'Bedfellows'

When I was growing up on Arran one of the most difficult things to deal with was the cold. A 250 year old long house with one and a half foot thick stone walls and only one fire did not have great insulation!

The majority of the winter (6 months of the year if you live in Scotland!) we saw our breaths, the walls and floors were often wet and we slept in our school clothes (mum never knew) so that we didn't have to get dressed in the cold in the morning.

We dug up the occasional piggy bottle from the garden which was always a God send (until they broke).

So every night we fought over the cats. If you could get a cat under your covers, this at least took the chill off the bed. But there was three kids (4 later but he managed to get his hands on a dog) and only two cats. It was a case of who could grab a cat first got to keep the cat all night thus ensureing a semi chill free night.