Four Generations Together

My mum joined us here in St Andrews on Sunday. We invited her up north to spend a couple of nights in the Old Course Hotel and give her the chance to meet her latest great granddaughter, Melody,  for the first time. 

We took her for afternoon tea at Rufflets Hotel just outside town. The spread was enormous. Rose chose this lot although, I hasten to add, she didn't eat it all. 

In fact the hotel provided so much that we took this lot home with us.

Melody is growing fast and Mum was very happy to meet her.

And Rose loved playing with her and showing off her talents at jigsaw puzzles.

Mum will be 88 in a couple of weeks. She's doing very well. If I get down on the floor to play with the grandchildren it takes me half an hour to get back up again. We're taking her back to  Edinburgh today to catch the train back home. We hope that she's had a good time. We enjoyed having her here.

Well Done Old Course Hotel

I've mentioned the super St Andrews festival that's been running across the town several times on the blog this week and today it ended for us with a great afternoon at The Old Course Hotel. Having stayed at The Old Course quite a few times we know that they do things well and it was no surprise to us that their Christmas Emporium was a wonderful afternoon of family entertainment. We started with mulled wine and mince pies, listened to a local choir singing carols, took Rose to see if she wanted to see Father Christmas (she didn't), bought some bits and pieces from the festive market and then sat in the fabulous boardroom for a wine tasting and ordered a case of excellent wine for Christmas dinner. There was plenty more that we didn't see (such as cake decorating and cocktail making demonstrations). And how much did we have to pay for such a pleasant afternoon? Nothing, zilch, nada - it was all put on by The Old Course who deserve a feather in their cap for doing things so well. (Other hotels in the town please note).

A Wine Tasting With A View

We only managed to get to a fraction of the week's events and are sorry that we missed the choral concerts and performing arts but there's always next year. Well done to the festival organisers for providing such a varied programme. 

It was yet another sunny day in the town and the "Chariots Of Fire" beach looked spectacular against a background of snow capped hills.

We passed the old town walls at just the right time to catch this shadow before the sun went down.

 I know I'm starting to sound like a stuck record but St Andrews really is a brilliant place.

A Busy Week

Did you miss me hey
When I was away


Okay,  I know that quoting Gary Glitter may not be politically correct but I notice that the BBC didn't airbrush him out of the TOTP repeats running on BBC4 at the moment so I'll leave it in.


Yes, too busy for blogging this week - that's retirement for you - an action packed adventure for the orthopedically challenged.

On Tuesday - Valentine's Day - we did something romantic for once and went to a soppy film. We went to FACT in Liverpool which has to be the best cinema in the north of England if not the whole of the country to see Romantics Anonymous - a wonderful French film that was just so ...... French. Parfait. A truly lovely film with two leads that were far from the glamorous norm but still charmingly sexy in a very French way. The fact that it was shown at 12 noon and there were free biscuits for pensioners could not detract from the fact that it was an absolutely lovely Valentines Day treat. If you get the chance to see it - take it. You wont be disappointed as our fellow viewers replete with free biscuit and a free Hotel Chocolate  praline obviously enjoyed it enthusiastically.

Having studiously declined the free biscuits due to our pride at not qualifying for the pensioners' offer, we dined in style at The Monro, a gastro pub down the road from FACT. They were doing a special Valentines Day meal and we got a free red rose without the hassle of someone trying to flog us one We made the mistake of ordering cocktails on arrival only to find that cocktails were included in the set meal resulting in a somewhat wobbly walk back to the station for the journey home. It was a great meal and more proof (if any was needed) that Liverpool is a wonderful place for a day out.

On Wednesday I gave a talk to the Austwick Local History Society on the thrills of my hobby of metal detecting. I know that most people reading this will think that detector users are like the bloke portrayed  by Paul Whitehouse in the Aviva ad but the talk seemed to go down well and I gave prizes to those who best managed to correctly identify this random selection of finds made by me and my brother Peter over the last few years. The winner scored just twelve out of a possible forty (which may be down to my photography). I was amazed to be given £30 as a thank you by the society as that covered the cost of the prizes and even left me a bit towards the petrol.

I made the most of the ninety minute drive to Austwick by spending the day out on the fields with my detector. I almost had a heart attack when this turned up. Shining a sparkly silver I thought that I had hit the jackpot with an old silver jewel but, as the filigree balls are stamped PATENT 6116, it's clear that it's nothing ancient. It's a brooch but it's not silver. However the patent number seems very low so maybe it has a little bit of age to it. No doubt one of the experts on the metal detecting forums will let me know.

