Really need to catch up otherwise I’ll be catching up on Rum stuff too…
Sunday – having ascertained that there was NO public transport at all on the Sunday we were rather scuppered for collecting D&S from Outward Bound. We had gotten a quote from a taxi for the trip (6 miles) and it was £25!!! Our plan had been to walk there to collect them and then see if there was any chance of a lift back.
Lynda and Stuart offered to take us out for breakfast in the morning so we gratefully accepted and then as they offered to run us along the road to the OB centre leaving at the same time as we’d have had to leave to walk we took them up on it – a five minute car journey versus a two hour walk, no contest really! Which meant we were there with over 2 hours to spare. We sat at the station for a while and ate polo mints but then got bored so went off for a walk. We had spotted two of the groups doing stuff on the loch and came across another group doing climbing. We looked from a distance at the kids on the ground and decided Davies and Scarlett were definitely not among them so it was safe to walk past. Only to get closer and be hailed by the leader – we thought he was holding up a hand to stop us coming closer but it was a hand raised in a greeting wave and then he said ‘come over, it’s fine’ at which point two of the four children actually doing the climbing yelled out ‘Mummy!’ and there were Davies and Scarlett :). We went to walk on so as not to distract them but the leader beckoned us over to watch so we did. We were eyed with curiosity by the other kids and when they came down Scarlett dashed over to cuddle us and say hello and was followed by another girl who introduced herself and chatted. She reminded me of Megan Sambrook – a really lovely, charming girl with beautiful manners and a great way of talking to adults. She said she had made friends with Davies and Scarlett and has lots in common with them, then listed the ways which included love of animals and having moved up to Scotland from West Sussex 4 years ago 🙂 Having since accepted a friend request from her Mum on facebook I see we share several mutual friends in Sussex from Home ed circles although Jenna and her younger sister are schooled. Small world.
The girls were called back to their group to carry on and one of the other course directors came over to introduce himself and offered us a cup of tea back up at the centre so we headed off up there chatting to him. He also offered a lift back to FW when he heard about our plight. We were installed in the staff lounge with tea and coffee and had a steady stream of visitors including Emma the contact from the school, a lovely instructor who later was the person who ran us all back to FW and someone who Ady didn’t understand at all thanks to his very broad accent but I gathered drove lorries for a living. We were invited in to watch the kids given their attendance certificates and then they said goodbye to everyone before we were given a lift back.
They both enjoyed it and had plenty of stories to tell. They had made friends with Jenna and Davies had been rather taken aback by the laddishness of the other boys on the weekend. He is so not a lad. He did get said goodbye to by several of them though and said no one had been mean to him, he just had nothing in common with any of them. They were both utterly knackered – the Friday had entailed a jump into the loch and swim back to shore, the Saturday was packing up their kit and then hiking up to a campsite, setting up camp and sleeping out overnight. The Sunday had been coming back to base and then the climbing. Pretty full on. Davies said the week long events had the same activities but interspersed with loads more down time and low key team building stuff. They both said they’d go again next year.
We went to Morrisons for some lunch – they had not enjoyed the food which had been all boil in the bag stuff for the camping expedition. Back to the room for baths and then McDonalds for dinner.  We met Marcus, Michelle and Chloe from the train at 10pm and despite best intentions of early nights all round it was about 1am when we finally parted company I think.
Monday – a lie in for us. Davies seemed to suffering a cold caught from his tent mate. We had reserved a rucksack at Argos so walked along to collect that and then headed to the dentist. Everyone was fine except me – I had lost a chunk of tooth on a toffee a couple of weeks ago so knew I would need that sorting out, sure enough it was a drilling out of the old filling and a new one to fill in the extra gap. As always the worst bit is the freezing up which had me dribbling and not talking properly then not able to eat or drink for hours.
We had debated various food options and decided on McDonalds that night again. Davies was feeling rough so declined to come instead heading to bed and actually was fast asleep when we returned to the room. Chloe was also not feeling right so it was an early night all round which was probably most needed.
Tuesday – Ady and I did Easter egg shopping and bought a drill from Lidl while the kids slept in again, then we met up with M,M & C and went off charity shop shopping. I did well getting a couple of pairs of jeans, we tried to stop for coffee in a Wetherspoons and a McDonalds before ending up back in the Premier Inn. All the adults went back out in the afternoon – me for bra and toiletries shopping, the others for various things. Ady and I bought battery toothbrushes. That was picnic food for dinner night so the men and kids went off to get that while Michelle and I hung out in the room. Another late one.
Wednesday – Ady and Marcus were off to the Nevis Distillery for a tour, there was a plan to walk with them but actually it was raining and not terribly nice so the kids and I decided that crap TV and a bath was far more attractive a proposition and lazed around in the room. Michelle and Chloe went on the walk and came back so we had tea with them and then parted again so I could have a final long bath with a glass of wine. We were out to the Premier Inn adjoining restaurant that evening but ended up eating really late as they claimed to be full so we went back to the room. We had far too much to drink before the food so were quite rowdy but very happy. Not a crazy late night but late enough given the early (for us!) start the following morning.
Thursday – Home! We walked into FW station and saw Lesley and Bad Neil. Sean the Rat and Nicola were also on the train so it made for a lovely journey back catching up on everything. I dashed back across to the CoOp for bread, milk and doughnuts and saw Sean, Ali and Eve in there too so all 11 of us sat on the boat together like a sort of Rum field trip. It was lovely. I am sure I have blogged before about loving being on the boat with fellow islanders as you feel part of a special club. We took over half of the top of the Calmac and there was lots of banter and chatting. It was a pretty rough crossing and as we pulled into the loch of Rum so Nicola sat up (having been prone for the whole journey) and announced ‘I was not sick!’ to which we all cheered, then Sean came back inside with wee Eve as they had been outside the whole time as Eve gets very seasick and Eve shouted ‘I was not sick!!!’ so we cheered some more 🙂 🙂
Back on Rum we were very warmly welcomed home by Bonnie dog, everyone’s cars started – we’d been debating on the boat who might have to jump start who – and away we went home. We got back to no real dreadful surprises and all animals present and correct. Scarlett made lunch, we unpacked everything and put it all away and then Ady and I headed down to the shop and stopped for a beer with the folk who were down there. Another lovely welcome back with more than one person commenting on how it was lovely to have us home. A splendid curry cooked by Ady and a blissful nights sleep back in our own beds.