The wanderers have returned...

image from Freepik.com

 We've been south visiting family and got back home this last Sunday, a day later than planned due to the weather 😏  Still, at least this time I didn't have any gout flare-ups!

We decided to break up the journey more and so we had a few more overnight stops than we would normally make.  By the time we got back home again we were decidedly sick of hotel rooms!  We're thinking of flying from Kirkwall to Edinburgh then picking up the train to Leeds next time we go south, and perhaps trying the Caledonian sleeper again for the journey back to Inverness.  The worst part of the journey is the ScotRail section between Edinburgh and Inverness.  Although we always book seats, quite often different trains are used and it is a busy route at the best of times with all the tourists.  It's certainly getting less easy to travel as we get older 😖

We stayed in a really nice hotel in Leeds, Hyatt House, staying in one of their king bed studios with kitchenette.  We're hoping we can book a similar studio with them next time we go to Leeds.

It was good to catch up with family, although we didn't get round to meeting up with old friends this time ~ hopefully we'll be able to do so next time we're south 😊   

The traveller returns!

image from Clipart Library

Did you miss me???  No??? How rude 😆

As you have probably guessed, Adrian and I have been south to visit family.  We normally travel down in March, but the 16th April marked one year since Mum passed away and obviously I wanted to be with Dad.  My sister had to be out of the country for work during that week but she was able to Komp with us on the day during a break from the meetings she was there to attend, so we were all together despite the six hour time difference 😊  To be honest it hardly seems possible that Mum has been gone for over a year now, but time relentlessly marches on no matter what may be happening in our lives.

Our trip was complicated somewhat by Easter being late this month so there were more folk travelling, and as usual the journey didn't run as smoothly as we would have liked!  The ferry crossing on the 14th was absolutely fine with only a very slight swell now and again; the taxi was waiting for us at Scrabster, and the train from Thurso to Inverness was running on time.  Adrian had reserved seats on what should have been a ScotRail intercity train running from Inverness to Edinburgh, although we were breaking our journey at Perth.  Unfortunately the train was replaced with a ScotRail local train, which would have been okay had it not been for three of the six carriages being out of action due to no electrics, water, etc 😒  I'm glad we weren't going all the way to Edinburgh, although we were decidedly less than impressed with the hotel in Perth we stayed in ~ one to definitely avoid if we ever stay in the city again!  We continued our journey south on the 15th and thankfully it was uneventful.  We got off the intercity train from Edinburgh at Peterborough and there was a local train to Hitchin, where Dad was picking us up, already at the station.  We will be reconsidering our journey south in future, most likely flying part of the way.

Amanda and Liz came down on Easter Sunday; we all went out for lunch, and had a lovely catch-up 😍  Adrian and I stayed with Dad until the 22nd when we set off for Leeds to visit Sam who moved there last year.  We decided not to go to Hitchin this time around, so didn't get to see our friends who we like to visit when we can ~ hopefully we'll be able to do that when we are next down in September 😊 

Dad took us to Hitchin station and our journey to Leeds was uneventful, thankfully.  The intercity trains don't stop at Hitchin, so we got a local one to Stevenage which is only one station away, where we picked up our train to Leeds.  Sam had taken a couple of days annual leave; he met us off the train and showed us where our hotel was, which was only a short walk away.  We stayed at the Malmaison and would be happy to stay there again.  I'm so unfit and overweight right now that I could only manage to walk about in the mornings, but Sam and Adrian went out after lunch whilst I had a rest at the hotel.  We had dinner at the hotel, too, in their restaurant and all our meals were good.  Hopefully when we go down in future I will have got myself a little fitter to do more exploring.

I can see why Sam likes living in Leeds but although it was nice to visit, living in a city is not for Adrian and I ~ we prefer the quiet life!  I am looking forward to future visits, though, to explore more of the city.

