| SCOTLAND VACATION 2004 May 18 - May 30, 2004 JOURNAL ENTRY 5 entry begun on May 21st, 2004 at 13:20 London Time (We're now on the BritRail train from King's Cross bound for Berwick, just leaving the city of London) Back at the bed and breakfast (the Rushmore), we thought we'd fill the batteries to the camera up and rest a bit. Sadly, when we tried the adapter it turned out it would not work with any American plugs that had a wider prong on one side. The problem was that one prong on the cord from the Sony adapter to the UK adapter we purchased was taller than the other, and the UK adapter we purchased only fit plugs with identical smaller prongs. So we were a bit upset at first. We'd spent £4.97 on an adapter that wouldn't do what we needed it to, the one my parents gave us wouldn't work at all, and both the batteries for our camera were close to out of juice. Then Ginger had the thought that perhaps, since the Sony adapter was able to work from 110V to 240V, we might be able to find a place like Radio Shack that had a UK-friendly cord we could buy to go from the wall socket directly to the Sony Adapter. We enquired at the desk for a place that would sell what we needed. They suggested a store called Dixons, just out from the High Kensington Street tube stop. But the clerks thought it closed at 18:00 like most places, and it was already almost that time. A call to the place just in case proved fruitful though, as it actually closed at 19:30. So, off we went. We took the District Line at Earl's Court tube station up to High Kensington Street, and asked a few people to pinpoint Dixons for us. We found it a block or so away, and asked a clerk at the front about the adapter. He came back after about ten minutes of searching, adapter in hand, and we tested it successfully behind the counter. He didn't know the price offhand, guessing £20, but it rang up (to the sound of cheers and sighs of relief from us) at £4.99. After that our mood was much lighter again. We walked across the street to the Easy Internet Café (which also had a coffee bar inside of it). Someone had left 14 minutes on a computer, so we checked our e-mail accounts quickly. Oh, and before we went into the café we used a booth outside to call Mick and tell him when we'd arrive in Berwick Upon Tweed for pickup (a man at the front desk to our bed and breakfast earlier had shown us how to correctly dial Mick's number while we were in the UK). He asked to speak to me specifically, so that he could tell me Randy Johnson had pitched a perfect game, the 17th in MLB history apparently. That should give the D-Backs quite a lift, maybe they'll get another win or two before the season is over! From the internet café we crossed the street to Safeway for a bit of grocery shopping. Picked up some tea for a few people back home. We found out some other company now owns the Safeways in the UK, and the tea my mother likes so much, Melrose's, is no longer sold there. Perhaps we'll discover it somewhere else before the journey is over (editor's note: we did). A nice lady (gasp!) directed us to a good Thai food place called Wagamama. I ordered a chicken noodle dish with a spicy sauce, pepper, and squash, and Ginger ordered a similar dish minus the lip-scorching sauce. We also ordered a delicious glass of peach iced tea, and were tempted by (but did not indulge in) dessert of peach ice cream with a passion fruit sauce on top. I forgot to mention something about our journey on the District Line from Acton Town to Victoria earlier (after being stuck an hour on the Piccadilly Line). Shortly after we got on, traveling minstrels (a guitarist and an accordion player) came on, played some spirited Irish folk songs, and then went around the car collecting coins. They were quite entertaining, and lightened the mood of a lot of the folks that had been stuck on a train for an hour going nowhere. Anyway, after dinner we were in the mood for coffee, so we went back to the internet café. They had two prices for most things; a take-away price and a dine-in price. The dine-in was more expensive, but other than getting it in a nice mug, there was no difference. In fact, most people sitting at the tables in the café had ordered their drinks take-away in the to-go cups and then sat down to drink them. We genuinely wanted it to go, but the whole thing seemed a bit odd to me, paying 30-50p for a "real" cup and saucer instead of a to-go cup. (editor's note: after further investigation, I found that it has something to do with what can and cannot be taxed in Britain) I took my take-away cup with us back to the High Kensington Street tube station, and we made our way back on the District Line for Earl's Court. Once back at Earl's Court we decided to look in a couple of shops before returning to the room. Ginger was developing a sudden sweet tooth, and we were hoping to find a cookie. We ultimately settled on two ice-cream cups with orange sorbet, chocolate ice cream, and crispy chocolate bits swirled all together (they were labeled "weight-watchers"). The folks at the customer service desk at our B & B provided us with some spoons, and we were set. The rest of the evening, after the ice cream was done, was Ginger asleep and me reading travel brochures another hour before collapsing into slumber myself. IMAGES FROM JOURNAL ENTRY 5 ---> |