Thursday 6 April 2023
It is, without doubt, significantly more interesting and easier to think of memorable things to do in London than Scottish Borders when it is a grey, wet day. Chris and I went to Selkirk and Melrose with Nicky in the morning, then Nicky and I also went to Hawick. It is when showing people around the towns, when you aren’t using the towns for everyday shopping, that the limitations reveal themselves. They are small towns. We had a coffee in our favourite coffee shop in Selkirk, Three Hills, then, after a wander around Melrose, we had lunch in another really lovely place. In Hawick (“Hoyk”), we did a circular walk around the town. We went into a few shops but, with hindsight, I think maybe those three weren’t the best towns. I don’t know, but I did feel disappointed with the excitement levels in the towns. In Selkirk, Nicky spotted the two people who had had a picnic overlooking our perilous river crossing escapades yesterday; it’s a small area when it comes to activities on drizzly days. They spent about five minutes going from one end of Selkirk to the other via a few shops. I do really like Selkirk, but only really from the perspective of it being a pleasant place to pootle around when you live nowhere near a town; it has a butcher, a baker, a greengrocer, a bookshop, coffee shops, a few shops of interest and a few places to eat, but it’s very small.
Nicky and I were both achy after our walk around the loch the day before so a longer, wet walk was probably not on the cards anyway. We got back to the house around four with a view to changing into more suitable wet weather clothing and walking around the Tibetan temple but I think by the time we sat down indoors, a bit cold and it being more drizzly with low cloud by then, we weren’t going to go out again. This area does countryside and hilly/lochy walks very well, but not so much towns with rain-friendly entertainment. There are museums, old houses and gardens (eg Traquair and Abbotsford) and other towns (eg Jedburgh, Kelso, Galashiels), but, speaking entirely for myself, I am not always in the mood for museums and that you have to pay for entry, which makes me feel a need to spend longer than a quick whizz-round – I love that most London museums and galleries are free. If the trains had been running rather than a rail replacement bus for another two months, we would most likely have gone to Glasgow for the day, where there is of course loads to do in the rain – it seems fine walking around cities in the rain, but less fine walking through countryside in rain.
I think a goal for the year will be to find places to go, ideally within a one-hour radius, with visiting friends on rainy days. We need to up our game on that score. I can think of loads of places to go in London on rainy days, but in fairness I know London from a lifetime of either visiting or living there.
However, all that said, I had a day spent with a good friend I’ve known since university days and ultimately her visit was about our catching up and her seeing where we now live. Fortunately, we had a walk the evening she arrived when it was sunny and gorgeous and a long and enjoyable walk and picnic the day before. When we both lived in London, we would usually meet for drinks and/or dinner after work or spend a day together around either her home or our home. It’s good to have a more relaxing catch up where neither of us is needing to catch trains or whatever.
We also had a good, long, slow dinner with Chris in the evening, Japanese food, including tuna mayonnaise ‘sushi’.
