Author: boomingbanter

Fortified with more haggis in our Full Scottish Breakfast we took the high road out of Perth.

Our destination Balmoral and specifically the little Crathie Kirk. We wanted to attend the church where the Royal Family worship.

We were warmly received and joined the small congregation. To our delight the Queen was there. She’d arrived yesterday at Balmoral a bit earlier than the rest of the Royal Family for their annual vacation.

It was such a lovely service with great music and message. We sang my Mums favorite hymn and also, with gusto, The National Anthem God Save The Queen.

Afterward we were able to say a word of appreciation to the violin player Mr P Anderson for the beautiful three pieces he had played! He told us he is a great lover of Northern Ireland and often plays there too.

 

After visiting a few Balmoral sites including the resting place of Queen Victoria’s special friend gillie John Brown and picking a few wild raspberries we headed off again across the mountains to Inverness.

As we went through whiskey country we thought of Dad and missed him. We saw the bonny purple heather and to Aaron’s  delight we met his much sought after highland cattle. Now we are in Inverness taking in the beauty of the town on the river  and looking forward to another day of surprises and joy.

Blessing # 413 – Days to Remember

 

There is some continuity with yesterday’s GGs. HH is a measure of a horses height! No need to dwell on that though. They are BIG and we have more important HHs to talk about.

HH is an abbreviation for something very small but so important; the measure of hemoglobin and hematocrit that tells if all is A-OK with your tiny red blood cells.

Sad to say that for a quarter of the worlds population this is not the case and they are anaemic. Many of these 1.7 BILLION people are children under five.

Anaemia is often the result of a dietary deficiency of iron and or certain vitamins. This is generally associated with a poor diet brought about by poverty.

It means low attention spans, fatigue and lethargy. In child bearing women it also means risk of prematurity and low birthweight. So children born in poverty, deficient in essential nutrients, will have multiple hurdles to jump to lift them out of this viscous cycle.

Bodies like the World Health Organisation, the Gates Foundation and the Elders are doing such admirable work driving fortification strategies to reduce and hopefully one day eliminate this huge health and social problem.

HH the Pope is also playing a major role here. He has been very vocal on the absolute responsibility we have to address poverty. Who could disagree with his position that Hunger must have no present and no future only a past

The HH though that has and will likely continue to have the greatest impact on global change is the Hand Held. That little device that is so accessible and offers so much to so many.

As this screen shot of my HH shows it provides education, maths, music, health, literature, alternative to pen and paper, entertainment and community. This little thing has got it so much to offer so many.

It’s opening door of opportunity and without doubt will play a critical role in driving forward so many of the millennium goals.

Blessing # 400 – Elements of Hope

So many of you found good solutions for FF. Anne was the most prolific with suggestions so is officially the WINNER! Not sure what she’ll get but it will be unbelievable!!!!!

GG was so easy compared to FF.

First up the GG that stares every girl in the eye in her dreams. The ever elegant always chique and timeless Gucci bag.

The poker players among you will be familiar with GG as the way to sum up and close a Good Game.

Girls with names starting with G may well have been nicknamed GiGi just like one of today’s social media icons.

Some of us will remember the movie of the same name that won an Oscar and that starred the beautiful Lesley Caron.

The GG though that means most for me is horse racing. It’s not that I’ve any love for the sport myself but my Dad absolutely lived for it. He studied the form, was very knowledgeable about the sport and always dreamed of going to the big races. The Classics as he called them!

He made it once to Epsom and to the Curragh a few times. Secretly though he wanted to go to the Kentucky Derby. If only he’d been around today he would not believe that we are only three hours drive away.

No doubt he’s met his hero Lester Piggott in heaven by now and maybe his adored Nijinsky too! Or even the immortal Sceptre who was really a GREAT GIRL!

Blessing # 396 – Fine Fillies

Well FF beat me as the only thing I could think of was swearing and you can’t banter about that to a broad audience can you?

Did you think of anything?

After a google to find what’s out there the conclusion was it seems fairly limited.

There will be a huge reward for anyone who comes up with something good!

For the medics among you there is Forced Fluids. That’s even worse than swearing. Takes you back to days of suffragettes.

For the online game players like a certain resident of this house there is a popular game called Final Fantasy but it can’t be that good because game boy himself has never heard of it.

On the social media platform Twitter # FF means follow Friday which allows you to recommend a notable feed of the past week.

FF also means Fast Forward for the DVD watchers among us and for the reader a starting point followed by a reference with unspecified end!

Blessing # 395 – FF to No End

 

As an abbreviation the only thing that rung a bell for me was Electrical Engineer. Admirable people but a profession that’s not my cup of tea. Can you think of something else?

In our household we are very familiar with EE shoe fittings as both Krishna and Aaron have very broad feet.

We spend inordinate amounts of time looking for EEs or even EEEs. Many shoes have been bought that last just one or two outings because while they seemed OK in the store they pinch on an outing.

If your from Scotland EE might be your way of saying eye.

If your from Yorkshire it’s an alternative to a swear and commonly used by the famous Yorkshire lass Miss Gracy Fields.

First thing that crossed my mind though was the adorable Eeyore. He is the hero of Aaron’s girlfriend and such a wise critter. In spite of his droppy look he is bright and colorful. Who doesn’t love Eeyore!

Blessing # 394 – Wide Eyed Wisdom

Well it could be that you are a doctor of divinity so DD would be so obvious for you. Don’t think I know any of those unless you haven’t confessed to it!

Maybe you have a darling daughter or two in which case DD would be text speak when you make reference to her.

