Today would be the last day for seeing folk and finding the few items we were still trying to acquire before heading home tomorrow. The sun shone for about 5 minutes when we awoke and then it proceeded to rain steadily for the next 16 hours. Mother Nature was doing her best to make sure we were ready to go home.
We had a few things that we’d yet to find to bring home including a small gift for a friend that I shan’t mention here just in case – don’t want to spoil the surprise! – and the hunt involved charity shops and specialty stores. It’s quite a common item but not necessarily easy to purchase. We started by visiting all the charity shops in Stirling: British Heart Foundation, Marie Curie, PDSA, Stratcarron Hospice, etc. No luck. So we tried switching to the other item on our list: a new duvet cover. We are still fans of the duvet with a cover and no top sheet. Which means the covers get washed frequently and need to be replaced fairly frequently. These still aren’t that common in the US and the only place we have ever had any luck is IKEA. But now that the closest IKEA is in Canada, we are quite keen to bring one home from this trip.
But not just any duvet cover – those we can order on line. We were on the hunt for one that matched the odd shade of blue in our bedroom. In fact, we had brought a paint stick with the paint color on it so that we could compare it to the ones in the shop. We hit all the department stores still left in the town but again, no luck. So into the Bluebell Tearoom for a cuppa and a GTF scone with jam (yum!) and then to continue the visiting. Off to see mum for the last time this trip. She was in fine spirits and had us laughing out loud when a news item about the US president came on the telly and she burst out with “See him? How has no one shot him yet?”
Then it was off to see the missing brother who had just got back from his own holiday the night before.
Travel tip #37: When you plan a trip to visit folk, make sure they are going to be home.
We hadn’t shared the dates of our trip with anyone until just a few weeks before we left which was after they had booked a trip to Portugal. Luckily we managed to have one day that overlapped so we popped round for a cup of tea and to make plans for getting together for our last night. Then it was off to the Torbrex Inn for some lunch. I was thrilled to see that they had GF steak pie on the menu – which I figured out later wasn’t exactly gluten free. Ugh.
Fully fueled, we continued our quest, heading into Alloa to check the charity shops there. And success! In the window of the Stratcarron Hospice shop there was the coveted item. We headed back into town via the retail park where a stop at Harry Corey netted a smashing duvet cover with the right shade of blue in it. (And only 12 pounds!) Then back to the flat to pack before dinner at the Allan Park Hotel.
This trip has been unusual in many ways. We haven’t done many of the typical things that we traditionally do when we visit and tonight’s dinner was another departure. Instead of a carry out and a heavy drinking session with large numbers of family at the house in Bannockburn, it was just the 4 of us having a lovely meal and behaving relatively like adults. Of course we had a wee drink before we left and then a few drinks with dinner then we did get a taxi back to the house for a few more drinks before yet another taxi took us back to the flat. So it wasn’t *too* far off the usual.
Dubious data for the day:
10,575 steps and 4 floors
Charity shops visited: 10
Types of drinks consumed: 5
Number of people ordering highland chicken at dinner (stuffed with haggis): 3 (it’s not GF – oh, darn.)
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