Category Archives: Scotland

July 13 –

Friday the 13th or not – it was time to celebrate my mother-in-law’s birthday.  In the midst of the sorrow and grieving, she turned 75!  So we planned a surprise lunch for everyone to attend (with two cakes – good thing I got in a run this morning!) and handed over a few gifts and many well wishes.  Now I have the challenge of getting her to use the gift certificate for the massage that we got her.  I’m more than happy to go along…..

So champagne and sausage rolls with much visiting for lunch.  Then we prepared for the adults to go out on the town for a proper birthday celebration. My mother-in-law, her three sons and their wives and her sister and husband had a lovely meal at the River House to celebrate.  Well, 8 of the 9 of us had a lovely meal.  I have one sister-in-law who is a self-professed picky eater and insisted there was *nothing* on the entire menu she could eat (note the use of the word could – not would…) so she had a plain piece of bread – no butter even – and then made herself a sausage roll when she got home.

I don’t mean to sound condescending but it’s something I really can’t understand.  She insists that she’d like to be a good eater but she can’t (?!?)  I have *never* had that problem.  There are lots of things I’d prefer not to eat but it’s never been the case that I couldn’t eat anything! (BTW, I thoroughly enjoyed my grilled tuna steak with chervil tequila sauce.)

/san/

[Pedometer: 8561 or about 4 miles – I rained a *lot* today]

July 12 –

Today we get back down to business and head into Falkirk for a change of shops so that we can find appropriate funeral clothes. The funeral is to be held on Monday so we need a black suit for Frank, a black tie for Duncan and proper dress shoes for Gillian. While it was entertaining wandering around new shops and Duncan got a new hoodie and track suit trousers and Frank got some other trousers that aren’t funeral appropriate, the rest of the day was a bust.

Another note on life in Scotland. The majority of all businesses on the typical Scottish high street are either estate agents, travel agents, charity shops or hairdressers. There also seems to be an unusually high number of tattoo parlors relative to the population. I thought maybe this was just true of Stirling but after seeing Falkirk, it seems to be a general truth. Apparently people give away things when they move house and get their hair done before and after their holiday. I can’t figure out how else it would work….

After a quick lunch at a tea shop (where I had the best cajun chicken salad sandwich and lentil soup), it was back to Jim and Therese’s house to help plan the funeral service. Since old Frank was not the least bit religious, there was no question of a church service. So the family decided to go with a Humanist Service. We spent a long time describing my father-in-law’s life and trying to convey a fair picture of the strict but loving father with the wickedly sarcastic sense of humor. It made me realize how important it is to me to have someone who knows me speak at my funeral…..

After the planning it was back up to the shops to finish picking up shoes and pantyhose and other bits before having a lovely meal at the indian restaurant nearby then home to do laundry and watch some telly.

/san/

[Pedometer: 16,702 or about 8.5 miles]

July 11 –

Thank you all for the kind thoughts and well wishes we’ve received.  It helps to know that people are thinking of you especially when you are so far from home.  Frank’s mum is doing as well as can be expected – as are we all.

Today was a day for picking up and figuring out what to do next.  There are preparations to be made – phonecalls, paperwork, etc. And of all days – today the weather is gorgeous!  It’s just what summer should be.  The morning was spent taking care of details.  As Frank is the car guy, he was tasked with taking care of his dad’s car – wash, petrol, etc.  Since he got it as part of a government plan to help disabled folk get around, it needs to go back so there are more phone calls to be made.  The kids and I had a wee toddle about the town and even climbed up to the castle before meeting Frank for lunch at the flat (sausage rolls and beans – yum!)

In the afternoon, we headed out to Callandar – a lovely wee town that was one of old Frank’s favorite places.  We poked around the shops, ate ice cream and the boys played football down by the River Teith.  The sun was beautiful and we actually had our shorts on for a change.  It was almost as if Grandpa was telling us to get outside and enjoy after hours spent in the hospital.

We took a side trip to Doune castle to see where the Monty Python crew were called silly English kniggits and had a lovely bar supper at the Lade Inn in Killmahog.  There will be more to take care of tomorrow.

/san/

[Pedometer: 19,950 or just short of 10 miles – all in brilliant Scottish sunshine.]

July 10 –

Francis Hennigan Cannon passed away at noon today one week shy of his 74th birthday. He is survived by Helen, his loving wife of 54 years, his three sons and eight grandchildren.

He was well loved and will be sorely missed.

