Luxury . . . !

What a great day it turned out to be! We are both members of the St Magnus Festivall Chorus and today we had a visit from the conductor,Joseph Cullen. He gave us a four hour workshop and it was incredible. We've sung with him before in Orkney and he is so inspiring and imaginative and really gets the best out of us, the choir. It is all part of the rehearsing for the St Magnus Festival which takes place over mid-summer in Orkney. It is a huge, international affair, and a great occasion.

After the rehearsal we went for a meal at the best restaurant in Orkney, for which our kind and generous friends had given us a voucher! Everything about The Lynnfield Hotel is utterly wonderful. The food is delicious and always perfect. You are always spoilt for choice too, such a super selection. We decided that as it was already late, and we shattered and both wanted to be able to drink, we would stay over. Driving home would take 45 minutes and then we'd have to cook so we decided to call it a honeymoon and indulge ourselves! The only room still free was one with a four poster bed and a jacuzzi! And a huge flat screen TV so that we could watch Match of the Day from the four poster - oh, great joy! (For some!) Think of every possible luxury, and it was there! We had a very tasty meal, lovely wine, excellent whisky and then upstairs to an amazing room for the night! I think that, if we tried, we could get used to living like this!

We had left Ollie with his best friends, Bobby and John, for the afternoon. They were having roast chicken for dinner and Bobby had said she was making extra gravy for him! I rang them up and they were only too happy to keep him overnight!