Adventures of Po2*

First, an admission: I overslept by an hour this morning. We had all kinds of good intentions about waking early enough to have tea in bed, all that soothing ritual, but the fact was that last night we were so tired we were still awake at 3am, seeking paracetamol as a last resort, aching all over after our day. So there I was, hastily scrambling from the warm nest of the bed in Neil's house, anxious to retrieve some more family time before we had to leave again.

In the event, all worked well. #2 son Ewan came round to collect the trombone etc from our car, and decided to join us all for a walk along the Water of Leith to the Gallery of Modern Art, where we intended to have coffee in the garden. Po the dog, complete with tartan neckie and a ball, scampered about in his familiar territory, interacting madly with all the other dogs whose owners had had the same idea, until Po's ball fell into the river and could not be reached despite the best efforts of both grandsons. My extra photo shows James just after he'd been persuaded to give up; I actually shot a hilarious video of the attempt with the background adult voices saying "No, James" with various degrees of urgency and James, striking a pose with the ball-thrower (do they have a name?) saying heroically : "I can do it!" - but unless you're on Instagram or Facebook you'll just have to imagine that bit...

In the end, the queue at the Gallery cafe was just too long and we returned to the house for some lunch before we left. My main blip is of the dramatic sweeping falls just below the Gallery, where the first of the Antony Gormley statues stands in mid-stream.

We left after lunch and whizzed home along the M8 in stark contrast to our stop-start progress yesterday, only to find the queue for the Western Ferries filling all the lanes at the terminal and the overspill snaking down the coast road, necessitating an awkward U-turn to join it. But when we got home we were in time to see the second half of the Scotland v Wales rugby before dinner, a meal I only had to heat up as once more my daughter-in-law had ensured that we'd eat properly before we collapsed.

We did collapse - but were able to watch the last episode of Happy Valley. Brilliant stuff - and I can relax about spoilers now! Great weekend - though it's only half done ... 


* I know. Po is a panda. But James wanted to call their collie puppy Po, and that's his name. Think of him as Po2.