The snogging incident of Maia on the tram.

Monday 14th September to Sunday 20th.

Last week at XXX & Y full time. Loll has about 25 hours, altogether, sorted out so her wage is going up pro-rata. She is very pleased about that, she thought the cut from full time would be a bit drastic (although she has simply been putting the difference into her back account so she wouldn't have missed it). He University hours are 16 so she'll be fine.

I am keeping my same split as before which suits both me, and my two locations fine. I am now going to engage my brain on looking for what to do next year when my RA post expires.

We had our September dining club night on Tuesday at Sarah's. She did amazing things with pork, cider and apples. Usually pork can be very dry, this was delicious.

For dessert we kept the apple theme as she'd made a version of my apple cake, which was just as good as mine.

They were all fascinated by our accounts of Arran and trying to spot otters. We didn't tell them about Heather and Andrea though. I think we may have persuaded some of them a visit to Scotland in Miniature could be worthwhile.

Once again we were the only ones going to the theatre this week. I was appalled by how few of them had even heard of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time, never mind actually read it! I often think I am a separate species of life on the planet. I keep talking about stuff and getting looks from other people which scream, "What the F is she on about?" Laura used to have the same expression when we were younger but she has tuned in to Radio Maia and now sings from the same hymn sheet - well, almost.

Laura broached the concert by the Hallé which did relieve some of the weirdness quotient from around my shoulders I suppose although there again nobody had heard of Glinka and only a few of Rachmaninov! It prompted Helen to say, "You two really are well suited aren't you?" I am not sure if it was an insult or a compliment. When I asked Loll about it afterwards she thought it was definitely a compliment.

The concert was excellent. As it always is with the Hallé. We had new seats in the Circle this time, I fancied a change. It puts us looking over the violins and, crucially, down onto the keyboard when there is a piano in use. This proved useful for the Rachmaninov Third Piano Concerto, with Sunwook Kim tinkling the ivories. I loved his expressive and sympathetic playing. Since winning the Leeds he has grown in stature so much. This followed on from the Ruslan and Ludmilla overture and the other Rachmaninov piece, his extremely romantic Third Symphony. I am always surprised that a 20th Century composer could be so lyrical in his writing, unlike so many who feel they have to break with musical traditions and produce works which are deliberately grating to the ear. Oh dear, I sound like a boring old fart... LOL

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time was one of the best things I have seen at the theatre anywhere, ever! It kept very closely to the book but was a very avant garde staging, with the set leading you to expect something sci-fi like. It was a series of grids which lit up like large pieces of graph paper. The only props were a set of boxes which the cast shifted about when needed. Christopher was excellent. He seemed a bit old for the age of the character when you first met him but he was so convincing as an autistic teenager you soon forgot that. They had reworked the character of Siohban to be much more prominent and she sort of helped move the story along. The ensemble were very cleverly used, especially in the sequence when Christopher is looking at the stars being carried on the upstretched arms of the rest of the cast. I loved the way, at the end when Christopher came back up to explain a maths conundrum to the audience - half of them were already leaving. It was a really clever touch.

My resident Maths genius was completely stunned by the whole thing and she vowed to go and read the book again when we got back home. She spent a lot of Sunday doing just that!

If you get the chance to see this production jump at the chance; you will be stunned by it. Seriously.

Sunday lunch was spent at Mum's where we discussed the show again and Tony, who had accompanied Mum to the show with us, was completely amazed by the whole thing. he hasn't been much of a theatre goer up to now [why the hell not?] but I think this show may make him more inclined to want to go some more. This can only please Mum, too.

First Day of the new semester tomorrow... Oh Heck.

Mega Catch Up with Maia (We've been away...)

July, August & Sept (up to 13th Sept)

After the cricket match I learn that Dad has bought tickets to see Spock’s Beard in Nottingham; it'll be just him and me as Louisa and Laura have both cried off. Louisa claims their music is just too fiddly.

End of July we had Laura’s pre-arranged Magical mystery tour to Skipton.

Lollster took me away for the weekend for the last weekend in July! OK it was the 31^st of July and the  1st August.

She just said pack some stuff and get in the car! Forceful, or what?

She wouldn't tell me where we were going, despite my repeated asking on the journey.

We pitched up at a B & B between Skipton and Settle. Two beds. She'd booked us a twin bedroom (just in case).

It was a dog friendly place and Terry (the owner) fell in love with Callie. (Terry’s full name is Theresa.)

