A Trip Down the Garden Path

. this must have been soothing to his ego, as he didn't skip a beat once on the whole trip.

Edy's about 14 years old, but he's still got a lot of zip.  When we were zooming along the highway, I cheered him on with the song: "Go Edy go go go,  Edy be good".

Our route (marked in red).

Well, here's a little run down of the rest of our trip around Scotland as promised. After a night's stay in the nicest bed and breakfast in Inverness (it had a little lounge room and big TV in our room and a library of books and DVDs, along with the use of a laptop to borrow if needed), we headed on to the famous battle site of Culloden.  It was here that many of the Scottish clans united under the leadership of Bonnie Prince Charlie, whose family had been ousted from the throne of Scotland in years previous to have it taken by English. The Culloden Centre is a museum of information, film re-enactments, audio displays and authentic pieces from the battle (bullets, weapons, clothing, even buttons that had been found in the soil of the battle field many years afterwards). A truly thorough account of the period in Scottish history from start to end.  It tells both sides of the story, that of the Jacobites (the clans and Prince Charles, grandson of previous ruler James IV), and the British, who had instigated a take over of the throne for fears of Jame's style of absolute ruling being too pro-Catholic.  When you think about it (and this comes from all my watching of The Tudors, Elizabeth and Elizabeth: Golden Age), religion has caused so much conflict over the duration of history, and England in particular had gone through so many religious reformations: "We're Catholics...Now we have our own church - The Church of England...Now we're all Catholics again....Church of England..." I think I would have been scared to believe in anything back then.  Anyway, Bonnie Prince Charlie enlisted the support of the Highland Clans and staged a take over of the country, and he was successful in some areas for a time.  But as resources waned, and help from France did not arrive, his men faced the British (led by his Cousin or a relative along those lines - can you believe it?) over the field at Culloden, and basically it was a bloodbath that lasted less than an hour.  The British triumphed and the clansmen were either killed or fled.  Following this, the wearing of tartan was forbidden and those who fought for or supported the rebels were hunted down.

It was really a moving experience to stand there and imagine the two forces facing each other across the battlefield, that probably doesn't look to different today than it did at the time 350 years ago: knee-length grass bent over in the breeze, gnarled and stunted trees sparse across the vastness, the natural hollows and rises in the land and the wind whistling across the barren field. It was a really powerful experience, you could almost picture the battle unfolding before you and hear the cries of the men carried on the wind on this now  lonely and empty field. It certainly commands a degree of reverence and respect. Have a look below:




Clansmen of the same name who died in the battle were buried together.

This location was certainly worth the visit, such an important place in Scottish history.

From here we headed through Aberdeen, stopping to taste some delicious shortbread and viewing the factory along the way. Glen even stopped in at The Glen Moray Whisky Distillery, and bought a little bottle (we'll probably end up using it in our cooking). He had a chuckle to himself when the man in line in front of him enthusiastically requested to purchase the souvenir wallet and cap. Clearly he was an avid fan of the whisky and we hadn't even heard of it.

From here, on to Edinburgh. We visited the Edinburgh Castle, which again, told us much about the historical significance of the many people who lived there.  We got to see the Scottish crown jewels (called The Honours of Scotland and locked away for years in a chest (I guess since royalty no longer resided in Scotland), forgotten about, and only to be found again in the last century then put on display for the public to see) and we also saw The Stone of Destiny, still used in the coronation of kings and queens to this day. We stood in the tiny room where Mary Queen of Scots gave birth to her son and we looked down on to the small animal graveyard, where military mascots and animals are still buried to this day. So much to do and see!



Front of Edinburgh, where they hold the Tattoo every year.







View of Edinburgh city.

 


View of Edinburgh city.

 

Stained glass commemorating William Wallace

 

This is a door from one of the jail cells that has names and pictures carved into it by the prisoners - I was fascinated  by it.



I met and fell in love the beautiful products of the brand Ness, sold in all sorts of places over the country. Beautiful bags, scarves, clothes and accessories in a modern, bright and cheery woollen tartan (as you can see in the picture  below). I couldn't resist getting a vibrant little purse and a bright woollen vest.  Maybe I will model it on here in an upcoming post - ha ha)

Pretty, pretty!

Hi all,
Well we found ourselves with a week's break; half term holidays they call it in the schools over here, so we packed up the car and headed up to Scotland.  Peak time for tourism in Scotland is June through to September it seems, so we thought we'd be sneaky and do it a little cheaper in off-peak time (didn't count on accommodation being closed did we...that story later).

