The great metropolis

We went on a shopping expedition today, and I must admit that we weakened, and bought a bottle of whisky so that we will be able to toast the new year when it comes. So obviously we had to have a wee nip this evening to check it was ok…and it is…Old Pulteney. More my taste than Mr A’s but just fine. And we had it with some of the chocolates from the posh chocolate shop to which Mr A treated us (I was waiting outside the chocolate shop when I got my blip). We also popped in to Isle of Mull Cheese, to buy some farmhouse cheese to take back to Edinburgh.

It was a grey old day, so not really one for taking walks. We stopped at Calgary Bay on the way back and walked along the beach. I’ve got a few photos and I have eventually managed to upload some extras, although the system was reluctant to play ball. It includes a picture of this lovely wee cottage where we are staying.

Other than that, it was more sitting by the wood burner (for which we had to get another bag of logs such is our profligacy), and more reading. I finished two books - William Boyd’s Love is Blind, which turned out to be more cleverly plotted than I expected when I left it at 71% at 11pm last night and a work book about dual citizenship in Liberia which was a much better read than I expected (and a great deal more interesting than you probably think it would be). I have to edit a symposium about it - that is a series of four reviews - and I decided it would work much better if I read the book myself and write an introduction. This week was an ideal opportunity to make that project actually work. Tomorrow I will try and write up the introduction whilst the book is fresh in my mind, and then turn to the other piece of work I need to do whilst I’m away which is to read a PhD thesis that I am examining. That’s about citizenship in Ireland.

Meanwhile, I now have to choose my next piece of fiction. I have to say that having only a minimal internet connection is *very* good for my concentration. I should do it more often!