Sorry, absolutely no chance of any blogging last night due to extreme intoxication. The photos were downloaded prior to me going on a 'pub crawl' so here they are.... read more

Spoiler alert. I'm not dead or dying. Some how my 'life saving' medication ran out this morning and whereas I though I had another box I didn't. The box was simply aspirin and not the real thing. So here I am in a strange city (well Stirling isn't that strange really) without my medication. Pleading my innocent tourist story failed miserably at 2 pharmacies and I thought I would need to make an appointment with a GP (is my life worth that much?) or go spend the next eternity at the local A and E hospital. Neither option appealed. I ended up at a clinic in the city and the receptio and doctor treated me as an emergency case, prescribed medication as required and did not charge anything. Moreover even the script is free in Scotland ... read more

Walk around Dundee day. Through the pedestrian mall, past the statues, to the Science Centre, around to the Discovery and Discovery Centre, along the waterfront to the Unicorn and finally to a cafe for hot chocolate. The centres were a bit expensive and Lee a bit tired, not a great combination! So it's to the cafe whilst I have a little sight seeing walk but really it's just a day for looking around the city centre. Our turreted bedroom accommodation is quite a dominant feature of the cityscape here, really the dominant feature if the church spires are discounted, which makes navigating through the town rather easy. The buildings are a combination of old and new that sit quite comfortably with each other. Along the waterfront buildings are springing up aimed at that same market niche ... read more

O'er the sea at Skye! It's taken a while but we managed to get a sailing day. Can it be called sailing when it's a ferry? Pretty good day here on Skye, which equates to pretty ugly day anywhere else but the boats at least set out from Elgol (how Viking is that) and headed around Skyle behind the Cuillins (a scraggy range of hills/mountains/munros) that are lovely and scenic and imposing and challenging and scary to a docking quite close to Loch Coruisk. The Loch is really only accessible via the ferry (or an arduous climb/hike over the Cuillins) and is a bit of a walkers paradise. We didn't have time (or energy!) to go around the Loch and were content with a picnic by the shore, which despite the omnipresent threat of rain, we ... read more

Loch Ness day. A drive around Loch Ness, punctuated by hot chocolates, several photo stops and a picnic by the lake. All good and some brief periods of sunshine made it quite an enjoyable excursion. Loch Ness is certainly more atmospheric in the mist and rain and it takes on a more foreboding and eerie nature and one significantly more conducive to Nessie spotting but it was good to see it with the sun shining. The north side is considerably more popular and populated than the south. On the north side tourist coaches and pubs are common whilst on the south side the road is one lane with those 'passing places' sprinkled along its length. They are some delightful little villages on both sides but on the south side there are no tourist souvenir shops at ... read more