I’m knackered and very tempted to just go to bed but having got back in the swing of daily blogging I don’t want to let it slip again.
Up early this morning to keep checking Calmac status updates. In the end I rang them and was told they were hoping to get at least one ferry to Rum today so to head for Mallaig as planned. We breakfasted and packed up and headed off to collect Bonnie. The vets were really disorganised and we ended up sitting there for about 45 minutes before they managed to discharge her and see us. Her ear is fine but we’ve been given (very expensive!) antibiotic drops to just clear the last little bit of infection up and it’s all been cleaned up. She’s to be booked in for spaying a month after her season finishes which should be earlier than natural due to the injection on Wednesday but we’ll need to keep her away from dogs just incase. So that was £80 for not a lot really 🙁
We dashed into Argos to collect a telescopic curtain pole and thermal door curtain we’d reserved – the plan is to hang it across the archway between the kitchen and the hall to stop the through draft. We’ll also need to put something over both doors and probably line the curtains at all the windows too, every little measure helps though. Then straight to Mallaig.
We arrived, loaded all our shopping on to a pallet and paid the freight (£2.81) to have it taken across then went to the CoOp to stock up some more, mostly on meat which is now in Fliss’ freezer but should see us through a good few weeks. Lynda and Stuart had arrived so we left the kids with them while we parked the car and put the keys back in the keysafe.
Then on to the boat 🙂 Lynda was feeling a bit wobbly so she sat in the cafe with the kids and they watched the ipad and ate chips. Ady and I sat upstairs with Bonnie and Stuart spent a lot of time roaming the boat. Our local MSP, and councillor were on the boat along with some senior SNH people and Scotland community development people all coming to Rum for our Community Engagement Event this evening. The crossing was pretty rough – certainly the worst we’ve had on Calmac but at under 90 minutes it was tolerable. Poor Bonnie was sick though – she doesn’t travel well 🙁
As we pulled in so an extreme hailstorm struck, soaking everyone in seconds as we came off the boat. The kids walked with Lynda & Stuart to the castle so they could check in and then walked them to the croft. We loaded the car with all our stuff and drove to the croft to unload. It looked like about five Christmasses once I’d got everything unpacked – so much food! And socks, lots of socks :). I loaded four bags with tinned stuff to go in the horsebox, unpacked everything else, stashed things like cereals under the sofas and then Lynda, Stuart and the kids arrived so we stopped for a cup of tea. Ady finished off putting things in cupboards. It feels like being squirrels all ready for the bad weather to come in!
And come in it has. The wind is howling outside and the rain is lashing the windows. With every new storm I feel a little more confident about the static but will probably always be twitchy.
At 5pm Ady fed the animals and then drove everyone else down to the village while I followed on foot with Bonnie. We even ran part of the way 🙂 We called into Fliss & Sandy’s to drop off meat for the freezer and then to the shop for Lynda and Stuart to buy milk before heading in to the hall for the event.
It was very good, very well attended and although I am never confident much in the way of action or results comes from such forums at least things were discussed. We were in a group with Fliss and Mike which was slightly unproductive in that as they are among our closest on island friends we already all know what each other thinks about things so we didn’t get new perspectives on anything. Retrospectively I think we should have mixed the groups up from who people naturally sit with. Afterwards we had a really nice meal – soup followed by buffet style spread, all very delicious and welcome as we were really hungry by 830pm when we finished. We stayed for about an hour chatting and then everyone drifted away. We decided it was too late to call at the castle to see L&S so headed for home.
We had a tiny window of dry and got in to the static before the rain started again and hasn’t stopped since. Cups of tea and then bed. I am looking forward to no stress about Bonnie, ferries or anything else tomorrow, just enjoying sharing more of the island with Lynda and Stuart.
glad static holding up well! yep thermal line everything possible i think. ? extra rugs on floor as well may help.
Comment by HHaricot — 29 September 2012 @ 11:59 am