Up to town to ensure G got to her Cheer / Dance thing at 1000; not the most successful thing ever, but hey...

Then west we went to meet up with the folks. The old man had an appointment at the hospital re: finger - apparently it's an ancestral Viking thing? Tom was thrilled to learn this. So we had coffee and cake whilst viewing the misty Ochils  from Muircot Farm Shop in Coalsnaughton; a place I had hitherto managed to avoid. I knew all the other places but somehow missed out on Coalsnaughton.

Suitably restored by an input of caffeine we headed to Kennetpans; about half a mile west of the Clackmanananananananshire Bridge. Site of a distillery back in the day. The point of interest was that it was the site of the first Boulton / Watt pump in Scotland. 

*Backstory is here, as exclusivley revealed by Pensioner*

(The folks had been at a Friends of the Smith talk about opening access to the Forth estuary - particularly cycling and walking - and one of the things mentioned was the distillery. In its heyday the tax raised on the spirit made was more than all the land tax of Scotland put together. So clearly a major industrial powerhouse in its day. I read up online about the sneaky production techniques used and the bribery / political machinations that went on. Strange then that we're looking at a crumbling ruin that was important in its day. There's still evidence of the harbour, and a huge bonded warehouse. And still visible is the circle carved into the wall where the pump would have been,

So we pottered about throwing stones in the esturial mud and admiring the bird life and eventually satisfied we would get no further access to the warehouse bit (it's all fenced off; maw isn't as steady as she once was) we headed off. Besides, the folks had a lease to sign on their new home for the next six months. 
We walked off to the Clackmanananananananshire Bridge and had a nose aboot there; then to Falkirk for McDonald's and onto the Helix Park; we looked at the Kelpies (the boys hadn't been) and then to the play park which their flagging spirits were restored by climbing and swinging and trampolining etc. 
We left around 5; had a brief stop at the Falkirk Stadium to add 25 points to our I Spy football ground count and then off headed home for Spanish bean stew. 

Extra is Alex again deep in discussion about his day


Stop Press!! Tom lost a tooth just before bed time. With no money on the house, either. Thankfully he distracted himself by zipping up his onesy 'rather painfully' and he forgot to ask about the tooth under the pillow gig, so we'll do it tonight. Once I have secured funds.