Merry Dancers - Update...

Photo taken by local astronomer John Vetterlein and shown on our local newspaper website... This is what the sky above Orkney looked like last night...

My brother & I didn't see it quite as bright as this, but it was beautiful all the same.

And there was a "smudge" in the sky as well that we couldn't decide what it was - my brother even suggesting it might be Raxacoricofallapatorius (which I'll leave it to Doc to explain what that is). Well, it seems it was a comet - Cool!

Anyway, it's been a not bad day today - was still really frosty when I went to work this morning (and judging by just how cold it is now - I'm sitting wearing fingerless gloves, which aren't helping to keep my fingers warm at all, and a Santa hat to warm my frozen bonce - it's frosty again tonight).

And where was work this morning? Down at the bloody shop again, that's where! I got a text from the boss at about 20 past 8 to inform me that shopgirl was going to be off with a migraine again (I wonder what her new employers will make of all the absences?), and could I do the shop?

So, my working day went as follows:

9am - Down to the shop, rushed off my feet with customers, until...
11:30am - Boss comes down to let me go up to the office to do the wages, but he has to be away again by 1pm
11:45am - I get up to the office, do the wages, and eat something as I'm working
12:30pm - Back down to the town, nipping into the cafe for a Starbucks gingerbread latte
12:45pm - Back to the shop to let the boss go... stuck there rushed off my feet with customers until...
5pm - I finally get the door shut! Woo-hoo!

If I'd had to smile sweetly and say "Can I help you?" to one more person I would have flipped and the men in white coats would be "coming to take me away, ha ha"!

I don't know what's going to happen if shopgirl decides to have another day sick this week, because tomorrow boss is away and it's just me and Flunky up at the office... and then Thursday, Friday and Saturday it's JUST ME because both boss AND Flunky are away (not at the same place). If she does insist she's sick, then boss says "We'll just have to shut the shop". (I'm resisting the urge to say "What about his wife?")...

Well, it's 25 to midnight now, I'm cold, and I'm going to go to beddy-byes. I might even watch a bit of "Shrek 3" if my TV's working (with the cold at the moment, when I switch on the TV, I get sound but no picture... and it can take like 4 hours for the picture to appear - just great... another part of my life going down the toilet). If the TV's not working properly, I'll listen to one of the music channels for a bit.

Night, night...

Dancing Merrily

Hiya... Just popped on (a bit later than this post would suggest, but I wanted it posted on Monday) to let you know what a beautiful sight you would have seen if you'd been out in Orkney tonight...

My brother popped along just about half past 11 tonight to take me out of the glare of the streetlights because the Merry Dancers were out ("Merry Dancers? Wot dem?" I hear you cry... they're the Northern Lights, or the Aurora Borealis to give them their correct title), and I wish I had a fancy enough camera that I could have taken a photo of the sky... green bands of Merry Dancers, hardly a cloud in sight, myriads of stars, and even the odd shooting star... simply beautiful. If you ignore the fact it's bloody cold, it's just a beautiful, crisp, clear, frosty night...

It was a direct contrast to the rest of my day - shopgirl had a day off, recovering from her birthday on Friday, and I was in the shop all day. And it was busy, busy, busy... I'll be so glad when Christmas is over and the world relaxes back into the mundanities of life again.

Well, I think that's about all for today, so I'll bugger off to bed with my hot water bottle and probably a cat or 2.

See ya!