Not going out

A day that didn't quite turn out as planned, but ended up in the right place anyway.

The plan was to complete typing up the document I had to get finished today (as it was needed for Sunday and I was spending Saturday in Lancaster), pass it to the person that needed it and then spend the afternoon in either Stirling or Glasgow doing Christmas shopping.

That plan fell by the wayside when one of my friends turned up unexpectedly at my door midway through Friday morning. She had recently acquired a new tablet computer and needed help setting up email, downloading apps, syncing it with her Kindle and other associated IT-related requests. (My friend is not the most computer-literate person around.) So, over coffee, I did my best to get her online and set up with the apps she wanted.

One request led to another: "Oh, by the way, while you're at it, could you also show me how to...?" and so on. She was only around for somewhere between an hour and an hour-and-a-half, and it was good to catch up with our other news while she was here, but it knocked my plans sideways, especially as I had still to print out the document I had been working on.

But I got that done after she'd left and took it down to Cumbernauld, realising by then that neither Stirling or Glasgow or Christmas shopping were going to happen. Instead, I drove up to Palacerigg Country Park and took a walk around in the hour or so before it got dark.

Most of the animals had more sense than to stand out in the snow. The waterfowl stepped as gracefully as possible over the frozen parts of the pond and swam more gracefully in the melted parts, while others preened their winter plumage on the banks, blending in with their white surroundings.

A warm cup of mocha in the cafeteria and back home. Christmas shopping can wait another day.