In which we drive north. That’s pretty much it, really.

Sad Day 2: Departing London. We woke up at our usual time, cleaned ourselves, packed our bags, had a lazy breakfast and basically just spend a couple of hours hanging out with Mark (and the cats). Then it was 10:30 am and time to leave… but since we weren’t ready, we left some time after 11:00 am.

There’s really not a lot to say about the trip. 420 miles to drive, and I expected about 7 hours. It took 8 hours due to road works that weren’t happening. To clarify, there was about 100 miles of roadworks, in various stretches, where the speed limit was dropped to 50 mph, sometimes 40 mph. But there was no actual roadwork being done. None. Not a soul. OK, fine, it’s the weekend and I suspect unions are kindof pissy about that whole thing. But if there’s not danger of danger or injury, please change the speed limit back up.

Talking of speed limits, that’s exactly what our car did. Talk about them. A lot. The navigation system has some SERIOUS phuqing problems, not least of which is getting confused about the actual speed limit and announcing that I must “Reduce your speed”. Ever five seconds. For miles upon miles upon miles. At one point, during a congested stretch of motorway, I was moving at 30mph in a 70mph zone. “Reduce your speed.” At which point I invited the navigation system to partake of an unlikely if not impossible anatomical excursion. Fortumately, the wean was asleep for that moment.

We made two pit stops, ate in the car, and filled up the tank once. Thrilling stuff.

When we got in to Glasgow, our first stop ended up being the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, to visit someone who had made an unscheduled trip there the day before. This is a trend I’m not enjoying, having started and ended my trip to Scotland last year with visits to friends and relatives in that same damned hospital. I very much hope to depart the country next week without subsequent visits.

Dinner was, I am delighted to say, fish suppers (though mine was technically a black pudding supper). Then came a little strategic repacking for the next portion of the trip: we’ll be back at my folks’ place for Chapter 4, so there’s no need to take all the gifts for back home with us. This reduces our suitcase count by 50%, which will be nice for the B&B.

And now, bed. Got another 100 miles to drive tomorrow, then… <squeeee> a CalMac ferry!