Holidays!

Dropped wee Archie off at the sitter at 8:30. He's been there before, and greeted her warmly. In fact, as soon as we got out of the car, parked at the local park, he was barking and tugging on the lead - he KNEW!

The four hour train journey turned out to be not as restful as we had anticipated. A rowdy table of four nearby had the table full of beer and champagne and drank the whole way. They were very loud. Fortunately I had my iPod and could drown them out. (JR forgot her iPod...) It was also very COLD due to the air conditioning. I was frozen.

When we arrived in London, we had a wild goosechase trying to register our Senior Railcards on our Oyster cards, with three different people saying (after we'd been in three different queues) that they didn't do that, and directing us hither and thither, all round King's Cross Station, and then to St Pancras. We thought it would be straightforward. Not. We now have a form to fill in first.

One queue we didn't join, thankfully, was a very long one for people to have their photo taken on the wall of Platfom 9 3/4.

However, we are now safely ensconced in our house for the week. A pleasant walk from the station through a park. Lots of dogs. TWO schnauzers! Lots of chatty folk too. And as I was staggering up the stairs from the underground with my suitcase, two different people asked if they could carry my bag for me. In fact, the second young lady just insisted. Nice.

Our new house is full of Art Deco furniture and fittings. And it has a ping pong table! We've had a wander to the nearest shops, and found a nice pub, and an even nicer fish and chip shop, with a choice of Regular, Medium or small portions. I think that's such a good idea. I had a small portion (which was pretty BIG) so that I had a wee bit of room for bread and butter pudding back at the pub, sitting outside!

It's so warm here.