We dined at the local pub for our evening meal and walked round the little village. It was really cute.

On Saturday she'd booked tickets for the Settle to Carlisle Railway, from Settle to Appleby. We caught the train before 10 and spent a few hours exploring Appleby. It reminded me of Durham being settled in a big bend in the river. Lunch was at a dog friendly pub in the town. We caught the train back to Settle and then drove up the line (which we'd ridden along) to look at the Ribblehead Viaduct. It is quite awe inspiring. It looks nothing from the train but is amazing from below.

We had another meal out in the same pub and then shared the other bed, just so that both were messed up. I think Terry would have been cool with our lesbianism but there have been such stories in the news….

Sunday we had a canal boat ride from Skipton, it was brilliant. Really sunny and peaceful. The day just drifted slowly by and it was as though we hadn’t a care in the world for the three hours on the boat.  I think I am hooked on having a holiday in one.

Richard and I did enquire about how much buying a cabin cruiser would cost. A good one with two bedrooms and an outboard, rather than an inboard motor, was about £10K upwards. If all had gone to plan and we'd stayed in Cambridge as a happy family we'd probably have bought one. The canal ride brought back all those happy boating memories.

I was a puntstress for a while on the Cam. I used to work for a firm which operated near Magdelene Bridge (although I think they have all been taken over by one company now). The wages weren't so good but the tips were. Especially if you could tell the punters (pun intended) all about Cambridge: Mathematical Bridge; King's College & the Choir; Trinity and Lord Byron; rowing and the annual bumps etc. They loved it. They especially liked the idea of a real undergraduate punting them along the river.

I used to lay it on thick about women being denied an education and how I was a member of the first ever all women college - even though when it was founded I wouldn't have been allowed a degree. People used to be gobsmacked by the idea. But I digress (blown off course, LOL).

We headed back to Sunny Sheff until Friday, then we were up to dad's on Aug 7th over to Arran on 8^th – 9.45 ferry. I had my tablet and live streaming of the cricket on at work on Thursday 6th and watched the amazing morning’s play at Trent Bridge, where England bowled Australia all out for just 60!

I was totally overwhelmed (so was Australia). My Dad was heartbroken when we arrived on Arran on Saturday.

I have never seen or heard of a side being bowled out before lunch in a test. It was truly gobsmacking. I kept exclaiming out loud when we took a wicket and by the time they were all out everyone in Archives was around my tablet computer. Good job my tablet is 4G.

Rah rah rah.

Dad had a mini surprise for us this weekend. He's taken out a subscription to watch the AFL 2015 Season and Grand Finals. So we watched the Budgies get stuffed on Saturday evening (the Budgies is our nickname for the West Coast Eagles) and on Sunday night we saw Fremantle Dockers (our team) beat the crap out of St Kilda. He has given me his password so I can watch the Dockers vs Budgies game next weekend, on my laptop. My mobile phone company is the same as Dad's so it should work 

OK. I sort of knew he had subscribed but didn't expect him to be generous with the user name and password. Good old Dad, eh? The only downside is how much of my 15Gb watching the game will use up.

We had a meal out with Dad, Louisa and Chloé at the Kildonan Hotel on the Saturday night after the game as a celebration and consolation (cricket) and I found myself falling asleep at the table after we’d eaten. Good job Dad had driven round from Whiting Bay.

We had a lazy Sunday just chilling at the van and drinking half a bottle of Tanqueray 10 gin with tonic. It is Dad’s new passion, and I can’t say I blame him. It’s delicious. I drown the gin in tonic, but even so it is surprisingly refreshing with a slice of lemon and lime and a heap of ice. I am not normally a gin drinker but I could get used to this…

We waved Dad, Louisa and Chloé off from the van about half an hour before they are caught the 11am Ferry back to Ardrossan. We stayed put as it was raining, although the rain seemed to have moved off north to be over the fell tops, leaving Whiting Bay grey and damp from the down pour we had. Luckily I walked Callie before it rained.

Whilst surfing on the net at Whiting Bay, I found this item on the net, isn't it gorgeous?

https://www.ikrix.com/gb/carnation-print-dress-dolce-gabbana-8600

Shame about the price. I just love it. I will have to see if Mai-Lay at Uni can knock up a copy. She is a Graphic Design and Textiles student (undergraduate) who is one of my Personal Tutees and is brilliant at making clothes. She has been doing so all year to supplement her study funds. She has told me that if I like any item of clothing I see, if she gets enough photographs of it, she will be able to make a passable copy. She's already made Laura and me a few blouses. The last pair were in a pale blue fabric with tiny daisies and pin pleated down the front. They look really good.

