Day 10 - Fuelled Entirely by Irn Bru

Wow it has taken ages to sort this out! Google Photos has stopped accepting DNG files (the raw format my camera shoots in) and of course I didn't realise this at first so I'm like "upload my 176 photos", Google skipps them all so I tired again... three times,then again on another PC then eventually had to convert them all to PNG files and they finally finished uploading and being edited earlier.... yes I ahve SERIOUSLY slow internet so 176 photos took about 10 hours to upload :(

Anyways... onto Day 10!!

Skye Landscape

Dunvegan Castle

The aim of today was to get out and experience as much of the tourist crap that Skye had to offer as possible! Being big fans of Peatbog Faeries we were really hoping to visit Dunvegan as they have two songs about it (Welcome To Dun Vegas and the Veganites) as well as Angus MacAskill's house (they also do a song called Angus MacAskill). We saw on Google that Dunvegan had a caslte, and who are we to pass up a trip to a caslte?!
So off we went, the landscape of Skye is odd, The Old Man and The Old Lady really like Skye, but I've got to say it looked a bit bleak and depressing. I'm sure it's different in the sunshine, but by this point in the holiday I'd forgotten what sunshine and being warm and dry were!
Dunvegan Castle was nice. It's home to the seat of the MacLeod of MacLeod, chief of the Clan MacLeod. It was really cool to see so many artifacts from the castle's history in the rooms, some of which dated back to the 15th Century. I really liked the maid's room as there was quite a bit of chipped and decayed looking stuff there... I love a good bit of rust!!

Doggies lording it up at Dunvegan Castle

Only one of us could go in at a time, though, and we couldn't take any pictures so you'll have to suffice seeing pictures of the outside and of my handsome doggy and his best mate Princess! :)


We got to wander around the gardens with the doggies though and they loved it! The castle had the round garden, the water garden and the walled garden. It also backed onto the beach but the weather wasn't really good enough to go paddling!

Garden Waterfall

The walled garden was nice and had a vegetable patch that looked like it was doing better than ours, as well as loads of other plants. The water garden was lovely and had one of Skye's many MANY pretty waterfalls, still not convinced a waterfall can be ugly?

Getting to try out that slow shutter camera technique is good fun. I can honestly say I think I've just about got the hang of this whole small f/stop means more light, slower speed means more light and blurry. Still not sure what ISO is though, even though I've read about it and Wiki'd it... think I need it explaining in simple person's language.

Off we go to the next thing on our list: Angus Macaskill's House. Angus was a 7ft 9in gentle giant born in Scotland who moved to Canada. I'm not entirely sure why there is a museum dedicated to him on Skye, other than one of his distant relatives, Danny MacAskill, is form Skye and is a famous cyclist.

Angus Macaskill's House

 The museum was really nice though and is in one of the traditional black houses, so if anything it was really interesting to see inside one of the traditional dwellings. There were also lots of artefacts from the Victorian era that were out for display. It's great when a museum lets you get up close to things in such a way and doesn't hide them behind cabinets, this is my favourite type of museum, an immersive experience!

A Gentle Giant

 We moved on from the Angus MacAskill museum to find the Skye Museum of Island Life. This looked interesting on Trip Advisor and was again set in a traditonal 'blackhouse'. We had learnt about Blackhouses from our strip around the museum at Bettyhill in the highlands, so it was cool to be able to go in and have a look around

This museum was really small, and the main thing that annoyed me was there was stuff on the walls that were reprints of newspaper clippings, but the edges had faded so badly you couldn't read them, bugged me a lot that did!

Skye Black House

I really found being inside one of the blackhouses quite depressing if I'm honest. Not because it was a rubbish exhibit, far from it, but because it was quite shocking to be up and close to the sights and smells of traditional island life. The house was black on the outside, as well as the inside, from the soot from burning peat. This was evident because the smell was still lingering! Apparently the thatch is redone every year in the traditional way with rushes being hand cut. All in all a very interesting half an hour!

Museum of Island Life

Our busy action-packed day wasn't about to end there and we moved onto the next place on my list to visit: Neist Point.

The End Of Skye

Neist Point is a viewpoint and is located on the most Westernly part of Skye. This was also the most Westernly coast we would get on this trip! The viewpoint was amazing, really rather amazing!! As usual for this trip it was way too windy and rainy to get HARVe up again, so sadly I don't have any really cool aerial shots, but I got plenty of pictures of the rocks and cliffs.

