Crivens Jings Happy Hogmanay

As this year ebbs away and we prepare for The New I wish you all the very best for 2016. A very happy and peaceful New Year ain an a'.

Slainte Mhath!

Happy New Year folks!

A guid New Year to yin and a' from Alistair, The Lovely G and wee Jess..

We hope the New Year brings you all you could wish for.

All the very best for 2014.

The photo is of the Vikings from the New Year procession in Edinburgh. To see some more great photos from Edinburgh Spotlight please go here

Writes of Passage.

                          The Bridge to Nowhere, Belhaven Bay.

So my friends, 2012 passes and despite adverse predictions we’ve made it to the end. Is it a time to look back or a time to look forward I wonder? I could certainly look back at a year filled with catastrophic natural phenomena and self-inflicted human disasters, yet another year of self-serving, lying, mendacious politicians, senseless celebrities, widening economic recession and more than a few needless tragedies, I would also need to take time to celebrate a year of creativity, compassion and human achievement, to welcome the potential of new generations and mourn the passing of old ones. But such things are better said in better places than this wee blog and by folk better at it than I, so let me keep it personal.
 

If I had to label the year I’d put it down as a year of change. When it started I was long term unemployed and despairing after many hundreds of job applications seemed to be getting me precisely nowhere. Then a job came out of the blue. I now work full time for a charity supporting people suffering from autistic spectrum conditions. The money is rubbish but the job is great and rewarding in ways not experienced before, working as I did for a huge private sector company. Having said that I also have to live in the real world and reality tells me that without more income something is going to have to give. That decision will be one of the key challenges of 2013

The Lovely G and Jess

 

My Lovely G has been ill for quite some time and although thankfully she is slowly getting better, there has been stress and worry for both of us as well as yet another hit on finances to cope with. Luckily we have been able to offset impact with canny financial planning – all down to G – and that has helped tremendously. She has been helped by some great people in the NHS but undoubtedly there is a long road ahead. This year has proven how close we are and how good we are for each other. That’s the major plus to be taken from the year I think. That strength will carry us through anything. Health wise my type 2 diabetes has kick started a change in me and I'm now wearing trousers six inches smaller in waist size. It's been quite a thrill buying clothes that are smaller sizes I can tell you. I can't remember ever having been able to do that before. Hopefully that will continue too - but Christmas has taken a temporary toll I'm afraid.

 

I’ve taken on an additional role within Children’s Hearings, a voluntary organisation I’ve worked with for ten years, protecting vulnerable children in the local area. So far the impact has been noticeable but fairly low level but there are major changes afoot that I can see will take significant attention to get through across the first half of 2013.

Our niece Emily who arrived in March.

 

The major impact from all of these has been a loss of  that ‘free’ time which I had a huge overabundance of previously and time that was often given over to blogging. Can you believe it will soon be FOUR YEARS since this wee blog started? Phew! - and there have been almost 600 posts too! 

Time for blogging and indeed inspiration for blogging has been much missing in the latter stages of this year and I'm sorry about that. I miss it.  I’ve often relied on the weekly ‘Sunday Post’ poems to keep things ticking over, not something I’d ever planned. They were always meant to be a wee ‘extra’ not the main event. Still, I’ve been glad to have them on many occasions as they’ve kept some kind of forward momentum. That’s been a worry and I’ve by turns felt lazy or guilty for not being as involved with writing as I had been. I gave serious consideration over the last few months to stopping. What’s the point of a blog if you don’t actually blog? Strangely, when I was in the throes of pondering just that a fellow blogger pal posted on exactly the same thing and she worked through the reasons why she should keep going. That saved me a lot of work and showed me that as usual, I’m not - and we’re not - alone in facing these kinds of challenges. She came to the conclusion that we write ultimately for ourselves and our own pleasure, not solely for others. Comments and interaction, feedback and followers are a welcome and even treasured part of blogging but ultimately she identified that it’s something in ourselves that propels the need to get something down on paper not just in doing so for others. So thank you Jane at ‘What’s making me feel good today’ for sorting out some of those niggles that had been troubling me. There are times when we can and will write and times when quite simply we can’t and we shouldn’t cut off the chosen medium for what may be a short term issue. Even if it’s not short term, if the quality of what is written is satisfying and therapeutic to us as writers then isn’t that all the justification we should need. 

