People

Oooft... busy day.

After breakfast I had to pack up and tidy up, so as to vacate my wee cottage by 11am. During this process the owner (my cousin Linda's cousin) appeared and we had a good gossip. 

Then I went to Burghead for a walk on the beach - Blipped. It was not busy. 

After that, I shuffled across to Findhorn to meet a different cousin (Mike) at the start of his first escape from home (in Glasgow) since October. 

After driving from Glasgow this morning, and as he had not had a pint in a pub since October, we trundled across to the Kimberley Inn as soon as he had unloaded his car. 

We sat there on the terrace for about 2 hours, basking in the sunshine and balmy 8ºc. Whilst he treated himself to several pints, I treated myself to mussels. 

Because he spends half his life in the village and was brought up there, we had a steady stream of people stopping to chat with him and catch up. It was probably the most socialising I have done since October. 

Oddity of the day was being told my late father once played cricket against the recently deceased Auld Greek (recently deceased HRH went to school near Findhorn) and somewhere in the family archive is a cricket scorecard with the entry:-

Philip, bowled Taylor, 0 

Of course at that time the Auld Greek was just another Gordonstoun toff, and wee Lizzie joined his life much later. 

Extras are another shot of the 7 mile (11 km) beach at Burghead, and one of my lunch.