Losses and gains

On Friday I was awoken to the sounds of Mountain Man searching. It seems I'm not the only one who can lose things around here! I'm sure you're dying to know what he lost... well it was the one and only key to our shed. And that meant no painting of anything for me, as all the paraphernalia was locked in said shed and MM needed to break in and then fix the break in and buy a new latch as the old key was nowhere to be found.

Luckily by the end of the weekend the shed was all fixed and we now have 2 keys for it, just in case. Also, by the time the weekend was finished it had started raining, so there's still no painting being done. The rest of the fence and the external woodwork of the windows and doors will just have to wait for another heat wave to hit us.

In the meantime I left MM sorting the shed and getting himself ready for the Tour de Forth bike ride he was doing on Sunday and went off to the Rumi Festival near Hawick on Friday. It just so happened that an old boyfriend of mine was going to be there and we met up for the first time in 40 years. Don't worry it wasn't a shock for either of us as we'd arranged it all.

Our first conversation wasn't quite as expected, because I found my old friend and a pal putting up a yurt and trying to make sure the ties were secure. They were doing it the most peculiar way, which seemed overly complicated to me and after a quick hug hello they got lessons in Vee's simple method of tying down tent ties. They were impressed... or at least that's what they said to my face!

The festival didn't start until later on the Friday night, so there was lots of time to catch up with what had happened to both of us in 40 years and then meet his friends. I went back on Sunday to see some of the performances. There was some great operatic singing, a play, discussion and a fascinating Sufi dancer. I tried to upload the video of the dancer for you, but there was an error every time I tried to upload it. If I can manage another time then I'll do so. But to paint the picture for you, the Sufi dancer dressed in Turkish costume went round and round on the same spot for minutes. It was impressive.

I finally left the festival in the evening just when it was starting to drizzle. This was a good move on my part as my car was sitting in the middle of a rather lush field and I knew from the weather forecast that it was going to tip it down.

It was a good weekend and fun to reminisce, meet new people and be entertained.