Saturday/Sunday/Monday

Whew - deep breath - Saturday arrived and no new visitors, so we were free to do whatever we wanted. Lucy and Gary were planning a run together and a return visit to the Laser Tag at the Beach had been promised to the boys, so the Lesinas took one car and headed to Inverurie, whilst I took the Australian branch south, heading for a quick look at St. Andrews.

We drove over Cairn o' Mount, but when we got to the bottom of the hill on the other side, we took a sharp left at the Clatterin' Brig and headed up Drumtochty Glen. Chris and Kelly have plans to get married in Scotland, probably in the summer of 2016, and Drumtochty Castle (http://www.drumtochtycastle.com/) is a potential venue.

We arrived at the private estate and there was a wedding on this weekend, but we carried on regardless. We came across a fairly grand building and Chris said "look - there's the castle" so they got out to explore:

Wrong! This is just the stable block!

We found the real castle eventually and Kelly and Chris had a quick look around and have since made a proper appointment to go back and find out more information.

There is an old church (St. Palladius Scottish Episcopal) on the estate and Kelly and Chris posed here:

We popped in to nearby Fettercairn for a quick coffee, but Miller disgraced himself and the rookie parents hadn't brought a change of clothes on this day trip, so we had to pop in to Tesco in Dundee to buy him a new outfit.

Eventually, we got to St. Andrews and the weather looked inviting, so we parked down by the beach where the famous scene from Chariots of Fire was filmed. As soon as we opened the car doors, an icy east coast wind blew in. We didn't walk far, but I did manage to get a photo on the Old Course:

We grabbed lunch at the first place Kelly spotted - in the basement of the newly refurbished Hamilton Grand (http://www.hamiltongrand.co.uk/hamilton-grand/index.html) building. After that, we took Chris on a quick car tour of St. Andrews - nobody was going out in that wind again!

There was a quick stop at the Lairhillock (http://www.lairhillock.co.uk/) on the way home to assess it as a potential wedding venue, but it was a bit underwhelming after the grandeur of Drumtochty.

On Sunday, it was back to the old routine of entertaining visitors from the Central Belt - this time, it was the Hansons - Brian and Mary brought their grandsons Sam, Tom & Leo along. Carole and Luca arrived as well, but Gary didn't make it - he'd spent himself on his morning run.

Brian, Scott, Chris and I made a brief escape for a couple of beers at the Tor-na-Coille, where the Hanson family were staying overnight, but here's some photos from the rest of the day:

Monday came and it was Luca's 7th birthday. We were joined by Guy and Julie who had been staying at Pitlochry overnight and had come over to pick up their boys and say hello to everyone. Here's the scene just after Luca blew out the candles:

and this is the video version:

It's Hogmanay today and it looks like we might be going out for curry and then back to Inchmarlo to see the New Year in.