All too soon it was time to go back, but it was a lovely few days. if I didn't have to work at Jacquee's, I would have stayed  a couple more days.
Back at the hotel I was given the news that the hotel was sold, and everything was signed and paid, and the new owners would be there in a week's time. I have never met them, but the Boys assured me that they were okay, and that they definitely wanted me to go on working at the hotel.
So the three of us jumped in and we scrubbed and cleaned out the whole place, as it was dusty from standing closed for so long.
During this time, just before the new people arrived, my eldest sister died suddenly, but I could not go to the funeral, as there was not a spare seat on the Emerates flight for me to be there in time. I was devastated, as we were very close, and I usually visited them before I fly to Scotland, and again on coming back. So the morning of her funeral I walked up the mountain behind the hotel, into the forest, and as Sarina, her daughter told me the time of the service, I sat amongst the big old pines where I am happiest, and lived through the ceremony. The next morning I drove to my beloved glen Lyon, where I cried my heart out, then decided to build her a small cairn, and put a little message inside.
I gathered a lot of flat stones, and after some struggling to balance the rocks on top of each other, I got behind the secret, and the cairn looked wonderful, and I cried some more. Then I felt a calmness came over me, and I relived some of our naughtiest childhood pranks, and I laughed and looked up to heaven, hoping that she could see me. On a stone I had painted a message that went like this: Lida, if you are an angel, and ever fly over this place I love so much, stop for a minute, and remember me.
I drove back to the hotel feeling a lot better.
In a few days time, the new owners arrived! Tony, a little scrap of a man, so thin he looked like a pencil stripe, gave me a smile that made me reel back a bit, as the whole set of teeth on the one side was rotten, and black. I looked at the boys for help, but the two of them didn't seem to see anything amiss!
The wife Jo, who was tall and strongly built, looked a lot more the thing than her husband. She eyed me with a kind of superior smile on her lips, and I sommer knew that she was trouble.
Then there was Harry, their only child, and from the cheeky look he gave me, I could sense that he was one thoroughly spoiled brat!
Tony then asked me to promise that as they have no experience in the hotel industry, that I would stay at least for the rest of the season. I wanted to run!
But I am one resolute woman, and can work with anybody, and if this woman thought that I wanted to run the whole hotel, she was mistaken, as I was happy in my kitchen!
The pictures are of Lida's cairn in the wilds of glen Lyon.

I was GLAD when the boys finally came back, as staying alone in that big hotel with the stairs that were forever creaking and the whole place except where I was in total darkness, I was feeling just a wee bitty scared! I had the dogs with me, and would have been a wreck if they were not there to keep me company.
So most of the night I sat in the pub, drinking coffee, and looking at the cars and people passing by.
As Jacquee had a few days without guests, Liz and self decided to go to Craig Tara, a sort of pleasure park for a few days.
So of course it was again me with poor Benny standing pawing the back of my seat, panting and blowing that killer breath straight up my nose. But luckily it was mid summer, and I was quite okay with the window open. Usually in October when we went on holiday, it was cold and rainy, and I had to don just about all the clothes I possessed, with my raincoat on top, to keep from freezing.
We had a lovely caravan home with two bedrooms, and for that I was glad, as when we had a twin room, Benny insisted to come and sleep with me under my blanket, his head next to mine! With that breath of him it was like sleeping in a sewerage pipe!
There was a huge warm swimming pool, and as it was not school holidays yet, we had only a few fellow bathers, and could really go bonkers. And we did! We were quite out of our skins, as this was a small bonus for this time of the year.
But to me the swans was just the hilite of this holiday.
It was not far to walk down to the beach, and as Liz of course never arose from her bed before at the earliest ten, I walked down to see what it was like at the seaside, and had the thrill of a lifetime!
