Moving somewhere so different, so remote was always– in the first few months at least – going to present us with many "firsts". As this latest blog entries title states, we’ve not been disappointed and life continues to surprise us.
Also, I've included stuff today about the building work, so all you fella's out there wanting a fix of building blocks and 2x4's don't worry, there's some of that (also, I won’t be making any more dubious revelations about my dark musical past ...)
That said :-)
We thought it may be necessary to keep you engaged as we tell you about our latest escapades, so we've adopted an ABBA theme as YES - as you’ll find out as you read down - they were here on the Saturday night of the Tall Ships concert! (Bjorn Again that is) . Boogie. On. Down.
“Thank YOU for The Music ..."
... OK, so I didn’t choose “Lay all your love on me.” but boy did I want to ditch the husband & builder on Saturday night in the legendary Lounge Bar in Lerwick.
Impromptu entertainment came from a crew of Brazilian sailors who'd put their iPod with its South American music on it behind the bar & got it wired to the speakers; they then delivered what can only be breathlessly described as a v ...e....r....y seductive Latino dance class to all the lucky single ladies therein ... of which, sadly, I was not one. Never before had I felt so glum peering over the rim of a pint of bitter :-(
Just a quick pic taken from one of my favourite movies of all time ," Shall we Dance"
So, it was our first time of seeing Latino dancing performed by those who really had the moves – did I expect to see it on our recent trip to Ecuador? Yes. Did I expect to see it in windy ole Shetland? No way Jose!
Between "us 3" we have wide musical tastes, however Steve steadfastly “endured” what I could only class as one of my all-time musical melting moments. Aly Bain & Phil Cunningham played on the Victoria Pier free stage at the Tall Ships & I was just 7 foot away from them;
Seeing these 2 fella's was the stuff of my dreams
In years gone by, Aly used to perform his music with Billy Connolly (before he became a professional comedian) along with Gerry Rafferty in the clubs of Glasgow and to this day still play and fish together in Scotland.
However, on Saturday night after 2 hours of playing, Aly quietly informed us that this was his first public performance in 3 months, following a carpal tunnel op on his hand. What a pro. No-one would have known. Of the event, he had reckoned anyone planning an outdoor music event in Shetland must have been mad however just as he spoke, the sun re-appeared & remained for the rest of the evening - dipping only past midnight at which time we then enjoyed a stunning firework display. This was finished off nicely with all the ships in the harbour blowing their fog horns, something done every New Years Eve in Portsmouth Habour on the stroke of midnight.
This was my first time at front of stage – I met my hero and his name was Aly x
“Gimme Gimme Gimme ...”
Most dogs love the water and our dogs have been no different, however, Freds middle-aged, soft & lovely retriever Max has spent the last 3 months running smartly in reverse whenever waves rapidly approached him, or he would tiptoe - dry footed - around the edges of rivers and streams. Last Sunday however was a major first for him when out of the blue he suddenly became brave. I suppose standing on the edges of the quiet Loch of Cliff in Unst as Maniac Digger Dog flew in and out of the water like a lunatic possessed must have been mildly embarrassing for him (being twice her size). His first tentative paw-dip steps quickly progressed into semi-immersion and not long before his belly was wet & Fred couldn’t get him out – Gimme Gimme Gimme in every sense J Brave Lad.
I guess when you rescue or inherit a dog, you won’t ever really know what their early year’s experiences were. All you can do is love them & build up their trust and confidence.
Ps - When I Googled Loch of Cliff earlier today I discovered that it's well known for its stock of brown trout. I can only imagine the horrors that may have occurred should one of those appeared between his paws in the water ...
.. is whatever you do, DON’T LOOK DOWN.
From a husband who arrived here hating heights rarely venturing up a ladder , Our Stephen’s blossomed into a brave builders mate! Actually, he’s had little option really as prior to our roof structure being put in place, there’s been a fair bit of adjustment needed to even out the incredibly uneven surface of the top of our stone walls.
The picture below shows a temporary timber frame under the chimney, but the top of the left hand wall shows a completely level concrete surface. Its taken a lot of time and effort to get the walls completely level and ready for the trusses coming in a couple of weeks time ...
If (like me until a few weeks ago) you have no clue what a roof truss is, in CBeebies language it’s a huge set of wooden triangly shaped things that sit on top of your walls to become your roof, and onto which you then put your roof tiles. In 2 storey houses they are then seen in your loft space or as in ours, we will actually be living in our loft space.Picture below isn't our house, just an example :
Every house is different and although trusses come in standard sizes ours certainly aren't with 9 different bespoke shapes of truss needed. When finished, the croft will be split level with more headroom in some areas than others. The Scottish truss manufacturers in Forfar reckon our designs are pretty complex, we think it's because in Shetland so few people save the old buildings by renovating then adding a new extension the way we have.
So ... the "first" on this occasion was that Steve spent the best part of a fortnight working on top of the stone walls with Fred to get this bit of work done.
I'm convinced that if someone had seen his face up there when first venturing up the ladders, they would have shouted "Does Your Mother Know?” you’re up there?
“Knowing Me, Knowing You .. uh huh”
As I said before, my musical universe is something of a parallel one to Steve's ; whilst we may have the odd mutually agreeable band, ABBA is most certainly not one of them. He's just a Philistine if you ask me, but then he'd say the same about me not liking Foo Fighters.
So , when the list was released detailing all the bands playing at the Tall Ships concert and I saw that Bjorn Again was top of the bill ... I thought , Knowing Me, Steve will expect me to suggest we get tickets and boogie the night away .... and me Knowing Him, I knew he wouldn't be up for it ... and he wasn't - but clearly it was meant to be
On the night, we wandered down to Holmsgarth Pier and managed to loiter outside the fence (with many others!) in the perfect position to watch and hear the show. Even Stephen was singing along as the smiley face in the picture below shows.
Did I ever expect to get him along to an ABBA concert ? no. I asked Fred to take a snap as evidence that he was actually there, hence my thumbs up.
FINALLY
Hows this for progress in 4 days ?
From this (testing out the joints)
To this ..
Bye for now
xxx
