The Holiday Begins...

I was just thinking that maybe I should have called this "The Wind-Up Blog Chronicles". But I didn't. Oh well.

So - I am now officially on holiday. And bloody good it feels too. And thanks for all the suggestions for potential shennanigans for me to, um, shennang. I should really have mentioned in the original post that I don't actually drive, though. Given that small fact, you can see how I saw myself facing a pretty slim set of options.

But - never fear, for all is well. I spent today making a series of frenzied phonecalls and emails, and it looks like I now have a definite plan. My best mate Steve, who I've known since I was about the size of this next comma, has a day off on Wednesday. He moved away some years ago, and I don't get to see him and his good lady wife (and tiny little "!" of a child) as much as I'd like these days (in fact, my next-to-last visit to his inspired my "Light House" HB idea). So I'm going to grab a bus into Aberdeen, meet him after work, and stay with them on Tuesday and Wednesday night. They've even arranged a visit to a Petting Zoo on Wednesday afternoon - ostensibly for their little girl, but I'm actually quite excited about it myself. The sensible part of me knows that they probably won't have giraffes, elephants and siberian tigers anyway, but there's also a little bit of me that thinks, "well, you never know until you get there." It's a bit of a shame it's just a Petting Zoo. I really wish someone would make a Ride-On Safari park, as in "if you can saddle it, you can ride it." It's always been a fantasy of mine to lumber into a drive-through McDonalds astride an African Hippo. "Just a burger and fries please... Sorry - almost forgot. Can you make that 54 burgers and one helping of fries? And if you could hold the salad on 53 of those burgers, that'd be great. My trusty steed is on a diet." I'm fairly sure it's going to be all mangy goats and maybe the odd guinea-pig with allopecia, but still, I can but dream.

Then after that, on Thursday Steve will drop me off in Aberdeen, and I'll hook up with my wee brother Stu. I'll spend Thursday night with him and his charming Aussie girlfriend Dene, eating fine foods and drinking far too many exotic cocktails, if past experience is anything to go by; then I'll be poured onto a bus sometime on Friday, and arrive back home just in time for the weekend, when all my local friends who have sensible jobs will be free anyway.

So, that's the plan. I'm looking forward to it, but now that I've written this, no matter how much fun I have, I'm still going to wish I could return back home on the back of a hippo rather than the top deck of a rickety, held-together-by-the-chewing-gum-under-the-seats bus. Even a giraffe would be nice.

Anyway, I'll let you know how it went when I get back. "Man Attempts to Ride Mangy Goat" - I can see the headlines now.