I'm still finding my way around the new toy. Nice autumn weather here and some outings for me, the most notable being a trip to g'son's school for a day of talks put on by the Scottish Opera, a sort of show-and-tell about the staging of the Barber of Seville which was in Inverness last week. The highlight of this event was the 'cover' (opera term for understudy I learned) who came in to sing an aria from the BofS. A large girl with poor dress sense was what my friend and I muttered when we first saw her - but that was before she started to sing. Wow! It wasn't a large room and she nearly shot us all out of the windows. I love volume! She was also jolly, with the loudest laugh I have ever heard. Her encore piece was from Wagner - 'Wagner lite' she called it, not Valkyrie stuff, but still lightbulb-smashing stuff. Not a soprano luckily so not nerve shattering; mezzo soprano I suppose. I'm not a fan of opera, just went along because it was really good value with lunch included in the refectory where Sandy eats twice daily. The food was excellent, with lots of choice so his grandfather was pleased to know he's getting value for the school fees. We didn't see him because he was doing a seamanship course, sailing in cutters at Buckie.

Then on Friday the ex and his wife gave a party for the tenth anniversary of their arrival in Scotland and the beginning of his retirement. They rarely give parties which is just as well for me because I feel bit ill-at-ease - not sure of my role or position there. As it happens most people they know I know anyway and some were actually my friends before they were theirs. Still it felt weird and I've had a couple of nights-worth of nightmares with the past coming up to haunt.... Everyone says I do so well when in fact there is no choice. I'm very fond of my ex and for that, if for nothing else, I have to make it work, but there are also the children, grown but still our children and wanting to see us getting on. The demon mind with its cohorts of emotions just make everything more fraught than it should be.Yesterday a friend took me to seafood restaurant up the coast that I hadn't been to before. Very nice Cullen Skink - not too salty for once. Fireworks last night in the local park which I heard but didn't see. Daughter and g'son were shaking buckets collecting for next year's display. Today - well, I might just stay in my nightdress.