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You are viewing the most recent 10 entries May 27th, 200902:42 pm: Plockton is pretty
We had a long trip up by car, with stops in Perth (to collect wedding favours), in Dalwhinnie (which is twinned with Las Vegas, according to the sign at the pub where we stopped - where we had a very nice lunch, but saw no gamblers or white tigers), and in someplace I don't remember the name of because for two hours of winding hilly road I was feeling increasingly carsick and I didn't care where we were, or indeed appreciate how lovely the castle was, until I had breathed some fresh air and had a cup of tea and a cheese scone. But on the way out of the castle tea shop, I looked out over the sea loch at the castle and the hills and said in a bemused voice to the woman next to me, "It really is lovely, isn't it?" feeling a bit like Tommy Lee Jones in MiB where he confesses to Will Smith that the stars are beautiful, though he hasn't looked at them in years. Anyway. We got to Plockton and checked in and I found I had a room to myself (which I hadn't been sure about, because when they were booking us in January, I'd been asked if I minded sharing and of course I'd said No) and a nice bathroom just a few steps away, and a complimentary towelling dressing-gown to take those few steps. So I wandered around Plockton, which is tiny and pretty, for an hour or so, and then came back to our hotel and we all had dinner*, which was lovely. My friends' friends are also lovely: it's very nice to meet them all. (I admitted to two separate people who asked, since everyone else present was thespian to some degree or another, that my sole connection with the stage was the O-Level Drama I did back when I was 15, and the drama group I belonged to for a year after that: I had met RiK when we were both in the same gay youth group, in 1984. Nobody seems to be prejudiced against non-thespians, though, which is nice.) A sound night's sleep, followed by a lovely breakfast** - the food here is glorious, a focus on seafood, but there are enough vegetarian options to keep me happy for a longer stay! - and another wander round Plockton in the rain. I'd discovered this morning I could get online via the Plockton Inn's wifi, though T-Mobile has let me down. Then I went back to my room, packed up the half-bottle of wine I'd bought last night and not nearly finished, went down to the fish bar and ordered a vegeburger and chips, and took this and my wine up to a bench overlooking the sea and the houses, and ate and drank wine and admired the view and read The Guardian, and it was really very perfect. (The friends are lovely, but one can have too much togetherness, you know.) It's five past three. Time for another half hour or so wandering Plockton and taking more photos, then I need to come back here and dress for the ceremony. I am very disappointed to hear that the Californian Supreme Court has decided that a majority vote in California can take a civil right away from the minority - I mean of course the freedom to marry, which has been established in the US as a civil right necessary to the orderly pursuit of happiness since 1967. I'm very glad and relieved, though, that they didn't decide to forcibly divorce the thousands of couples who had got married - and hope things will change for the better by 2010, if not before. But I'd like to promote to your attention a petition to the UK Government (and ask you to sign it, if you're a UK citizen) to amend the Civil Partnership Act so that same-sex couples who want to register their partnership at a religious ceremony can do so. *Grilled vegetables in pitta bread, followed by vegetarian haggis with clapshot (mashed neeps and tatties) and followed by Crannachan ice-cream. I'd ordered a bottle of very nice Merlot, thinking I'd share, but everyone else at my table was on gin-and-tonics or beer. **Muesli with dried fruit salad, orange juice, coffee, brown toast, scrambled eggs which tasted like the eggs had been laid this morning, baked beans and a grilled tomato, more coffee, oatcakes.    Current Mood:  happy , breakfast is a good meal, eating some delicious food, evil american politics, ice-cream, just my life really, seeing friends, travel, wine
February 8th, 200909:17 am: More foolishness with dragons and cheese and Cramer
Kathryn Cramer claims Aliases Are for People on Wanted Posters, and kindly informs us all: I made a rare use of my LJ account to preach the gospel of using one's real name. The LJ pseudonymous masses remain unconvinced. What most amuses (not exactly fascinates) me is the persistent argument that since one can't completely verify who someone claims to be, there is no real difference between using an alias and using one's real name. ..... Seriously folks, it does matter whether you use your real names. Aliases are for people on Wanted posters. Aliases are for con-men and crooks. Give it up. Come out. Well, gosh wow. No. I bought Camembert at the farmer's market with every intention of taking it to my friend's housewarming party, and indeed packed it... and then when I got there, it turned out that it was not the sort of party where you just drop food contributions in the kitchen and people eat them. I'd never been to a party he'd thrown before, and it was definitely more organized than most parties in our range of friends. Well. (I did, however, firmly present him with the cupcakes, despite the Key Lime pie on offer, since the alternative would have been throwing them out: they'd been baked Friday and were gluten-free vegan, and I find gluten-free cupcakes seem to keep less well than the regular wheat-flour sort.)       I'm having fun breeding my dragons now. Whee. Current Mood: tired , baking, dragon eggs need clicky, everybody lies, seeing friends
October 6th, 200809:39 am: On back rubs
