T -2 days and counting

With only a couple of days left until we go on vacation, I find myself woefully under-prepared to take time off. Again.

This year, we have added complexity of course, because we are trying to prepare for anything. With my Bride increasingly gravid, our holiday destinations are limited to someplace within reach of a midwife and some hot water. So despite a summer that has been depressingly wet and un-warm to date, we've decided to spend a week in Scotland. Where they invented wet and un-warm. I know this is so, because I was raised Presbyterian.

Back in our California days, we used to take an annual trip with The Gang to our local KOA, which holds as much similarity to camping as Orville Reddenbacher does to cooking, but we usually got to drink a beer in front of a campfire before retiring to our genuine pre-fab simulated log cabin. And it was an excuse to get together and hang out, with an increasing gaggle of kids as first one couple then another pro-created.

On a trip back to California last year, my Bride and I suggested that we take advantage of our time here in the UK to host another get together. "You get here," we said, "and we'll find a place to gather. Enter the Landmark Trust, which allows you to rent a historic building for a day or a week. We picked the Gagunnock House, which is several hundred years old, and sleeps 16. Because, that's kind of like KOA. Except taller. With more kilts. And a butler's pantry.

I'm not sure yet if they have broadband, which could limit my 'Groove availability, but I'm supposed to be on holiday anyway, eh?