Catching up

Soon after my last posting we went to the Isle of Mull, off the west coast of Scotland, for our annual week's holiday doing English country dancing. We arrived on Friday and spent the first 3 days renewing friendships, visiting favourite places and dancing each evening. The weather was bad with very heavy rain; the roads on Mull - almost everywhere they are single track width with passing places - are notorious for the potholes and unfortunately on Monday afternoon we hit a huge one pretending to be just a shallow puddle. Long story short: the car was written off by the insurers as being uneconomic to repair, governed by the logistical problems of remoteness rather than the intrinsic value of the car, so having been loaned transport by the dear people with whom we stay so that we could still go dancing each evening, we travelled the 600 miles back home at the end of the week by public transport (bus, ferry, 4 trains, 2 taxis and the London Underground).

The two weeks since our return, punctuated by last weekend dancing at a folk festival while using our campervan as a base, have been spent trying to pick up the pieces involving insurance, replacement car and courier service to get the rest of our goods and chattels back home, having abandoned them in our friends' spare wardrobe. What a pity it wasn't the sort that leads to Narnia: we might have had everything done so much more quickly! This weekend has been very productive and suddenly everything seems to be falling into place - with luck I might even manage to make a card or two this coming week.......