nautim

I had just come out of the airport building when it went overhead. How low was it? Then that amazing climb followed by a roll.... And the sound! I wished it would come over again, but no such luck. Just happened to be in the right place at the right time for once.

One of my headlamp bulbs went, so I bought a replacement. We couldn't get the fitting to budge so I went to JRJ this afternoon to have the bulb fitted. They did it immediately, only took a couple of minutes and wouldn't take any money for it. And all done with a smile. I'll stick the money in a charity box instead.

Just been out watching - saw quite a few over the space of about 45 minutes. A couple of 'wow' moments that really did look like stars falling out of the sky.

We were at the park fairly early on so didn't have to queue long for anything. We saw John Nicolson, wandered over to Tesco to watch Zoe go by then went back to Clickimin to see the Cauldron being lit. The whole family enjoyed an afternoon out in the fresh air with some good music in the background. Given the big number of people who seemed to be enjoying themselves I think it was a success.

I reached this stage a few years ago. I did try the two pairs of glasses scenario but what happened was that I always seemed to be wearing the wrong pair. The difference in the prescriptions wasn't a lot so I could manage, but eventually I did start to find my eyes straining, so I took the plunge and got the varifocals. I got my glasses from Kelly's Opticians and have been very pleased with them. The only hassle with varifocals is having to look down your nose to read through the bottom half of the lenses!

In previous years this has been started and finished by the. Coastguard firing a maroon. This was not possible this year, so the show started and finished with aerial shells. Can you explain what would have lessened your disappointment?

I don't have a kindle but I read lots of PDFs only iPad. I find it useful because I can highlight and annotate the bits which are of interest, but I believe you can do that on the kindle as well. It is a lot easier than reading on a pc screen.

The local Autism Support Group (who normally meet in the Bruce Hostel on the last Thursday of the month - see the Shetland Times for details) have arranged to have a special showing of films as a Christmas treat. We didn't go because my children weren't interested in the film. The sort of things which get changed to accommodate needs are lower volume, more background lighting in the auditorium and an acceptance from the rest of the audience that you may have people making noises or getting up and moving around. We waited a long time before we bothered trying to go to a film. When we finally did (we think it was the Simpson's Movie) we sat at the end of a row, next to the exit, with plenty of sweeties. Plan A was to sit and watch the film, Plan B was to keep her quiet with lots of sweets, Plan C was a hasty exit... We managed to stay through the whole film, she did eat lots of sweets, but that was out of choice rather than silencing! Although we try to give my younger daughter as many opportunities in life as possible there will always be some things that aren't suitable for her to go to. That can be disappointing sometimes, but we work round it, and I love her just the way she is.

I took one home to my parents years ago (20 +). They have a very sheltered garden. It's had to be trimmed to let them see out of the sitting room window which is on the first floor. I think the main factor in it reaching such a height was shelter.

It's not as bad as it used to be (fortunately) At one point the consideration was whether to strim the grass or hoover it...

We went to Flames today at lunchtime. The starters were good - garlic bread, garlic mushrooms and chicken wings. There was a slight mix up over one item on the order, but they sorted it out quickly and gave us the burger and chips on the house (even though I would happily have paid for it). Everyone seemed to be happy with what they got, although another time I would ask them to leave off the cheese slices. It was busy, and i think that we were lucky to arrive just before the rush, but I think that they more organised. It's fine to have another place to go to.

Strange to say I did just that about 16+ years ago. It was a long and diverse yarn covering many topics from medicine, science and developmental psychology. Eventually the man closed his optimistically open bible, thanked me for an interesting chat, and left. I don't know quite what I did, but they've never been back!

The information about when to set off fireworks is here http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/HomeAndCommunity/InYourHome/Escapingandrecoveringfromafire/DG_064665 it's also a good idea to phone the coastguard.

Happy Christmas Nx

Might have been the neeps - Jemima Walterson from Scalloway used to say they were inclined to go sour in soup, particularly if you were making the soup the day before, so we would make soup, then add the neeps the next day. Sometimes she would use frozen ones rather than fresh if she thought they weren't good enough quality. Mind you - she also had a very particular method of stirring soup. Pity help you if she found you stirring it wrongly...