Booking an isolated, quiet retreat...with WiFi!

Sausages aside I am really looking forward to the trip to the Shetlands, I started the book last night and to be honest I am finding this style of writing so much harder than anything I have attempted so far. For fiction writing a good imagination is the basis and origin for all good stories, for non-fiction in general and travel writing in particular I am finding the recounting of thoughts, feelings and emotions in reaction to the whole concept quite difficult. I guess it can form some a therapy of some fashion as I chase the banger, (sounded better than sausage) and encounter those at the selected destinations.

I chose the Shetlands as a starting pint for the trail as I believe that for the British the humble sausage is very special, the quotes from celebrities on the LovePork website are testament to this. The Shetland Islands have always, for me, embodied the bleakest beauty and majesty that the British Isles have to offer. Occupying, as they do, the Northernmost extremities of our country I decided that if I can find a strong sausage tradition there then, somehow, the rest of my odyssey would be fine. It struck me today that my selection of accommodation was performed with a certain degree of hypocrisy. I searched for an isolated, quiet, working croft away from the relative bustle of Lerwick. The place I found was in the West of the mainland and seems very quiet indeed. But, and this is daft, I did insist that wherever I stay must have Wifi and broadband, what a complete nob!! At least I can keep in touch with Emma and the kids though, gotta love Skype.