3 August 2009

we're just back from a visit up north to Wick, in the Highlands of Scotland. We took our grandson, Andy. to see our roots.
We left North Walsham on Wednesday, 22nd July...travelled over to Lincoln..stayed overnight. Then, on the Thursday, we left to go to Newcastle...no problems on the journey there..arrived in the afternoon..me and Dave Makin went down to his local club for a pint...we did a lot of catching up, before calling it a night.
Next day, Friday, we left, around 9 am, heading cross-country on the A69 to get to the m74 at Gretna. We were held up for an hour at road works, just north of Perth, at a place called Bankfoot. We arrived in Wick, at my brother Sandy's, at 7.30 pm.
On Saturday, we went to Halkirk for the Highland Games. We met our neighbours, from North Walsham, Frank Sinclair, and his wife, Jo. After a couple of hours, we went back to Wick for the Gala parade and festivities.
For the rest of the week, we visited a lot of our old haunts and friends. Alan Smith came over from Tongue, on Thursday, and we had a bar lunch in the Nethercliffe Hotel. On Tuesday, we went to a Gala darts competition in the Francis Street Club. We met a lot of our old darting buddies, and I was partnered by Ray Sinclair. On the Wednesday, all the celebrations recieved a blow, when we heard that one of the blokes playing in the darts the previous evening, and who seemed perfectly ok, Jock Geddes, went home and committed suicide.
We went, on Saturday, to my sister Margaret's, she lives in Lyth, for a family get-together. Then on the way to it, from Aberdeen, my brother, James. had a suspected heart attack, and was rushed to hospital. He was kept in overnight, and let out next afternoon. Back in Aberdeen, he was seen by his own doctor, who said his condition was quite severe and that he was now a 'high risk' patient. So, he'll have to take things easy for a while.
We left Wick on Monday morning, around 9 am. After an uneventful run down to Lincoln, we were only held up for 10 minutes at Bankfoot, we arrived in Lincoln around 7.30 pm.
On the run to Wick and a few miles running around, and the run back to Lincoln, we averaged around 55 miles per gallon. I think this was quite good, considering I have a 2 litre engined car. But it does run on deisel.
We stayed in Lincoln for the Tuesday, because our daughter-in-law, Margaret, was doing a special meal for Don, as it was his birthday this week.
We left on Wednesday to go back to North Walsham.