Balancing act...

The feeling has returned to the tip of my right ring finger. To this day, Thursday, I have no idea why it went funny in the first place. But it's fine now.
The meal I referred to in my last post was indeed as wonderful as I'd hoped. The wines were indeed exceptional. I have a rule about wine chat on this blog though, so if you want to see what we drank and how it tasted, check it out here.
To be honest, my favourite part of the evening was the end, with Pete W, myself and Pete C sitting on the floor of the cellar, merrily chatting nonsense. I'm sure we solved the problems of the world. We lost the piece of paper we wrote them down on though.
The next day (Monday) was pretty lazy. Not really hungover, just kind of slow. I took this picture (above), which still makes me laugh. Tiny, the oriental shorthair, looks so totally unamused; a nice contrast to Pete C looking totally amused. We drank champagne with bacon butties, did a partial stock take of the cellar and then went riding.
The riding was wonderful. That part of Northern Fife has no shortage of stunning scenery and the horses were lovely. I rode Pico, who seems to know that I'm effectively a beginner, and is very patient with me. We cantered, slipping occasionally into a gallop, and it was brilliant. I hadn't been that fast on a horse for 15 years and while there was the hint of fear, that made it all the better. I whooped and hollared a few times, I can tell you. Hanging on for dear life brings that out of me.
We rode as the sun was going down and as the haar was coming in. The surrounding valleys being slowly over run by the mist coming in from the sea. Sadly it's not easy to take great pictures from the back of a horse, so they didn't come out brilliantly. But this should give a bit of an idea. We managed to avoid the fog throughout. The sunset was incredible, the mist on the horizon turning the sun itself almost red. But I was riding too fast to get my camera out. Sometimes memories are better than photos anyway. I had my stirrups too short, so my legs felt like rusty stumps by the end. It was worth it though.
We went for a curry that night with Jo & Ellie, who seemed in pretty good form. Great food at the Balaka but the coffee is shite.
The last couple of days have been a bit of a see-saw. I've had more great food, some dreadul whiskies and some lovely whiskies. I've tidied my room a bit. I've contemplated packing. One second I'm ready to jump on a train and fuck off home, the next I'm standing on my balcony, wondering what I've done and wishing I could stay there forever. It's a bit of a see-saw; up and down. It's going to be ok.