Mallaiging around again

We were hoping that John, Irene and Archie would join us in Mallaig as they were out on their yacht. Sadly, the weather wasn't good enough for them to head around Ardnamurchan Point and so we had to resort to talking to each other instead.

One day was spent walking over and then around the headland next to the harbour in Mallaig - some great views of the sound of Sleat and Skye from up there. We also enjoyed the antics of a dog on an old fishing boat, moored near us on a buoy. One evening the dog clearly wanted a trip ashore and so he/she climbed into their dinghy. He/she sat there for over half an hour before someone rowed him/her ashore accompanied by much barking - you can guess why:

We almost felt like collecting the poor dog and delivering him / her to some grass ourselves.

Talking of dogs (do you like the neat continuity links in here?), John, Irene, Irene's nephew (Ethan) and Archie decided to make the trip to Mallaig by car, in the rain, instead of by yacht. Archie was as cute as ever:

He has now proudly mastered going down our steep steps and seemed to like cleaning up the remains of a milky coffee:

When his tongue was not quite long enough to reach the last tempting remnants in the bottom, he became very determined:

For animal lovers, we are pleased to confirm that it was decaffeinated of course and made with skimmed milk. Also that he managed to extricate his head afterwards too.

We took the train into Fort William again to enjoy the glorious scenery (only this time more in grey weather than sun). Wandering along the waterfront in Fort William the captain had an out of body experience. We got chatting to some Scousers who had a very excited and friendly toy labradoodle. (For the non UK readers, a Scouser is a person from Liverpool with a very distinctive accent and usually a distinctive approach to life as well. For a hint of this see Scouser jokes)

The man,upon learning that we had both worked in the motor trade got very animated, telling the captain about life in Ellesmere Port Vauxhall factory and then proceeded to say "see this", reaching into his trousers. Deeply worrying. Even more worrying was when he pulled down the waistband to reveal a colostomy bag that was clearly doing its job. Not normal behaviour thought the captain, when you have met someone 3 minutes ago! A nice description of how the man had his bladder removed followed despite best efforts to redirect the conversation into nicer and more normal areas. A very strange day and luckily no pictures for you to enjoy.

We will try to avoid similar encounters in future so we don't upset our more delicate readers.