Thank you Charlie. I do appreciate your generosity so I'll get on with it with no further ado .....
It was a long time ago and the visit to Scotland is now a distant, but very pleasant memory. This one part, however, gave Charlie's Dad and me such a chuckle that I feel Aunty and you might just enjoy it.
It was our very first overseas trip. Well apart from NZ and here in Australia that doesn't really count. Not that we don't love NZ. We do. I can't remember the year but it was in the early 1980's and what an adventure it was for us. The mention of Loch Linhhe in Aunty's post sent me into peals of laughter at the memories of our time there. Here's what happened.
We had been travelling all day. It was getting late and we were yet to find accommodation when we saw this charming little B and B on the banks of Loch Linnhe. Now as you know my name is Lynn but EVERYONE calls me Lynny. Who knows why? At my age it sounds a little ridiculous but it's too late to change anything now. Because of this connection Loch Linnhe sounded pretty good to us. In we go and a dear, elderly, Scottish lady showed us a room which we accepted for the night. The bathroom was down the hall a bit but that was ok with us. The lady told us it was a share bathroom and please not to use the bath as it had been previously booked. This caused a little concern and we asked what time it was booked for as we did want to have a bath. She said .... 'NOW'. We asked if there was anywhere nearby to have a meal and were told the pub down the road had meals. We asked her about the quality of the meals to be told she had never been there so didn't know. We said we would give it a go and could we book the bath for after dinner. She said yes but not to be back late. Apparently she had to run the bath for us. We had our meal at the pub (and very good it was too) to return to find our bath awaiting us. She said we would have to share as there was no more hot water. Oh my ..... we looked in the bath and, so help me God, there was about two inches of luke warm water in the bottom. She left after informing us that breakfast was at 7.30am sharp. Needless to say we didn't get a bath that night but we did manage a good sluice down and then off to bed for us. Our room was lovely and the bed extremely comfortable. I have never seen a room so clean. I couldn't find a speck of dust anywhere and I looked. Even on top of the wardrobes. That room was immaculate as was everything else in the cottage. We slept extremely well and the next morning headed for the dining room with a little trepidation. This place was so quiet. If anyone else was staying there you'd never have known. We sat ourselves down a few minutes before 7.30am to a table beautifully set for two. The only table in the room which WAS set. We were feeling a wee bit uncomfortable as there was no-one around and everything was so clean and so quiet. On the dot of 7.30am a clock chimed and a head popped out of a servery window and asked if we would like tea or coffee with our breakfast. We replied tea and before we knew what hit us the dear lady appeared with the most wonderful, full Scottish breakfast you have ever seen. It was delicious and served beautifully. We enjoyed every mouthful. We could not engage the lady in conversation as much as we tried. When we went to pay for our nights accommodation, our bath (?) and breakfast we were most surprised to find it so reasonable. We tried to give her more money but she refused to take it. I left a note in our room thanking her for a lovely stay and also a few little nick nacks from Australia. We still don't know if anyone else was staying there that night but I very much doubt it. Who that other bath was for I shudder to think. Oh ..... Loch Linnhe ..... we'll never forget it.
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Thank you Charlie!! I do hope I didn't ramble on too much for you. I'll post a few photo of you to make up for it, aye? I haven't any photos of our trip to Scotland but if you visit Aunty's blog you'll find heaps and she does a much better job than I could ever do.
Wanna run ... Love, Charlie.
Kind, hospitable but very Scottish in her hot water thrift. Thanks Charlie for briefly handing over the reins.
ReplyDeleteCrikey Andrew ... You wouldn't be of Scottish origin would you? My Mum is. Guess what her Mother's family name is? You got it .. ANDREW! No s on the end either.
DeleteMy full name couldn't be more Scottish if it tried to be, but I don't have much too much Scottish blood, just enough to look after the pence and waste the pounds.
DeleteThat was woofy hilarious! Like something out of a book. We like reading AUNTY's blog posts about her travels, too.
ReplyDeleteYour Furend
Louis Dog Armstrong
What a lovely memory...A quaint hotel and an eccentric hotel owner, Scotland sounds like such a fun place!
ReplyDeleteThat is a great story. Hilarious but entirely believable! (What year was it?)
ReplyDeleteCheers, Gail.
Caption for that photo of you in bed, Charlie:
ReplyDelete"Is it morning already?? Holy Dawg! What did you write that took you overnight???"
Bowie
Hari OM
ReplyDeleteBOL... Crikey Charlie, I's glad you let mum tell this one!!!
