Laptop woes and holidays

Good morning! It's good to be back. You might not have noticed my absence, but I have been very aware of the lacking of blogging, networking and laptop in my life over the past week.

Such a long week...

Laptop woes

I had grand plans when I finished my blog tour of visiting all the people who'd commented on my blog and replying... But my laptop went away to be serviced. I waved it goodbye last Monday evening and waited. Then I vacuumed, and cleaned the bathroom, and washed the windows, and  gave the box of You. I. Us's a proper home.

Holidays

Then I went away for the weekend.... Yay! I went on a trip with my dad and sister to Bletchley Park, the Duxford Air Show and Milestones Museum in Basingstoke. I promised myself I'd take lots of photos, and then didn't. So, to illustrate my weekend away here I am, looking very scared, in front of the bar used in The Imitation Game, in a display at Bletchley... Ready?

Even though my New Year's Resolution was to take a selfie a day for the year, I'm obviously still very bad at taking them.

But this is one of the better photos I took, apart from this one, from the air show... Taking photos of planes is really hard. You should have seen the calamity of me trying to catch the F-22 fighter jet!

More laptop woes

We came home on Sunday evening, and I was still without my laptop. On Monday, I wandered the house, watched telly, read a book, wrote some notes for a new flash fiction, and went down into town to buy a mop.

Reader, there was no mop! I bought a duster instead.

My laptop didn't come home until late yesterday - Tuesday - evening. It was a harsh eight days (and I was away for four of them!)

But, I'm back!

And because I've done very little marketing in the past eight days, I'll just leave this here...

Find the book in all these places:

Amazon // Barnes & Noble // Book Depository // Kobo // iBooks // Nook

And add to your TBR list: Goodreads

Scotland... Or 'What I did on my Easter hols'

I'm home!! Before I share some of my photos, I would just like to thank my guest posters for keeping my blog company while I was away. I promise I will get around to reading all your comments, and replying, but right now I'm just trying to get the house in order, defrost the freezer, and get to know our new puppy, Artoo.

One of my first views of the Highlands, or at least, one of the first views where I actually had my camera ready!

Half way up a mountain, watching the clouds roll in and roll back out again. This photo doesn't even begin to do the view justice.

At the top of the mountain, looking across at another mountain (right). You can just about make out some buildings at the foot of the mountain - one of them is the cottage we stayed in.

I can prove it was the top of the moutain because below is the view directly behind me. We reached the saddle - we could have gone higher, but the wind and the rain were raging by this point.

We took a train ride from Kyle of Lochalsh across country to Dingwall, just a couple of stops short of Inverness. We got up at 4.45am to make sure we were at the station by 6.10am. All the photos before this one were rather dark!

On the last day, the weather was perfect (above and right) and the loch was completely still. These photos were taken about a mile's walk away from the cottage we stayed in.

Two photos of the mountain I climbed, taken from the front door.

Our neighbours - th
e sheep who got into our garden a couple of times with his mates, and a baby Highland Cow.

And finally, we had some amazing sunsets.

Been camping

Almost as soon as I wrote the last post about my goals, we packed up for a couple of days of camping. Wet camping... wet and dull, in my sleeping bag by 9pm because it was so wet and dull camping. Please tell me you've had camping trips like that! I really don't want to be the only one. Except, I know I wasn't - there was a field full of other weirdos who thought camping in England in August would be a great idea!

One of my goals, you might remember, is to avoid the internet two days a week. Having coming back from camping and only having my mobile to keep in touch (not very easily, because I find it awkward to comment and reply to emails), I've come back to loads of blog comments, loads of emails... At least I know that my two days should not be consecutive.

So, that explains why I haven't replied to any of your comments from the previous post. I'm off to do that now. But first I wanted to draw your attention to Misha Gericke's blog where she interviews me. In fact, we did a double interview with each other at the same time, which was great fun. I posted the interview I did with Misha a little while ago, but it's here if you want another look.

Are you nuts like me, and go camping even when every fibre of your body tells you you're daft?