I saw this small dots quite far out on the water, and squinted into the rising sun to see what it was, as it looked as if the dots were coming closer to the beach. As it came closer, I realized that it was either ducks or swans, and because the dots looked to big for ducks, I decided that it must be swans. And it was! As they neared the beach I was so thrilled that I just danced around like someone gone completely crazy, as I never in my life dreamed that I would be alone on a beach in Scotland, and around fifty swans would come gliding across the water towards me! As they started getting out of the water I could just stare, as they were really huge. A big male came out first, and he came straight at me, I suppose to inspect if it was safe for his flock to come ashore. The one photo that I so wanted to put on this block, one of the swan standing close to me and looking me up and down, hissing and rolling its neck from side to side, I had apparently lost. Pity!
After the big male had inspected me for quite some time, he turned and made some noises, and the others followed him out of the water! It was the most amazing experience I ever had!

The boys had such a big mishap, and were quite down! Sarah Ferguson, the woman who made an offer on the hotel, brought some or other uncle whose knowledge of old buildings she wanted to exploit a bit, and after he had looked the place over, he had apparently adviced her not to buy.
 The reason for this is the crack in one of the back walls, but as this had been noted a hundred years ago on a deed of sale, I think it was rediculous, as it had never gone further than described in a note on the topic dated about sixty years previously.
The poor boys were devastated, as they were all packed and raring to go!
As they had decided to just do the two functions, and then I had to use up everything left in the kitchen, I was beginning to worry about what I was going to do when there was no more food to serve. But they put my mind at rest, telling me that they will pay me in full every week until the hotel was finally sold,
Luckily another interested buyer, who had come to look before, had decided to put in an offer, and from then on it was just a question of time.
But in the meantime I had to keep busy,as I had no food to do left, and to help the boys, I took a job with the B@B next doors, doing breakfast for Jacquee, as she had taken a nursing job, and Ray, her husband could not cope after he had a light stroke. They were wonderful people to work for, and when our hotel closed altogether, she asked me whether I would do the rooms also, as she was struggling, I gladly said yes.
The good thing about this was that now the boys could only pay up on what I earned with Jacquee and Ray, and it made me feel a lot better.
Irma had gone home by now, and it was a pity, as now that I did not have to cook every night, I was free after I did the job at the B@B, so had a lot of time to see new places, and revisit old ones.
My favourite swimming place in Glen Lyon was visited a lot during this time, and I took Liz with whenever she was free, and we spent idyllic afternoons swimming and barbequeing.
The boys decided to go away to visit Brendon's parents for a week, and as they couldn't take the two dogs, they asked me to look after them. They were wonderful dogs, with Jules, a white as snow female with the bluest eyes ever, just wanted to sleep on my bed, and I felt bad to shove her off ten times a night! The thing is, I am badly allergic to the fine hair on animals, and was not in the mood to serve breakfast with swollen and red eyes!

I soon became so busy preparing for the first function that I had very little time off, and as Irma was not insured to drive my car, she helped a lot. In this village you have to be prepared for anything, as people, invited or not, would arrive to join in the festivities that could last for two or three days.
Some people went home to sleep off the beer or whisky for a few hours, then came back again full of vim and vigor to resume their jollities.
And during this time there had to be eats to go around regularly, and I was just replenishing all the time! If it wasn't for Irma, I don't know what I would have done. On the other hand, John and Brendon were both jumping in when they had a chance, but they had to be in the bar, as that of course was buzzing, and the other two barmen couldn't cope.
I went for a sleep at three in the morning, not caring anymore whether people got hungry or not, but when I came down at seven, people were still milling around, some looking like a train had run over them!
The bridal couple had departed by now, but I could see that even though it was Sunday, we were going to have little peace, and the little Church at Balquidder would be empty.
As the hotel was full, mainly with the wedding guests, I prepared a lot of bacon and all the rest that go with a full Scottish breakfast, but there were not a lot of guests able to stand the smell of the bacon, and they departed for their own homes , that of course being the villagers.
