Brae. A gay woman's tale!

Franz Kafka, the story goes, encountered a little girl in the park where he went walking daily. She was crying. She had lost her doll and was desolate.

Kafka offered to help her look for the doll and arranged to meet her the next day at the same spot.

Unable to find the doll he composed a letter from the doll and read it to her when they met.

‘Please do not mourn me, I have gone on a trip to see the world. I will write you of my adventures.’

This was the beginning of many letters. When he and the little girl met he read her from these carefully composed letters the imagined adventures of the beloved doll. The little girl was comforted.

When the meetings came to an end Kafka presented her with a doll. She obviously looked different from the original doll. An attached letter explained ‘My travels have changed me.’

Many years later, the now grown girl found a letter stuffed into an unnoticed crevice in the cherished replacement doll.

In summary it said:

*Every thing that you love, you will eventually lose, but in the end, love will return in a different form.’*

– Kafka and the Doll, The Pervasiveness of Loss

It’s been a lovely weekend down at Acrum… weather has been great and the wedding I took at Rubislaw was lovely… it’s a lovely place.

Today was a day of chilling out… we had a lovely walk in Harestanes followed by a lovely lunch in Roxburgh. We are all pretty tired now!

I have been so busy lately (not just with work!) that I haven’t had a minute to play on my blog!

Things have begun to settle down… Ros is all moved into her new flat and it’s looking fabulous… the balcony with views over the Forth is my normal lurking place!

We have spent the last few days sorting out my garden and summerhouse… paint has been more on me and the dog though! But it’s looking fab now!

All done before we head off to Hawick this weekend and then Llandudno for LFest, followed by a couple of nights at the lakes!…

I’ve had a bit of bother with my neck and shoulder for the past month… so eventually took Ros’s nagging to heart and went to the docs… turns out I have a trapped nerve in my neck … but the good news is that it hasn’t anything to do with my swimming!! So back in the pool tomorrow…

Had a fabulous time away in Poppy… BigBear did not disappoint… neither did our visit to the National Cave Centre near Swansea or The British Iron Works…in fact we loved our time away so much we have decided to take a few extra days in the Lake District after LFest in Llandudno!!

After a visit to Oswestry Minor Injuries Unit to have Ros’s hand checked out… thankfully badly bruised and not broken…. we then visited British Ironworks centre… and it was amazing… I loved it there!

Great day yesterday… drove 100 miles to Swansea to visit National Cave centre… absolutely mind blowing but I was absolutely exhausted by the time I drove the 100 miles back to the caravan… wee roads through Capel Curig were beautiful though!

Well… first Roadtrippers meet up under our belts…. and what a weekend it was… for 2 women who “don’t drink much”…. we managed to polish off a bottle and half of vodka!

Rage buggies and archery were good fun and bbq was fab!

Today we waved 53 other women off before heading into Shrewsbury for a wee walk around. It was funny to come back to an empty campsite…. and it’s all ours till Thursday!

LFest will be great fun this year, loads of our new friends will be there! Better get more vodka in!!

Our first outing with Roadtrippers at Big Bear camp near Shrewsbury… having a few vodkas!!

A beautiful and funny woman by my side…