We started our homeward journey on the 25th, travelling from Leeds to Edinburgh, changing there to get the Inverness train although once again we broke our journey at Perth.  We stayed in a different hotel, but it was as just as unimpressive as the one on the journey down 😒  The following morning, when the Inverness train came up on the board at Perth, we were once again confronted by a change to the service from an intercity to a local train ~ with only three carriages!  As you can imagine since it had started out from Edinburgh, it was packed with people and their luggage.  Luckily we were able to get seats but our suitcases (like those of other folk) had to clutter up the aisle as there was no room in the luggage racks.  We were greatly relieved to get to Inverness where we promptly trundled over to The Royal Highland Hotel for lunch, which is next door to the station.

The journey from Inverness to Thurso was uneventful albeit running a few minutes late.  The taxi we ordered was waiting at the station to take us down to the ferry terminal at Scrabster ~ I'm sure you can well imagine how happy we were to be on the last leg of our journey 😄  The ferry left early and once again the crossing was smooth.  There was a slight hiccup in that our friend had been going to meet us but totally lost track of time, and as we couldn't get hold of him we ended up walking from the ferry terminal.  I was pretty knackered by the time I'd trundled home; it is a tiring walk for me at the moment at the best of times, but having to push a suitcase and carrying a backpack made it even more so.  Nevertheless I did it, and although I was absolutely pooped and my feet were sore by the time we got home, I was still pretty proud of myself 😊              

 

Holiday souvenirs...

image from Clipart Library

Yes, I know that I've been MIA yet again but I do have a good excuse this time ~ we've been south to visit family and had to Get Stuff Done before we went 😉

We flew all the way down this time, which is not Adrian's preferred way to travel it has to be said.  Our friend Phil drove us to the airport for us to get the 10.30 flight from Kirkwall to Aberdeen on the 21st September.  Our first port of call was to visit my sister so we were able to book Loganair flights all the way through to Birmingham, which took care of the luggage.  We had a bit of a wait at Aberdeen as our onwards flight wasn't until 14.25, which gave us time to get a bite to eat.

By the time we'd collected our luggage and got over to Birmingham New Street railway station we were starting to hit rush-hour!  We let the first train to Redditch go as it was just too packed for us and our luggage to squeeze our way on ~ to be honest, it was all way too much hustle and bustle and crowded for my liking 😦  Anyhoo we finally made it to Redditch, where my sister met us.

We had a lovely weekend and even though poor Amanda had a cold and cough, we got out-and-about.  On the Sunday Amanda drove us down to Bedfordshire to our parents, where Adrian and I were staying for a couple of days. We all went out for Sunday lunch together, picking up our son, Sam, on the way to Mum and Dad's.

Unfortunately by the Monday I was starting to feel under the weather as I'd picked up Amanda's cold.  I thought I'd better do a Covid test just to be on the safe side as we'd done all that travelling which thankfully was negative.  I spent the couple of days we were at my parents sitting as far away from them as possible!        

Dad took us over to Hitchin on the Wednesday afternoon where we spent two nights before travelling back home again, by which time I had reached "peak cold" and Adrian was just starting to get it too 😟  We usually try to catch up with our friends Christine and John, and Olive and Tony, but because we both had such rotten colds we thought it best not to see any of them this time around 😔  We did have lunch with Sam again on the Thursday though, keeping our fingers crossed that we didn't give our cold germs to him!

We had been planning to get the 08.50 Peterborough train out of Hitchin on the Friday morning, to connect with the 10.18 service up to Edinburgh as we were flying back to Orkney from there.  However we discovered that ASLEF were taking industrial action the next day so folk would be changing their travelling plans from the Saturday to that Friday, as there wouldn't be any trains.  There was also an overtime ban in place (the bloody railway seems to be held together by the staff having to work overtime!), so we took the decision to travel on a very much earlier train out of Hitchin so that we could connect with the 08.18 up to Edinburgh.  This meant us being picked up from the Premier Inn at.....06.20😮  Neither of us were feeling 100%, especially poor Adrian as his cold was really kicking in *sigh*  Still, despite having a longer wait for our flight home, I think we made the right decision to travel before the train became crowded later in the morning.

 Although it was, of course, lovely to see everyone I'm sure you can well imagine how happy we both were to get back home to Orkney, where the lovely Phil was there to pick us up from the airport.

