Tuesday – Ady was in the village first thing to meet Ross as they were bringing a load of wood and a gas bottle up to the croft with the SNH ATV so he also went to the pier to meet the ferry. I made soup as I’d promised Scarlett and she was desperate for soup.
After lunch I walked down to the school to get Deb to photocopy and certify Davies’ ID for his bank account application. The kids all had stuff to tell me about having visited the croft the week before on an animal feeding excursion so I chatted to all of them for a while. I like the talking to the children bit of being in the school. I left at school going home time and walked part way with Sean, Ali and Fliss. We met up with Lesley along the way and then Steve The Man and Inge a visiting builder joined us, then Ross and Jed and then Neil and Dougal so it was quite a gathering. Eventually we all headed off in separate directions with Lesley giving me a lift part way home.
It was the RCA vote on whether we want to rent EE space to erect a phone mast in the village, subject to planning permission. It’s been a pretty contentious and divisive issue within the community and I have been thinking hard about what to vote. I decided a few days beforehand that I would vote NO. Ady was thinking he’d vote YES pretty much up til he actually ticked NO on the voting slip and it was Davies’ first time of being eligible to vote. We’d talked about it loads and he was also unsure. He has not yet told me what he voted although he says he will do. We stayed around for the end of the vote (poling was just for one hour) and helped count the ballots – 10 Yes, 8 No, so it goes through.
We had a beer and a chat with folk at the shop afterwards, really interesting chats with Steve the Man and Inge for me. Inge is from Lewis although now lives on the mainland and his family own the petrol station which was the first shop in Stornoway to open on a Sunday after the ferries and airport began running on the sabbath.
Home for Taco Tuesday.
Wednesday – Burns Night. I wrote my poem and as I recall didn’t do much else during the day… we were down in the village just after 5pm. It was a great Burns Supper, lots of fun, drinks, poems etc. I did the prancing round with the haggis as the chef, Young David followed me with the whisky and Jed addressed it. Lots of people did poems including a full on performance from the school. My poem ending up being the very last part as it was long and the kids were getting restless to do their performances. Some folk left, more stayed and we were among the very last to leave getting home around 130am. I managed to turn my ankle again at the very bottom of the croft so it’s swollen and hurting again now. Fool!
Thursday – Ferry in the morning, caught up with a few folk down there. Home for lunch then back down for Crafternoon for me. A fairly quiet one as we were all a little ‘tired’ from the night before. Early nights all round back at home.
Today – I’ve been very efficient indoors resting my ankle from the croft hill and taking wellies on and off and am planning to do the same tomorrow. I did fill up all the various containers of things we buy in 5ltr bulk containers – shampoo, conditioner, handwash, washing up liquid, cooking oil. We all measured our heights and I emailed Davies’ to the doctors surgery which will mean he is officially signed off by the paediatrician now. I turned the mattress, sorted out the memory foam mattress topped which was all rucked up, changed the sheets and pillowcases and we hung both the duvets out on the line to get a good airing, same with the sofa throws. I made five bottles of liqueurs from the bottle of cheap vodka I got from the supermarket last week, made bread dough, pizza dough and cheese scones, sorted out an issue with the landlord insurance direct debit for Osborne Drive, paid for the gas bottle Ady collected yesterday and listened to some Desert Island Discs. Oh and cleaned and de-moulded the shelf above our bed and the shelf next to my side of the bed, put away some stuff that was on the bedroom floor and cleared off the shelf next to where I sit in the lounge. I also found another website with ukelele practise lessons and had a play with that. Going to really try to do some every day as have now read about various people who struggled to start with on strings but suddenly got it and it is *only* January!