Well we've headed up for 8 or 9 days, with the original intention to do some camping and save a little on accommodation as we travelled around the coast of Scotland. Ha ha ha ha ha, we soon came to realise that camping would not be an option when we first drove into Scotland to scenery like this:



While this is the closest we've been so far to such a great deal of snow, it is pretty chilly all the same, so camping is off the agenda.  We bought this little pop-up tent too, it'll have to do us when we head over to Europe.

We decided to bypass Glasgow on the way in. Not sure if we'll regret that later, but I figured one city is sometimes the same as the next. Though we will head into Edinburgh at the end of our trip.  Our first stop was Stirling Castle. Famous for the patriotic William Wallace (Braveheart fame) and his stand against the invading English.  The battle happened at Stirling Bridge, with the intention to win back the castle to Scottish ownership.  As you can see in the pictures below, it's how you would imagine a castle to look, stonework, turrets, archers windows, an arched entry (but no porticullis), cobbled courtyards, and cannons on the battlements; really a beautiful piece of history. 





Stirling was the home of the Scottish Kings and Queens (including the famous Mary Queen of Scots) for many years. Unfortunately the castle is not entirely authentic, having been rebuilt to match the original after many battles throughout history resulted in the last inhabitants destroying the castle so that it could no longer be under seige from enemies. All the same, it was pretty amazing to stand in the banquet hall and stare up at the timber beams criss crossing the ceiling and to think that kings and queens dined in here while musicians played on the higher deck you can see in the background.


From here we headed to the seaside town called Oban, on the West Coast.  This is the gateway to a great number of islands in the region, which unfortunately we did not have the time to visit.  We took a chance at a backpackers for that night, and it was.....interesting.  We got a private room with a double bed, the tiniest double bed you can imagine. Other than that the room was fine, apart from the other residents talking in the stairwell late at night (paper thin walls obviously), and one drunk loner stumbling along the road out of town (and passed our window) groaning and moaning (it sounded like he was dragging a broken leg or something, given the sounds coming out of his mouth - no broken leg though, just broken brain to alcohol).  So, with Glen and I sleeping with shoulders overlapped and fingers stuffed in our ears, we finally did get some sleep that night.

The next day we headed off again, not before it began to snow lightly. Little cotton-like fragments floating down from the sky, mingled with rain. Was a bit exciting to see! Further along the road there was a some older snow lying around and Glen couldn't resist a wee frollick to throw some snowballs.


Continuing along the way, we stopped at Fort William and marvelled at the size of Ben Nevis, the highest mountain peak in mainland Britain.


Apparently the average relatively fit person can walk it, five hours up and two back.  We weren't going to try it in the snow...

Look at these critters we saw along the way:


Deer lazing in a field.

We continued on to a town called Glenfiddan. This is another historically famous location, where The Bonny Prince Charlie took a stand to regain the Scottish throne from the English (I believe it's something along those lines. Honestly, there has been so much conflict, invasion and battle between the Scottish and the English over the course of history, it's a wonder they still get along).

TRIVIA: Glenfiddan is also home to this famous scene - can you guess what movie it's from? (Answer is after the photo, leave a comment if your guessed correctly please!)

HINT 1: look at my dodgy impression of the occupation of the characters in these films...
HINT 2: In the films the countryside is far more verdant, I guess they didn't shoot in winter then. hey?

Well, here are some photos of our place. It's a home not a house as I say, but I couldn't resist the title, given that I've had a nerve wracking few days going for a job interview, and then teaching a trial lesson and being observed by the Head of Curriculum - scary stuff! Anyway, the title relates to the play the school is currently doing called 'Our House'. When I was being given a tour of the school, the teacher said to me 'The school's just finished the production 'Our House', based on the songs sung bythe band Madness, you know them?' to which I replied 'No'. 'You don't know Madness??? *Sung* Our house, in the middle of the street...' Me: 'Oh yeah, now I know... (only that song maybe..)' When it comes to music, I'm pretty clueless. How many other people know Madness?

Anyway, I thought that title would be fitting, given that our place is almost in the middle of the street. So here it is....

Front view. It's the flat smack bang in the middle and I have the window open as its a nice sunny day.

Another front vista.

Entrance hall. You can see our door sort of, off to the left.

