Gales at sea. Scotland isolated.

Sunday 28th August 2011
 It was a really windy and rainy day all day today.
Most of the U3A guests from Edinburgh were supposed to be coming over on the little John-o-Groats ferry but rather unsurprisingly it did not sail so they went to Thurso to catch The Hamnavoe but that did not sail all day and niether did The Pentalina so they were stuck in scenic Thurso for the night.
  Ann, our guest was OK as she had come over here a few days ago and had been staying in Kirkwall so we went down and picked her up from the cathedral after the morning service.
 Maddy was not at first very impressed that she would have to give her bedroom up and share with her dad but Ann was very nice to her and in the end she was forgiven.

 We went for a coffee at the Fossil Centre in Burray and a look round the museum. It is a really good collection of fossils that must have taken years to gather and cost a fortune. Of course Maddy was not particularly impressed by the fossils but was really taken with a dark room that they have filled with all sorts and colours of flourescent rocks.

The wind dropped on Monday and the remaining visitors managed to get across from Scrabster to Stromness on the first ferry of the morning so they were in time for a U3A meeting at the St Magnus Centre.

In the evening we had the U3A barbeque in a barn belonging to one of the members. I had been a bit worried as I had booked the band "Broken Strings" without asking the permission of the committe. I think they are superb and a brilliant advert for Orkney to show the visitors but I was just hoping that everyone else would like them.

 I need not have worried everyone loved them and after an initial bit of reticence most of the people were up dancing. Maddy especially enjoyed it as she was the only youngster there and so of course got spoiled by everybody and spent half her time dancing with different people.