And so ‘Crivens Jings’ will definitely be staying. I’ve programmed the next three months of Sunday posts already and have more poems in the pipeline. I’ll be blogging ‘properly’ when I have time and I have something to say and just as importantly I’ll be reading and commenting on the blogs I follow regardless { something that’s also been remiss recently – commenting, not reading folks!}

The two of us at my niece's wedding

 

But for now I’m going to have to go. I truly hope you have a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year wherever you may be. Take care of yourselves and I’ll be seeing you all again in 2013.

 

Happy Hogmanay!

 

Here’s tae us!

Wha’s like us?

Damn few!

And they’re a’ deid!

 

Slainte!

 

Listening to:

New Year Tradition.

The New Year celebrations are traditional here in Scotland. We're  rightly world famous for our cheerful and exhuberant welcome to each new year and the extended partying that often accompanies it for several days afterwards. But many countries celebrate it in their own unique ways; the ball drop in Times Square, New York; The fireworks over Sydney Harbour Bridge; favourite TV shows to bring in the new year; a dip in the ocean on January 1st etc.  Being married to someone of Swiss German descent I was introduced to a tradition from over there which I really enjoy. It's a TV sketch called 'Dinner For One' which is played across Switzerland and Germany every New Year without fail at some point.  They absolutely love it and fall about in stitches, which is strange considering it's completely done in English. I've no idea where the tradition comes from or when it started or how it came to be taken so much to heart by so many, but somehow I too have fallen for it's charm, innocence and fun.

I hope you enjoy it too.

Wishful Drinking........

Feeling philosphical: I drink, therefore I dram!

A Happy Hogmanay to one and all!

What does Hogmanay actually mean and what is the derivation of the name? Why do we Scots more than any other nation celebrate the New Year with such a passion? Why should a tall dark stranger be a welcome first foot visitor after midnight, carrying a lump of coal and a slice of black bun?


There are many theories about the derivation of the word "Hogmanay". The Scandinavian word for the feast preceding Yule was "Hoggo-nott" while the Flemish words (many have come into Scots) "hoog min dag" means "great love day". Hogmanay could also be traced back to the Anglo-Saxon, Haleg monath, Holy Month, or the Gaelic, oge maidne, new morning. But the most likely source seems to be the French. "Homme est né" or "Man is born" while in France the last day of the year when gifts were exchanged was "aguillaneuf" while in Normandy presents given at that time were "hoguignetes". Take your pick!

In Scotland a similar practice to that in Normandy was recorded, rather disapprovingly, by the Church.

"It is ordinary among some Plebians in the South of Scotland, to go about from door to door upon New Year`s Eve, crying Hagmane."

Scotch Presbyterian Eloquence, 1693.

Hogmanay Traditional Celebrations

Historians believe that we inherited the celebration from the Vikings who, coming from even further north than ourselves, paid even more attention to the passing of the shortest day. In Shetland, where the Viking influence was strongest, New Year is called Yules, from the Scandinavian word.

It may not be widely known but Christmas was not celebrated as a festival and virtually banned in Scotland for around 400 years, from the end of the 17th century to the 1950s. The reason for this has its roots in the Protestant Reformation when the Kirk portrayed Christmas as a Popish or Catholic feast and therefore had to be banned. Many Scots had to work over Christmas and their winter solstice holiday was therefore at New Year when family and friends gathered for a party and exchange presents, especially for the children, which came to be called hogmanay.

There are traditions before midnight such as cleaning the house on 31st December (including taking out the ashes from the fire in the days when coal fires were common). There is also the superstition to clear all your debts before "the bells" at midnight.