Unfortunately we later found out that my Dad had tested positive for Covid on that Friday, although thankfully my Mum was negative.....until Saturday, when she too was positive.  Adrian and I tested on Saturday too, and despite keeping our fingers crossed, you guessed it, yes, we were both positive as well 😒  Fortunately Sam, Amanda, and Liz are all fine.

Mum and Dad say they don't feel too bad at all really, more like they have a cold.  They had their flu and Covid boosters a couple of weeks ago so hopefully that will be helping.  Because of her health issues Mum is being monitored, and has been given steroid and anti-viral meds to take if her Covid symptoms get bad.

I suspect that Adrian and I have been feeling rather poorly because we've had the double whammy of getting Covid on top of already having a cold; he has been feeling more unwell than I have and had to go back to bed over the weekend.  Although the cold has more or less cleared up I am still coughing, and feeling a tad tired, achy, and lightheaded.  I'll see how it goes over the next couple of weeks or so, and if it doesn't seem to be getting better I'll have a word with my GP.  I don't want to end up with a chest infection and bronchitis like I did early last year!  Thankfully, though, we are both a fair bit better than we were.

It would be really good to have a nice, uneventful, trip south at some point 😄  

A few tweaks

It's hard to believe that it's five years since we had the fireplace opened up and the wall around it stripped back to the original stonework.  Five years it is, though, and over those years the wood-burner we had fitted really hasn't aged well at all.  So we decided to bite the bullet...

and have a new one fitted, along with a new hearth.  This time we thought it prudent to go with a well-made stove from a well-known company and chose the All New Island I from Charnwood which we purchased through an extremely helpful company, Bonk & Co in Inverness.  In particular we wanted a stove with two opening doors to make it easier to get the logs in, something that wasn't always the case with our old stove.

The original hearth wasn't the right size either, not even for the old stove to be honest, so we had that replaced too.  On reflection we could probably have gone for a slightly smaller hearth, especially since the new stove is set further back into the chimney recess, but the size of this one doesn't encroach too much into the living room and gives us lots of space to stack the logs ready to use.  We are really pleased, as I'm sure you can imagine 😊

We've done some rearranging in the garden, too, and replaced the containers that were here...

with barrels instead.  We wanted to use those containers elsewhere and as an added bonus, we were able to fill up the new barrels with some of that soil mountain 😉 

They actually look very much nicer than the containers that were there originally.  I haven't decided what to put in the barrels yet but the plants will most likely be perennials of some kind, perhaps evergreens.

And here are two of those containers set out in their new positions in the back garden, along with the metal table and chair which both came with us when we moved up here.  I put the herbs back that had originally been in them ~ I think they were glad to get out of the pots I'd temporarily put them in!  Because the bay and the rosemary are now in their own big pots, I was able to get the remaining herbs into just one container.  Which reminds me, said bay and rosemary are both doing really well in their nice big pots ~ I'll try to remember to take photos to show you how much happier they look now 😊

We obviously had to empty out the containers to be able to move them, so took the opportunity to do a little repair work to their bases and gave them three coats of wood stain to smarten them up.   

And just to finish off, here's a photo of my sister and I taken on our recent little jaunt up to Shetland 😍

Since we last chatted.....

image from Clipart Library

.....life has been bobbing along, with the weeks flying by as quickly as ever ~ hence the rather long radio silence from yours truly yet again 😳

My leg issues have continued, unfortunately.  You may recall that I spoke with my GP on Thursday of that week; fast forward to the Saturday I had another cramping episode in my right leg again, albeit much less severe than previously.  I wasn't sleeping very well at all, probably because I was so nervous of getting cramp again in the night.  I ended up sleeping downstairs on the sofa; it isn't quite wide enough for me to lay fully stretched out which meant that I could keep my toes pointing up, which in turn meant that my calf muscles were kept stretched out.  It really wasn't an ideal situation, as I'm sure you can imagine, so I made an appointment to actually go and see one of the GPs at the surgery.  He was very thorough and decided to have various blood tests done to see of there were any underlying problems, such as a potential blood clot, vitamin deficiencies, liver/kidney issues, etc.  Anyhoo, the upshot was that the tests came back absolutely fine although they had me in again just to double-check the potential blood clot scenario.  After another thorough examination of my legs, including measuring the calves to see if there was any difference in size (there wasn't), that was ruled out.  The GP discussed my other leg/back/hip issues and decided to make me an appointment with the practice physiotherapist, as she felt that there was a connection between everything going on.