It was really sunny here today,  August 13^th; we just got back from an attempted otter watch, but with no luck on that front but we did see over 50 seals basking and playing.

We asked in the Kildonan hotel and the woman behind the bar gave us the address and number of a wildlife woman who is an otter specialist. I rang her after 6 pm that night as she was at work during the day. We arranged a meeting later next week to try and organise a time to go and see if we could spot any otters. (Seemed a bit complicated to me, but I think she may have wanted to ‘vet’ us…

OMG The Dockers got stuffed by the Budgies yesterday [15.08].   

We watched using Dad's password on "Watch AFL". Until the final quarter WCE were all over the Dockers. They played like a team of amateurs and frankly on the strength of the first three quarters they deserved to lose. I am so glad I wasn't at the Domain Stadium (Old Subiaco Oval) to watch it happen live.

I phoned Dad after the match and he was a bit unhappy. The Dockers are still top of the ladder though, eight points clear with only three games left to the Grand Finals.

On the 16^th we went  off to the Kintyre Peninsular again, more whisky buying. (Wildlife watching too perhaps...) we hopped on the earliest ferry to Claonaig and caught the last one back. We bought the Whiskey and whizzed down to the Mull to visit the places we had missed out last time. There were more seals here and masses of sea birds but none of those damned elusive otters. Maybe it is the wrong time of year?

We met up with the otter woman on the 18th Aug, she is much younger than we thought she’d be. We arranged a meeting for two nights hence. Watch this space...

The Otter Watch [20. 08] was cold, then colder, then bloody freezing.

It also went darkish, then darker still, then.... an Otter! A single solitary one, which is thought to be a female.

It got too dark to be able to see it after a while but it was great.

It came up about 50 metres away, on a rock at Kildonan. (In the water obviously...)

We went to the Kildonan Hotel afterwards to celebrate.

I may have to buy night vision goggles to watch again.

On the 21st we did dodging the spots and having a Spa Day. Two pampered ladies!

Our Spa was brilliant. We came out as fresh as daisies and smelling gorgeous. We met a couple of girls in there whom we got chatting to, Laura said she thought they were lezzies too and eventually we found out they were! We had a long lunch and chat (at the spa) about our experiences of 'coming out' and the whole lesbian psyche. Heather and Andrea met at University (Hull) and have been a couple ever since. According to them Laura is a Gold Star and I am a Hovis (bisexual) Lipstick Lesbian!

We took them round the island in my car yesterday (25th) as they are here without transport - using the Arran Bus. We spent all afternoon at The Kildonan Hotel watching the ships go past and the seals playing in the water. We were there for about four hours all in all. We actually watched a submarine sail down the Clyde! That was unexpected and quite sinister in a way.

I drove them back to Brodick, where they were staying, leaving Loll in Whiting Bay to prep our meal. When I got back she was a bit upset and it seemed that Andrea had tried to proposition her when Heather and I were ordering our first round of food and drinks. After much discussion and reassuring hugs we decided to just curtail our friendship with them. (They were scheduled to sail back to the mainland on Thursday.)

I had really enjoyed sitting and chatting and being silly and watching the ships etc and all the while my little dove was all of a flutter about being enticed away from me by this flighty trollop. I thought she had enjoyed herself as much as I had. I drove the two Hullensians back to Brodick because by about 5 the clouds rolled over from the west and we proceeded to get a thorough drenching; or we  would have, if we hadn't been in the hotel's huge conservatory.

I consoled Laura with a shared shower (and sex, obviously) and then we shelved the meal and went for an Indian Takeaway from Lamash (the next village along from Whiting Bay).

The next day we just ignored Heather and Andrea's calls and texts so I think they may have got the message. Luckily, even though we told them we had a place in Whiting Bay, we didn't spell out what or where it was and as I dropped Loll off at the shop before she went to prep our meal they would have had no way of finding us. Phew!

On Wednesday 26th we have dodged the spots at Brodick Castle and Arran Aromatics. I bought a complete set of Eydis perfumery as I have run out. The rain was a bit relentless at times.

