Today would be a day of family gatherings which inevitably means food. Breakfast is generally the simplest affair since it’s just the three of us in the cottage and we all have similar likes: bacon rolls! If you’ve never had a Scottish bacon roll, I don’t know if I can adequately describe it. First you start with a morning roll. This is the only soft squidgy white bread thing worth eating. 
It’s not like a hamburger bun, kaiser roll, bap, or any other baked good I’m familiar with. You generally buy them from the baker or local shop regularly (daily in some cases) and only a few at a time as they don’t keep very long. We cheated and bought some at Waitrose when picking up more bacon. I found a gluten free version of these which is very close to the original so I am all set. Next you need to understand the bacon. Now I don’t want to start holy wars on this (smoked versus unsmoked, etc) but just to say that rashers of British bacon are one of the things I miss most in the US. It’s not ham-like as Canadian bacon is and not as fatty as US bacon is (streaky bacon they call it here). It has more meat than fat and two rashers on a buttered morning roll (with a fried egg if you are so inclined) is a wonderful breakfast sandwich.
So fortified, we headed out for one of Jesse’s bucket list activities – charity shops! It doesn’t do them justice to call them thrift stores, even though that’s really what they are. It seems every charity in Scotland accepts donations of goods and every one has a small shop on the high street where they resell those goods. So within the course of an hour covering a very small section of Port Street and Murray Place in Stirling we hit shops for: the British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research UK, Chest Heart and Stroke Scotland, and Marie Curie. Jesse got dress shoes and CDs in the first and a couple of shirts in the last. And I grabbed a fabulous night dress for 99p! A very productive hour!
Then off to the care home to pick up Grandma whence we headed to another local landmark: Dobbies Garden Center. It’s not just a DIY shop. Think the garden center at Lowe’s meets the patio section at Target meets Kohl’s meets REI and throw in a tea shop, sweet shop, and food hall. We were meeting auntie and uncle there for lunch but first Frank was trying on hiking boots. Nothing for the fat feet here. Then it’s off to the cafe for dinner (the mid-day meal) where we had a round of toasties, wraps, and baguettes and I had a jacket potato with Coronation chicken – one of my favorites. And the piece de resistance: a raspberry meringue the size of your head.
We spent an hour chatting about a variety of subjects including GDPR and electric cars. We shopped a bit more (I found a smashing raincoat on sale that I just might have to buy – it’s full length and purple!) and mostly bought sweets: flying saucers and marshmallow shrimps were also on Jesse’s “must” list.
I had a small amount of work to do (even unemployed I keep busy!) so I got dropped off at the cottage for my Skype call with Paris and Frank and Jesse took grandma back and visited a few more shops. Eventually it was time for tea (the evening meal) which became a Herculean event. We had originally thought of meal out with one brother-in-law and spouse. That turned into dinner for 11 at Mango. So all three brothers and assorted offspring and nearly-offspring gathered in an Indian/Italian restaurant (it really wasn’t as weird as it sounds) for 3 hours of eating and drinking except for the two drivers as there is a zero tolerance policy here. I actually felt bad for the other diners in the room with us as the chatting and laughter got quite loud at times. Three of the eleven opted for Italian (gf spaghetti carbonara – yum!) and the rest had Indian – or in the case of the haggis pakoras, Scottish Indian. A decent photograph of the chaos is still to be found.
Then it was home in the lashing rain and off to bed.
Data for today:
Steps: 6,038 (2.8 miles)
Hiking boots tried on: 7
Charity shops visited: 6
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