Cool at the pool

January is finishing tonight with more high winds and rain. The wind has made the temperature feel rather chilly; I went for a swim in the outdoor pool at David Lloyd today and the water felt very cool when I got in, definitely colder than usual. It was quite amusing seeing other swimmers flinch when they entered the water, and I saw one woman beating a hasty retreat back indoors after dipping one foot in the water. There was a flock of birds (pigeons?) circling the pool, maybe about 20 of them whirling around in formation, they looked very beautiful. Every now and then they would all line up in a neat row on the edge of the sports centre roof and survey the swimming pool before taking off again. 

We did some useful errands in the afternoon; we put James’ Roger Dean painting (which I gave him for his birthday) in to a gallery to get framed and we’re very happy with the frame that we chose. We also did a bit of shopping at the Fort and had a pleasant coffee in Marks and Spencer’s Café before heading home for a cosy evening.  

The Leaning Tower of Lynedoch Street

James tested negative for Covid yesterday and then again today. This means that we can stop self-isolating thank goodness. I have been feeling a bit sad because it’s 25 years today since my Dad died. It’s silly really because it’s just a date, I think about him and my Mum every day anyway and I know that Jennifer does too. So since James needed to pick up a jacket from Nevisport that he had put in for repair, we used our new found freedom to go into town to collect it and then treat ourselves to lunch at Singl-end in Renfrew Street. It was full when we arrived so we were advised to go for a walk for half an hour until a table became available. 

We walked over the pedestrian bridge at Charing Cross and up past my old school to Park Circus. It was half sunny and half cloudy, with a sharp chilly wind, a remnant from last night’s Storm Malik, which we had heard howling around the house, and which caused many trees to fall around the country.  As we approached Trinity College Tower we noticed a group of firemen deep in discussion and one of them came over to stop us from getting closer. Apparently the tower has been damaged by the high winds last night and is in danger of collapsing. He explained that the building was already in a poor state and had been fitted with sensors to alert the emergency services if it tilts, and that the sensor alarms have gone off. Residents in the vicinity have been evacuated until the building is stabilised, and I saw on the news later that surrounding roads have been blocked off. Lunch at Singl-end with James was very nice and helped to restore my good spirits. There is another storm on its way to Scotland tomorrow called Storm Corrie. 

Making a Virtue out of Necessity

James and I are still self-isolating; James did another Lateral Flow test this morning and he is still positive for Covid. This makes me wonder if he actually caught it much more recently that the beginning of our holiday. I suppose that we will never know. I haven’t done a Covid test myself because there’s no point until James eventually tests negative. Once James tests negative twice, twenty-four hours apart, I will test again and if I’m still negative we will be free to re-enter society. 

So for now our social life has been cancelled, including a visit to the theatre this evening with Heather, to which I had very much been looking forward. And of course I can’t go to the David Lloyd centre or to the supermarket. 

But there’s no point being down-hearted; instead I have ordered ingredients online with which to do some batch cooking, and I have been replying to some emails and tidying and clearing out in the house. James too has been making good use of his time; he has been clearing out the loft, tidying the garden, assembling his new office chair and even darning his hill-walking socks. 

Covid Holiday Souvenir

On our return home from Austria we were required to self-test for Covid within 48 hours of arrival * It’s a bit strange that we were not advised to self-isolate before the test isn’t it? We obediently took our tests on Monday morning. My test was negative - but James’ test was positive! Yes, he had brought the souvenir of Covid back from his holiday. With hindsight, I think that James may have developed Covid last Monday; the day that he felt unwell and was unable to ski. At the time he was convinced that his cough and headache were due to the high altitude of the resort (compared to home) and indeed he has had similar symptoms on previous ski holidays. After that one day he felt well enough to resume skiing and his symptoms disappeared, so it seemed that he was right, until Monday’s lateral flow test. 

