News Flash!

Stop the presses! Contact Sky News, BBC, ITV, ABC, CNN and the Upper Tewksbury Chronicle! Prepare to be astonished, amazed, astounded and just plain gobsmacked! Da da da da da daaaaaa…Steve bought some trousers today! More on that lead story later.

This morning was delightful. We didn’t have to be anywhere, we didn’t have to pack up anything, we didn’t have to rush, so we spent some time just sitting and relaxing and chatting and taking it easy. That was a super treat. Outside, the morning was less delightful…cold and grey and threatening rain. Nevertheless, we eventually rugged up and set off for a walk along the path towards the beach. The path was like the motorway at peak hour, but this morning the traffic jams were caused by four legged, tail wagging, tongue lolling, frolicking pooches! There were dog walkers everywhere! The dogs were having a marvellous time socialising, chasing balls, chasing each other, chasing absolutely nothing and just racing around for no reason other than to race around grinning. We strolled along sedately and dodged the occasional canine. As we walked past one couple, we said our usual “Good morning” and they replied, “Oh, you don’t have a dog. Bless you!” and laughed. So I guess they’d been doing some pretty constant doggie dodging on their walk too!

We strolled up to the small harbour where the boats were moored. Well, I say moored, but sitting is probably a more accurate description. They were just sitting in the mud. They still looked a picture, but the tide had well and truly left them temporarily stranded!

As we were looking at the boats, we said almost in unison, “Was that rain I felt?” It was indeed and the pesky precipitation had arrived. We headed across the road to a small café, which was another one that was more “caff” than café and it was filled with the smell of frying bacon, but it was a lovely little place. There were two elderly ladies sitting at another table eating their bacon with brown sauce and drinking their cups of tea. The lady behind the counter took our orders for coffee and tea, surrounded by piles and piles of white rolls, all sitting there in readiness for the regular rush of bacon butties! Sure enough, as we sipped our cuppas, another elderly couple walked in and the lady behind the counter greeted them with a cheery, “Good morning” and as they sat down, she immediately reached for the bacon and threw it on the hotplate. The couple hadn’t said a thing, they hadn’t ordered anything, but they were obviously regulars and the lady knew just what to do! Two bacon sarnies coming up! By the time we’d finished our cuppas, the drops of rain were now just full-on rain! So we ventured out and continued strolling in the cold and wet. Oh, summertime in the United Kingdom!

We arrived back at our wee little hoose, had some lunch and then set off for a drive to the area where Steve’s dad was born. That was really nice for Steve, to talk to his dad about his family and early childhood and to visit the places where his dad grew up. So it was a short road trip down memory lane and, I think, quite special for Steve and Len and Pauline. We then went on to Rosslyn Chapel, a 15th century chapel that has been recently made somewhat famous by its inclusion in the Da Vinci Code.

It was a beautiful old building with some quite stunning stone carvings inside. We weren’t allowed to take photos of them, but they were thought to tell all sorts of stories or to be in code and all sorts of things. As well as the carvings, I quite liked one of the stained glass windows, which was a picture of St Francis of Assisi, surrounded by animals and what do we have down in the bottom corner? A kangaroo! Fancy that! It was put there by the Sixth Earl of Rosslyn for his mother, who was an animal lover and also happened to have Australian roots. After strolling around the chapel, we set off for the return drive.

During the drive, Steve asked for a detour to an outdoor store, to get some different locks for our bikes. While we were there, he headed for the trouser racks and promptly swept at least six pairs into his arms! I looked somewhat taken aback because this was a large chain store and we had been in many of their other locations, including one quite recently.

“Why didn’t you try on all of those when we were in the last store!?” I asked?

“I wasn’t as cold then!” came Steve’s reply.

So there you go! There’s nothing like the cold to spark a bit of motivation!

Then all of a sudden he emerged from the changing rooms wearing a pair of trousers that both fitted and were the right length! Ta-da!!! The search was officially over! Steve’s legs can now have a measure of warmth against the cold, single-digit Scottish summer temperatures! We rolled up to the checkout with our varied purchases (including another fleecy layer for me!). The lady serving us commented on it being hot inside, but she said since we were from Australia, we wouldn’t be feeling hot.

“It would be nice to feel the heat,” we said.

“We’re Scottish, we think this is pretty warm! The only time we get a tan is when we get burt in the snow!” We all had a laugh at that!

We drove back to our wee hoose again and that was the day. It was a really nice, quiet, leisurely day spent at a very pleasant and sedate pace. Yes, it was still cold and it rained, but I think we’re just going to have to deal! It’s not going to change! We are just magnets for woolly weather obviously! So I’ve decided that it can now be classed as a superpower! Our superpower is instantly bringing awful weather to any location where ourselves happen to be! It doesn’t matter if it’s the middle of summer, like it’s supposed to be here, if we’re in town those superpowers instantly kick into gear and the temperature plummets, the wind blows and the clouds dump their rain! Now we just have one problem…we may have just found Steve a pair of trousers but now the search begins for a  pair of spandex superhero tights to match his new superpower! Up, up and awaaaay, it’s Weatherman!! Actually, if he’s a superhero called Weatherman I don’t think he’ll need spandex tights, I think Harris Tweed tights might be more appropriate! The search begins!