The young or young at heart among you who go out partying may well be in need of a DD. Or if like Aaron you are an 18 year old living in the USA who cannot have a beer until you’re  21 you’re automatically the DD designated driver for your parents! At last!!!

Most ladies will have thought of a bra cup size! Some will have it yet wish for something smaller. Others like me will only ever have dreamed of it!

Majority of you though will have smelt the coffee and dunked the donut. The colorful, unpretentious and enduring morning place for a good cup of Joe and a simple sweet wins the day and hits the right spot with sprinkles and sparkles!

Blessing # 393 – Divine Delights

Most everyone young or old will be familiar with cc as it’s on every email we send and man do we send plenty of those!

Some will know this stands for Carbon Copy but many out there will never have seen a typed let alone a handwritten carbon copy. Alas I fall into the age group that is familiar with both.

Other  things that came to mind with CC was cubic cylinders. This has something to do with engine capacity and that is all I wish to know about that not being inclined to dive deep into physics, mechanics or engineering.

The term was extremely important to me though in my formative years as I pursued young men with motor bikes. My first boyfriend who owned a motorbike had a Honda 75CC  it was a bit like a glorified hairdryer. When I got on the back it went about thirty miles an hour.

Soon I graduated to a boy who had a CZ100 it wasn’t the most desirable of modes of transport so he was replaced by a guy with a Honda 125. We stuck together for quite a while and he progressed to a Honda 400 Four. Now that was a sweet machine!

The thing though that CC means most for me is a soft drink company local to Northern Ireland. One C is for Canterell and the other for Cochrane and they make the worlds greatest orange soda simply called Club Orange.

C&C has a great advert in the 1970s showing a kid sitting under a tree guzzling a drink. The punch line of which was I’m Glad I’m Down Here With A Big Bottle. I sure could handle one of those right now. Just a few weeks and we’ll be popping one!

Blessing # 392 – Copies in Time

The first thing that came to mind for II was Intel Inside. The story of Intel is legendary. It’s the heart of information technology. The first commercial microprocessor and the timing and alignment of its launch with the growth in personal computing was a stroke of genius.

Intel stands for INTigrated ELectronics a perfect fit for what the product delivers. However when the founders tried to trade mark the name they found it was already owned by a hotel chain. So convinced where they that the name was a perfect match with their vision that they ended up buying the trade mark.

II of course is widely used as a suffix for Kings and Queens and your more run of the mill aspiring empire builder.

When thinking of a SECOND many will think of our current Queen Elizabeth. The one though that always pops into my mind is Charles II. Not sure why this is because he is not a particularly favorite.

Maybe because he was the come back King! Maybe it’s all down to Nell or maybe just his hairdo!

Do you have a favorite second?

Blessing # 401 – II Chances

The alphabet was a good challenge.

Thanks to yesterday’s AAA an idea came to give the second run through a twist and look for common use of  letters as brands or abbreviations.

This will for sure give the old neurons a very good workout.

Maybe you can join in by thinking of what other possibilities are out there and what came to your mind first for each letter.

For B the first thing I thought of of course was BB in the context of the global mega brand and social media empire Booming Blessings!

That’s a big fib! What came to mind was the ever helpful BB cream.

You guys out there may be scratching your head asking what it is. Ask the ladies near you and they will attest to this being a minor miracle.

It is a moisturizer that combines sun screen and foundation color. The cream is light and general smells divine and the abbreviation stands for what else but Beauty Balm.

Now the guys reading this may have thought of BB Guns those nasty little things that every twelve year old dreams of.

For  some in the UK BB will forever stand for the beloved Boys Brigade.

Young lovers may have hit on the urban dictionary definition of BB as text speak for bébé / baby.

Old lovers may have drifted back to the dance halls and the music of BB King.

Whatever you stumbled on remember one thing……… don’t worry BB happy!

Blessing #391 – Play on Words

Yesterday Aaron was on breakfast shift so he left home at 4:30. Twenty minutes later he called to say that just as he arrived at work smoke puffed out of his car engine and the steering went out. He just managed to get it into the parking lot.

Imagine if it had happened on the winding country road he takes to work in the pitch dark!

He could have been in a bad accident. Fortunately all we had to deal with was a broken down car!

He was even able to do his shift!

While he was working I called around but since it was Sunday all the repair shops including our usual trusted MIDAS was closed so we decided to leave the car at work and hold off on calling the AAA till Monday morning.

Ironically I’d  booked in for a regular service at MIDAS at eight this morning so went there first. They were fully booked today but said to get AAA to bring the car to them and they’d do their best to find out what is wrong with it.

Once my cars service was done we called AAA who were great. First they made sure we were safe and in no immediate danger. They then took our details and said they’d call us when the pick up truck was dispatched and once again when it was within a few minutes of the breakdown.

Aaron and I set off for the hotel and when we got there he introduced me to a lot of his colleagues. They are a very diverse group of people but one thing they have in common is that they all seem fond of Aaron.

Still with a time to kill we decided to do a little shopping at Aaron’s favorite Dollar Tree which is just beside the hotel. I must say that this was eye opening there are so many deals at this store. So we ended up getting quite a haul of goodies!

We probably would have bought a car full of things but we got our call from AAA the pick truck was five minutes away. The mechanic without more than two words got about his work and hooked the car Up. We explained we wanted to take it to our local MIDAS ten miles away. No issues or questions he followed us there.

That is where it remains. We fear the worst. The car is thirteen years old and we’ve resuscitated it twice already. All we can do now is hope the MIDAS touch works once again and that 13 will be lucky not just for some but for AA himself!

Blessing #390 – Time Out Together