Good evening and welcome to the final part of this blog apart from a synopsis entry tomorrow. So we are now back on UK soil feeling slightly older and wiser for our trip and in my case I (that’s Hamish) slightly errr wider. Anyway after another fine meal on the ferry last night we ventured to the ships casino and rapidly lost the grand sum of £30 at pontoon within 10 minutes, hence my philosophy of never gambling, it was not even entertaining so I guess we will never be professional gamblers. We then ventured to the show bar and fortunately the band were slightly better than the band on the way out although I came close to throwing myself overboard when they played ‘Show me the way to Amarillo’. What saved me was the prospect that the ship’s bingo night was cancelled due to lack of interest! However we were entertained by two school trips of 1st year’s students from Glasgow (lucky the car decks were locked as I suspect we would have found the TVR on bricks come the morning) and one from Bradford. We had a good laugh with the teachers while the kids hogged the dance floor and those teachers were in the need of Alcohol but unfortunately they had to patrol the corridors during the night. Katie was itching to go on the dance floor so after the sleepy children were herded off to bed we enjoyed a good few dances and ended up going to bed much later than planned. We arrived in Hull to sunshine and clouds and headed north, smuggling in contraband Belgium chocolates filling the boot! The further we ventured towards Scotland the weather worsened and for the first time in 2,200 odd miles the hood finally went up as we met heavy rain at Scotch Corner. We are now in Moffat, a place I holidayed many years ago with my parents, nostalgia had taken over as I wanted to stay here as I have fond memory’s of being here with Mother and Father, the trauma of Mother buying her first sheepskin coat, well it was the 70s and now the shattered illusions of why Moffat got its name. As a child I remember legend had it that Moffat got its name because the Devil stood on a hot rock and he said Ma Foot Ma Foot but alas I cannot find any reference to it which is disappointing. However we are staying in a nice Hotel called the Black Bull, the hotel dates back to the 1500s and Robert Burns penned ‘On a window sill’ here, now I am not sure if that is one of his pieces or he was staggering by the hotel and penned a note on the ‘Window Sill’ OK I jest I am a philistine.
Not a great deal to see here but beautiful countryside and a perfect rest stop for us as we are now beginning to feel the effects of a terrific holiday. We did find and amazing sweet shop with the jars of hundred’s of types of sweets that you used to be able to buy as a child, of course the sugarholic Katie was in heaven so perhaps Moffat does retain a certain magic!
Now we are just polishing off our wine and it will be time to hit the hay so goodnight all
Katie and Hamish
Ps. Clare we hope you got your present(unopend)!!
