Utterly bonkers

It's official. Spud and I are utterly bonkers. We caught the 11:45pm ferry from Kirkwall to Aberdeen (along with a bunch of Orkney cows) last night, snatching a few hours' sleep in our cabin, despite some deckhand being mad keen on throwing metres of chain around on the steel deck. Prior to jumping on the ferry though, we celebrated Spud's birthday at The Bothy Bar (below) before another delicious Orkney steak and scallop dinner. All the people involved in the water energy experiment were there celebrating.



We landed at 7am in Aberdeen & caught the train to London at 9am. However, it was not one train all the way. Oh no! We had to lug our suitcases off the train at Edinburgh and onto another train, and then off again at Crewe and back on to another train. No wonder the ticket wasn't too expensive! It's an utterly mad system, with different companies running different routes and despite the train ending up where you want to go, you have to get off that one & on to another because you bought your ticket for a particular train.


This is me in a traditional Orkney chair, made of willow, with my Orcadian fair isle jumper, which of course I have had to toss aside now that we are in the southern England heatwave....


This is the wee morsel of dinner Spud had last night. Steak & ale pie. It was massive - and delicious. Happy birthday!!!


View from the train today as we crossed the Forth railway bridge. Bit grey huh? Well, now we are in London & it is SCORCHING. We have all the wrong clothes. After completing our journey at Euston at 6pm, we had to get to Paddington but of course, the tube line was down for repairs so it was across the park and across the road to Stop H for the 205 bus. More lugging of suitcases (how did they get so heavy?) and onto a bus with a bunch of smelly, sweaty, sunburnt Brits for 1/2 hr. Needless to say, the shower we had when we finally made it to the Indigo Hotel was beyond description. It is honestly REALLY HOT. About 26 degrees Celsius I reckon. And here we are in jeans & boots. Luckily, just down from the hotel was a casual and yummy-looking pizza joint & indeed, it was delicious and very popular because even at 9pm, people were queuing out the front! Spud & I tried not to guzzle the house red while we people-watched & invented terrible stories about them, including one where I has been thinking "missionaries" while Spud's take involved Nigerian banking scams & briefcases. Anyway, we are here in London now. This city is FRANTIC. And people actually ride their bicycles in the traffic, amongst the double-decker buses and black taxis. They ride along quite cheerfully oblivious & they don't wear helmets! OMG. Tomorrow we are off to Dorset. Yes, yes, yes. It really WOULD be lovely to have a day to relax - but we don't have time for that!! Can you please, please remind us, next time we say we are going on holidays, to Take It Easy? This is exhausting. Today was huge. Having a fab time though but wishing I had one of those iron age hammering stones... Good night!

Location:London, UK