Birthday bliss!

What a fab day! I won't mention the two vomits... One before we were even out of Edinburgh...

We had a picnic and a wander round Dunkeld, which is a wee place about an hour and a half away. Lots of nice doggy people who stopped to pat Archie.

We went on past our hotel to the House of Bruar, JR's favourite shopping place, and my favourite cafe. Also the nicest toilets this side of you name it. Today Archie and I sat outside in the courtyard, me with a huge ice cream, and Archie happy to watch the comings and goings. There was a group of young folk playing terrific traditional Scottish music with fiddles, harp and Northumberland pipes. How talented they were.

Back to the hotel to check in and get our money's worth. I'm ashamed to say, I've got the age of 64 and never knowingly stayed in a five star hotel. With white bathrobes and slippers. And a coffee machine. And a shower that's like Niagra Falls compared to our pretty decent one at home. This is how the other half live!

Archie has been just wonderful. Apart from being sick, poor wee lad, he's been such a good boy. He's sitting at my (slippered) feet at the moment, awaiting his tea. He'll go in his crate and hopefully snooze while we go and eat.

We went a walk across the river to Pitlochry. What a beautiful afternoon - sunny, warm, the water like glass. We crossed the dam and saw the salmon ladders. It was a lovely walk through woodland. He was off the lead for most of the way and stayed near us the whole time. He's an amazing wee dog.

This is him running by the hotel when we came back. He was the only one with some energy left. Not the sharpest of shots, but it's so joyful. And it shows our posh hotel!

What a great birthday!