Whew, back at work for a bit of a rest.

Faye arrived without any mishap. Bertie was quite startled to see her; just as well we were at the railway station! What a coincidence! Etc. Poor dog, his life is one big surprise after another.

The weekend in brief:

Saturday: Drive up around the Fife coast to St Andrews, one of my favourite day trips. We stopped off in Elie for lunch at a nice cafe, had a brief walk, hurried back to the car to avoid hypothermia. It was blowy and freezing, snow on the hills. Stopped again in Crail; this time we were caught in a hailstorm just before we reached the car. St Andrews we went for a longer walk on the beach, a fantastic stretch of sand right by the golf course. Bertie was thrilled. That night we watched a video I bought last week, Asoka. No kissing please, we're Indian! Also weirdly non-violent violence.

Sunday: Raining, so we decided to visit that famous Scottish landmark, Ikea. En route we passed the Ingliston Sunday market so on a whim went in for a look. It was almost empty of stalls. I had just bought a 6in adjustable spanner for £1.75 when we found out why -- it suddenly started hailing ferociously, with thunder, lightning and strong winds. "This is the third time I've cleared everything away," said the stallholder gloomily. At one point a big rubbish bin was blown over and rolled across the vast empty swathe of tarmac -- right into Faye! Ikea was much more civilised. I didn't buy much, but got a nice utensil holder for the kitchen. Went back home via Peebles and Pennicuik.

Monday: Another outing, this time to Culross, across the firth. First we did something insane. While giving Bertie a pre-excursion walk, we both saw what looked like a shipwreck. It was blowing a gale, so it seemed conceivable that a ship had run aground across at North Queensferry. I took photos with my little camera and I tried to take some with the big one but the batteries had gone flat. We got in the car and drove across the bridge, parked by the harbour and went looking for the shipwreck. There was no shipwreck. We walked to every possible vantage point and it had gone. Thus was born the legend of the ghost ship; we even saw the crew, Chinese or possibly Filipino, walking single file along the road, hauling all their worldly goods in wheeled suitcases. Bertie was scared of them -- dogs can sense the presence of the supernatural. After that we headed on upriver to Culross, where we staggered around buffeted by the wind seeing the sights, and had lunch. Then on across the Kincardine bridge and back round to Blackness, to walk Bertie, and home via the New Hopetoun garden centre for a browse. Faye bought some gardening gloves. In the evening she treated me to a wonderful meal at Sweet Melinda's, a great little restaurant in Marchmont.

That's all for now. Duty calls...