Three Librans and an Aries

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The past week has gone by so quickly, and has been full and exciting! Of course, it hasn’t been without its dramas…as one would expect when you are across the other side of the world…but as my granny used to say “what doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger”, so cheers to that!

The Edinburgh Fringe Festival was fantastic and the city was absolutely ‘heaving’! We visited the Edinburgh Castle and had a fast, record breaking tour by a Scottish lassie who let us know that it was her last tour of the day and she couldn’t wait to finish work, walked the Royal Mile, and saw a few shows, including The Lady Boys of Bangkok, who presented a myriad of songs and dances from around the world as they ‘landed’ their ‘mile high club’ virtual plane in various countries. While some of the ‘boys’ still resembled boys, there were a few who left nothing to the imagination and were now well and truly ‘girls’. Mind you, it’s a wonder we got to do anything at all, as the four of us are hopeless at making decisions!! One particular day walking the Royal Mile and deciding what to do, we decided that we might be able to put on a show of our own at the Fringe Festival - titled ‘Three Librans and an Aries’, where we do a stand up type gig, not unlike Albert and Costello (what do you want to do? I don’t know, what do you want to do? I don’t care, what do you want to do? And so on…) The fact that 3 of us are under the star sign of ‘indecision’ is no coincidence I am certain, and fully supports the Zodiac’s interpretation of people’s natures!!

We spent a lovely day in Leith, recovering from our last few days, and even went to the movies (amazingly, we all agreed on the same one!). I know, it seems a bit strange to go to the movies when there are so many other things to do but we really needed some ‘down time’, and a bit of comic relief was certainly in order after our brand new super duper camera fell onto the road as we were crossing it (running frantically to avoid being hit by fast approaching vehicles) and got run over (by the said fast approaching vehicle) and smashed! The good news is that is still works! The bad news is that the LCD screen on the back is smashed and you can’t see what you are taking photos of!!! So if you aim right you might just be lucky enough to get a photo of something in the vicinity of what you were wanting to take a photo of, and can find out when you upload the memory card to the laptop if you in fact did get what you thought you were aiming at!!!

It was then off on our road trip, after picking up our trusty VW Colt hire car from the Edinburgh Airport. We drove up to St Andrews via Anstruther, where we enjoyed our first meal of fish and chips at ‘The Wee Chippy’. The boys went on a tour of St Andrews (which they were stoked about) while Jen and I walked the town and visited the Castle - with me providing a ‘history’ lesson to Jen, which ended just short of Adam and Eve!! (Oh, actually, I think they did come into it at one point, along with Darwin’s Theory of Evolution and the Big Bang Theory!!) It was amazing to walk through the ruins of yet another castle with such an extensive history…it somewhat connecting me and making me feel more grounded. After St Andrews it was on to Dundee to explore some of the places where we lived when I was little (before emigrating to Australia). One address I had no longer existed and the building appeared to have been pulled down but we managed to find the other and get a photo (well, I think it was of the house anyway…lol). We arrived late in the day at Blair Athol and thought it would be lovely to stay there but in line with our luck (e.g. driving around for an hour at midnight in Edinburgh trying to find accommodation because everything was booked out with the festival being on), it just happened to be the ‘Horse Trials’ weekend in this sleepy little town, and everything had been booked up 12 months in advance!! Of course we would have picked there out of everywhere along the way! So it was back to Pitlochry we went to a great Youth Hostel (I know, I’m not that young, but hey…!) and managed to get beds for the night. And, we managed to get all our washing done for a pound, with breakfast costing a whole one pound 90, so who could complain (it was a beautiful town too).

Off to Loch Ness the following day, via the Battlefields of Culloden, where we walked in the rain soaked fields, where so many men had met their deaths at the Battle of Culloden so many years ago. It felt very much the graveyard that it is, as we tentatively walked up to the red flags that marked England’s front line, and crossed through where the Scots had broken the English line and met their gruesome early deaths. Arriving at Loch Ness was a beautiful contrast with the majesty of the loch capturing our attention and hearts. Another castle was in order, of course, (Urquhart) and we were able to walk right down to the loch and put our hands in it. Unfortunately, there was no swimming allowed, which I thought was pretty rough really, as I am sure I could have created quite a stir wading through the water…and put to rest all of those untrue rumours that ‘Nessy’ doesn’t exist!!! (the evening news would have been full of ‘sightings’ that day I am sure!).