July 9 – The weather seems to be mocking us now. Another nice day – actually the first without a rain drop – and we’re in no position to really enjoy it. Frank’s dad is hanging on but just barely. Everyone is taking turns at the hospital and we don’t make any plans past a few hours from now just in case.

So this seems an apropos time to record some general thoughts on life in Scotland. Supermarket sizes aside, life here is very different -at least among our family. I get up and run in the morning or just stop at the bakers for fresh rolls and the news agents for a paper. I supposed if I lived here permanently I could get the paper delivered but loads of folks still don’t do that. Then again, if I stayed here full time, I could get the milkman to deliver our milk (no joke!)

Stirling doesn’t seem to be much of a morning town. I’ve been running twice now around 7 a.m. and haven’t seen any other runners – just a few folks out about their business who look at me like I’m insane. This morning there were lots of people heading to their work at about 8 a.m. but no other runners. Maybe it’s because everyone stays up so late. I confess that I still can’t get used to the fact that it’s at least 11 p.m. before it gets completely dark here. I have a hard time getting the kids to go to bed at 10 or 10:30 when it’s still light out. Very odd.

I must drink 10 cups of tea a day. A cuppa is the common cure for just about every ill and whenever you visit someone or go anywhere, the first response is to put the kettle on. Even in the high dependency unit in hospital, the nurses insisted on making us tea while we were visiting. No Tab here but Diet Irn-Bru is magic!

/san/

[Pedometer: 16,644 steps or about 8 miles. We managed a toddle about town before heading to the hospital. ]

July 8 – We thought we would have a nice quiet morning without the kids this morning so we slept a little late and wandered into town for a paper and fresh rolls. Frank actually cooked today (bacon rolls and tattie scones!) and we had peace while we read the paper. Then off to church. Normally, we wouldn’t bother – our rule for the summer is once a month and we’ve made our appearance for July – but we thought that it couldn’t hurt to say a prayer for Frank’s dad in a place that might have a special delivery system so we headed out to Holy Trinity church of the Scottish Episcopal church. Interstingly enough, the church we were married in was called Holy Trinity in Georgetown which we took to be a good sign. There was a guest celebrant today – a retired bishop which we also took to be a good sign. We made it all the way to the sign of peace when we got a call to head straight to the hospital. It was walking distance from the church so we got there first to find out that Frank had been moved to a private room and they were doing everything they could to make him comfortable but he was showing no signs of improvement and they now consider it to be “just a matter of time”.

So the whole family turns up and the death watch begins. He is still on oxygen and large doses of morphine so he lapses in and out of consciousness. He seems to be aware of his surroundings when he is awake but that isn’t very often. My mother-in-law, the three Cannon boys and the daughters-in-law then spent six hours admiring the sun outside the hospital window, watching him sleep and telling stories. The latter would have been far more enjoyable if the circumstances were different. Duncan and Gillian were still hanging out with Matthew and Leah and overdosing on PS2.

Eventually, we had to eat something so now I’m playing childminder while the others work out a visiting rotation. No one wants to leave until it’s time…..

/san/

[Pedometer: 13,264 steps or about 6.5 miles – most of which was probably pacing hospital corridors]

July 7 -We actually had some beautiful blue skies this morning so I laced up my shoes and did nearly 5 miles around the town this morning to enjoy the blue sky and fluffy clouds.  I woke the family up when I got back and we had some tea and toast for breakfast.  Then  down to the serious business of getting things organized.  Frank and I walked up to the town to get some basics:  a teapot and some morning rolls.

The flat we’re renting right now is really lovely and has just about everything we could ask for…. except a teapot!  I’m not good at this whole “making one cup of tea at a time thing” so we were off to the charity shops to get a lovely bright red teapot with “Typhoo” emblazoned across the side for 2.50!  A stop at the bakers yielded morning rolls and fresh  donuts then we headed back to see if the kids had actually gotten around to showering.  [NB:  Morning rolls are big soft white rolls that you by fresh every morning to use
as part of a bacon roll, sausage roll, roll and jam, etc.  They are not quite like anything we  have at home and we intend to consume LOTS of them!]

Duncan and Gillian had a lot of sorting out and unpacking to do so Frank and I headed to the supermarket to get the rest of what we needed. I love exploring grocery stores in other countries to see what is different to what we’re used to.  Here, there were lots of options for small containers but not many supersize packages.  It seems like there are hundreds of choices of yogurts but none of the servings are more than 4 ounces unlike the 8 oz containers I eat everyday.  The potato chip (crisps) aisle is also interesting because there are huge bags here but they all contain smaller,  individual serving bags; I’m not sure you can get a single bag with 12 ounces of Doritos if you wanted to!

