Tuesday, 21 July 2015

The Real World





Sometimes it can be hard to recall, when one is away on holiday, that the real world is carrying on as normal at home.   

I have missed this month’s meeting of the Book Club but will be home in time for next month’s and the book that has been chosen is Kate Atkinson’s ‘Life after Life’.  Brother-who-blogs had a copy on his shelves and I am two thirds of the way into it.  I’m not sure I would continue if it were not for it being the Book Club’s book and yet I may end up liking it.  We shall see.

Most of the other reading I have done while I have been up here on Lewis has been from GB’s collection of books on the Western Isles.  I always find it fascinating to read about places while I am there but usually there is so little time before one’s holiday is over and one is thrust back into the real world.  Two  books I have especially enjoyed this visit are ‘A Guide to Point’, edited by Liz Chaplin (2014) and 'Lewis in History and Legend - the East Coast' by Bill Lawson (2015).  I was also fortunate to find on the Co-op charity stall Joan Burnie's 'Postbus Country' about the Scottish postbus service from 1968 to 1994. A book just up my street single track road.



Also carrying on in the real world has been Partner-who-loves-tea.  She has been working her shoes, socks and toe-nails off as she has done all year.  At least she will get a chance to relax a little from now on as she arrives on Lewis today. We travel back together at the start of next week.  She will be away from home for eight whole days.  I’m keeping my fingers crossed the weather picks up for her but at the moment it is somewhere between those two wonderful words that GB uses – dreich and pish… (historically regarded as a dreich corner of Britain, Scotland's very name comes from the Greek word for “dark”).

And I have no doubt that lots of postcards will have been arriving at home.  Hopefully those that have gathered on the doormat so far will be brought up by Partner-who-loves-tea.  My postcard blogs must be hundreds behind now and will never catch up but I shall aim to put a few on when I get home.

That's enough of the real world for now - let's get back to Life on Lewis...
 

Posted by Scriptor Senex at 06:03

11 comments:

  1. Librarian21 July 2015 at 06:13

    When I've been away and then return to the real world, I sometimes have the impression as if not the same amount of time has passed here and there. It feels is if I've been away for a long time, having seen and done so much, while back home, only a week or two have gone by with no big changes or spectacular events having taken place.
    "Life After Life" is a book I've read earlier this year, and loved very much. Right now, I am reading the sort-of sequel, "A God in Ruins". This one is about Ursula's brother Teddy. His life is told as one life, not as in "Life After Life" with Ursula's.

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  2. ADRIAN21 July 2015 at 08:26

    I have just realised that I haven't seen a post bus. They were excellent things.

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  3. Anonymous21 July 2015 at 08:38

    I used to have an occuaption which involved repeatedly working in different locations for weeks a time. One of the concepts that one came to terms with was that whether or not you are there Life contiunes and does not stop just because you are not there (Sounds basic and simple but it is quite something to come to terms with. From Which My Mother lived in a small town at the top of the North Island.
    A few Miles south of that Town is a Mountain Range. We slowly learned that People who Live North of that range conclude that any Outsiders live just the other side of the Hills. That People live 900Miles South and take 14 Hours to Drive there was seemingly beyond comprehension.

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  4. Graham Edwards21 July 2015 at 09:00

    Well today is turning out just slightly less dreich (in that it's no longer raining) but at 13 ºC with no sun in sight it's certainly pish for this time of year.

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  5. Tabor21 July 2015 at 10:29

    Vacations do reset our clocks and make us think we might have been part of a time warp. With that scenery, yours must be so peaceful and "undriven."

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  6. messymimi21 July 2015 at 10:33

    One of my rules on holiday is to deal with "the real world" as little as possible until the moment i have to walk through the door back home. Hope the weather picks up and your Partner-who-loves-tea has an easy time getting there.

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  7. Deb21 July 2015 at 18:16

    I wouldn't rush to come back to the real world if I was where you are, it looks so lovely and peaceful.
    I read ' Life After Life' a while back and really enjoyed it.

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  8. Canadian Chickadee21 July 2015 at 18:20

    It's good to get away from the real world from time to time. Or as Adam Savage of the TV programme "Myth Busters" likes to say, "I reject your reality and substitute my own!" Say Hi to Jo and enjoy the rest of your holiday. xoxoxo

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  9. ~JarieLyn~21 July 2015 at 19:23

    I wish I could escape my real life. No vacations planned for this year and I'm getting restless. Thank goodness for short weekend get-aways.

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  10. Kay G.22 July 2015 at 22:49

    Good, I am glad that Jo will be able to join you! I love your photos that you have shared here. Will you be able to see the Northern Lights?

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  11. DawnTreader25 July 2015 at 18:45

    One item I could have left at home on my short trip (only three nights away) was my Kindle... There was no time or I was too tired to read in the evenings. I hardly even had time to browse through the the many tourist brochures I picked up along the way. I'll be consulting those as I sort through my photos, though!

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