Many years ago, In the dinner hall at my high school, I remember posters that recommended you eat cheese after a meal if you couldn’t brush your teeth. It neutralised the acids in your mouth it said.
I know that it meant hard cheeses like Cheddar, but in my mind this is what I always imagined that it meant.
Brush your teeth with cheese!
Mum’s name has now been added to the gravestone, along with an introduction, “In loving memory of…”
We also added some context to the years, although without the ’19…’ I doubt that people would have thought that Dad was a time-traveller born in 1845 who married a woman in the following century, but it immediately clarifies things.
I like the Scottish tradition of using the wife’s maiden name.
In a way, it feels good to see them together again after so many years without Dad.
Rest in peace, Mum and Dad x
Yesterday, my Windows 10 lock screen started to show this image of musk oxen, native to the Arctic.
Because they look a bit like bison, it reminded me of when I was younger, getting ready for school and saying bye to my dad as he left the house for his 20-minute walk to Exacta Circuits in Selkirk.
Every morning, when he put on his coat, I’d step out of my bedroom, which was next to the front door, and as he opened the front door to leave I would say, “Buffalo!”
And Dad would turn to me and reply, with a big grin, “Bison!”
In related news, did you know that “Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo” is a perfectly valid sentence in English?
It means, “Buffalo bison that other Buffalo bison bully also bully Buffalo bison.”
What music, no matter when you play it or whatever mood you are in, always transports you back to a happy time or happy moment in your life?
Continue reading What music reminds you of a happy time?
A couple of days ago I noticed that the stitching on Reuben’s shoe was coming apart. My response to this came from two places.
First, I was brought up with the attitude that we should always try to mend something first, rather than simply throwing it away. After all, there really is no ‘away’—it’s just over there, somewhere.
Second, I was brought up in Selkirk which was historically famous for its shoe makers, or in Scots: souters.
So I got my needle and thread out and re-stitched Reuben’s shoe.