Lha’s visit (Part 7 and 8)…

Tuesday, June 20th, 2006 at 1:59 pm

I had a little chat with Lha yesterday. She said she was looking forward to reading the next part of her visit. So here they are.

On Friday we left the house immediately after Joanna came to get Pepper in the morning. We went to Stirling via the Forth road bridge. From the starving experience on the day before, I brought some apples and cereal bars in my bags just in case. HG stopped the car at the art shop in Tillicoultry. I wanted to buy a painting-by-numbers kit for my friend in Thailand. It was just a quick stop and we went straight to Alva Glen.

From the map of walk in Alva Glen, I had only been as far as Alva Dam (F). On the way up to Alva Dam we saw some baby robins walked on the path. I took a good picture of one of them. We decided to go up to the zig-zag path and we ended up at the Smugglers cave. From Alva Dam to the cave, we needed to walk in the single file. There are breathtaking views down the Glen but I tried not to look down as the path is narrow and right on the edge of the cliffs. We stopped and took some photos at the cave for a while and then walked back the same way. By the time we were at the car it was about 1pm already. We went to Stirling and had some burgers at Burger King for lunch. After lunch we went up to Stirling Castle and spent time there for an hour. After had some ice cream and walked around the old town we went back to the car and drove home. I cooked Spicy Cajun Chicken with garden salad with my spicy dressing and some chips for them. We harvested lettuces and radishes from our garden. After dinner we went out for a little walk in the wood with Pepper. Lha and P’Lo took lots of photos of the plants in our wood. I felt a bit sad because that was their last night staying with us.

On Saturday morning I made chicken congee (rice soup) for them. HG said his left elbow was very sore and he did not know why. We thought it might be because of too much driving. Lha tried to tell him that we did not have to go to Botanic garden as we planned but HG insisted to take them. After Joanna came to get Pepper we were ready to leave the house. We planned to go to Botanic garden and have lunch and take them to the airport. While we were at Botanic garden, HG’s elbow got a bit worse. It swelled so much and hurt when touched. He said he would walk to the pharmacy. I could not find my mobile in my bag, so I told him that I would be around the rhododendrons area or the rockery area. After HG left for the pharmacy, I had to look for Lha and P’Lo. It took me a while to find them because they went to the toilet. When we were at the rockery I found my mobile phone. It was in the small pocket in front of my bag. I called HG and he said he was on the way back. He said he had an appointment made by the pharmacist to the nearest hospital at 1pm. It was about an hour from that time and we did not know for how long it would take in the hospital but we could not take Lha and P’Lo to the airport and came back in time for the hospital. So we all planned to go to the hospital and see if it was going to take longer than we expected we would get a taxi for Lha and P’Lo. We had hotdogs for lunch. HG did not want to eat anything but water. We went to the hospital after lunch. It seemed to be too painful for HG to drive, so he had to drive mostly with one hand. It took about an hour at the hospital. The doctor said his elbow seemed to get infected but she did not know how because there was no cut. She gave him some painkillers, antibiotics and anti-inflammatory. We went to the airport after that. We were at the same parking space as we were when we came to pick them up last Saturday. We were there about 40 minutes earlier before they could check-in, actually they had already checked in on the internet but they needed to drop off their luggage. While we were waiting P’Lo looked around to find a free Scotland map but he could not find one, so HG bought a small one for him. I went upstairs with Lha to Boots and I got something like support bandage for HG’s elbow. After Lha and P’Lo checked their luggage we took them upstairs so they could get into the departure area and we said goodbye to them. It was quite sad I tried not to cry. Lha and I hugged each other (we don’t normally do this in Thailand), Lha and HG hugged each other and P’Lo and HG hugged each other. HG was impressed that Lha and P’Lo would try to eat everything. They tried to help us in the house, cleaned the dishes, cleaned and tidy the table, gave HG neck massage, played with our Pepper and etc. It was such a wonderful week having them as our guests. We hope they will come back again.