Ye’ll take the high road…

…and I’ll take the low road…

I don’t unfortunately have loads of time to write about everywhere we went, except to say that Adin and I certainly took both high and low roads! We returned to Edinburgh on Monday night having driven pretty close to solidly for 3 days. We covered an immense distance, and saw a really fantastic sampling of forest, highland moor, coastline, rocky crags, beaches, islands, snow, lochs… but alas, no monsters.

Anycase, I’m now with Anton and Tandy in Ealing, London. Had a fine flight and lurked with guitar-in-hand yesterday afternoon. I’m meeting Cath Draper later this morning and we’ll be exploring London in a we’re-tourists-way. More later…

Freeeeeeeeeedddoooooommm

Perhaps that’s not obviously a Braveheart quote, but that was the plan. Certainly nothing to do with not being at home! Promise! Well, Scotland – the portion of it that I’ve now seen – really is beautiful. After very nearly missing my plane, which really is quite a sinking feeling, I flew into Edinburgh yesterday afternoon. After a bus-trip into town, I hooked up with Adin and made our way through to his (very nice) flat. Obviously so much has happened and we’ve seen many things that it’s nuts to try and list them, but we were fortunate enough to watch a Bagpipe retreat at the Queens Palace yesterday evening – just happened to be in the right place at the right time. We’d already climbed Arthur’s Seat – a small mountain in the middle of Edinburgh in some bitterly cold weather and seen a fair amount of the touristy buildings. A couple of his friends came over for supper and we had a great evening.

We’ve managed to find accomodation for tomorrow night as we head up towards Ullapool – being a bank holiday on Monday means that everything is fully booked, so we came close to ‘sleeping in the car’. Shew.

Anycase, this isn’t exactly a very detailed record the last few days, but time is of the essence – as usual.

Later: This is now, later. We went out again after the last post, and visited the botanical gardens – they were very impressive. We walked to get supper, walked to pick up friends, and eventually walked to the Queen’s Hall for an evening performance of A9 – a current hot-band playing a mix of jazzed up fiddle music with a modern spin – really good. A deep-fried Mars bar was meant to be the finale of a very busy day, but then we ended up having coffee with Adin’s girlfriend, and walking back in the ice cold wind at about 1am. It’s now 2:30am, and we’ve packed for our early morning departure – picking the car up at 9. I’m hoping to skype the family before going because I’m certainly not likely to get a good chance up North, and we’ll only be back Monday evening. Consequently, this might be the start of some blog-silence again. We’ll see. Either way, I fly to Heathrow Tuesday morning…

Have internet, will blog

I’m sitting at the International Visitors Lounge at IFSEC (security trade show in Birmingham), waiting to meet my boss. Everything has gone swimmingly (when in UK, talk like UK) so far, and the place I’m staying is modest, but very comfortable and in a lovely area – very country feel (incl smells of 10000 birds resident at the pond up the road). Apart from my luggage having been pretty damp when I opened it (no doubt thanks to the rain on Saturday night), nothing was broken, and I didn’t have to drink the wine which I was worried would make the case overweight. Relief!

Will try and put pictures up sometime, but presumably this will be easier once I meet Adin in Edinburgh on Thursday. Missing the family obviously, but this is all quite exciting, and sure beats a work-week!

Arrived!

More when I can!

Over and out…

Leaving for UK in two hours, feeling extremely blurry, but excited nonetheless. Will try and keep this updated as far as possible. Other really good news is that Jamie was at the cardiologist yesterday and is in extremely good shape – really excellent as far as he’s concerned. That is wonderful news to hear, believe me.

Cheers

Broad-shoulder

After weeks of mirth watching Stevie-Boy during work hours, I can now have the laughter after-hours. Yes. I now have a teeny-weeny little slice of the internet trickling into my computer at home, but it’s a bigger trickle than it was. Hoorah for progress.

The next big thing…

Yes. I’m almost onto it. My overseas workholidaytrip! After fighting for several weeks with what could only be described as the most vile and tasteless piece of electronic malfunction-y sh*#e ever, I think I’ve finally cured my PC. A new graphics card seems to have eliminated the relentless crashing, corruption and consequent cussing, and I may actually be able to return to my normal life.

So now it’s all about the little loose ends before I fly next Saturday (19th). I’ll be in UK for two weeks, attending a tradeshow, visiting my brother in Edinburgh, exploring the highlands for a weekend, visiting some friends in London, some more in Reading and hopefully will include a trip to Duxford Airforce Museum and the Windsor Legoland. As can be imagined, the loose ends accumulate, and need to be… snipped. I’m also travelling solo: the dread of leaving the famdamily is gradually creeping in…

In the meantime, and as a semi-cure for the impending distance, I’ve finally relented and we’ve ordered the lowest-of-the-low broadband. In any first world country this would probably be referred to as ‘a trickle’, but babysteps right?

Speaking of which, it would appear that Jamie has decided it’s time for some. Babysteps that is! He’s been absolutely sure he needs to hold onto something or someone before standing. Perfectly explaining why he stood for over a minute watering the plants for me the other evening, or why he can push a rake along the brickwork, stopping to make sure all the leaves get swept. Whether his ‘support’ has none, doesn’t seem to bother him.

Anyway, last night was a little different: he managed a few wobbly, but successful multi-step lunges between Mom and Dad. Eyes glinting and smile beaming, I think he knows he’s onto something, and I certainly don’t expect this will take him long…

(Oh, and if you’re wondering why I haven’t mentioned his recovery, it’s because we keep forgetting he was ever operated on. Absolutely incredible recovery, Praise God!)