We have now been living here for nine days, in which time the following things have occurred:

• Frolicking through the snow;
• Jetlag recovery as aided by copious amounts of Top Gear;
• The purchase of twelve novels from various bookshops;
• Friendly drinks at several pubs;
• Eating pheasant;
• My catching a week-long cold;
• Toby wearing plastic bags over his socks because his shoes leaked;
• Befriending an astrophysicist;
• Several successful dinner experiments;
• Completely forgetting how the coin-operated washer/dryer system works, twice;
• Yelling at the stove because the dials turn the wrong way, so that I keep setting them on low instead of high;
• My old laptop catching a virus and dying in the arse;
• The purchase of a shiny new laptop, on which I am now writing this blog post;
• The inexplicable loss of my favourite smooshy purple knitted hat;
• The discovery of a cafe that serves hot chocolate with marshmallows, whipped cream AND  a chocolate flake;
• One aborted trip to the movies, being as how it was too cold and we were knackered;
• One sighting of a genuine Scottish gentleman wearing a genuine Scottish kilt;
• The discovery that there is, lurking about somewhere, a town cat called Hamish; and
• The acquisition of a very strange bird-puppet, which I have named Archie the Arche Mascot.

So, as you can see, it’s been a pretty packed program – even so, I apologise for the lengthy radio silence. Doubtless I’ll have more to say (and the strength/will to say it more coherently) at some later date, but in the mean time, here is a photo of Archie, who was given to me by a nice lady at one of the town’s ten charity shops.

Cheerful little fellow, isn’t he?