Here's Marion opening a lovely bottle of champagne. I'm not allowed to tell you why she's opening a lovely bottle of champagne but it's a very very very very good reason. Maybe one day in  few months I'll be able to tell you.

Saw this wonderful photo tweeted by the fabulous Old Course Hotel in St Andrews today. Sorry for nicking the photo Old Course but it's perfect isn't it? Fabulous hotel, fabulous town. Can't wait to go back to St Andrews.


We're in Suffolk now. We're staying in a holiday cottage which is lovely. Not only was it very reasonably priced but the owners left us a super little hamper of stuff that was totally unexpected. Will blog more and give you the details later in the week. We've only been here four or five hours but we're already convinced that Suffolk is our Panama( © Janosch). We've dined on my speciality home made pizza accompanied by Suffolk wine and Suffolk cheese and everything is very rosy. I came with dreams of a Grade II listed cottage but have already seen a brand new house that has turned that pipe dream on its head.









We've seen this trailer about five times now. It looks better with every viewing. Looks like the Wallace And Gromit team have another winner on their hands. Only problem, since seeing the trailer I can't get this out of my head.

One Year Down How Many More To Come?

If retirees like us knew the answer to that question we might well solve the current economic crisis at a stroke. We could live like there's no tomorrow and spend,spend, spend if we knew that there wasn't one or at least knew how many there were. For now we'll have to keep an eye on the cash and live within a budget that should give us a comfortable lifestyle without being overly extravagant. 

We'll have been retired for a whole year on Wednesday. We've had a great year in very many ways with the wonderful arrival of our first granddaughter Rose, our new caravan in St Andrews and the new found freedom that retirement has brought. But sadly our happiness in the past few months has been overshadowed by Marion's mum's relentless fall into Alzheimer's which has turned her into a Jeckyll and Hyde character who one day hasn't got a clue where she is and another will correctly tell you that there's eighteen minutes to go in the football and seem quite her old self before bursting into tears and asking what is happening to her brain.

So, apart from that struggle, and it is a struggle that occupies us on some level almost every waking minute now, what has retirement been like? It got off to a fantastic start with a brilliant Madness concert in Manchester just a few hours after leaving the office. Then, within a week of clearing my desk, I was in hospital having a new hip. That wrote off December although Marion looked after me brilliantly and I quite enjoyed being nursed and loved passing the time watching the new 3D telly and reading a big pile of novels.

I was up and about by the end of December when we had a memorable new year at The Old Course Hotel in St Andrews where we watched the most amazing firework display courtesy of the wedding celebrations of Di Stewart and Nick Dougherty. Since then we've got into a routine that revolves around the gym, cinema, reading, cycling, blogging, metal detecting and writing and rewriting my novel. I'm on the second rewrite now and maybe one day I'll be happy enough with it to try and publish. We've also managed to take a few holidays after going through 2009 and 2010 with none and enjoyed breaks in Cockermouth, Kirkby Lonsdale, Feizor, Isle De Re and Italy. Next year we'll probably spend all our holidays in St Andrews.

It's been a good year for cinema for us. We've seen about 37 films at either FACT in Liverpool or Vue in Southport with just one visit to the St Andrews Picture House. There's nothing wrong with the local Vue which is fine for a multiplex but we love going to FACT in Liverpool which has a much more interesting film selection and a great little cafe. I wouldn't say that there have been any classic movies this year but there have been plenty of very good ones. My favourites include A Separation, Midnight in Paris, Of Gods And Men and We Need To Talk About Kevin. Our worst experience was The Tree Of Life. Some that were undeservedly panned by the critics in my opinion were The Eagle and The Lincoln Lawyer.

We've only managed five theatre trips but two of those, One Man Two Guvnors and The Ladykillers were comedy classics.  Concerts have been fewer still with Dolly Parton, Glen Campbell and Madness all that we saw. 


All in all a good year. I hope that there will be many more to come. I read an article in the weekend papers about longevity. The writer reckoned that, although I can hope to live for up to another twenty years, the rot sets in at around 63 and most men will encounter some sort of functional deterioration or illness that will restrict them from then onwards. So we had better make the most of the next four or five years. Get the cruise brochures out Marion.