Lounge room. Look at the dirty smoker's couch, can you smell it from there? We thought it was a bargain over the phone at 35 pound, and when I first saw it I thought 'Yep, what a bargain'. Then I got a wiff....it's a year and a half old, but it smelt like it'd sat in some seedy smoker's lounge for a decade.  Anyway, after a proper steam clean by me, and a double washing of the cushion covers, the smell has faded lots.  Any adivce on how to get rid of the remaing smell? I think time will do it, if I remember rightly, my first car belonged to a smoker and was smelly initially, I know that faded over time...



Lounge room, there's a fair bit of space. Plenty of room to put a matress for visitors :)



Fire place has been boarded up, now it just seems like a pointless space. Not that we have a lot of furniture we have to make fit anyway.

Pretty light.

Left side of kitchen.

Right side of kitchen. Notice my little cheapie sewing machine? Couldn't resist spending some of my birthday money on it.

Laundry room, look at the clothesline!

Smallish bathroom, but surprisingly not cramped.

Nice comfy bed.

View from our bedroom window. This is a fire escape we think. We don't have access to the courtyard below, that belongs to the flat under us. I did say to Glen I reckon we could put the clothesline out here of a sunny day though.

There you have it.  A little tour for you, hope you enjoyed!

On another note, I was a lttle taken back when I got into a section of my settings for the blog to see where 'traffic' or views were coming from. I found that there are people viewing it in America (more views than Australia!) and Malaysia.  Not sure what interest others would have in our little travels, and I'm not sure how I feel about that either.... I may look at putting a password or something like that on the page.  Will let you know by email or facebook if this is the case.

Miss home lots!

Stacey

What a worrying last few days it's been for North Queenslanders. While nowhere near as frightful as your experiences, I certainly spent the last few days very concerned about all my family and friends back home. We've never seen a cyclone so severe and destructive. I can't even imagine how harrowing that long night was. Thankfully, it seems, you've all come out of it safely, and I guess it's now time to rebuild homes, yards, cities and lives.  as you all know, I am *ahem* unemployed at the moment, so I've had a lot of time to think, and fret, about all the happenings back home. Here's just some thoughts...

I've seen some aerial pictures of Tully and Mission Beach on the internet; houses smashed like card board boxes with tiny dollhouse-like furniture scattered across the lawn. How sad for these people when the sun came up this morning to reveal all their things in ruins. But, things can be replaced, houses rebuilt and trees replanted. Life is what we really must be grateful for.

Experiences like this really make you think how insignificant we are in the scheme of things. Thinking in hindsight, it's easy to fall into that comfortable groove - we live in a blessed country with a good economy, and a usually strong government. We have the right to freedom of speech, to vote, drive a car, to buy our groceries from Coles or Woolies...we have the right to control  lots of things in life. Yet, we don't have any control over the might of Mother Nature. I found myself saying to Glen the other night 'Surely scientists have invented something to stop the cyclone, like some sort of powder you sprinkle over the top to dissolve it and make it go away?'. He chuckled, 'I don't think so Darl.'

In a world where technology is advancing so fast and cures are being found for terrible diseases, in a world where people fight for the good (and mostly win), where millions and millions of dollars are gathered and spent on amazing things and where people are so powerful and make huge decisions every day, you would think that's an indication how powerful we really are.  Yet in one foul swoop out of nowhere, something unknown and far more powerful can come along and render us so powerless....

I know it's so cliche, but it's just a reminder of how important it is to love yourself and those around you and to embrace each day as it comes, with the good and the bad. So, while I'm (still) jobless, I'm going to cook a nice dinner for the working boy. It's about time we had some veggies instead of salad. It's easy to slob around and watch TV, but it's nicer to make someone else's day and to look to builiding and enhancing all the great things we already have. Maybe we have less power than we think we do, but we can have more power over things than what we do now. 

Bye bye for now :)

P.S. Something may be on the job front, but only in the works at the moment. I will let you all know if it goes beyond that. 

P.P.S I got paid for the week of work I did last week! It was more than I thought it would be, which keeps me optimistic in the so-called sad economic times over here. It wasn't teaching work either, it was work as a teaching assistant (kind of like teacher aide combined with learning support teacher), which makes me even more financially optimistic for when teaching work comes along.

P.P.P.S. Photos of our new place (in all its emptiness) to be posted this weekend, I promise.

P.P.P.S. Ha, just wanted to put this one to see all those Ps in a row.