THE FLUMS PLUS ONE

Aaaarrghhh - I've just spent ages typing this, then Blip somehow lost it!!!!!  So to start again.  

Backblipped - photos taken 16th but blipped 17th December.

Meet The Flums plus one.  By the way we were all masked up until we sat down and re-masked if we moved away from our table area - as you  have to in Scotland anyway, very sensibly I think).
Today G has to return to Edinburgh.  Due to Omicron becoming so prevalent and not enough is known about it yet we decided against letting him go back via train.  This, in part, was also due to my hairdresser having told me of her difficult journeys to and from Edinburgh last week.

We therefore decided we would take him ourselves.  We set off just after 8.00 am (early for us these days).  Hubby drove up and I will drive back.  It was very foggy but we joined the M6 OK and could at least see a few cars ahead and the traffic was not horrendous.  We ended up driving above the fog and once at Shap it was quite clear and reasonably weather.

We stopped off at the Tod Hills Rest Area, which is right on the edge of England.  We choose here these days because it is so much quieter than other service areas.  It has a Costa coffee, facilities and petrol if needed (although petrol on the Motorways are way too expensive).  

After a rest and a coffee we set off again.  The M6 then becomes the A74(M) at some point (you can't see the join) and we carried on up there until junction 13, through pleasant scenery and it was very quiet.

We then joined the A702 and drove through the beautiful Clyde Valley, through lovely Biggar, along by the Pentland Hills and lovely little villages and arrived at The Steading right on the outskirts of Edinburgh at 11:15 am.  

The car park only had about 3 cars in it and were were the only ones in the pub on arrival.  It's a typical pub with pub food.  Quite pleasant and a great location for us.  This means that G can get a taxi from here home as it only takes about 15-20 minutes (depending on traffic) and is not too expensive.

The very lovely Flumgummery, knowing what we were doing asked if we would like a mini Blip-Meet - well yes pretty please.  We had just got ourselves settled when they arrived.  It was so lovely to meet her and the delightful Mr Flum.  We had a great chat and some lunch.  Sadly the time went all too quickly.  We needed to leave by about 1ish so we could get home before it got dark. 

The pub was fairly busy but not too much and car park was much fuller than when we arrived.  G ordered his taxi, which arrived very quickly and we said our fond farewells.  He won't be back down again now until March 2022, well that's the current plan.

We then said farewell to Mr and Mrs Flum and headed off.  The first part of the journey was busier than arriving but not bad. I managed to stop off in a couple of laybys to take a couple of photos of the lovely scenery.  The sky constantly changed today, one minute dark with vivid blue areas, then just cloudy, then bright sunshine - all very delightful.  Of course the very best photo opportunity was when we couldn't stop along the Clyde Valley (almost at A74(M).  The rays coming through the clouds and hitting the hills were just gorgeous.

We stopped off at Tod Hills again, just for a rest and a drink.  Apparently their dishwasher was broken and so could only provide takeaway snacks and drinks.  Well that suited us fine as we only needed a drink and a rest and we could use the tables fine.  

It was after this that I began to get really tired. This was mainly due to the fact that it was getting dark and the very bright headlights sometimes blind you.

We arrived home about 4.30 - absolutely exhausted with very tired and sore eyes but happy that journey had gone well and that we had had a lovely blip meet.

Omicron is getting really scare, more so I think because not enough is known about it yet.  So we are really hunkering down now.  I have only one more extremely important meet-up with CumbriaLass and Fletch and then that will be it until I pick my Mum up on 23rd December.  She will be spending the 4/5 days over Christmas with us.  It will just be the three of us this year - which is a little sad but much better to keep everyone safe. We are just thankful that, to date, we are all well and that for us to do this, is not so dreadful.  

Do stay safe everyone and take care.  I will see you all tomorrow (well later now actually).