It’s been a bit of a whirlwind since we got back from Greenland. The first weekend back in Blighty was spent in Dibden Purlieu at Dan & Georgie’s splendid wedding. It was a wonderful occasion presided over by John with the reception held in a marquee on the lawn of the Rectity.
Within 2 days Joe and Sarah got engaged on a speed boat on the Solent. All very romantic and reminiscent of our engagement a few hundred miles North West of the Cape Verde Islands.
The next weekend saw us back in Southampton for the boat show then up to London for Greenwich and some cultural including the Royal Observatory, the Franklin Exhibition and the Cutty Sark. The start of the week was pretty posh at the Royal College of Physicians with Alex.
A week later we were battling traffic to Edinburgh and the Weller’s to catch-up with ‘our man in Mallorca’. Lots going on with Richard and we wish him well in the coming weeks.
On Saturday night we sat down to dinner with 21 members of the Clan Kirkwood in a forest park near Aviemore. The occasion was Roddy & Margaret’s 25th wedding anniversary. They were over from New Zealand and had summoned friends and family to celebrate. The mountain bikes came out the next morning and the mud splattered peloton terrorised the Sunday strollers in the forest and Loch side trails. Great fun.
By Sunday night we wee in Traighuaine and not a little jet lagged by our hectic socialising. Time to unwind. But then we discovered Aki Ásgeirsson’s boat in Kilmelford and that precipitated a wonderful chance encounter with our Icelandic friend who had looked after SHIMSHAL for two winters in Reykjavik and had inspired our life affirming trip to Scoresby Sound. He was just about to head, off single handed, for Bergen via the Caledonian Canal. It was our pleasure to whisk him off for lunch and take him to Ardfern to encourage him to invest in his yacht’s electronic inventory.
Thankfully the next few weeks are set to be less hectic but I’m sure It won’t be long before the next round of adventure.