Made it – just…!
So looking forward to this, I had envisioned a wonderfully sophisticated, relaxing ‘jolly’…a little bit of work mixed in with catching up with family and old school friends in Design-drenched London.
Train tickets were booked, but discussing my plans with Doug over breakfast, he pointed out that travelling into Edinburgh from our village was slightly backtracking, I agreed and thought, ‘I know why don’t I just drive to Berwick upon Tweed? My friend Suzi does this…
Seemed like a great idea, left in plenty of time, except, realised 10 mins into the journey that I had forgotten my Oyster card, whizzed back, still managed to get to Berwick Upon Tweed with 20 minutes to spare, felt quite pleased with myself, until it became clear that the car park at Berwick upon Tweed station was completely full…Oh dear…a short drive around Berwick Upon Tweed later and, obviously, like most small towns, the centre of Berwick upon Tweed is a mass of double yellow lines and spaces where you can pay to park for up to 4 hours – help – I was going for 3 days!!
Drove into the Co-op car park – full of signs advising that you could park for up to two hours for free, or a day, if you paid….Blimey – I approached a very nice looking lady for advice – she was not just nice – she turned out to be an angel, disguised as a very charming American, called Karen. Karen advised me that I could park outside her house – she pointed at a distant building that looked, to me, about 3 different corners away – I said, ‘Look, can you just get in my car, I will give you a lift home and park’, which she very trustingly did…We rrrrraced off in my Fiat Multipla…It was like a scene from 24, except we were in a car park in Berwick Upon Tweed rather than downtown LA and she was carrying three bags of shopping rather than a Billionaire drug dealer’s teenage daughter….
Got to Berwick upon Tweed station with two minutes to spare…enough time for the guard to helpfully explain that the train I was booked on from Edinburgh was not actually stopping at Berwick upon Tweed – why had I not checked this?? But that I could get on a train to Newcastle and join my train there, hopefully, although officially you are not meant to do things like this – booked seats etc…Obviously, did not really feel I had a choice and £18 later had a single to Newcastle. Great! Thanks Suzi x
As I explained earlier, I did make it to London, shaken and stirred…I am not 007…it was all a bit much for me to be honest.
Our lovely colleague, Mairi MacDonald and I enjoying 100% Design
100% Design was amazing, but I went on to develop quite a nasty cold which hampered my networking abilities rather, not to mention my ability to have a really lovely evening with old school friends in a gastro-pub in Islington…yes I know…having supper in a gastro pub in Islington is not exactly climbing K2, I just was not quite at my best.
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