What a week! Such high drama, with the snow and all the chaos it involved, and then the cloak and dagger innuendos of the football venue results. Well done to Qatar, I could just imagine the euphoria in Doha. I would love to visit again in 2022 and see all the amazing plans become reality. Here, England is smarting, and every single channel on the TV is spouting Panorama revelations etc…but really, they have a Royal Wedding next year, then the Olympics…quite enough of the spotlight I should think, and poor MI5 will be needing a holiday after all that.

I loved the snow, and all the clever and artistic designs that popped up around the city, the companionable camaraderie, and the smiles from strangers as we shared ‘a moment’.

Nick made me laugh when he recounted his friend Duggie’s Samaritan trip to his Grandad’s. The old guy was stuck in his house, and gave Duggie his shopping list….here is the ‘modern’ pensioner’s list:

2 tins of Heinz soup

1 tin of Corned Beef

1 tin Spam

1 pkt Benson and Hedges

1 pkt matches

1 60W light bulb

Cheapest and nastiest bottle of Whisky

I would say it sounds much like it would in 1945!

John has been fitting draft excluders…and I have been keeping well away from the kitchen…as with the door open it’s been freezing, they say -10 so I basked in the lounge working on the sequel to the Highland Games…this one is called The Highland Rocks…so far so good. Did ring Maggie (the literary agent), but she has been so stressed with schools closed, kids at home, cars stuck in snow drifts, she hasn’t been giving my great works the attention they deserve. Grrrrrrowl.

We did go for a brisk walk around Arthur’s Seat yesterday,

and saw sledgers, skiers, a lot of mad bouncy dogs and pretty scenes.

Had to laugh at a group of geese getting ready to emigrate. There was a lot of fuss as they got ready and into formation!

They were finally distracted when some Polish woman came and threw her scraps of bread to one and all.

Holiday plans were put on hold!

To keep with the new improved fireplace and blue sofa, we seem to be still in house improvement mode, and this week we went back to the antique shops and got a referral to a furniture restorer. We visited ‘Davey’ in his upstairs loft…WHAT a glory hole…covered in every kind of chisel, leg, handle, nut and screw you could imagine…I was full of trepidation as I couldn’t imagine how he could fit anything else in. Samples from all the ages lay about in varying states of repair. Well he is coming on Monday to uplift and ‘do’ the Georgian chest. He came round to give it an appraisal…and stood stooped in the snow wringing his hands, in his cut off woollen gloves. I thought I was face to face with Uriah Heep! BUT to be fair he was warm and shy and keen and obviously knows his stuff. I hope he does us proud.

John takes a break every now and then to send off his CV, and shouts at me to say he’s sent off to Korea or Kuwait or wherever. I just say, ‘fine’ and get on with whatever…imagine his horror when Serbia, Uzbekistan and Saudi Arabia came back to him….We scuttled off to peer at the World Map…and have a go at the Chinese Fortune sticks and maybe when Natasha comes for Christmas we’ll try the Tarot! Que sera, so they say, or at least Doris Day did.

Here is a picture of my hanging basket…late flowering lobelia caught in an ice cube! Beautiful!