He was well masked-up throughout the holiday apart from when we were seated and eating, so hopefully other holiday-makers will have been protected, and also you were not allowed to fly to Austria or to ski or to go into shops and restaurants unless you were triple-vaccinated. This was checked at every stage of the journey and in every establishment, 

After his positive test James had to let the Scottish Government know, and I soon received an email telling me also to self-isolate until 2nd February. However our confinement may be shorter than since James hasn’t had symptoms since last Monday; we will each take another lateral flow test tomorrow morning and if they’re both negative we will check the government rules to see what’s what. We’re not looking to take any shortcuts or bend the rules mind you, we will behave ourselves. 

* this requirement will cease on 11th February. 

Happy Travelling Birthday James!

Another plane, another blog. Today is James’ 60th birthday and he has had a pleasant day; breakfasting at our lovely Bellevue Hotel, going for a stroll around the village, and lunching at the Arlberg Hotel just down the road. We have spent the afternoon and will spend the evening on our journey homewards to Scotland, however James enjoys a plane journey so that’s good too! Heather and Ewan have given him the extremely generous gift of a trip on a seaplane around the Scottish Islands and I get to go too, so we were both delighted! He got quite a few Happy Birthday messages over the course of the day. 

Despite much rumour and innuendo at the airport - all nonsense - we are currently seated on time in our plane to Edinburgh, waiting for our plane to be de-iced. Our journey to Innsbruck Airport was, however, not without incident. As our bus driver carefully drove through one of the semi-tunnels between Lech and St Anton, a car driver ran right into the back of our bus. At first I thought that we had simply scraped against the wall of the tunnel, but when we moved off in order to stop again at a sort of lay-by down the road (because we had been blocking half of the road) we saw the guy who had run into us. Boy, his car was a mess, all crumpled at the front. We had to wait for the police to arrive before we were allowed to continue our journey, by which time we were running about two hours late. This was of justified concern to the passengers who were travelling to earlier flights than ours, but we were still in good time because our flight was due to leave a bit later at 18.55 (Austrian time.) Maybe it’s because James and I have been lucky enough to travel a lot over the years by “planes, trains and automobiles” to quote the old Steve Martin and John Candy film, but I was unmoved by the rumour that due to the snow we would all be bussed to Munich once we got through departures. It’s true that quite a few flights were delayed, one until the next day, and that some passengers on other flights were indeed being bussed to Munich, but there is no point in getting ahead of yourself in my experience. Que sera sera. And sure enough, after standing in several very long (but moving) queues we were sent onto a bus which took us, not to Munich, but the short distance across the tarmac to our plane bound for Edinburgh. Our pilot has just thanked us for going on our holidays in these Covid times, which of course is important for the livelihood of the staff in the airline industry, which was nice to hear. I must go as we will be taking off shortly. 

Last Ski Day

We had no idea whether we were going to be able to ski today, because the weather forecast was very uncertain. One snow report predicted a cloudy day without snow, another predicted some sunshine, and the hotel owner, Herr Wolf, told us that we should ski in the morning because it was going to snow in the afternoon. 

In fact none of these predictions were quite correct. We woke to cloudy skies and just as we went down to breakfast it started to snow. I was disappointed because after not skiing yesterday I was keen to get back on the slopes for the last day. But by 10 o’clock the snow stopped, the sun came out and the four of us set off to ski. 

Heather, Ewan and James were all very encouraging to me; James and Heather led the way and Ewan skied behind me to make sure that I was getting on ok. This helped my confidence a lot and after a shaky start I really enjoyed the morning. The snow was a bit bumpy in places due to yesterday’s snowfall but it was lovely to be out. Needless to say my knee started hurting quite quickly, but I’m hopeful that physiotherapy might help me to strengthen it. I’m pleased that I have managed to ski for a good part of the week. My knee and I bowed out for an early lunch at the Rud-Alpe, while the others skied some more. 

In the afternoon we returned our skis to the hire shops and went for après-ski in the village at the Pfeffercorn. I have become very fond of Lech this week and we have been very lucky with the snow and the weather. 

I had been chatting to Herr Wolf earlier in the day, telling him about the UK children's game and book, "What's the Time Mr Wolf?" He hadn't heard of it. So with his collusion, after dinner when he was socialising around the bar area, he arrived at our table and I looked up and said loudly, "What's the Time Mr Wolf?" and he told me the time! James, Heather and Ewan were horrified, thinking that I was being very cheeky to our host, until Herr Wolf and I started laughing and told them that we had arranged it - I enjoyed my little joke very much. 

