Friday started off cold. By the time I got to Carlisle, it was also wet. It stayed wet until at least 2am on Saturday, which caused some problems. First off, when I got to Dumfries, I had to trek halfway across the town to find the bus stop for Twynholm. Once I got there, the first bus to come along didn't stop at Twynholm, but they offered to drop me at the end of the road. On the bus, I sat next to a crazy granny with a Galloway accent who spouted the occasional word in Cockney, who kept talking to me about how I mustn't go walking without my waterproofs, I must get some waterproofs, you know. Yeah. Anyway, the bus dropped me at Twynholm, so, I hauled my bag onto my back and trekked the short distance into the village to find the Star Hotel, recommended as a landmark to watch out for to get off at. Anyway, once I got there, I rang Torak, and had a coffee and a cheese sandwich while waiting.

After he came and collected me in his Land Rover, we went back to the cottage, and spent a while wiping the doors clean with antiseptic wipes, 'cos the previous tenants kept some wild boars (Rhodesian Ridgebacks - dogs), and didn't bother cleaning them themselves. Finishing the doors, we moved onto things like the water, the carpets and the curtains. In the face of surmounting problems, we decided to head into Kirkcudbright and meet up with the others. So we got into the Landy, and decided to turn around in the paddock just ahead, as the rear window was steamed up, and there was no easy place to turn around in. So, into the paddock it was, and it was more like paddy-field than paddock. We circled, and got stuck. Much going backwards and forwards not very far later, and we got out to put some wood (felled tree brnaches) under the wheels for grip. We managed to get out of the canyons we'd gouged in the surface, turned a bit more, but couldn't get out of the paddock. In fact, we slid further back down the slope. So, in an ex-military Land Rover, using the low-range gears, and with the diff-lock on, we couldn't get out of an essentially flat field.

So we went into the house to get some ice cream while we waited for Torak's mum to arrive and give us a lift down to the chippie in Kirkcudbright. When we got there, we found the Murphys waiting for us. They all got up from their table to greet us, Nicola practically throwing herself at me. Once greetings had been completed, we sat down and ate - Torak and self ordering chips, Torak's parents ordering chips with a fish that looked like a scorpion had been battered, Nicola and Mary-Ellen finishing off what they already had, and Simon ordering more chips for himself. Not long after, we returned to Torak's place, and installed ourselves in the cottage. We took turns blowing up the air mattress Nicola had brought, and then set up the camp beds for the others. The mattress had a couple of punctures, that had patches over them, but were leakng air anyway, so we repaired them with some duck tape borrowed from the house. We spent some time in the house watching Top Gear for a while before we all returned to the cottage to sleep, and I gave Nicola her birthday present.

It emerged that Mary-Ellen and Simon had stayed up watching stuff until about 6am, and had slept in their chairs (well, it was considerably warmer than the cottage). Anyway, we had breakfast (Mary-Ellen and Simon's second), while watching Yes, Prime Minister, then Torak's dad stuck his head round the door and said, "I'm just going down to the walled garden, if you want to see it," which we did. So up we got and off we went, for a tour of the grounds in the sharp morning air. We saw the walled garden, the snowdrops, possibly the oldest (?)elm in Scotland, various garden paths, the ex-tennis court, the paddock (from the other end, with the Landy still stuck at the top), and got told why all the branches were chopped off the tree that loomed over the house.

Woke up fairly early, went over to the house, woke Simon up so he could let us in, worked out how to dismantle the shiny camp bed Torak had lent him, as the other was somewhat unreliable, then we had breakfast. Then we finished watching Yes, Prime Minister while we waited for Torak (again feeling under the weather) to surface, and other people worried about logistics. We managed to get about half an hour into Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles before we decided that we really should start packing about now. So we went off to the cottage again, for a somewhat hectic clear-up and packing-up of stuff, then we returned to the house to await departure. The plan was to take me into Castle Douglas to catch a bus to Dumfries, from where my train left, and then take the others straight on to Prestwick airport for them to catch their flight. The journey into Castle Douglas was rather fast, but I was deposited at the bus stop with several minutes to spare. I bade goodbye to the others, got on the bus when it arrived, got off in a Dumfries not being pelted with rain (as it had been all the other times I recalled being there), bought some dinner for consumption later, and spent over an hour waiting for the next train to Carlisle. I got on, and promptly fell asleep, and didn't wake up until a couple of minutes after arriving at Carlisle (thankfully, it was a terminus station). Then there was a half-hour wait at Carlisle for my train back to Keighley, but the train doors were open, so I got on, ate, and started writing this.

© Brian Wakeling