30,000 steps (nearly)

Thursday was another lovely day. Fired up by watching the pros on Wednesday, we headed down to Arbroath for another crack at a Scottish links course.

We had seen it from the train which passes right alongside it on the way to and from Carnoustie. In the grey, flat morning light it looked totally underwhelming but, on our way home with the golden evening sun casting long shadows, it looked intriguing. Which it was. I was really pleased we played the links rather than chickening out and playing a parkland course.

I didn't have a great round. I played alright but didn't get the breaks. Rich on the other hand played beautifully and scored well too - a cracking 41 points.

This was the closest he has ever been to a hole in one which is pretty damn close!!

My shiny new golf top and visor from The Open yesterday....get me being all matchy matchy!

After our fantastic morning on the links we headed home, ditched the car and walked up to one of the golf clubhouses for lunch and a couple of hours watching The Open with some frankly incomprehensible older Scottish golfers.

Next up it was our turn to walk the pooches as Liz had a training course and Craig was working on the garden. We intended to do a shortish golf club/beach walk as we'd already done a fair bit of walking but, as we walked along, we got a second wind and carried on to the big dune at the very end of the course.

Once again the girls raced to the top and hurled themselves down the dune and were black dots on the beach by the time I hufffed and puffed my way to the top.

This was Shelagh gamely scrambling back UP the dune to meet me the daft old girl.

Although it was a beautiful evening, we knew we had bitten off more than we could comfortably chew as we hit the beach and realised our walk back was full into the stiff evening breeze. It became a bit of a trudge at the end trying to beat the tide to the boardwalk but no regrets, if you can't get excited by sunny dunes and holiday beaches then what is the point??

We were shattered but had a table booked at a good Mexican restaurant which we had been looking forward to so, after showers and smart clothes there was yet more walking into town.

They were not wrong, the restaurant was a cracker. Not a burrito or fajita in sight. This was not your greasy Tex Mex joint but a delightful family run back street bistro. The menu was interesting and packed full of difficult choices. I picked spicy prawns in a delicate tomato sauce and tacos for my main.

The tacos were sensational. Not massive, 4 soft shell tacos with different flavours. I picked goat, Arbroath smokies, spicy chicken and chilli with manchego. Everyone's dishes were fabbie and the cocktails and Malbec were spot on too.

We bounced out of the restaurant (well I was as bouncy as my sore feet permitted) and walked home to lay into their impressive selections of gins and 80s tuuuunes. It was a brilliant night chatting and singing and we slept late the next day!! (29,878 steps and I couldn't be bothered to head round the block to knock off the last couple of hundred steps yo clock a rare 30k!!)