Connections

Backblip

The amount of rain we've had the last week or so has been quite incredible, and no amount of checking different weather forecasts seemed to make it likely to go away.  We figured that wherever we decided to go, we were probably to get wet.  But after a lazy Sunday morning and while the weather gods were looking the other way, we escaped into East Lothian for lunch and whatever else we might do while there.  Maybe the beach, maybe a ride around the coast, maybe hot-tyreing it back home!

Since she had done a lot of riding on Saturday, I suggested BB come onboard Fidra the Pan European so that she could luxuriate on the wide pillion seat and relax against the padded backrest on the top box, and perhaps get a feel for the turbine delivery that so impressed me of my motorcycle test instructor's machine so many years ago.

We powered through Bank Holiday jams and sped along the A1 to Smeaton Nursery Gardens, where we enjoyed big bowls of soup and scones and rolls.  The man serving us seemed oddly familiar to me but I couldn't put my finger on it.  He looked a bit like a cycling friend who lives a few miles east of me in deeper Midlothian, but obviously it wasn't him.  He actually reminded me a bit of the owner of a similar Pan European that I'd looked at a couple of years ago before buying Fidra.  We said we were hoping the rain would go off and he asked if we'd come far, noting our motorcycling clothes; BB said we were out for the day on my Pan.  When he said straight away, "1100 or 1300?" and I said, "1300" – we both suddenly realised we had indeed met before!

I wish I'd remembered to ask him how his honeybees were doing.

Big grey clouds were looming in the east, so we decided to ride home, taking a traffic-avoiding southerly route – the pretty way, as Mum would call it – seeing the countryside and some smaller towns along the way for variety.  And we stayed dry!

Tea was with Mum and Dad, who were pleased to see BB again, and we enjoyed a hearty meal of nut loaf, pie and tart, before heading home again late in the evening.