Short (-est day) but sweet

Lizzie and Rich, two old friends who moved several years ago to the west coast of Scotland, made a long awaited trip through Cambridge on the way to their family Christmas down south.

It was a privilege to grab a calzone lunch with them at Zizzi in Cambridge, which seated more diners than they find in the entire population of Achiltibuie. They visit the Zizzi in Inverness for an occasional treat.

They now have two kids in tow, so lunch was peppered with acrobatics/injuries resulting from leaping off chairs and bloody-minded demands for cheese sandwiches.

We took them into the David Attenborough Building as Lizzie worked with me years ago before we moved in here. The kids enjoyed going up and down in the lift that faces the living wall, as they don't experience them often in Achiltibuie. Lifts or living walls.

Their eldest, Rosie, can trot out impressive knowledge of marine wildlife thanks to an educational kids' TV show that she watched. We all agreed that it must be better than In The Night Garden, which actively causes brain cells to self-combust. Their youngest was flicking through a calendar and asking us to explain what was going on in one of the pictures. The caption showed there were two hogweed bonking beetles no doubt up to no good on a leaf.