Pippi’s pulling up her stripey-socks for the final sprint towards the Good-Life……………

Cheery_Daff

Morning!

Gosh I'm nice and warm

Pippi! Where are you looking that says the train to Thurso is running this morning? National Rail and BBC travel both say it's still suspended? Still investigating, and will ring, but unless it's going all the way to Thurso (or there's a bus or something) I'm not going to get on it - last night they were saying they might open it but only as far as Lairg, which I think is still 2 hours away from Thurso?

Will investigate and ring Scotrail...

Hope you didn't stay up too late writing!

Cheery_Daff

Gosh I must say I'm bored of making decisions now!

Had to decide whether to trot into inverness on spec to see if the train north was running. Would have had to leave at 8.45, and at 8.44 the trains were still suspended.

After being soooo cold and fed up and grumpy yesterday, we decided to stay put in the house, see if the first train actually left to go to Wick, and then head into Inverness for the second one. We won't make it to Thurso before the evening ferry anyway, but we might make that if the second train runs on time, or at all :rotfl:

I don't mind spending the whole day hanging speculatively round Inverness station, but after yesterday, and not getting here til nearly midnight, I just couldn't face doing it at 9 this morning

Think it was the right decision though - trains are still suspended, although the first one doesn't leave for an hour yet... (but we now haven't got time to get to Inverness even if it does go!).

Sorry, moaning on on your diary Pippi - probably less trouble than ringing you up every five minutes though :rotfl:

So - latest plan - have a nice hot shower, more tea, perhaps another nap :rotfl: check if the first train went north (and how far it got), then head to INverness at lunchtime for an afternoon of hanging around. Hopefully we'll make the 7pm ferry (so we'll miss your concert but will hang around in a pub til you get home and then get a taxi ). If not, and if we DO make it to Thurso, we'll stay overnight and get the first ferry in the morning.

And if the trains STILL aren't running for the whole day, we'll come back to our cosy little house and try again tomorrow. And if they're not running then, we'll head over to Aberdeen on Thursday.

Yawn yawn yawn - I'm not going on holiday EVER AGAIN after this! :rotfl: :rotfl: (or perhaps I'll stick to the peak district) :rotfl:

Anyway, how was the writing? Hope you didn't stay up too late??

lotti379

Oh guys it sounds a complete nightmare!:eek:

Hope all gets sorted soon!

(Have been away for a few days due to travelling down to my Mama's and then having a sick horse to deal with... That was a nice way to relax for the hols, spending sunday in a stable with the vet {a very nice but sadly not hunky vet... :rotfl:})

GOOD LUCK for your onward travels!

Cheery_Daff

Thanks Lotti :T

All excitement again here - all Inverness-Wick trains are cancelled for today - but there's a bus service that runs this afternoon to coincide with the evening ferry....

Just trying to figure out if it's actually *running*, but there's nothing to suggest it's not at the minute (doesn't set off til half 2 though so plenty of time!). If we can, we'll get that, even if it's late and we miss the ferrry, we'll at least be nearby to catch the first one in the morning :T

(isn't everything easier to deal with when you're warm and well fed and full of tea??)



(hope pippi actually likes us and doesn't throw us out after a few hours after all this messing around! :eek:)

Karmacat

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: wouldn't that be the pits! I'm very, very sure she'll like her. And you'll like her!

Cheery_Daff

:rotfl: KC :rotfl:

Do you know, that's the one thing about this trip I didn't think of til now! :rotfl:

(Pippi - if you really can't stand us, you must say, and as soon as we can get anywhere else, we'll go, I promise! :eek:)

<wibble>

Right - all set for heading to Inverness on the 11.56 train Bus leaves at 2.25, and as far as I can tell it's running Very exciting!

gallygirl

Well I've met you Cheery and I liked you (though I wasn't about to leave you alone in my house in charge of [STRIKE]money generating things[/STRIKE] hens, so I suppose it's slightly different :rotfl:).

That's the least of your worries . Wrap up warm, take plenty food & maybe a wee dram for the journey . Oh, and report back at regular intervals

Cheery_Daff

Got food and there might just be a wee emergency dram in the luggage in case of emergencies Have got phone numbers for everyone from bus company to ferry company to RAC (not much use now since we didn't bring the car :rotfl:)

Just having a tidy up of friend's house - not sure how we managed to scatter our possessions so far in less than 12 hours :rotfl: Then we're headed North! :T :T (well, headed to inverness at least, goodness only knows what will happen after that, might land up back here again :rotfl:) Fingers crossed for being with Pipppi by bedtime! :T :T

Karmacat

Good luck Cheery - sorry I missed you, but of course you'll like each other! I've met Pippi but not you, but I'd stake an awful lot of money on it all going really well. Keep that dram for real emergencies (or for getting on the very last piece of transport)

greenval

I know I shouldn't giggle but the Cheery/Pippi travel saga is a bit like on of those Michael Palin 'around the world in 80 days' things using unlikely methods of transport
Keep safe everyone!