Sorry we have been "missing in action" for a few days. I have been a bit under the weather… I feel like an old wreck falling apart, LOL!

On Wednesday evening our friend Majid has been here for a light dinner. We saw Roman Holiday (Vacanze Romane, 1953) with Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck on DVD. It was a first for us all. Not bad, but what a stupid ending! We were all disappointed. Anyway, we ate, we laughed and spent a nice evening in good company.

Thursday has been a busy day health-wise. In the morning I had some blood drawn for my annual thyroid check-up. In the afternoon I went to see my doctor for some tiny red spots I noticed on my tummy. It seems a rush, maybe due to some medication I took or something I ate, dunno yet. I have to wait a few days and see how it goes and then see the doctor again.

Since on Friday the red spots had spread also to an arm, I did not feel like going out for dinner and bowling, so I let Zeno go alone with his colleagues. He told me that the Japanese restaurant turned out to be good. He had a great time even if he had the lowest score at bowling, but considering that it was only the third time he played…

The weekend has been finally sunny, even if cold, and hubby and I spent as much time as we could walking around. Zeno had to spend some time with some work-related things, but he also tried to rest after a busy week.

Time for bed, will check my mail box and visit you all ASAP! Have a lovely new week ahead and a prosperous February!

Lately I have been very busy at work for some deadlines that I have. Also this week I have lots of work to take care of and I’m bringing home something to do. Furthermore, this week my office is moving to a new building and things are going to get hectic.

Probably to ease things up, my boss has organized a night out. On Friday we’re going to play bowling and have dinner afterwards at a Japanese restaurant. This time also partners are invited, so Kia is coming with me and my colleagues. It will be the first time for her for more than one thing since she has never played bowling or eaten Japanese food.

Hope y'all had a happy weekend. We did. On Saturday we enjoyed going around for shopping with our friend Majid. Yesterday we just relaxed and went out by ourselves looking for gifts for Valentine's Day.

Today Scotland celebrates Burns' Night, the birthday of Scotland's most famous poet, Robert Burns (1759-1796). Burns' Suppers, as we mentioned last year, are traditional celebrations on this day. We won't eat haggies, though. Tonight we will listen to a few of Burns' poetic works performed by some of Scotland's biggest names. Yesterday we have listened to HRH The Prince of Wales reading "My Heart's In The Highlands" and Ian McDiarmid reading "Tam o' Shanter". The latter has been written in 1790 and many consider it to be one of the best examples of the narrative poem in modern European literature. It is one of Burns' longer poems, and employs a mixture of Scots and English. It tells the story of a man who stayed too long at a public house and witnessed a disturbing vision on his way home. We really liked McDiarmid's performance.

Off to make ourselves a warm cup of coffee and some toasted bread with jam for breakfast now. Have a happy Monday and new week ahead!

TGIF! The past couple of weeks have been busy, especially for Zeno. He has been working all evenings and during the weekend. I’ve been mostly trying to get back to a normal routine of chores and sleep after the holidays. I haven’t done very good so far, I’m still staying up till late and dragging myself out of bed in the morning, yuck! The weather is not helping at all. Getting a bit tired of all the rain we've been getting. Everywhere is so muddy! Hope to see some sun ASAP and be a bit more inspired in the next few days!

Hubby and I have been playing a bit more with Photoshop. We created a wee artwork symbolizing peace and freedom.

Please, click HERE to see it bigger and read how we made it and all the credits. Hope you have a wonderful weekend! Until next time…

It's a bit warmer now, with temps around 3°C/37°F during the day. However, with the sun rising at 8:30 and setting at 4:27 in the afternoon, I would expect brighter days. The luck of sun is really getting on my nerves. Hum, maybe I am having a bit of "winter blues". I have little energy, I feel sleepy all day long and I crave for sweets and fatty food way more than usual. Hum, maybe I'm just turning into a sloth, LMAO!

In the past few weeks we have seen more foxes that usual roaming around houses and buildings. Getting a close shot of a fox is still on our wish-list, because till now we had only seen them in the far distance.

Glad you liked the interesting recipe in my last entry, LOL! The cookbook is Maw Broon's But An' Ben Cookbook: A Cookbook for Every Season, Using All the Goodness of the Land by Maw Broon. It's full of traditional Scottish recipes that date back to 1940.

