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I don't often start a blog posting without a title, but I haven't yet put a label on this one. I'm not quite sure what the over-arching theme is. Maybe it is just going to be a series of unconnected, semi-random ramblings. Then I have to pick one over all the others to be important enough to warrant the title, and that's entirely too much pressure to put on my shoulders after a long hard day at work.

The weekend did not start out right. I spent Friday afternoon working myself into a tizzy about crabcakes. I could all but taste them by the time I left work. All I had to do was stop by Sainsbury's and pick up a couple of ingredients. Limes and peppers, no problem, even in the dead of winter in northeast Scotland. Crab, in seaside Aberdeen, somehow, was a little too much to ask on the other hand.

Extremely annoying, considering the mental build-up, but I managed to pull it together and come up with a back-up plan. I bought some blue cheese and mince and decided I would BBQ some gourmet burgers. They looked good, but unfortunately tasted like they had been made weeks before.

Things did start looking up after dinner, though. That movie I had been hoping for earlier in the week showed up in the form of "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum". The campy zaniness proved to be the perfect medicine for the bad blue cheese burger blues. They really, really don't make movies like that anymore.

Saturday we got in the car and went down to Kirkton of Oyne to visit an arts and crafts market and have a milkshake. Perhaps not in that order. The adjoining restaurant serves genuine American style milkshakes - thick and creamy. The kind that make you pop a sinus as you try and pull it up a bendy straw. They also provoke good conversation, like exactly how far would you drive for a good milkshake? Answer: more than 45 minutes but less than an hour. The arts shop had a great assortment of stuff, we ended up buying some ceramic wall art. Actually Fiona bought it for me as part of an anniversary gift. March 18 will mark the 10 year anniversary of the day we met.

Fiona's present was a Kindle e-book reader. Since she goes through books like a house on fire, it makes sense to save some trees and invest in a new gadget. She'll let you know her review of how well it works when it comes in next week.

We just got back from an evening out at His Majesty's Theatre to see the ballet Giselle. It was put on by the Russian State Ballet of Siberia. The long, cold winters must leave them with lots of time to practice because the performance was flawless. Not a particularly strong ballet for male characters, too much walking around and miming, but the female lead had lots of opportunity to show off. We would definitely like to see the whole troupe back in something where the choreography is a little more lively for everyone. Ice cream at intermission was terrific as usual.