Friday 29 May 2009

All set for epic Moggy trip

Now that the Moggy








has a been cranking around locally for almost a week (apparently undeterred by minor mouse damage to the electrics over the winter),







has had a new water pump fitted













and managed to bring Bruno safely back to the cottage,





it seems ready for our epic trip back to Leicester.

Saturday 23 May 2009

Somewhat surreal journey to Scotland

Caught 21:49 train to Birmingham on Friday (having almost missed it due to taxi not turning up), followed by 2 hours 'time killing' on park bench in Old Square watching rats popping up from gullies and metal grids around the bottoms of tree trunks, scurrying around the square, and disappearing again.

Megabus departure for Aberdeen at 02:35. Bus from London packed but nevertheless reasonably comfortable. First brief stop in Preston, followed by initially inexplicable longer stop on service road just outside service station 10 mls south of Carlisle.

As it turns out, the hold-up was due to an 'incident' involving the driver trying to get rid of a chap who smoked on the toilet and then ended up having an argument with some of the passengers who tried to stop him using his mobile phone while driving, resulting in the driver being man-handled by police and led to a police car where he was apparently being cautioned before continuing the journey to Glasgow after 1 hour - we had a feeling this trip could be a bit of an adventure!

Rest of Megabus journey uneventful with further brief stops on the outskirts of Perth and Dundee centre. Arrived in Aberdeen around 12:15, then 13:04 bus to Huntly, arriving around 14:40 - quite an epic journey!

Popped into Somerfield for essential supplies, then D. gave us a lift to the cottage, where we had the customary walk round the grounds to admire all the fresh new growth in the trees and on the ground, including numerous wild flowers.