Thistle! When in Scotland...

Ears Flapping In The Wind

There was even a couple getting married near the point (which we didn't climb, Teapot couldn't be bothered!) which was lovely. Good on them... poor sods must have been freezing!!! I did hold Prince up for a show of love and affection, his little ears were flapping in the wind... I still don't think he's forgiven me completely yet!!

Someone is unimpressed with Neist Point

Next stop: The Fairy Pools. Now I'll admit my little post card addiction had lead me here because I picked up a Fairy Pools post card and it looked stunning!! It looked like a set of pools with almost coloured water in them making them appear magical, so we were hopeful for this one!!

The Fairy Pools

Sadly, what we got was much less "enchanting and magical" and more "encouraging pneumonia".

The Fairy Pools are located along the road to Glen Brittle and is apparently a 30-odd mile walk into the Glen. Along the way there are hundreds of little waterfalls and pools that ahve been created naturally that I'm sure the less cynical of you readers will think is really cute and magical.

"I'll fill up our water-to-go bottles" she said
"It's good fresh water" she said
"It will taste NICE" she said.
Horrible.

Please don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the walk and it WAS very pretty... but this is Scotland. Moreover, this is The Isle of Skye, to say a waterfall is a rare thing is to tell a big fat lie. There's loads of them ll over the island and I'm sure they're all jsut as pretty.

Actually, if I'm honest, I probably would have enjoyed the Fairy Pools a lot more if it wasn't RAINING YET AGAIN!! Really bored of rain and being cold and being damp right now. Oh and did I mention that "headache" I was suffering from a few days ago has turned into a huge lovely cold. Chesty phlegmy cough mixed with the shivers and snotty nose. Just what you want when you're camping in SCOTLAND which is COLD and DAMP!!! Also didn't help that the water we filled up our water-to-go bottles with from the Fairy Pools tasted disgusting. Wouldn't recommend it.

Hundreds of Waterfalls

Dinner time looms and we've got a few choices, wither go into Portree again and try to find a cafe with a seating area outside, get something to cook from the Co-Op in Portree, or forget Portree all together and drive a stupid amount of time in the wrong direction away from our campsite in search of something that resembles Scottish seafood. Guess what one we picked?

We stopped off in a place called Cafesia, hoping for atleast a vaguely filling dinner. So far I've not managed to sample much famous Scottish seafood and have been disappointed with bloody Bookers Basics scampi from the "famous" Portree fish & chips shop, so something filling was all I was hoping for.

Wow did I underestimate this place!! I'm pleased too, this was one of the highlights of my trip!! I went into the little coffee shop to order while Teapot was outside with Prince and Princess, it was really packed (AND WARM!!!!) but the staff were SO nice and friendly. I ordered the sides (Sweet Potato Chips, Haggis Balls with Spicy Mango Dip & Doughballs) and our pizza (local Scottish Seafood Pizza!) and she said it would be a 45 minute wait for the pizza so they would send our sides out as starters.

Sweet Potato chips, Doughballs,
Haggis Balls with Spicey Mango Dip

Am I glad they did, the sides were literally to die for and the pizza was well worth the wait. Honestly, it was the best damn dinner i had for the whole journey and I'd go back to Skye just for that cafe, despite the fact that it was about 15 miles away from our campsite in the wrong direction!!!

As much as I'm moaning a bit today, and that's mainly down to the fact that I felt like shit all day and was really REALLY fed up with being cold and damp, I did enjoy the whistle stop tour of The Island, I just felt that it seemed like Blackpool end of season. Kind of like it needed a good lick of paint and some maintenance, everything looked a bit tired and half arsed. I know it was raining and cold, but  even Portree and Dunvegan looked like they were about to fall down.

Delicious Seafood Pizza

I guess I'm not not a natural lover of The Isle of Skye to be honest and I probably wont bother coming back in a hurry. There were nice bits, just not enough to make me fall in love with it.

Tomorrow's plan: Leave Skye (can't say I'm overly upset about that) and travel down to Loch Lomond via Glencoe,

Day 8 - Over the Sea to Skye

Today has been mostly driving... we had some bits planned (like Strome Castle, which we couldn't find) but mostly just spent our day driving through some more lovely scenery on our way to Skye.

