Scotland to Sheffield – 20th August

As it was National Hungary day on Thursday 20th August, I scheduled a post about Budapest on my business page before we had our last breakfast. It was time to leave The Tudor hotel and Scotland today. I was a bit disappointed to not have taken the opportunity to be at the Edinburgh Literary Festival but I had done a lot of work and managed to design my own diary book cover, so I settled for that.
Captain Caveman went off to the office and I had a team meeting and check-out at the same time. I got packed and ready only to find the team meeting was cancelled anyway. I plonked myself down at an empty table in the busy cafe bar area and ordered the hot drink and cake special. The waitress in there was so friendly and allowed me to set up my laptop. I ordered a pot of tea with a jam and cream scone for £5.95. It was lovely and I got a lot more work done.

Captain Caveman arrived to pick me up a bit later in the day than I’d expected at 4pm. By which time I’d had a walk to the nearest shop to get some sweets for the journey back. It was still raining and I felt the cold so was back sat in the foyer within 10 minutes.
We drove back, calling at Tebay services on the way. I’ve never been to such posh services and Captain Caveman stocked up on salami and (more) cheese ready for the weekend when we had a friend coming to stay.

Our next stop was for a curry with friends in Kirby Stephen which was really good. It was also good to see Captain Caveman’s friends, one of which I’d not seen for years. We had a good laugh and the curry at Mango Tree was great, the weather wasn’t much better there either. We spent around £50 for the 2 of us and I really enjoyed the evening.

When we got back to Captain Caveman’s flat in Sheffield, I’d had a delivery. I’d ordered a couple of proof copies of 2 of the 4 notebooks I’d published on Amazon KDP. They are just blank inside for writing notes in and the covers have eye-catching designs and titles. I’d got the templates from Claire Clarke who was helping me get my books in to Waterstones and it had been good practice for the main books and diary. I checked the week’s budget v spend and I had spent less than the previous 2 weeks at £111.41 but I still needed to be very careful until the end of the month. It was almost midnight when we got to bed, both of us were very tired.

Gratitude List

1. A tea and scone for brunch
2. Curry with Captain Caveman and his mates
3. New JoLo style notebooks (available on Amazon).

Scotland – 19th August

If I’d been in Dalyan on Wednesday 19th August I would most certainly have been joining the ladies at Fat Club. Instead, I had to make do without any scales and just my trusty tape measure. To my surprise I had no changes at all on any of my measurements.
I joined Captain Caveman for breakfast and enjoyed it with a lot of tea before he went off to the office and I went back to the room to do some work. I had once again intended to go in to Edinburgh on the train but it was rainy and cold again so I didn’t go anywhere. I was also aware that I had 3 holidays coming up and decided not to spend the money unnecessarily. I finished the cover of my 2027 diary and the next stage was to get the internal pages from Claire Clarke and work on that part of the diary.
In the evening, Captain Caveman was back fairly late so we decided we would try the Tipsy Cow for dinner. It was pouring with rain and pretty cold so I had to borrow clothes and a coat from Captain Caveman – there was definitely no heatwave here!
I ordered a glass of Merlot which was a whopping £9 and I didn’t even check the price first, Captain Caveman had 2 pints of Neck Oil for £10.60. I ordered the katsu chicken curry for £14.95 and Captain Caveman chose the steak pie for £15.95. I’d not had any lunch and was peckish so we ordered a side order of fries for £3.95. The meal was really good and I ate every mouthful, the wine was pretty decent too – although spending £54.45 for the both of us seemed pricey to me, Captain Caveman assured me it was reasonable. I’d been away from Turkey for 7 weeks now and I still found it tricky to not compare prices of things.
Back at the hotel we put another film on and again Captain Caveman was snoring quicker and louder than yesterday. Tomorrow he had a full day of work plus the drive back down to Sheffield so another long day was planned.

Gratitude List
1. Getting the 2027 diary cover sorted.
2. Not having gained any centimetres this week
3. A delicious meal with Captain Caveman at the Tipsy Cow.

