Well I’m just back from a couple of days in Bonnie Scotland, and it was the first time in a while I’d been to my home village of Monifieth (I couldn’t find any more recent pictures than that!). I was just there for a couple of days to look after a family member who had been in hospital for a short stay. It was pretty good being back home, and I was kept busy doing food shopping, cooking, and all that kind of stuff. The fairly recent Belfast-Dundee flight operated by Flybe is absolutely brilliant as well – I still can’t believe I can hop in to a plane and go straight to Dundee instead of flying to Edinburgh and then having an hour and a fifteen minute drive in the pitch black and (usually) driving rain. Great! Also I saw Highland Cows every day which I totally love. They’re cool looking beasts!

Monifieth has changed loads since I’ve been there – for a start it has a McDonald’s now (not the one I used to work in), but it saddened me to see that my old school has gone up for sale. It’s described as a “former mansion” in 2.3 acre grounds. No doubt it will be converted into flats, but my Mum pointed out that they’ll probably build houses in the grounds as well, which would be really sad. I can still remember picking daffodils in the gardens and selling them at the school for 5p! (And that was a school thing, not some hare-brained get-rich scheme I dreamt up when I was five).

So back home in Belfast now, and getting ready to fly to London tomorrow for a lunch with who will hopefully be the new presenters for my Summer series. I’ll let you know how that goes!