Top Ten Thursdays - Being Thankful

It's top ten Thursday and as it's Thanksgiving day in America we're talking about the things we're thankful for. Normally I would do a list that was full of things like my beloved, the furbies, and my favourite foods, but today I'm feeling a need for a different type of gratitude, especially with all that is going on in this great big crazy world at the moment.

My top ten:

10. Education: I am thankful that I was born in a country that everyone, not just males, are entitled to education. I'm particularly lucky as I started school when I was still a baby as mum had to go back to work as a primary school teacher - some of my earliest memories are of sitting amongst bigger children listening to stories, and yes, when I started school mum was my teacher for the first two years.

Me and mum

9. Freedom of speech: Too many people in the world do not have the right to speak up against what  they perceive as an injustice and again I am thankful for the country I was born in and the country that I now call home.

8. The right to vote: as a woman I really do appreciate the right to vote, especially when you think about what the Suffragettes went through to gain us that right. It really frustrates me when people say that they're not going to vote because it doesn't matter - yes it does, it really, really does.

7. Travel: there is a huge world out there and I know I'll only ever scratch the surface but travel has taught me so many things about myself and other countries. I love learning about new cultures and their customs, food, and history - my travel bucket list is huge and my feet are starting to get itchy again for exploring a new country.

Budapest

6. Water: Another thing that those that have ready access to often take for granted. Imagine not being able to turn on a tap and have access to fresh, clean water. I am very thankful for the abundance of water in the countries I have chosen to live in.

5. Love: I am thankful that I am allowed to love freely and openly. Did you know that in 13 countries being gay or bisexual is still punishable by death? That is just so wrong and we should all be using our right to free speech to speak out about that.

4. Right to Marry; I'm thankful that when I wanted to get married I was allowed to. Yes, Ken had to be interviewed at Australia House, but that was just a formality. Come on Australia, please bring in marriage equality, as everyone has a right to marry the person they love.

3. Food to eat: I think sometimes we forget how lucky we are to have enough food to keep us satisfied when so many people in the world go hungry. Even in your own community there are people that are struggling from day to day. Maybe, to show how thankful you are, find out if you have a local food bank and next time you go shopping just add a few extra things to your trolley to help others. For those in the UK, this is the link to the Trussell Trust where you can search for your local facility - click HERE.

2. Bed to sleep in: knowing that I have a bed to sleep in and a roof over my head is something to be thankful for every day. I've spoken to many homeless people over the years, and believe me when I say, "there but for the grace of God go I". So tonight when you snuggle down into your warm bed, spare a thought for those less fortunate and whether or not you can do something to help them.

My beloved and Muffin Monster - I miss her.

1. My beloved: I know I implied that I wasn't going to do the expected but I just can't help myself, as he is the one that keeps me sane in this big crazy world, his are the arms that make me feel better, and his is the face I want to see last thing at night and first thing in the morning. I am thankful every day for Ken, my best friend and my husband.

That's my top ten of things to be thankful for - what would be in your top ten? Before you leave why don't you pop over to Tamara's blog, Confessions of a part-time working mom, to see what my fellow bloggers have come up with - click HERE to visit.

Until next time, be good, stay safe, and remember to be thankful - there's always something.

Pamela & Ken
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Five Fridays Until Christmas

I'm going to do something now that is really going to annoy some people, my beloved included - I'm going to write a post about Christmas in November!!! Mr Grinch (Ken) believes that Christmas should be banned until two weeks before the day - I don't really believe him, though he has bought himself a pair of grinch pyjama bottoms.

I love Christmas - the music, the decorations, the good will towards everyone, and of course the food. In the past Ken and I would go into London to look at all the really fancy decorations but we now need to find all our new places to enjoy the lights and craziness. 

The first lovely place is Brodie Countryfare which is a lovely shopping experience. They have decorated the place beautifully and I couldn't resist taking photos. Keep in mind that everything that is pictured is for sale, especially if your last name is Griswald.

Scrummy looking chocolate Christmas trees. There were lots of different chocolates themed for this time of the year and they all looked delicious.

These are all tins of biscuits and they're so pretty - I especially love the Christmas tree one and the round one with Christmas stockings. (hint, hint Ken).

All the Christmas trees were decorated perfectly with matching colour schemes - nothing like our eclectic mish mash of a tree that I love as nearly every decoration has a meaning.

This Santa Claus came up to my chest - imagine having that in your home. Princess Cookie would use it as a scratching post and Bramble would try and play with it and then chew it to death.

Love this ceramic gingerbread house - they had some that were huge and all of them were adorable.

