Friday March 27th.
The rather foolish decision to just bring my tablet has
bitten me on the bum somewhat as I am finding my typing speed using the stupid
on screen keyboard slower than anything. I realise now I should have brought my
laptop as well. So I am going to recreate the “Islanders’ Reports” style of
blog for the rest of our visit…
Activity: Blackwaterfoot and the Doon stroll. Took Callie
here on what could be the first totally fine day since we arrived. We chose
Blackwaterfoot so we could explore the Doon and see if it offered the
possibilities for extra-mural sex that somewhere like Alport Castles did. (It
didn’t, TBH.) It is just as flat as we remembered but with no secret little
hollows or dips in which a copulating couple could hide themselves from view.
There was a secondary reason for this location and that was the golf course and
the wonderful café on the site. Golf is a good walk spoiled but the café must
un-spoil it for the ball thwackers. To those who haven’t indulged in the
pastime (it isn’t a sport, technically) there is nothing to un-spoil so it is
simply sheer indulgence instead.
Weather: Fine. Clouds in the sky whizzed across but on our
west facing beach we had no rain at all from them. It wasn’t too warm, though.
It seemed the fell tops got a soaking which sort of makes our avoiding of the
wet stuff when we climbed Goat Fell all the more remarkable really. We’ve been
on this beach when the wind has sandblasted your face like a fine exfoliant,
today was a bit windy but nothing to scrub a way your facial acne. (Not that
either of us have any, you understand)
Refreshment: Meal at the Golf Club restaurant. For some
reason the golf club is called the Shiskine Golf club even though it is in
Blackwaterfoot. We were restricted to the snack menu which meant we had soup
and sandwiches. The idea was we’d have this and probably forego a large evening
meal. (That’s exactly what happened.)
Incidents: A georgeous companion on a brilliant stroll was
unable to have her desires met al fresco, despite a thorough search of the
potential bonk site. Added incentive was the lack of people about the place but
we curtailed our passion until we returned to WB. Here we indulged taking it in
turns to wear blindfolds, whilst the other administered sweet pleasure. OMG
Evening Meal: We snacked out on pastries and Earl Grey tea –
our lunch at the Fairways restaurant really was very filling.
Saturday 28th March
Squashed Frogs! We have had this at home in Sheffield I was surprised to
find it today. This morning I walked up towards Gleanashdale Falls for Callie’s
first walk and there was frogmaggedon on the road. I counted over 10 squashed
frogs (or toads) on the road. It is such an upsetting sight. Although with all
the rain I am not surprised it drew them out, I am just shocked so many were squashed.
Today I had to spot dodge first thing but as we (Callie and
I) got back it started to rain again. It has been the wettest day so far of our
stay.
Luckily you don’t need a keyboard to Skype, so we Skyped
everyone after breakfast, Mum, Dad & Louisa, Laura’s Mum and Dad (Eric was
out in the lorry), Suze and Pete and the kids. I was tempted to Skype Phil but
refrained.
Mum and Tony are good, they seems to be hitting it off
really well. I think Mum is smitten. Baby sister Chloe hasn’t put in a repeat
of the glass-shattering lung exhibition we had after the Christening, which is
good to hear. We tried to get her to see me on their screen but it didn’t work.
Perhaps she is a bit young for that yet! The Aus crew can’t believe the weather
on Arran has been so wet. Suze joked it was obvious that that cheesy Scottish
band were being critical of their climate when they named themselves Wet Wet
Wet. Molly was amused by my lack of keyboard limiting my writing of e-mails.
She said it must be like me having my hands cut off.
We decided I would do some baking, so leaving Loll and
Callie in the van I drove up to Brodick and bought a load of ingredients from
the co-op to make some apple pies and lemon meringues. This was a good way to
avoid the rain this morning. I called in Auchrannie Resort and got us tickets
for a spa session and swim in the afternoon. I didn’t tell Loll about this
until we had four cooling items on the racks in the kitchen.
We had a half day’s-worth of treatments and pampering and
splashing about in the pool at the Auchrannie Spa. I just love being massaged. We came out
feeling refreshed, invigorated and seriously clean. It may be a bit costly but
it is so worth it.
A bonus afterwards, it dried up weather wise so we toddled
to Kildonan again for another seal watch.
Sunday March 29th
Losing an hour made no difference to Callie, she still
managed to come and get me up at 6 am. Even though in her doggy time it must
still have been 5am. Maybe I am reading too much into the actions of my dog?
The promise of less rain made it seem like a good idea to
hit Machrie Moor and the stone circles. We only got rained on sporadically.
I love the atmosphere you get at these monoliths. It is
astounding to think that even though they were a totally unsophisticated people
they still managed to do things like this. There are some standing stones in
Northern France we went to when I was little that just stretch away in rows and
rows for ages. What was going through the people’s minds when they did this? It
shows a huge degree of organisation skills to get the population to come
together and do that, I feel.
I would love to have known what stories the people told each
other as to why they were putting these slabs of rock into the ground. That is
the problem with pre-written language culture, there is no way of understanding
the motives behind their actions. This is why I get so cross at all the morons
who descend on Stonehenge every year, pretending to be Druids and making out
that they know what they are doing. They know absolutely one thing – Fuck All!
In my opinion, when things like that happen it simply reinforces the fact that
we are only one small step away from reverting back to apes again!
We spend the rest of the day back at the van with Laura
working, first of all, on a revision timetable which allows her one session per
day if the weather is fine but several if it is grotty; she then spent a couple
of hours at work. I punctuated her studies with regular supplies of tea and
supportive cuddles. I began my new book, “The Elegance of the Hedgehog”. My
friend Laure, in Metz, recommended it and I am struck by it already (OK 150
pages in). The main character, Renee, sounds just like me, as does the suicidal
girl. It is a strangely compelling story. I can see why Laure thinks it is one
of her favourite books.
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