And so after a successful shopping trip to Edinburgh on Tuesday, where much was acquired for the wedding, including the grooms father's attire - in the hunting Robertson no less - and some token tartan for me, we set off from Linlithgow for the Gourock ferry. Two hours later and many episodes of the archers we were still stationary on the M8. This was frustrating as I had hoped to arrive at the chalet in daylight and said hope was long gone. We were also starting to get hungry. With me this equates to grumpy. Our first hurdle was to find the ferry. This was tricky as the original car ferry recently lost its mooring and the new car ferry is very poorly signposted. Cue the first call to my parents. Shortly afterwards we located the ferry which left almost immediately. Excellent.
As per instructions we headed off up the road from Dunoon. We had already decided to stop for dinner en route and as such called in on one of mum and dads new locals where a friendly border collie gave us a warm welcome. Dinner was perfectly acceptable and happily sated we set off to complete the final very short leg of our journey.
James had enjoyed the local produce so I was driving. I was finding it somewhat stressful as rural Scotland does not abound with streetlights and I had little idea of where I was heading. We found the local inn and but then I missed the turning as I couldn't remember all the details. Doing a three point turn in the dark on a national speed limit road is not an experience I want to repeat any time soon and I was in a fluster. I took the next turning but was convinced it was the wrong one. James was helpfully refusing to ring my parents for instructions and so I stormed out the car to get my phone. It would be fair to say I was not happy. Once in possession of further instructions though we managed to find the correct chalet. Then the fun began...
I was told where to find one key in order to unlock an outbuilding and find more keys. These supposedly unlocked the double doors which provide the only access to the chalet. Unfortunately for us this proved not to be the case. One key opened the right door but for the life of us we could not persuade the other key to open the left door. It would be fair to say relations at this point were not particularly cordial and my rage exploded during another phone call to my parents to see if there was something obvious we were missing - there wasn't. The site management were contacted and dispatched to help. They failed. Thus at 10pm we found ourselves being escorted to the local inn which was shut. However our companions knew where the owner lived. He was accordingly summoned and thanks to a cancellation we were provided with a bed for the night. Gradually tensions dispelled and come the following morning we were disposed to have an enjoyable day.
We spent said day exploring the quaint local town of Inverary. We took in the jail and the Fyne ales brewery. After a scenic detour to loch goylehead where we failed to procure lunch we headed back to the local inn to await the arrival of the 'local' locksmith from across the water. It was such an experience for him to be called out so far that his girlfriend had been brought along for the ride as she had never been to the area before. After the best part of an hour and a new lock later, not to mention a hefty bill, we were safely ensconced in the chalet and my parents had been reassured that contrary to their fears of the previous night James was still alive.
The remainder of our mini break passed uneventfully. Unless you count James' 28th birthday as an event! We both emerged relatively unscathed from our ordeal and in years to come I'm sure we'll laugh about the events that unfolded. For now though we've managed to move on and the wedding is still on - in fact as I've been writing this James has been redrafting his guest list. Fun times.
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