The Matildas Australia’s favourite women’s football team was playing England. Big moment.

I choose to explore Lauder ( it didn’t take long ) even though I was walking at a snails pace. Steve decided to walk. Turns out he covered 19 km.

Lauder is a lovely Border town and has a nice little High St with a great cafe gallery. I occupied myself there for a while with the other people using walking sticks. I’ve really noticed how many people need a walking stick perhaps more here in Scotland?

I then returned to the Black Bull and chatted to the wife of yesterday’s timber man the owner – Steve’s new best friend . They have owned this pub for 8 years and have turned it into a friendly place for locals and tourists. Turns out they travel to Sydney every second year to visit their daughter in Sydney. She & her husband run an event company and recently organised the opening event to the World Cup which involved closing the Sydney Harbour Bridge for an opening party.

So she was more than happy to chat and have the tv on the GAME I sat there mostly alone ( it was 11am) with a coffee. Not a gin!

It was a great game but unfortunately Australia lost to England. Remember, I’m in Scotland and they were mostly supporting Australia! No love lost between England Scotland.

Meanwhile, Steve is walking along the road then detouring through fields , forests & villages.

He found a beautiful old church and chatted for ages to the three ladies doing the weekly clean. The church only opens twice a week so he was lucky today was one of the days .

I left the pub and drove around the country side and arrived at the Juniperlea Pub to meet a very tired Steve for a late, late lunch.

We had a quiet afternoon as the afternoon ‘sludge’ had started. ( drizzly rain)

Dinner was at the Hotel pub and and early night. The food is good but it’s getting hard to select! I had the steak pie ! Steve the local cheddar Mac & Cheese. We’ve had the fish ‘n chips another favourite a few times. So time for a change.

Steve decided yesterday’s long walk was enough. It was cloudy and he didn’t want to walk in the rain, so we left together for an explore of the countryside. It’s so beautiful. Lush fields , stone fences where no one seems to be in a hurry. Lots of retirees in these little villages where there is nothing around. Most have few, if any shops at all so you have to get a bus or drive everywhere. oh it would be so cold in the long winters!

We found a laundrette in a supermarket car park. Such a great idea. Three big machines in a bus shelter type building. You pop your washing in, go into the Coop supermarket. Come out , change to the dryer and have a coffee in the adjacent coffee shop. So easy.

We drove up to the next village Dalkeith. It’s only about 30 mins from Edinburgh so would be a good place to live and commute to work in Edinburgh.

We visited the stunning Dalkeith Park. You can drive around it (a bit like Centennial Park in Sydney) and there is a Palace which is only open on weekends for tours and concerts. There’s a rotunda and nearby a part called Restoration. It’s a little piazza type area with restaurants, shops a great food hall and gallery. A lovely place to meet for lunch.

There’s also camping in the park next to an adventure playground. Free for children but £4 for adults! It’s got all sorts of tree houses, slides sand play and from the delighted screaming for the children a fun place to spend some time.

About 20 minutes away is Rosslyn Chapel. You may have heard of this chapel – mostly because of the book & movie The DaVinci Code. They filmed scenes here. The publicity was good for the chapel because visitors to it have increased . Before there was a little man sitting in a wooden box at the entrance where you entered for free. Now there’s parking , a visitor centre, lots of well planned & displayed information.

The chapel was started in 1442 and took 40 years to build. It was built by the wealthy St Clair family as a chapel on their land. It deteriorated over many years and was at one point used as a stable for horses.

The design is gothic style with the most beautiful stone carvings. All designed to reflect stories from the bible.

It’s small with a limited number of people entering in each 90 min time slot. There’s a free talk about the Chapel, when everyone sits in the pews and look ready for a church service. Our guide was a frustrated actress or maybe a vicar. Reminiscent of Dawn French she brought the history alive with a few well told stories including dramatic pause, lowered voice and a laser pointer to highlight the stone sculptures.

From the Chapel it was off to Edinburgh for a night before flying to the Shetland Islands. I pre arranged for Steven ( the man I’ve been communicating with for our 10 day apartment stay after Shetland ) to store a bag. So kind of him. We have limited luggage for the small plane to the islands & were planning on playing storage costs at a local place but it got complicated so I emailed my friend Steven and he met us at the apartment and took our bag to his place until we arrive back. So kind of him.

The apartment position is great. Just behind the castle, 4 minutes from a tram line & Steve measured 75 paces to our local pub. Can’t wait to settle for 10 days.m!

We had the night at The Royal Scots Club near Princes St after a tasty Japanese meal. Huge variety of food places here.

A 5.15 am taxi pick up for our 7.20 flight to the Shetlands. I’m sitting in the little plane with only about 20 passengers watching the propellers twirl waiting for take off.

Off to find Jimmy Perez. If you don’t know the tv series take a look (and put the captions on to help with the heavy Scottish accents)

Too good to be true. Not taking off. The Shetlands control tower radio was faulty and had to be checked – so back to the gate for an hour!