Back Again

After a week of the entire family being sick with the flu, we're back to the land of the living and enjoying the May long weekend here in Scotland.

Paul was barely even sick and continued to eat the finest of "Scottish" cuisine (a chicken king kebab). Trust me, the smell didn't help my queasy stomach.

Today we started our day off at the antique fair. There was everything from jewelery to every kind of war memorabelia you can think of. Paul was intrigued by the antique muskets, knives and carriage lamps believe it or not. I got myself a couple of brooches, a compass and a hat. The compass and the hat were actually quite new but I really like them.

Here's the broaches I got. The one with the feathers and deer hair has mizpah stamped on the back, that means it's a collectors item.

After the antique fair we followed the sound of bagpipes over to the park in the rain.

We passed by a canon from Cromwell's citadel so I decided to model my new hat in front of it. I also enjoyed finally making use of my umbrella.....

Paul enjoyed making use of the umbrella as well.

As we approached the bagpipers we heard them playing Mairi's Wedding, but when we got closer they stopped and Paul thought they were done. I joked to Paul that they should start playing Highland Cathedral now..... and as soon as I said that they started!!!! (oh ya, who called it? I did! yes I did!) Okay so maybe it's a "you had to be there" moment but I thought it was funny. The pipe band turned out to be an all boys band from Troon, it was obvious that they were just learning but it was good.... and the tenor drummers weren't too bad either.

The court house in the background was a jail at one point in time. The kids like this area because there's a lot of statues around to look at.

While in the park we met a couple of very interesting characters....

Ta ta for now!

Dunure

Today was a gorgeous day, the sun was shining and it was very warm with little to no wind. So we decided to go to a popular little picnic spot a couple miles down the coast to a park in the small town of Dunure.



The kids, Paul, Stuart(Paul's brother) and I explored the ruins of the Dunure castle and the tidal pools. As you can see in the above picture there's a small sea anemone. We found all sorts of different creatures including hermit crabs, small fish, and even a rare sea slug. The kids had a bit of trouble getting around the rocks but they loved searching for sea shells and unique rocks.



We had the opportunity to go inside the castle ruins and explore a little. Records of the castle go back to the 13th century and belonged to the Kennedy family (not to be confused with the American Kennedy's). In it's days, the castle housed a few interesting famous scots. In 1429, James Campbell representing King James 1 of Scotland had a meeting there with John MacDonald representing the lord of the Isles...... inevitably, their little discussion got a little heated and John MacDonald was killed.... so after that, James Campbell was put to death to patch everything up and make everyone happy... but obviously that never went over well.
One of the Kennedy's ruling the castle during the reformation invited an administrator of a local abbey to the castle only to torture him on a spit over the fire until he gave up the estate to the Kennedys.
On the bright side, Mary Queen of Scots visited the castle for a few days in 1563.



So why did the castle get abandoned and why does it look like more than half the castle is missing? Well...... nobody knows why it was abandoned but we do know that useful materials were taken from the castle to help build other buildings, one of the plaques in the castle said that some of the sandstone blocks were taken and used on Cromwell's Citadel in Ayr (the citadel is in ruins as well! and it's really close to where we go to the pool for swimming).


"Beware of the Jaggy Nettles!!!"
They're everywhere and very unsuspecting if you don't know what you're watching out for. These plants sting you if you touch them, they're not poisonous, they just hurt and give you a welt!


This is the view from the highest part of the castle that we could get to, beauty eh?!

The Yorkie Bar

Many of you may be familiar with the British chocolate bar, The Yorkie Bar. I had seen them before but I don't think I actually tried it. When these chocolate bars were first made, they were marketed towards men. The chocolate is very chunky and the pieces are rather large, but that's not why I'm writing a post on my blog about it.
Maybe my picture will show what makes this chocolate bar so unique....



That's right! The package says "It's Not For Girls" and there's a big international symbol for no girls in the "O" of "Yorkie". So I picked up this yorkie bar in the shop and I got it for myself and I said to the boy over the counter, "Not for girls? Ha, watch me!" (it kind of went like that). Anyway, I made that boy over the counter actually crack a smile (he looked so miserable standing there behind the counter, it's a wonder his smiling muscles actually worked), he probably thought I was off my rocker... but that's not the point! I was breaking the rules, I was living dangerously, I was going to eat a yorkie bar even though the label told me that I wasn't allowed.