You can find jokes, humor strips (Broons and Oor Wullie) and great memorabilia tucked into the pages. I love the way the book looks like it’s been left on a kitchen work-top while being used, with the mug rings, stains, seed packets, timetables, photos…

I hope you're all doing fine. Stay well, and take good care of you! Till next time, be blessed.

I have to admit that the new Scottish cookbook that I got for Christmas has some interesting recipes, LOL!

There have been a million things I've wanted to say here lately, but I didn’t have a minute to get them down. Till next time, be happy!

It has been a nice cozy afternoon, the best time to go retro and listen to "auld" music…

I would have never thought that one day I could have called cassettes as vintage, LOL!

I've been feeling dicky yesterday, but today I feel a lot better… what is that? I can see a few of you with a very strange face, LOL! I just wanted to try the new word I learned today. Dicky or feeling dicky means that you are feeling unwell. It rhymes with sicky. One big difference between the USA and the UK is that Americans say "sick" for everything from a headache to a fever whereas Brits are "ill" or "poorly" and "sick" is just when your stomach is a bit "gippy" or "dicky". Slang is always interesting, isn’t it?

Ah, pastina, mon amour!

It's has been so cold for so long that even the ocean has frozen over in some places. Now, that's what I call a real cold snap! People have even been curling on the Lake of Menteith (the only Lake in Scotland, the others are all Lochs), which is completely frozen over.

We got scattered flurries on and off all day, but all this yielded just one centimeter of snow on the ground. I wish the sun came out to let the snow shine, but nothing! Only a thick fog and a awfully dark and miserable day!

I have been baking bread almost every day this week. Our flat smells fantastic and it’s warm and cozy!

I hope your Friday will be bright and cheery.

We woke up too early to a windy morning, but after a yummy breakfast (toasted cinnamon and raisin bread with cranberry jam, everything homemade) and a hot warming shower we saw a lovely sunrise, with purple, pink and orange tones.
Alas, our camera doesn't do it justice!

Zeno is very busy with work, so no much computer time for me for the next two weeks. I hope you are having a wonderful week so far!

Today at work it was the first day without my colleague Marco. He moved to our new office in Germany and we all missed him. Last Friday was his last work day here in Scotland and Marco and his wife Sabine organized a dinner out at Ho-Wong (a Chinese Restaurant in Glasgow) with all the colleagues. Kia and I really enjoyed the food and the company, it’s been a very pleasant evening. We had the menu for six or more persons and we really liked the Aromatic Crispy Duck. We are surely going to miss Marco and Sabine, but we know they will be happy back in Germany (their own country). Farewell my friends, and best of luck in your new venture!

During the dinner, the husband of a colleague of mine asked us if we knew that here in Scotland the Italians are called Hokey Pokey. Why is that? Well, before the invention of ice cream cones, ice cream was often sold wrapped in waxed paper and known as a hokey-pokey, possibly a corruption of the Italian: “Ecco un poco” (literally, here is a little). An Italian ice cream street vendor was called a hokey-pokey man.

On Saturday, with temperature plummeting to -10°C/14°F, we could enjoy the view of a partly frozen White Cart Water in front of the Anchor Mill (built in 1886, now converted into apartments). After the freezing, a dust of fresh snow added the final touch.

After the cold weekend, with a very windy Sunday, today the temps went up a little, staying just above zero, and a shy rain washed away most of the snow and slush.

The chocolate bomb in our previous entry was delicious! It was a chocolate sponge cake (pudding) covered with dark chocolate sauce and white chocolate curls. It was meant to be a dessert for 4 people. BTW, if you move your mouse over our photos, you can read a description.

Happy Snappy is back after the holidays, go check it out when you have a few minutes! Better log off now, I still have to work a bit before bedtime. Greetings from Kia, too!

We woke up this morning to find that it snowed a bit in the night. Nothing major, just a couple of centimeters, but it covered the dirty ice and it made our town look really pretty, even with no sun. We had -8°C but with a strong wind chill factor of -8°C, which gives the feeling of -16°C. In the Western Highlands they experienced -21.2°C. Brrr! The forecast for tomorrow says drifting snow. The UK had already 22 weather-related deaths, so sad!

