Two excellent authors living nearby!

It’s unusual to have spoken to the authors of the books I read, but two recent reads have turned the unusual around. Mercedes Claraso, is from Catalan and has lived in Scotland for many years. I know her as a member of my writing group in Dalkieth. She writes wonderful poetry and it adept at writing short stories which get right into the psychology of the characters. She has written and published several books and I had the good fortune to read The Hawthorne Hedge. It’s a story of two men’s lives - Alan and Peter, both losers in their own ways. They, their families, wives and lovers are richly revealed and help the protagonists understand themselves and they reach some kind of redemption. Very well written with a certain ‘old fashioned feel about it.
I’ll be back for more of her work.

The Art of Friendship is written by Erin Kaye who comes from Northern Ireland and now lives in North Berwick. We have a mutual friend and shared some emails recently. She has written several novels – all published in Ireland. This is the first book published in the UK. It is set in N. Ireland (Ballyfergus – Larne) and is about a year in the life of four girl friends. At the start of the book, I thought I was in for another ‘bad mother’ story in the vein of ‘We must talk to Kevin’ (which I had read recently.) However, this was only one thread in the plot.
The story gives a rich portrayal of each friend’s character, their secrets and the problems they face. Erin sets up a series of difficulties and the friendships are threatened. By courageously facing up to the problems, they are overcome and the friends make up. This book is a real page turner, Erin pulls you in and keeps hold of you till the end.

Spanish... you know it makes sense.

Hola


I can’t speak Spanish, but since visiting Cuba, I would love to learn. It’s easy to start something like that, but not so easy to keep it going. But… I’ve made a start. I looked up Spanish lessons on Google and it came up with lots of lessons, including the BBC. You can sign up for a twelve week course for free. They send you a lesson a week by email, to work on, with lots of tips etc. At the end of the 12 weeks you can take an assessment, which to you and me means a test! One good thing about this is that you can ask a friend to join you. As it happens, Sally is keen to learn Spanish, so we are going to do it together. The first lesson is about taking a taxi ride and booking into a hotel, both of which I did in Cuba without speaking the lingo. I’m going to have a go at it later.

First, I’m going down to the running club to see if I can run. I’ve had a problem with my Achilles since I got back from Cuba. It’s very annoying because I was getting fit and enjoying my running before I went on holiday. I had good intentions of doing some running over there, but it was so humid that I just didn’t do it and drank pina colatas instead. I’ve been nursing the injury along and for the last two weeks and I have given the tendon a good massage with my special massage roller. I want to be able to run because I am down to do the third of the Borders triathlons at Hawick on Sunday.

Gatwick is crap… full of stressed out people, especially on Friday evenings. Here's a couple of sketches I filled my time with when I was waiting for my delayed flight back to Edinburgh

Cuba Calling

Yesterday was hot enough for Harvey and me to have our first swim of the year in the North Sea. It’s not as warm as the Cuban Atlantic, which was 25 + Celcius, but once you get in, it is quite invigorating.


How much do you know about the Caribbean and Cuba? If it's as much as me before my visit, then it's not a lot. Here are a few things I found out on my trip.

• Cuba is the most incredibly lush place I have ever been to. Everywhere is green with palms and banana trees growing all around. This may be to do with the climate. During my stay an average day was 93 degrees of humidity and 32 degrees of heat. That's hotter than my green house on a hot day. These conditions lead to tropical storms of thunder, lightening and huge amounts of water dumped in a short period. It's no wonder that everything you can think of grows here and it grows quickly.

• On my first day, I went for a cycle and melted. I looked up and thought oh, oh that’s a vulture. It landed beside the road, so I got off the bike to take a look. It was not at all bothered by me and started on a nice meal of unidentified dead animal. Then I heard some chirpy sounds and yes, there were vulture chicks and guess what, they are just as ugly as their parents. I was really wilting in the heat and I looked up at a tree, to see another half dozen (turkey) vultures looking down at me. Time to get out of here, I thought. I later found out that the turkey vultures are a protected species with a big fine for killing one.

• On a trip to the island of Cayo Saetia (more later) we were told about a sea animal which is endangered and being protected in Cuba. Manatees are large, fully aquatic, mostly herbivorous marine mammals sometimes known as sea cows. They are noted for their friendly nature, their large size (up to 3.6 metres (12 ft)), and paddle-like flippers. The name manatí comes from the Taíno, a pre-Columbian people of the Caribbean, meaning 'breast.'

• Cuba is an agrarian society. There are animals all over the place. A Cuban taxi in the country side is a horse drawn cart. There are cows, goats, horses and pigs all over the place. A lot of people live in the countryside. If they are not on horses, you often come across people standing by the road side, waiting for some sort of transport.

• Like most Latin American counties, the people speak Spanish. It’s a good idea to have a smattering of it. I got a few phrases off when I was there, but Hola and buenos dias does not get you very far. I’ve decided that learning some Spanish would be a good idea, and the good old BBC, do a 12 week course on-line for free. So I booked in and my first lesson arrives today!