Another perfect looking Christmas tree to end our visit to Brodies.

Another place that has great decorations but I've yet to take photos inside is Simpson's Garden Centre which is not far from where I work. I'm going to a charity event there next week so I will definitely take photos. This is one of the many trees that line their car park and as we drove towards them the first time they were lit up, I'd hardly finished saying "Awww" when my beloved spun the wheel and drove us into the carpark so that I could admire them up close. Have I mentioned lately how much I love him?

At the weekend Ken and I went for a day out to Dornoch and one of the buildings we were in had two very different Christmas trees, both in the foyer. The first one, lovely traditional and colour coordinated.

The second one made out of bits of a whiskey barrell and draped in fairy lights - just something a little bit unique for the person who likes the minimalist look.

Final two shots are from Eastgate Shopping Centre in Inverness. Beautiful hanging icicles.

Fairy light chandeliers.

I hope all these pictures have helped get you in the mood for Christmas which is only one month and two days away. Just in case you're not there yet, here's a lovely song, one of my favourites, to really get you in the Christmas mood.

Until next time, be good, stay safe, and we hope that wherever you are in the world you are safe and warm tonight.

Pamela & Ken
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Scottish Prison Life in the 1800's

In July we went to Argyll and the area that my beloved grew up in - I've already blogged a couple of times about our holiday, read Argyll memories in the sun here. Whilst my other posts make it look like we had glorious sunshine the whole time, we did have one day of continuous rain, so had to find indoor things to do.

Our first stop was Tarbet, the one on the Kintyre Peninsula, not the one on Loch Lomond - it seems very strange to me that there are two towns in Scotland with the same name and they are only 61 miles apart. As you can see from this photo, there wasn't much exploring done as it was raining a lot.

We had a very scrummy vegetarian breakfast in a lovely cafe that was decorated with beautiful lamps. One of the young lads that worked there told me they had come direct from Turkey.

Here's a couple of photos looking across from the harbour to see the pretty houses - such a shame that the sun wasn't shining.

We then decided to drive to Inveraray which is on the western shore of Loch Fyne and was the ancestral home of the Duke of Argyll. The current Duke and his family still live in Inveraray Castle which is a proper fairytale castle with lovely turrets - it's difficult to get a photo of without walking a bit and as it was raining I've left that for a future visit. We'll definitely have to visit the castle as my beloved is a huge Downton Abbey fan and they filmed one of the Christmas specials there.

We had a wander up and down the high street and love that our little puppy has got a shop named after her.

I took this photo of the George Hotel as it looks really pretty with all the flowers in front of it. On the sign it says it was established in 1776, and the current proprietors are the seventh generation of the same family to run the hotel.

Our next stop was Inveraray jail, which was established in 1820 - a perfect activity for a wet day. The jail was for men, women, and children and as was the case in the 1800's the conditions were pretty horrific. The exhibition is very good and really gives you a sense of what the people who were imprisoned here endured. Below Ken is modelling the actual thumbscrews that were used to inflict pain.

Interesting facts about the poor women that were executed as witches in Scotland. I always find it so sad to read about these women, as a certain number were using folk remedies and some were even practicing early midwifery, but because people didn't understand they were condemned as witches.

The courtroom is set up with models to show how a trial was held and you can listen to transcripts from actual trials that took place 150 years ago.

This is the very small airing yard which was built in 1843 for prisoners to get some outside exercise.

As you walk around the jail you see how the prisoners lived and what the conditions were like. There is also lots of information on the type of life the prisoners had, including children as young as 7.

This is the room where the prisoners were bathed when they came into the jail - the bath is fed from a burner in the corner.

This is an example of one of the punishement tables - I tried to get Ken to model it for you but he was a bit worried about what I would do with the switch (bunch of sticks) that was there.

A form of straight jacket that was used on 'crazy' prisoners.

And yes, some of the prisoners that were here in the jail were transported to my home land.

Cell door.

The steps leading to the upper floor - imagine the people that have walked up and down those stairs, and imagine the emotions that they've witnessed.

There were two main jobs that the prisoners were given, making nets and picking oakum. Oakum is the fibres produced when old bits of rope are picked apart and was used for sealing seams in wooden ships and for stuffing mattresses.

When prisoners first moved into the jail they had to sleep on a hard wooden bed with just one blanket and a wooden pillow.

Usual prison attire.

This poem was in the gift shop and whilst it is from a different prison I thought it was very thought provoking and very true. A very fitting note to finish our visit to the prison on.