The BBC showed a cool image of frozen Britain taken yesterday by NASA's Terra satellite.

We went out for a walk this afternoon and took some photos. We did not have time yet to check them out, but tomorrow we will try to show you some. We were also supposed to do some grocery shopping, but we were getting cold…

…and the belly ruled the mind! Have a lovely weekend, dear friends!

Winter is the time of promise because there is so little to do,
or because you can now and then permit yourself the luxury of thinking so.

.:: Stanley Crawford ::.

Most of the UK is shivering. Tonight temps will reach -12°C/10°F in our area, -22°C/-7°F in part of the Highlands. This is the longest cold snap since 1981 and should go on for another week or two. Brrrrr! This year our heating bill will have a sharp rise.

I haven’t ventured out in the past few days. Switching between the bitter cold outside and the warm temps in the house and shops makes my headache worse. So, since I don’t have anything important to do, I prefer to stay warm and cozy at home. Hum… I’m getting more and more lazy. Maybe that’s why the Befana decided to come all the way from Italy and bring me two pieces of coal...

(Cluster by Raspberry Road)

Sweet coal, made of sugar and egg white, but coal nonetheless, LOL!

Yesterday Zeno arrived home from work all tired and yawning. I had a bad headache, so we had an earlier light dinner (soup and a salad) and by 9:30 PM we were both in bed. Unbelievable! I do not recall going to bed so early without being really sick.

When we woke up this morning and looked outside everything was white and soft. The forecast guy on the radio is talking about the worst winter in 25 years and one of the coldest in the past 100. Temperatures are hitting -16°C/3°F in many parts of the country. Temps were around -8°C/17°F this morning, but they warmed up to -1°C/30°F around noon.

Hundreds of schools across Britain are shut, a few airports are closed and many rail services delayed. Just a few centimeters of snow and the UK goes haywire. Snow and ice are not fun, but it seems a bit much saying that 10 cm of snow is "heavy snow"!

Tomorrow we will celebrate the Feast of the Epiphany (la Festa dell'Epifania). When Zeno will be back from work we’ll have a nice dinner and then we’ll go to our friends’ for coffee. Epiphany commemorates the arrival of the Three Kings (i Re Magi) who followed the bright Christmas star (stella cometa) to bring gifts for Baby Jesus (bambino Gesù). On the eve of the Epiphany, the Befana comes to every house where there are children and fills their socks with candies and presents if they were good or a lump of coal if they were naughty. She is usually portrayed as an old lady riding a broomstick through the air wearing a black shawl and is covered in soot because she enters the children's houses through the chimney.

Epiphany marks the end of the long holiday season. An old saying goes: "L'Epifania tutte le feste porta via". (Epiphany carries away all the holidays). Luckily for Italian kids Carnevale is not that far away…

During the Christmas holidays the sky has been mostly grey and dull, but in a couple of occasions it has been nice and clear. Today it has been surprisingly nice from the sunrise...

... till very late at night, so we could enjoy the stars and the moon.

On the other hand, it has been freezing cold the whole day. This morning around 10 it was -13°C/8.5°F, then it went up, but still below zero. Right now we are at -6°C/21°F.

Here a clear sky, especially in wintertime, is a rare event. That’s why we consider ourselves very lucky that the sky was nice on December 31st. On New Year’s Eve we have seen the second full moon of the month (which is called a Blue Moon), and also the 13th full moon of the year. But that’s not the only special thing about the last day of 2009. There was also a partial lunar eclipse. We thought we might commemorate this rare event by making this collage.

4:26 PM – The moon is at the horizon, so reddish in color.
5:50 PM – Shining, higher and higher in the sky.
6:55 PM – Hit by the penumbra, the curved shadow of the Earth.
7:23 PM – At the climax of the partial eclipse.

We posted a slightly larger version of this collage on Flickr. We like to think that this Blue Moon is a positive sign for a splendid New Year. We hope that you all had a great start of this 2010.

A guid New Year to ane an' a'
An' mony may ye see,
An' during a' the years to come,
O happy may ye be.

An' may ye ne'er hae cause to mourn,
To sigh or shed a tear;
To ane an'a baith great an' sma'
A hearty guid New year.