(Cue the Wallace and Gromit theme tune!)

I love the British pragmatism of the “Bank Holiday Monday.” People need a day off occaisonally and there’s no reason why a designated and named day is required. Let’s just close all the banks and offiical offices on a Monday and call it a day off. It’s even better when not everyone gets the day. This past Monday was the spring Aberdeen Bank Holiday so I had the day off and it was time to go explore! Weather in Aberdeen didn’t look promising so we headed north to Moray where the sunshine was glorious and the temps were comfortably around 16 or 17 C (60ish for the Farenheit folks).

Starting in Elgin, we played tourist at the cathedral, parts of which date back to the 13th century. It is the historical home to the Bishop of Moray. Even though most of it was destroyed during the Reformation, the remains are still an impressive structure. We learned all about stone masonry, climbed one of the towers, wandered the graveyard, and got to see Bishop Archibald’s reconstructed effigy from his burial in 1298. Astounding to think of how old things are!

With our history itch scratched, it was time for lunch so we were off to the garden centre for some baked potatoes and paninis. If you have not yet experienced a Scottish garden center, you are in for a treat. Not only do they sell plants, outdoor furniture and other garden implements, some sell furniture or groceries and booze as well. And every one that I have ever been to has had a cafe that did everything from scones to roasts. This one was no exception and while we could have had the pork loin or haddock mornay, we decided to stick with simpler fare. We wandered around the town while our lunch settled and then it was time to hit the road – there was more of the north coast to explore.

A braugh sunny day is the perfect day for the beach so off we went to Lossiemouth – at the mouth of the river Lossie! We stopped to get some ice cream from a shop selling more types of sweets that I’ve seen in ages. Then it was time to walk the gorgeous sandy beach with our sweet treats (including sour plooms and shrimps!). We even found the campsite where Frank thinks his family went on holiday MANY years ago!

Then a short drive brought us to Cullen, an amazingly lovely seaside town – possibly one we could see ourselves retiring at someday. More wandering about town where we found: public toilets labled in Doric (I’m the quine, Frank is the loon) and a very bright dinosaur head sticking out of an empty building. Apparently this has caused much concern amoungst the locals – it even lights up at night!

But that wasn’t the highlight of the day: not far off our route home was the village of Pennan where much of the movie Local Hero was filmed. One of my favorite films, I had to stop by and see the iconic phone box that is so important to the movie. So here’s my little taste of Hollywood (freshly painted too!) All in all, it was an amazing day!

The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men

          Gang aft agley,

An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain,

          For promis’d joy!

Robert Burns, To a Mouse

You may have noticed an interuption in the planned cadence of posts. The original idea was that once a week, probably on a Monday, I would wax eloquent (and hopfully somewhat humerously) about how things were going as we settle into a new place, a new routine, a new life. Following that schedule, I would have posted a short update last week about some new milestones: a new car purchase, a row with the local boat club on the river, etc. However as the poet says, the best laid schemes….

Instead, we dealt with tragedy. Facebook friends may already know that we lost our beloved Buddy to a traffic accident last Monday. While on our usual morning walk, our angry little man was so incensed by the pernicious precence of a bull dog across the busy street that he absolutely had to take action. That action, unfortunately, was to try to get to the offending canine by running across the road in front of a truck. I was unable to reel him back in time and while we were able to get him to the vet, he had internal bleeding that would have required surgery. He went into cardiac arrest before the surgery could be performed. We are heartbroken, devestated, and gutted as folks around here would say.

But with nought but grief and pain, we try to move forward to find the promised joy. So to avoid an utter maudlin manuscript, I’ll instead regale you with the resulting interaction with the National Health Service. While I was safely away from the truck, the hand holding the lead was fairly badly damaged from the pull of the cord, the subsequent fall, and the unfortunate bite I took when trying to get Buddy to the vet. It was my left hand (which I would say contributed to the event since I am useless with that hand and couldn’t retract the lead in time but nevermind) so I still had use of my exceptionally dominant appendage but the swelling and pain in the left had was not to be ignored. Although I did try to ignore it. But the lovely man who owns our AirBnb flat has a partner who is a nurse so she stopped by the flat and pronounced it in need of medical care. So the adventure began.

Instead of heading to the A&E (emergency room in the US), there is a national triage number to call for assessment and further direction. I suspect this was instituted during covid to keep waiting rooms from becoming superspreader locations but it is still in place and IMHO fairly effective. I phoned about 8am to see what to do next. Yes, I had to wait 20ish minutes for a nurse but then I was deluged with questions and given a 10:30 appointment at the Minor Injuries unit at the Aberdeen Royal Infirmary. I arrived a bit early, masked up, and was seen promptly at 10:30 by a clinician who took all my details, cleaned up the various bloody and pussy places and went to fetch the nurse practitioner. To be honest, it took Frank longer to find a parking space by the hospital than it took me to be seen.

The NP took further details, did some mobility and other tests to asses the damage and became concerned that there might be a fracture in my wrist. She diagrammed the injuries (on a piece of paper with a drawing of a hand!) and then sent me off to Xray. A short wait there and I had 5 snaps taken of the hand and wrist. Return down the hall to the minor injuries unit where Frank had finally joined me (with a coffee thank goodness!) Another short wait (enough time to finish the latte) and I was back in the treatment room to get the verdict that there didn’t seem to be any fracture but a splint (provided) and bandages for the deep laceration on my pinkie (provided) would be necessary for the next 5 days. In addition, a full course of antibiotics (provided) to treat any infection resulting from the dog bite would be necessary as a precaution. I was done by noon.

I don’t claim that this was a typical encounter but I have zero complaints about my treatment. I have MANY complaints about the fact that I didn’t know the generic name for Augmentin – which is what they gave me – so I couldn’t ask for an alternative. If you’ve ever taken it, you can feel my pain. The first two days involved digestive distress that is too disgusting to commit to words. A course of probiotics has been most helpful but taking the last dose today will be an absolute joy. (Not that I mind the nearly half a stone of “weight” I lost from the rapid passing of all solids through my system!)

A few more days of healing and the visible marks of trauma will be gone. The invisible pain will stay forever.

So as a tribute, here are some of my favorite photos of Buddy Cannon, Beagle/Jack Russell mix, taken from us too soon. Smile down on us Budster. We miss you.