"The fairies only left Orkney when folk stopped seekin' them" - Anonymous Orcadian
"Never be afraid to seek" - Ally

Sunday, May 17, 2009

That Was The Weekend, That Was...

And what a great weekend... for a start, my 3rd Saturday off in a row.

But first, Friday night... which involved a nice bar supper at a local pub with Viki, then we met a guy that she speaks to on the bus some days, as we were standing outside waiting for a taxi, and we discovered that he was heading to the same pub as us... so we offered him a lift... and spent the rest of the evening (til 1o'clock in the morning) in his company. Spent the last hour as his guests in a local members-only club just talking about life, the universe and everything, and having a laugh over a quiet drink, before leaving him to go home.

Woke up Saturday morning with a slightly fuzzy head, but with a mission for some retail therapy. Brunch was had at a cafe, and we left feeling a bit more human after some food and coffee. Spent all the afternoon (until Viki had to go to work at about 5pm) wandering about the shops, checking our favourite charity shops for bargains, and window shopping... only slightly marred by the fact that the bonny weather of the last few days had broken and it was dull and rainy. Hired a DVD for watching at night but, for some reason, we didn't manage to get it seen.

Today (Sunday) dawned a bit cold and dull still, but by about 1pm it was sunny and dry again. Spent the morning (after a breakfast of Viki's scrambled eggs and bacon... it's great having a flatmate who can cook) surfing YouTube for silly music videos, before we headed out about 3pm to see some of the parade for Norway Constitution Day (Orkney, having strong Viking / Scandanavian links, usually has some sort of thing on for this). Stood outside the cathedral and listened to the speeches, then there was music and some traditional dance displays, and then (Viki's favourite) the Kirkwall City Pipe Band played a couple of tunes.

After that, took a wander up the street for some ice cream, before heading to my brother's to get ready for our Sunday run.

Headed out East again (but not to The Hup again... not risking that again - David's just had his tyre repaired after last week)... This time we stopped the car at The Gloup, and then walked along the cliffs to the Broch Of Deerness. Me, being a coward, didn't cross to the broch (it being reached by a path that was altogether too close to the cliffedge for my liking)... so I braved the Terns and Kittiwakes that were less than pleased that I was so close to their nests - until they started flying close enough that I could see the whites of their eyes... then I retreated a bit. When David and Viki came back across from the Broch, we walked back to the car before driving somewhere to stop and have some sandwiches and coffee just after sunset (about 9:30pm).

Didn't get a chance to watch our DVD again tonight, and it has to be returned tomorrow... so that's £3.50 "wasted", but it's a small price to pay, considering the rest of the weekend was so good.

Working next Saturday, but we are going to a concert on Friday night as part of our local Orkney Folk Festival... we were listening to Radio Scotland as were eating our sandwiches in the car, and there was something about a Hungarian violinist who is going to be playing as part of the festival... so we've booked tickets for next Friday night to see his band (The Jani Lang Band), a local band called The Chair, and a couple of other artists, at 10pm through in Stromness. Funny that Viki comes to Orkney to see Hungarian music played! Really looking forward to it!

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