Tuesday, June 26, 2018


Still no Parking Permit. Helen has taken the car away to a place where you don’t have to pay to park. A housing estate somewhere. Will it survive? 

Your advice is excellent, Chloe: but there is no paperwork. If they sent me a reminder, I never saw it. I renewed (and paid) on-line on the 17th. I cannot find a telephone number on the website. I sent an email expressing agitation and distress yesterday, and another today. I won’t tell them I’m going away.

Today I had an Italian lesson, and a hair cut. The new hairdresser is about ½ mile away (my former one has retired) and I walked both ways. It nearly did for me. I think I am weaker than I was in January in Palermo.

Tomorrow I must resume list-making – starting with paying the three parking tickets I have accumulated.

The skirt arrived from Toast, but not the yarn from Jamieson & Smith. Lerwick is a long way away, even from Edinburgh. So this evening I resumed knitting Archie’s socks – not a bad idea, anyway, to get a renewed grip on what will be my cruise knitting. (With a 60th birthday pair for Rachel to follow, if I finish Archie’s.)

The Green Bean Relish is quiet. I am far enough along in fermentation not to worry about that, although I am looking forward to making another fermented gardiniera. That one is a fairly lively ferment, but involves a lot of preliminary chopping.

The Majestic Line (who operate the cruise) rang up this afternoon to see how I was getting on. That was thoughtful of them. There was an article about them in the Sunday Times day before yesterday – not as good as the article in the Financial Times which started me off on this two or three years ago, but very laudatory.

The journalist said that her fellow-passengers ranged in age from 30 to 70, and went for two-hour walks in the rain. That would make me 15 years older than the oldest, and quite unable to keep up. I am hoping for gentler walks for old ladies – if only from the pier to the internet café. The FT article mentioned a retired High Court judge in her nineties.

5 comments:

  1. Re Parking permits. They seem to be based at a library hub with the phone number 0131 529 5244. It's a worry that you don't need.

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  2. How heartening to get a call from The Majestic Line - it sounds like you will be well-looked after.

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  3. Thinking of you as you get ready for your trip. I am more than envious.

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  4. I'm sure they will take care of you on the cruise, and offer a range of activities to suit. You can't be the only person with walking restrictions that they've had along.

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  5. Anonymous2:56 PM

    What is going on in this world that you cannot even get your parking permit in a timely manner? Sorry you are forced to be persistent in acquiring that permit, but once acquired, hopefully you will be able to go on with your life! You have so much fun ahead of you, Jean! Chloe

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