Destination Isle of Skye was on the Agenda for the next day, and the weather did not let us down (in that it rained again, as expected!) It was however so beautiful, driving through all of those huge mountains, with the mist covering the tops of some, yet only floating across others, so large and majestic were they that they rose above the mist line. So green, so beautiful, and the air was fresh and clean. Water cascaded down the mountains in ravines created from many years of flowing water. On arriving at Portree, we were once again greeted with an unexpected piece of information…it was a ‘Bank Holiday’ weekend so all the accommodation was booked out!! A very helpful tourist information girl helped us out though, and for a small booking fee of 4 pounds, she managed to find us a B&B about 7 miles out of Portree in Kensaleyre. It overlooked the loch and was in a fabulous location, so once again we landed lucky, which was just as well as things were starting to get a little tense in the car, with a new Fringe Festival show developing - “Two Men, Two women with PMS, and One very small car”!!

Loch Lomond was enormous and beautiful and we spent a night in a Hotel along the Loch before heading to Haydon Bridge, and Hadrian’s Wall. After a short walk up to the impressive wall, we were able to see how it wound along the natural slope of the hills, for miles. I can only imagine how much work was involved in building such a wall and fortresses. We were welcomed in Haydon Bridge by our very generous host, Tom, and within an hour or so, his wonderful family had all arrived to meet us. We ended up going to Tom’s local Pub for a pint or two before heading to his daughter Lysette’s place for a great night of fun, food and family. The whole family were so welcoming and it was with grateful, yet sad hearts that we left the following day for our drive to Manchester.

Arriving in Manchester brought with it a sense of excitement, discovery, and reflection as I returned to the place of my birth. After a good sleep last night we set off this morning to discover where I was born, where we lived, and where mum and dad had been married. Thanks to the ‘Tom Tom’ (so kindly leant to us by Annette and Ron) we had no trouble finding the house where I was born, and I was not at all prepared for the emotions that were evoked within me upon arriving there, seeing the house, and imagining us and lives we lived there 45 years ago. A couple of drinks at the local Pub were in order, and once again I thought of Dad, and whether he had sat here having a pint or a whiskey all those years ago (it was built in 1937 so it is quite possible as it was within walking distance from our house…always a bonus!). As we walked through the doors of the Pub, Wet Wet Wet were on the radio singing, ‘Love is All Around Me’ (one of mum’s favourite songs) and I felt very much that they were here with me. Finding the church they were married in proved more difficult than the house (and no, that wasn’t because of the drinks!) but we were helped by some wonderful people at the local health clinic who gave great directions, and even printed us off a google map (for some reason Tom Tom didn’t pick up this church). As it turned out, it was not far away from the Pub either, and we had in fact driven right past it while on our way to ‘look for it’!!! A bit of a nostalgic and somewhat melancholic moment ensued once again and I had a real sense of wanting to go home to tell mum and dad all about it!

The day was not all full of nostalgia and melancholy however, and Andrew’s excitement was boiling over by the time we arrived at Old Trafford football park for our tour of Manchester United’s football stadium! I have to say that Andrew was not the only one who got caught up in it all and we all thoroughly enjoyed sitting in the stands, going into the Player’s Lounge, their change rooms and seeing their shirts all hanging there (replicas of course for the tour), and finally walking down the tunnel that they run out onto the ground from. It was magic and made us all wish there was a game on that we could go to. The merchandise shop was huge and we all came away with a thing or two, plus a certificate to say that we had been! What a great day.

Tomorrow we are heading into the city to check that our before heading to Liverpool, then across to Ireland. I wonder what other exciting things will be in store…

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Photos

BBQ at Tom & Sian's
Yes, it IS raining!

Loch Ness
clearly not the real Nessy!

Comments

[LJ]

Wow
Wow! Another brilliant blog Diane. You write so well, I really wish I was there with you. You made me cry. Love you xxx

[LJ]

Hi
Brilliant Pics xxx