After we put away the messages (groceries), we had soup and sausage rolls for lunch – yum!  Then it was time to go to the hospital for a visit. Frank’s dad, also called Frank, is in a “high dependency unit” – i.e. intensive care.  He went into hospital about two weeks ago for surgery related to his colon cancer (removing some lesions and scar tissue I believe) which was supposed to be relatively minor.  His colon cancer has been in remission for just over 5 years so this shouldn’t have been a problem.  However, all the smoking he’s done  over the years, including after being diagnosed with colon cancer, has damaged his lungs so badly that he hasn’t fully recovered from the surgery.  He’s lost about 25 pounds and is on oxygen and pain killers because he has a racking cough that is excruciating for him.  Since he’s in an ICU, there are very restricted visiting hours (2-3 in the afternoon and 6:30 -7:30 in the evening – only two visitors at a time).  Today was my turn to pop in and say hello – we decided that to wait before taking the kid’s so they stayed at the cousin’s house to play.  I’d like to say he looked fine but I’d be lying.  He’s on a feeding tube plus IV morphine and an oxygen mask.  Today he was particularly bad since he hadn’t slept much last night so he kept dozing off.  He’s alert sometimes and still tries to have a sense of humor but it has to be hard for him.  I feel for my mother-in-law, his wife of 54 years, who has spent all day everyday with him for about the last 15 years since they both retired.

After the visit, we picked up Duncan and Gillian to run some errands in the town then they went back to the cousin’s (with take away from McDonald’s in hand) to spend the night.  Frank and I went round to see his other brother and I hijacked their wireless connection (for yesterday’s post and some other work) and Frank took Una up to the hospital for evening visiting.  Later, we went out for a lovely italian dinner with Tom and Una before sitting up until the wee hours chatting.

/san/

[Pedometer: 15,384 or about 7.5 miles not including the 4.6 miles I ran in the morning!]

After last night’s bad news, we completely changed our plans and made arrangements to head north first thing this morning. We still didn’t know what to do with the Formula One tickets so my kind sister-in-law (thanks Una!) put a note about them on eBay at about 8 p.m. on the night before the race. At 11:10 p.m. we got a phone call from a desperate husband who’s wife *really* wanted to go and he had been putting thing off until the very last minute – which also happened to be his anniversary. He offered enough to cut our loss to less than half and we made arrangements to meet him north of Oxford which was sort of on our way, kinda. Nevertheless, it was a silver lining of sorts – the tickets didn’t go to waste and we weren’t out a whole lot of money.

Another small consolation was that we were able to cancel our hotel reservations for the weekend and make arrangements to take occupancy of our rented flat in Stirling three days early. It turns out that the current occupants were leaving at 5 a.m. and so we could get the keys when we got there for a small increase over what we had already paid.

Well needless to say we didn’t sleep well and made it to breakfast quite early. Many thanks to the folks at the Ashley Villa Hotel n Bath who were very kind and our room was very nice. We exited early and took care of our ticket trade at a closed gas station north of the M40 outside Oxford – it felt sort of like we were doing a drug deal! (Thanks Jason – I hope you and your wife enjoy the race and cheer for Lewis for us!) Then we headed out for the looooooong trip north. Of course, my spouse is not one to be deterred and please don’t tell
him it should take 8 hours or so to get from Oxford to Stirling. We managed the trip in 6.5 hours in intermittent rain and total downpours with several stops including a quick meal!

We got to Stirling at tea time and Frank headed directly out to see his dad who is not likely to be with us much longer. The kids and I went o the grocery store (with some transportation help from the in-laws since I haven’t practiced this left hand drive stuff yet and today was eally not the best time to start!) and headed back to the flat for some tea and toast, washing and waiting. Eventually we got word that things were a bit better so we headed to the chippy for a few fish suppers and gathered at Frank’s brother Jim’s house for some food and commisseration. The kids enjoyed getting to spend time with their cousins Leah and Matthew and the parents got to catch up on whats going on. There’s not much planning to be done until we talk to the doctors – probably Monday.

/san/

[Pedometer: 5,807 or about 2.5 miles – not bad considering we spent most of our time sitting in cars and chairs.