Something to look forward to

One of the disadvantages of being a biomedical scientist is on-call. I work in the Microbiology Department at the Conquest Hospital, Hastings and this is my weekend on. As a result the Aberlour will have to wait a few days as I have to be ready to drive into the hospital at a moment's notice. Never mind, I can while away some time recording a good thing that happened last week related to my whisky travels.

I mentioned the Isle of Coll in my introduction. My in laws bought a ruined cottage there about 50 years ago and the family have been doing it up ever since. You can read the story of its resurrection in "House in the Hebrides" by John Ogg (ISBN 0-954-80630-1). It was an ideal place for family holidays while the children were growing up. My eldest daughter decided she would like to take her boyfriend there during the May half term week. This all fixed up now and we are going to be there with them.

While we are up there we thought a few days on Islay would be fun too. We have an interest in a barrel of Bruichladdich so like to be able to pay our respects from time to time. Last time we went it was all a bit rushed as we accidentally went during the week of the Islay Show, but I will write more on that later. We decided it would be good to try and have a more leisurely visit during the week after we are in Coll. I looked up suitable accomodation on the internet and started phoning up to make a booking. I thought surely February is early enough to secure something in June. But no, place after place that I called was fully booked. What was going on? To my amazement I discovered that we had plumped on the very week of the Islay Whisky Festival! Well the good news is that we have managed to book ourselves a bed, so we will be there. Now that's something to look forward to on a grey February Sunday afternoon.