Misty Monday

I'm writing this from our mist shrouded caravan from which we can now see some of our neighbours' pitches although earlier in the day we were pretty well engulfed. Which was actually quite nice in a sort of spooky, wintry, bonfire night  sort of feeling. Especially as we are amongst the only ones foolhardy enough to be on a caravan break in Scotland in the last few weeks of the year and have the site to ourselves. Having said that it has actually been a pretty good little vacation and shows how St Andrews is very much a year round holiday destination.

This was the sunrise that met us on our first morning at The Old Course Hotel where we spent a pleasant three nights last week having committed to a bargain break before we bought the caravan. It's a fabulous hotel and should always be the first choice for anyone thinking of staying here. It's not that the rooms are any nicer than any of the hundreds of hotel rooms available in St Andrews (although they are very good) it's just that the staff go out of their way to make sure that the guests enjoy themselves and there are always plenty of personal touches that make you feel an individual despite being one of many, many residents.

And, apart from today's fog, we've enjoyed some pretty fine late autumn Scottish weather which allowed us to try The Old Course's rooftop spa. Not bad for November on the North Sea Coast.

I've managed to find myself hundreds of acres of land to use my metal detector on but, when confronted with fields this size and only an hour or two to spare it's a bit like looking for a needle in a haystack and, so far, I haven't found any fields of gold. I've got more fields than I could ever search properly in a month of detecting so I am going to have to narrow down my search criteria to those that have some sort of historic connection next time we come here.

Today we had a marathon cycle ride. Well more than a marathon as I reckon that we managed to cycle approximately thirty miles. We rode down from the caravan site into St Andrews and then along the coastal path to Leuchars and into the Tentsmuir forest  (above) which was beautiful in the autumn colours which we saw in the occasional gap in the fog. From Tentsmuir we headed into Tayport for a quick lunch before heading back to St Andrews and a quick visit to see Sarah, Duncan and Rose. We've got four or five days left here before we have to close the caravan down for the winter. We're really going to miss it.

And we are really going to miss our granddaughter Rose who will be six months old before we see her again. This retirement lark seems to be flying by.

Countdown To Sorority Girls

Regular readers of this blog (yes they do exist - hello Mum), will be aware that our son and daughter in law both work in developing TV shows. Every time a new one hits our screens we get nervous for them hoping that the show will be a smash hit and nobody will write anything nasty about it on the internet ( fat chance - see yesterday's blog about Trip Advisor). Anyway this time it's Josephine in the limelight. Fresh from her success with the lovely Holding Out For A Hero, her new baby Sorority Girls launches next Tuesday on E4 at 9pm. As an ex sorority girl herself, Josephine came up with the idea of introducing the concept to British students, went on to develop the format and then spent the last few months working flat out on bringing it to our screens. She deserves a massive success having put 100% into the project and, as you can see from the trailer at the end of today's blog, it looks like being great entertainment. We'll be having our usual little party at home to celebrate and a joint Holding Out For A Hero and Sorority Girls do is arranged for early December, the first date that our friends can make it. Can't wait. In the meantime we've got it set on series link on the Sky and Freeview boxes at home and in the caravan.

We're up in St Andrews at the moment and spending some time with our daughter Sarah and our granddaughter Rose who is now almost four months old. On Halloween she was wearing this fabulous outfit that Paul and Josephine bought her and today we took her to Edinburgh on the train. She was absolutely perfect.


When we got back to the super Old Course Hotel we were tired and had a soak in the enormous bath with a couple of glasses and, to add to the romance, Sunday's Archers Omnibus on podcast - the joys of growing old.


I'll leave you with that trailer.

I've Got A Confession

After watching that documentary "Attack of the trip advisers" on Channel 4 last night I'm a little embarrassed to admit this but (ahemm assumes sotto voce) I have been known to post the odd review on the site. Ok so I have only posted three in the past five years during which time we have eaten at many scores of restaurants and stayed at plenty of hotels. So why have I not written 200 reviews like the site members showcased last night? Well basically I've only written one when I have been so impressed by a hotel or restaurant that I wanted to give them just a little bit more than my custom and sing their praises to the heavens (or the internet at least). So I've only written three five star reviews - all in my own name without hiding behind the anonymity of a user name. That's not to say that I haven't eaten at plenty more restaurants and stayed at plenty of hotels that were also worthy of five stars (I am writing this now from the lovely Old Course Hotel in St Andrews which is definitely a five star location) but those three were just a little bit special and worth me going to the trouble of saying so on line.   