Here's a picture of me eating it... yes, eating it! ooooh I'm such a rule breaker.

Race For Life!!!!!!

Race for life is a 5km run/walk/jog race sponsored by Tesco. It's a race to raise money for cancer research and it's a women's only event. This year it took place in Irvine (about 20 mins drive outside of Ayr). I got talked into doing this race by Paul's Auntie. To be honest, it didn't take a lot of talking me into it because it sounded fun. We got a chance to dress up silly, make complete fools of ourselves, get a good workout on dirt paths through gorgeous Scottish countryside and pay tribute to those fighting cancer as well as those we've lost from cancer.
So today we dressed up in the brightest pink wigs, hula skirts, leg warmers and shirts to run in.



In the race package I got a back sign to write a name of someone I was running for, preferably someone who has had cancer. This was worn during the entire race and stuck onto a tribute wall afterwards. So, today I chose Margaret Kozari. Margaret was a good friend of my parents, I have fond memories of her at various parties, and I'm also friends with her daughter Chrissy. Sadly, about a week before Paul and I left for Scotland, Margaret passed away from cancer. Chrissy told me about how Margaret did the Relay for Life last year in Penticton while she had cancer and how her positive attitude and strength was inspiring.





I got to meet much more of Paul's family in this event, there was a huge group of us. It was fun with everybody because we got to go on the stage, introduce ourselves and announce how much money we raised as a whole.
When it came time to do our calesthetic warm-up, there was a call for two back up dancers on the stage to help show everyone what moves to do. I decided to put up my hand and was chosen to go up on the stage. the warm-up took about 15 minutes. I felt like I was Joan of Arc in Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure.... it was hilarious!




The running route was beautiful, there was always something interesting to look at along the way.





After the race we received a bag full of goodies, a bottle of water and a finishers metal.

Hiya!!!!!

Another day in Scotland! Now, anyone who knows my relationship between me and jaffa cakes would understand how excited I am right now. They're a biscuit but they call them a cake, they're filled with sweet orangy goodness, and they're only 1 gram of fat! I have them for breakfast everyday with tea as well as for a snack with tea.


So I got my hair done today by one of Paul's cousins, I spent a few hours in her beautiful hair salon and took some pictures!







It's so short!!!! yay! Okay so I might not look too enthusiastic in the picture but I really am happy about it. I just hope the hairstyle won't be too high maintenance.... probably not. Oh, and to all those I told that I would never ever ever get bangs (called fringe over here), I changed my mind and decided to go ahead and get it done, I kinda like it.

Now, for a historical little tidbit of today! I went to the Carnegie Library to get a library card but unfortunately their computer system was down so I'm to go in another day. The pretty cool thing about that is, we did some walking around and saw a really gorgeous stained glass window and an urn from the bronze age in a display case just sitting at the top of the stairs.





The Carnegie Library was built in 1893 using local red sandstone. In the window is a portrait of Andrew Carnegie, the man who funded the building of the library (my guess is that it's the portrait type looking window in the top middle)

Today's little walk through the town

This morning we went into town for the fun of it, it's only about 5 minutes walk away. The tall building in the picture to the right is the town hall, my daughter calls it the "big statue".
I still don't quite know my way around, but I got a map and a compass in case I'm without Paul (seriously that is how bad I am at directions!). I think I just got too accustomed to finding my way around by judging where I am in proportion to the mountains around me in Penticton.
So today when we went into the town we stopped by Paul's cousin's tattoo and piercing shop.... and before you think anything, no we are not planning on getting any tattoos or piercings. Her shop was really nice and big though and we got to meet a few of her interesting friends.
One highlight of going to her shop was the kirkyard just outside it. So after visiting her we walked out pretty much into the graveyard and I took loads of pictures of course.

Here's the archway.









The church is called the Auld Kirk of Ayr, it was the site of the Franciscan Monestary of Grey Friars founded 1472.
Paul and I both thought it was great walking through there. the kids were a bit scared due to tv shows and halloween, but when we explained to them that the place is really not scary and that it's really an interesting little historical site we were walking through they were fine.