I saw the physio last week and we discussed the problems I've been having.  I know that my back hasn't been back to "normal" since I had a prolapsed disc some years ago, and I do have to pace myself when I'm trying to do physically demanding things.  I've also been aware that over the last couple of years or so my walking gait hasn't been quite right in that my left foot has been rolling over somewhat to the outside.  The physio examined my right hip, which is causing me discomfort for much of the time and is actually quite painful at other times.  He said that I have bursitis in the hip ~ by 'eck, it was bloody painful when he pressed around the area!  Basically, everything does indeed seem to be connected ~ the foot-rolling is causing strain on my hip, which in turn is aggravating my back *sigh*  Still no definitive explanation as to what caused those awful leg cramps but I guess it is quite possibly connected to all the walking issues I'm currently experiencing.  He is making an appointment for me to see a podiatrist re the foot issue.  Hopefully if that can be sorted out, then the knock-on effects with the other joints can at least be somewhat alleviated. 

Despite all my tales of woe, we still managed to get through The Great Housework Campaign, which left us both feeling somewhat knackered but very pleased with our efforts.  As I've said before the house still looks awfully shabby as most of the rooms need a helluva lot of updating, but it's amazing how very much better a good 'ole clean and tidy-up makes it all look 😉

Amanda and Liz came up on the 23rd June and stayed with us for the first time since we moved here; it was so lovely to see them 😍 We then all flew to Shetland on the 26th for a few days.  Poor Adrian set the scanners off both at Kirkwall on the way out and Sumburgh on the way back for some reason ~ security couldn't work out what the initial issue was but it resolved itself after further checks so goodness knows what that was all about.  He dislikes flying at the best of times, so he wasn't a happy bunny at all as you can imagine!  We're flying south later in the year, so fingers crossed for no more scanner incidents on the way there or coming back 😯

We stayed at Busta House Hotel, which was very nice albeit a tad too warm in our room for Adrian and I, believe it or not 😄 We ended up having all our evening meals at the hotel, too, as the menu was very good.

The Shetland landscape is very different to Orkney, much more rugged; I definitely prefer the "softer" feel of Orkney ~ not that I'm biased or anything of course 😏  We had a nice few days away even though my mobility was a tad limited; thankfully my sister had hired a car so we were able to do a fair bit of sightseeing in comfort.  

I did take a walking pole with me for a little extra support whilst I'm having the walking issues, but didn't actually find it very comfortable to use.  I've since given in and bought myself a proper walking stick, even though I was very reluctant to do so and had to be nagged into getting one by Adrian!  It's a folding one, and I must admit that it's useful to take out with me in case I need that little bit of additional support when my hip starts to feel uncomfortable/painful.  Hopefully if I can get my foot sorted out, the hip issue will ease and I won't then need the "just in case" walking stick 😊

The traveller has returned.....

 

image from Clipart Library

  Actually, I've been back for 2 1/2 weeks now, but what with one thing and another just haven't had the energy to do any blogging!

We had a somewhat eventful journey on the way down and, thankfully, a slightly less eventful one back ~ with a somewhat scary hiccup the day after we got to my Mum and Dad's!

