I'm not sure how successful this post will be. The children are having a mid-morning bath due to the swimming pool being closed for a gala (the swim would have produced the triple result of getting them clean, being fun and burning up some energy) but it sounds as if some sort of naval battle is going on, judging from Daughter's dramatic cries of woe. So at any moment I may have to vanish to arbitrate.
We're in Aberdeen. We were meant to be in Aviemore, camping by Loch Morlech, but the forecast was for rain and whilst apparently there was only light rain over there yesterday evening, if further east is anything to judge by, that will have increased. As tomorrow is meant to be a sunny respite between days of rain, we're going to Aviemore tomorrow instead. My camping trips with MY Family (i.e. Husband, Daughter and Son) have so far consisted of mud and midges, and I'm not keen to repeat either experience: so Husband has had the sense, and perhaps the empathy, not to suggest that we camp in the rain.
The lovely thing about being in Aberdeen, at my Outlaws, is that we have a fantastically lazy time. This morning I finished reading The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery. It was one of those Waterstone's temptations: 'you've spent over £10, would you like to buy this half price?' which I succumbed to, but having initially thought it was perhaps a little pretentious, passing through 'well, it's French and therefore philosophical/psychological' I ended up really enjoying it: and being very sad at the end.
(nb. this review was published on my birthday, but also describes the book rather well): http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/sep/14/fiction3
The difficulty is what to read next. I left Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow at home: I've read it several times before but not for several years, and knew there would be books to choose from up here. Do I read a biography of Eleanor of Acquitaine, which again I have read previously but before I realised that she was 44 or 45 when she had her last child - and 82 when she died! - or another novel? I opted not to read the biography of Eleanor of A. again as I want specifically to carry out some wider research, if possible, into some of the Plantagenet Queens of England: their family and medical histories, and whether they came from long-lived lines, which I think may be of relevance.
The Elegance of the Hedgehog made me wonder if I've had too much time to think recently. It's good to be able to think and philosophise, but at the same time there is aways the danger of becoming too introspective. It struck me especially in relation to this pregnancy that I'm hyper-concious of what my body is doing and how I feel: far more so than if I had to go to work every day and concentrate on something other than me. My tiredness is not my imagination however, nor is the nausea. But part of me wants to pull myself together and make myself go for a long run, or a swim. But with the pool closed that will of course have to wait for another day - what a good excuse! I shall go to have a bath instead.
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