Bonjour Bordeaux

We got up very early today, at 4.30 a.m. in order to drive through to Edinburgh and catch the 7.20 a.m. flight to Bordeaux. We went to bed fairly early and I got about seven hours sleep so I felt quite perky. All went smoothly and we caught a tram all the way into the centre of Bordeaux and after a bit of footering we successfully caught another tram which stopped just outside our wee hotel near the station. Soon we sallied forth into the very warm streets of the town and we liked what we saw; remnants of the city walls, narrow old streets, lots of cafés and restaurants. We walked to the Cathédrale de Saint André and had lunch sitting outside the delightful Café de France just across the square beside it: the personable waiter very much reminded me of Ragnar from the tv series Vikings. Then we went in to the cathedral to see the stained glass and statues and paintings, we also looked at the flying buttresses, carvings and gargoyles on the outside - all very impressive although quite a lot has needed to be restored over the centuries so there are older parts and newer parts. In the original cathedral here, my favourite Queen, Eleanor of Aquitaine, married Louise VII of France when she was only thirteen years old. Off we went again through the hot afternoon to the Musée de Bordeaux which is about the history of the city and its surrounding area. It’s a good museum and we moved chronologically from pre-historic times and cave paintings, through the Roman era to the Medieval city and beyond. There was more to see but we felt sated by history so we headed back to the hotel, purchasing some wine for Jenn and Russ on the way. We decided to have dinner sitting outside one of the small restaurants near our hotel, and it turned out to be really good with a very friendly head waiter who told us that he is from Bangkok and the chef (to whom he introduced us) is from Columbia. We complimented the chef on his delicious food. We stayed sitting under the walnut trees for ages in the warm evening, chatting about all sorts of things. It has been such a good day. 

Degas at the Burrell

I have had a pleasant few days of housework, admin, packing and even a bit of socialising. And spending time with the cats of course. On Saturday I was back in Edinburgh, this time with James, Davie and Chanel, to see John Bishop at the Usher Hall. John Bishop is a Liverpudlian comedian who has been popular on television doing stand up and panel shows for many years, and in his fifties he is still at the top of his game, telling the audience rambling and amusing anecdotes about his life. He is very funny and the audience loved him. We had dinner at One Square, in the Sheraton Hotel, beforehand, mainly because it’s straight across the road from the Usher Hall. We had a good meal and chat with Davie and Chanel. Just as we were leaving the restaurant who came walking out of the hotel but John Bishop himself, he must be staying there. At the end of the evening we got the slow train to Uddingston with Davie and Chanel, who kindly gave us a lift home because their car was at the station. It was a really good evening. 
I visited Carolyn and her wee boys again on Monday; Harris is very sweet and funny and Arran is now ten weeks old, he is so fascinated by his older brother! And I had a very pleasant dinner and chat with Caroline N later on. Today Christine and I went to see the Degas exhibition at the Burrell Collection. This outing was delayed because of Gerry’s stroke, from which he is recovering. We had lunch in the café first. The exhibit was very interesting, Burrell was the first serious collector in Scotland of Degas’ works. There were lots of paintings to look at; I liked the way that Degas captured the natural movement of the figures, especially the ballet dancers. We finished the afternoon back in the café with coffee and cake.    

Lunching

Yesterday I met up with Helen, Wendy, Maggie and Libby for one of our Ladies’ lunches. I so enjoy these meet ups with my school chums; I can hardly believe that we left school forty-five years ago! We sat at our usual table in Zizzi’s and Blanca was our waitress again, she is so pleasant and friendly. We had lots to catch up on; some serious life issues and also lots of good news, and we had an afternoon of chat and laughter. 

It’s nice to be back in Cambuslang and today I enjoyed pottering around the house with the very companionable Tom and Flora, who turned up in every room that I was tidying to see what I was up to! This evening we had a lovely curry and watched more of Vikings. It's holding my attention so far but there are a lot of episodes to go and I think that it moves on to future generations; I might not enjoy it so much without Ragnar, Lagertha, Siggy or Rollo.

