Waverley Hotel Perth

... but one side has nothing - it's just bare and exposing a monstrous building left from the time when the area mined coal from under the sea. I ask a guy sat next to me what the building is used for now and he tells me that it's going to be dismantled but requires a lot of money and asbestos specialists to take it down. The coastline will look ...

... is where we decided we would have dinner for the evening. It turned out to be very good!

The next morning we rose bright and early to get dressed in our golf gear. We took the bus out to the course we were playing which happened to be the Castle Course. This course was built last year and is one of the more difficult courses of the area. We didn't even attempt to play on the Old Course just because you need a handicap card (which I don't have) and enter your ...

... again, pretty badly ruined, pretty good for me to walk around and get photos from all angles... We walked down to the harbour pier and looked across the North Sea to Denmark/Norway? And Mum announced that we had "done" St Andrews - that was all there was to it. Obviously we drove ...

We are setting off on Monday for a 5 month tour. The prospect is pretty daunting and we are both felling excited and terrified in equal measures! We will be visiting South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Tahiti and the US. I imagine that we will have the opportunity to do all sorts of things that we have never done before. I am starting now with my first blog ...

... of two.



Right next door is St Michael's Church, a 15th Century "burgh kirk", which now has a modern spire, which surprisingly isn't at all cringy.



The ...

... phones through to the AA and books a transporter to take me back to take me back to Nottingham (East Leake).

Tow truck 1, turns up at 11:50 to take me on the first leg of the journey home from Fort William to Stirling. This takes approx 3 hours and I get dropped at Stirling service station where I am supposed to be met by the next tow truck. It takes about an hour for the next truck to turn up. Which was arranged for 14:30

We are in the middle of the countryside, so not much in the way of Internet services. We left Edinburgh yesterday and picked up our rental car. An adorable little Peugeot with the steering wheel on the wrong side and the stick shift in the right place. Got the hang of it pretty quickly with no mishaps yet (knock on wood) - even did a little 'big' city driving in Perth last night. Spent ...

... Really something to see. BANKING: we have a current account (chequing) and a savings account: we have a separate bank card for each account! The current account is a debit card also, but the savings account we cannot use the card for debit, only at a bank machine to get money out of that account. Weird hey? We don't take the savings card around with us, just transfer online. I was rejected for a Tesco credit card as I don't have enough "credit" yet. Darn.

... still managed to make it to the National Gallery this evening after 5 because most museums in Edinburgh are open late on Thursdays. The displays were very rich in colour and the venue is right on Princess Street and The Mound (which leads up to the castle). Walking along the Princess Street Gardens I noticed that a lot of flowers were starting to bud and even bloom. The greatest sign of spring was when I saw the daffodils!

... an 'eco park.' Big thanks to the Falkirk council for organizing the project, and of course for the pub session last night! Hopefully their people will be able to finish our 'documentary' and make some use of it. There have been some really interesting discussions and ideas going around. I've actually found the most interesting and productive conversations for me have been not during the plenary sessions but in the pub or at lunch. For example the other night there was a ...