After watching the reviewers in the documentary I question their sanity. I suspect that the film makers wanted to play this one for laughs as, although the programme was predicated on a serious issue (the damage being done to some businesses in the hospitality trade), the examples used were Fawltyesque caterers and nit picking customers including one who went on holiday with his grandma and put hidden dots on the sheets to check if they were being changed daily (do you change your sheets daily at home?) - even his nan who claimed to love her grandson dearly did not think that being served gin and tonic instead of gin and lemonade was worthy of being broadcast to the whole of cyberspace. I have to admit that I often use Trip Advisor before deciding upon a hotel but both Marion and I tend to ignore the reviews that are so obviously out of kilter with the general tone of other reviewers and I would advise you to do the same.


In the meantime if you want a few recommendations from us try Locanda Cipriani in Torcello, Villa Cipriani in Asolo, Chapel Cottage and the Sun Inn in Kirkby Lonsdale, Northcote Manor near Whalley, The Peat Inn near St Andrews, Mint Hotel in Manchester, The Old Course in St Andrews, The Freemasons Wiswell, Cicchetti Manchester, Ile De Re Holiday Homes, Bistrot Marin St Martin Ile De Re, La Route Du Sel in Loix, Le Lodge Kerisper in Trinite-Sur-Mer and The Lazy Fish near Cockermouth. We can recommend all of these from recent experience. 


We once had an experience at an inn in Derbyshire (which has since changed hands so it will remain nameless) that would have merited zero stars on Trip Advisor. When we complained that there was no hot water to bathe our very young children, the manager came up to the room with a bucket of it. Another one that would have made a good TA review was a farmhouse hotel in Eire that my brother and I once booked for a fishing trip. The  proprietor welcomed us with the unforgettable words "Welcome lads. I've been to the butchers and bought a wonderful piece of beef for yers...................and I've minced it."

On Skippy Dies And The Hunt For A Decent Comic Novel

I'm a bit of a lazy so and so when it comes to choosing books and, as Marion has such brilliant literary taste, I tend to simply read what she's bought - I'm rarely disappointed. This is even easier now that we both have Kindles and we can read the same books at the same time. But just before we headed up to the caravan on Saturday I decided to pop into Waterstones in Liverpool and choose some reading for the long dark hours in St Andrews. I made a list after looking at the covers from a wide range and then went home and downloaded them onto the Kindle (sorry Waterstones but at least you sold me a panini and a cup of coffee).  I wanted something that might make me laugh so I chose The Rotters Club by Jonathan Coe, Rabbit Run by John Updike and Skippy Dies by Paul Murray. In addition I picked a few that were not for laughs and bought Pigeon English and The Slap because both are best sellers and have some critical acclaim.


I finished The Rotters Club pretty quickly. It was a well written novel about adolescence interwoven with seventies nostalgia and Trade Union politics. I enjoyed it although it did not provide the laughs suggested by the cover. Skippy Dies took far longer to read and it was almost a week before I finished it today. The Kindle version does not have page numbers but the percentage bar at the bottom of the screen kept telling me I was far from finished and I just read that it runs to almost 700 pages in paperback. I feel somewhat exhausted and a little let down as, yet again, despite being well (nay brilliantly) written, I failed to find the humour proclaimed on the back cover. Set in a posh Catholic boys school in Dublin there is plenty of scope for adolescent laughs but this tale of 14 year olds is simply too dark to be a comic novel and I found   myself disappointed that I have failed, yet again, to find the holy grail of a book that will make me smile. Many years ago I enjoyed Tom Sharpe's Wilt novels and, whilst I bet they are terribly dated today, they were written just for laughs. If anybody can point me in the direction of a modern equivalent, I will be very grateful - mind you I've still got the Updike to redeem my choice.

We're off to the wonderful Old Course hotel tomorrow for three nights. You may wonder why, when we have our caravan to stay in, we should up sticks and head for a luxurious five star hotel with an outstanding spa, huge comfortable rooms, deep baths and magnificent breakfasts. A mystery. But one with a logical solution. It's quite simply because many months ago, in our pre caravan owning days, the hotel tweeted an unbeatable special offer for November and I booked it. The excellent deal had a no cancellation clause so I suppose we'll just have to grin and bear it. Poor us.

My Novel

While I am up here in Scotland I hope to be putting the finishing touches to my novel. I wrote it over two years ago and then had to shelve it due to work commitments but since retiring it has been professionally critiqued for me by a leading light in publishing and I have done a rewrite taking everything he said on board. I think its quite good (apologies for the immodesty) and I am now looking at ways of self publishing it for the Kindle. I will be pleased when it is finally finished as I feel that I have learnt an awful lot about writing and can't wait to start my next one. Maybe I will try and write something that will make people laugh. 

