As I drove back to Salisbury on the Friday evening; groggy with tiredness as I ran my tongue across my teeth to try and remove that sticky coke-residue, a thought occurred to me: Half-Term had begun. My foot pushed harder on the accelerator, although at this point it was gravity rather than internal-combustion which caused Rupert, my trusty Fiesta, to increase in speed.
I’d been waiting for half-term for 5 long weeks, they’d dragged like that long night before Christmas seemed to as a child. But now it had finally arrived, and the reason for my excitement, my holiday to Scotland, was just two days away.
The two days passed quickly, spent both in Salisbury where I bought Mel’s Valentine’s gift (A Carol Ann Duffy book of poetry, pink cover, perfect. And a hand-made duck egg-blue card, with what I thought was particularly good handwriting inside), and also in Bristol where we stayed with Mel’s sister, who kindly drove us to the airport Sunday afternoon.
Whilst in Bristol I learned how expensive taxis there are, the downright cheek of these rip off merchants still consumes me now.
Fast-forward to Sunday afternoon where Mel and I have successfully landed at Inverness airport and we are driving our shiny hire-car Marco westward towards Skye. The scenery was mesmerising, rather than keeping my hands at the ten and two position with my eyes fixed on the road, I couldn’t help but stare goggle-eyed at the beautiful scenery around me, pointing out snowcapped mountains and the occasional loch.
The driving experience was altogether a rather enjoyable one, Sean our lovable Irish TomTom voice was giving us marvellous directions: “At the next junction, turn left” – Cheers Sean.
“Carry on for 10 miles” – Ok Sean.
“Turn left” – Thanks Sean!
“Carry straight on” – Er, Sean, the road is closed, there’s been a rockslide?
At this point we were informed by the landlord at the local pub that we’d have to drive all the way back to Inverness to take the other road, adding 3.5 extra hours to the journey.
“Turn around where possible” – Fuck off Sean.
When Monday arrived, we explored our surroundings in Waternish, North Skye. Such a beautiful, remote and magical place I’ve never encountered before – I fell in love right away.
I won’t go into too much detail about what we did whilst there, as to try and explain on here how enjoyable an amble around Portree was, or how scary losing the path in the Cuillin hills was, or how necessary it felt to carry Mel across a river, just wouldn’t be possible. Some things can be described, others must be experienced.
I shall add however, that the cottage we stayed in was truly lovely: it was cosy, well kitted out, warm and in a fantastic location. You went out the front door and bam, there was nature. The people who own it have put love and warmth into it, and to make do on a promise, here is a link to their site: http://www.skyewaternishcottage.com/ (Where you can also see pictures of where we stayed).
The week went by all too quickly, and before I knew it I was back in Wiltshire. But the post-holiday blues are a perfectly natural thing, and I was lucky, after all the thing that made the holiday so great was Mel, and I got to bring her back with me. Plus that grogginess has gone, although I swear I still have that sticky coke residue on my teeth.
Things to look forward to this coming week include: School Trip to the Cathedral. Seeing my best friend Matt in a professional capacity on Thursday as a guest speaker at school. Getting responses from job applications, (we’ve had one this morning already). Seeing Mel on Wednesday for our usual midweek meet-up. Getting Paid. Getting back into my book.
Tom
Mel and I posing like models in Skye.
Thomas Pollard: Journal 