I'm back

Well, it’s been a few days since I posted here, but I’ve been a busy boy – so I will sit here, drinking the juice of two grapefruit (one pink, one yellow) mixed with two teaspoons of psyllium husks. I’m really getting quite into these psyllium husks. They don’t taste of much, but what they do taste of ain’t too bad. The old digestion is ticketty-boo, too. Anyway…

Ok, so on Friday afternoon about 4pm, I was sitting in the office deciding what I would do with last (at that time, “this”) weekend. On the spur of the moment, I thought “What the f***, I’ll go back to Scotland.

So, an hour later, I had loaded the car and the pooch and off I went. Now, some people tell me that I am crazy to drive to Scotland for the weekend, but personally, I don’t see it. If I leave at 5 in the afternoon, I can be there by 2 in the morning. That then gives me two whole days in Scotland to play around, and then I can do the same on the way home. Seeing as the 5 ‘til two slot is only really spent doing crap stuff like going out, watching telly and getting an early night, I don’t think its too bad to swap these for two days on the beeeyootiful West Coast.

Had a good day on the Saturday because it was the local Agricultural Show. I met up with out Farm Manager, and we spent most of the afternoon propping up the bar in the Beer Tent and chatting to the people we know who were passing through. I was on diet coke, but it was a good do none the less. The FM was on vodka and water – and extraordinary (and extraordinarily disgusting) combination that I have never come across before.

Also met up with an old friend who I used to work with when I was on the farm, who is an extremely good accordion player. He spent a fair bit of time propping up the bar with us.

I am glad to be able to report that the bar did not fall over once during the entire afternoon, so our efforts were not wasted.

Took the FM to a local restaurant where he was meeting his wife, and got dragged off to join a table whilst we waited by a local farmers wife. She was three-sheets to the wind, as was her husband, who spent the whole time giving me the eye. “Hmm”, thought I, “This guy is going to get up and take a swing at me any minute”. Gawd knows why? Maybe he thought I was flirting with his missus (I wasn’t) or maybe he just didn’t like the colour of my shoes, but every now and then I looked over and saw him just staring at me.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I am a guy of a certain size, and I have done a fair amount of Martial Arts in my time – plus, I was stone cold sober and he was swaying in his chair. I wasn’t really worried about the physical outcome if he did take a swing at me, but the political outcome would have been less good. So, when FM’s wifey arrived, I made my excuses and left.

That evening I went to the local tourist-tavern because my friend the accordion-player was doing his stuff there. Not the sort of stuff that I would normally choose – very touristy – but interesting none the less.

It was also made interesting by the fact that I had the waitress come up partway through the evening and say “the Lady over there would like to buy you a drink” Now, I though that only happened in rather corny Hollywood movies, but no, it happened to me at the weekend. Despite the fact that I didn’t really want yet another diet coke, I had one, to be polite, and spent an interesting time chatting to the very attractive blonde lass who had sent it.

Hmm. Just goes to show that even if Mr BMI thinks that I am borderline obese, I have still got what it takes. Ha! Up yours, Mr BMI!

The next day, I spent on the farm with the Farm Manager looking at various things that one might do in order to try to make a Scottish Hill Sheep and Cattle farm into a profitable operation. More yomping over the hills involved, which is good on the exercise front.

Drove home overnight on Sunday/Monday. My knackered ankle was giving me gyp on Monday and Tuesday. Not sure why, but I think It might have been spending 10 hours pressing the accelerator.

What with that, and a lie in on Tuesday morning to catch up on sleep, the exercise got left out a fair bit over the last few days, but I am back on track today. Huzzah!

Also, I am down to 15st, 7lbs. Another pound off. I would prefer to lose it a bit quicker than 1lb per week, but at least that’s going down not up. Yay!