So I fed the ones that could stomach any food, and put the rest in the fridge, the food, not the people, as from previous experience, I knew that by eleven they would all have recovered a bit, and would start looking for food! By Sunday night I was a wreck, and Irma also looked very peeked, she having to run around with the trays, and helping with the clearing and washing up, while the boys looked like two milk white ghosts, with black rings around their eyes.
It wouldn't have been quite so bad had we more staff, but as Han, the other chef had already left, and the other staff had found new jobs, it was hard going indeed.
The hotel was sold to a youngish woman, but nothing was signed yet, and the boys could not just leave it and go, as they were going to Germany, where Brendon would run a pub, and John would do his work.
John is a graphic designer who worked a lot for the BBC, and so they could actually live anywhere they liked, as he just needed his computer, and stuff.
By Sunday afternoon most people were stumbling to their homes, all of them looking close to death's door, and John closed the doors and sent us to bed. Luckily the only guests that night were wedding guests, and none of them were able to sit upright at a table, and I very much doubted they could even hold a knife and fork.
We just lay and watched television the rest of the day, then had a shower, and after fetching something for our dinner, we promptly went to sleep, as we still had to be up and in the kitchen at seven the next morning!

The train ride to Stirling was not bad, and as the countryside was so beautiful, the time went quite quickly. We were met at the train station by Liz, who was very excited that Irma had come along. The two of them got along very well, and I was glad for that, as she could take Irma around while I was working.
The boys gave Irma the top room that was not on suite, but had it's own bathroom across the hall, and she settled in quite nicely. But as she had a lot of time on her hands, I roped her in to do washing-up for me, and also to peel the potatoes and cut the chips.
Now, Irma loves cooking, and also entertaining, but I could count on my one hand the amount of times that I have seen her actually doing some washing up. At home she had Elizabeth who has been working for her since Kristani was born, and Kristani was now eighteen. Elizabeth is the most amazing woman, and looked after this family like they were her own, and I did not even try to get a bitty harsh with the kids when I visited them, and their rooms looked like a whirlwind had been through!
So I took a lot of photo's of my daughter doing the washing up, intent on showing it to all her friends, who would not believe me if I told them about it! She was very good with the potato peeling, and also made some wonderful apple and rhubarb pies, and when she finished, she sat behind the piano in the library, and entertained the guests, who appreciated the singing immensely.
The hotel was up for sale, but I had two big functions on my hands, one was a wedding, and the other was a sixtieth birthday party. The boys helped a lot, as John loved cooking, specially making nice and dainty treats, but as they did not employ more staff, seeing that the hotel was almost sold, I still had a hard time to do everything. If Irma wasn't there to help me, I would have been lost altogether!
It was so nice for me to be back, as everybody welcomed me with gusto, and Janet made my day when she said to all in the shop, that whenever she saw the little black Panda going past the shop, she knew it was Spring again! The black Panda was well known, and everywhere I went people said hello with their lights, and waved, and tooted. It is to me wonderful, as in South Africa people are much more stiff and even more so in the smaller villages and towns.
Of course that first afternoon after I finished until six, I took the road to my favourite loch, Loch Voile, where of course I had my own private cove which I christianed Christina's Cove!

After two days in Lyon and surrounding countryside, we had to take the speed train to Avignon. Now, a bit of good advice! When in France, do not get onto a train if you get to your platform five minutes before your train's departure, and a train is standing there, all ready to go! We found out the hard way that the French work according to their time schedules, and of course, coming from Africa where time means nothing nowadays, it took us by surprise!
After checking that we were on the right platform, and it by then being about three minutes to our departure time, we got onto this train, and found an elderly couple occupying our seats! So we pulled ourselves up straight, and demanded that they vacate our seats immediately! They were actually well settled in, and had their coffee mugs filled, and their sarmies and all kinds of meats laid out on the little table .
They were very upset, and with loud voices and a lot of handsigns, told us to get lost! By now the other passengers got involved also, and one man asked to see our tickets, and he got a strange look on his face, and my tummy turned! We were on the wrong train!