Strolzing on a snowy day

Today the forecast snow arrived, on schedule and in quantity. This is very good news for the ski industry in Lech because they haven’t had any new snow for a couple of weeks and this top up will make sure that they continue to have plenty of snow into their peak season of February. Visibility was low and I decided to err on the side of caution and refrain from skiing today; hopefully the conditions will be more to my liking tomorrow. Instead James and I strolled down to the village and did a little shopping in the famous and very upmarket Strolz skiwear and gift shop. On choosing our item (which I can’t mention because it’s a gift) we were given a chitty with its details, and when we arrived back at the front desk we exchanged it for a beautifully gift-wrapped parcel. How delightfully old-fashioned, I loved it. We then decided that we deserved a restoring coffee in the Arlberg Hotel, indoors in their lovely lounge this time. Just as we were finishing our coffees we received a text from Heather and Ewan suggesting an excursion onto the pistes and James was keen to give it a go, so he hurried back up the road while I did a bit more shopping. I arrived back just as the others were leaving, suited and booted, and I had a relaxing couple of hours reading and watching the last episode of “The Duchess of Argyll” which was very good but all rather sad. When James arrived back he said that he had enjoyed himself but had found the conditions “hard going” so I felt that I had made the right decision. And now I had better get out of the bath in time for pre-dinner drinks in the cosy hotel bar. 

Skiing with a future astronaut

The weather continued to be absolutely beautiful on Wednesday. Stunningly beautiful in fact; the sky was the deep, clear blue that you can get at high altitudes, and the white snow was dazzling. The slopes were quiet and the conditions for skiing were just about ideal. I took a private ski lesson in the morning in order to brush up my technique and was very glad that I did. At first I was rather dismayed to be allocated a very young ski instructor, because I thought that he would be impatient with my cautious skiing, but in fact he was excellent. His name is Frido and he is spending his gap year between school and university as a ski instructor, before going to university to study aerospace engineering and become a fighter pilot. Then his goal is to become an astronaut - it would be quite something if my ski instructor becomes an astronaut! 

He took me on a sort of refresher ski course around some lovely wide blue slopes, giving me tips on technique. It was absolutely great for my confidence, and the setting and views were magnificent. I was a very happy bunny. 

Three other happy bunnies were James, Ewan and Heather, who had skied much further than me and had also enjoyed a day that was perfect for skiing. We all had après-ski drinks together on the hotel’s sun terrace, before another excellent dinner and convivial evening. 

Skiing and Swimming

Unfortunately James was unwell yesterday (Monday) with a bad headache and a cough, perhaps caused by the altitude. He had also been awake all night with an upset tummy and was in no fit state to go skiing. Ewan and Heather set off towards Zurs and after James assured me that he didn’t need me to stay with him, I went up the chairlift and cruised the blues for a couple of hours. The weather had been a bit grey in the morning but by the afternoon the clouds rolled away and the blue skies returned. When I got back to the hotel James was still looking rather pale and wan, but he came down for dinner and by bedtime he was feeling much better.

So this morning James felt ready to go back out on the pistes with Heather and Ewan in glorious sunshine, and by all accounts they had a fantastic day of skiing. 

I had my own adventure; I was keen to rest my dodgy knee so I asked at the hotel reception where in the vicinity I could go swimming. It turns out that Lech’s open air pool is open only in the summer, so the hotel manager (Herr Wolf) advised me to take the bus to St Anton, about half an hour away, where there is a “Wellness Centre.” I followed Herr Wolf’s instructions with ease and enjoyed the bus journey through the mountains to the pretty village of St Anton. I found the Wellness Centre which has both indoor and outdoor pools as well as a “naked sauna” - it clearly specifies “naked” on the sign at the entrance, presumably so that there will be no misunderstandings! The outdoor swimming pool is delightful and I swam my usual 1000 metres, with views of the mountains and the ski slopes all around me. There’s also a large outdoors jacuzzi which has a fast current sweeping around a central island, I loved it. The sun was shining and steam was rising from the warm pools into the cold air; it really was idyllic. 

