James and Peter were up here on a Boys Own holiday the week before last. I could not come because I had to be available to see examiners and what not. We could not get a car place on the ferry, so they left the LR Disco on Jura, travelled as foot passengers and stayed the night in Glasgow with friends (planned to use hostel, but hostel booked them for the wrong night - when they arrived the place was heaving with a wedding party). Mega Thanks to Ros and Martyn for rescuing them from the A82, feeding and watering them, giving them beds AND taking them to Glasgow Central on the Sunday...
I collected them from Rugby station and took Peter straight back to school, where my car was broken into by varmints!!!!! ( Not from the school!!!!) Lost wallet and phone (all numbers, photos etc). They got away with precisely nothing really, since the phone and cards were immediately blocked, and there was only 20p in the wallet. The wallet had been a present from Mum and Dad, and the thought that it would just have been thrown away makes me SO MAD. Prayed hard for the stinkers. In Jura you could leave a car unlocked with the crown jewels on the back seat and they would still be there when you got back.
All this preamble leads to the fact that I travelled up here on Monday with Mum and Dad, and that we came by train from MK, with a cunning plan to catch the bus to Kennacraig, travel on the big and little ferries as foot passengers, pick up the Disco at Feolin and drive to the house. Ha! All went well as far as Crewe - first class seats, breakfast, free paper - where we were unceremoniously bunged from the train because of 'flooding at Warrington'. Five train loads of people were being put on buses. It was complete chaos, but the Virgin staff were helpful, calm and polite throughout. Fell off bus at Preston and caught next train north. (Incidentally, train was full of Punky Goths on the way to a music festival, they looked terrifying, but were letting others on the buses first and helped us with our luggage at the other end. Stars!) The upshot was that we missed our bus connection by 90 mins because we were so late. Virgin agreed to fund a taxi to Kennacraig, so we fair sped along the road, catching up with the bus just before the ferry port and being there in time after all. Much relief (except to Virgin with a £148 taxi bill) Good for them I say. I cannot fault their service - the thunder storms were hardly their fault. We finally got to the house at 9.30 pm as planned, drank hot chocolate (although I forgot the vast supply of marshmallows that we have here) and collapsed into bed.
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