and so.......here we are

The annual sojourn.  August 2016.  It's been 9 years since Isa died.  Gordon's mum, Isa.  We agreed to keep the house 2 years. It's been 9 now and for the life of me I can't imagine my Fall without a pilgrimage to Scotland; to Moffat; back home.  I love that it feels like home.

But we needed to find another way to get here.  We're getting older with sore knees and backs that ache.  Unable to afford super comfortable seating like Business Class much less First Class we set out to explore other airlines and other seating possibilities.  I think we found it!!!   British Air flies in-and-out of the same terminal at Heathrow (huge as anyone that has flown through Heathrow knows) as direct as we can get it which cuts our travel time by over an hour through New York AND they have a World Traveler Premium Class that gives you more width to your seat (not that we need it!), an adjustable foot rest AND 6 more inches of recline.  All big pluses.  AND free booze and real plates and cutlery!  I think it's the longest I've ever slept on a flight....maybe the first time I've slept on a flight.  So we have now arrived more rested than we ever have and closer to the evening time....ready for bed though it's only morning in California.

So now that we've found a better way to travel to the UK we needed to leave our babies, Teddy and Sophie behind with a very good, thoughtful and compassionate friend, Jessica and get outta Dodge.  We've discovered WINGZ travel service which is great. You can schedule them in advance, they send you follow up messages, let us know when they have left to come get us, etc and are a fraction of the cost of a limo service and they are guaranteed unlike Uber which is hit-or-miss in our Valley yet.  So we kiss our kitties goodbye and head out to SFO, arrive within an hour, drop our bags and zip through security.  No problems; early to the gate and we play the waiting game.  Thank God friend Dora had left a bag of popcorn at our house for me to munch on while waiting!  ....and there's always people watching.

Anyway, breezy flight, decent food, quiet comfortable seating and presto, we're there.  Of course there was a connection from London to Edinburgh but even then it was easy though we sat on the tarmac a while before we could take off.  Still we arrived on time and caught....

......the world's fastest most competent Taxi driver from Moffat taxi's waiting for us who zipped us the hour and a half down the Beef Tub Road into our little town to our little home in no time.
 
So here we are.  Fishmonger delivered fresh Salmon within a half hour of our arrival and we were off down the hill to the High Street for dinner.  It's all a blur now.

Since then we've received our groceries, been into Lockerbie to have our yearly MOT (think smog check) on our vehicle, shopped the Lockerbie antique shop, Cobwebs,  for this and that, redecorated our guest room and enjoyed home-cooked meals, bottles of wine and relaxing evenings in Moffat.  We've visited with friends, exercised twice and been out for evening walks. 

Tuesday morning we are leaving to catch the ferry in southwest Scotland to go to Belfast and then driving down to Dublin, Ireland for two days before heading off to our adventure on the Wild Atlantic Way

More to follow!  Meanwhile I'll leave you with this musical interlude filmed at the Balmoral while waiting for our pints.  This is Moffat folks, this is Moffat!