I got the bus back to Lech in time for an après-ski (or should I say après-swim) drink in the hotel bar with Heather, Ewan and James. James seems fully recovered and was very happy to have been back in action on the ski slopes. 

Gelbe Hose in Lech

Ewan impressed us with his vivid yellow trousers on our last ski holiday in Arabba three years ago and this year he amazed us by wearing even brighter yellow trousers! Ewan’s trousers aren’t the only radiant thing on this holiday however. We have been blessed with plenty of snow and beautiful sunshine; conditions are excellent for skiing.

Yesterday we had to buy our lift passes and pick up our hired skis, which as usual took a bit of time to sort out. We have to wear masks on the ski lifts. We set off up on our first chairlift with great excitement and then down our first run. At this point I encouraged James, Heather and Ewan to continue to explore while I took it easy on the blues. We had discussed this beforehand and they were all very understanding, which made me feel very relaxed, and so I enjoyed myself very much despite my right knee being disappointingly painful. I took myself for a coffee at a pretty little restaurant above the village which had fantastic views, and was chatting to some lovely German people who assured me that Frankfurt is the best place in the world. On one of my trips up the chairlift I decided to take a few photos of the spectacular scenery which turned out to be foolish because I managed to drop both of my ski poles! I was dismayed and was not looking forward to skiing down (without poles of course!) to find them. While I was thinking about my dilemma three lovely ladies from the Black Forest area of Germany offered to fetch them for me! People can be so kind.

After skiing around for a couple of hours I made my way back to our hotel, the Bellevue, which is superb and very well situated, just below the piste. The manager is the friendly Herr Wolf, which of course reminded us of "What's the Time, Mr Wolf?" the well known children's book. It only takes five minutes to walk up to the slope in the morning and you can ski right back to the ski store. I had only been back in the room for about half an hour when I got a phone call from James to say that he and Heather and Ewan had just arrived back. We walked the short distance into the village and sat in the sunshine outside the gorgeous Hotel Arlberg for a late lunch. I had caramelised apple kaiserschmarren which was absolutely melt-in-the-mouth. When the sun set behind the mountain it got cold very quickly and we went for a browse around the shops before returning to the Hotel Bellevue to relax before an excellent five course dinner followed by drinks. 

Feeling relaxed

So here I am on the plane, about to fly from Edinburgh to Innsbruck. James is sitting beside me doing his Sudoku and I have just played my daily game of Wordle, my new obsession, which I love. We’re feeling very relaxed; we arrived in loads of time for our flight and had lunch with Heather and Ewan in Wetherspoons before boarding. 

I can hardly believe that our PCR tests were all negative and that we are on our way and I feel very excited. I’m looking forward to seeing the snowy mountains and to getting onto the slopes again. 

On a completely different and less pleasant subject, two middle aged men are in all sorts of bother today. Prince Andrew has been told that the civil case against him in America for having sex with a minor is going ahead, and as a result the Queen has now removed all of his military ranks and most of his titles including HRH. What a sleaze - I’m glad that he wasn’t available to come to my school dance with me when I invited him in 1977! 

And Boris Johnson is in trouble for having parties at 10 Downing Street while the rest of the country was in lockdown, with people unable to visit relatives, even if they were dying in hospital. He tried to claim first that it didn’t happen, then that he didn’t know, then that it was a work gathering, and eventually apologised - even though he continued to maintain that technically he hadn’t broken the rules. At first I didn’t think that it really mattered about a few stupid parties when the civil servants had been working together all day, but having thought about it, I feel that it does indicate a “them and us” attitude, with the government thinking that they are better than us ordinary folk. 

Well none of that is going to spoil my happy mood, time to switch to flight mode on my phone - chocks away! 

PCR Tests

I deliberately haven’t been looking forward too much to our ski holiday in Austria tomorrow, because I wasn’t at all sure that we would be going! Austria was closed to tourists until mid December, so at that point I think that we all thought that the holiday would be postponed. However it did open up so I got a wee bit hopeful. The current regulations for travelling to Austria require a negative PCR test less than 48 hours before departure, and so many people now have the Omicron variant of Covid that I was resigned to at least one of us testing positive.

