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Hot water in my room still seems to be a bit odd, but the important point, right now, is that it's time for breakfast in this place that has GLUTEN-FREE BREAD even when you arrive an hour after reserving your room on a Sunday. The delight!
Today I am wearing my new wool jumper from the Edinburgh Woollen Mill. It is wonderfully snug and comfy, but I just discovered that wool is not necessarily stretchy, and therefore it is VITALLY IMPORTANT to take my glasses off BEFORE I try to pull it over my head.
Vitally.Current Location: Edinburgh, Midlothian, United Kingdom
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So, on both Friday and Saturday I went to Cricket House in Cricket St Thomas, in Somerset. On Friday it was on purpose, on Saturday it was to pick up my backpack, which I'd left outside the doors on Friday.
It will be familiar to anyone who has watched the TV series To The Manor Born.
Me at the front gates:
I went inside to collect my backpack, and discovered the memorable staircase where Audrey and Richard married, among other scenes:
Notes for fans of the show: The Old Lodge is also in Cricket St Thomas, but is much further from the Manor than I'd imagined.
The countryside around is utterly lovely, and they seem to keep many, many sheep in the area, but this isn't unusual in rural England, so far as I've seen - there's sheep everywhere. And cows, too, but there's a lot of sheep. (Bear in mind that I've spent most of my time so far in the Cotswolds.)
As for driving to Scotland: It's hard to make a call on whether Cumbria or Lancashire is more utterly lovely, as far as the view from the M6 goes. Scotland is beautiful, and in many respects superior to England as far as driving goes, because while the roads are still narrow and twisty and in places quite bumpy, they have actual signposts - even speed signs.
Having said that, Scotland also has warning signs about ice, which are faintly ominous as winter approaches.
This morning I need to repack my car a bit, to free up the passenger seat, and to arrange so I can actually use my cabin bag as an overnight bag as I intended. I've just offloaded and backed up all my photos so far.
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So, this morning I had a tasty breakfast at the B&B, then came over to Mary's retirement place. After we chatted a bit, Mary and I went to Sainsbury's, where we dropped off her recycling, then I did some quick grocery shopping while she waited in the cafe, then we had lunch, and came back.
I've shifted my stuff into the guest suite, and am finding I really just want to crash for the afternoon. I think it's the weekend of solid driving, following a very busy week since I arrived - I've been out and about and all over the place every day, really, so I'm due for a restful afternoon.
So tomorrow I shall go into Edinburgh more, I think - this afternoon I shall chill here, maybe do some laundry. I'm here until Thursday morning, then I'm going up to Aberdeenshire and my great-uncle and great-aunt and their family.
After that I'm off again, if I stick to my schedule, which I'm leaning back towards doing (I was struggling for a bit and considering not). Ferry from Newcastle-upon-Tyne to Amsterdam, then another from Copenhagen to Oslo - but we'll see if I go through with the 2000km-each-way drive to the far north of Norway, or if I just go some of the way north and then turn south again.
I can easily enough go back across the Channel to make my dates in Normandy if I come back to Blighty early, after all; my cousins assure me that going to France is positively trivial. From southern England, France is easier than the North.
I am tired. I think this is not that odd.
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So, there are ways in which Australia is much, much better than the United Kingdom... and which the UK can't do anything about, that I can see.
Two things:
1) Australian roads are wider, straighter, better signposted, better lit, and have shoulders and emergency lanes and all those things.
2) Australian mobile phone coverage is vastly better, as is Australian radio coverage.
Listening to wide-coverage FM radio in Australia, I've never had the degree of signal cutouts I've experienced here. BBC Radio Scotland cuts out a lot driving around the streets of Edinburgh. And my wireless broadband only works here if it has line-of-sight to the window.
But they have all these old, tall buildings, this rugged terrain, and a lot less space in which to build roads and broadcast towers. So they're kind of stuck, I think.
Today's breakfast: gluten-free crumpets, with lemon curd. Delicious crumpets! From the "Livewell" line, bought at Sainsbury's, if anyone's interested. My tastebuds miss yesterday's delicious bacon and eggs at the B&B, but I suspect my arteries are relieved. Today's plan: Visiting with Mary, in a bit, and then I'm going out to explore Edinburgh!
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