Boarding @ Home: Day 26/84: Lochnaw's Coffee Morning and more ...

All down to Avril's diet … Yes, months back Avril decided we should both loose a little weight .. good for the arthritic knees and hips … so we began. And of Thursday, a good stone lighter, Avril essayed wearing the Lochnaw kilt we had made shortly after Keith Lumsden kindly designed and added it to the Scottish National Register. [You can find the Prestoungrange and Dolphinstoun tartans at this url too of course.] It looks elegant does it not at our relaxing Milton traditional Friday Morning Coffee taken in the Sitting Room at The Lodge, punctually at 11.30 am. Click to enlarge pictures of course - and you'll see my tie is an Albertan tartan and the scarf is that of the Norwegian Scottish Association in Bergen - a gift to Avril when the Scottish Diaspora Tapestry went there in Spring 2015. [That was the same month we 'attempted' to see the Northern Lights with Hertigruten's memorable and enjoyable ferry to the Arctic.

VisitScotland is keeping us on our toes! Annika Wolf at VisitScotland's Clan and Historic Figures Fund which has granted us £5,000 for the 275 Commemorations is keen as mustard to know how we are getting along with our development of wholly digital/ partly f2f Commemorations on September 19/ 21st. Not too bad considering. We are going to make sure all the Clans that Came Out with The Prince have their banners and tartans in attendance, with a Parade and Remembrance. In line with ACTION THIS DAY yesterneve the first call to the Clans for this year has been readied. The 'asks' we are making and the digital innovation required will necessitate a contractor to work along with Arran and Sharon and stay in sync with the Edinburgh College IT partnership. And Sylvia and I are now scheduled to reawaken the good relationships we assembled for the 2018 re-enactments and the Dedication of our two new Memorial Tables. With the First Secretary's news that same evening that the UK National Lockdown will continue for a further 3 weeks at least the moment when the choice is determined for us is getting closer. That new date leaves us in purdah till the next Full Moon [7th], VE Day [8th] and May Bank Holiday [8th] … busy moments but leaves plenty of time for Boris to practise his croquet at Chequers. It's a rich irony his convalescing there - it was Mrs May's No Phones Brexit Deal there that led to his resignation as Foreign Secretary a year or more ago. Beyond the decisions we have already made and reported to Annika there are opportunities to identify and schedule more Jacobits and items of that ilk for Facebook. Music and poetry readings as used at Culloden yesterday are obvious possibilities but it would be great to get David Niven's movie on screen too. We've already extended the Invitation to 10/17 year olds to adults with focussed promotion to The Friends …
Printer black ink takes on a Wilkinsonian dimension. You have to be late middle age to remember the arrival of Wilkinson's Sword razor blades ..so cutting edge that they were under the counter items for months! Currently that's where HP 302XL Black ink cartridges seem to be … colour no problem; just black, selling at outrageous premia on amazon. Who apart from myself still prints out stuff that could be stored on a Cloud someplace … or even uses a laptop rather than a mobile phone for emails and picture post? Am I a gudgeon, just simply gullible? But my penultimate black just expired so needs must! Oidhche mhath - Good night