When we got back to our hotel in Ardrishaig, we were looking at the interesting local facts and history that were up in various frames, when who should we spot but Ken's older brother David. In the photo of the MacBrayne buses with society members in front, David is the one in the red top in the front row - it's taken quite a few years ago.

So that was our wet day on the West Coast of Scotland. Until next time, be good, stay safe, and have a wonderful week.

Pamela & Ken
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Top Ten Thursdays - Plans

After a couple of weeks break I'm back with Top Ten Thursdays - things that did or didn't go to plan. Found this subject quite difficult as some are things that I think people would find very boring and others are things that I can't really share in public. Number 1 is the best one and I wish I had video footage of it as whilst we were in it the embarrassment overruled the enjoyment.

1. When my beloved proposed to me (that's a whole other story) we decided not to tell anyone as Ken wanted to do the right thing and ask my dad for my hand in marriage, and as my parents were coming to the UK in a few months we felt that was a perfect time. In the meantime we happened to find our perfect wedding rings with a Celtic design so went ahead and ordered them rather than wait and then not have them available. Mum and dad arrived and we took them round to Ken's place for a drink and for my nervous fiance to work up the nerve to do the deed. As we were all sitting there innocently drinking coffee the phone rang, and Ken let it go to the answer machine - the message was: "Mr Wright we just wanted to let you know that your wedding rings are ready to be picked up". Ken and I wanted the ground to swallow us up and my parents thought it was hilarious. Moral of this story - don't have an answer phone that everyone in the room can hear.

Dad & Ken

2. Deciding to leave my nice safe life in Tasmania to work in Saudi Arabia for a year turned out to be something that worked out really well - I made lifelong friends and met the adorable Scotsman that several years later was to become my beloved.

 3. We love going for walks when we're on holiday but one that we did on Scalpay nearly turned into a rescue mission as we underestimated the length of time the walk would take, though to give us some credit we were following the instructions in our walk book and the time that it said. I was at the point that this picture was taken that I had my usual moment on our walks that had me telling Ken he had to get a helicopter to fly me out. Anyway, I made it to the end and then our plan was to walk back but as it was getting dark thought better - fortunately for us a very nice man in a minibus stopped and gave us a lift back to the nearest town and then when he'd done what he had to he drove us back to our car. Moral of this story - double the time that any walk says that it takes.

4. Planning a wedding from the opposite side of the world was incredibly challenging, but thanks to my wonderfully organised mother our wedding turned out to be one of the best days of our lives.

5. When Ken decided to bring Bertie (our previous dog) home to live he didn't give me any warning, just came home from work one day with him (he was Ken's police dog). This could have backfired but instead Bertie Boo converted me from a non dog person to a crazy cat lady that is also a dog lover.

6. We planned to adopt two rescue cats but unfortunately because we lived in an upstairs flat in London none of the rescue centres would let us have a cat as they had to have access to a garden. Upsetting, but it led us to our two brats that we got as kittens from someone whose cat got pregnant unexpectedly, and we're so glad that we did get them as they completed our little family.

7. In 2012 I interviewed for a job in the Scottish Highlands as Ken had retired and we both felt it was time to get out of London. Unfortunately things didn't go to plan and the job was not to be mine. This turned out to be the right decision as it meant I got to work in the wonderful Maggie's West London, meeting incredibly amazing people.

8. In 2015 the same job came up again and this time everything went to plan and we moved in the middle of winter to the beautiful town of Nairn which is now our home.

9, In 1986 I interviewed to become a nurse, something I'd wanted to do since I was 6 years old. My lifelong plan went out the window when I wasn't accepted into the training at our nearest general hospital. A few months later I received the news that as someone else had dropped out I was going to get to fulfil my career dreams. So another plan that didn't initially go to plan but then worked out in the long run.

10. When I was in my mid 20's I made a plan to travel to the UK to work and travel for a year and then return to my native land of Australia. My plan met a major road diversion when my beloved and I found each other, fell madly in love, and knew we had to spend the rest of our lives together. Return ticket didn't get used but the plan of travelling and working continues, it's just a little less freeform and I have a truly wonderful travelling companion.

As you can see by this list, not everything that doesn't go to plan is a negative - life has a way of throwing curveballs at us and sometimes they're exactly what we need.

So what things in your life have not gone to plan and then eventually turned out to be the right thing for you, or what things turned out exactly the way you planned. Why don't you pop over to Tamara's blog, Confessions of a part-time working mom to see what my fellow bloggers have come up with.

Until next time, be good, stay safe, and plan to do something wonderful over the next week.

Pamela & Ken

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