We left Gairloch/Strath and travelled West towards the Kyle of Lochalsh, through Kinlochewe, Stromeferry, Torridon, Shieldaig, Lochcarron (Which was lovely). We stopped in Ben Eigh for a spot of breakfast, we thought the large mountain looking thing might be Ben Nevis but apparently it wasn't. We were trying to check Google to find out, but as usual no bloody phone signal... (yes I have tweeted EE!).

The Whistle Stop Cafe in Ben Eigh is quite nice and worth a visit. They were kind enough to let us have breakfast outside with the kids (dogs) and provided tables etc. I would say, however, that the price you paid was definitely a captive market price! Nearly £8 for very small smoked salmon with creamy scrambled eggs & toast and £8 for a tiny "Full English" with no toast. The smoked salmon was good and the black pudding was nice though and tasted vaguely haggisy?!

Onwards and upwards, we were really looking forward to going to Skye as The Old Man and The Old Lady have holidayed there a few times and say it's beautiful. We shall see!

I have to share the pictures from the "petrol station" though as this is becoming amusing. Where I am from, when you think of 'petrol station' you think of Esso or Texaco or a supermarket like Tesco or Morrissons. Here it's just a tiny pump from the 1950s and a few days ago I actually had a serviced pump... I didn't even know they existed any more?! Anyway....

We arrived at the Kyle of Lochalsh and crossed the bridge into Skye just before it began to tip it down with rain. As promised The Peatbog Faeries were bellowing out nice and loud with The Folk Police as we crossed over and prepated for the hour's journey to our campsite in Torvaig. We had e-mailed them and had no reply for a booking so we really were working on luck!

We drove through civilisation then back out through more mountains and hills and rocks. Skye has some beautiful waterfalls, but then again I can't say I've ever seen an ugly waterfall! They all seem to have a mysterious look to them that makes them magical.

We arrived at Torvaig fairly early, having still not got a reply from their email. Pulling into the carpark it was still raining and I was desperate for a pee. We noticed that, yet again, there was no phone signal and the campsite was charging £3 PER HOUR for WiFi. Seriously. £3 PER HOUR. After using the facilities (and finding them seriously lacking in cleanliness) we decided that actually, Torvaig campsite is a bit of a dump... That it it seemed that none of the tents had electric hook up, and by this point my phone and tablets were running out of charge (my phone drains VERY quickly when searching for data unfortunatly).

We left Torvaig and went back through Portree (the main port, apparently) to Sligachan where we noticed a campsite on the way past. This was great! £20 per night is a bit steep, but it seems normal for Skye (welcome to tourist heaven...) but we have electric hook up and phone signal, albeit slow phone signal. The Toilets and showers are kept pretty clean too so no complaints. The chap who runs it seems a bit standoffish but I am sure he's cool (UPDATE: he's actually really nice!).

Got the tents up in daylight again (thankfully...) and headed into Portree with the doggies to pick up supplies for dinner (chicken tortellini with a pesto sauce! mm!). I reserve judgement on Portree, but it seems very touristy. Quite pretty but very touristy...

Into bed and the pub across the road were having some live music we could hear, I love the fact that they finished with "I will walk 500 miles..." I suppose it's like us finishing with something proper British like BohRap!

Tomorrow's plan: Nothing, quite literally!

Day 6 - Gone With The Wind

I'm aware that I'm a few days behind with the blog.... No phone signal or WiFi at our last campsite, so there's also a lack of decent photos for this one too! :( I'll update later with pictures!

So tody has been fun! When I decided on the title of Gone With the Wind I really wasn't kidding! The part of Scotland we were in was experiencing some seirosuly windy conditions! Pitting the tent down in the morning was definitely a two person job as we were warned by the friendly campsite owner "careful putting your tents down, I've seen a few fly into the sea and you've really lost them then!". No kidding either! Left the guy lines down until the last minute for those!!

All packed and ready to go, we headed out of John O'Groats and down towards Furness. Our campsite was in Clachtoll Beach, which was a fair drive, but we were prepared for that. We drove through some pretty desolate scenery to be honest. Melvich, Strathy, and Armadale all looked fairly miserable and a bit dull. We were beginning to wonder why they bothered promoting the North Coast 500, then we stopped in Bettyhill.

