Blarg

Day 10: May 13

After a couple of days of very late nights for the kids (10:00pm+) they were a bit of a mess (Eilidh not so much, but she was even grumpier on the 14th. That's a literary device known as clumsy foreshadowing). We had a really lazy day as our last day on Uist. We had full Scottish breakfast which is becoming so much the norm that I don't write in massive detail about it, but rest assured I piled my plate with beans and black pudding and bacon and OMNOMNOMNOM.

I left Val to clean up the kitchen (thanks, dear!) and went to Donald and Margaret's to upload more content on the interwebs, but although the interwebs were working fine, blogspot's posting capability was down for about 4 days, so I was unable to put anything up. We tried to go down for a little walk to the loch behind the cottage, but a neatly manicured path quickly became a poorly manicured bog in dire need of a brazilian. There is so much long grass that the kids were able to play hide and soak until Jonathan just had had enough.

Came back and by the time we finished eating, cleaning, and arguing about socks, we actually had an enforced nap for the first time this trap for Will, Jonathan, and Val. Jason lay abed trying to warm up for a time and trying not to nap. Eilidh, however, went out with Nana and Grandpa and was out for a couple of hours! They went to visit some people that N&G knew and also stopped in at a graveyard.

We had a little trip into South Lochboisdale (like N. Lochboisdale, but with a smaller, windier road--we saw a couple of very old cottages which apparently have been renovated into rentable properties. Apparently Donald is considering doing the same for the original house that's still on his property.) We also walked down the path by the post office/internet cafe which was effectively the world's smallest causeway. Lots of sheepdip and Eilidh's sensitive nose had her back in the car. Jonathan chased some sheep and then they chased him. As we were driving back, we stopped at Grandpa's old primary school, est. 1909.

Our last dinner was at the Borrodale again, and Donald and Margaret joined us for only a drink, until (reminiscient of Father Ted and a cuppa tea) Sam armtwisted them into staying for dinner, with Donald doing the same for drink. I had a duck with cherry sauce which was reasonable (though for the price, not amazing). Just about had langoustines and salmon, but it was mostly a salmon dish, so I changed at the last minute. However, the key to that langoustine dish was an AMAZING cream-caper sauce which Sam didn't touch. I ate the whole thing on anything I could find--extra potatoes, and eventually, the kids' cold fries. Giant capers with lots of flavor--"tasty." They (Donald and Margaret, not the capers, though I suppose they did too, in a fashion) came back to the house for a moment because they had to pick up Davie at the Co-op at 10pm, and we said our goodbyes.

Not a whole lot happened, but we got some rest, and some of those days are needed too.

Day 11: Saturday May 14

Sam had in fact packed only some of the car the night before for our 11am departure. I got up a little earlier than usual (7:45?) and we got everything cleaned up and packed fairly quickly. We broke our fast on leftovers--baps, cereal, the remainder of the juice, a couple of leftover pieces of bacon and black pudding rewarmed. We packed up the car early. Everyone seemed pretty anxious to get on the road for our 4pm ferry, so by 9:45 am we were on our way to slowly drive north up the island.

Our first stop was Loch Druidibeg nature reserve just a few miles up the road. We had gone to the Co-op to pick up 75p worth of carrots. Driving up to the reserve, we found an empty fence and the ever present friends of wind and rain. Sam cursed the gods and we made our slow, sad drive away from the reserve (preserve?)... and then we saw a few ponies up the hill on our drive! We pulled the car over to take a look at them from afar, and brought out our carrots. The ponies stayed up on the hill for 3 or 4 minutes until the bravest noticed us and the carrots and trotted down to join us. After a couple of minutes we had all 3 of the kids feeding carrots to ponies and we must have spent a good 15 minutes with these "gentle midgets." I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. Sam was really pleased because "FINALLY something had gone the way he'd imagined it!" Was a great treat for the kids to get to see tame wild animals. Definitely better than at a petting zoo, because we knew they were there not because they were penned up, but because they saw us as a harmless source of carrots due to our abuse of their genetic programming.

(A look into the future... OOOOOooooOOOOoooOoooooooOOOO! I see a B&B in our future... breakfast is being served as I am typing ... .ooH scarrry!) more later on the 14th and 15th.