James and I went into a testing centre in Howard Street in Glasgow at 9.30 a.m. and paid a hefty £80 each for the 3 hour results PCR test. The centre was very efficient and we then headed up to John Lewis to order the office chair that I’m getting James for his Christmas. After a quick coffee we set off for home and by the time we arrived we got emails to say that our tests were negative. Ewan had already messaged us with his results (also negative) and then in the early afternoon Heather informed us that she too has negative results. Great excitement! We spent the afternoon packing, finally convinced that we really are going on holiday tomorrow!  

Splendid Weather in Nairn

In Scotland the weather is reputed to be cool and dry in the East, and warmer and wetter in the West. This is because the rain coming from the Atlantic falls on the mountains as it heads eastwards, and is used up by the time it reaches the sunny east coast. It’s not always the case of course, for example Davie always says that Dundee is warm as well as dry, and the west of Scotland can have really gorgeous weather. 

This past couple of days however, the east coast’s reputation was upheld as we left a rather grey-skied Ullapool to visit Alison and Hugh in a delightfully sunny Nairn on Monday. We had a lovely time; walking, chatting, and playing with Ash and Birch who are now full size but still very playful and kittenish. On Tuesday we went for a walk in the Big Wood at Cawdor Castle, which ancient woodland has been cultivated for centuries with a mixture of oak, pine, ash, beech and more. It’s very attractive with bridges over the river and a deep gorge; we walked about 9 km with the sun shining dappled through the branches. 

When we got back to Ullapool in the evening the wind was blowing a hoolie straight in from the loch, not even Tom was very keen to go outside. The wind continued all night and it woke me up several times, which is unusual because I’m usually a very good sleeper. In the morning we packed up and set off back to Cambuslang. The cats were absolutely furious to be put into their travel carrier and we had a real struggle to get them into it, they escaped twice before we managed to get it zipped up! The loch looked absolutely beautiful as we drove away; a steely blue colour with white crested waves. 

Spa days

I’m on the plane waiting to take off on my way from Luton Airport to Inverness. I have just spent a very enjoyable weekend with Jennifer, Russ and Ben. The main theme of the weekend was definitely swimming; Jennifer and I went swimming three times! Twice to a spa near her home in Princes Risborough which is called Hartwell House and all day yesterday to our favourite spa, Nirvana. 

Hartwell House spa is small scale, with a 17 metre pool and a small gym downstairs, and a coffee lounge upstairs with complimentary coffee and shortbread. It also has bookable spa treatments, it’s beside a lovely hotel through whose extensive grounds spa guests are allowed to wander, and is delightfully quiet. It has a calm and luxurious atmosphere; the pool area is decorated in terracotta with plants, Greek style statues and urns around it. I love it.

Nirvana of course I know very well already. It is very popular with an eighteen month waiting list, so is always quite busy, however it is big enough easily to accommodate all of the guests and there is no problem in finding a free sun lounger or getting a drink or a coffee. The outdoor area is open year round unless it’s very adverse weather, so Jennifer and I were able to swim in the outdoor pool and to go into one of the outdoor jacuzzis. The new circular building is now open, and has a big round pool with seats around the edge on which to relax. Another new feature is the salt pool, in which you can float gently supported by the buoyant water. I liked it very much but it made any wee scratches on my arms and legs nip a lot, and the salty air provoked one of my prolonged coughing fits, which are particularly embarrassing in this time of Covid! Jennifer treated me to a most excellent lunch in the restaurant, and we had such a relaxing day. 

Two quite different spas, but both were equally lovely. 

We didn’t just go to spas though, we had a country walk this sunny morning, and watched two good movies in the evenings with Russell. I had a nice chat with Ben, and we visited Alan and Jean in their fabulous retirement apartment just along the road from Jenn and Russ. Jean gave me a tour and I was very impressed by how spacious it is, with so much storage space and triple aspect views over the town towards the hills. It was great to see Alan and Jean, they were on good form and very happy with their move.

And so my weekend is over. La famille Smith made me extremely welcome as they always do. I will be back soon in the springtime. 