On Friday 29^th we were up before the larks (4am) and headed to Kildonan beach. That is what the otter woman suggested when I contacted her again - as we had only seen one at dusk. We parked up at the west end of the front so we could go further along the shore towards Black Cave which is away from the village, the idea being that may be more productive. It was!  We saw another otter this morning. Out on the shore at Kildonan, heading westwards away from the settlement towards a place called Black Cave. We walked along the shore from Kildonan to Kilmory and were rewarded with a sight of one otter out on a rock and then swimming about and then returning to the same rock.

We saw the head first and thought it was a seal but when it climbed out onto the rock it was obviously not a seal. It stayed there for a few minutes then kept swimming off and coming back. Eventually it seemed to swim off and didn't return. It was a bit difficult to see clearly as the rock / otter was about 50 metres or so off the high water mark. It did get lighter as we stood and watched, and then sat and watched on our little tripod stool things, but it was too far away for my camera to think about getting a shot. Plus being a bit dark the exposure would have been a bit too long without a support of some kind.

We were severely chuffed with ourselves and kept hugging each other along the shore line until we reached the sandy bit at Kilmory.

We had a bit of a wait for the bus back to Kildonan but had a flask of hot tea to keep us going (and two sausage rolls each and some chocolate hob nobs).

Back at Kildonan we found the bar man from the Hotel looking out to sea with his bins, hoping to glimpse an otter but we told him it was further round the coast. He was amazed that we'd spotted one. 

We persuaded him to make us a pot of tea, then we ordered a full Scottish breakfast from the hotel's menu. Sitting in their conservatory we saw masses of seals but no otters! The breakfast was delicious.

We drove back to Whiting Bay and had a nap, as we had become overwhelmed with wishy washiness. We did get up at 4 am so it's only to be expected.

We were hoping to put some climbing in on Cir Mhor but the weather put paid to that, sadly.

As it looked set to be grotty for a few days we swapped our ferry ticket for the Sunday afternoon crossing instead and hit Dad’s at Tallentire by  tea time.

We drove ourselves back home to Sunny Sheffield on Bank Holiday Monday  morning. (Didn't it rain?) A word of advice, if you don’t have to drive on a BHM, then don’t. We whizzed down the A66, A1, M1 route and hit masses of traffic from Scotch Corner southwards. Arghhh!

We had a mountain of mail waiting on the kitchen table (good old Julie - next door neighbour) and an invite to tea at Mum's (the invite was on our answer machine).

Tony was there and he seemed really keen to hear about Arran and the seals and otters! He seems to get more palatable as a companion for Mum the longer we know him.

We all played at being the typical modern family, at one point in the evening I was on the laptop, Mum was on her laptop, Laura on her i-pad and Tony on his 'phone! Anyone looking through the window would have thought we were a really strange lot.

Good news on the AFL front: Fremantle won by 54 points against Melbourne and as the Budgies lost we  cannot lose the top spot on the ladder. rah rah rah!  We watched at Dad's on the Sunday night. It was a great game, very stirring. Dad thinks they'll not get through to the Grand Final though unless they buck their ideas up.

After we’d finished our individual computer session at Mum’s we adjourned to play bridge. Loll and I thought we should whup those amateurs... I had forgotten how good a bridge player Mum is, our hubris meant we very nearly lost!

I have re-read this and realise I have forgotten to mention all the walking we did on Arran. We walked Cir Mhor and Goat Fell. We traversed the Sleeping Giant and did the Catacol circuits again. The Doon was scaled and we relived our al fresco sex session on there. Just as good as the first time!

Naturally, Glenashdale Falls and the Giants Graves were done as one. We went to Kings Cross Point and several of the lower heights in the southern half of the island. We had one terrible discovery though… When the gin ran out there was nowhere on the island to buy another bottle! What a catastrophe! We bought two one litres bottle back in Sheffield when we got home.

Since our return we have now instigated a G&T time – the moment we walk through the door on an evening from work. We have even contemplated buying a Chinky Boo ice maker from Amazon but they are about £80, so maybe not.

Work has gone swimmingly. It is as though we have not been away. Loll is busily doing what she does in reprographics and has had her extended hours confirmed. I have been back on the plod plod plod of digitising old case files again. Yawn!

It is hard to believe that the new semester begins in a week’s time. OMG. This could be my final year ever as a student. What will I do?  I think I will adopt Micawberism – “something will turn up…”

Completed on Sunday 13^th September @ 11.15 am. Without the aid of a G & T (I had two actually, LOL)