Back home!

A saunter from our hotel to the bus station this morning made the horrendous cost more bearable. So far so good. But the bus was delayed 35 minutes. Not so good.

My blip today was nearly a photo of a pigeon happily sitting on some spikes on top of the monitor telling us of the delay. I thought those spikes were meant to deter them? They're tough pigeons in London. The other photo I took there was of the bus queue and a young couple with luggage and a metre high bottle of vodka. I asked if they always travelled with it. No, apparently, this was a special occasion.

But when I arrived in Edinburgh, I took out my trusty tripod that I have carried every day, and stopped to take a couple of photos. I've always liked this view of Scott, with the building lit up in the background, so I took a few there, wanting some buses and lights going by. But I was standing by the crossing, so I got a lot of folk too, but I rather liked this one of the chap and the single decker bus. Or maybe you would have rather had a tough London pigeon...

We stopped at a service station a few hours up the motorway from London. They never seem to choose the nice new ones with M&S food. We got some eats at a Starbucks.

'A white coffee and a black coffee please.'
'And would you like milk in your white coffee?'
'Yes please. And no milk in the black one.'

She realised what she'd said and got the giggles. She then asked my name. I believe this is Starbucks' idea of friendliness and bonhomie, and they write it on your paper cup and call your name when it's ready. Daft idea.

'Lady Marchmont.'
'Pardon?' More giggles.
'Lady Marchmont.'
'Pardon?'

We were all in giggles by now.
I don't know what was written but the girl making the coffees at the other end couldn't read it anyway.

Hurray for the bus driver though. Because there were no pickups in Morpeth or Berwick he asked if we could bypass them, thereby saving time.

Anyway, it's nice to be home. Holidays can be exhausting. We'd be out for the whole day right after breakfast. It was all I could to do to write my journal before collapsing in a heap on the bed when we got back at night.

Thanks to everyone for looking in, commenting and giving stars and hearts. I haven't been able to reciprocate much, but I will catch up with your journals over the weekend.