No. 34 Closed and no giraffes.

The little girl didn’t always live in the little town. The first six years of her life were spent in England. She was actually born in the Cotswolds. The area’s towns and villages, with buildings made from golden limestone, invariably had an influence on the art she was later going to create but at the age of 6 the little girl was told that the family were moving to “another country”.

That “other country” turned out to be Scotland but the little girl was only 6 years old so had never heard of Scotland and had very limited ideas of what other countries were like. The little girl’s ideas were formed from watching “Animal Magic” and “Daktari” on television. I’m sure you can imagine the disappointment that awaited her.

The move to Scotland was on the 1st January. Full of excitement, the little girl had no worries about the move. All the family piled into the car and, as they drove down their street for the last time, the little girl heard her dad say that a man in a skirt was going to teach mum to drive. The little girl had seen men wearing grass skirts and carrying spears living along side the exotic animals on television. Maybe mum would be driving one of those camouflage land rovers!

When the family finally arrived in the little town in Scotland it was late in the evening and dark, even so the little girl could tell the place looked not dissimilar to the town they had left behind. She was very disappointed. No giraffes, no elephants, no chimpanzees, and of the men with grass skirts and spears there was no sign. The people that she saw at the hotel that first night were dressed just like everyone else she had ever seen. Not that there were very many people about because it was 1st January.

(One thing you need to know about Scotland is that New Year is an important holiday and not just New Year’s Day but the 2nd of January too. I don’t know why there are two days holiday but Scotland generally doesn’t get Good Friday as a holiday so it works out that Scotland gets the same number of holidays as the rest of the UK overall.)

That first morning the little girl woke up in a new country, ready to explore and move into the new house, and prepared to squash her disappointment at the lack of wildlife, only to be disappointed again. The whole town was shut, closed, deserted. There was no one about. They saw one person who checked them out of the hotel and then no one else all day, apart from the removal men in the lorry with all their furniture and they left after an hour. The whole place was lifeless and the little girl wondered why on earth would her mum and dad have moved them there. A near silent town with nothing but empty streets and closed shops.

The following day the little town suddenly and surprisingly came to life, bustling with people, cars, buses, and shoppers shopping. Still no giraffes but the little girl was delighted and relieved to see that there was life after all. She came to love the pretty little town and was happy to have moved there but the first impression will always be that the town was CLOSED!

The New Year holiday became the little girls favourite holiday, partly because it reminded her of the move to Scotland but also because it’s a time to do absolutely nothing.

So if you ever visit Scotland remember…on the 2nd January we are CLOSED.