Home Again, Home Again

Well then

I am back on my settee (the settee is my friend) with a nice glass of James Bond's favourite white wine. I shall have to retrain this settee as it has been looked after by Lynnies little bottom for too long and all the lumpy bits are now in the wrong places (the settee's lumpy bits that is)

It is also being written on the new laptop. I have not yet got any email working on the old laptop so please accept my apologies for the lack of responses to any emails sent to me - as I can only get them on the PDA at the moment. (What's that? A man with three coats and three computers! Good grief...)

I will have a go at trying to post the last few days photographs onto the blog, but if I fail I will ask the incredibly wonderful Mr Hee to do them for me! I have yet to explore this 'Vista' stuff and it is all very new to me and for the life of me I cannot remember how I used to post piccies that you can click on to enlarge on to the blog. Good grief - I feel like a techie virgin all over again.

I returned home with amazing speed (leaving John O'Groats at 8:50am and arriving home at the Abbots by 5:00pm). Since then it has been a whirlwind of two nights down the Axe & Compass and a flying visit to Bath to see Rach (our daughter) and the 'Taste' extravaganza for two days. I have had a haircut at the posh joint in Bath that I visited fifteen weeks ago - that was organised for me, so I am afraid it will be another month or so before I can revisit Domenic in Cambridge.

I am settling into 'normal' life: I am in front of the telly watching Bryan Ferry take Wembley apart but have a list of jobs to do that include unblocking a bathroom sink. That can wait until tomorrow!

I have been asked quite a lot how it feels to be home - Well:

I was worried over the last week of the walk about this, but I have taken to it like a duck to water. Lynnie is a clever girl and has had my programme mapped out so that there has been no time to get morose, no time really to think back to the seventeen incredible weeks, no time in fact, to get back to the blog!

The fund-raising for Sue Ryder has been going amazingly well - I have not thanked you enough for your amazing efforts on this blog. As I write this we have raised over £5,000 and I am overwhelmed by your wonderful response.

I should also thank all my support on the walk itself. I have had people walk with me, put me up for the night (some for quite a few nights!) drive me back and forth to where we left the walk, feed and water me quite handsomely, wash my incredibly stinky socks. I have had people call me to cheer me up - to check I was alright when they hadn't heard from me for slightly too long. I have been texted, emailed and throughout I have felt a wonderful groundswell of care and support. I seldom ever felt completely alone (apart perhaps when wandering about in the cloud on Cross Fell in the boulder field).

I know the walk was a solo affair, but the camaraderie of fellow walkers and supporters has been quite amazing.

I won't single out anyone person in particular to thank on the blog; this has been quite evident on the 'live' part of the blog, but I owe you all a huge debt of gratitude.