Immediately after midnight it is traditional to sing Robert Burns' 'For Auld Lang Syne'.  Burns claimed it was based on an earlier fragment and certainly the tune was in print over 80 years before he published his version in 1788.

"Should auld acquaintance be forgot and never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot and auld lang syne
For auld lang syne, my dear, for auld lang syne,
We'll take a cup o kindness yet, for auld lang syne."

An integral part of the Hogmanay partying, which continues very much today, is to welcome friends and strangers, with warm hospitality and of course a kiss to wish everyone a Guid New Year. The underlying belief is to clear out the vestiges of the old year, have a clean break and welcome in a young, New Year on a happy note.

"First footing" (that is, the "first foot" in the house after midnight) is still common in Scotland. To ensure good luck for the house, the first foot should be male, dark (believed to be a throwback to the Viking days when blond strangers arriving on your doorstep meant trouble) and should bring symbolic coal, shortbread, salt, black bun and whisky. These days, however, whisky and perhaps shortbread are the only items still prevalent (and available).

"Handselling" was the custom of gift giving on the first Monday of the New Year but this has died out.

Torch and Bonfire Ceremonies
The magical Firework display and torchlight procession in Edinburgh - and throughout many cities in Scotland - is reminiscent of the ancient custom at Scottish Hogmanay pagan parties hundreds of years ago.

The traditional New Year ceremony of yesteryear would involve people dressing up in the hides of cattle and running around the village being hit by sticks. The festivities would also include the lighting of bonfires, rolling blazing tar barrels down the hill and tossing torches. Animal hide was also wrapped around sticks and ignited which produced a smoke that was believed to be very effective to ward off evil spirits.

The smoking stick was also known as a Hogmanay.

Some of these customs do continue, especially in the small, older communities in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland where tradition, along with language and dialect are kept alive and well. On the Isle of Lewis, in the Outer Hebrides, the young boys form themselves into opposing bands, the leader of each wears a sheep skin, while a member carries a sack. The bands move through the village from house to house reciting a Gaelic rhyme. On being invited inside, the leader walks clockwise around the fire, while everyone hits the skin with sticks. The boys would be given some bannocks - fruit buns - for their sack before moving on to the next house.

One of the most spectacular Fire ceremonies takes place in Stonehaven, just south of Aberdeen on the North East coast. Giant fireballs, weighing up to 20 pounds are lit and swung around on five feet long metal poles, requiring 60 men to carry them as they march up and down the High Street. The origin of the pre-Christian custom is believed to be linked to the Winter Solstice of late December with the fireballs signifying the power of the sun, to purify the world by consuming evil spirits.

And it is worth remembering that January 2nd is a holiday in Scotland as well as the first day of the year - to give us all time to recover from a week of merry-making and celebration, all part of Scotland's fascinating cultural legacy of ancient customs and traditions surrounding the pagan festival of Hogmanay.

All the best for 2012

info from; http://rampantscotland.com/

Think and drive - or else!

.

1/1/11 - In the Midnight Hour.........

Hullo ma wee blog,

Happy New Year!

I carefully carried two cups brimming with hot tea and a plate with a couple of mince pies through to the lounge. I'd been blogging for an hour or so, making up the last post of the year and scooting through a few entries from the blogs I follow. It was just the two of us here for Ne'erday as we had cancelled plans to go through to my brother on the west coast. I have a chest infection {again} which has left me with a racking cough which almost folds me double when it hits and the Lovely G is displaying some painful bruising from having fallen  from halfway down the stairs during a power cut the other morning as she tried to get ready for work in the dark. {She's perfectly OK though, nothing seriously damaged, but now she creaks and groans almost as much as I do trying to get out of her chair. Yes, I know. I should never be in her chair in the first place!}  So - at the moment we share two sets of seriously aching ribs. This led me to cancel the trip across country and that has left us here with only each other for company across 'The Bells'.

