23:50 Sleeper To Scotland

Tonight we are taking a sleeper train (which I have of course already over-romanticised a la Murder on the Orient Express when it will doubtlessly be more On The Buses on rails)

... from London --
Sunny, 29 degrees

... to Edinburgh --
Windy, Rainy, 20 degrees, which, granted,doesn't sound so bad but definitely a trade down in this current ... uh ... climate (climatic, not economic)

But it will be so worth it!, even from this sun-starved Antipodean perspective: Mr P's cousin is getting married in a Scottish castle (how very Madonna!, given that neither he nor his partner hail from that particular neck o' woods) on the weekend, so we have cleverly shoehorned in what is sure to be a very hectic day/ night at the Edinburgh festival. I've been once before, in 2004, when I was but a tourist in this hemisphere. I took the bus from Golders Green station (big mistake! It was a Friday night and before we'd even begun our journey, a drunk Amereican girl threw up all over herself and her co-passenger behind me and then proceeded to apologise for it for the next twelve long, stench-filled hours!) to meet my friend Kobi, also visiting the British Isles from Melbourne. We crashed on her friend's friend's friend's (to the power of ten) couch and tried to make our pennies stretch from alcohol to food to entertainment. This time - as is much of life AMP (After Mr Plog: The Era) is much more adult and organised. He even - gasp! - prebooked shows! Don't you just stand in the Pleasance Courtyard and get swayed by the loudest spruiker?!

Will check in from the road, inner-net excess permitting ...