After sitting in the car park to write my last blog post I all but gave up on the internet for the last week of our stay in the caravan in St Andrews. We kept ourselves busy so there wasn't much time to go online even if we had been able to .
I mentioned that we were going to The Rocca Bar And Grill where Masterchef The Professionals winner Jamie works. I assume that he is still there (we didn't ask) as dishes like Marion's lovely starter certainly had the Masterchef look about them. We had a great meal with very friendly and attentive service. We had another good meal on Tuesday at Little Italy. We haven't tried it before but were very impressed. It's a typical little trattoria serving good homely Italian food. It's a great deal different from Rocca but, at a third of the Rocca price for our dinner (a comparable number of courses but less wine) extremely good value for money. We'll certainly be going back to both when we are in St Andrews again.
The big event of our two weeks in Scotland was the second birthday of our granddaughter Melody. Sarah found time from her extremely busy schedule to make a Soup Dragon cake for her Clangers themed party.
It seems only a few weeks ago that we were looking after Rose while Sarah went into hospital to have Melody. It's scary how our life seems to be simply flying past us.
I found plenty of time to read while we were away and managed to complete the book of the moment and Booker Prize favourite A Little Life. I was reading it as part of an online social reading group and, like most of those involved, I hated it. How it is getting so many rave reviews makes me wonder if it is a major case of King's New Clothes syndrome. It's dreadful. Unless you love depressing reading material don't touch it with a bargepole.
The weather was mixed while we were away but I did get the chance to go on another long bike ride through some lovely forest and farmland in perfect cycling conditions.
Rose and Melody were, of course, the highlight of the break. I'm waiting for the time when they audition for X Factor and put their singing down to "encouragement from our Nanny and Granddad when we were little."
They certainly know how to belt out their favourites from Frozen.
We're going to miss them and their parents very much but it won't be too long before we get back.
We passed the new Forth Road Bridge on the way home yesterday. It's going to be a pretty impressive structure when it's finished.
We had an uneventful drive in perfect weather until we reached the sign that told us we were back in Suffolk.
We had a couple of hours of exercise classes this morning to try and keep our fitness as we get older and then, to keep us in good health as well, did some shopping for recipes from Jamie Oliver's Everyday Superfood - his latest cookbook. The meals look great and I will let you know how we get on with them. After shopping and a quick coffee we went to Ipswich Film Theatre again for the matinee showing of 45 Years. We were amazed to see a long queue for tickets and the screen almost full. It was a silver haired audience and we were amongst the youngest in it. I imagine that should be no surprise for a highly acclaimed film starring two OAP actors. Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay will almost certainly go on to win more awards for their excellent performances but, for a couple like us coming up to our 40th anniversary, it touches on some serious and quite depressing issues. It's not a barrel of laughs but certainly provides plenty of food for thought.
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