Daily Archives: July 15, 2007

July 15 –

The weatherman promised that it would be sunny and warm today so we actually believed him.  I got up early and did my 5 miles (yes, even after all the wine!) and then we did a full Sunday fry-up for breakfast: eggs, bacon, sliced sausage, potato scones, beans – yum! Then we packed a lunch and the swimsuits and headed for the beach.  That’s what I said – the beach!

We met up with the cousins and grandma and drove back into the Kingdom of Fife to the Silver Sands of Aberdour.  The brochure in our flat refers to it as “the Fife Riveria” (?!?) but you can’t escape the fact that the water you are “swimming” in is the North Sea! 

We got there about noon and got the beach chairs set up and the picnic lunch sorted and the kids were splashing away in the freezing water while the sun shone through a few puffy clouds.  Summer had arrived in Scotland!  It was about 21 degrees celsius or about 70 farenheit!  Frank isn’t good about just sitting around so after he finished playing with his camera and taking some pictures, we went for a walk into town.

There are some lovely pathways along the cost and we saw some beautiful views.  We found a wee shop in the village and got some chocolate to munch on while walking back.  We returned to the beach about 30 minutes after we left to find it completely overcast, horrendously windy and COLD!  Duncan was bundled up in a towel trying to hide from the wind because his grandma was using his sweatshirt to keep warm!

We managed about another 20 minutes before the really ugly clouds moved in and we needed to pack up.  So if you are interested, summer in Scotland is between 8 a.m. and 1 p.m. on the 3rd Sunday in July….

Our day at the beach abandonded, we packed up the respective cars to head out.  My niece Leah decided to come with us and we wandered up the coast a bit to see what we could see.  As we headedup the coast, we found the sun again so we decided to make a stop or two. We ventured into Leven to have a cup of tea and wander round the shops….. but they were shut…. all of them… not a soul around….  We tried to use the ladies toilet in a pub only to find that the door marked with the little female in the skirt opened into a pitch black cupboard…. with no toilet…  it was very strange – like an episode of the twilight zone!  We eventually found an open cafe – by the bus station – to have a cup of tea then we left…. quickly!

Next stop…. Pittenweem.  It’s a really cute wee fishing village along the coast and it was really quite enjoyable to wander around the fishing boats and out onto the quay.  Frank got some really good photos and the kids got to run around and eat ice cream.  Then it started to cool off again as the sun started to get lower in the sky so we packed up yet again. 

We wandered through some of the twisty back roads of Fife so Frank could have some fun driving then went to a chain restaurant just over the Kincardine Bridge for a meal.  We dropped Leah off at home and wandered in ourselves to borrow a decent iron since the one at our flat doesn’t qualify as such.  Normally I wouldn’t care but tomorrow is the funeral and we can’t go looking like we’re homeless.

Hopefully, there will be some sunshine or bright spots tomorrow but the forecast calls for torrential rain….

/san/

[Pedometer: 12,404 or about 6 miles – most of them in some sunshine]

July 14 –

It’s supposed to be a nice day today so we pack up and head to the lovely kingdom of Fife to wander around the ancient village of Culross.  We saw the Tron where the 15th century market transactions took place as well as the ruins of the abbey from about the same period.  The oldest headstone we could make out was from 1691 – I suspect that the ones with little or no writing and lots of moss were older but who knows.  Unfortunately, it was cloudy and windy and not at all what we had expected weatherwise so we didn’t spend too much time out in the open.

So we pushed on up the coast to Dunfermline to get some lunch – just in time to get rained on but just a little.  We wandered around the town a bit, saw 3 weddings in progress and explored the ruins of Dunfermline Abbey.

Then on to Cambusbarron to visit with our great pals Gilbert and Jenny and their kids Lewis and Jordan.  They had come to visit us last year for two weeks and we had a great time.  Now we were invading their bit for a few hours and the sun decided to peak out enough to allow us to BBQ and eat outside.  We got to play with the new boxer puppy, Milo, and catch up. 

After dinner, another of Frank’s old friends showed up with his girlfriend.  We hadn’t seen Mike in about 10 years and were meeting Kirsty for the first time but it was a fantastic evening with many bottles of wine being consumed…. at about 11:30, the kids were *really* too tired, as was the puppy, so we abandonded the car for the mile or so walk home.  At that time of night it was just finally getting to be full dark and the castle was lit up and looked fantastic from the distance.

/san/

[Pedometer: 16,893 or about 8 miles over broken stones and along dark streets…}

July 13 –

Friday the 13th or not – it was time to celebrate my mother-in-law’s birthday.  In the midst of the sorrow and grieving, she turned 75!  So we planned a surprise lunch for everyone to attend (with two cakes – good thing I got in a run this morning!) and handed over a few gifts and many well wishes.  Now I have the challenge of getting her to use the gift certificate for the massage that we got her.  I’m more than happy to go along…..

So champagne and sausage rolls with much visiting for lunch.  Then we prepared for the adults to go out on the town for a proper birthday celebration. My mother-in-law, her three sons and their wives and her sister and husband had a lovely meal at the River House to celebrate.  Well, 8 of the 9 of us had a lovely meal.  I have one sister-in-law who is a self-professed picky eater and insisted there was *nothing* on the entire menu she could eat (note the use of the word could – not would…) so she had a plain piece of bread – no butter even – and then made herself a sausage roll when she got home.

I don’t mean to sound condescending but it’s something I really can’t understand.  She insists that she’d like to be a good eater but she can’t (?!?)  I have *never* had that problem.  There are lots of things I’d prefer not to eat but it’s never been the case that I couldn’t eat anything! (BTW, I thoroughly enjoyed my grilled tuna steak with chervil tequila sauce.)

/san/

[Pedometer: 8561 or about 4 miles – I rained a *lot* today]