Stuck at home

Today we are snowed in, and as you can see from this photo my car is completely buried and I've given in. Even if I could get it out, the road is closed so I'm going nowhere.

I've cancelled my meeting in Edinburgh and am spending the day in what feels like a snowhole. That's one of the joys of living in a house where the upstairs windows are all velux. All I can look forward to it seems is, according to the weather forecast, a week or two of enforced hibernation. A bit boring if you ask me. Even my hairdresser, who lives almost opposite and was supposed to come over about 8 pm tomorrow, has just phoned as she's bored stiff and looking for something to do, so I think the whole village will be having their hair cut this afternoon.

I've started measuring how much snow we have by the amount on the garden table, which as you can see is doing pretty well and it's still snowing.

Still I'm wrapped up warm, with my man and my dog for company, so best not complain too much.

Phew!

Given that we now have approx 12 inches of snow to contend with I'm really pleased that I'm not due to play bowls in Hawick, which would have meant an hour's drive (at least) in dreadful conditions. A lucky escape I think.

I've also had to cancel tomorrow when I was off to a workshop at Samye Ling. The treacherous conditions and the fact that my little car reacts rather like a snowboard whenever we have snow and ice, and my predisposition to wanting to stay alive and not have the excitement of a drive on a skating rink, means it's a non-starter. I would have borrowed my Beloved's 4 wheel truck but he's off on a Borders Search and Rescue training for the weekend and because of aforementioned reasons decided a car swap was not in his best interests.

We were also due to have friends to stay tonight, but I haven't heard from them and doubt whether they will now make it, so that's a bit of a downer. On the bright side means that I don't have to spend the afternoon cooking, which is a bit of a relief as we don't have a whole lot of food in and venturing to the shops is not on my current agenda.

So it looks like I'm stuck at home with the dog having a quiet weekend. At least we're warm and cosy.

Bowling update
I did pretty well yesterday and although we lost the first game, we came out with a draw on the second game which was totally down to my last bowl. On the strength of that I was asked if I wanted to join in with the women's league. I said I'd think about it.

Coffee plant update
The scrawny one is still alive, but only just. I'm wondering if, because they are so sensitive, any change in temperature just goes for them, especially if they're weak to start with. Probably rather like a person with a weak immune system, once they start to feel poorly it's hard to get over it.

Spooky or what?

About a couple of hours after posting yesterday I got a message to say that I'm not needed for the competition in Hawick on the weekend. The reason given was something about not having enough teams and so they've cut down on entries and the team I was in has been scratched.

Yeh, some excuse. I think they read my blog and decided they didn't want an outsider, with stickers on her bowls to prove it, who is playing in third position on Friday wandering into the Hawick club and perchance picking up their trophy. That would definitely put the cat among the pigeons so to speak. Or in my dreams might be more appropriate!

A member of the club

Today I went for practice for bowls at Tweedbank Indoor Stadium, where I've become a member. I've actually played there twice before, once a practice session on my own, and the second one I joined in what's called a Hat game, where everyone just gets allotted a team and position on the day. Prior to this I played in Inverness Indoor probably about 8 times in all and that was some years ago.

The Hat game I was in I did ok, in fact after about an hour I was beginning to get the hang of it and the consequence of that was that when I signed up for a competition on this coming Friday, I was put in at 3rd, which is the position for experienced folk! The woman who did this dastardly deed said they all thought I'd played loads from my performance at the Hat. Yeh right... I think they just want a fall guy.

Anyway, I thought I'd better get in a bit of practice and so because I had an hour to spare today I went of to Tweedbank to give it a go. To my horror there was a Scottish game going on and there was only one rink left at the end. The guy who's in charge told me to go and play with no problem in spite of my telling him my prevalence for delivering my bowl on the wrong bias. He just laughed. Well not for long!

Within five minutes I'd had to go and retrieve my bowl a couple of times, so he came and gave me club stickers, so now I'm officially a member of Tweedbank Indoor Bowls Club and have the bowls to prove it.

