Harrogate

Today we set off on the first part of our summer holidays. Three days in Harrogate with Jenny, staying at the Majestic Hotel. We spent the way down twittering, not the phone variety, but the old fashioned variety with me and William talking about nothing much to keep him   alert on the road. We recalled all the silly things that have happened to us on the A68. I remember almost being in a severe car accident when someone I was with (James), who was driving much too fast in his old MG baby sports car, spun around on the road. Shaken much, but no bruises. William and I also nearly hit a car when we were coming back from holiday one year, he ( the other car) was overtaking and didn't seem to notice the stream of traffic coming towards him. Then there was going around a corner to find a very large pig standing in the middle of the road, and the bridge being washed out with floods just as we crossed it, that was the same trip that William said "it's 15 degrees here, surely the temperature can't drop much, and it was snowing when we crossed Carter Bar.

We also had all the usual jokes about place names, Campton (races, do dah), Boon (Daniel) , Wallish Walls -most are repeats, but we usually manage to find another silly each time. Meanwhile Jenny just sat and slept. There was also the discussion about national emblems, if we are going to have a Scottish tree, what else? Do we already have a national bird, if not, how about the Grouse, it's short and stout, takes suicidal risks and already has a strong affiliation with alcohol.

On checking, (what would we do without the Internet?):

The Scotsman newspaper has run a poll on Scotland's National Bird, and the winner is .......

Golden Eagle

Runner up was Red Grouse

The full final result was

1 GOLDEN EAGLE

2 RED GROUSE

3 CAPERCAILLIE

4 OSPREY

5 PUFFIN

6 GANNET

7 SEA EAGLE

8 PEREGRINE FALCON

9 CRESTED TIT

10 PEEWIT

11 SCOTTISH CROSSBILL

12 PTARMIGAN

Red Grouse has thousands of votes discounted as a certain whisky blend encouraged the members of its e mail list to vote en masse.

I still think that would have been a more appropriate option, less grandiose, and more like a large proportion of the Scottish population.

The Majestic Hotel. An old spa hotel, full of memories of glorious days, but rather fun anyway.