Arrived and assembled

The very definition of a long day although it's not so bad that we're sitting down with a very nice glass of red at 7.30pm.

We were up early and fuelled by a cooked breakfast. I went to fetch the van which is a bit big, I guess, but choice was limited when I booked on Tuesday. Mr A had been bringing stuff down to leave in the car over the last couple of days so we transferred everything into the van and then went to collect the bed. It's when you contemplate the scale of a king sized mattress that you realise having a good sized van is mainly a boon.

I guess we could have brought more stuff up but actually it's fine. We have everything we need for a weekend. A now assembled bed. A couple of camping chairs. The wherewithal to cook a few things and a cool box that is offsetting the fact we probably won't sort out a fridge freezer until next weekend.

We picked the keys up in Inverness - what could have been awkward proved to be easy as although there are no parking spaces in the centre of the city there are loads of loading bays, so I left white van man in the van whilst I sought out the solicitors/estate agents. We looked just the job in the loading bay.

Up to Tain. All fine. The cottage is as I remembered it. Has a great feel to it and a lovely rose bush in the garden which will be a project for the future. We had to make a couple of trips to the supermarket five minutes walk away which is astonishingly well stocked with stuff. The second time was because I realised I'd forgotten toilet paper and a sheet. Whoops. Lucky we could get a king size sheet at 7pm in a country town in the North of Scotland.

Too exhausted to think about much this evening but I'm definitely thrilled this project has come together like this.

This is one weekend I'm looking forward to.