Scargill

Life is pretty much back to normal here, I’ve still not opened up some of the packing stuff I brought back from Spain and my office is a tip but everything is working. Last weekend we went up to see Van Morrison at the Playhouse in Edinburgh and the following morning popped in to see an old friend Nigel Duncan who lives just outside the city before returning that afternoon to Northumberland.

This weekend we’ve just had a lovely stop-over with some friends in East Woodburn. They have a place in Spain and whenever we go visit they do the most wonderful tapas – we had a great night.

It’s pretty grim here in Northumberland – only a week ago the trees were the most wonderful colour as you’ll see on the picture over on the right (clicking on these pics should make for larger versions)– but now – there is only wood – and cold weather. Still, we’ve had a reasonable amount of sun in a dark, miserable Britain kind of way – not quite what they’re still getting in Spain though I understand even that is coming to an end for a while. Roll on global warming please.

Mid-Week Maureen and I went off to see Dr Strange which I have to say was very good though the CFI – whilst magnificent,was a little OTT. So now in between other jobs I’m focussing on getting my new toy – the Amazon Echo (we bought two of them) to control as many things around the house as possible – by voice. It really works well as long as you are careful with your choice of phrases – I called the new Office lighting “strip light” and it keeps thinking I’m saying “strobe light” but by and large – this is a major home-automation improvement on anything before it.

Got a black tie political do coming up this week – should be interesting to see if I still fit into the shirts (not had to wear anything formal for several months – indeed I spent virtually every day in Spain in sandals and shorts!!) -6 months stay this year and I’m not enjoying being back in the cold but at least I can get to our fantastic baker in Bellingham.

And with that, I’ll leave you with a couple of recent photos. I’m looking forward to the next episode of WestWorld – probably the best thing on TV right now (I think it is on Netflix – we’ve given up with “normal” TV altogether – between Netflix, Amazon and Now TV, we get a better selection than ever at a fraction of the cost of Sky satellite – and as for FreeSat – well, personally I think it is mainly rubbish).

Enjoy the pics. Oh and if anyone starts talking rot about the pound recovering – so easy to do with selective graphs, here’s a graph over the last year…