Fry-up

Our New Year’s break to Ullapool continues very pleasantly. Yesterday James, Ally and Cat went to climb Ben Wyvis, driving carefully along slushy roads. It was snowy and windy on the mountain but they got to the top, ticking off another Munro for Cat, bringing her current total to 206. Cat made a delicious fry-up for breakfast this morning, a treat which has great memories for me from childhood and holidays. Not only did she produce a beautiful array of sausages, black pudding, mushrooms, fried eggs and fried potato scones, but she cooked half of it using vegetarian products. It was so great! Needless to say none of us were able to eat any lunch! 

The weather is dreich and showery but that doesn’t stop us from going for walks around the village to see the Christmas lights, do a few errands, and look at the boats in the harbour.

In the evenings Cat and I have been watching the new series of Emily in Paris; we watched the first series during lockdown and have very much been looking forward to this second one. It’s still great fun and I love Emily’s clothes! 

Hailstones

After a mild start to the year, the weather has turned much colder and we have had some snow in Ullapool, and much more higher up on top of the hills. We have also had a lot of very noisy hail, battering on the windows. When James and I were out for a walk this morning the hailstones were actually quite painful on my face when we turned into the wind. Ullapool is almost completely closed; there are only two hotels open and a few shops. I went for a lovely walk yesterday up the hill to the end of the road to the lighthouse, there were beautiful views to the summer isles with big moody clouds moving fast across the sky, bringing freezing showers which passed quickly. 

Ally and Cat arrived yesterday afternoon and it’s lovely to see them. The cats were very excited to see them and seemed amazed to meet them here! They are hoping to do some winter walking if the weather improves. For now we are cosy in the cottage and this evening we played the board game Catan which was great fun - even James joined in! 

Loony Dook

We arrived in Ullapool on Hogmanay to spend our first New Year here. Unfortunately Davie and Chanel couldn’t join us; Chanel tested positive for Covid on Boxing Day and Davie also has symptoms. This means that they have had to self-isolate at home. Naturally we were all disappointed but we are not the only family affected by this; over the past week there have been more than a million new cases of Covid, so lots of people have needed to self-isolate and have been separated from family during the festive season. The better news is that the Omicron symptoms seem to be much milder than previous variants; David and Chanel have told me that their symptoms are like those of a heavy cold. The number of hospitalisations and deaths is going up but not by a huge amount, so the hospitals are coping with the numbers of patients - so far. If numbers of Covid patients in hospital don’t rise too much over the next few weeks the restrictions won’t have to be increased, and we will be entering the phase of “living with Covid” rather than locking down. We shall see. 

We have car troubles again, probably expensive again, and less than six months after the last time. Too boring to blog about, but it means the car is off the road for a couple of weeks again; very annoying. Luckily Ally and Cat have stepped in to save the day by lending us Ally’s car and then travelling north (tomorrow) in Cat’s car. If they hadn’t kindly offered to do this, we would have had to cancel all of our New Year plans. 

So we arrived in Ullapool yesterday afternoon in Ally’s car, with the cats who seemed much calmer this time, and we both felt very happy to be back in the cottage. 

Because of the recent surge in Covid, the Scottish government decreed a week ago that restaurants can remain open but not nightclubs, which means that that the Ceilidh we had booked at the Ceilidh Place was to be dinner only with no dancing. It was a really nice occasion but a Ceilidh without dancing isn’t quite the same as it should be! It was very amusing to see the variety of attire that people wore; everything from very smart to very casual - we noticed that at one table there was a man dressed in full dinner suit sitting beside his friend wearing a rugby shirt! Dinner was excellent and the folk music was great, and a piper welcomed in 2022.

The weather is surprisingly mild for the time of the year, but very windy, so I swithered about whether to join the Estuary Swimmers for their Loony Dook at Ardmair beach this afternoon. In the end I went along and was very pleased that I did. There were about ten of us and the water felt breathtakingly cold at first, but I quickly got used to it and swam around in the waves for about 10 minutes. I felt invigorated! Back at the cottage I had a warm bath and we watched the latest two episodes of Mackenzie Crook’s new take on Worzel Gummidge.