December 6th

This has been a peaceful day, with a visit to the shops and the barber for Bill who was looking more and more like a hairy mammoth, lunch with a friend of Mary Carolyn, and a walk to explore the area.  After having spent two and a half days in Virginia now, we feel well qualified to pontificate about the state.  Until now, my previous experience of the US was a brief trip to New York State, and within that to Cornell University.  I flew in to Philadelphia in one of those air journeys from hell, where I had been delayed, delayed again and lost all my luggage.  Everyone I met seemed to be unhelpful, aggressive and unpleasant.  I left wondering how the US got a reputation for good service.  But I have now found out.  The people here are soft spoken, gentle, helpful and pleasant, be this in shops, in traffic or even people you bang into in the street.  They greet you warmly ‘Hallo – how are you?’ as you brush past them .  ‘Can I help you?’ when I sneezed loudly in a car park.  ‘I’m so sorry to keep you waiting’ said the shop assistant to the customer behind me as I was being served in a big, glittery department store, and the customer replied ‘Don’t you worry –you  just take your time’.  Not what you generally experience while Christmas shopping in Sauchiehall Street.  They speak quite slowly and quietly, and smile at you with such sincerity that you feel you’ve known them for ages.  And when they say ‘You all have a nice evening then’ you feel they really mean it.  Mary Carolyn tells me that this is because this is Virginia, and it is one of the Southern States, and that’s ‘just how folks are here’.  New York State, she tells me is ‘different’.  The barber who cut Bill’s hair and beard told him he had been born here, and didn’t have any desire to leave.  ‘Charlottesville kinda gets hold of you’ he said, and you could believe how this might be true.

MC's flat is top one

The scheme in which Mary Carolyn’s flat is to be found is comprised of cream clapboard buildings, with large trees in every possible space.  Her flat, which is very comfortable, is what we might call a ‘cottage flat’ at home, although it has no garden.  The outside door leads straight onto stairs, and these emerge right into a large living room, off which all the other rooms open, as well as a balcony accessed through a patio door.  No hall as we would expect at home.  I wonder why our architects are so fixed on the idea of halls – they are in some ways a waste of space.

This afternoon, Bill and I bravely went out a walk on our own, and succeeded in not getting lost.  We walked along the side of the highway, while large boxy yellow school buses and immense square-nosed lorries roared past.  Fascinated by the row of little coloured boxes from which locals can buy newspapers and other such things.   Ended up in a shopping mall which succeeded in sucking money out of our pockets most effectively, but pleasantly, and had a couple of lovely smoothies before returning to the house for a lazy evening.  





Darth demonstrates an icicle light sabre


However, news from across the pond was concerning. Heavy snow has caused poor old Glasgow to grind to a chaotic halt.  Douglas was forced to walk one and a half hours through the snow to get home, then had to borrow a 4*4 to get Ben home from nursery, meanwhile Dawn was catering for a selection of kids whose parents were stranded elsewhere; Calum had to struggle back to Rutherglen; Ryall was unable to get to school at all and was compelled to decorate the Christmas tree instead – what a sacrifice!   

But everyone seems to be pulling together again, and all are safe and warm and no doubt asleep in bed now.