I was off on Monday, and happy to be getting away from the lunacy of that hotel. The problem was that so far my nerves stood up to all the battering it was exposed to, but I was so stressed out when Lorna was in the kitchen, always on the moan, and if the hot water urn wasn't full enough, I was working too slow, or I didn't cut the ciabatta open correctly, and a trillion unimportant things, and although I mostly ignored all this, I was making unnecessary mistakes, not always reading the orders, and once or twice I gave chips with food that usually go with chips, but the clients had asked for mash or new potatoes.
Another hazard that had invaded my life was in the form of another friend called Anna, who have started phoning me at between two and three in the morning, begging me to come to her, as she couldn't breathe. The first night this happened, I was absolutely terrified, as I could hear over the phone that she was in real difficulty, so I dressed hastily, and roared off to Strathyre.
When I got there, I found Anna as drunk as a skunk, not able to move, sitting at the table, dribbling like a teething baby. There was no sign of an asmatic chest, so I helped her to bed and admonished her for faking an illness, as I had to be in the kitchen at seven, and I was already a mess without this added stress. But she just looked at me, and when I had dumped her in her bed, she clung to me crying, but I had no sympathy, and just wanted to go back to my bed. From then on this happened almost every night that she went on a drinking spree, meaning about three times a week, until I got so fed-up that I started to put my phone off at night, but the moment I forgot to do that, as sure as anything, Anna would phone with her fake illness.
Hanna and self had decided to go to Pitlochry on Monday, and I was really looking forward to that.
So on Monday early I was up, had my flask filled with coffee, and drove to pick up the already waiting Hanna.
We had a lovely day, as Pitlochry is quite a lively little town with nice shops, and we had fish and chips at a certain chippy, as when people heard where we were going, they were like one man in recommending us to lunch there.
I loved the little wire lady, with her dress covered in beautiful ivy, and a basket full of  colourful flowers! Very ingenious, I thought!
I told Hanna that I was on the brink of going home, and she was very upset, as it was almost her seventieth birthday, and she wanted me so much to be there. To look at this vivacious woman nobody could dream that she was turning seventy, as she was still up to any amount of fun, and although I couldn't take her with when hiking in the mountains, or swimming down a glen in a river, there was a lot we could do together.
At the end of that wonderful day out, I was again feeling a lot better, and promised Hanna that I wouldn't do anything rash!