As I carefully put down the cups on the small table between our favourite seats she is just closing down her own laptop and smiles sweetly at me. This in itself can be both off-putting and suspicious. Don't ask me how, it just is, and at this precise moment my man-radar has just gone into inter-continental-ballistic-overdrive. You're fooling no-one with that ' all sweetness and light' routine no matter how big and shiny those baby blues are.
"What?" I ask, suspiciously, but gently and hopefully not so suspiciously that she goes all defensive on me.
She smiles again.
"Nothing..."
"Oh no, there's something going on. What is it?"
 No point trying to be subtle now, that's clearly not going to work. I may have to apply pressure so I prepare to go into full grumpy old man mode.
"No, nothing. I was just reading your blog."
A nice warm feeling engulfs me, part relief, part pride, part pleasure and a tiny frisson of guilt for being so suspicious. She has always been highly complimentary as far as 'Crivens, Jings' goes, - except for the post about the French Lingerie advert, but let's not go into that right now- so I prepare to glow in the light of my one and only's warm approval.
I smile back.
"Oh, what were you reading?"
"I was just catching up with the last one."
"And what did you think?"
"I was thinking that it's about right. You never do any of your New Year resolutions."
"Oh...... And?"
"No, nothing...... just seemed about right, that's all."

I sit down and reach for the tea and lift a mince pie in my other hand. I don't know what it is but the radar is still pinging away back here. There's definitely something else going on. I take a sip, then a bite as I try to work out what's happening without giving off signs that I'm on to her. It's important not to give the game away in situations like this. Never let on that you're on to them, that's the trick.
But she's still smiling. There's definitely something going on. She's not really looking at me. That's a sure sign, a dead giveaway. I'm onto you doll. I know there's something else here. What are you up to?......

"I've made my New Years resolutions."
She emphasises the 'my' part in the last sentence. I'm deep in thought. I still don't get it so I'm not really paying attention as I respond.
{According to my Lovely G this is a normal part of my behaviour. I never listen, I never pay attention and I never 'get it'.}
"Mmnnhh....."
"Oh yes. I've made my New Year resolutions. Unlike you I always do them don't I?"
I'm still not paying attention. What is she up to? What can it be? Could it be? No, probably not. What about?......
"Mmnnh.......yup....."

Distracted.
Still not listening.

In my mind my radar is doing that roving around like in the heads up display of a fighter cockpit as it searches relentlessly for it's target. That takes a lot of attention if your going to avoid an attack or less likely, get a diversionary attack of your own in first.

"D'you want to hear them?"
The radar locks on with high pitched warning tone.
Oops. Missed that one.
"Um.....Aye....of course."





"Your going to lose weight. You're going to take more exercise, get the garden sorted out, complete that list of DIY and be much less of a Grumpy Old Man in every sense of the word.............."

"And phone your Aunts and Uncles......"

Ah Bugger!!!!

Jings!
Crivens!
Help ma Boab!

See you later.

Listening to........my heart sink.

New Years Resolutions and Other Things of Great Magnitude.

Hullo ma wee blog,

Sitting at the kitchen table wondering what I was going to post as the final entry for 2010, I just showed this to the lovely G who shrugged and said "Yeah right! You think?" before walking off shaking her head and laughing quietly to herself, carefully cradling the cup of hot tea I had just made her.

Whatever can she mean?

DON'T all rush at once!

Normally I don't do New Years resolutions. More accurately, I don't do New Years resolutions. Like many people I've made enough of them in the past then singularly failed to deliver. You know - the usual kind of thing; Lose weight; take more exercise; really sort out the garden; do those outstanding bits of DIY I've been promising since Methusela was a boy; phone or visit my elderly relatives more often; Be less grumpy. The usual kind of stuff. Hardly earth shattering. And maybe that's the problem! Maybe because I can dismiss them as just a daft New Years resolution I can demean them, make them less worthy and make it less important if one or two or all of them fall by the wayside. After all, it's just a stupid New Years resolution isn't it?

