There was brilliant sunshine when I go up this morning so I laced up the Mizunos and headed out for a run. It was most entertaining running through the motorworks that are set up on the road outside the cottage! But I managed an easy 5 miles before waking the rest of the family and getting ready for today’s activities.
It’s my mother-in-law’s birthday today so we stopped at the garden centre down the road to get some nice plants for her flat. We then headed to pick her up, do the gift exchange (she loved the hip flask we brought her from the Jameson distillery) and take her out for the day. She doesn’t walk well right now -recovering from a ruptured Achilles – so we put the wheel chair in the boot and headed north. Destination: the Glenturret Distillery in Crieff where they also make The Fampus Grouse blend. It was Grandma’s first distillery tour and I wasn’t sure if I should be proud or embarrassed that my kids knew almost as much about the process as the guide! This distillery is the oldest one in Scotland (officially est 1775 but in use as early as 1717) and is actually a working distillery unlike the Jameson’s distillery we visited last week. That meant that there was wort in the mash tuns and wash in the wash backs and no photography allowed because of the amount of carbon dioxide hovering in the buildings!
A fine time was had by all and I reaffirmed my status as a non-whiskey drinker by not even being able to finish my free dram! Frank had no problem helping me with that! In the gift shop, he bought a bttle of limited run Grouse that was aged in Scottish Oak. Only 7000 bottls were made and he has a numbered certificate and his name burned into a block of wood from the cask. He’s now a member of the whiskey club there and is entitled to free tours (and tastings!) for life!
Then off to lunch in Crieff – we had a lovely bar lunch at the Caledonian Hotel. Frank had is first haggis as part of his Chicken Balmoral – Duncan had it too! Then off to ravage more charity shops and try to find new shoes for Grandma’s swollen feet. All objectives were accomplished and ice cream was consumed.
We then headed up the road to visit Perth but the weather had turned and we decided not to venture forth under the blackening sky so we headed to visit more relatives – Jim and Therese are just back from Portugal. We dropped in on them and spent the evening drinking, swapping stories. We had take away from the chippy which I couuld actually eat! They fry the chips and the chicken in separate fryers from the stuff in batter so it was safe for me – yum!
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Pedometer: 6886 or about 3 miles
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