• I went on a snorkelling trip to Cayo Saetia, which is a beautiful island at the mouth of a huge bay on the eastern side of Cuba. It was a great trip with lots of colourful fish to look at (although there were no octopus, which our dive leader had promised us.). The coral was not so good due a typhoon a year or two before, which had dumped a lot of dirt on it. The island has only been open to the public for fourteen years. Prior to that Fidel and his pals used it for hunting – how’s that comrade? Quite incredibly the island is home to zebra, water buffalo, antelopes (which are very tasty – had some with our lunch,) and other African animals. The island is beautiful and puzzling… like a lot of other things in Cuba.

Went on a bike ride today and got to see a bit of authentic Cuba. The first discovery I made was a group of vultures... yes, vultures which live just outside the hotel complexes. It doesn't take long to leave the fairy tale world of the hotel and see the way people live. There is a small, 1970's communitst style villlage just nearby. It's quite a contrast to the hotel!. I'm looking forward to seeing more of the 'real Cuba.'
There is a routine here, (I can say that even though I have only been here, two days,) The mornings are hot and humid, so you lie around the pool and drink, Margarittas or other cocktails, the sun continues to beat down in the afternoon, and then the black clouds assemble and before you know it there is a tremendous thunderstorm. It beats the north east winds of Scotland any day.
Tomorrow, I'm off on a cattamaran, we are  going off to an island to do a bit of snorkelling...

Cuba... Arriva!

Here I am in sun drenched and rain drenched Cuba. It is my first day here and it had been really humid, even the Cubans are saying so. We had an incredible tropical storm this afternoon.
I am not keen on hotel living, but this place is very good, lots of music and entertainment and the beach is just outside.
Tomorrow I am going off to the interior to meet some real local Cubans. Apparently we will be driving a jeep, riding a horse and tasting some coffee straight from the farm. I don't know if this will get through becauce the Cubans only have narrow band, the US does not allow them broad band.

Burnoes noches.

East Lothian

I live in East Lothian, which has a border with Edinburgh on it's east side. There is also a coast line of about 45 miles with many fine beaches. To the south, the county is bordered by the Lammermuir hills. East Lothian is mainly an agricultural county with the big town of Mussleburgh on the west side. There are some old mining towns of Tranent and Ormiston and towns with a fishing and trading history at Prestonpans, Port Seton and Dunbar. In the middle of the county is the market town of Haddington (where I live.) The rich people live in the East of East Lothian in the Biarritz of Scotland at North Berwick.

East Lothian is not too far from the border with England, and there is a history of invasion and battles between the Scots and the English... so there are a lot of castles in the county. One of the most dramatic is Tantallon Castle on the coast road between North Berwick and Dunbar. Castles and the sea make a great subject for painting. Here is a painting of Tantallon, I did at the end of last year.

Get well soon

I've got three things on my mind at the moment. Pat's wrist injury is number one. Her operation went well and the doc has said he is pleased. It will take six weeks in the scaffolding  and a lot of physio for her to recover.
The back garden patio is also high on the list. I knew this would be difficult, because the garden slopes away in two directions, but it has turned into a marathon and I am now so well known at keyline, that they are nice to me!
Thirdly, is Cuba. I'm away on Wednesday. I've filled in my visa and confirmed my flight, so all I have to do now is pack.

This morning being a Monday, I was at Tynepark, I skipped my usual job of giving out taster sessions of shiatsu and ran the 'Art Group.' Sarah and Maria (her helper) usually do this but they were both away. The session went well, and I got a chance to do a quick water colour. I'm going to give this to Pat as a get well card.

Running and drawing and writing

My granddaughter Lia and her dog Skye came for a sleep over on Friday night. I always enjoy her company because she has the sharp eyed observation and wit of a six year old. There were a lot of why? questions this visit. When I asked why she asked so many questions, I got a shrug of the shoulders. It’s always pretty active when Lia comes to stay and this time we had two dogs to look after! Saturday started early, about 6 am. By 12 noon, we had been out with the dogs, visited the farmers market, gone for a swim and had started on lunch.

After that we decided to do some drawing. Lia asked me to draw her and Skye, which was fine for five minutes, and then the rain started and both my models went inside, in any case this is what I produced .

This morning I went for a run with Tom’s new Sunday morning running group. We met at the car park at Ormiston Bridge and run through parts of East Lothian I didn’t know. We headed along the old rail paths for a few miles and came out about one and half miles from, Whitecraig. From there we went up the hill to Cousland, and eventually back down to the rail walk again. There was an argument about whether it was 7.5 or 7.9 miles long. It didn’t seem nearly that long to me, which showed how much I enjoyed the scenery. I’m looking forward to exploring more of the paths with this group of runners and I’ll be taking Harvey for a few walks around there too. Just in case you are wondering, Harvey didn’t miss out, we went to East Saltoun Woods after the run and he had a great sniff around.

