If you see the outline of the sun through a thick layer of mist or fog is it a “sunny” day in Scotland? Unclear. We woke up early this morning thanks to a bit of jet lag. We had our breakfast which I chased with a glass of orange drink. It was a far cry from Florida’s Natural pure Florida orange juice, but they can’t all be winners.
Shortly after our breakfast, we put on our rubber boots to go for a wee stroll. The mist was thick, but we don’t often see such things in Los Angeles, so we didn’t mind it too much. It was a bit chilly, yet humid. The ground was quite squishy and we were happy to have our boots on.
Nary a soul was encountered to use the verbiage of Scotland’s son, Rabbie Burns. Eventually the lightly trodden path gave way to a paved one, though we kind of lost our way a bit after that.
The fog was getting thicker, and Leon was getting laaaaaaarger. It was a very quiet and relaxing walk — something I think both of us needed after being on the go for sometime. It was certainly quite different from a mega mall in Dubai. Nicole and I joked that if anyone did see us, they would be quite perplexed by our photography subjects.
We probably spent a good five to ten minutes taking pictures of moss on a tree. The mist, the green color palette, and the wide open spaces are just things we don’t often see. This seems to be pretty standard weather for Scotland.
We meandered a bit down some different paths, but we weren’t entirely sure if we were accidentally wandering into someone else’s property inadvertently, so we made our way back to the cottage.
It wasn’t until after we returned that we saw Fiona had slid a hand-drawn map under our door for further guidance. It was like we were kids in a 1980s movie finding a treasure map. If the rain isn’t too much tomorrow, we will have to explore a bit more (assuming we can remember how to read a map that isn’t on our smart phones).
After fixing ourselves a lunch and attempting to warm up, we did a bit of research on how to get another covid test and discovered that such things are very difficult to acquire. In order to get a covid test from the NHS, you have to show symptoms, so the only options are through private companies. While this isn’t entirely shocking, nothing in Scotland appears to be open over the weekend which slows the process. The earliest we can get in would be Monday, which makes a timely test a bit more difficult. Nothing is ever easy. While Scotland’s numbers aren’t nearly as high as its English neighbors, the fact that one can’t get a test without showing symptoms is a bit disconcerting considering England is already averaging over 20,000 positive cases per day. Our forced isolation may be a bit of a gift. Perhaps the citizens of the UK don’t need as much protection from us as we need from them.
Mid-afternoon, we had a tea time for ourselves with some scones. The sun sort of poked through for a very fleeting moment, where I actually had to put on my sunglasses.
Afternoon quickly gave way to darkness. The sun sets early in these northern reaches. Shortly after the sun went down, we began to get notifications that America had projected a new president. Obviously unrelated to this news, our hosts knocked on our kitchen door and pointed to an outdoor table with a couple of candles and a bottle of wine while yelling, “Shall we celebrate?!”
I regret to have not taken pictures from this momentous occasion, but it was memorable. The temperature was . . .quite cold, but such sacrifices must be made in the interest of social distancing. Norman and Fiona gave us a couple of hot water bottles to help keep us warm. The wine helped a bit as well. After discussing a variety of topics ranging from travels in Africa to Brexit and Boris Johnson, our hosts were perhaps worried that Nicole and I might freeze, so we parted for the night. We came back inside to make a fire and have some dinner before calling it a night.
passports & pepto bismol 