At last!!!

I got the see the Northern Lights!!  But more on that later :-)

Arranged to get together with Agnes and Adrian today and hear all about their recent walking holiday on the Amalfi Coast.

Headed to the golf club for lunch and throughly enjoyed all their tales of walking in 34 degree heat, bus rides on very scary roads with hairpin bends, climbing Mount Vesuvius, their visit to Pompeii, a day trip to Capri (beautiful but could hardly move as there were so many tourists crammed on the island.  Wouldn't go back) swimming in turquoise seas, learning to make proper pizzas (Agnes already makes fabulous home made pizza but she now has a few Italian tricks up her sleeve to make them even better :-) and the interesting people they met.  

D then regaled us with stories of his Spanish golf trip, which due to him having covid, I hadn't yet heard.  Hilarious!  Then I entertained them with stories of my week of crochet, painting and cooking.  They very kindly managed not to yawn :-))

After lunch we headed to Perth to the new Perth Museum.  It opened in March this year and has proved to be a great success.  It achieved its 100, 000th visitor within 100 days of opening.  

D had booked us tickets to see The Stone of Destiny at 3.30pm so we had little time to explore the museum before that.  What a fascinating place!  It will take many visits to get round the whole place properly and really take in the information on the exhibits.

At 3.30pm we were ushered into the room built in the centre of the museum that houses the stone.  Photographs not allowed.  It is an immersive experience with video footage telling the story of the stone and I found it quite emotional.  Such history around this lump of sandstone.

From there we headed to the rather lovely cafe and enjoyed coffee and cake.  The staff in the cafe, and the museum as a whole were so lovely and enthusiastic.

We then spent another hour or so exploring more of the museum, including the Unicorn exhibition that explores the origin of the myth of the unicorn and its history as Scotland's National Animal and its influence in the present day.  

I could go on waxing lyrical about the place but if you're interested this review says it better than I could :D 

We headed back to the car and home just after 6.30pm.  Dinner was simple pizza and salad (apologised to Agnes that it wasn't quite the quality of pizza she had in Italy :-) 

We were all pretty shattered after our day of culture so Agnes and Adrian headed upstairs and D let Lola out for her final breath of air for the night.  The weather forecast came on the tv and reported that the Northern Lights were putting on a show as far south as Bath so I thought I would pop out to the back garden and chance my luck, not really expecting to see anything (I slept through the spectacular display earlier in the year!)  

With one of my crochet blankets wrapped round my head and shoulders (it was freezing out there!) I must have looked like an old crone, but to my delight there was a bit of a display on the go.  Not as bright as the night I missed but I don't care, I was just so happy to be out there freezing my (t)bits off, with stars as bright as torchlights and colour radiating from the heavens.  Magical! 

An afternoon spent marvelling at amazing exhibits in the museum and ending with an amazing show of nature.  And the company of our pals.  Superb!!

Pics in extra - The exterior of the museum, the room housing the Stone of Destiny, Pictish stone carving that contains four faces (this is just one of them, obviously, but it amused me :-) the keys to the City of Perth, the giant unicorn atop the room housing the Stone, Queen Victoria's Coat of Arms that she gifted to the George Hotel in Perth, where she had an unexpected overnight stay in 1848.  

The amusing story of her stay can be read HERE :-)) after which  the hotel was renamed The Royal George Hotel.