At Bettyhill there is a café and a tourist information in a small cottage, over the road there is a 17th Century church that has been converted into museum. It was this museum that really changed my mind about the landscape we had just driven through. The museum taught us about the highland clearances, when tenants were evicted from their little black houses to make way for sheep, if they didn't leave then the cottage was set light to. The museum had a video that interviewed some of the Makay clan who were discussing the ceilidh and how having a ceilidh has really brought people back together and me;t the culture alive. There were times when speaking Gaelic was banned and traditional music was shunned, this really sounds dreadful and I'm pleased to see that it's become history now.

Upstairs in the small museum was a room dedicated to clan Makay, this was amazing and lovely to see the price as well as the heritage. I must ask dad how he's doing with our family history and take a bit more interest.

Moving on, I found myself looking at the landscape and abandoned dwellings through new eyes. It's both sad and poignant, I can't see how the lifestyle as it was could have survived, but at the same score it seems wrong to just evict people with no other options.

Next stop was onto Durness for Smoo Cave! I love the name of this place and I've got style brilliant pictures but sadly my tablets and phone are the only devices that can get the super slow WiFi and the pictures are on my -weatherproof, thank goodness- DSLR SD card, so you'll have to check them out later! Smoo Cave was really cool though and had a huge waterfall across the road that looked fierce, then we walked down the cliff side to the cave where the waterfall landed. Prince was a bit scared of the loud waterfall but we went into the cavern to see it and s it was awesome. Not the silly American version of awesome, but proper awe inspiring awesome! It's surprising that a waterfall with that much ferocity ends up just a small stream out to sea! Nate is pretty amazing!

Last stop was our campsite at Clachtoll Beach. This is where I have to have a little moan. It was £21 poer night fur 2 adults, 2 tents, 2 dogs and 1 car. For that you got a bit of soggy grass and cabin toilets and showers. Our campsite at Stroma View was tiny but we had spotless toilets and showers, a washing up area, soggy grass (think everywhere has soggy grass!) and electric hookup, for £10 per night. The campsite at Clachtoll was very nice but had no phone signal at all, and the guy buggered off without telling us the WiFi password, WiFi that was weak at best. Just feel a bit ripped off and won't be giving them great reviews on TripAdvisor.

We did, however, get a chance to go to the beach (Prince had his life jacket on, obviously!). Prince didn't really like the sea to be honest but I'm hoping he will come round when we go to Skye :). Sunset was gorgeous!

Day 7's plans are Achmelvic beach, a castle I can't remember the name of, Lochinver, maybe Ullapool and onto Gairloch.

See you tomorrow! Xx

Day 5 - Found Nessie

We got a LOT done yesterday! Felt like I was driving all day but actually wasn't that long at all really.

We left the campsite at around midday and headed for Drumnadrochit (how do you pronounce that?!). We didn't realise that our campsite was on the other side of Loch Ness to all of the touristy stuff that goes on, so although Drumnadrochit was only something like 5.4 miles away, I had to drive all the way around half of Loch Ness to get to it, roughly 30 miles! Someone really need to build a bridge across Loch Ness!!

We got to Drumnadrochit about an hour or so later, after dropping into Go Outdoors for emergency supplies as the bag for my duvet has given up so a huge compression sack will do the job. To those that complain I take a duvet, it actually packs down as big as Teapot's sleeping bag!





Our aim for today was to see Nessieland and The Hill O' Many Stanes. Nessieland had appalling reviews on TripAdvisor, so naturally we had to check it out! It was £6 entry for each person and we could take the dogs in too. It really wasn't that bad!! There was a huge tacky Nessie outside and the inside of the 'attraction' was made up of stuffed Nessies and Nessies that looked like they'd been made from paper machet! It was good fun though and there was a video lasted about 20 minutes that took us through the history of Nessie.

The shop was great and ot over priced too! I brought myself a few more post cards (I collect them!) and an I <3 Scotland hoodie which is REALLY comfortable!!

Leaving Drumnadrochit we headed out towards Wick for our next stop, The Hill O'Many Stanes. Just as we went past Loch Ness we thought we'd stop and grab a few last pictures, and low and behold we have taken a picture of The Loch Ness Monster! In keeping with tradition it's very grainy and not very clear but it's obviously Nessie! Luckily I snapped another too, check out the bottom for a better picture!

