Hello, I am in bed and longing to sleep, so this is going to be short.
Mark is showering, Oliver and the dogs are asleep. We are on some bleak Scottish mountain somewhere near Glasgow, and the wind is rattling around the van, making it sway a little as I write.
I do not mind this. We are snug and warm.
We have collected Oliver. We started the day with a stroll along some Aberdeen beach, which was actually rather splendid. The dogs like beaches, and rushed about in great excitement, plunging in and out of the surf and dashing hopefully after seagulls. There are lots of boats in Aberdeen, it had the exciting feel of being the sort of hub from where you might go anywhere in the world if only you were an accomplished stowaway or a millionaire.
After that we went north again. Oliver’s girlfriend lives in some Scottish wilderness so remote that the map on my telephone just said vaguely: It’s around here somewhere, probably. They must be very stoic, the house was freezing and full of dogs, in true Scottish landowner style, but of course it is July and the fire was out.
We had a cup of tea and made sociable noises whilst Oliver and his girlfriend filled the van with luggage, and then we had to set off, and we have been travelling on and off ever since.
We have stopped several times for more cups of tea, and once for a sausage casserole that I had carefully prepared for the occasion, startling in its provenance because it was made with leftover wine, which has usually been a scarce commodity in Ibbetson Towers, except whilst I was feeling aching and ghastly last week I couldn’t drink it, and so it was sloshed together with the sausages that nobody wanted to eat, and today we reaped the benefits.
It was jolly nice.
It is lovely to have Oliver back, and we have been hearing stories about school and his adventures all day. He is still contemplating the thorny problem of what he would like to do when he grows up, answers on a postcard would be very handy please.
In the end we chugged to a standstill just south of Glasgow, and Mark has finished his shower, so I am going to draw this to a close, it has been a very long day, somehow. This journey is different to the usual one, which seems to have made it more exciting, somehow, it has novelty value.
I am sorry. I am going to leave this here. Sleep is calling me.
Home tomorrow.
