Well the next morning one or two folks looked a little worse for wear - LOL
Simon, Ang and I went to visit Reboot and her b/f, who had been unable to make the BBQ. It's a lovely part of the country, and the weather was gorgeous.
The next day I toured around Glastonbury, enjoying the Abbey and the Tor, before catching my plane again from Bristol to Edinburgh. I have to say that the whole area is worth visiting, though it's crowded with NewAge shops, being (as it is rumoured, hehe) the site of ancient Avalon I even managed to find some Tibetan incense for my TaiChi teacher.
Well, back to my sister's, before picking up Joyzabel and HICFlyGirl, and heading into Glasgow for the ScotFest.
After dropping our stuff at the Hotel and freshening up we headed to the restaurant on foot, to take in the ambient of the "City of Culture" (I had to get that in to wind up Scotsman ). I hadn't been before, but when I spied it I drew attention to its sign which was multicoloured. I made the comment that it was like rainbow coloured (albeit it wasn't actually the normal colours you'd expect in a rainbow), only to get a lesson in the rainbow colours of "gay-pride" from Joy. Call me naive and paint me purple, but I'm afraid I was ignorant of that one.
It was a nice meal in convivial surroundings, attended by ITSupport, OscartheGrouch, FreedomFighter and Tijkmo. We rearranged the furniture for them, to the chagrin of some of the other customers, but did we care? Naww, stuff 'em. Then we dominated another corner, a little further away from the music, so we could actually hear ourselves talk without shouting. Again we rearranged the furniture, because you can never have enough sofas, right?
A little later Gadget's brother turned up, as it turned out he was working in Glasgow for a couple of days. That was a pleasant surprise, as he stays in London. It reminded me of one of Gadget's opening jokes to ISP - " I used to share a bed with a gay man for twenty years" - I'll let y'all work it out LOL
The next day we headed to Edinburgh via my sister's (I'd left something behind ~slaps forehead~), parked in a restricted zone, and tottered up the hill to the castle. The queues were huge and security was on high alert due to the recent London bombings. We then visited Stirling Castle, Urquhart Castle, on the banks of Loch Ness, and took an impromptude diversion on the outskirts of Inverness, when I took a wrong turning at a roundabout
We finally ended up in the harbour town of Ullapool, where we would pick up the ferryboat the next day, having travelled a few hundred miles around narrow and winding Scottish roads at breakneck speed All I can say is that my foot must have been tired after all that partying!
Well the girls wanted to have an early night, so I nipped next door to a Hotel that had a bar (unfortunately the one at which we stayed had just changed ownership, and the license hadn't yet been acquired). I had only been given a key for my room, however, so I put the outer door lock on "snick" and informed one of the residents (who was out walking her dog) to kindly leave it that way.
Needless to say, when I rolled "home" that night, the door was locked... b*gger!!!
So being the lithe fellow I am, I did the only thing you can do in such situations, and I broke in by climbing through my bedroom window. Hmmm, that was a great idea Sadly the opening was at the top of the window and measured about 9". I had to breath in and force myself through, nearly castrated myself on the window jamb, and still have a mark on my chest where I impaled myself on one of the hooks for the window stay At least I didn't rip down the curtains, or find myself in someone else's room
Well, I recounted the tale to the girls, the next morning, who had to take a photo (dunno what happened to that one), after I'd tucked into my big-ass British breakfast!!! That being just before we caught the boat, of course - nothing like rolling around on the high seas after a full breakfast, to set up your day!
...to be continued...