The only problem is that I'm due to play in a competition in Hawick on Saturday, as one of the Gordon people was short a team player and he's a member of Hawick Indoor Bowls, so I've been allotted honorary Hawicker membership. I'm not sure he'll look very kindly at my new allegiance and my bowls might have to be stripped of their new resplendent red stickers pretty damn quick!

So nice to be right

About 5 years ago there was a really interesting programme on telly at Xmas, it was all about traffic flow, and showed how one person braking first thing in the morning could cause a hold up later in the day. It was absolutely fascinating.

Well my contention is that one policeman can cause complete havoc by trying to help.

Have you ever noticed that when you're caught in a traffic jam, as long as it's not on a motorway, is very often caused by someone directing the traffic? Well today pretty much proved my theory when an accident happened almost right outside our house.

Of course I missed the whole thing and was only alerted to it when my Beloved came home after an afternoon of food shopping to say, 'Didn't you hear it?' Sadly the answer was no. Not sure if this was because I was at the back of the house or that I'm getting even deafer than I already know I am, but no matter. Essentially a car was pretty much totalled by a tractor on the crossroad that is our village. The tractor went on to total the village flower display.

Anyway, I took the dog out for a walk while the ambulance was still hanging about, but all those caught in the accident were standing around smoking fags and so all seemed to be ok. The traffic was flowing, and there was no problem. By the time the dog and I got back to the house, a policeman was in charge of keeping the traffic doing what it was supposed to do and the whole high street was completely blocked in all directions. The policeman was huffing and puffing and waving his arms and seemed to be enjoying his moment in the spotlight. The traffic was at a standstill.

Point proven I think.

Gaming strategy

Yesterday I had a bit of a 'day off'. That meant not doing very much at all apart from a bit of washing and a bit of reading and left the evening for Strictly etc.

In the afternoon I decided I would have a go at Bubble Island (yet again) as I've been trying to finish it with limited success for the past few weeks. The final stage is an absolute bitch, and in order to help you on your way, the game gives you flags and if you use them then you can slow the game down which makes it a whole lot easier. Problem is they cost you. Well they cost 'coins' which you get by playing (minimum coins), by spinning a daily lottery (quite a few coins) or paying (maximum coins).

Well I'm afraid I never pay. Any game that demands payment is not for me. I don't vote on any TV voting thing either as years ago, during the first Big Brother, I voted for someone to win, Anna the ex nun, and she lost. What a waste I thought, and have never voted again. Especially as the phone voting system seems to be just a way of those who don't need it, to make a profit out of those who do, under the guise of giving the masses a choice. Have you ever seen the papers after a final?

Anyway, I made a decision a couple of weeks ago to do the daily spin and amass so many coins that when I went for the win, I'd use them all up in one go and beat the game. And yesterday afternoon, I decided I'd have a go at starting at the beginning of Stage 10 and see how far I got, as I thought I needed to have 20,000 coins to play with to make it easy on myself and I only had just over 15,000.

And so I started, and bizarrely, without having to touch my pot of gold, I actually made it to the end. It now says 'Game Mastered' by my name!

The only problem is I now have all those coins in my amassed collection and nothing to put them to use with. I think the only answer is to play again.... oh noooo.

More from the OU

The alternative forum has, for some reason, disappeared from existence. No-one knows why, no-one knows who, no-one knows where. And so, after 24 hours, another alternative forum was set up and I was extremely relieved to be invited to join. And the same online camaraderie and support is now in action again.

But then, an interesting thing happened on the Student Cafe forum. We were told by our moderators that we wouldn't be allowed to post on that forum from 4.45 pm today until Monday, because both of them are away for the weekend. Which I have to say sounded a little 'parental'.

So one of our number on the alternative forum waited until 4.43 and posted something a little on the subversive side. It remained for all of 10 minutes when the whole thing was deleted, not even blocked. It was very funny in that schoolboy kind of way, you know, getting one over on your teachers, or at least that's what you think and then at the last minute they manage to get their own back.

You can tell what my school days were like.