I have, somewhat to my surprise, managed to survive England. After an ungodly amount of travel (10 hours or so?) I finally dragged myself back to my flat (be it ever so humble). Nicely, it would appear that my fears for my potatoes were somewhat unfounded. I have put together a Flickr photoset to show you how well they have done…

Spud plants growing happily on my balcony

The journey up was longer than expected (signal problems, apparently), but it could have been worse – apparently, trains heading north through Preston were being turned back, which means we were lucky we got through! In the end, most of the delay was caused by having to take on people who otherwise would have been stranded and taking on extra stops. I have to say, the Virgin staff on board did go the extra mile, heading up the train checking with each passenger to see if they had any trouble with connections, and helping get information on what trains they could get. It was a nice change to the usual state of affairs, with no information at all…

Once I got to Shotts, I had to get a bus to Harthill – fortunately, I thought to check the travel helpline mentioned on the bus stop with the last few ergs of power in my mobile phone, as it turned out that the bus I was expecting to get (Blue Bus 701) had finished for the evening, and the bus I wanted (Stuart Coaches 366) left from a different bus stop, going the other way. Could have been a bit of a pain otherwise.

I treated myself to a Chinese take-away, not feeling terribly like cooking. I wish I’d gone for an extra portion of chips, as it turns out that travelling takes a lot of energy…

Looking forward to sleeping in my own bed! Nothing wrong with my brother’s place… but there really is no place like home!