Off we went along the way! We were due to arrive at our campsite quite early so decided to take a "quick" detour down to Nigg village where there is one of the finest surviving Pictish stones ever found. It was located in a really pretty little church in Nigg and it had it's own room etc. The graveyard of the church was also really interesting, having some of the strangest but fascinating gravestones in the grounds.

We followed the 'Pictish Trail' along a bit further and came to Shandwick where, above the village, is another huge Pictish stone. It's a bit odd seeing this random bit of rock in a glass case above the village, but once again the carvings are really pretty and intricate. I might get a Pictish tattoo as they're my ancestors. Haven't decided yet :)

Onwards and upwards once again, off to the Hill O'Many Stanes! This was such a peaceful visit. I don't know what it is about neolithic stone sites, but they seem to have a really calm and still atmosphere about them. The Hill O'Many Stanes contains a few hundred stones that are not much more than knee height, the tallest is about waist height , that fan out down a hill side. It's not a very big site at all (around about the size of The Sanctuary near Avebury) and didn't take long to walk around, but it was interesting to note that it's not believed it's a "religious" site but more probably an early form of graveyard (although there are no buried bones) or commemoration site for the ancestors, as generations have added to the stones over the years. The Hill O'Many Stanes was a lovely visit and I'd recommend it.

Almost at the end, quite literally! We drove through a few more villages (I can't remember if Helmsdale was before or after The Hill, but it was really pretty too) and came to Wick. I thought Wick was going to be fairly big(ish) and a bit more bustling, but honestly... it was a bit of a dump! The road from Helmsdale to Wick (A9 I beleive?) was a really odd drive as it was populated on the edges by derelict cottages ans brand new cottages. It seems that people don't mend their property they just build a new one? Very strange.

Continuing on and we arrived in John O'Groats, which is quite literally at the top of mainland UK, the most Easternly point. Just like Wick though, John O'Groats seemed a bit dead and deserted. I expected a seaside type town with lots of tourist crap, but there really wasn't much there. Luckily for us we arrived just in time for a few pictures by the sign, pick up some post cards and snap some lovely pictures of sunset!

Got to the campsite about 15 minutes after, pitched, fed, watered and in bed by midnight. Ready to start it all again on Thursday! Next stop is Clachtol Beach, via Toung and Smoo Caves!

Until tomorrow folks, over and out!!

 Live photo album: https://goo.gl/photos/Gos9KaSACAwi4n7b7

Things I have learnt from this trip:
1. Robert Burns was right; “the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry”
2. Even clean wet dog smells just like wet dog
3. A wool and linen cloak is an incredibly versatile piece of clothing and I've no idea why it went out of fashion from the 15th Century onwards?!
4. My dog is really REALLY nosey
5. I had some brave relatives
6. Princess is a racist dog (she doesnt like Chinese people... how ironic)
7. Prince does some seriously disgusting poos...

Day 2 - The Search for Wall

Curry for Breakfast

After getting into the campsite at 2335 on Saturday night it was a shocker to be up at 8 the next morning! I think it was probably the quickest we've ever put the tents up and got a cup of tea on the go!

My Handsome Boy

Prince is enjoying the exploring and sleeping in the car bit of the holiday, he's not so sure about the whole tent thing. Fabric house isn't his favourite, but he's getting used to it!

Up early and out today with a few missions to complete: Find a bit of Hadrian's wall to have a selfie by and do the same to the Welcome to Scotland sign!

Hoping to knock the first one off early we stopped at Corbridge Roman Town, which is owned by English Heretics (not Heritage, as they're working hard to either destroy or ruin our heritage). As usual for an EH property, the entrance fee outweighed the actual attraction, which was a bit sad really. The museum was ok and I found a few Roman games counters which was interesting because they were very similar to the ones I made for medievals. Looking at the artefacts on display it's interesting to see how "civilised" the Romans were in comparison to the later medieval people, I wonder why that is? Answers on a post card please!

Roman game pieces

There was an area to look around outside which was a tiny town and military base, that was quite cool to be able to wander around an actual size town.

After Corbridge we were recommended to visit Aydon Castle, which was a manor house owned by the Boarder Reivers (history close to my heart there). we drove up the tiny little path towards it but it was another £5 to enter, there really wasn't much to see either so we decided a quick scout around the outside was all we'd do.