Rebus

Heather and I went to Edinburgh this evening to see a play called “A Game called Malice” which is a murder mystery starring Inspector Rebus. It was written by Ian Rankine, who also wrote the very successful Rebus novels. There have also been two television series about the sardonic Rebus solving crimes around the underworld of Edinburgh. It was at the Edinburgh Festival Theatre, so we had a tasty dinner first at Solti’s which is just round the corner. The tickets said that it started at 7 p.m. but it turned out to be 7.30 so we were very early; we had a coffee and a chat in the theatre café. The play was good; very traditional with a group of characters who are having dinner in a posh Edinburgh house when a body is discovered upstairs. Gary O’Brien played Rebus; I remember him fondly from his days in one of my old favourite series, Peak Practice. He was suitably cynical and intelligent. The rest of the cast were very good too, and I enjoyed it, but the dialogue felt a little stilted from time to time, almost too witty to convey real feelings. It was an entertaining watch though, and afterwards Heather and I took the train back through to Glasgow (Heather got off the train at Croy, where she had left her car.) This is an important week for Heather, she retires on Friday, and we were talking about future plans and holidays. 

End of our summer in Ullapool

Yesterday was our last day in the cottage after a stay of nearly six weeks; Heather and Ewan set off home after breakfast time and we did some laundry and spruced up the cottage ready for our next visit. It felt very autumnal, there were a lot of leaves lying on the path to the bridge. The weather had been absolutely wild during the night; I’m generally a very good sleeper and even I was woken up at one point by the rain battering on the velux windows. We set off homewards just after half past three and were home by 8 p.m. The cats were quite philosophical about being captured and put into their car cage, and the journey went smoothly. We listened to The Rest is History podcast in the car; firstly the very end of the run up to the 1st World War, and then we started the run up to the French Revolution with Marie Antoinette and the Scandal of the Diamond Necklace. Poor old Marie Antoinette, she had nothing to do with the necklace scam and yet somehow she was implicated. 
Back home we put in a washing only to find that the washing machine was broken. My hero James spent hours trying to get different ways to fix it with the help of various YouTube videos, and eventually he found the fault and got it working again. This made us very late to bed and we were exhausted. 

Brambles from Inverlael

Today the weather was forecast to be showery so we went for a walk at Inverlael Forest, thinking that the trees would provide us with some shelter while we took some exercise. It did rain a little bit at the start of the walk but it gradually became drier and turned into a nice sunny day. James, Heather and Ewan gathered brambles for our dessert tonight. In the afternoon we all went for a stroll around the village in the sunshine. We walked round the bull park and through the campsite to West Shore Street and had tea and cake sitting outside Tea by the Sea. We went to both bookshops, and even browsed in a couple of gift shops, before drinks at the Ceilidh Place. We had got a side of hot smoked trout for dinner and served it very simply with baby new potatoes and asparagus, and garlic aioli. Meanwhile James had made apple and bramble crumble with the blackberries from Inverlael Forest and it was very tasty. A relaxing evening of chat and laughter ensued. 