I am gearing up for my trip to Cuba, starting next Wednesday and I’m wondering what it will be like to run and swim in a beautiful, communist, Caribbean country. Probably, better than running in the cold, north east wind which unbelievably was blowing again today. Pat and I were going on this adventure together, but, very unfortunately she fell, playing tennis and it resulted in a complicated wrist fracture, which means she cannot come. I don’t know any Spanish, so it should be interesting.

A bit of this and that

It’s been a busy few weeks on the athletics front. It all started when I went along to the Dunbar running club and had a good run up Doon Hill. It’s nice to have a change of scenery from the  usual HELP routes and the clear, bright evenings make up for the long, cold winter runs.


On Sunday, 9 May, I got up early and drove over to Selkirk for a triathlon. On the way over I wondered what it would be like to compete in my new status of ‘Vintage’ triathlete (in the tri world they go by your age on 31 December and by then I will have my bus pass.)

I was confident it was a Sprint distance and had told Becky from the tri club that the Kelso tri and not Selkirk was the Standard distance. The first thing they ask you when you register is your swim time…’15 minutes,’ I said. Quite a few heads turned to look at me. ‘Are you sure,’ the lady taking names said, ‘you know this is Standard distance, don’t you?’ It only goes to show that you should read the blurb on the entry form properly and make sure you put it in the diary. I had not only got the distance wrong, but  the town as well!
‘Never mind, we will get you a place,’ she said.
But did I want it? Instead of swimming 30 lengths, cycling 20kms and running 5kms, I would have to swim 60 lengths, cycle 40kms and run 10kms. I decided to do it. The swim went well and the big surprise was the bike ride. I thought it would be hilly, but it was just as well, I didn’t know it would be over Ettrick and Yarrow mountains! The run presented a few problems because my feet were completely numb from the bike ride. It’s a strange feeling running on numb feet… however, as the run progressed, I felt better and my feet thawed out. I was quite pleased with the race and ended up with a time of 3.04.37 made up of 30.52 swim, 1.38.03 bike and 51.58 run.

On 16 May, I was going to have a week off, but Frank persuaded me to go along to Loch Leven half marathon. My memories of the previous year were of feeling good to start with and the wheels falling off at Scotlandwell hill, followed by a drenching for the rest of the way home. This year I was determined to set off at a sensible pace and conquer the dreaded hill and it worked! I had a steady paced run and felt good throughout the whole race. Even the dreaded hill went well. My time of 1.44.57 was 3.30 faster than the previous year… so starting off sensibly paid dividends.

All this set me up nicely for the trip up to Cape Wrath and the marathon. I hadn’t been as far north as this before. The mountain and coastline scenery is stunning and the organisation of the race is second to none. The marathon race is quite complicated with a combination of runners including, individuals and teams of two, three or five people. HELP had two – two man teams comprising of Eddie and Mike and Frank and me. Eddie and Frank did the 15 mile leg from the lighthouse at Cape Wrath to the ferry and Mike and I ran from the ferry to the lighthouse. The logistics of the race focused on the need to get everyone over the Kyle of Durness on the ferry at 16 people a time. This meant that Eddie and Frank had to be at the community centre and ready to go at 5.45 am. While Mike and I had a much more relaxed 9.45 start. We were on the bus and about to head for the ferry when Eddie and Frank arrived home, having finished their leg before we had started ours. I reckon this is the hilliest marathon I have come across. It runs through some wild country and I loved it.
The two HELP teams ran well with Eddie and Mike being placed second (out of 16 teams) in a time of 3.29.32 (Eddie 1.49.32; Mike 1.40.00) Frank and Ray were third team in 3.35.56 (Frank 1.58.56; Ray 1.37.00)
The only other thing to say is that the meal was fabulous, comprising of local seafood produce and deserts to die for, and we finished it all off with a bit of ceildh dancing… roll on next year.

Harvey here #6

Just got back from a run on the beach with one of my best friends, Bruno, arrf
He's a Sprocker which is a mixture of Cocker and Springer spanie,l woof.
Bruno loves to run and likes to doggy-play fight, so that is right up my street, woof woof.
He likes chasing deer, just like I do, so our owners put us on a lead when there are any around, grrr.
Recently, Ray, my owner has been giving me lots of training lessons, arrf.
He makes me sit quite often, especially, if we are going to cross the road, woof.
He has been doing more of this since I went to stay with Skye and her owners, Sally and Craig, woof.
I went on a run about once or twice and got to know some of the local dogs, arrf
You can't blame me for being curious, especially as a bitch in the next cottage was on heat, arrf, woof.
Ray said that most of the children in the village were out looking for me and I caused quite an upset, grrr
I made up for it last week end when I spent most of the day with Bruno and his owner, Norma, woof.
I ran around the garden for hours and although Bruno is bigger than me, I kept up with him most of the time, arrf, arrf.
Later we visited some of Norma's family and two other dogs, they all thought I was cute, arrf
I'll be staying with Bruno, Norma and Joe for a whole week-end soon... that will be fun woof, arrf.