The weather was lovely, and on my first day off I took packed my Panda, and set off to my beloved glen Lyon, where I was to spend the night on the banks of the river. It is a wild area, with nothing but me and the water dancing over the rocks, and the lovely mountain. Climbing down is not easy, as it is very steep, and full of muddy holes, the terrain quite boggy. This is of course where Liz and self had such a horrific night with the killer midges trying to have us for their dinner, when the small tent collapsed in the middle of the night, leaving us to the mercy of this tiny bloodsuckers!
But in the meantime I had become much more clever, and when I found a South African mosquito spray at a small shop next to the new hotel called 'The Wee Minden', meaning small present shop, I was over the moon, as we have real vicious mosquitoes at home and this stuff called Tabbard, is a master killer!
From then on I had no trouble keeping this little monsters out, as I sprayed all around the inside of the tent opening, and of course, I was covered from head to toe! Luckily it has quite a nice smell, but I don't think a smell would deter me from using it.
Every year so far, on putting back the Panda's battery, it started immediately, but this year it just refused to start, and after trying for ages, I phoned an old man who was known for being able to do anything and fix anything. He looked, and he hmmmed, and haaa-d and said that the solenoid was a bitty spent, but, he said, if I don't want to spend money, I can just poke it with a stick, and it should work. He then poked it with a sun umbrella that I had won at a fair, and I turned the key, and voila!, the engine sprang to life, and off I went, after being shown just where the solenoid was situated!
It was still cold at night, and I was almost frozen into a human lolly, but at least the midges were not out yet.
But after a breakfast of barbequed sausages, bacon, fried tomatoes and toast, I was soon defrosted, and after clearing up I went up the mountain where I met a huge deer bull, who did not look kindly upon my disturbing his peaceful grazing, and as I have heard that the bull's could be quite vicious, I made a hasty retreat, and crossed the river for safety.
At the hotel things were kind of okay, but I did not find Lorna as nice as my previous employers, not that she treated me badly, but she was not allowing any initiative, as I found when the previous morning I had cut the carrots into strips instead of just chopping it up into rounds. She came into the kitchen, stopped short when she saw the heap of strippy carrots, looked at me in amazement, then told me that in her hotel, carrots were chopped up into rounds!
She was a strange person, as she never moaned about bigger issues, and as I was doing most of the baking and cooking by the end of my first week, and waiting for criticism that never came, I decided to just take things in my stride, and keep to her way of doing things, but I must say, it was not very exciting!
She was still making things very difficult for the young boy, and I admire his resolve in sticking out her really bad behaviour, just so he could earn money for a computer.
Yankee John, the American guy helping out some nights were really nice, and he would stack the dishwasher for me when things were a bit quiet in the pub, and I was grateful to him, as on week nights the two of us, or me and Russel were mostly alone when it wasn't busy. But Lorna just did not trust anybody, and she would skulk passed the windows at regular intervals, stretching her neck to try and see if we were doing our jobs!