#20 – Wednesday 2nd

discovering

Don’t skip to the pictures – read the story first! Woke up in our wee dorm room after some ‘cheesy dreams’ – dreamed I’d been locked in a wartime gas chamber (K and Dad you were there too), horrible. Anyway Rosie treated us all to delicious omelettes – fresh eggs from the Dr! Despite the grey weather and our convictions that we’d make it to the lighthouse (at the other end of the island) within an hour and then be bored, we set off walking…. Made it up to the Laird’s (beautiful) house and turned down a smaller track… it had already started raining… a little while and a fair bit of rain later we made it onto the beach… - the one we had been staying beside – great we’d already managed to do a circle back on ourselves! Decided to wander along the rocky ‘path’ beside the 13m long sheep dyke (around the island’s perimeter which keeps the sheep on the shore, allowing them access to the seaweed and enabling them to survive). Hilariously we looked up to over thirty of these tiny sheep sprinting around the outskirts of this wall – it looked like they were doing a relay race! Not long after we spotted a couple of seals, so, so curious, watching us and swimming closer and closer, we kept spotting more sat on the rocks and eventually we had about thirty seals following us along the shoreline. And then, somehow spectacularly we found what we believed to be a small fortune. Amongst the dark rocks we saw it, glittering and sparkling the size of Rebecca’s head – a ball of ‘whale spit.’ The doctor with us had said the nurses googled 'ambergris' the other day & it sold for thousands for its use in perfume…. And our ‘golden nugget’ looked exactly like the photographs she had seen! Fantastic… where would be go on holiday next? Needless to say we encouraged each other and got quite carried away… especially after Rebecca and rang and confirmed with her boyfriend over in Ireland that what we had looked just like the real deal from google. Hiding our money-maker from passers-by along the road and hanging it in Rebecca’s coat whilst we ate at the Lighthouse (took forever to get to) & which disappointingly had a huge energy/satellite tower right beside. Got a lift back from Mark – the man with fourteen jobs on the island (rubbish! I don’t count chocolate making as a job…. its part of the shop/restaurant…) but he is a fireman and ambulance driver too. Somehow made it back to civilization – with the golden nugget.. Rebecca made delicious creamy jacket potatoes for tea and we started our knitting/crochet class. I had to get back out of bed to hide our whale spit from our forth flatmate, a mature nursing student – I didn't fancy having to answer her questions … I’d surely sound mad….we still have the potential whale spit... any ideas? Crazy, surreal, laughter filled few days.

air traffic control