lessons, etc. etc. – and their social life outdoes mine once again.  Hey-ho, some you win.

Winter is coming.

I know it’s got warm again – heading for the warmest October on record if the radio is to be believed – but the leaves are off the trees, the grass doesn’t look like it needs mowing again and the birds are all hanging around the feeders with expectant looks.  I love winter here on the rock.  Crisp, bright days.  The ever-present promise of the aurora at night.  The stars!  (Well, the stars when you get away from everyone leaving their outside light on).  And you get skies like this:

Winter up here is wonderful.  Sure, you get some truly awful days where the wind’s unremittingly from the north, it’s grey and sleeting.  But that’s when you break out the whisky and crank up the central heating.

Interesting Times at Work

It’s a Chinese curse, or so I’m lead to believe:  “May you live in interesting times”.  And times at work are rather interesting.  It’ll take a while to work out just how interesting, there’s some negotiations to be done.  But yeah, it’s interesting.  And that’s always more fun.

November Coming Up

2 of my sons have their birthdays in November – and we’ve got them some fantastic presents.  Well, we think they’re fantastic.  I’ll report back their verdict when I have it!

NaNoWriMo.  Scary, crazy, insane, fun.  50,000 words in 1 month?  Sure, it’s possible.  2000 words a day for 25 days, have a few days off!  I’ve got the germ of an idea.  Today’s my final planning day before settling down to write on Tuesday…

Guitar Hero

I am not musical.  I managed Grade 3 piano a long, long time ago.  But I like to rock.  Guitar Hero lets me pretend.  It’s my go-to game.  Not interested in the FPS, the last Tomb Raider games put me off them.  Uncharted looks like it’ll be interesting (Christmas? Hint?).

Now.  Follow the Linky and find other Reasons to be Cheerful today!

So I’m back at my desk, the holiday but a dim and distant memory.  Much fun was had by all, grandparents thoroughly exhausted by 5 kids rampaging around the place.  All told, a wonderful time.  Which has given me a good few reasons to be cheerful this week.

My kids travel well.

Be it by boat, plane, train or automobile, they’re fantastic travellers.  They love going on the ferry to/from Aberdeen!  It’s amazing how much entertainment they get out of such a simple thing!  It’s not even as though there’s much for them to do once they’re on the boat.  There’s some cartoons (it’s been the same Tom & Jerry DVD for a few years now), a cinema which will show a range of movies that are usually already out on DVD (or will be out soon), and The Fun Police keep announcing over the tannoy that children must not run around.  But they love it!  And they all sleep well, even in the roughest of seas.  Plus I get to have a beer – Orkney Dark Island on tap, very nice.  The kids decided my beer needed protection…

On the train, the older 2 lost themselves in their tech, the younger 2 played with their Lego Hero Factory good guys (I have to get that right otherwise I’ll be in the naughty bin along with the Lego Hero Factory bad guys) and the youngest looked out the window/wriggled around/tried to play with and/or eat everything/fell asleep on me.  Great travellers.  Took some lovely shots going over the Forth Rail Bridge on the way back.

Live Comedy

A world without comedy would be a poor world indeed.  And live comedy is one of the most wonderful things.  How the comedian (in this case Tony Hawks) can stand up night after night and interact with a complete roomful of strangers is beyond me.  In a 2 hour set covering such diverse subjects as “Emails from/to Tony Hawk fans” (the skateboarder), “Early Life and Career”, “Still to Come…”, “Knitting Cardigans in Hell” and finishing off with “The Stutter Rap”, Tony kept us laughing long and loud.  Even if those of us with lines to deliver got our timing slightly wrong.  I’m now trying to work out how I can get down to Harrogate for the 3rd of February when Chris Addison’s going to be there.  And I’ve got a signed copy of “Round Ireland with a Fridge”

Coming Home

Nothing to beat it.  No feeling in the world like coming home to your wife after a week or more apart, your cats, your dog and – most of all – your blend of tea.

Haircut, shower and shave

My hair goes rather strange when it gets more than an inch or two long.  It enjoys interesting spikes, strange peaks that even the most powerful of hair gel/wax/putty/whatever the latest stuff is can’t tame.  So I get shorn regularly.  This has just been done, I’ve got rid of the leftovers and tidied up the facial fuzz.  I feel great!

Now follow the linky thingy (that’s a technical term) and find out why everyone else is cheerful this week.