under another sun

A dreich day, rainy and grey. Met Sam in the Cafe 33, where we were told it was going to get colder next week. I had a full breakfast, which included black pudding, and Lorraine and I talking about a diet of lettuce when we get home. Sam caught the train with us to Stirling, and after sad farewells had left in search of an airbed. In the cafe I was able to get through to Mum, who sounded bright and said she was on the mend, and hoping to go home in the next day or so and was now able to eat and drink and was on her third bag of water. She had had pancreatitis after the recent biopsy and had been unable to eat or drink and had been in a lot of pain. I felt happier having talked to her. Sad to see him go, and as the train pulled off it seems that Bridge of Allan was a long way from home again. To Edinburgh, then the airport by tram. Uneventful time there, and the flight home slightly less obnoxious that the first one, but cramped and trapped doesn't help. I like the signs over th...

A lovely bright day. Lorraine and I met Sam and did the Darn Walk , much of it alongside the River Allan rushing through the woods, and then skirting a golf course down to Dunblane. A beautiful walk. One favoured by Robert Louis Stevenson, and a cave by the river is said to have inspired Ben Gunn's cave in Treasure Island. Then into Dunblane, which seemed a very pleasant quiet town. Terrible that for outsiders it still is most famous for the deadliest mass shooting in UK history where tiny children and a teacher were massacred by a crazed gunman in 1996. Seeing the little town makes you think about the trauma it endured. Everyone must have known someone who was directly affected. We had a nice hobbits' second breakfast there (having eaten a banana first thing) and then went down to the little station to go two stops to Stirling.  Enjoyed seeing a poster for the trains with the headline, 'Your ticket to fun filled places, and excited wee faces' . Into Stirling, al...

Breakfast in cafe 33 (which we are think of unfairly as cafe 666) again this morning, and a bit of a ditto day. Sam went off to do some work at the University, and I went back to the hotel and worked in the quiet of our room on the thorny French brief. In this tranquil atmosphere, with Lorraine playing on her iPad quietly on the bed, I soon got to grips with a couple of ideas and felt happier enough to stop working. Lorraine and I then had another afternoon constitutional, this time at the top of the town, with rather nice views and gorgeous house-envy inspiring houses. We saw what we thought was a bullfinch attacking a parked car's wing mirrors, and then pecking at its darkened windows. Obviously spring making it feel territorial to the point of fighting itself. It had grown quite chilly, and Lorraine looked into some charity shops, and then we had an afternoon coffee and a scone in a busy cafe restaurant called the Jam Jar. After a snooze, we met Sam and went to Bridge of All...

Bridge of Allan then. Up and off to the local Cafe 33, where we met Sam and had a good breakfast, including black pudding. The place was empty at first, but it soon filled up. Very popular place. With lots of signs on the wall with signs such as   Service may vary according to my mood and your attitude and SORRY yesterday was the deadline for all complaints . Lorraine and I committed a faux pas by asking for more coffee when we'd already had our free refill, we were given some stonily, but without   milk. Back to the Royal Hotel and we stayed downstairs in the almost swanky bar area, I made small progress on work for the French brief, and Lorraine did some sewing and tried in vain to change a password on a phone account. We had light bite, a bowl of soup for me, and then we went outside for a walk. A bit spitty with rain from time to time, but we walked about on the backstreets of the Bridge of Allen, unremarkable, but good to get some air. Then back to the hotel for a larg...

Up and packing this morning, then Lorraine and I set off by car to Gatwick, after fond farewells with Beth, Pat and Maureen. To Gatwick on time, and then by SleazyJet to Edinburgh. A hateful flight, packed in like battery hens, Lorraine was claustrophobic, and I was entertaining the usual gamut of neuroses.  Off at Edinburgh. Lorraine and I found our way out of the airport and onto the Tram which took us to Haymarket station from where caught Dunblane train, to Bridge of Allan. Dominating the landscape from the train was the beautiful  Wallace Monument . I want to try to get a better look at this. We arrived in the town on a sunny day, and it looked very pretty. We crossed a little bridge over Allan water passed the Chip Shop, and found the Royal Hotel, and went up to our room with a creaky floor, along an uppy-and-downy corridor in the part of the hotel which is just about to be refurbished. Nice enough place. Then along the main street to meet Sam in a pub restaurant calle...