A fairly fun weekend
I have been trying to get out for mini-adventures a bit more often and am pleased to say that I managed two of them this weekend! (Don’t worry: I also managed to get some of my thesis written along with some work on my non-thesis PhD tasks!)
The first adventure was a Saturday afternoon trip to Kirkcaldy where I spent a couple of hours at the Links Market. (That’s UK-speak for a funfair. Weird, I know.) Apparently, the Links Market is the longest street fair in Europe, although I can’t find any references to just how long that is! It is also the oldest market in Scotland, having been established by Royal Charter in 1304.
It was very crowded when we were there, but we managed to walk along the fairway with relative ease. Sadly, my ITP means I couldn’t ride any of the really big and scary rides. However, I did ride the carousel and I did the bumper cars (called dodge ‘ems in the UK) twice. My fair friends, including a teenager and a 9-year-old who was just tall enough to ride, enjoyed several of the really big and scary rides though so I got to enjoy watching them enjoy themselves.
And because no fair is complete without junk food, I enjoyed a double-meat burger and then some chips and then some cotton candy. It was pure heaven and I was definitely ready to crash when I got home!
The second adventure was on Sunday when I went to the Borders with a friend to see the Jim Clark Museum and a couple of related sights. Jim Clark, for the uninitiated (which included me until the adventure!), was a British Formula One racing driver from Scotland, who won two World Championships, in 1963 and 1965. Sadly, he was killed in a racing accident in 1968.
I am not really a racing fan myself, but getting out into the countryside sounded like a good idea so I went along for the ride. And as I was promised some geocaching along the way, I was even more willing to go on the adventure.
After some light geocaching, we arrived at the museum in Duns where we looked around at the trophies. My friend also spoke excitedly with the docent about racing cars and such. (I pretended to be interested.) Then we stopped off for lunch before heading to Chirnside to visit Clark’s grave and to see his memorial clock in the town centre. We were also delighted to find an amazing Art Deco primary school in town. Wow! Really, wow! (I do love a good serendipitous find!)
As the second adventure was far less exhausting than the first, I even managed to get some more PhD work done when I got home in the evening. The break away from the computer was really needed and it’s helped me to feel a bit more relaxed and productive today.
But as I am off on a less-happy annual “adventure” on Wednesday, I will have to skip the adventures next weekend in favour of a wee nature walk around my own neighbourhood. After all, a girl can’t successfully PhD if she’s cooped up in a house all weekend!
