I just spent a couple of days in a house that had a baby in it.

Generally I’m not sure about babies and am not sure what to say to them, seeing as they don’t say much back.

But this one has an amazing skill that goes a long way towards breaking the ice.  Whenever she sees someone she grins from ear to ear and beams with happiness.  It takes a little while to get over the feeling of being a fraud …  but when someone looks at you with such a look of pure delight, its impossible not to respond positively.

So today’s challenge to the world: next time you see someone, smile at them.  Or if cheesy grins don’t come naturally, then just do your “twinkly eye” thing.  You can’t fake a twinkle in the eye.  You know you can do it.  Just be delighted to see them.  And see how they respond.  No excuses.  Just try it.

Let me know how you get on!  (And no this isn’t an excuse to become a stalker.  If you spend all day smiling at one person, you WILL freak them out)

My cousin V came to visit last weekend with 2 of her 4 kids.

On Friday we just chilled out. On Saturday we spent over 4 hours at the Science Centre. The Science Centre is amazing. There is loads to do, and you don’t even need to have kids with you to enjoy it. It really is fun for all the family. My only regret is that I didn’t bring my camera.

I tried to book a taxi to take us home again, but for some reason they weren’t taking bookings. So I phoned when we were ready to go.

And we stood.

And stood.

And waited.

And watched as the rain turned into the first snow of the winter.

And got bored of waiting.

And phoned the taxi company who couldn’t tell us how long it would be, because they hadn’t found a taxi for us yet.

So we decided to walk.

In the snow and the icy cold wind.

The wind was whipping my face, it was really miserable weather for walking.

WHAT was I thinking of taking a 6-year-old and a 10-year-old out in weather like this?

WHY didn’t I own a car like any sensible grown-up?

I thought I’d made a really bad decision and that in a few minutes the 2 girls would be crying that their feet were sore and they hated being wet. But they didn’t. They chatted and walked and danced around the lamp posts, and were generally a delight to be with.

And we got home and went out for a meal, and Day One of Entertaining-The-Cousins was a resounding success. Total respect to V and her husband for bringing up such excellent children!

One of my favourite things is catching up with people, particularly if I have a lot in common with them and don’t see them very often.

The other day I got a text from my cousin V. She normally lives in the South of England with her husband and kids. They’re a lovely family but I don’t see them very often because they live so far away. But she texted to say she was in a holiday cottage near Aberfoyle this week and I could go to visit. So I got a day off work, and I’m going tomorrow. And it looks like being great weather!

And also completely out of the blue, my cousin C from the other side of the family got in touch. She lives nearby but we’re not very good at keeping in touch somehow. Anyway we agreed to meet for a drink tonight and went out straight after work. It was lovely to sit outside in the blazing sunshine and catch up with all the events from the past year.

This weekend I was visiting my good friend, S.  I’ve known her for over 10 years and she’s fab.  When I first met her, she told me I reminded her of her mum.  I wasn’t sure how to take that (I’m too young to remind anyone of their MUM!!).  Then I met her mum and it all made perfect sense!

This weekend I was visiting S and went to a concert with her, where her mum was doing a solo.  And I was very privileged to be able to mingle with all the musicians afterwards.  I like randomly finding myself in situations where I don’t really belong, like backstage with an orchestra.  Anyway S’s mum was in exuberant form that evening after a successful solo and rapturous applause.  She gave me a huge hug and said how happy she was to have all her family with her, and that she included me in that.  And then went on to introduce me to her musical friends as her “adopted daughter”.

How lovely is that?! Not – of course- that I’m looking to replace my own parents, but it is always nice to be adopted!

I had a lovely relaxing Christmas with my parents. Lots of good food, and a chance to read some good books. (Ron Butlin’s “The Sound of My Voice” and the easier-going “The Little Prince” by St Antoine de Saint Exupery).

Chilled out. No hanging upside down, no running, no step classes, no rock-climbing. Nothing remotely tiring or death-defying!

And then at around 10:45 on Boxing Day the whole house shook violently, then shook again. My mum, dad and I leapt out of our seats and stared at each other. As you do. Clearly the house hadn’t shaken. Houses don’t shake. Well, not usually.
Then my dad (master of the worst-case scenario) suggested that maybe a truck had driven into the side of the house. He and my mum rushed outside while I went to get my mobile so I could phone an ambulance as obviously SOMEBODY out there had to be bleeding to death (hmm, maybe I also have the worst-case scenario gene).

