Adventures in Yorkshire

The train journey down to Edinburgh passed in an instant - I was so tired when I got on the train at 7am that I fell asleep for the whole journey. Having to hang around in the train station for my connection woke me up a little bit - it looked like everyone was travelling on New Year's Eve, and the crowds were insane. I managed to find a slightly empty corner and grabbed a little respite from the solid wall of people - I'm not properly claustrophobic, but I always felt a little panicky when caught in such big crowds. It was with relief that the platform for my connection finally flashed up and I managed to force my way through to the ticket barriers.

With another four hours to go before I reached the station nearest Dave's home, I'd prepared by downloading half of the first season of Nashville. My sister had been raving about it over the past week, and promised it was nice easy viewing for a train journey. I don't know about you, but I can never focus on anything serious on a train, there's far too many distractions for me to follow any form of complicated plot.

Alyssa had been right - the relationship dramas interspersed with fabulous country music helped the hours fly by, until before I knew it the conductor was announcing the next station as Dave's. My excitement grew as I spotted his familiar grinning face as the train pulled in.

"Daaaave!" I basically jumped on top of him a hug, with him collapsing between the combined weight of me and my full to bursting backpack.

"Jane! You made it!"

"I did indeed - it's been a very, very long journey, but I made it! Also, what's with everyone travelling on New Year's Eve? Are they crazy?"

He gave me a measured look. "Says the girl who just travelled half the country on New Year's...?"

I dismissed his look with a wave. "Pfft! Mine's different, I bet all the others didn't have best friends about to abandon them for half the year, I had special reasons!"

He held a hand to his heart dramatically. "You mean... I'm special?"

"Special reasons does not make you special." I mock shook my head at him. "I've told you enough times the real reason I'm here..."

He sighed as he led me to his car. "Yes, yes, I know! The dogs!"

"Exactly. The dogs!" I smiled happily as he started the car. "Ooh, this is weird. Driven by Dave. Should I phone my mum and warn her I might not make it back?"

"Haha, very funny. No, you'll survive, it's all the other drivers you need to watch out for round here..."

"Typical man driver, blaming all the others!" I giggled as he glared over at me.

"Um, who exactly is putting you up for the next two days? Keep this up and it won't be me..."

"Aww, you know you love it really! But fine. You're the exception to the typical man driver rule. Happy?"

"Much!" He grinned smugly back as I tried and failed to contain my smile.

Less than ten minutes later, we turned off onto a winding country track. As we came around a copse of trees, Dave's house slowly turned into view - it was stunning. A huge sprawling country house, with at least three levels, and a huge garden around the back. I'd known that his family was fairly well off, but this was amazing!

I tried to hide my awe as I got out of the car, not wanting Dave to see. Luckily as soon as we went into the house I felt more at home - the building was amazing but obviously quite old, and the inside was your typical country house scene: wellies strewn everywhere, big winter coats hung up, and a large flagstoned kitchen with a glowing Aga. I heard the skittering of paws on the floor before a wave of yapping erupted and two beautiful collies flew round the corner and slid to a halt, staring at me in suspicion.

I knelt down on the floor and held my hand out to them, letting them come to me. As soon as they'd sniffed my hand and realised that Dave didn't seem threatened by me in any way, they jumped all over me. I grinned in pure happiness as I repeatedly told them how beautiful they were, being licked all over.

"Such a pushover!" sighed Dave as he picked up my abandoned suitcase and started climbing the stairs to my room. "Believe me, you'll have plenty of time to stroke them later, come on!"

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I was sitting on the floor giggling away as eager tongues explored my face when Dave's mother walked in. Jumping to my feet, I introduced myself before getting stuck between whether I should go in for the handshake or a hug. Settling on an awkward little wave, she made my mind up for me as I was enfolded in a giant hug.

"Oh, Jane, it's so good to finally meet you! We've heard so much about you, it's wonderful that you could make it down for New Year."

I blushed a little. "It's really no problem at all, there was no way I was letting him go halfway across the world without a proper goodbye!"

"You're such a sweetheart. Now, has he been a good host? Has he offered you a drink, or a snack before dinner?"

Dave snorted. "Food? All Jane wanted was the dogs!" His mother gave him a look as he protested further, before with an exasperated air I was provided with a glass. We settled quickly into easy conversation about the holidays, before a bump at my knee made me look down and burst out laughing. The younger collie was sitting there with an expectant look on his face, with his lead in his mouth, and as I stared down at him he deliberately bumped my leg again.

