![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
We set off on Boxing Day, and had a non-event of a journey up to Livingston, except for the SatNav telling us to take the back-roads near the end, which confused us to heck. The hotel was virtually invisible from the direction we arrived by, only after driving around the shopping centre for about 20 minutes did Jane yell "There it is!" to me, and I still couldn't see it ;)
The hotel was boring and functional, a standard Travelodge room. They'd only left 1 towel between us, and the bed was a bit soft - these were my only complaints and for £19 I wasn't going to complain too loudly. The hotel wifi was being sold at £5/hr or £10/24hrs and both Jane and I decided there was NO way we'd pay that much, and got connected through our mobiles instead. Yay for unlimited data connections.
We were both pretty hungry by this point, food was required. I thought I'd spotted a Nandos on our journey around the area which we hunted for, and by happy coincidence found a Wagamama right next door which (of course) won out. We were the only customers - 7 staff and us for about the first half-hour! We left a generous tip, they were very attentive ;)
Back to the hotel, where I wrestled with BBC iPlayer's new desktop app. As I couldn't figure out how to connect to the internet through my phone with Ubuntu I was in Windows, so I put the downloaded programs onto a shared drive and pointed the iPlayer app at them. Annoyingly, it resolutely refused to play anything. Ever since it's not worked right, which is annoying... Jane seemed happy enough with an internet connection though!
The next day we got up early (well I did - and pulled Jane out of bed groaning and grumbling), and headed to McDonalds for breakfast. There was plenty of sausage, egg, pancakes and McMuffin. Greasetastic. The shopping centre was open (seemingly) really early so we wandered round there and Jane found bargainous boots of win, and we resolutely did NOT buy anything from the Cadbury's shop.
Driving up to Dufftown was again easy, a little busy at points but no bother. I have some nice photos from a couple of stops.
Ruth and John greeted us with hugs, HUUUUGE mugs of tea, more hugs and Christmas presents! I have a home-made hat of potential silliness, Jane was given a home made Adipose and we were given whisky! What else do we need? :)
That night after picking up Dave (Misty) from the station, we went out to Noah's Ark Bistro, and were fed enormous quantities of wonderful food and home-made fruit punch with shots of rum, accompanied by a mix of Jamaican folk and a really old (and many times copied) tape of Jamaican Christmas music. It was brilliant!
Sunday, I'm struggling here to remember what day is what... there was most definitely pork. Mmmm roast dinners. I think Sunday there was all-night Zombie Fluxx, with me, David, Ruth and John playing until gone 7am. I had the brain once or twice, but overall my brain was elsewhere. I blame Ruth for the lateness, as she wanted toast at 1am ;)
Monday, Jane and I went for a small drivette. We went from Dufftown to Huntly, and then up the smallest roads ever on to the coastal trail, past Cullen, Findochty, Buckie and finally on to Elgin where we stopped and sorted our lives out and had coffee before investigating vegetable crisps :)
Tuesday - a visit to Dean's shortbread of Huntly before picking up Steven (aurious) from the station. This probably would have been fine had the train not been delayed, and our listening to Bill Bailey on the car stereo not drained the battery........ This after we laughed at someone having trouble de-icing their car next to us. Karma exists. Thanks be that Huntly's very hilly and the car was facing the wrong way! There was more Fluxx, but not an all-night session this time.
Weds involved me wandering around the village a bit and accidentally buying more whisky, Kylie on TV, and New Year celebrations. This alone managed to include whisky :) The pipe band were impressive as always, the new years celebrations were great, and despite a grumpy face or two at the last dance, there was dancing of sorts by all ;)
Then there was home. *sigh* Ahh well. It was a tough drive back with fog on the M73 so thick that I couldn't see the inside barrier in parts, and temps low enough to freeze my thoroughly antifreezed washer nozzles. Frustratingly enough, this thawed out when we stopped as the cold air stopped rushing through the engine. Makes life interesting when roads have been freshly gritted and it's damp and spray-laden outside...