I mentioned in my previous post that the weather forecast wasn't good for the 26th November, the day we were due to travel.  In the end, after having sat at Kirkwall Airport for three hours listening to announcement-after-announcement cancelling flights, finally it was our turn to be cancelled and the airport was shut by about 1pm, I believe.  Loganair were able to get us booked onto another flight the next morning, this time to Edinburgh instead of our original flight to Aberdeen, the thought being that if flights to Luton were cancelled we could get the train into London more easily.  So Beverly and I got the airport bus back into town, and battled against the wind for the short walk to her flat ~ there was no point in me going home just for the one night.  Originally, we would only have had about a three wait at Aberdeen for our connecting onward flight so by the time all this had happened we were too late to cancel that flight *sigh*  

As it turned out, courtesy of Storm Arwen, the trains weren't running on the East Coast either so we had to book an onward flight to Luton, leaving us with an eight hour wait at Edinburgh Airport ~ which was why our original plan had been to travel via Aberdeen.  Starbucks became our new home for the day!  Thankfully both our flights went smoothly and we didn't have to wait for a taxi at Luton, but it was about 10.40pm when we finally got to my parents' home.  Mum, who had been discharged from hospital that day, was fast asleep in bed, and after some tea and toast (neither of us eat well when we travel) we went to bed too.

The next morning (Sunday), we realised that Mum wasn't at all well and called for an ambulance.  She was very pale and breathless, and it was obvious that she was in more distress than "just" her COPD.  The paramedics were brilliant and gave her a thorough examination.  They could hear fluid in her lungs and thought that she might have a clot or infection.  She did start to look a little better once they had her on oxygen, and off she went to hospital again.  To cut a long story short, Mum spent a week in the Acute Assessment Unit where it was determined that thankfully she didn't have any clots, but did have a lung infection.  She finally came home again, complete with oxygen, in the early evening of the following Saturday.

 Beverly and I had travelled down to help around the house whilst Mum was recuperating from her surgery, and although being back in hospital wasn't the best scenario, at least she was still recovering from the op.  We spent the week spring-cleaning the bathroom and kitchen, and stocking the freezer with some homemade ready-meals so Mum and Dad wouldn't have to do so much cooking when we came back home again.

Despite the slight set-back with the lung infection, Mum's actual surgery went well.  She has to have a biopsy in January and further treatment following that.  It seems that 2022 could be another year of medical worries but we'll just have to cross those bridges if/when we get to them.  

Beverly went on to spend a couple of days with her friend, as planned, then went to Hitchin on the 8th.  I decided to stay an extra day with Mum and Dad and joined her on the 9th.  I was a little worried as I had started to get a dry throat and slight cough, so did a lateral flow before I left to make sure that I was okay.  It was negative, which was a relief ~ mind you, the furthest I'd been from the house in the 10 days or so I'd been there was to walk to the dustbin 😉 Having said that, Dad had been out most days to get his newspaper or bits and pieces from the supermarket, so I think that I must have picked up what turned out to be a rotten cold from him!

Thankfully, although Dad did get a cold too, he wasn't too bad and didn't have the cough.  Plainly I just don't have the resistance to the germs from "down south" these days 😄  I'm amazed that I didn't pass it on to Beverly as we shared a room on the Thursday night and travelled home together, although we were wearing masks to travel of course.  We'd been hoping to meet up with Sam for dinner on the Thursday evening but unfortunately he wasn't too well, so we only saw him briefly.  I also didn't have time to meet up with the friends I haven't seen for a couple of years now, but on reflection it was probably for the best as I wouldn't have wanted to pass on my cold to them as well.

We were slightly early leaving Luton, so had to do another circuit when we got to Aberdeen as there wasn't space for us to land.  We got ourselves a drink and a sandwich, then settled down for the three hour wait for our flight to Kirkwall ~ only for it to be delayed by a further hour as there was a problem with the plane!  In the end a flight from Edinburgh was diverted to pick us up, but we did make up some time and finally got home early evening.  It certainly felt like another long and tiring day!

By the time I got to bed I was feeling pretty lousy, and was very cold and shivery.  The cough and cold really kicked in, and of course I was doing lateral flow tests for the next few days just in case it was Covid.  Thankfully the tests kept coming up negative but I passed the bugs on to poor Adrian, and we spent a good couple of weeks feeling pretty bloody awful.  We are both very much better now, although we do still have slight coughs ~ it really has been a horrible cold 😩  

Still, onwards and upwards as they say!   