At Last. A Chance To Get On Our Bikes

I'm not one for moaning about the weather but when we bought the caravan here in St Andrews we thought that we would have plenty of opportunities to explore the surrounding countryside on our bikes. Sadly this has yet to be the case as drab skies and persistent rain have put something of a dampener on our plans. But not today. No, a patch of blue sky over Craigtoun Meadows was all the encouragement we needed to get the bikes out of storage and get pedaling. We headed down to see the William McTaggart Exhibition at the St Andrews Museum having promised ourselves that we would have a look at it as soon as we got chance. Sadly it finished at the weekend.

Unperturbed by the exhibition's closure we decided to do a coastal ride and headed past the famous Old Course (above) and the lovely Old Course Hotel (where we will be staying in November) down to Guardbridge. We checked out Balgove farm shop on the way and were impressed by both the variety and quality of provisions on display and the bright, airy and reasonably priced cafe.

We returned by the same route and headed for the famous West Sands. In all the years we've been coming to St Andrews we have never been down to the sands. The road behind them runs for about a mile down to the Eden estuary and it was great cycling with wonderful views across the Eden to Tentsmuir Forest and back to St Andrews itself.

We were never more than a few yards from a golf course during our cycle and the beautifully maintained links run impressively for miles. What a pity we are not golfers as it is truly a golfer's paradise. It was good to see so many players out on the courses. They must bring a fortune to the area.

After our ride, which ended with a long slog up the hill to Craigtoun Meadows, we popped in to see Sarah and Rose. It's so good to be close as Rose is developing so quickly. Her latest achievement is laughing (she's got an infectious chuckle) and she is an extremely happy little girl at the moment.

I see that it was a celebration of what would have been Freddie Mercury's 65th birthday this week. I'll close with an appropriate song

Apes And Air Shows

We managed to get to the cinema on Wednesday night. No longer with an Orange Wednesday free ticket unfortunately as Orange appear to have sussed out that we were only using the phone for one text a week and the free tickets have dried up. I reckon it would be cheaper for us to start reusing the phone as the savings will outweigh the call charges. Anyway it was great to see Vue packed out that night. "The In Betweeners" was opening and there was a huge queue half an hour before it started. Our choice "Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes" was also sold out and we couldn't get the usual VIP seats (I have to say that I didn't really notice much difference).  The film was very entertaining and the apes were reasonably convincing (especially the gorilla and orangutan), at least enough for you not to be spending all your time thinking they looked all wrong. It charts the story before "The Planet Of The Apes" and is set in San Francisco where a young scientist (James Franco)  is developing a super drug aimed at curing Alzheimer's. The lab are using chimpanzees to test the results and Franco's character becomes attached to a baby chimp. Things go wrong (of course) and the chain of events leads to a cataclysmic finale set on Golden Gate bridge. It was great to see David Oyelowo of "Peep Show" fame landing a leading Holywood role although it was difficult not to see him as the smooth Johnson. The film moves with pace and there are some huge action scenes which are very well suited to the big screen so I recommend catching it in the cinema rather than waiting for release on DVD.

Sad as it is to see the end of our free cinema tickets there are plenty more special offers around. None was more evident than the voucher in today's Daily Mail. As a Guardian reader one is supposed to look down on the Mail and its outrageous views but I am not too proud to look a gift horse in the mouth and when Tesco announced over the tannoy that there was a £5  Tesco voucher in the paper, there was a stampede to the newsstand in the store. We managed to get our copy before they disappeared as fast as a pair of trainers from JD Sports and we got a fiver off our shopping (you had to spend £40). Some customers were clearly cashing in as the trolley above (with three copies of the paper) testifies.

I've just booked tickets for the Leuchars Air Show on 10th September. Instead of going to the show (which, being Scotland's largest, attracts massive crowds) we've booked to go to viewing deck at The Duke's which is the golf course next to the caravan site. Its the highest point in the area so we should get a good view of the displays.They are putting on a barbeque and, being run by the wonderful Old Course, it's bound to be great quality. I wonder how Rose will enjoy it (she'll probably be asleep).


It's some time since I linked to any YouTube videos on the blog (probably due to getting out of the habit with no internet connection in Scotland) but there are some great ones in the top twenty sent to me by Unruly Media this week. It takes some doing to get a film into the top twenty but to get two into the top five must have the advertisers for STA Travel Australia wetting themselves with excitement. Not undeserved mind you as both are pretty original. Have a look.