So this year I'm going to use reverse psychology on myself. This year I'm not making a single New Years resolution. Not one. Therefore I remove from the situation my ability to dismiss them. I deny myself the need to review my progress. I refuse to list my failings at the end of the year. I will not feel guilty about them. I will be free to do or not do as I choose. I will release myself from the pressure of conforming.

No. Wait a minute. Isn't that a New Years resolution?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As the last few hours of today turn one year towards the next I don't have anything deep and meaningful to say, nothing clever or insightful has come my way over the last couple of hours. So, I'll just end by wishing you all a very happy and peaceful New Year.

And to you Scudder, my new old friend, I raise my glass.

Slainte!

Your very good health.

see you later.......

Listening to

White out/Black in........

Hullo ma wee blog,

After leaving the house last night we headed down to Dunbar to visit our friends J+M. M, who is a lorry driver, had an accident at work on Tuesday morning while he was taking delivery paperwork into a warehouse some 50 miles away and ended up breaking his ankle and his leg slipping and tumbling on an access path in the delivery yard which hadn't been properly cleared of ice after the holiday closure. Although he's in a lot of pain and plaster from toes to hip, at least he was within easy striking distance and I was able to take his wife and collect him on Wednesday as he was determined to get out of hospital and be home for New Year. {typical Scotsman!}

Often he is long haul and spends most of the week away so either it was fortunate his accident happened close by, or conversely unfortunate that he wasn't somewhere else altogether. He is probably going to have to have rods fitted to set the bones correctly but in typical NHS fashion, they are trying the cheaper 'set in plaster' option first to see if this will work. The hospital were unusually amenable to him leaving so soon, perhaps as he lives in another region and they did not want to have to pay for an operation which would normally be carried out in his home area. That's reality in modern UK medicine, I suppose.

As we left for our visit there was ice and remnants of snow aplenty frozen on stones and pebbles in the drive covered over with a recent light smattering of fresh snow. It was enough to make me think that perhaps I should be driving, {control freak} but not enough that I could face trying to prize the lovely G from the drivers seat of her new car as my heavier, diesel engined Toyota had been further up the drive at the side of the house. Leaving the end of the drive the village road was snow covered and obviously untreated but G confidently handled the car out of the village and onto the A1 in the direction of Dunbar. I relaxed as I saw that this, the main road to England and the south on this side of the country, had either been recently treated or had been previously salted and gritted so well that the recent snowfall had no real impact combined with the heavier traffic. The road was clear and obviously in decent order. Traffic too was mercifully light as we gently picked up speed for the 8 mile trip. Just over halfway, past the junction at Innerwick there is a slight incline where the road becomes dual carriageway and at this point snow began creeping across the outer lane. Just where this happened was perhaps the worst section of black ice I have ever come across, perhaps as moisture ran down the incline, but for the next mile the whole road was an invisible sheet of pure ice. Luckily it had been spotted and flashing hazard lights of some cars ahead alerted us to it in time and the lovely G handled it all beautifully, even when the merest touch on the brakes induced a slow motion skid. {I really should stop worrying}

By the time the black ice had petered out so had the effects of snow, even on the road verge, so arbitrary is snow on our immediate coastal regions here, and the road into Dunbar itself was again in good condition, letting us arrive at J + M hale and hearty.

It was good to see him a bit more relaxed - the last time I had seen him he was clearly in quite a bit of pain, no matter how carefully I was driving, as he laid his plastered leg out across the back seat of the car - and we spent some time catching up on the situation, what the local doctor had said and how his employer was dealing with things {a big concern to me after my experience this year} J and I had a wee drink to toast the New Year, G, never that much of a drinker and conditioned over twenty new years with me to be {only at this time of the year} in chauffeur mode, had coffee and we all laughed and ribbed M mercilessly that his master plan to escape hospital clutches and get back home so he could enjoy New Year celebrations had been scuppered by the local Doc prescribing painkillers completely non compatible with alcohol. { For a Scotsman at Ne'erday this is purgatory!}

In the middle of all this hilarity we were suddenly plunged completely into darkness by a power cut, left sitting in blackness so thick you could almost cut it with a knife. We giggled our surprise and over the next few moments of anticipation of a return to light came gradually to realise that perhaps candles would be a good thing. As we were sitting in the kitchen, the natural center of any house, these were quickly found and lit and an air of soft warmth began to glow in our faces around the table. A quick check of the local environment showed us that all was well with the neighbours and the old folks in the retirement block nearby.

