How, you may ask, did we end up here at the White Dove? As usual, the answer is not straightforward.

 The garage that looks after our car, Peugeot Ecosse, is very good to us. Normally, we arrange things to land on a Monday morning because then they can drop us off at the Hippodrome cinema and pick us up again when the film is finished and the car is fixed. The “Hippodrome thing”, however, only works on a Monday morning. Today isn’t a Monday, and our car is booked for a service. What to do?

The answer was to drop us off in Linlithgow, where we could have breakfast and maybe take a walk around Linlithgow Loch. It’s a beautiful day. They would phone us in a couple of hours when they were finished with the car. 

Excitement

After some breakfast, we just sat in the sun, dreamily watching the bustle of  Linlithgow life.  It was busy! There was a man delivering eggs from the back

of a van to what seemed to be every business in the town. Presently, however, our reverie was disturbed by a honeymooning couple from Andorra. We know, not something that happens every day. They were overjoyed to be here and wondered if we could photograph them together on the steps of the Burgh Halls. They were a lovely couple, and it reminded us that something we would barely give a second glance to can be a source of great excitement for others.

A few yards from where we sat was Linlithgow Palace, the birthplace of Mary Queen of Scots, and a few yards in the other direction was the White Dove. We chose the White Dove. We thought we could manage a scone before the garage came to retrieve us.

Jam?

We ordered some coffee and a fruit scone to share. However, when it arrived, it was accompanied by the announcement “No jam!” “What, no jam?”  we replied “Yes, no jam!” In all of our scone-eating days, this was a first. Ironically, there were plenty jam selling emporiums within spitting distance of the White Dove. Obviously, that hadn’t occurred to them, so we didn’t think there was any point enquiring about cream. To add to our disillusionment, the two men at the next table were talking very loudly as if they were at opposite ends of the café rather than across a small table. Unfortunately, they weren’t talking about anything remotely interesting.

Kindness

The motto of Linlithgow is “be kind to strangers“. When we look around the world, we don’t see a lot of kindness, never mind to strangers. The war crime being conducted with impunity in Gaza is ample evidence. Our faith was restored, however, at the sight of our car coming to collect us. That’s us and our car all set for another year … yeagh!

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