Drum Roll………..Last Handstand!

My penultimate day in Stromness and my final swim have given me a day to remember.  Several of the Selkies gathered for the 9am swim but only 6 of us made use of the sauna. We had an hour of aquatic jollification which lasted until we rode the last waves generated by the departing Graemsay bound for  Hoy. We swam and we chatted, we did handstands and we tried somersaults (mine need serious improvement if not a total overhaul) before we called it a day.

I did a little light packing back at the flat before sitting with my coffee outside the delicatessen, again like Billy- no- Mates until I was joined by Selkie Kathleen. We had a tête a tête, people passed and we had more tête a tête with them and I was brought up to date with all the shops that once existed in Stromness. It seemed that every building along the Street once housed a shop with living accommodation above. I suppose the transformation is exactly what’s happening on every High Street in the land.

With most of my belongings finally in my case, I saw fit to take my parcel of wool and blanket to the Post Office and mail it home only to discover it was out of order. I have never known a post office to be  ‘au dehors de combat’ but there is always a first. I was a bit poot oot to put it mildly but Elaine in the Quernstone came to my rescue, offering to post it for me and it wasn’t just because I paid her a  goodly number of shekels  to procure a beautiful throw in her window display, no, she offered before the purchase was mentioned.

Selkie WendyF  has just popped in and agreed to leave with all the biscuits etc which I can’t possibly eat before I depart, especially since I am eating tonight with my adopted Orkney daughter, family and friends.
That will be the last hurrah of the holiday. Tomorrow will see me watching the harbour swim and thinking it’s maybe a good thing to have a valid excuse not to be  participtating this year. The Cheeky Monkey Taxi Service is sending their main man to pick me up and take me to the airport at lunch time.