Cape Wrath

We decided to ask Heather and Ewan to visit Cape Wrath with us today. We had some misgivings about this because it is a long journey; nearly two hours by car from Ullapool, then a short boat journey and then ten miles by minibus along a very pot-holed road. It also takes a bit of organising and some serendipity; it has to be during the short summer season that the minibus runs, from June to mid September, and the ferryman, Malcolm, has to be available (when I phoned last week I found out that he was taking part in a charity tractor run on Saturday for example.) And if it’s too misty or the sea is rough the trips are cancelled. None of this can be predicted much in advance.  However our guests good-naturedly agreed to come on the trip - none of us have visited the most northwesterly point of the UK before - and we set off in the morning to catch the midday ferry. When we got to Keoldale Pier near Durness there were lots of other people, to my surprise; there must have been about thirty of us. Malcolm ferried us all across to the pier on the west side of the Kyle of Durness in three boat loads, and we were then ushered by Stewart into two minibuses. Ewan had, unusually, felt very nauseous during the last part of our car journey when it was quite twisty and turny, so we asked if he and Heather could sit in the front seats of the minibus. The fact that Ewan, who does not like a fuss being made of him, agreed to this, showed that he must have felt very unwell. Sitting in the front seat did the trick and he felt fine both on the way to the lighthouse and on the way back. Just as well that he did, because I have never travelled on a road quite like it. It was first built in 1828 and has not been properly repaired since the 1980s, just patched up from time to time, and it is in a terrible state! The minibuses had to travel at less than 15 miles an hour for eleven miles (18 km) along the narrow road, through the bombing range (which was not live just now!) over narrow and rather precarious looking bridges. We were however rewarded with stunning views, including the distant but clear Sandwood Bay, where we have walked and camped in the past. The weather was cloudy but we had good visibility. 
When we arrived at the lighthouse we had a very simple lunch of sandwiches and oatcakes with coffee at the little café *, which restored us for a breezy walk around the headland. We could see lots more cliffs to the east, and a stunning sea arch just off the headland. After an hour we were loaded back onto the minibuses for our return journey, which somehow seemed quicker. There were a couple of Cape Wrath Trail walkers in the minibus, who had just finished their arduous eight day journey. Back across on the boat we went, and we decided to break our journey in Lochinver for dinner, only a short diversion from the direct route. We managed to get a table at Delilah’s and Heather and Ewan treated us to a delicious meal. By 9 p.m. we were back in the cottage after a long and satisfying day. 

* We read online later that Bill Bailey had eaten in the café at the end of his Cape Wrath Trail journey and had celebrated with a ham and pickle sandwich. He must have eaten the last of the pickle because there was none left when Ewan ordered it! 

Country Music at the Seafood Shack

Heather and Ewan arrived at lunchtime today and we were delighted that the weather was absolutely beautiful for them. The rest of the weekend is supposed to be less sunny so we decided to make the most of the glorious afternoon by walking down to the village. We heard from a neighbour yesterday that the Seafood Shack was having a fundraiser today for the Sandpiper Trust, in the form of a Country Music afternoon. So after strolling along the harbour front we arrived at the Seafood Shack and ordered lunch just as the first band was starting up. They were a great wee group and played a mixture of Scottish traditional music and Country music. Our food was delicious and we sat in the warm sunshine chatting and listening to the music. The only problem was that it was a bit too warm for me (yes, I know that I should be grateful for the heat after the dodgy weather we have had this summer!) and I retreated to a shady spot which suited me much better. As we made our way back to the cottage we noticed that more and more mist was rolling in from the sea along the loch, it looked beautiful and quite otherworldly. Back at the cottage we had coffee in the garden before James, Heather and Ewan went to climb Ullapool Hill. I did a bit of shopping and then met them at the Ferry Boat Inn for drinks. Later I made Butter Chicken (and paneer for me) and we had a relaxing evening chatting about all sorts of topics. It was very foggy on the loch by now, and when the Loch Seaforth blew its foghorn Tim and Flora came running indoors very nervous; they must have thought that it was a sea monster! 

The Moine Thrust Controversy

We spent nearly all of Friday outdoors and it was fantastic. The cats loved us being outside and kept us company. James was working hard to paint the fence, this coat is to maintain or after being painted for the first time two years ago. I did a bit of housework and then took the folding table outside and did some admin as well as proof-reading a bit more of my blog. I was about to make the dinner when I noticed in the Ullapool News that there was a Geological Lecture scheduled in the MacPhail Centre at 7 p.m. - in only half an hour! I consulted with James and we decided spontaneously to attend. And I’m so glad that we did! The lecture was called “The North West Highlands Controversy” by geologist Peter Gutteridge and it was about the 19th century bitter disputes over the nature of what we now call the Moine Thrust. He was a great speaker and the story was fascinating. He concluded that it’s easy to criticise in hindsight, and although some of the old time geologists got it wrong, they lacked the modern technology to work it out properly. We were starving when we got home and quickly made dinner. 