Its amazing what effect a power cut immediately has on modern life; phones are off, Internet communication is na-poo, the ambient noise of radio or TV disappears and immediately, quietly, yet abruptly, life is slowed to a gentler, humbler, more reflective, more amicable and intimate pace, an older time almost. Time too, becomes more important, more tangibly real as its marked by the slow burning of the candle itself. Voices quieten, people are more still and a real closeness is brought into the situation, or at least that's how it seemed to me for that next quiet hour spent just chatting in that small circle of golden light of time past before the lovely G and I had to say goodbye and return carefully home, through the dark and its snowy, sleet cold reminder of nature, to a, partly thankfully and yet for me partially sadly, completely lit and functioning modern home and to dinner cooked in a timed oven and eaten in a centrally heated environment. Text communication, being free from the effects of a mundane and mere earthly power cut, kept us up to date with progress, or indeed it's lack, across the hours past midnight until modern civilisation was returned to Dunbar.

It made me think how fragile, and how taken for granted, modern life really is, and in some ways how we are, or find it easier so quickly to be, better people without it. I don't know what you would call it, the Dunkirk spirit, community spirit or whatever. Just that sudden wake up call that its all a facade and in reality what is important is not the technology, not the ease of modern life but the personality, the humanity that's in us all and all around us but remains often and easily ignored or worse, lost, in the frantic day to day reality of modern existence.

It seemed a timely reminder for the New Year to me anyway.

see you later........

Listening to Sinead O'Connor 'Sacrifice'

The Last Post 2009.........

Hullo ma wee blog,

My lovely G has today off and doesn't need to go back to work for 5 whole days. Having had a fairly busy Christmas we have elected to raise the drawbridge here in Robertson Towers and told the guards to set phasers to 'malky'* for the duration, set the mantraps in the grounds and I have deliberately not fed the crocs since September - just after I put the Christmas sprouts on - as apart from a few choice and probably unfortunate souls, we have decided to cut off from reality and self indulgently have the time to ourselves in secret, selfish, self indulgent self indulgence. Not tradition and not the way I was brought up {in a small village it was open doors for everyone all the way through to 3rd or 4th Jan} but 'Jings' I'm looking forward to it.

Nibbles will be nibbled, drinks will be drunk and thinks will be thunk. Baths and naps will be taken and walks may very well be walked. Cats will be stroked and fires will be poked. I may even be adventurous and blog a blog - who knows?

In many ways its been a bugger of a year and I'll be glad to see it scarper off over the horizon never to be seen again. Its been a testing time not just for me but for my lovely G and I want to try and show her how much I appreciate it by a bit of pampering, a bit of emphasis and a lot of sucking up.

The weather has put on its white coat once again and some of the snow has returned to garden and drive and with skies dark enough to show its intentions for the next day or so. Its the ideal cover to advertise a no travel policy to far away folks who always expect us to visit but rarely return the favour {maybe I should read something into that} and certainly never if there is a whiff of bad weather in prospect.

So we're going to coorie doon {snuggle down} for a day or two together. Supplies are in and the fire is lit. Falling snowflakes are counting down the last few hours to the turn of the year.

Let it snow Big Man, let it snow..........


Happy New year everybody, all the best for 2010. I wish you everything you would wish for yourselves.

see you later.........

Listening to the year ticking off........

*malky - An act or instrument of extreme violence.