Tuva

’S e obair chruaidh a tha seo. Tha mi cho sgìth ri cù. 

This is hard work. I’m dog tired. 

Anyway, we dealt with Unit 43 last week. Unit 48 is the last one in Level 2. 

I try to review each unit completed before the next week’s class. Pronunciation has become a lot easier recently, to the point where quite often I have a good idea how to pronounce words I’ve never seen before. The grammar is another story. 

It was a difficult day at work. The red mist almost descended first thing in the morning - caused by a colleague and not a “customer”. The red mist did descend later on - and this time it was a “customer” on the phone. I actually told him the silence was caused by me counting to 10. 

We deal with about a thousand cases each year and some individuals are very challenging - we have had people just out of prison for violent crime, convicted sex offenders, and some with severe behaviour and/or mental health problems. This morning I was looking over my desk at a mother with her 14 year old daughter who had been raped. 

Fortunately it is very, very unusual for people to be rude or abusive, but I got one today. His issue is the closure of the local branch of his bank, of all things. It is inconvenient for him and the Scottish Government must “do something”. What action has the Boss taken about it? Something must be done… right now. 

He was one of those who insist on speaking to the Boss. When I explained he was in Parliament and unable to take phone calls, I was called a liar. As it happens (yes, it does happen even in politics) I was telling the truth.   

So, revising a few Gaelic phrases can be a welcome escape.

I’ll share this too. Cooking and travel are a couple of the things I can watch on Youtube to calm my soul. The English guy in the clip has a whole series of visits to out of the way places - Chechnya and Dagestan I’ve looked at recently. Tuva seems a bit… special. It’s on Russia’s border with Mongolia.

What I like about it is the hospitality and welcome shown to a complete stranger, coupled with his obvious desire to meet the locals and learn about their culture.. 

Tuva