What we did on Friday

Mr Life is an only child. This probably has its advantages in some ways – he got his parents’ concentrated attention. (Is this a good thing? What do you think? One reason that I wanted several children was to dilute the concentration of my worrying.) However, it also has its disadvantages and one of these is that, since his parents have been dead for a long time, he has no one with whom to share his childhood reminiscences. His father died at 64, when Mr Life was 36, and his mother at 70, when Mr Life was 43; and he’s now 61.

He does have eight cousins. I myself am completely cousinless and quite envious of his, but he didn’t see all that much of most of them when they were young – two, indeed, emigrated to Australia – and though we’re in touch with them all, only one lives in Edinburgh and we see only her and her brother at all regularly. And however nice cousins are, they don’t usually share your past like siblings do.

His family also moved around quite a bit with his father’s job, which it made it harder to put down roots. I myself am extremely rooted and attached to my home patch.

For a few years he lived in Alloa in Clackmannanshire, where his maternal grandparents also lived so that even after he left, at the age of seven, he visited it frequently. But we haven’t been back for years. So on Friday we got the train there (this has only recently become possible again and Mr Life likes trains) and we wandered around, visiting the scenes of his childhood.

On the way, we went through Linlithgow - there's the palace on the skyline where Mary Queen of Scots was born.

And here's Stirling, with its castle on the rock - rather like Edinburgh's at first glance. Mary was crowned there in 1543, but bits of it had already been on the rock for four hundred years or so.

Approaching Alloa, we got a good view of the Ochil Hills.

Alloa's just a small town and it’s changed quite a lot. There are various new roads for which buildings have been cleared away and the main street isn’t looking prosperous, with many small shops which have closed presumably because of the big supermarket just a short walk away. But the town hall, above, is much the same, as is the area where Mr Life lived as a boy, round the corner from his Granny and Granddad.

The technical department of the school where his Granddad taught is still there but it's boarded up.

Here's his grandparents' house - it has new windows and it looks quite loved.

This is where little Mr Life lived for a while. A lady inside was somewhat startled to see me taking photos.

The park. It was very chilly!

And the church where Mr Life's parents and grandparents were married.

After our nostalgic wanderings, we were glad to find The Royal Oak open for lunch. It was excellent – should you ever happen to find yourself in Alloa. (This is maybe not very likely.) This painting was on the wall beside our table; it’s supposedly of people going off to America from Alloa harbour because of the Highland Clearances. They all look a bit sinister so maybe they weren’t a great loss to Scotland. Isn’t the water of the River Forth a startling blue?

I spent a lot of the next few days marking, though. Explain to me why I gave my evening class TWO literature essays to do for homework for last Tuesday and then made them write another one in class – all as preparation for the preliminary exam this week? There are 18 people in the class, so 18 x 3 = 54 essays! What was I thinking of???

This was probably rather a boring post unless you happen to be Mr Life or me (and let's face it: most people aren't). Sorry! - but I wanted to record the day.