A bit of a saga!

image from Clipart Library

As I said in an earlier post, we travelled south at the beginning of August.  Neither of us really enjoy flying to be honest, much preferring to let the train take the strain, and as we are retired we have plenty of free time.  Plus it's much more cost-effective for us as Adrian worked in the rail industry for 39 years and is entitled to reduced rate (and a certain amount of free) travel, which I am too as his spouse.

So we set off from home on the Thursday morning, catching the Northlink ferry MV Hamnavoe which sails from the ferry terminal literally just a few minutes down the street from where we live.  We've been lucky that up to now we have never had a bad crossing between Stromness and Scrabster but I guess there is bound to be a trip at some point that will be a bit more bumpy LOL  We booked a taxi to meet us at the terminal in Scrabster before we set off as it was a bit tight time-wise with the train connection from Thurso.

I suppose it is quite a long train journey down to Inverness, around 3 3/4 hours, but we find that it doesn't really drag as there is lovely scenery along much of the route.  This train gets us into Inverness with plenty of time to have some dinner before boarding the sleeper.

We were really looking forward to travelling down to London on the new Caledonian sleeper trains.  Alas, the new rolling stock has had a fair few "teething" problems since it was supposed to come into service back in April.  It is now running on the Lowlander route, but still hasn't yet come into service on the Highlander route.  Most disappointing, not least because the old trains really are well past their best these days.  Hopefully the next time we travel down the new sleepers will finally be in service from Inverness too.  The sleeper leaves Inverness about 8.45pm and gets into London Euston around 7.50am.  The journey is a bit clanky at times but I do manage to sleep fairly well.

Once we get into London, we are looking to travel back out again LOL  So it was a short walk along the Euston Road to London St Pancras station to catch a train to Hitchin, where my Dad was waiting to pick us up.  We spent Friday at my parents' (Beverly was already there as she had flown down the day before); it was nice to catch up as we hadn't seen them since the family all came up here last year for Mum's 80th birthday 😊

On the Saturday, the day of Mum and Dad's anniversary, we all decamped to Hitchin.  Mum, Dad, Amanda and Liz were staying for the weekend at Hitchin Priory Hotel; Adrian, Beverly and myself were booked into The Sun Hotel until the Thursday.  Sam, of course, still lives in Hitchin so he only had a short walk from his flat into town.  The anniversary dinner was at Hitchin Priory on the Saturday evening.  We had a private room and the meal was nice enough.  On Sunday we had a family lunch there.  Again the meal itself was fine but the service was pretty slow.  None of us were impressed with the disabled toilet facilities ~ which were pretty much non-existant!  The only toilet on the ground floor of the building was the gents, which meant that anyone with a physical disability had to ask a member of staff to "stand guard" so that they were able to use a cubicle in there!  Wheelchair access into the building was poor too.

The three of us staying at The Sun Hotel weren't that impressed with our accommodation either, sadly.  The hotel is a very old building, originally a coaching inn dating from the 16th century, so one expects that there are difficulties with incorporating modern amenities (although to be fair, they do have disabled toilet facilities on the ground floor for both ladies and gents!).  It is a rabbit warren of a building, with long winding corridors and lots of stairs to the various bedroom areas.  The rooms were clean enough, but Beverly's en-suite bathroom was not in good condition having a fair bit of mould on the ceiling.  What was more disappointing was the dining aspect.  Breakfast was really chaotic, with items running out and hotel guests having to actually find members of staff.  Lunch wasn't too bad but the evening meals were very variable.  I know in the scheme of things this is only a small thing, but I was amazed that for the whole time we stayed in the hotel there was no sparkling water available!  The hotel was plainly short-staffed and in need of updating.  It's such a shame as whilst the hotel has always been a wee bit shabby around the edges, the food and service has always been very good.

To be honest, the next time we go down to Hitchin we will most likely book into the Premier Inn!

