Ann picked me up at the bus station and it was obvious as soon as my nose got out the bus that Campbelltown was a lot colder than Glasgow.

Thankfully Ann’s house was tropical. The old house sits up on the hill and you can see down to the loch. The house may be old but it’s very cosy.  I forgot that she never locks the door, not sure where she keeps the keys but if I had found them I would have locked the door behind us.

A lovely hot dinner followed by wine and the cold was a thing of the past.

Next morning Ann was catching up with friends and so I went for a wander around the town. I had every intention of going along to Davaar so say hello to my Mother, but I’m afraid the Arctic winds put an end to that idea. It was absolutely freezing. Even my phone was protesting, the display was changing colour and so were my hands.

After only a minute my hands began to feel sore as the biting wind ripped through.  I stood behind a shelter and hoped that it wouldn’t get blown away and take me with it. Standing up straight was not an option.

 

The wind was so strong and I’ve never seen Campbelltown Loch look so angry.

After about an hour of this I decided to retreat and I went to the old museum. I loved going here as a kid and looking at the prehistoric finds,  namely the flints and arrow heads that had been found locally. The museum is a lot smaller than I remember but they still had a small collection of ancient arrow heads.
I walked a few minutes up the main street and then went for a plate of soup to warm me up.  I sat at the table near the window opposite an old woman.  We started chatting, she’s asking me where I’m from and was I a golfer. I said that I was visiting my cousin and it turns out that this old lady not only knows my cousin but is related somewhere along the line.

I’ve sent this info to Catherine as she is doing the family tree and will understand the 2nd  cousin connection that exists. I’m not very clever when it comes to this stuff.
I went to the local distillery for a tour and tasting which was great. The local brew is 57% and it gives you a nice warm glow in this weather.

After the tour I headed up the road and was very glad when I made it back to the hoose but as I arrived we had a bit of an emergency,  a burst pipe. Thankfully it was only the pipe for the garden hose but we still had to shut off the water.  The plumber was called and he fixed it within 2 minutes. Drama averted. This was his 15th burst pipe that day. It didn’t surprise us in the least. This had been Campbelltown’s coldest day in years and you only had to look at the icicles hanging from the shed for evidence of that.