500 Miles Plus

Few weeks into my new job at Aberdeen, I decide to drive my car down (or rather up) to Aberdeen in Scotland. I'd tried unsuccessfully to commute by public transport or use taxi's but I have to say my work place in Aberdeen is unfortunately placed in a village in disguise, in disguise you say? Well it an industrial area with houses built nearby and 10mins drive from the airport, however it has terrible transport links and being a Londoner, I was not a happy camper. Hence I decided to take my car with me to commute within Aberdeen.

I headed out on my trusted 1 litre engine Yaris at about 10am in the morning, from my flat in east London, with a full tank of petrol, an extra keg just in case I run out miles from the nearest station, my sat nav and my iPod as companion. I'd promised to keep my siblings in London updated of my progress as I was driving alone (either that or they send out the national guard if 30mins go by without contact, they actually would do that; they'd just wait 30 more mins).

Listening to LBC 97.3 has I drove, I tried to take in some of the sites, so I could regale my readers about my journey. I drove past the sign for a town called Stilton (Yes, the Cheese).  I made my first stop 3 hours into my drive at the North Yorkshire/County Durham border. Had a moderately manageable sandwich and got a starbucks coffee on ice and stocked up on red bull, water and gum. I IM'ed my siblings to update, refuelled my car and headed back out.

After driving another hour or so, my radio stopped picking up LBC, I plugged in my iPod and sang along to the songs (with a wonderful voice, if I do say so myself) ok my singing voice is atrocious (don't judge me). I crossed the Scottish border at 15.01pm. By this point I’d made a 10mins stop and consumed my coffee and half of my red bull/water/ice mixture.

I got lost at this point because I took a wrong turn for the services, ended up in a town called Tranet, where fortunately I was able to find local services; I rested up for another 30mins, ate and continued on my journey. Back on the motorway, I passed a sign for a town called Dollar (wonder if they spend pounds there?). Had to drive past Edinburgh, Glasgow, Perth, Fife and such, because of the big cities in Scotland and Aberdeenshire is one of the furthest. At this point I had switched off my iPod and started having a conversation with myself (not that I hear voices in my head or anything). I reached Aberdeenshire at 19.10pm and Aberdeen city at 19.36 (drive like the wind, vroom).

Pulled up at my rented place at 20.18, to say I was worn out would be a crime against me. I’d driven a manual car for 10 hours (granted I was in 5th gear most of the time), although the sights where lovely I couldn't enjoy it as my options where watch the road or look at the sites, doing the drive alone was not ideal and I would definitely advice against it. However that is one experience I will not be forgetting soon.