We grabbed our luggage and ran for the door to get off, but with a hiss and a sigh the doors closed, and off the train went, at one terrible speed!
We sat down on the little step at the door, waiting for the train to stop at the next station, but it didn't stop, just flew through the landscape like a demented worm!
When the conductor came, he could at least understand English, but he had bad news, as this train did not stop before it got to it's journey's end, and that was Limoges, in quite another direction! But he said, he would give us a note to get us back to Lyon, where we would have to start all over again for Avignon.
We had to wait the whole bally day for the train that would take us back to Lyon, but at least we walked around Limoges, and found it quite an interesting town!
The rest of our trip went without mishap, as I took over the map reading, Irma not at all good with that, and she organized trips to the different towns and villages!
Now we were on our way to Calais, where we would board the ferry back to England, and then onto the Western Flyer to Scotland.

We were up very early for our departure to Lyon by train. Irma and self are a bit stiff lipped with each other, as I wanted to rent a car and drive to Lyon, but after watching the mad drivers of France for a few days, Irma flatly refused, saying that she would not drive in a country whose drivers are beserk. When I suggested that I drove, she almost expired from an apoplexy, and told me shortly that I would have to shoot her first before driving with me!
I thought that if we took the underground to the outskirts of Paris, and find a car rental place there, the traffic would be much calmer than in the mid city. But all my talking and begging did not sway my daughter, as she was adamant that we would crash within five minutes of leaving the rental shop, and anyway, she said, there are all kinds of other ways to get to the small villages!
As we left the hotel before breakfast, we decided to have something light before boarding our train. I was all for getting a baguette and a coffee, and sit in the park like most tourists do, but Irma did not like that idea, so we sat down in a small but very cozy little cafe. The menu was again unintelegable, but we looked for something on the cheaper side, so we ordered something cheap, forgot the name, and talked excitedly about our trip to Lyon, where we were told the best meals in France were served. When our breakfast arrived, we just sat staring at this platter that was put in front of us. We ordered something with coffee included, but instead of a nice sausage and an egg, there were four tiny wee biscuits arranged around the coffee mug! We tried to argue with the waiter, saying that we had never seen bally biscuits served up for breakfast, but he just looked at us with a cold eye, then went on his way to serve the others.
Of course the coffee was again icy cold. I don't think the French drink white coffee, as every time I asked for white coffee, they looked at me as if I was from the moon!
I was a bitty upset with Irma and her bally dislike of eating in a park, or anywhere outside, and told her shortly that from now on, she could sit in a cafe, and I will get a Macdonalds coffee if possible, and a baguette, and join the hordes! And that is what we then did, as that bally biscuits was so sweet that I couldn't eat more than two, but my tummy was calling desperately for FOOD!
At last we were on the train!
Our hotel, that was supposed to have been a two star, had maybe a minus 5 star, as it was dingy, dark, and smelly! But as we did not mean to spend a lot of time there, well, actually just sleep there, we did not breathe to deeply, and after putting our luggage down, we went to explore!

We were exhausted that night, as all the sites we wanted to see was blocked with queues that stretched for ever. So later we sat down on the grass on the Champs Elisee with a coffee from Macdonalds, and tried to build up some of our lost energy. We still had another day in Paris, and had decided to try and see the Tuilleries gardens the next day, hoping that the crowds there would be thinner than in downtown Paris. As we had another two days when we came back and before we flew to Heathrow again, we were not to pressed, but I knew that we were going to miss a lot of things we wanted to see.
 We did see the Tuilleries, which is absolutely stunningly beautiful, and then we went for dinner at a smallish restaurant at the outskirts of Paris that seemed not to be too commercialised. Of the menu, that was all in French, we did not understand much, and ordered something that was like priced reasonably, hoping for the best, as the waiter couldn't understand us at all.
We ordered a red wine each, and it was lovely to sit and watch the people, of which there were few tourists, most being locals out to just have dinner.