We'd go back any time. Nothing in the world's quite like a Ruthy, and the more John we have in our lives, the better.
The hotel was boring and functional, a standard Travelodge room. They'd only left 1 towel between us, and the bed was a bit soft - these were my only complaints and for £19 I wasn't going to complain too loudly. The hotel wifi was being sold at £5/hr or £10/24hrs and both Jane and I decided there was NO way we'd pay that much, and got connected through our mobiles instead. Yay for unlimited data connections.
We were both pretty hungry by this point, food was required. I thought I'd spotted a Nandos on our journey around the area which we hunted for, and by happy coincidence found a Wagamama right next door which (of course) won out. We were the only customers - 7 staff and us for about the first half-hour! We left a generous tip, they were very attentive ;)
Back to the hotel, where I wrestled with BBC iPlayer's new desktop app. As I couldn't figure out how to connect to the internet through my phone with Ubuntu I was in Windows, so I put the downloaded programs onto a shared drive and pointed the iPlayer app at them. Annoyingly, it resolutely refused to play anything. Ever since it's not worked right, which is annoying... Jane seemed happy enough with an internet connection though!
The next day we got up early (well I did - and pulled Jane out of bed groaning and grumbling), and headed to McDonalds for breakfast. There was plenty of sausage, egg, pancakes and McMuffin. Greasetastic. The shopping centre was open (seemingly) really early so we wandered round there and Jane found bargainous boots of win, and we resolutely did NOT buy anything from the Cadbury's shop.
Driving up to Dufftown was again easy, a little busy at points but no bother. I have some nice photos from a couple of stops.
Ruth and John greeted us with hugs, HUUUUGE mugs of tea, more hugs and Christmas presents! I have a home-made hat of potential silliness, Jane was given a home made Adipose and we were given whisky! What else do we need? :)
That night after picking up Dave (Misty) from the station, we went out to Noah's Ark Bistro, and were fed enormous quantities of wonderful food and home-made fruit punch with shots of rum, accompanied by a mix of Jamaican folk and a really old (and many times copied) tape of Jamaican Christmas music. It was brilliant!
Sunday, I'm struggling here to remember what day is what... there was most definitely pork. Mmmm roast dinners. I think Sunday there was all-night Zombie Fluxx, with me, David, Ruth and John playing until gone 7am. I had the brain once or twice, but overall my brain was elsewhere. I blame Ruth for the lateness, as she wanted toast at 1am ;)
Monday, Jane and I went for a small drivette. We went from Dufftown to Huntly, and then up the smallest roads ever on to the coastal trail, past Cullen, Findochty, Buckie and finally on to Elgin where we stopped and sorted our lives out and had coffee before investigating vegetable crisps :)
Tuesday - a visit to Dean's shortbread of Huntly before picking up Steven (aurious) from the station. This probably would have been fine had the train not been delayed, and our listening to Bill Bailey on the car stereo not drained the battery........ This after we laughed at someone having trouble de-icing their car next to us. Karma exists. Thanks be that Huntly's very hilly and the car was facing the wrong way! There was more Fluxx, but not an all-night session this time.
Weds involved me wandering around the village a bit and accidentally buying more whisky, Kylie on TV, and New Year celebrations. This alone managed to include whisky :) The pipe band were impressive as always, the new years celebrations were great, and despite a grumpy face or two at the last dance, there was dancing of sorts by all ;)
Then there was home. *sigh* Ahh well. It was a tough drive back with fog on the M73 so thick that I couldn't see the inside barrier in parts, and temps low enough to freeze my thoroughly antifreezed washer nozzles. Frustratingly enough, this thawed out when we stopped as the cold air stopped rushing through the engine. Makes life interesting when roads have been freshly gritted and it's damp and spray-laden outside...
We'd go back any time. Nothing in the world's quite like a Ruthy, and the more John we have in our lives, the better.
drained