Numbers Game

What I've been thinking about this week:

1. Rocks
2. Paper
3. Scissors

Usually by October, things have quietened down on the farm and Ivie and I get to have more meals at the same time in the same place. We get into our autumn routine, eating breakfast together, stopping work for lunch and having tea at tea time. Obsessed with food, us? 

Ivie and I have been like ships that pass in the night this week, though. He's been doing a job along the road that involves shifting 10,000 tonnes of rock from one part of a farm to another. And I had a rare 5 day working week (yes, I'm a part-timer; no, I'm not ashamed). 

10,000 is a big number. I had it in my head that he'd said 10 tonnes but, on reflection, that doesn't make sense when bulls can weigh a tonne or more each. Although I'm pretty good with numbers, I'm not very good at picturing them out in the real world. 

Put together a three year budget for a charity? Easy peasy.

Visualise an acre, tonne or even a metre? Not a chance. 

How heavy are these? No idea. 

Anyway, my extra day of work wasn't exactly onerous. It involved a trip to Glasgow to take part in an art workshop for one of my work projects. I got to make part of a paper chain, take a line for a walk on a piece of paper and sit on the floor cutting words and phrases out of magazines. To be fair, getting back off the floor was the most onerous part. 

Thinking about it, though, I'm not sure that would have been Ivie's comfort zone. 

Drive a massive tractor and trailer along single track roads? No bother. 

Work on a giant collage with a group of strangers? No thank you. 

Doodle Priceless artwork

We have different skills and that's one of the things that makes us such a good team, along with laughing at each other's stupid jokes and being pretty laid back about the state of the house. 

Friday evening was the longest we'd spent together all week (naturally, spent shouting at a rugby match on TV). It made a change from Ivie rushing out the door as I got back from walking the dog in the morning and arriving home just after I'd walked the dog in the evening. Now I come to think of it, maybe it was 10 tonnes and he's just been hiding out in a layby till it's time to come home...

We could be heroes

What I've been thinking about:

• The Scunner Campbell
• Scotland Rugby Fans

I know you'll find it hard to believe (because we're so young) but Ivie and I have a Great Nephew (as well as a great nephew, of course). Since he could sit on a lap and 'steer' he's taken great joy in anything with wheels. Luckily for him Great Uncle Ivie drives a tractor and last time he came to The Spittal he had a seat in the cab of a New Holland. I have it on good authority that when he's not visiting he talks about tractors non-stop and considers Ivie his hero. 

This got me thinking about heroes and their many guises. For Scots my age, there is only one superhero. 

Is there nothing that she cannae do? 

Some Scots (including Ivie) are hoping that Jamie Ritchie and the rest of the Scotland Rugby Squad will prove to be heroes tomorrow night. I admire their optimism. The thing is, it's not the team that are the real heroes. It's the poor bloody buggering fans that have spent a lifetime travelling near and far to have their hopes dashed time and time again. 

Ivie, Neil and Scrawn, Nice, 2023

Ivie is very proud of the fact that he's been to every Rugby World Cup since 1991. That's thousands of air miles, gallons of beer and lifelong friends made all over the world. I tend to take a less committed approach to it all, accompanying Ivie to World Cup destinations and sampling the other delights on offer. 

12-storey stationery store, Tokyo, 2019

Tarte au citron, Trevoux, 2023

I'd like to think that this time tomorrow, we'll be celebrating an historic win and Scotland's progress to the quarter finals. If not, we'll lick our wounds (again) and start making plans for Oz in 2027. Perhaps being a rugby fan isn't so bad after all.