28 April 1998

Dear Judy, Kevin, Anne, Dave, Hannah and William

Well, I'm back three weeks and haven't written to thank you for your hospitality, so I'm doing it now. I found it very refreshing (in the literal sense of the word) to have few days in the bosom of the family after so many days amongst strangers. Thanks again.

The trip home passed without incident (apart from a minor fracas on the plane from LA to London but that was quickly smoothed over by the cabin crew) but it was a major shock to the system to leave Auckland at a "cool" 21 degrees and arrive in Glasgow at a "mild" 5 degrees Celsius. Reports of storms sweeping the British Isles around Easter are not exaggerated but by some strange quirk, they missed Glasgow, all we had was overnight frost and cold sunny days. The weather has now warmed up a bit, into double figures but we're getting cloudy days and occasional light rain.

Everyone in Glasgow is well, except me - I've got a cold. After five months of warm weather and plenty of fresh air, I seem to have little resistance to the germs which abound in overheated buildings and buses where any attempt to open a window runs the risk of a lynching.

Mary and Brian are currently somewhere in the Adriatic, hopefully on the surface. They went off at Easter for a fortnight sailing from Greece to Italy to Croatia. Not my idea of the ideal holiday but they have been sailing in the Greek Islands before and at this time of the year, the trip they are doing is cheap - the yachts are based in Greece for the winter and up in Croatia for the summer so anyone willing to relocate the boats gets a bargain. Just as long as they don't run into any Albanian pirates (the avoidance of whom is the reason for going across to Italy rather than straight up the coast). We have just received a postcard, picture of a hill village in Italy, saying that they are stormbound in Brindisi but it was posted in Dubrovnik so we presume that weather improved. (Since I wrote that, they are back safely, seem to have enjoyed themselves.)

Paul is home for a fortnight. He arrived on Monday and is looking well - apart from his weight. When last I saw him, he was a couple of stones heavier than me (he does nothing but work, sleep and eat in restaurants) but I think he has put on more weight while I lost a couple of stones on my travels. There has been some discussion about whether Moira, Louise and small Paul will go out and join him again but no decision has been made.

Karen spent last weekend in Amsterdam with an old school friend. Paul came back via Amsterdam and arrived there just after Karen's flight had left. She went via Stanstead, he flew direct and they arrived in Glasgow about twenty minutes apart - very convenient for Moira who went to meet them both and didn't have to hang around between the flights. However, Karen got dropped at Queen Street station and went through to Edinburgh where she shares a flat.

Fiona has bought a flat in Dumbarton Road, near the university, but has been spending most of her time doing it up (just decorating, nothing structural) and coming home at night. She is at that stage in her course where she spends most of her time going around various hospital departments for practical experience. In the (northern) summer, she will spend a month at a hospital in Savannah, then a month visiting the tourist attractions of eastern USA. There's half a dozen students going from Glasgow, they seem to have a strange idea that no holiday in the States can be complete without several days at Disneyland!

This coming weekend is the May Holiday Weekend - a Labour government introduced it as May Day in the early seventies but the Tories changed the name and the present so-called Labour government is unlikely to change the name back. I'm going up to Oban, the Paddle Steamer Waverley sails from there for the weekend and it makes a nice change from my usual sails on the Firth of Clyde. She sets off from Glasgow at 0700 on Friday and calls at Largs and Campbeltown before sailing round the Mull of Kintyre (weather permitting) with a call at Port Ellen on Islay on the way up. It's just a token stop necessary to comply with the terms of her passenger certificate (coastal passenger vessels aren't allowed to sail continuously more than so many hours and Campbeltown - Oban direct would exceed the magic number). Saturday is a sail out to Staffa (of Hebrides Overture fame), Sunday is a pleasant cruise south down the coast and into Loch's Melfort, Craignish and Crinan before crossing the Dorus Mor and Correyvreckan Whirlpool which can be quite interesting or pretty boring depending on the state of wind and tide. Monday is a cruise to Iona and Tuesday is more or less Friday in reverse. All in all, it should be very pleasant.

I'm still sitting here amongst a sea of chaos. The various boxes I posted home as my pack became overloaded with maps, guides, t-shirts etc. have all arrived and I am trying to sort out the contents. I'm a bit daunted by the 31 rolls of un-mounted slide film which have to be mounted, catalogued and sorted into interesting collections with which to give slide shows to any victims I can trap. Then there's the two and a half exercise books of diary to be typed up, the wee black book of comings, goings and out-goings to be processed to work out how much I spent, how far I travelled etc. There's also the problem of where to put all the t-shirts; I still haven't worn some of the shirts I brought back from Canada in 1989.

Anyway, please excuse all the boring bits - I was determined to get over onto the second page and will stop now that I have succeeded. I'd better get on with the tidying up and do my packing for the weekend. I'll send copies of this to Leigh and Wellington.

I hope youse are all keeping well.