If only the advertisers had released the two virals over a longer period they would have perhaps got even more brand awareness.


Did you see the channel four documentary "Concrete Circus" this week about urban athletes? You know, the ones who do extreme skateboarding, mountain biking and parkour. The documentary makers set out to create new films that would become viral sensations. I was a bit disappointed with the results and only found one of the resulting videos entertaining. It featured extreme mountain biking Scot Danny Macaskill. Sure enough only one of them features in the top twenty. Here he is. Marion and I might have a go at this on our new bikes.

A Taste Of Local Culture

We made a visit to the St Andrews Highland Games yesterday and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. As well as traditional Scottish events like Highland Dancing and throwing the hammer there were regular track running and cycle races. There was a good crowd in attendance and the weather stayed fine. On the catering side there was one stall that you wouldn't find south of the border, a take away kipper concession. OK I know that being Arbroath Smokies they are not really kippers but you get the idea. They looked delicious but we stuck to more traditional Scottish fare and had a couple of crepes.

The guys flinging balls on chains were enormous and could hurl them a huge distance. I imagine that they were once used as pretty deadly weapons - the balls on chains that is not the huge blokes. 

St Andrews Pipe Band provided the musical accompaniment to the event and very accomplished they were too. That's our Scouse TV aerial fitter drumming just left of centre in his immaculate regalia.

Golf purists would be amazed to see the famous Old Course which is closed to golfers on a Sunday but open to the public who take full advantage of this and wander freely across the course. Although we've got a caravan here now it won't stop us from visiting the fabulous Old Course Hotel again and we've got a few days booked to pamper ourselves there in November.

I don't do serious too often on this blog but I have to admit to being a bit worried about all the extremists creeping out of the woodwork following the Government's announcement of its new e-petition web site. The political blogger Guido Fawkes (who often talks a good deal of sense) is, sadly, pushing for the reinstatement of the death penalty. OK he's only proposing it for those who kill policemen or children but it took thousands of years to get rid of capital punishment and I hoped that we had seen the back of it for good. I don't see the people of Norway screaming out for bloodthirsty revenge and I hope that the petition sinks without trace. Perhaps the Government should have given the petition site the facility to vote against and make it necessary to have a net positive of over 100,000 voters before they consider any of the proposals. I know that some killers appear beyond redemption and there are plenty of arguments as to why they don't deserve to live but let's not stoop to their level. Rant over.

Looking At Options In St Andrews

We've been on a bit of a hunt with Sarah today. After going down the road to Rufflets hotel for a lunchtime snack (above) we went a little further to the Craigtoun Meadows Holiday Park to have a look around.

Why were we looking around a caravan park? You might ask. Well, we're looking for solutions to facilitate visiting Sarah and Duncan and the baby without having to impose on them. We know what it's like to have a new addition to the family and it's hard enough without guests under your feet so we're considering alternatives. A holiday cottage would be ideal but comes along with significant headaches like keeping on top of the garden and the worry of leaving it empty (even without taking the hefty cost into consideration). St Andrews' hotels are lovely but they aren't exactly a home from home and you've got to get out of the room and go out to eat.


So a holiday caravan is not such a bad idea.  The five star site was beautifully maintained and the latest caravans are pretty well fitted out and might be a sensible compromise. Unlike cottages, they depreciate so at the end of the fourteen year life span you are left with nothing but at the same time the money saved on the initial outlay should earn some interest. We reckon it all boils down to how often we  (and our friends and family) would use it. If we got over twelve weeks' use per year it might make sense. Any less and we would be better off renting cottages (subject to availability). A bit of a dilemma for us but we've plenty of time to talk about it.

Tonight we're off to Nahm Jim the Thai restaurant in St Andrews that reached the semi final of Ramsay's Best Restaurant and was voted the best Thai restaurant in the UK out of over 2,000. We've been before and it's a very pleasant place with an interesting menu and we'll see if it still lives up to expectations or , as recent Trip Advisor reviews suggest, is resting a bit on its laurels.

It was good to see some old friends from the past dangling amongst Sarah's washing. Chicaboo and Ted are almost as old as she is but have just had a spin in the washing machine and don't look a day older than the day we bought them.


A big thank you to son Paul who somehow managed to find our appearance on Treasure Hunt on YouTube. Were we really once this young?