I am pleased to tell you that today has been a great improvement on yesterday, although it has not exactly been bursting with excitements.
Also I am now in such a state of weariness that I wondered if I might just sum it all up in a haiku, because we have been looking at those in my creative writing class, except that counting syllables is just too difficult and so I can’t.
Instead I will update you on progress.
You will be pleased to hear that we rescued the dogs at eleven o’clock last night, and they do not seem to be at all traumatised, although Roger Poopy is such an idiot even on a good day that it is a bit difficult to tell.
We emptied them hastily in the Library Gardens and set off again.
I drove first, and Mark and Oliver slept in the back.
I drove for a very long time, mostly because I was determined to be an independent modern female, and not in need of male driving benevolence. I turned the music up and sang loudly to keep myself awake. This worked well with me although not with Mark and Oliver, who snored contentedly throughout.
I pulled up just before Aviemore, by which time it was five o’ clock in the morning. I did not turn the engine off, because of the wiring difficulty which made turning the engine back on again a more interesting challenge than anybody needs at five o’clock in the morning on a remote Scottish mountainside.
I had to stop then, because I had reached the point, familiar to night time taxi drivers, when I was starting to wonder if it might be all right to close my eyes just for a second or two. I would like to add that it is never all right. Usually by the third second you have finished up in the hedge.
I collapsed into bed and Mark took over.
We reached the woods just by Oliver’s school at half past six, when Mark decided that he would turn the engine off anyway, and came back to bed.
We stayed there until half past eight, when the dogs needed emptying again.
The day started rather splendidly, with a walk in the woods in the pale gold morning sunshine, a hot shower and some breakfast. Then we hot-wired the van and returned Oliver to Duffus House, before embarking on the journey back.
It was both sad and lovely to say goodbye to Oliver. Of course I will miss him, but he is having such a happy time at school that I would not for one moment wish him back. Mark did a quick service to his bike, and I helped him to unpack. He has got a bedroom to himself, because of being Year Eleven now, and not a small tiresome oik any more, and it is immaculately tidy. I was most impressed.
You will also be relieved to hear that I managed to finish the sewing as well. I have sewn name labels into all his new hoodies, T-shirts and even his umbrella.
We decided that we would just keep on with the driving and see how far south we could get, and I am very pleased to tell you that the journey went so smoothly and without untoward incident, that by six o’ clock we were home.
As you know, we were not staying at home.
We rushed around, refilling water tanks and replacing things from the fridge and shoving clothes in the washing machine.
Then I had my online University class and Mark ambled off to see if he could fix the ignition.
He has done this. We have now got an old light switch screwed to the dashboard. You have got to switch it on and then press a button to start the engine. Mark says that this will have the advantage of being complicated enough to deter camper van thieves, but to be honest I do not think that this is a problem about which we need to worry excessively.
I am enjoying my class very much.
Once it was finished we dived into the shower and back into the camper van, making doubly certain that we had the right number of dogs with us, which I am pleased to tell you that we have.
It is almost midnight and we are on the road again.
Plymouth here we come.
