My Diary 09 - Hiking with Grandad by Emily Harrison
I was loving University, I was well into my studies, but everyone needs a break.
I'd been so looking forward to the end of term and the summer holidays, and now having arrived, I wanted to fill it up with as much fun and interesting stuff as I could.
One of the first things I'd arranged, was a trip up to Scotland to stay with my Grandparents. Everyone has two sets of Grands, if you've read any of my earlier diary entries, you will already have read about my Southern ones. I hadn't seen my Scottish Grands, however, for a while, so I really wanted to spend some time with them again.
We're always in contact, but due to their relatively remote location, it's always a bit of a trip. There is, however, always an open invitation to head up north, so, after a few weeks of planning, it was all arranged, a week up in Bonnie Scotland would be great.
My Grandad is a hiking nut, he's always out on the Highlands amongst the heather, the scots pines and the thistles, so part of my week up there was going to be hiking with him. In fact, I jokingly said I'd only visit if he promised to take me on a long hike up in the Highlands. I was so looking forward to that.
I wanted to do a few other things over the holiday period too. I wanted to spend more time helping out at the care home, I wanted to visit Mum and Dad in France and maybe even enjoy another short naturist holiday with my elderly gay neighbour Albert.
Also high on my priority list, was another visit to my Southern Grands, which of course meant another tryst with the Colonel. Added to all of that, would be my weekly visits to my old teacher Mr Thomas, lots of swimming, running and cycling and I'm sure I'd find a few 'new' distractions to fill the remainder of my summer with too.
But before all of that, one of my tutors at Uni, Abi (short for Abigail) had invited me to a pub lunch. She's really nice and had been so helpful in my studies over the past year.
Sorry I've rambled on a bit here, let me rewind a little and give you a quick recap of myself before I start.
My name is Emily Harrison, I've just this past week turned 19 and am currently attending University. I'm fit, I have what I guess you could call, a petite but athletic body. I'm roughly 5ft 2 inches tall, I have longish brown hair which is pretty much always in a ponytail. I get told quite a lot that I'm pretty, even though I wince a little each time I hear that. I think it's because I'm rather shy, I can go as red as a beetroot at any given moment, especially if someone's complimenting me for something. I think people see me as an innocent, which to a certain extent is true, a persona that I don't mind either.
I'm also, out of choice, still a virgin, and I have this, you could say, rather unconventional 'thing' about elderly men. I've been enjoying some rather naughty adventures recently, and although wishing to remain a virgin for as long as possible, I'm very much enjoying everything else that an occasional naughty adventure, with 'the right' elderly man, can bring.
And elderly men seem to be attracted to me too, I don't know why. Maybe it's my looks, maybe my personality or it might be because of the 'innocence' thing, I don't know. I've also been told I look a lot younger than my age, which will, I suppose, be great when I'm 92, but now?
So anyway, today is my lunch with Abi, tomorrow I'm going to help out at the care home, and then Monday first thing, I'll be on a train heading up to Scotland to stay with my Grands.
I woke at 7.32 am. My lunch with Abi was scheduled for 12.30.
Of all my tutors, Abi is by far the nicest. She's probably in her late 40's I would say, although she could even be early 50's. Dark hair, fairly slim, and quite beautiful actually. But more than that, she's incredibly fun, smart, kind and caring too.
I'd had quite a few chats with Abi during my first year at University, she'd been incredibly kind in steering me through some of the more challenging parts of my coursework. The downside, however, was that from the start of the new term, she would be working in another department, which was a real shame, as we'd become pretty good friends over the past year.
This was going to be the first time we'd met up outside of Uni, however. I wasn't entirely sure of the purpose of our lunch, I had an inkling that she was going to make some suggestions regarding my course and where I might need to specialise if I was to go further in my chosen field.
Anyway, on such a warm day, dressed in my new short navy pleated skirt (Β£19 in Debenhams, a bargain!), my light blue silk blouse, no bra and a white thong, white ankle socks and my white Adidas trainers, I headed off to meet up with Abi.
We'd arranged to meet at 'The Cowherds', a little 'olde worlde' country pub, that we both knew. I arrived bang on time, and as I cast my eyes around, I spotted her sitting in a quiet area, just by the window. She gave a quick wave in acknowledgment, as I navigated my way over to her table.
After a customary hug, I plonked my bag at my feet, and we sat and exchanged our normal friendly chatty greetings and general chitchat, before eventually deciding to scan the menus.
I'm a veggie (well in truth, a pescatarian) and normally you get one option, two if you're lucky. So it looked like the freshly battered cod with triple-cooked chips, mushy peas and tartare sauce for me, which was pretty low on calories too. Abi ordered the same, together with drinks from the attending waitress, who having now poodled off to fulfil our order, allowed us to continue our chat.
It was a lovely lunch, we talked about many things, but as the conversation progressed I started to get a feeling that there was more to this get-together than just lunch and a chat about my Uni curricular.
And then something happened that I wasn't quite expecting. We were chatting about something innocuous and Abi stretched out a hand, placed it on mine and held it for a moment. It took me a bit by surprise. It felt a little weird, but also rather nice. And something, that I really didn't expect, I got a definite tingle, and it was a very pleasant warm and fuzzy tingle too. You know the kind.
I couldn't quite fathom what I was thinking at that moment and for some time after, but one thing I did know for certain. I liked it.
As I said, it was a lovely lunch, I was stuffed, especially after the Bramley apple & blackberry crumble. I think we both could have sat there for many more hours, chatting away and enjoying such an enjoyable and relaxed lunch together.
Abi however had another appointment later that afternoon, so after paying the bill and gathering up our things, we made our way outside.
A little earlier, when chatting about what we were going to be doing later, Abi had kindly offered to give me a lift home, dropping me at my flat on her way further on.