UMTravels

Hellish walk to the rental car place. Hellish rental car checkout procedure. Hellish drive to Plymouth just getting out of London, once that was done, smooth sailing. Arrived at Mark’s about 5:30pm. That would make it 3.5 hours from Heathrow. Good to know for the return journey. A lovely roast leg of lamb with some […]

Great dinner at Teatro on Salsbury. Good thing it was an early dinner… looked to trendy to let us in later. Spin had the 26 day locker beef, me the pork tenderloin wrapped in pancetta with the tempura prawns for a starter … and a lovely shot glass of lobster bisque. Yum. And onto the […]

Tate British in the morning to see all the Turners (not Ike and Tina), the lunch at Tas (Turkish) by London Bridge, then to the Tate Modern where I opted for the ten pound retrospective of Gilbert and George rather than the free main collection. The G&G retrospective was awe inspiring. It took over two […]

Arrived Euston Station little before 8am. Was at the hotel by 8:15 waking Pucci up to let us in for showers and a change of clothes. Big News! Got email from John last night the the Olympia house passed insection with no changes though I still have to put in a dryer. And the want […]

Just wait until I upload the photos from today! One of the guys got me trussed up in his UK1500 kilt … nothing like wrestling me into a size 34 anything. There I am in the room that was Mel Gibsons dressing room for Brave Heart that was filmed at the distillery… we part of […]

Yesterday was a gorgeous train ride to Kyle of Lochalsh after breakfast at the Ramada… didn’t know it was included but it wasn’t on the bill when we checked out. As for the train, think lots of Lochs (as in lakes, as in the Loch Ness monster) and low mountains. After checking both of the […]

Today is a scenic travel day. Taking the 10:52am to Kyle of Lochalsh and then the 4:00pm bus to Fort William. Tomorrow we catch the train from Fort William to London to meet up with Pucci. All this assumes we don’t kill each other in the meantime. Two snorers does not a quiet night’s sleep […]

Arrive Inverness groggy at 8:30am. I had a “Whore’s Bath” in the cabin, but now at least am shaved and a little bit of a shampoo on the little bits of hair. We set off for the Ramada Inverness — and other than picking the “alley” on the map to reach the hotel, rather than […]

Well, BA should sell real estate — the pictures looked gorgeous, but the reality is something more cramped. Thankfully I was facing backwards (which was odd for landing) in the end row, so there weren’t feet to step over to get out, but I wouldn’t be happy paying $3K round-trip for these seats. I’d rather […]

More loads (two) of stuff to the Rose Street House after a breakfast of leftover dinner. Chris arrives this afternoon with his UHaul full of stuff, the least I can do is get major chunks of my shit out so he has somewhere to put it. Luckily his place in Portland is even smaller than […]

It’s like yesterday all over — Ground Hog Day (the movie) comes to Seattle. Run to the bank to drop off a deposit, then go to the house and move some more boxes. Maybe I’ll have some time for organizing and building shelves today. That would make more room in the garage at least. Lots […]

It was the dilemma — what shall I do today until 5:00pm cocktails and dinner with Lynne’s South Park friends. Oh, that’s right. It’s the end of the month that I need to be out of the city apartment (well, mostly — Chris would like the table and chairs for a bit.) And then there […]

Slept in, Chris out of the apartment early. Big news at noon. There is an offer on the Oly house for $210,000. Not bad for listing it on Monday. Apparently six people went through it on Tuesday, and one wrote an offer for $1000 over listing price — maybe I should have made it $219,000! […]

Slept until 10am — must be exhausted. Had to get up and move the car at 7 to let Dwight out of the driveway. That’s probably what caused another full REM cycle. Need to get a sink today so Whitaker can finish making the counter tops. Size is 22×33″ and 8″ deep. As usual there […]

Driving around noticed that the van is about 2,000 miles over it’s oil change time. Dropped Gnarlene off who stayed over and tried the local oil change place… one person and a lot full of cars. I don’t have 3 hours to wait. Off to the Grease Monkey in Ballard near Helene’s place. Out of […]

Spent the morning drinking coffee and reading four letters from Steve. He is the first person I’ve told to change my address from the island. Guess I’d better file a change of address and get a new mailbox (locking) for the Rose Street house. Plans for today — meet up with Gnarlene for a dump […]

At the house at 11:30 — Josh shows up at noon. It’s like I never was away. Except for the slight suntan. Josh has made great progress on the house — all the new widened doorways are done. Just working on the last little bits of drywall. Today’s chore is getting the garage door installed. […]

Checked out a couple of minutes before eight. Used the last of my paper money ($5) to settle accounts before heading to the airport. The run from Ballarat to the Melbourne airport is 90 minutes with only a couple of morning congestion points. Need to put that in the revised directions for WorldMark as well. […]

Packing and Traveling: I equally enjoy traveling with other like minded people as I like traveling solo, I guess that makes me bi-something Book your flights so that you arrive at your destination before dark, even if you have to get up in the dark to make those flights. You can have to many extra […]

Victoria, home of Ballarat and the Gold Country of Australia. Last night while doing all the dinner prep, I prepared the eggs and bacon for microwave reheating for this morning (and tomorrow morning since I won’t have much time). Needless to say, they are scrambled and sitting in bowls with saucers as lids — perfect […]