Back in Ayr

Well. That's it. I'm back in Ayr. And oh boy, was that an adventure and a half!

I caught the 0615 train because it's the first one out of Doncaster and I actually really enjoy catching the first train because it's quiet, the other people don't really want to interrupt unless they're interested in what you're doing and you can just get on with watching your DVD's or reading. I didn't even bother doing my hair and make-up yesterday which is something I usually do because I like to joke to my friends that I'm going to meet the love of my life on a train one year - it has to happen. It's the only place where I feel truly comfortable to talk to strangers! - but like I said, I was make-up free and my hair wasn't even brushed! 0615 in the morning people, give me a break!

It was a bumpy journey. The wind was battering the train side to side like a ball in a pinball machine! I swear, we were lucky not to have ended up knocked over. So I reached Edinburgh at 0924 after over three peaceful hours reading my book and watching Supernatural season 6. I was climbing off the train and my suitcase handle snapped. My beloved suitcase that Grannie gave to me - it had been hers for many years before - that has seen me on many journeys between Ayr and Doncaster has given way on my second to last trip! I could have cried. Genuinely. Big fat embarrassing tears over it. I, however, recovered from this torment to notice that on the board all the Glasgow trains were cancelled.

My heart literally stopped.

I didn't know anyone in Edinburgh to come save me and in the ten seconds I was staring at the board, the word "cancelled" resided by every train that was to depart from the station along with a booming voice over the tannoy stating "for safety reasons, this train station will be closing in ten minutes. Please gather your belongings and leave via your nearest exit". I mean I understand why they did it. 120 mph winds would scare the crap out of any one.

So here I was, in a city that I've visited once or twice but have no clue where anything is, with no one to turn to or rescue me with no where to sit because the station was closed. I cried. I phoned my dad and cried like a little girl. It was nerve wrecking! My auntie and uncle live just outside of Glasgow but they were working so couldn't come get me until at least half past four which would have meant having to find something to amuse myself for six hours... Mum was worried and all determined to do the long ass drive to come get me but dad, thankfully, made her see sense and plus the car was broken.

Even though there had been rumours that the buses weren't working, my aunt suggested that I should go hunt down the station and see. So here I am with my broken suitcase, my laptop and the world's biggest handbag struggling against the strong winds to find a bus station that I was starting to think didn't exist. Thankfully, the buses were working and £12 and four hours later, I managed to get home okay.

And the first thing I did when I got in? I unpacked my pyjamas and went straight to bed. It was the best sleep ever until I woke up about 2100 and realised that I'd only had a sandwich to eat all day and the hunger cramps were painful. So I ate the rest of the munch mother dearest packed for me then went straight to my bed. I felt so good waking up this morning until I remembered that I have assignments to start :(

Moving on from my awful day, here are two photos from New Year's Eve of the two siblings and I just before I went to work and those two boozers went and celebrated New Year's Eve the way you're meant to...




One year, I am going to get a nice photo of the three of us even if it kills me. These two are cute but not something my mother would want framed. I'll probably have to wait until someone get's married...

Speaking of marriage, have a look at the cute engagement ring my cousin, Martyn, got his fiancée, Arlene!



It's so pretty and shiny! It's not what I'd want but that's not the point, right? It's cute and she loves it, that's the main point! It brings out my inner female though because I'm so excited!

Well coinciding with my NY Resolution number eight, here's the book that has my attention this week! Or maybe two because in good Stephen King style, this book is a bloody beast!



Jake Epping is an English teacher in Lisbon Falls, Maine, who makes extra money teaching in an adult education programme. One day, he receives and essay from one of his students - a harrowing first person story about the night, fifty years earlier, when Harry Dunning's father came home and killed Harry's mother, his sister and his brother with a sledgehammer.

Later, Jake's friend Al, who runs the local diner, divulges an extraordinary secret: his storeroom is a portal to 1958. He enlists Jake on an insane - and an insanely possible - mission to try and prevent the Kennedy assassination.

Inspired by his desire to put things right for Harry Dunning, Jake leaves a world of iPods and mobile phones for a new world of Elvis and JFK, of big American cars, root beers and Linda Hopping. It is a haunting world of a troubled loner named Lee Harvey Oswald and a beautiful high school librarian named Sadie Dunhill, who becomes the love of Jake's life - a life that trangresses all the normal rules of time.

Obviously, not being American, I don't really contextualise the importance or the effect that JFK's assassination had on the nation but I do know that, due to his age, Stephen King has always had a slight obsession so I'm slightly excited to read it. Which is odd because my love for him, even though he'll always be my literary God, has slightly dwindled recently because he's become a Christmas writer and that really upsets me. I've only read the first couple of pages and I'm already hooked... Damn the fact that I have an assignment to write!