OLYMPICS OVER – SCHOOL’S BACK IN SCOTLAND – RAILWAY FARES GOING UP.

Two daughters are despondent this week because, believe it or not, school started again yesterday in Scotland, and they are both primary teachers.   Oh well!  Been there!  Done that!   Once you are again yoked up to the prospect of earning a living by throwing yourself at the mercy of a room full of strange, starry-eyed young  children for a while, that is until the October holidays, the only way out is to become philosophical about it.   It could be fun some days and it must be better than coal-mining.   You think?

The Olympics have dropped out of the news although I believe that my granddaughter, Shonagh thought someone had slipped LSD in her drink when watching the Closing Ceremony on Sunday evening.   Nuns in habits on skates.   I see what she means although at the time I thought this must be the Zeitgeist – how it’s done nowadays.   We all go around on the top of motor-cars – singing like the Spice Girls.   Why not?

We got our WATER FEATURE for the garden yesterday.   It’s quite dinky, sort of two-tier trickling water on the patio outside the summer house.   It’s sort vintage Victorian made to look like wrought iron.   G. and I will sit and drink cocktails and listen to the water.   Or that’s what we hope, if autumn and winter don’t hurry us back into the warmth of the house.

Alicia called in from work at the hotel in Inverness to help Gerald set up the camera for a Skype call we are going to have from Sydney, from Emma and Kevin.   We are so modern now talking to people all over the planet.   We are entering Cyberland.

The news in Britain is that inflation is up a bit, and the government are putting the fares on the trains up by ca. six percent in England (three percent above inflation) and four per cent in Scotland.   This has infuriated commuters all over the country, especially in London.   I feel sorry for them.   More money out of their pockets.   Less money for daily living.   Where will it all end?   Thinking of the Beatles  -   “There will be an answer.   Let it be.”   Did you see the little  film of John Lennon at the Closing Ceremony of the Olympic Games in London, shown on BBC?   He was singing “Imagine”.   Sort of spooky and still emotional and quite moving at the same time.   Thousands of people watched in the Stadium , and many millions on TV.   On Monday I heard one contestant being asked what was the best moment of the Games for him and he said “being in the same Stadium as the Spice Girls.”   Well there you go.   It takes all sorts to make a world.   Might as well try to be philosophical.