Thursday, June 28, 2012

Alana and Susan joint post


We're behind in chatting you all up on the adventures of your two intrepid explorers, so where to begin? Day before yesterday, Alana awoke with yellow goo (why, oh why, she moaned, couldn't it have been purple!) in her very red eye. As some of you know, Susan started the trip with conjunctivitis, so she instantly recognized it. Ah, a wonderful opportunity to investigate the British socialized medical care, so much maligned by Fox news commentators. We found the centrally located facility with ease. Alana was seen straightaway by a doctor, given an RX, and we were directed to a chemist, where we had it filled, all within 75 minutes time.

The food has generally been very good. We've discovered a great Orkney stout, Belhaven. And, of course, Alana has hooked me on single malt whiskey, with a wee dram in the evening as a nightcap.

We are, at this very moment, sitting in the lounge area of the catamaran ferry that will take us back to the mainland from Orkney. On landing, we will be headed off to Skye and the Western Isles.

Technology wise, we are getting better and better. The Samsung Galaxy Note, loaded with CoPilot GPS, has been invaluable with locating the neolithic sites, B&Bs, just about everything. However, we realized that we were getting too dependent on it and needed to look at the map to actually learn the routes. Leaning on Jeeves (or other names we have given to the GPS software, depending on our mood of the moment) is just plain laziness and unwise.

Susan finally learned to use the very basic pay-as-you-go phone we picked up in Edinburgh. It was so basic, it was like using early Windows 3.1, when you are accustomed to an iPhone.

We've acquired lots of reading matter—books, pamphlets—as well as a few trinkets. We may have to buy a new suitcase or box it all up & ship it home.

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