Onwards and upwards again (kind of, we actually travelled South to Corbridge...) in search of lunch; provided by an ok 'tea room'. More like a greasy spoon, but it was ok!

We searched for ages to find a bit of Hadrian's Wall but honestly couldn't find any (or any that wasn't owned by English Heretics, and I hate giving them money!). So that's still on the list do do for the way home!

Fantastic. Wondering if the other
side says "First Cafe in England"?

Quick trip through Norumberland National Park (which is TOTALLY stunning by the way) and a drive past the 'Last Cafe in England!', and WE FOUND THE SIGN!!

Very exciting, had to do the tourist thing of having a few pictures by the rock and sign and it's off into Scottyland!.

Obligatory Selfie

We travelled on the A93 road all the way through the Spittal of Glenshee in Caringorms National park and I must say... wow! No picture I can take will ever describe how utterly beautiful it was! There's a ski resort in the highest point (as well as an 18 hole golf course!) and it's odd to see Scotland looking really alpine like Swizerland or somewhere, but the gorgeous mountains and log cabins just added to an utterly pleasant drive and I'd highly recommend it to anyone!


Stay over at Ballater Caravan Park and a kindly lady charged my netbook (which is nearly dead again...) so I could update Day 1 and Day 2, as well as upload all my pictures! Don't forget to check out the Live photo album, I'm updating it all the time with some amazing photos!







 Live photo album: https://goo.gl/photos/Gos9KaSACAwi4n7b7

Things I have learnt from this trip:
1. Robert Burns was right; “the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry”
2. Even clean wet dog smells just like wet dog
3. A wool and linen cloak is an incredibly versatile piece of clothing and I've no idea why it went out of fashion from the 15th Century onwards?!
4. The A93 is the most beautiful road in Britain.

Day 1 - Road, Rain and Relatives

This blog post is a day late, sorry about that! The campsite we stayed on didn't have agreat phone signal!!

Byland Abbey

Today was a bit of a crazy day to be honest. Teapot needed an emergency trip to the dentist in the morning so we couldn't leave when planned at around 10/1030 but thought its ok we'll leave around midday and miss the early traffic, good plan. Except I get all the way to Duxford (about 40 minutes) and think 'did I pack HARVe's batteries?' back home, only to find yes, I did indeed pack them!

Byland Abbey

The drive from my house to Yorkshire was both uneventful and dreadfully boring... M11/A14 all the way... very very boring.

We did, however, decide that yes we could have a little stop in Ampleforth and say hello to our Aunt and our Grandad, and caught them just as they were on the way out. My Aunt has a Corgi mix dog and my Grandad has some odd mix that's Corgi/Chihuahua/Goodness knows what so Prince and Princess had a great time hanging out with them for an hour or so!

On the way to Ampleforth there are two options, there's Sutton Bank which is an enormous hill that lorries aren't allowed up (but with one of the most beautiful views in England; see picture!) or there is the 'Caravan Route' which goes past the ruins of Byland Abbey.

View from Sutton Bank taken a while ago on my phone

Love a bit of decay!!

I chose the Caravan Route because I wasn't sure how my car would car dragging the trailer up Sutton Bank (and didn't really want to be towed home on the first day) but also because my great-Grandmother used to like in Old Byland and my dad remembers playing in the ruins of Byland Abbey as a child (before English Heretics took it over and charge you a fortune to go in...).

Byland Abbey ruins are beautiful and well worth a look if you've got time or arrive there before they lock the gate! The ruins really do show what a magnificent building it must have been!

Almost at Ampleforth!

Back on the journey from North Yorkshire to Northumberland, another two hours to Bellingham where the campsite was. Bit scary as it got dark and we were followed through the back roads of Northumberland National Park by a taxi driver flashing his lights wanting me to pull over. I'm not a violent person but neither am I stupid... I will not be pulling over for a random taxi in the middle of moorland! Nothing was wrong though (think he was just being an arse) and after about an hour of searching we finally found the campsite, ready for a whole night of torrential rain!!

Dinnertime for my little prince <3

 Live photo album: https://goo.gl/photos/Gos9KaSACAwi4n7b7

Things I have learnt from this trip:
1. Robert Burns was right; “the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry”
2. Even clean wet dog smells just like wet dog
3. A wool and linen cloak is an incredibly versatile piece of clothing and I've no idea why it went out of fashion from the 15th Century onwards?!