Still, it was lovely to spend time with family and friends.  Beverly and I went to visit my friend Olive, who lives over the road from our old house, and it was so nice to have a good chin-wag and catch up with the latest news from the neighbourhood.  I do miss Olive, I must confess.  Our old house looks much the same.  It was a bit odd, whilst we were waiting for the taxi to take us back into town, to be standing outside the house knowing it didn't belong to us anymore.  We had lunch with Caroline, who lived in the house next door to us (she moved to another part of Hitchin the same week that we moved) ~ we became good friends whilst we were neighbours and hopefully she will be coming up to visit us soon.  We also had dinner with more friends, Christine and John.  Christine and I worked in the same office and have known each other for a long time, since before I had the gruesome twosome in fact!  She and John want to come up to visit too; it will be lovely to have folk coming to see where we have made our new home 😊

  Weather-wise it was much warmer than we have got used to living here LOL  To be fair, it could have been much worse as a week or so before we travelled down the temperatures were in the 30s!  It felt still hot enough, though.  Hitchin has changed a little in the 18 months or so since we moved, with some shops having closed down and new ones opening up.  It has the feel of a somewhat "younger" town these days, and seems more geared up to young professionals.  I think it is probably an attractive place to live for younger folk as it's only about a 30 minute or so commute into London, with property prices/rents being lower.

Dad picked us up from the hotel on the Thursday and we spent the day with them, travelling back into London to catch the sleeper in the evening.  Whilst we were waiting on Hitchin station Sam sent a text to say that Euston was in chaos!  By the time we got there, the station gates had been temporarily closed as there had been an electrical failure somewhere near Camden, I believe.  The trains weren't running, and in the end there were a fair few delays and cancellations.  We had visions of the flippin sleeper not running but in the end it was only about 30 minutes late leaving Euston and made up the time overnight, getting into Inverness more or less on time.

We had some time to kill at Inverness so I sat at the station with the luggage, reading and people-watching, whilst Adrian went for a little walk and got sandwiches, etc, for lunch on the train to Thurso.  Unfortunately the trains don't really marry up at all well with the ferry, so we had more time to kill in Thurso.  Even more unfortunate was the fact that the weather was horrible!  We had made a rookie mistake in only taking "shower proof" jackets away with us and they were definitely not man enough for the rain hammering down LOL  We got awfully wet just walking from the station down into the town area ~ it wasn't really raining when we started our little trek but by 'eck it certainly was by the time we made it to shelter 😮

Thurso station was closed when the train got there, I suppose they are short-staffed too.  So the toilets were locked and everyone had to leave the area from the back exit.  I was quite shocked by how "sad" Thurso has become even in the couple of years since I was last passed through.  It must be quite depressing for the folk who live there with so little, it seems, in the way of amenities.  Even the museum has closed, apparently because Dounray has withdrawn its funding.  We had planned on having a hot drink and a bite to eat in the museum cafe, not to mention making use of the loo facilities, but had to look elsewhere.  Fortunately, there was a cafe open not far from the museum so we were able to dry out a little bit.  Unfortunately for us, said cafe closed at 4pm so we had to venture out into the rain once more.  We phoned for a taxi to take us down to the waiting area for car drivers as the check-in area at the terminal didn't open until 5pm ~ or so we thought!  The walk from the car waiting area to the terminal is about 10 minutes.....in the pouring rain and with a howling wind blowing in from the sea it felt much longer!  The hood of my jacket is so big, even with the toggles pulled tight, it kept pushing my glasses down my streaming wet face.  In the end, I had to take them off as I was worried they would fall off completely so I was walking along head down, with no specs on, and just hoping I made it in one piece LOL

It was a blessed relief to finally reach the check-in area.....only to find that the doors were locked with a notice saying it wouldn't be open until 5.30pm.  In the end it was a good 10 minutes later than that before the staff finally turned up, by which time we were cold, still wet and rather grumpy.  The first thing I did was grab some dry clothes from my suitcase and march into the ladies to change!  Oh, the bliss of dry trousers, top and jacket!  Thankfully, and somewhat surprisingly, the crossing was pretty smooth.  I had phoned for a taxi to meet us from the ferry terminal in Stromness and to be frank it was a relief to finally be back home!

So there you have the epic saga of our trek down south, my lovlies ~ hopefully the next trip will be much smoother 😄