Oor View

View from the balcony (no less!) of our apartment for our girlie weekend – overloooking the crannog at Loch Tay. Last time – in 2009 - we stayed in the Travelodge at Falkirk so we have gone very upmarket this time. Maybe the next one we have will be in a presidential suite somewhere – we have five years to save for it if our previous length of gappage continues!

This evening we took ourselves over to the Marina for dinner – a huge walk of oh, about one minute! Lovely food (we all had the same – chicken stuffed with a tarragon mousseline on creamy mash and with a red wine jus) and the bonus of a cheeseboard on the dessert menu. I don't know if it's an age thing or just a me thing, but I am increasingly losing my taste for sweet things and find myself being drawn to cheeseboards whenever they are offered. Also, I used to make an 'ugh' face at the mere thought of blue cheese, but I think I am developing a liking for it now. I blame Gary at work for this - the singular amazing thing he has done was to make some bacon and Stilton bread rolls for a staff bring-a-bake day. They looked so good that I couldn't resist trying one. Their savouryness appealed to me amongst all the sweet stuff, not least because much of the other baking had chocolate in or on it and I am allergic to that – it gives me migraines. I am also allergic to penicillin – it gives me a rash from head to toe, quite literally as the rash goes between my toes as well as everywhere else, and so, aside from the smell, that was another of my reasons for avoiding blue cheese up till now. But these rolls looked so good – surely a wee bit of blue cheese would be alright? They were absolutely delicious and didn’t bring me out in red itchy spots – I guess prescription penicillin must be in a much more powerful concentration than Stilton? Since then I have tentatively tried blue cheese now and again – as an extra topping on macaroni cheese for example, and now tonight for the first time in its uncooked form. It was …. interesting. I think I might acquire a taste for it, but in small doses – it's very strong and powerful.

The lady who served our table was full of the banter – made some very funny comments about me being let out of the institution for the night, and having an electronic tag. How come she sussed me out so quickly?!!