Off to Carlisle.

We left Dairsie at around noon on Friday August 16th after saying our goodbyes to Basil and Brenda.  Had a really nice time with them.  The trip to Carlisle was uneventful except for and overturned truck on the motorway which cost us about a half hour.  We arrived in Carlisle at around 4:00 and got settled into our room at the Premier Inn.  We have stayed there a number of times and it’s always been good. Pam then picked us up and took us to the pub that Rhona (Pam’s daughter) is managing. Rhona lives upstairs above the pub with her son Harvey who we met for the first time.  Quite the little character is he. He gave us the tour of the place and kept us entertained. We spent the next four hours down in the pub with Pam getting caught up on all the news.  Ian has seen Pam a couple of times over the last few years but for me it was much longer.  Too long in fact.  So we had a great time with her re living past memories and having lots of laughs. We walked home at about 10:00 that night after making a date to see Pam again the next day.  So we had a few errands in the morning and then went back to The Crown where Pam had a nice lunch ready for us. Also another short visit with Harvey.  Who, by the way, is very, very clever.  And if you don’t believe me.......just ask him!  Harvey is four years old but will turn five (going on fifteen) on August 26th.  So after lunch Rhona dropped us off downtown Carlisle in the shopping district.  Ian was looking for a sweater so we started at Marks and Spencer’s. Within fifteen minutes Ian had a lovely new sweater. So why can I shop all day and not find what I want? So that was it for shopping.  Next on the list was a small pub crawl.  Not like the old days.  Pam is a member at a Men’s club which now accepts female members.  Isn’t that nice of them? Anyway, it’s a beautiful building with lots of nice beer and wine. So we had one.  Just one.  And then headed to the next one which was called the Howard.  It has just reopened after closing for renovations. It’s a really nice pub with lots of character, beautiful wood, old pictures.  But the crowd of people was unbelievable and so was the noise. Just one again.  So the next one on the list,who’s name I can’t remember, didn’t get a visit from us as the noise coming out from it just about blew us off the street.  So we settled on Brew Dog instead. Not much in atmosphere but really nice dogs and the bartender was nice too.  Again...just one. Aren’t we responsible?
Finally it was time for dinner so Pam took us to a Malaysian/Thai restaurant. Just maybe the best Asian food we’ve ever had. Then time to head for home as Pam was in charge of Harvey for the evening while Rhona worked.
Instead of waiting for a bus we caught a cab to be sure we had Pam home on time. So we arrived with time to spare.  When we were getting ready to walk back to our hotel I realized that I didn’t have my brand new backpack and also my trusty purple jacket.  And I could not remember where I had left it. So we thought we’ll.....it could only be at one of the pubs, the restaurant or in the cab.  By the next day Pam had called them all and no luck.  She even put it on a local website for things like this.  Still nothing. So I had to accept that someone had taken it and we had to head out for our long drive up to Thurso where we would catch the ferry for Orkney in the morning.