In due time our food arrived, and as we were very hungry, we tucked in without much ado. It was a kind of stew with potatoes and carrots, with a most beautiful aroma, and we were savouring every forkful.
I saw the waiter came down the tables with two plates of food, and put it down at the table across from us. I saw the couple look in utter perplexity at the food, then at the waiter, and the waiter standing smiling, I suppose also perplexed by their looks!
The man was quite calm, and I could see him talking earnestly to the waiter, who was standing like a salt pillar, his eyes rolling in our direction every now and then.
The next moment the woman went off like a bally banshee, pointing a very long finger at the plates, her eyes blazing and her voice like a razorblade, and the poor waiter, who was by now purple in the face, his eyes bulging dangerously, started walking to our table, and in a voice as small as that of a mouse, tried to ask us something. After a while we understood that he wanted to know what we ordered, and at showing him, he turned from red in the face to being ashen, and after almost tearing out his five remaining hair, he walked back to the kitchen, his shoulders slumped in a pathetic way, and we then at last realized that we ate the wrong food!
When the woman realized that we had eaten their food, she turned on us, and gave us a very good talking to, and meted against the embarrassed faces of the other diners, it must have been one pretty good scold! Luckily we could not understand a word of what she was saying, so we just ate on, with the rest of the diners's eyes burning into us, all of them by now worked up into hating us by the the woman whose food we unknowingly ate!
The poor waiter, still as white as a spook, came and took the food away, and in due course he brought the right food, and the whole restaurant calmed down, and we wondered if it was such a good idea to eat in the small restaurants where only the French ate!

I was one thankful woman when at last I could drop the heavy bags on the floor, and drop myself onto the bed, just to lie and try to get some strength back. I was completely knackered!
But I was also hungry, so after about an hour of just lying like an old limp rag, I had a shower, and felt a lot better for it. Irma, of course many years younger than her poor mum, was up and about, and waiting impatiently for me to recover enough to take the town by storm. Ha-ha! But we were in Paris, and the night was warm, and the streets were alive with all kinds of people on the look-out for fun, and it wasn't long before the jolly mood of the crowds had it's effect on me, and I was ready to assist Irma in having some fun.
But by about ten, after a lovely meal, and another ice bally cold coffee, we called it a day. I just do not know what it was with the french, but both the two coffees I had so far was cold, and when I tried to explain the fact that I hated cold coffee to the waiter, he either did not understood what I said, or he faked stupidity!
We both slept like logs, and after breakfast the next morning we took on the city of Paris. We were obviously in the midst of the touristy season, although we thought that it was still too early for that, and getting into any of the places we wanted to see,was well nigh impossible. After standing for about three hours in a queue for the Eiffel Tower, we called it a day and decided to go to the Louvre . We were quite staggered when we saw the half a kilometer queue of humans waiting patiently for a turn, and as we had already wasted almost a whole day, we bought a wonderful filled bagette, and sat on the grass in a park, where a lot of other tourists were also enjoying a take away lunch.
After another cold coffee I became so disgusted with the French that I vowed to only drink wine for the rest of the time, as, when I asked for tea, the waiter's face crumpled up in disgust, and his eyes started watering from pure disbelieve!
Then, oh wonderful sight, I saw a Macdonalds! I am not a Macdonalds fan, although I like their Macmuffins, but their coffee in South Africa is super! Irma is also a coffee-holic, and although she hated Macdonalds, her on;ly eating organic foods at home, she also pined for a decent cuppa! To cross the road to reach our goal was almost like trying to commit suicide, as the French drivers have the same attitude as the Greeks, and that is to disregard any road signs, and keep their feet flat on the gas!
But it was worth having been almost killed about ten times, and being out of breath from trying to sprint out of the roaring cars's way, as the coffee was hot, and delicious, and we sank onto a bunk, and savoured the beautiful hot stuff! needless to say, whereever we went from then on, I kept my eyes open for the macdonalds sign!