THE WILD GEESE

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The Guardians Of The Gate

DAY FOUR 14-02-10

As I opened the curtains this morning I was greeted with overcast skies and although the mountains in the distance were sill capped with snow, it was disappearing fast. We sauntered up to the village store to buy the newspapers before breakfast. It was Sunday an I thought it would be good to relax over breakfast reading the Sundays. A great plan but I did not account for the fact that the breakfast room at The Dunroamin Hotel was only heated by the warmth coming of the eggs and toast. This made the idea of sitting and reading the papers a pretty difficult task, after a while I could feel the tips of my fingers welding themselves to the pages of The Observer. We decided to warm up by setting off for East Gilgo.

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Ice Station Zebra

OK now I for one am not someone who is a slave to commercialism in any shape or form, and yes, I knew today was the time of the year when supermarkets turn £5 bunches of flowers into £15 bunches of flowers overnight and I know a rip off when I see one. So when the day had dawned on yet another Valentines Day I knew one of the best places to be was in the highlands of Scotland, away from it all. Usually at this time of year I am skiing, paying sky high prices, in Austria. But I have been there, done that this year and so it was pretty unusual to still be in the UK at this time.

As we approached the house I could see the killer geese waiting for us. Now I don't have any real phobias that I know of but I really don't like poultry and the bigger they are the less I like them. Rob and Cara have some pretty aggressive geese wandering around their property. I am pretty sure like a lot of creatures they can smell fear from a distance. As soon as they heard our footsteps they congregated like a collection of night club bouncers, across the driveway. Luckily the noise of them brought out Jones with whom they no better than mess, especially, as Cara had run over one of their number some time ago as they foolishly attacked the car!

Saved from the bouncers we spent the rest of the afternoon watching Spurs try and lose their fifth round tie with Bolton.