We rushed outside and saw.. nothing. No-one. No sounds, no movement. More like a nuclear winter than a car crash. Nothing visibly wrong with our house, nothing apparently wrong with the house next door, the chimney of which was smoking peacefully (although my dad did briefly wonder if the chimney had exploded). Then my dad wondered if the ICI plant in town had gone up. That is a chemical plant, could be nasty. But nothing to be seen in that direction either. Or maybe a lorry had crashed into a bridge further up the road, but with enough force to make our house shake? Finally my father came up with the unbeatable worst-case scenario that it was a terrorist attack and Glasgow had gone. Whew. That’s scary. He then tuned the scenario-scanner down several notches and settled on the more manageable theory that a lorry somewhere had crashed into something. So he phoned the police. And this is where the good stuff happens.

Good Thing #1: It was an earthquake, 3.5 on the Richter scale. This makes it “significant” in UK terms. However, nothing and nobody had been damaged.

Good Thing #2: The person taking calls for the police was a neighbour who recognised my dad’s voice. How nice is that, to get a personalised service from the emergency services?!

Good Thing #3: I really appreciate the UK and how gentle it is to us. We hardly ever have to deal with tidal waves, hurricanes, earthquakes, droughts. We moan a lot about the weather but its generally fairly benevolent.

Good Thing #4: After Christmas I could divert all the boring questions about “what did you get for Christmas” by telling them we had an earthquake. I did get lots of nice things for Christmas, but that doesn’t make for a very good story!

(PS I don’t buy The Sun newspaper and don’t recommend it, but they do have a way with headlines, so the title of this blog is a quotation from the Sun)

On the way home from work the other day, in the space of half an hour, I noticed 3 different old men with white hair and beards.  And it reminded my of my Grandpa, which in turn made me think in general about what an amazing invention grandparents are.

I had 4 grandparents till I was 16, and 3 until I was in my twenties.  One set of grandparents lived within one mile of where I grew up.  Happy thoughts associated with them:

- home-made bread and raspberry jam, crumpets, shortbread, lots of cups of tea

- croquet on a large uneven lawn

- a flying fox (or “zip slide”) in the garden (how cool is that?  how many other people’s grandparents had one of them?!)

- a wonderful higglety-piggelty house

- crosswords, scrabble, card-games, magic tricks, parlour games

- going round local fields and forests picking mushrooms, digging for truffles

- long summers when cousins came to visit and played outdoor games like Kick the Can and Leapfrog.

- walks with my Granny which inevitably involved climbing over barbed wire fences

- going out to play with my sister, and being called back when tea was ready, by my Granny blowing on a bugle (yes, really!)

- my Granny’s stories, some apocryphal, some about her children (she had 7 of them, so lots of stories!!)

- my Grampa’s mischevious sense of humour

 My other set of grandparents lived about 300 miles away so I didn’t see them so often.  Things associated with them:

- lovely highland/island accents

- salmon, broth with rice in, lobster fresh from the sea, hot chocolate

- the singing butcher

- exploring the beach and the rock pools

- the Westminster catechism (and being really surprised that although I expected it to be a dour presbyterian thing, the first answer includes the word “enjoy”!)

- electric blankets

- Santa Claus at their house was SO generous you didn’t leave out a stocking, you left a pillow case.  But he got confused between me and my sister.  That was confusing, somehow I thought he’d just intuitively know who was who, but when we opened our presents, there were packages in there with the wrong name on!

- my Grandpa’s stories

- hearing my Granny speak Gaelic on the phone, and getting her to teach me Baa Baa Blacksheep in Gaelic when I was 6.

- absolutely believing that the world would be a better place if my Grandpa was prime minister.

Today I bought some climbing shoes.  That made me happy.  Haven’t had a chance to use them yet but somehow I imagine that they will give me superhuman strength and I will scale walls as never before.  AND they’re bright blue.  And there was a nice man at the climbing shop who took the time to tell me exactly which shoes were exactly right for me. 

I’ve got a bit of a cold today, head feels kind of foggy.  Was thinking I should have some red wine for medicinal purposes.  But before I got round to opening the wine on my own, my brother phoned and asked if I wanted to go to the pub later.  Drinking in company is SO much better.

So three cheers for brothers, boots and beer!

…even if it is really shoes, wine and brothers, but sometimes alliteration is more important than accuracy..