Gone Shopping...

I overspent in Lush.

There's a surprise...  Still, I was given the inevitable goody bag, which was lovely.

I also visited Thorntons, for some Very Interesting Chocolate.  White chocolate with coconut & lime, I think it is, milk chocolate with fudge pieces, and dark chocolate (why, oh why, can't they call it PLAIN chocolate the way they used to???) with mint.

As for the DVD's of the month...  They didn't have Battlefield in stock in HMV, so I went for Survival instead, which is kind of what I'd been expecting.  I remember when it first came out, I used to have two black stable cats up where my horse was billeted.  They were dead ringers for 'kitlings'...  I also managed to pick up, very cheap, The Last Emperor, and Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Donald Sutherland version...)

This means that when I went home, I was able to chuck out five unwanted VHS videos.  Woo-hoo!  We have progress!!!  Not much, but a little...

I've learnt, too, that I can get Silver Nemesis on DVD, as part of a larger collection of cybermen-related episodes.  This annoys me.  I'm one of these really anal folk that wants to be able to look on the shelf and see my Dr Who episodes lined up in neat, serried ranks, arranged in chronological order.  How can I do that if Silver Nemesis has to be stabled elsewhere???

Last, and perhaps not least, I picked up Pink Floyd's Piper at the Gates of Dawn album for a measly three quid.  It was recommended to me by my former Ph.D supervisor years ago (I think he was drunk at the time!) and I quite like it.  So I introduced it to my husband, who's rather partial to a bit of Pink Floyd.

He was not impressed.  He described it as 'nursery hippy'.  Hmmm....

Ah, well.  At least I tried...

Gone Shopping...

I overspent in Lush.

There's a surprise...  Still, I was given the inevitable goody bag, which was lovely.

I also visited Thorntons, for some Very Interesting Chocolate.  White chocolate with coconut & lime, I think it is, milk chocolate with fudge pieces, and dark chocolate (why, oh why, can't they call it PLAIN chocolate the way they used to???) with mint.

As for the DVD's of the month...  They didn't have Battlefield in stock in HMV, so I went for Survival instead, which is kind of what I'd been expecting.  I remember when it first came out, I used to have two black stable cats up where my horse was billeted.  They were dead ringers for 'kitlings'...  I also managed to pick up, very cheap, The Last Emperor, and Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Donald Sutherland version...)

This means that when I went home, I was able to chuck out five unwanted VHS videos.  Woo-hoo!  We have progress!!!  Not much, but a little...

I've learnt, too, that I can get Silver Nemesis on DVD, as part of a larger collection of cybermen-related episodes.  This annoys me.  I'm one of these really anal folk that wants to be able to look on the shelf and see my Dr Who episodes lined up in neat, serried ranks, arranged in chronological order.  How can I do that if Silver Nemesis has to be stabled elsewhere???

Last, and perhaps not least, I picked up Pink Floyd's Piper at the Gates of Dawn album for a measly three quid.  It was recommended to me by my former Ph.D supervisor years ago (I think he was drunk at the time!) and I quite like it.  So I introduced it to my husband, who's rather partial to a bit of Pink Floyd.

He was not impressed.  He described it as 'nursery hippy'.  Hmmm....

Ah, well.  At least I tried...

Back to Crete...

It's another dingy day in the West of Scotland, and autumn is very nearly upon us.  The bushes are covered with dew-spangled gossamer in the early morning, and everything's having a last flush of growth before the cold weather moves in.

To hold back the winter a little longer, I'll return to Crete.  This is another one of these monastic sites where the name escapes me - it was located towards the east of the island, and though it must remain sadly anonymous, it's well worth highlighting.

It's quite late in date, by the looks of things.  Postdating the Venetian occupation, maybe sixteenth century, perhaps with later modifications, judging by the elegant quoins and Classical touches around the gateways.  Although it's a monastery, it's been well fortified, in its attempts to hold back the Turks.  Here's the entrance:-

 

And inside the courtyard, you find yourself confronting a structure more reminiscent of a tower-house than an ecclesiastical site (though Scots abbots and commendators also often had a tower-house or similar built in to their monastic sites).  There's a machicholation above the front door to help deter would-be attackers, and little tiny windows:-

 

After a week of encountering alien architecture on Crete, this was the first place I'd visited where I felt I was in the presence of something familiar and comprehensible, though in a way it was rather strange.  You don't get this kind of setting in Scotland!

 

And the inner courtyard was extremely lovely:-

 

I like the tree growing out of the pithos...

The place is still in use as a monastery today, but the monks understandably made themselves scarce while the tourists were around.  Once again,  I couldn't bring you any images of the frescoes, but they were impressive.  And there were a few additional little chapel buildings littered around the place;-

 

Oh, and a windmill...

 

So, if you ever find yourselves in Crete, head eastwards, and see if you can find it.  If I remember right, it was almost at the end of the island... 

It is well worth a visit.

Back to Crete...

It's another dingy day in the West of Scotland, and autumn is very nearly upon us.  The bushes are covered with dew-spangled gossamer in the early morning, and everything's having a last flush of growth before the cold weather moves in.

To hold back the winter a little longer, I'll return to Crete.  This is another one of these monastic sites where the name escapes me - it was located towards the east of the island, and though it must remain sadly anonymous, it's well worth highlighting.

It's quite late in date, by the looks of things.  Postdating the Venetian occupation, maybe sixteenth century, perhaps with later modifications, judging by the elegant quoins and Classical touches around the gateways.  Although it's a monastery, it's been well fortified, in its attempts to hold back the Turks.  Here's the entrance:-

 

And inside the courtyard, you find yourself confronting a structure more reminiscent of a tower-house than an ecclesiastical site (though Scots abbots and commendators also often had a tower-house or similar built in to their monastic sites).  There's a machicholation above the front door to help deter would-be attackers, and little tiny windows:-

 

After a week of encountering alien architecture on Crete, this was the first place I'd visited where I felt I was in the presence of something familiar and comprehensible, though in a way it was rather strange.  You don't get this kind of setting in Scotland!

 

And the inner courtyard was extremely lovely:-

 

I like the tree growing out of the pithos...

The place is still in use as a monastery today, but the monks understandably made themselves scarce while the tourists were around.  Once again,  I couldn't bring you any images of the frescoes, but they were impressive.  And there were a few additional little chapel buildings littered around the place;-

 

Oh, and a windmill...

 

So, if you ever find yourselves in Crete, head eastwards, and see if you can find it.  If I remember right, it was almost at the end of the island... 

It is well worth a visit.