The Famous Star Hotel Moffat

Well I was all set to leave, my brother arrived to pick me up and told me that my father had passed away that morning. Devastating news. Rang Real Gap straight away and they were really good about everything. Have postponed trip until after the funeral which is this Friday.

Will update when I have details of my flights and my new itinerary.

Think I've packed up everything in the house now, feels weird without the cats being here. I think that's one of the toughest things I've ever had to do. I hope they go to a good home....

Sold the car and rented out the flat and packed my life into a box. Strange feeling.

It's the start of a new chapter ...

... row as someone is required to remove the door so I had lots of legroom but was unable to put my chair back. The film was the Time Travellers Wife - which was unfortunate as I'd bought it to read at the airport so I decided to miss the film and then any likely snoozing wouldn't impact my understanding of what went on.

Arriving in Jordan it was interesting to note that you had to announce yourself if you had travelled from Mexico in the last ...

... of various different nationalities - all with one thing in common.... gasping for a fag.

With our transit to Mumbai complete, arrived at our hotel which I will touch on later..

Mumbai is Mumbai, its huge but at 6am in the morning, it's quiet - which is good.

So all in all - we have arrived.

... up (a little nap later)... slightly tainted by my reflection in the window... I think it makes it looks a bit cool though! Pretty much the whole of my time was spent in the hotel, so no comment on Peebles itself unfortunately. Good conference though...

... viszont rengeteg finom kaja, nagyon olcson. Ugyhogy vegul mindannyian bekajaltunk ebedre, annyira jol ereztuk magunkat, hogy vegre kiszabadultunk egy kicsit, setaltunk, 3-an voltunk csajok, es jot ettunk!!!Tuti, hogy sokszor vissza fogunk meg menni a Cargill`s-ba.Aztan bevasaroltunk a Tescoban sok gyumolcsot, zoldseget, Lilla vagy 7 DVD-t, ugyhogy egy idora betaroztunk filmekbol isJA Tescoban talalkoztunk Daviddel, az egyik konyhasfiuval is, aki most megy 2 hetre nyaralni ...

... sehova, a legkozelebbi kisvaros, Blairgowrie felora bicoval)...

Tegnap pedig ismet bementem Blair-be, es megvettem vegul az egyik biciklit, amit egyebkent eleg nagy ferfira terveztek...de sebaj, megy:) es ez a lenyeg. Ugyhogy tegnap rogton 2,5 orat bicoztam, felfedeztem a sportcentrumot Blairben (uszas, aerobic, step, es valami boot nemtommi, de majd kiprobalom - kb £3,5 egy alkalom - ja, es igen, mami... megfogadtam a tanacsot, es mindent ahhoz ...

... tube station so it didn't take all that long really to get from the airport to the hotel.

The Royal National is obviously the hotel for a fair few tour companies cos it has a big courtyard that is usually full of coaches arriving or departing and it was busier than Central Station. The rooms are complete *****! no bar fridge even! Very very basic.

We went to the meeting for the tour and sussed out all the other ...

... Hitting the dreaded M1, we went South, past Leeds, all the time our good moods rapidly disappearing. Thus, we decided to stop off at Cambridge for the night instead of going home. We found the YHA thanks to the miracle of 3.5g connections on our mobile phones, and thus ended up at the happy hostel playing Connect 4 and drinking old man beers. Oh and finally having a warm shower, woo!....

... Dave told the other boat would be narrow. No marks or buoys but in we went followed by the other boat who we suggested anchor in the first bay which they duly did. A very remote and beautiful anchorage with two Canada geese who had apparently over stayed their visas. Dave threatened them with the Immigration and Naturalization Service but they paddled up and down completely unperturbed. The sky had some wonderful high clouds that looked liked the water marbled first ...