We are back on the taxi rank, and it will not surprise you in the least to learn that we have dawdled about Scotland for so long that we did not arrive here until terribly late.
We slept at Bruar last night, and stupidly, this morning we thought that we would get up and go back along the road a little way, and pay a visit to the House of Bruar.
There was an exciting moment when the engine would not start, and Mark had to get out and go and root about under the bonnet for a little while, but it was over very quickly, and so was hardly an adventure at all.
The sun was shining, in the lovely golden way that autumn mornings have sometimes, and so we thought that we would take the dogs and go for a walk up past the waterfalls.
Mark said that we had to rush home, and so perhaps we would only go as far as the first bridge, but of course we didn’t. We went right the way up to the second bridge, and then on the way back became embroiled in a muddy sort of escapade where Mark dared Oliver to slide down the bank and walk across the water along a fallen tree, so of course we all had to do it to prove that none of us were scared.
This took some time, and afterwards we dumped the dogs in the camper van and went into the House of Bruar to purchase smoked prawns for breakfast.
We should have had muesli for breakfast, which would be good for us if we did not put so much honey yoghurt and cream on it, but we did not. Instead we had smoked prawns and sausages and cheese, which was an ace breakfast, although probably not very good for us either.
We did not rush off even then. Oliver was playing a word game on his phone, and we are all very competitive, so we all had to join in. It was the sort of game which keeps telling you how very clever it thinks you are, and we all liked that, so we kept on playing until we had gone up a level and it started to get difficult.
Then Lucy thought that she might like to go and look at the bit of House of Bruar marked Sale, in big red letters, so we all trooped off to inspect that, in case they had some lovely cashmere clothes for sale at bargain prices.
They did not, so by the time we came out we had got no money left at all. Mark said that it did not matter, because we will earn some more, although so far we haven’t.
We have bought some beautiful things, which had Up To Fifty Percent Off. We did not find anything which actually had fifty percent off, everything seemed to be included in the Up To bit, but we did not mind, because we understand about marketing fibs, and everything was so splendid it was absolutely worth it.
We will look quite middle class. I have got some lovely cashmere socks. My feet are feeling happy just at the very thought of them.
By the time we had ambled back to the camper van, and faffed about organising ourselves, we realised to our horror that it was almost three o’ clock in the afternoon, which is exactly the time at which we are supposed to start work.
House of Bruar is about three hundred miles away from our house, which is why we were late.
It turned out that everybody in Scotland was trying to get out, and so the roads were all full of people chugging along at a smoky crawl. It took us ages.
I did not mind, because for the first part of the drive I was writing my university homework, which I have finished now and put on the Virtual Learning website. I keep hoping that somebody will read it and comment on it, but so far they have not, so perhaps I have put it on the wrong place.
After that I was knitting and listening to a story which we were playing over the speakers on the car radio.
I love being able to listen to stories whenever I like. This one was not a story, it was Bill Bryson’s book about The Body, and it is rivetingly interesting. We had just got to the bit about what you are supposed to eat if you want to live a healthy life. This made us feel a bit guilty about the sausages for breakfast, and the jelly babies that we were eating to while the journey away, but not so guilty that we stopped eating them.
By the time we got home it was dark. It had been dark for ages. We unpacked the camper van and rushed to get out to work.
As days go it has turned into something of an economic calamity, but we do not mind because it has been so happy.
We will just have to make some money tomorrow.