Arrived in Scotland

Sorry all! due to technical difficulties (mainly me accidently deleting pictures) we haven't made any posts... so anyway, we're finally here. We woke up at 3:00am on May 5th and then it was a 5 hour trip from Penticton to Vancouver Airport. When we arrived in the airport we realised that our flight was delayed for 6 hours because of the dust cloud from that volcano in Iceland. We checked in our baggage, said a teary goodbye to my parents and then we were on our way through security. Going through security was fairly uneventful, we walked around the departure lounge not really knowing what to do. Then there was an announcement for our flight saying, whoever hadn't received food vouchers should pick them up at the desk. We got $40.00 worth of food vouchers, so we stopped by Tim Hortons for icecaps and timbits and pizza hut. After walking aimlessly around overpriced merchandise at the duty-free shops it was finally time for us to board the plane. Paul knew one of the guys working on the plane, so when it came time to buy bottles of juice for us and the kids, they were his treat...thanks Andrew! However, all the juice for the kids turned out to be a nightmare for Paul. About an hour and a half after take off the kids fell asleep, but when our son woke up he started crying and screaming so loud that one of the other moms on the plane asked if we'd like to give him some of the medication she had for her baby to deal with pain in the ears. Paul sat him on his lap and all of a sudden he stopped crying. Paul looked up at me in horror and I started laughing.... poor Paul got peed on and it soaked through his jeans. It's a good thing we had shorts for him in his carry on.
Not much went wrong after that, we arrived in Scotland at 12:00pm GMT. It only took 8hours to fly to Scotland, which was great.
One of the first things we did when we got here was go shopping at Tesco (the local grocery store). we also went to ASDA which is an affiliate of Wal-Mart and I bought a pineapple for only £1 :)


A couple days later I went shopping at primark and bought some pretty cool shirts for the kids at only £1 and £2 each. I bought myself 5 pairs of socks for £2 and a couple of shirts . One of my shirts that I bought from primark for £5 has this really neat little design with a red phone booth and old fashioned cars... I just couldn't put it down. I went to some other shops and bought a pair of jeans for £10 wahooo I haven't owned jeans in forever!


This is me wearing the new clothes, hehe!
So now I'll touch on a bit of today's fashions in Britain. Light washed out coloured jean jackets and vests with buttons styled to look like navy uniform buttons, worn with navy blue and white stripes and jeans or tights (depending on how long the shirt is.
Flowers are really in, roses on shirts, dresses, umbrella's (I got one btw, the first umbrella I've ever really owned) and even sunglasses as you'll see in my daughter's picture below.



We went for a walk down the river ayr yesterday and we saw a couple blue heron's, a red fox,


and a swan nest with eggs. The kids enjoyed the walk as well as Paul and I.

Going Away Parties

It all started on Thursday when I went to the museum for my last day of volunteering, the saying goodbye I mean. It was great! We finished the model we were working on and I was glad to finally see the end of it, didn't think that was going to happen. At tea time everyone went across the hall into the conference room type area. Jeane set up the table with tartan table cloths and china tea cups, she found a Scotland tea cup for me. We had a really lovely cake from the Blue Icing Bakery and I got a couple little going away gifts. It was my best tea time at the museum I've ever had, just perfect for my send off to Scotland.


On Friday my parents had a BBQ for us. We weren't sure how many people were going to show up but before long the living room, kitchen and back deck were filled with almost everybody we knew.

Paul, my Mom and I worked together to find the best way to cook the haggis we bought for the party, and it turned out perfect. For many of our guests it was their first time trying haggis and most of them thought it was not too bad.... in fact, by the end of the night all the haggis was gone! We also had burgers, potato salad and most of the normal BBQ type food.

Everyone got a piece of our cake.... even our little mascot.
Paul, the kids and I got to hang out and say goodbye to everyone who came to the party. We're pretty sure everyone had a good time, because we sure did!

On Sunday we all went to church and Pastor Curtis said a special farewell and godspeed to us during the service, we really appreciated that. Afterwards at coffee time there was another cake for us.... mmmmmmm with all the cake we've been having for the past week I'm glad we sold our bathroom scale in the garage sale...... it's okay though I'll just have to start running again when we get settled.