Yesterday, while having tea and engaging in feminist abuse of the novel Charlie Stross was kind enough to give me, I noticed that ![[info]](http://www.insanejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) feorag had a sore neck. So I offered to see if I could rub it out for her: in fact, I offered three times, and she finally accepted, and I spent fifteen minutes or so trying to get that nasty knot in the muscle of her neck rubbed out (and am not sure how successful I was). This morning I read this post on unfogged, and I thought how much I hate people who repetitively offer a solution to my problems when I'm not sure I want to accept/that it's the right solution. How far is offering backrubs (or neckrubs) like offering advice? Current Mood: contemplative , seeing friends, wow i am self-obsessed
July 2nd, 200805:49 pm: Bleeding gently, but there's cake
Period started this morning. I had run out of coffee. I downed two paracetamol and made myself kasha with garlic and chili for breakfast. (And before he left, Transamurai left me a piece of cake he'd bought to treat himself - fabulous gooey chocolately nut cake.) My new sinus medication is making me cough, I think - at least, I have a persistent cough that was awful just after I started taking it, and is better now, but still persisting. But I can breathe! And this is a plus, definitely. Breathing is good. I had a whole list of stuff to get done in June, and though I haven't totted it up (I should, yes) I got not a lot of it done, and I put that down to the depressing effects of Not Being Able To Breathe Proper. I am a bit ranty. This may be because I am also right now completely bloody (well, not completely, but you know what I mean: I am bloody and bloody-minded and bleeding ungently, do not cross me) but it's also that there is a whole stack of stuff to be ranty ABOUT, not least something I cannot write about properly till next week: the Home Secretary's completely split-personality attitude to hate crimes against LGBT people. It's bad that LGBT people in Britain should be intimidated and abused. But it's perfectly okay for LGBT people in countries like Iran and Syria and Jamaica to go in fear of their lives - they should just learn to "conduct themselves discreetly", you see. I have a friend coming up from York this weekend: she was going to arrive tomorrow night but fecal matter has hit fan and it won't be till Friday night. Reason for visiting: a friend (of hers, not mine) is getting married on Sunday, and she was invited to the wedding and figured she could cadge free accommodation with me. Which is lovely, because it will be great to see her again and have a chance to talk properly. The friend of a friend is marrying in the Hindu temple, the Mandir, which is about a mile and a half away - the other side of Leith Walk. I have blagged an invitation - well, permission, perhaps, since I gather the wedding service is open to all. (There's going to be a long reception/dinner afterwards, to which my friend is invited, and I'm to slope off sharpish.) I've never been to a service in a Hindu temple, and I am a complete religious tourist: I'm really looking forward to it. I note, though, that the Mandir's website mentions "actively discouraging discriminatory behaviour on the grounds of race, religion, colour, nationality, age, gender, marital status or disability". See what's missing? Yeah, so do I. Ah well. Current Mood: angry , eating some delicious food, just my life really, seeing friends
April 12th, 200809:55 pm: We ordered Chinese food
We were quite sensible about it. We ordered from the vegetarian menu. A portion each of the "small vegetarian spring rolls", and a beancurd dish (with mushrooms and cashew nuts) and a stir-fried veg dish (with Szechuan sauce) and two portions of egg-fried rice and a side dish of crispy seaweed and another of pancakes. We were the only people eating in the restaurant, which is very plain on the inside: everyone else was ordering take-out. We thought we were being sensible and then the food started arriving: two enormous bowls of the main dishes, and rice, and a plate of pancakes, and lots and lots of crispy seaweed, and eight pancakes (very thin, light, white pancakes, perfect for rolling) and the spring rolls were enormous - if those are the small ones, the big ones must be battleships, It was all unbelievably delicious. I'd brought a bottle of elderflower wine, which was extravagantly good with the food, and we ate, and ate, and ate, and eventually we really did have to stop eating because we were completely, absolutely, stuffed full. I said, as I was eating a pancake with beancurd and mushroom and cashew nut, and a few of the fried vermicelli noodles that the spring rolls had rested on, and a sprinkling of the crispy seaweed, "My mouth is falling in love with me." The whole meal, including corkage for the wine, cost £36: we left £40 on the table (they don't take cards) and took the long route walking home. It was really, recklessly good, but I have got to remember for future reference that if I'm with someone and we just want a meal to share, one main dish, and rice each, and maybe pancakes, and one serving of spring rolls, and... oh, who am I kidding? I'd probably do the same again. It was good. Food is a lovely thing sometimes. We drank about half the bottle of wine and I took the rest home with us so we might drink more of it tomorrow. It was delicious, and I will buy it again when next at the farmers' market. Current Mood: full , friendship, seeing friends
August 25th, 200411:17 pm: Posted using <a href
Naomi! <3 Tags: seeing friends
10:12 pm: Posted using <a href
Swans! <3 Tags: seeing friends
09:40 pm: Posted using <a href
Please walk on our world but first remove your shoes. Tags: seeing friends
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