Now I must tell you, back in the early 1980s I was still in Scotland, dreaming of getting to OZ (made it in 1986). I spent a lot of my holidays up in the NW regions of this Bonny Land and it was surprisingly easy to obtain accommodations - often as the only guest at a B&B. For reasons best known to themselves, Scots at that point were not so good at visiting their own country and, what is more, the ROTW (rest of the world) wasn't either. It was Thatcher years and there was a sense of national depression to be honest.
Flick forward to present day, and when i was trying to line up accomms for myself and Kay, it was a real struggle getting anywhere that was close to budge!!! Brits in general and Scots definitely are now more inclined to explore home territory. What is more, the 'sea/tree change' culture which arose in the late 90s and early years of this century resulted in a rise in population up yonder... you'll be hard-pressed to hear a genuine Scots accent up there now!!! Also, this time of year is prime for hill-walking and all the towns up that way get very busy for this reason.
As for your own experience Charlie's mum - - - are you sure it wasn't one of those mystical Brigadoon-like events??? &*>
Love all your poses Charlie!!! Hugs and wags, YAM-aunty xxx
Sometimes it feels as if it was a Brigadoon moment, Yamini, but it was very real at the time. I LOVED that movie and watch it often. I rather think we saw Scotland at a very good time and you won't believe me but the weather was perfect. We didn't have one bad day. The sun shone down on us and the wind was almost non existent. I like to think it was my ancestors looking out for me. England, on the other hand, turned on all it's worst for us.
DeleteWe so enjoyed your mum's story, Charlie☺
ReplyDeletewhat a fab story... one reason more to see scotland... and to meet aunty and bertie and braveheart too :o)
ReplyDeleteOMCs Charlie my twin matey and Lynny!!
ReplyDeleteMOL MOL MOL MOL do you think by chance the quaint little B&B was haunted? LOLOLOLOL It certainly was a well loved and cared for B&B. I cannot even imagine my face had I seen the tub with hardly enough water to wet the bottom of the tub.
Mom was holding her breath as she read wonder what was gonna happen next. Mom says no bath for her that night either. My peeps are big fans of B&Bs over here. We have never stayed in one with a shared bath room.
Thank you for the a.m. LOL
Your story reminded mom about their most unusual B&B experience at the Blue Boar Inn, in Robbinsville, NC. In the winter it was a lodge for boar hunting. In the spring an summer it was a B&B. It was up a 2 mile gravel road in a beautiful location. The food was out of this world. But there was only one electrical outlet in the room. No mirror in the bathroom and one 40 watt light bulb. I guess when you are hunting for Boar you don't need to look good. They selected it because it was near Joyce Kilmer National Forest which they wanted to hike.
Hugs madi your bfff
Charlie, you always make me bow wow with laughter!
ReplyDelete1 DAY TILL THE ELECTION!
Mighty fine fellow you are sharing your Aunty's blog on yours.
ReplyDeleteYou still lookin good Charlie
Very very nice post! I really liked it! Makes me want to travel to
ReplyDeleteScotland as well. Thanks for sharing!!!
Kim
That was a sweet gesture Charlie, because the story was really funny! And of course the photos of you were really sweet as well.
ReplyDeleteMara from Norway
That was a great telling by your Mum, and we can't wait to hear more. Since we don't travel much, we love learning about the world through the eyes and words of our friends.
ReplyDeleteWoos - Lightning and Misty
We were in Scotland in 2000, our experience was very like yours only difference was we had to go down the road for breakfast and the bathroom was huge so our shower lasted about 2 seconds as the bathroom was freezing even the tiny heater provided made no difference.
ReplyDeleteMerle................
It's experiences like that that make HER love to travel!!
ReplyDeleteWe love B&B's with their different characteristic. Perhaps she felt that Loch Linnhe would dry up if she filled the tub ~ a water shortage.
ReplyDeleteOnce staying at a B&B the toilet kept refilling its tank and I went down to ask if something could be done so that I did not have to listen to it all night. I was informed that was what the fly swatter hanging on the back of the door was for, to put in the tank to hold up the floater ball.
Thanks for being a friend
Sweet William The Scot
Oh Noosa yoghurt key lime this morning.
DeleteSWTS
Crikey Sweet William ... That's hilarious, aye? It's amazing the things you can use fly swatters for. Mum reckons we should do a blog asking everyone to tell their tales of B & B experiences. I'm sure it would be entertaining. You have Noosa yoghurt for brekky EVERY day???? Lucky you.
DeleteOur friends are going to Scotland this weekend. We will tell them to check the tub. Thanks for the heads up
ReplyDeleteOMD!! What a tail that was...old fashioned good fun...sfter the fact of course. cause when yu want a bath...well...you want a *bath*!! In the war years my Oma told of her whole family sharing one tub of water...in a wash basin on the floor in the kitchen...yikes!! Oma's family had eight children.........
ReplyDelete