Day visiting tourist ‘attractions’ in Wick with Daniel and then flying home to a re-union with Diana and the family as Rainbow Warrior is bombed and sunk and FIFA allows English national football back into competitions
We eventually sleep well in the stuffy room and wake to a very wet morning. Some time catching up on my journal for yesterday’s very hectic activities, with Daniel impatiently waiting, and then to get washed and dressed as he watches breakfast TV. Down to the restaurant for a good breakfast, courteously served, with Daniel enjoying cereal, then scrambled egg and I a fried meal with toast and Tipton marmalade to follow. We then went out to the shops with our anorak hoods up against the persistent rain. Wick is a small town, but important for the region, and has a very good selection of shops for all purposes. We looked around Woolworths to keep out of the rain, and then a HiFi and toy shop near to the hotel. We bought new headphones for Daniel and a small Roland Rat puppet for Debbie. Refreshments at the central café several times during the day. Before lunch we walked to the Heritage Fishery Museum and were impressed by the breadth of the exhibits on the herring fishing industry, which is now, regrettably, long declined.
There were many photographs of the people and fishing boats; displays of nets, boats and accessories; a lighthouse; a fisherman’s cottage laid out and furnished as it was; and a cooperage where the fish barrels were made and marked. I bought books from the shop (run by the Wick Society) on which, Harbour & the Herring Fishing and also on the Flagstone Industry of Caithness, which is also of interest because of the proximity of the quarries to Thurso and Broubster. After lunch we walked up to the Caithness Glass factory to the north of Wick town centre and saw the men blowing the glass, working in pairs and forming the shapes by blowing against cast iron moulds, cleaned with water under pressure. The public could walk amongst them and the heat of the furnaces and the proximity of the hot glass was very impressive. The resulting glasses were ‘annealed’ in a long moving furnace to remove the heat stress, then the edges were ground on a rotating abrasive belt, lubricated with water, or rounded in another kiln with jet flames. We go on to the glass shop and buy 8 Wick glasses and a ‘seascape’ heavy flower vase. Only seconds are sold in the shop, but we can hardly notice the difference and so are well satisfied. Back to the hotel and a taxi to Wick airport with our suitcases. The long journey home with waits, three take offs and landings, the car ride from the airport to St Neots, all of which took some 5-6 hours. Nice to see a young couple pleased to see each other at the airport after some time away. She, dressed to kill on a warm day and he, hardly able to wait to get to the car before welcoming her in the normal way, which was quite arousing for later. Once home, a chance to look at the landscapers hard work and they had rotavated the gardens and raked them well to even the contours and remove the rocks and stones, which was good. Then to catch up on some mail at both houses, but no phone messages. Lastly to play back our Thormaid film for Diana and I and to see the windswept estate once again. Up to bed and to imitate our airport friends (which came as a pleasant surprise for Diana) before soundly asleep. News today of the Greenpeace flagship, Rainbow Warrior, being bombed and sunk with their photographer killed, which is sabotage and murder. Also of FIFA reversing their earlier decision to ban English clubs from world football and only now restricting the teams in Europe. This is welcome good news for English club football at last. And so we are home and notice the sharp contrast between the hilly, peaty, rocky and wet Highlands, with the very dry, flat, plains of East Anglia, which underlines the distances involved.