DAY OUT AT WINDSOR CASTLE

Spent day out at Windsor Castle (where the Queen lives), and around the gardens.
It was quite an impressive walk (approx 15 kms) .. and got killer blisters to prove it.

DAY TOUR

We decided to do a day tour on Monday to Loch Lomond (don’t ask me why all the drowned boats) , Stirling Castle, and into the Highlands. The air is fresh, and countryside quite spectacular.
We drove through Glasgow, which did not look that interesting, and if I was ever to return to Scotland again, it would be to rent a car for 3-4 days, and just meander though the windy roads.
The bus driver (we think his name if Fred … he introduced himself numerous times, but we didn’t get the name) was equivalent to a Scottish “Borat” … and he was definitely the highlight, and had us in stiches all day .. and this was the highlight of my whole Edinburgh trip… any tour that gives away bottles of Scotch early in the morning (to guys who are hung-over from the night before) has potential for good fun.
Fred’s classic lines were:

• I think I’m lost here … give me few minutes to work out how to use the GPS
• Scotland is 50% low-lands, 85% high-lands (what the??)
• My left, your right (that doesn’t make sense when we are all facing the same way in the bus)
• Im 53 years old …. I was born in … Shit .. Shit … what year was I born??

EDINBURGH

I didn’t like Edinburgh as much as I expected I would.
Visually it is quite spectacular, but there was just something, which I expected from European cities which wasn’t there. It seemed that by dusk, all restaurants started packing their out door chairs/tables away, and all action moved inside the pubs … which is usually the opposite in continental Europe, …(Maybe it was just me jet-lagged??)
Don’t get me wrong, with all the bars serving 100’s of varieties of Scotch, we kept busy.
Also, we got really lucky with the weather … the whole weekend was amazing, whilst in London it rained!!

GETTING TO EDINBURGH

After 10 weeks on-site (in OC), my longest continuous spell in USA, I returned to UK via Edinburgh. It was a long weekend, and we (myself, Damian and Mate) decided to journey into Scotland’s capital.
I decided to fly from LAX via Heathrow, and meet Damian after work on the flight LHR – EDI. (Mate flew in on Saturday)

Heathrow opened a new terminal at Heathrow, called T5, and I thought 3.5 hours was more than enough time to transfer from T3 to T5 … WRONG .. not when your flight from LAX is 2 hours delayed, and one has to clear immigration, customs, and transfer between terminals in one of the busiest airports in the world.
So I missed the flight … but luckily was able to get on as standby on the next one an hour later … keep in mind that it was a Friday night of a long weekend in London … so it could have been a lot worse…. well actually it was .. BA also lost my luggage, which was delivered to the hotel the following day ….. but that just added to the experience of getting there … never mind …. a glass or two (or six) of Scotch sorted that out that night .

BTW – T5 is quite an impressive terminal … and up there with some of the most impressive I have been through.

SCOOTER

Ok .. so its been a busy few months, particularly work.
One exciting event in the household is the addition of another room-mate … Michelle decided that Bodie needed a playmate, and bought another hairless sphinx … called Scooter.
So one day we drove to Palm Springs, and picked him up.
Scooter is very playful, and quite cute to watch .. and after few days (where Bodie was really pissed at disruption to her life), the two of them get along together