TUESDAY 28th JANUARY
This was the day of my appointment at the Dermatology Dept at ARI. I had thought they were going to cut out the former mole on my chest when I was there, but it was actually only an examination and assessment. They agreed it needed cut out but there was no need to rush matters and it could easily wait until we came back from Australia.
WEDNESDAY 29th JANUARY
More medical stuff. We had made appointments at the local chemist to have a travel vaccination assessment due to our coming trip to Bali. It lasted about half an hour and we discussed the various options and risk factors, but, in the end, we opted only for the NHS free ones, so an appointment was made for us to get these done by the Nurses at the Medical Centre.
THURSDAY 30th JANUARY
We had realised we were running out of time to make use of the Xmas gift that Barry and Helen had given us so we had arranged to have lunch this day at Banchory Lodge. We walked down there and took our nice window seat, looking over the confluence of the Rivers Dee and Feugh:
Lovely meal, but the portions were huge and rich, meaning we didn't have to eat again this day!
FRIDAY 31st JANUARY
The start of our week-long break in the East Neuk of Fife. To save Gary the trouble of going back to Inverurie after work to pick up Luca, Jo and I drove over to meet him straight from school and the three of us headed south, arriving at Kilconquhar Castle Estate about 5 pm, with Gary joining us an hour and a bit later.
Our original plan for dinner was to eat at the onsite Bistro but when we got there we discovered it was pretty busy and they were running behind in the kitchen so we just had a quick drink and headed back to our villa to eat there instead.
SATURDAY 1st FEBRUARY
Gary and Luca went to play table tennis so Jo and I decided to take a quick recce drive round the area. It was dry but pretty cool and windy as we briefly got out of the car in Elie harbour:
Despite apparently having looked forward to using the pool, Luca decided he wasn't interested when actually given the opportunity - 3 times over the weekend. He did, however, go for a (very) short ride on his bike followed by some badminton with me and his Dad.
I had booked a table at the local Kinneuchar Inn, a recently refurbished gastro pub, and we walked there for our early dinner booking. It's a lovely place and the food was good, but perhaps not ideal for a 13 year old fussy eater. Some of the dinner choices were a bit too exotic for Luca, but he then spotted fish and chips on the menu. However, it was John Dory and it arrived whole on his plate - eyeballs staring out. I filleted it for him and he did eat most of it, thank goodness.
SUNDAY 2nd FEBRUARY
Luca had a football match to play at Mintlaw in the afternoon, so Gary and he had to leave our villa before noon. It suddenly occurred to me that I hadn't taken any photos of them, so, as we relaxed with the Sunday papers, I snapped this one:
Why the suspicious looks, boys?
Jo and I went for a drive westwards along the coast in the afternoon - firstly through Largo, which is the birthplace of Alexander Selkirk, author of Robinson Crusoe - there's a statue there on the house:
We drove on to Leven, where, reputedly, MacDuff's Castle is - but we never found it. Onwards through some of the less salubrious towns - Methil (no more) and Buckhaven and on to the outskirts of Kirkcaldy where we stumbled upon the lovely little harbour of Dysart, which was one of the locations for filming Series 2 of Outlander, the Amazon Prime historical fantasy that has been a huge international hit, spawning holiday tours all over Scotland for jetsetting holidaymakers.
The weather had improved and we were able to take advantage of some nice trails leading us to Ravenscraig Castle:
Back at Dysart harbour, we spotted this quaint little shack:
MONDAY 3rd FEBRUARY
Barry, Helen and Dawn arrived mid-morning and, after a spot of brunch, we all decided to go and try the Elie Chain Walk, a mini Via Ferrata. It consists of 8 stretches of chains pinned to the rocky outcrops along the coast for 0.5 kms. It was a little difficult to find at first and we ended up marching up a hill along a narrow path in high winds. We spotted where the chain walk must be, but by now, we were high above it and getting down to the start would have meant fully retracing our steps and starting all over again, and, with the wind so strong, we decided it was too dangerous anyway - we would try another day.
Back down the narrow track again - Helen and I leading, with Barry hanging back to make sure Dawn and Jo could navigate the path safely. At various stages, they were travelling in a chain, holding hands. Eventually they made it back down to a safe level:
A quick pint in the Ship Inn then Steak Pie from Penman's of Crail followed by Dawn's pavlova for dinner in our villa.
TUESDAY 4th FEBRUARY
A quick morning walk in the grounds of Kellie Castle was the plan, but this soon developed in to a longer walk up Balcaskie hill. Barry and I marched ahead and girls followed on:
The wind had dropped substantially and, after lunch, we all thought we needed to have another go at the Elie chain walk. We found it OK this time, but, despite Trip Advisor and various blogs advising that it was OK for anyone reasonably fit over 8 years old, we - especially those of us with metal knees that don't bend far enough to take the high steps required to get from foothold to foothold - didn't manage to get far at all - particularly when we spotted a section of the chain link missing.
Of course, some of us had to pose on the chains before we headed back:
On the plus side, although we hadn't managed to find MacDuff's Castle the other day, we did find MacDuff's Cave.
Dinner was at the Bistro.
WEDNESDAY 5th FEBRUARY
Dawn, Barry and Helen were heading home today so we decided to drive west and head to the trails at Loch Leven, where Barry and I planned to cycle round whilst the girls would walk part of the way and we would all lunch at the cafe afterwards.
It all pretty much went to plan apart from a brief chain snagging incident with my bike.
THURSDAY 6th FEBRUARY
All alone are we - for the first time this week. Jo and I decided to drive out to Shell Bay and see if we could find the other (western) end of the chain walk. We could have driven all the way to the bay, but decided instead to leave the car at the start of the Caravan Park and take a trail walk which would eventually lead us to the Fife Coastal Path and, from there, we walked up to Kincraig Point, where our first aborted attempt at the chain walk had ceased 2 days previously.
We did spot the start of the chains but the path down to them was steep and narrow and neither of us fancied risking it, so instead we found a spot in the rocks further back where we watched as a couple of birds of prey hovered above us:
FRIDAY 7th FEBRUARY
Time to pay the bill and head home - we had our appointment with the Nurse for our vaccinations in the early evening. We got our jabs - one in each arm - Diptheria, Tetanus & Polio in the right and Hep A/Typhoid in the left.
