| SCOTLAND VACATION 2004 May 18 - May 30, 2004 JOURNAL ENTRY 17 entry begun on May 29th, 2004 at 14:20 Petersborough Time This morning I woke up with a backache at just past 6:30, and sat in the room writing in my journal until 7. Ginger got up and noticed sounds coming from downstairs, so I went downstairs to see who was up while Ginger went back to bed a bit more. Libby was up cleaning from the night's events. She made me a cup of coffee and we got to chat for a bit, then she went back to bed and I went into the lounge for a bit. Soon Ginger came down and spent some time with me in the lounge talking and waking up. Libby got up a while later again, went to wake Mick, and came into the kitchen with us to start breakfast. She made eggs, toast, and lovely bacon, as well as the requisite morning cup of tea of course. Mick soon joined us, and we had a great talk over the meal. 9:15 hit and we reluctantly decided it was time to get up and get going to Waverly Station. Lugged the bags downstairs to Mick's car, gave Libby hugs goodbye, and off we went. We arrived at Waverly at around 9:45. Mick parked in a spot he had to pay for at least half an hour, but none of us liked long goodbyes, so we heartily thanked him for everything, gave him hugs, and said our farewells, then went up into the first class lounge to wait for our platform information to come up on the monitor (they only announce them about 20 minutes before the train actually arrives). The television in the lounge was on, and since no one else was in the lounge we flipped through the channels, and found the 24 hour channel for the British version of Big Brother. We sat mesmerized by a guy eating cereal for several minutes, and soon enough it was time to head down to the platform. We passed Mick again on our way out of the lounge. He had been around buying a newspaper and drink and was on his way back to his car. We waved goodbye again after a quick chuckle about the encounter. A couple of minutes later we had just about reached our platform when it hit Ginger that we had forgotten to give Mick a card we'd written him. It wouldn't have been that big a deal except for the fact that in his card was a treasure map with the information he would need to find the thank you gifts we left in our room at his house. So Ginger stood at the platform with the luggage while I ran across the length of the station back to where Mick had parked. Luckily he had to get back out of his car to go pay for the parking fee at a machine, so I was able to catch up with him in time. I ran back to Ginger after delivering the card, not wanting to leave her alone with all of the luggage for too long, and soon enough the train had arrived at the platform. We found our seats, single ones facing one another so that leg room issues would be minimized, and settled in for the four hour journey back to London. Watching the Scottish countryside go by one last time was bittersweet. But we'll be back. IMAGES FROM JOURNAL ENTRY 17 ---> |