The Journey to Scotland
After getting up, making breakfasts and lunches, and hugging goodbye this morning as each of the children left the house for school, I zipped up my bag, and began clock watching for the time I would need to leave for the station.
With twenty minutes to go, I switched on my work laptop because it occurred to me that I had not sent something to somebody. Why? Why does Windows choose it's moments in the manner it does ? The laptop woke up from it's deep sleep, roused itself, and immediately launched into two Windows Update reboots, and a forced password reset. I sent the files and left the house with minutes to spare.
So far the journey has been uneventful. Paddington station was it's old self, and I passed through the Underground on a sort of autopilot – into Edgware Road, up the stairs, across the station, down onto Platform 1, onto the next Circle Line train, and a few minutes later at Kings Cross station. Walk through the tunnel, up the stairs, across the paved area bearing left, and past the platforms to find somewhere to wait.
While gazing aimlessly, and knowing I had an hour to spare, I looked up at the board. A train was leaving for Edinburgh in a few minutes. I could make it. I wouldn't have time to get anything proper to eat, but I could make it.
Five minutes later I scored a huge result – a spacious seat in a fairly quiet carriage, with a power adapter next to it. Hence I have the phone plugged in, and worrying about it's power dying during the second leg of the journey (from Edinburgh to Selkirk) is no longer an issue at all.
Suddenly I am beating the time required to get to Heathrow Airport, catch a flight, pick up bags, hire a car, and drive to the destination – and saving a stack of money in the process. I did manage to buy a couple of packets of M&Ms, and a bottle of drink before leaving Kings Cross. Hardly healthy, but better than nothing.
I have only been to Scotland once. We visited St Monans on the Firth of Forth a couple of years after getting married to get away from everything for a while. St Monans is a small fishing village on the coast, with walks in either direction to other villages. This trip is going to be somewhat different – Selkirk is in the middle of nowhere. Literally.
So. I have about 4 hours to kill before reaching Edinburgh later this afternoon. Once I get there, I have to find the bus station, and the X95 to Selkirk, which leaves every half hour. It's all pretty straightforward from then really – the bus arrives in the center of town, and the hotel is just off the marketplace. Google Street View has taken all of the mystery out of travelling to new places.
Time to watch a movie I guess.
(several hours pass)
I'm sitting in the hotel room now – I arrived several hours ago, but have been busying myself with “settling in” – unpacking my case, folding clothes up, hanging shirts, and wandering around the room finding places for things. The hotel is clean, warm, friendly, and distinctlynot a chain hotel (which my other half told me is agood thing, and I'm inclined to believe her).
The journey was remarkably easy in the end. I watched a bizarre movie on the train to pass the time that I had downloaded yesterday onto the Kindle Fire – called “Interstate 60”. I like quirky, different movies. Towards the end of the movie I looked out the opposite side of the train, and noticed we were hurtling along the coast – with the North Sea sparkling out to the horizon. I spent the next hour taking all manner of photos from both sides of the train (including the featured image at the head of this post). I had forgotten how beautiful Scotland can be.
Edinburgh was predictably cold, windy, and wet. I walked from the train station round to the bus station, and started having second thoughts about getting a taxi for the last part of the journey – the road trip from Edinburgh down to Selkirk. In the end I was glad I caught the bus, because you see more of life on a bus. You get to see the tide of students and office workers returning to Galashiels on an evening, for instance. I absolutely need to visit Galashiels at the weekend – it looks beautiful – all I really saw of it this evening was a hillside town twinkling through the rain spattered windows of the bus. It's only a few miles up the road – if there are footpaths I will put the walking boots on.
So... I have to prepare for the real reason I'm here – to “be clever” for a couple of weeks. To work with a new client, and assume the title of “teacher” once again. Here's hoping everything goes well.