Furby and I
left Mallorca on Wednesday 26th of September, took a ferry over to
Barcelona and stayed the night there. We went for a walk the next morning down
gorgeous, tree lined avenues and saw the Sagrada Familia church. It was
beautiful and I wished we’d had more time to stay and explore the rest of Gaudi's work around Barcelona. But sadly our road trip was calling. Barcelona
to Val d’Isere in 9 hours. I like to think that we made it to hour 6 before the
cabin fever set in and our grip on reality became slightly tenuous. A road trip
with J-lee furby was always bound to be fun but I seriously didn’t anticipate
laughing as hard as I did. At one point there was 20 minutes of laughter
complete with tears streaming down faces...brilliant! I think it was because I unwittingly
burped mid sentence, and it was quite a burp, doesn't sound that funny and I
guess you had to be there, but anyway we laughed, and laughed, and eventually
had to pull over for a nature wee and then laughed some more. By the time we
got to Val the temp had dropped considerably and let me tell you, 3 degrees
Celsius is most definitely not flip-flop weather.
A lovely
drive (funny too, thanks Hot Tub Technician for the laughs and the stalled Caravelle at customs), round lake Annecy took us to Geneva the next morning and from there we
went our separate ways, Edinburgh was my next destination. Couldn't wait to be
there and see my friends. NS came up from London too. JM is now expecting and
what a change that made to our weekend. What would usually have been a boozy
affair; turned into a very relaxed, leisurely, eating extravaganza. Let me give
you a couple of tips, if you ever should find yourself in the gorgeous city of
Edinburgh; please go to Mimi’s Bakehouse and Cafe Andaluz. The second one is
somewhere that we tend to frequent often, but Mimi's was a new one for NS and
me. Oh my goodness, this place is amazing! Just go, and if they have it, get a
slice of lemon and poppy seed cake, it is divine! We shopped, we ate, we
relaxed and we laughed, a lot, as usual. Brilliant start to my inter-season
travels.
From
Edinburgh to Kilmarnock via Glasgow was next on the agenda. Now people may well
think it’s a bit crazy to go and stay with someone that you don’t actually
know. In all honesty I too would’ve said that’s a bit mental, but I’m super
glad I did. I have a Twitter friend, AC, we’ve chatted on Twitter for ages,
then it turned out we had a mutual friend RH, how bizarre! So when AC was in
Morzine earlier this year I went to meet him and his pals, sadly we only
managed a beer together but it was great to finally see a Twitter friend in the
real world. So when offered a wee sojourn to the glitzy town of Kilmarnock, how
could I refuse?! I imagined that I was one of those glamorous house guests from
the 20s/30s and thought nothing of taking up someone’s offer to weekend at
their country retreat. I always used to watch Poirot and think how fabulous
these people would just take off for a weekend at someone’s house they barely
knew and it seemed to always be cocktail hour. Well, it’s always cocktail hour
somewhere in the world and that rule applies in Kilmarnock too, happily! The
vino tinto flowed along with good conversation! I was made to feel so utterly welcome;
it was like catching up with old friends. We had a fabulous dinner at The Jefferson one night, highly recommend this place, divine food and great service. I was
shown some cool places around Kilmarnock – yes there are some; don’t raise your
eyebrow at the screen in that sarcastic way!! Anyhow, the point is AC and his ‘family’
were so great to me, thank you my dears!
Next I was
off to the Midlands, reunited with my furby J-lee for a night of fun and a day
of shopping. A mountain of food at Wing Wah, J-lee trying 5 new things (well
done!!), pulling over to take a picture of a road sign (Butt Lane, come on,
that is funny!) and Primark in Derby. Great fun and can’t wait to see her again
in just a week’s time!!!! YAY! In the meantime I get her lovely messages on
What’s App that make no sense, honestly it’s good that I know her and generally
understand what she’s getting at.
Whilst in
Middle Earth one must of course call in to spend a few days with two of the
best people on all of the Earth, so it is that I ended up with the Clan Mcleod
for a gastronomically amazing time. Every time I come to visit it’s an assault
of the culinary kind, I try new things, eat delicious foods and drink amazing wines
and whiskies. There is something very satisfying to me to be able to sit and
discuss food for hours on end, to share food experiences and the Mcleod Clan
always have amazing experiences to share, which I love! Highlights: baked camembert, Bunnahabhain whisky, Derbyshire
oatcakes, homemade hollandaise, Omar
Allibhoy’s pig cheeks, golfing, Mr. Mcleod being the oracle and knowing
everything about everything, two donkeys, some llamas, goats that smell like
goats cheese (funny that one?!) and creaky chickens. I’m always sad to leave
the Clan Mcleod but I always come back, like a boomerang, whether they like it
or not! Who knows, maybe next time I will take that job as a pizza chef at The
Bull’s Head in Repton and live in your spare room?! ;) xxx
OK, that was that section. Tune in later for more from my travels around the UK and further afield.