"Think that's your cue, Dave! Take Jane out around the lake, give them a proper run and tire them out." His mother shooed us out of the kitchen, with the dogs excitedly prancing around us as they realised that walkies were actually happening.

Dave drove us out a short distance to a little car park next to a fairly large lake with a number of sailboats moored up at the edge. He noticed my gaze and nodded towards them. "We own one of those, actually."

"You own a boat as well? How much posher can you get?" I teased him. "Seriously though, I didn't know you could sail!"

"Ha, well there's a reason for that - I definitely can't! It was something my older brothers always did with my dad, he could never get me out on the water as a kid."

We wandered along the rough path, laughing as the elder collie repeatedly tried to pick up stones from the path before dropping them in favour of 'better' ones. It reminded me of my collie, Isla - collies always seemed to pick up odd compulsive habits for no apparent reason. In Isla's case, it manifested when we moved her kennel from behind my parent's bedroom to the bottom of the garden. We'd had this wendy house on stilts, with a large space underneath that a kid could easily stand upright in. As we were now all grown, the wendy house was rarely used, and so dad converted the area underneath into a kennel with a little flagstoned area, and contained with a fabric net so that she could still see outside into the garden.

Dad was so proud when we put her to bed that night - which only turned into consternation when we got up the next morning to find her lying outside the back door. A quick investigation found the method - a chewed hole in the net. Hence replacement of the fabric net with wire netting. However, same thing the next night - albeit with a slightly more painful grin from Isla. Next step - getting thick wire netting with very small holes so that she couldn't bite into it - for her safety as much as keeping her in the kennel overnight.

For the next few nights everything seemed fine. Every morning we'd go down to the kennel and she'd be sitting inside, waiting to be let out. Bring on the weekend - and suddenly she was back to greeting us at the door. However - this time there was absolutely no indicator of how she'd escaped. Netting in place, door tightly shut - we'd somehow become the owners of the genuine canine Houdini. The battle continued for a few months further between dad and Isla, with the kennel being constantly upgraded and Isla mysteriously beating all improvements, until mum caved and started letting her sleep in the nice warm conservatory every night. And who says humans are the clever ones?

Dave's collie finally decided on a stone he liked, and with a happy toss of the head ran into the lake to chase the younger. Dave laughed, and started telling me about how when he was a puppy, they had to repeatedly take him to the vet's to remove all the stones in his stomach. We continued sharing stories until we suddenly hit upon the topic of holidays.

"Oh, that reminds me! You know I said I'd come visit you?"

He scrunched up his face. "Oh god, yeah, how could I forget about that horrible threat?"

"Yeah yeah, you know you'll miss me. Anyway, I was thinking, instead of me coming to Philadelphia... how about we make it a holiday for both of us? You'll be in Philadelphia for half of the year anyway, and there's so many amazing places in America to visit, so we might as well make the most of it!"

"Yes! That's such a good idea! We could go to Chicago, or Boston..."

"Or, I was thinking, maybe even somewhere like Hawaii!"

He stopped and gave me a look. "Uh... how far away do you think Hawaii is from Philadelphia?"

I returned the funny look. "Surely not that far. You'd just have to nip across the country and then it must be quite close to the coast, right? And internal flights are so cheap in America!"

He shook his head at me in disbelief. "I can't... Yeah, I'm not explaining that one, I'll let you look up the costs and how long it takes and then come back to me on that one... Maybe a better idea is going south along the east coast, there's always Miami and New Orleans, all that area..."

"Oh!" I exclaimed, a thought coming to me. Dave mock covered his eyes, already despairing of whatever suggestion I had.

"Oh shh, this is actually a good suggestion! Philadelphia is quite north, right?"

Dave cautiously nodded.

"Well, how about heading up to Canada? Isn't Toronto quite near the border?"

His face lit up. "Wait, that is a good idea! And then we can go see Niagara Falls as well, that was on my list of things to go see whilst I'm out there!"

I started getting excited too. "Yes! And I've always wanted to go to Canada, I'm even thinking of looking for oil and gas jobs out there maybe, so it would be amazing! Plus don't they have that really tall tower you can eat in? We should have a super duper fancy meal up there and pretend to be really posh - except it won't actually be pretending for you..."

"You, stop it!" He pushed me off the path and into the muddy bog, laughing as I gasped at the cold slime creeping into my trainers.

"Oh, you did not just do that!" I chased after him down the path, determined to get revenge one way or another.