Scotland – 18th August

The alarm went off before 7am on Tuesday 18th August after a good sleep in The Tudor hotel in Airdrie, Scotland. The bed was so much comfier than the futon at Captain Caveman’s flat and I didn’t want to get out of bed.
We had breakfast at the hotel where I asked for mine without egg or tomato and Captain Caveman was disappointed as he would have had my extra things I don’t eat. It came with a potato cake type item which I loved and a lovely pot of tea. The Colpermin seemed to have eased my bloating a little but I still had a belly ache after eating.
Captain Caveman went off to the office and I ended up staying in the hotel room working all day. It was cold and wet out so I didn’t bother getting a bus/train to Edinburgh as planned. In my lunch hour I started working on the cover for my next publication which was a 2027 diary. I had decided I was going to do a travel themed one, with some hints/tips and typical JoLo style advice on each month and I wanted the front and back cover to compliment my handy travel planner. I decided the background should look like a swimming pool and I would use some of the elements used on the last book to carry on the theme. I am getting better at Canva but it still wasn’t easy and I got very frustrated with it.
When Captain Caveman got back from the office we decided to have dinner in the hotel as they did an early bird pre theatre menu which was 2 courses for £16.95 each. For starters Captain Caveman ordered the Haggis bon bons and I had the Mumbai mushrooms which were really tasty. For mains Captain Caveman had Hunters Chicken and I had a Butter Chicken pie. My dinner was delicious and it was very filling. We also had a pint of cider for me and Captain Caveman had 2 pints of Cobra. The total bill came to £49.35 and was definitely worth the price. We went back to the room stuffed and watched a film. It had been on less than half an hour when Captain Caveman fell fast asleep and his snoring was so loud that it didn’t look likely that I would get much sleep.

Gratitude List
1. Hotel breakfast
2. Starting to design my 2027 diary cover
3. Hotel dinner.

Sheffield to Scotland – 17th August

On Monday 17th August I woke up with a very swelled up stomach and I felt like I might explode. I decided to have a walk round the block to see if I could ease it a bit before a long car journey. Captain Caveman and I were off to Scotland today and would be staying in a place called Airdrie, not far from Edinburgh.
When we set off I was still unwell so we called in to the supermarket to see if the pharmacist had anything. She didn’t and just recommended I buy some Colpermin off the shelf. I did and they were £9 in the big Tesco.

We drove north and the temperature was getting cooler and it looked like rain.
We stopped at some services in Richmond where I experienced a first time experience; watching camels run around in the field next to the services! They seemed very happy and even smiled at cars going past them.
In the shop Captain Caveman decided he was going to buy a sausage roll for lunch and, of course, I wanted one but couldn’t eat it for fear of an upset stomach. We still bought 2 for a whopping £7 and I got a packet of 95p sweets for the rest of the journey.
Nearer to our destination, Captain Caveman got a coffee from Macdonald’s and we watched as crows tried to bully other birds and scavenged the bins outside.

Back on the road it was raining and much cooler for the rest of the way and I started to wonder if I’d brought enough suitable clothing.
We arrived at The Tudor Hotel and had to hurry in as it was now raining quite hard. The hotel was nice and we decided, instead of eating in the hotel restaurant, that we would pop to a shop and get something from there. Here’s what we bought with the prices in pounds;

Morrisons Supermarket
Ribena drink 0.70
Ziplock bags 1.00
Monster munch 1.20
Blueberries 1.29
Cherry tomatoes 1.35
Raspberries 1.79
Grazing platter 2.00
Cocktail sausages 2.60
Green salad 3.00
Chicken noodle salad 3.50
1 bottle of red wine 5.12
2 pairs of black leggings 10.00
Total spent £33.55

As I didn’t have any other warm clothes except for the jeans I had on, we bought a 2 pack of leggings. My stomach was still iffy, as I’d eaten the sausage roll once I got to the hotel, but I’d taken the Colpermin and was hoping that would help. It was an early night as we both had long days tomorrow but we were happy to have a comfy bed with a duvet on as it was pretty chilly in Scotland.

Gratitude List
1. Colpermin tablets
2. New leggings
3. A comfy, warm bed.