Strong Women of the 18th Century

Today Alison and I walked into Nairn centre to go to our second Book Festival event. It was Flora Fraser talking about her biography Pretty Young Rebel and Sean Lusk talking about his historical novel, A Woman of Opinion. Both books are about strong women in the 18th century; Flora McDonald who helped Bonnie Prince Charlie escape by boat from South Uist to Skye after the Battle of Culloden, and Mary Wortley Montague, a brilliant and eccentric upper class lady who wrote about her travels to Constantinople and introduced inoculation against smallpox to Britain. Both women had to contend with misogyny and used their considerable intelligence to make the most of their different situations in life. Flora Fraser and Sean Lidl were both good speakers and the hour of discussion flew past. Alison and I both enjoyed it very much.

Meanwhile Hugh and James had been using Hugh’s many ride-on agricultural machines, which he and Alison need for their large plot of land. He has a tractor, a digger, a quad bike and more. Needless to say James was absolutely thrilled to try these out and had a great time. We all met up in Nairn and had coffee and lovely scones in a new café called The Highland Weigh, before we bade our farewells and set off back to Ullapool to be reunited with the cats. The weather was sunny and the cats were delighted to spend the afternoon in the garden with us. 

Gunilla the tall ship

We met at the harbour for a coffee after James’ big walk today, as is our habit, to find a tall Swedish ship named Gunilla moored at the harbour. It was very elegant and had a huge amount of ropes attaching the masts to the deck. We noticed that it was just about to open to the public for the afternoon so we boarded it and were greeted by the friendly young people who sail it. 

Gunilla was launched in 1940 and has been a cargo ship and a ferry. It was rebuilt in the 1990s and is now a three-masted Sail Training ship. It spends most of the year sailing around the Atlantic with upper secondary school pupils from a school which specialises in sailing, called Öckerö Gymnasieskolan.

In the afternoon we drove through to Nairn where we met Alison and Hugh. We all went to a New Writers event; part of the Nairn Book and Art Festival. I found it fascinating; the writers read out their own work and were very different from each other in content and style. Then we had a delicious dinner at the friendly Bandstand Bar and Restaurant, before a nightcap back at Alison and Hugh’s gorgeous house. 

Shakespeare in Ullapool

This afternoon James and I went to see a Shakespeare play, As You Like It, at the MacPhail Centre. It was staged by Folksy Theatre Company which performs in rural areas around the UK. Usually they perform outdoors but this time they were in the wee theatre attached to the school, I don’t know if this was because the weather was drizzly. It was fantastic! There were five young actors who were full of talent and energy, and also all sang and played musical instruments. It was interesting to compare it with the production of As You Like It that we saw last year at Stratford upon Avon. Both productions had minimalist scenery, which worked well. The young actors had each to play multiple parts, which made the plot a bit harder to follow, however what they lacked in numbers, they made up for in enthusiasm. The RSC actors last year were very skilled and experienced, and I think that they gave more nuanced performances, and were also enthusiastic. In the end, both productions were excellent. I do love Shakespeare. 

Pop up Tapas

The summer weather has continued to be very changeable; we sit outdoors or go for a walk whenever it’s dry. James has started repainting the garden fence which is beginning to show signs of the vigorous wear and tear that it gets from the wind and rain blowing from the loch. We had a delicious tapas dinner at the Arch Inn on Saturday. It was a “pop up” event by a catering company called Ballintaggart and we thought that it would be nice to support it. When we arrived at the restaurant it was going like a fair, the staff were really friendly and the tapas dishes were fresh and delicious. There were plenty of vegetarian choices for me. We then strolled back to the cottage and watched a couple of episodes of Vikings, a television series recommended to us by Kevin, somewhat reminiscent of The Last Kingdom which we also enjoyed.