and, finally, relax

It's been a while since I walked less than a mile during the course of a day (probably not since Boxing Day 2005 (or possibly 4) when I was confined to an Invernesian hotel room with gastro-intestinal issues) but I have an excuse in the form of a pile of books (three and a quarter down, three-quarters to go) and the fact that this cottage-place has about four times the total floor space of my flat and five times the window area, four-fifths of that southish-facing. It's strange in the way of the strangeness felt when occasionally visiting real Houses or popping back home whilst at uni... the sudden novelty of items such as ornaments or stairs made every excursion to another room an interesting voyage of re-discovery.

As it's for holidays this place lacks ornamentation (never a bad thing) but still manages to squeeze in some stairs where one room occupies the attic space above the next cottage along (think they're a converted stable block) and has an excitingly large number of habitable cupboards (one thing which was strangely larger in otherwise less well-equipped studentflats than in the properboughtflat) which (if I owned a place such as this) I would attempt to interconnect or at least link with underground tunnels. Besides providing an amusing way of freaking guests out they'd be great for keeping foodstuffs ecologically cool during the summer.

I think we're off to some form of industrial heritage tourist attraction thing tomorrow. Bet it's not a patch on Beamish or the Openlucht museum near Arnhem. I also doubt that we'll pass through anywhere with an internet but I'll try and remember to copy this stuff and the last few days' pictures to a portable storage device just in case. If not then I'll have to try the Hydro again. I was hoping to be able to just sit outside it but there was no reception last night and they have a specially-defended entrance where one has to climb some Stairs (shiny carpet, soft-piled banisters etc) before achieving the Reception so it might be a bit of a trial to get to a lobby or bar area without impediment although I keep forgetting that I no longer have the sort of hair which hotel receptionists might find suspicious. Last time we were here the wee estate manager blokey gave us a massive lecture about not burning the place to smithereens or killing the townsfolk with our loud music whereas this time he even offered us a second set of keys. I can see that I'll have to get myself an hoodie at some point soon to compensate.