Finally.......

....I have caught up with myself,how I wonder can just three days of fun cause so much backlog in the lives of just two people, it's hardly as though I have a 10 bedroom house and a matching number of offspring to attend to, but behind I got none the less.

A sudden 'need' to completely re build my website today, and yes, it's finished for now, so if you didn't lose anything I support on my webspace this afternoon you ain't gonna, probably didn't assist in the catching up plan but I have at last answered all my mail (she says hopefully), managed to read some blogs and got all the domestic un-pleasantries out of the way. No doubt PG will fall through the door after his shift any moment requiring the pc and this will have to wait until the morning but I will persevere in hope!

And so....back to the weekend with my parents, I told you I would get there in the end. Having collected them from the station, they decided to travel by rail in the end, a decision I think they have lived to regret but I won't go into timetables and overcrowded trains right now, we booked them into their hotel and then headed for home where much making merry, eating, drinking and chattering ensued.

(Click images to enlarge)

Duns castle at sunset 31.12.2004

The following morning it was decided that a trip into town and to the sea was in order. Berwick leaves a lot to be desired on the shopping front but it does have historic walls, barracks and beautiful buildings for infrequent visitors to enjoy......though as I recall it wasn't long, as we walked the walls against a strong sub zero wind, before all members of the party decided perhaps summer would be the better time for this activity and we headed homeward. Not to be thwarted by the cold, my parents as ever intrepid and having warmed ourselves we set off in the afternoon for a walk around Duns Castle, now famous among other things for being the location for the film 'Mrs Brown'.

New years eve was spent in a local hostelry, where things became a little confusing. This event had been booked long since and we were given to understand that the evening included a 'grand buffet' (for which I might add we had paid for handsomely)which began at 7.30 and ended at 10.00. We arrived fashionably late at 7.55 only to be told dining 'finished at 8.00',(uh?) with which, still drinkless, we were rushed through to the restaurant and presented with a rather large seated meal, perhaps my understanding of the phrase 'buffet' was incorrect and along with it my ability to tell the time! The night was saved by virtue of the fact that the cuisine was excellent, mine host was very attentive if a little disorganised and the company was good. The evening progressed as a new years eve should, until at midnight the promised piper piped forth appropriate noise and the whole place erupted into shouting, cheering, kissing and manic text messaging.....thwarted by finding no one had a signal!


Bass rock 01.01.2005

New years day we were all 'up and at it' again early, looking and feeling not particularly 'bright eyed and bushy tailed' but determined to make the most of the time we had together! The day was hilarious in it's disaster. First we set off to North Berwick to the Scottish seabird centre, and Bass Rock. My mum and I have a liking for birds, though I promise we are not 'twitchers'. This should have been a lovely day out had we managed the fore thought as two 'bird people' to realise that winter in Scotland does not harbour much in the way of seabirds and even less so the promised sightings of seals! Ok....so there was a beautiful coffee shop with even more beautiful chocolate fudge cake and a shop selling various 'must have' nik-naks but not a bloody bird in sight! Again we trotted off along the beach not to be put off (hence the previous pic of PG and myself close to freezing) and then made for the car to enjoy the coastal route up to Edinburgh.....where it was planned we would do a little looking for bargains in the sales and eat some lunch. Hmmmmmm!

One point had passed us by, the Scots are big, and I mean BIG on Hogmanay and whilst we English open our shops and restaurants for fear of losing a days trade, those wise Scottish souls don't! Oh..... and the skies darkened and the heavens opened obliterating any view whatsoever within minutes of us setting off on our travels again!

We ate lunch in McDonalds!

Amazingly we had a wonderful day, it was such an utter debacle there was nothing to be done except enjoy what we could and each others company.... and enjoy it we did. I would, to be honest, have been just as happy sat at home talking and catching up,it was just such a treat to spend new year with my Mum and Dad that what we did didn't matter to me.


North Berwick 01.01.2005