I scraped together every last little bit of flexitime to get a weekend in Drumbuidhe and set off (at 6.30am to catch the 7.30 ferry to Skye) with a sinking feeling after increasing weirdness from Campbell.
When he spends more than about 5 days up at Drumbuidhe his diet, drinking and isolation mean that his dementia becomes more apparent. This would be fine(ish) if he followed the gently dotty stereotype but alas in his case it means he gets abusive and erratic. Since he's been detained once already by the police for assaulting me I always get nervous when his behaviour deteriorates. Once the conditions are set up for him to get violent almost anything can set him off but in this case it was my refusal to pay for the mending of the grasscutter (I pointed out that it has never worked since Rene & Louise broke it) and my comment that abandoning our landrover halfway along the track for a week (this was Campbell's other new friend, Mike Kelly... he does pick 'em) is not what I would expect an 'expert on mark I landrovers' to do (there was no great drama with this: I walked 4 miles out on a sunny day and drove it back but it was rather rude of "expert" Mike).
Thankfully by the time I arrive at Drumbuidhe (after 10 hours straight travel) Campbell had calmed down so there was just the standard stuff to deal with (filthy bathroom, lots of rotten food, unemptied fires) on top of the garden work I had to do (collect seaweed, dig over potato beds, protect beans and salad crops, plant out beetroot seedlings ...). It's only when I write things down that I realise I'm being thankful that all I had to do in my spare time was skivvying (instead of skivvying plus domestic abuse).
To celebrate the calm I made some of Joanne's Spaghetti Carbonara: not the traditional Carbonara by any means but our much-loved family recipe which has been spread to everyone I've ever lived with. I've always passed it on by demonstration but my attempt to codify it goes like this:
Joanne's Carbonara
(serves two)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium onion chopped finely
6 rashers streaky bacon chopped
4 cloves garlic chopped coarsely
1 tablespoon plain flour
100ml milk
100ml single cream
50g parmesan
black pepper
nutmeg
* fry the onion and bacon until browned
* add the garlic and stir for a minute or two
* add the flour and stir to form a roux
* add the milk and stir as it comes to the boil (add more milk if it's too stiff)
* add the cream and parmesan and heat through
* add black pepper and nutmeg to taste
* serve with freshly cooked pasta
After the trauma of last month's drive to the ferry (180 miles pedal to the metal and I only caught it with 4 minutes to spare) I set off with plenty of time and managed to buy stacks of gourmet goodies (olive oil! fresh peppers! poppy seeds!) in Fort William. The weather was so beautiful that I stopped by Loch Garry to photograph the mist rising off the still water feeling terribly smug. The smugness disappeared about 20 minutes out of Skye when the clouds darkened and the wind picked up. I found it terrifying but all other passengers seemed dead laconic and the crew didn't even lash the lorries down. On the positive side the fear did stop me throwing up and we made it into Lochmaddy OK - apparently if it gets too bad to dock in Lochmaddy they will turn around and go back to Skye.
Also on the positive side Campbell had to call the local garage out (although 'local' in the context of Drumbuidhe still involves at least 3 hours wait and a 4WD vehicle) to get his Honda started to get back down to Glasgow and he's decided that this means he shouldn't go back up again 'til the New Year. Hurrah!
