Paris - Maddies 21st

Paris. This holiday was planned last year for Kim’s cousin’s 21st , Maddie. The holiday or at least my participation in it was under serious jeopardy, due to the on-going saga of my Visa. Believe me, it was very touch and go as to whether I would receive my passport back in time. As it turns out it arrived, a couple of days to spare, phew! I took a ½ day off work (my first week!) for a 17:30 flight out of Edinburgh. We arrived in Paris CDG just after 20:30pm. We negotiated the train ticket machine and arrived in Paris around 10:00pm. Our metro stop was Boissoire. We met up with everyone (Nick, Maddie, Heidi, Alan, Jane, Roger, Jill and family friends of the Mobbs) We went out for a cheeky meet and greet over a beer. Everyone was impressed with my sample of artificial grass from my new job. The next morning we went for breakfast at a cafe, coffee, bread, croissants and omelette were on the menu and also the best freshly squeezed orange juice I have every tasted! Now we had time on our hands... Alan, Jane, Kim and myself walked up all 700 stairs to the second level of the Eiffel tower (unfortunately the top level was closed for maintenance). Some facts about the tower; built as a radio tower in 1896, contains 2,500,000 rivets, gets painted every 7 years by 25 painters, weighs 7000 tonnes, took 2 years, 2 months and 5 days to build. Has even had an elephant up to the first level! As expected we took a fair number of photos, the day was a bit misty unfortunately. Next Kim and I ventured off on our own in the city of romance. We visited Notre Dame, Kim lit a candle and we admired the amazing stained glass windows. By this stage our stomachs were starting to rumble so we headed down a back alley and tried to find a secluded restaurant. Our secluded restaurant that we found was linked to the main drag, whoops. I wolfed down a quiche Lorraine. After lunch we just wandered, past the ice rink, pompidou centre and various stores. Back on the tube we returned to the hotel to chill out and meet up with a rather sickly looking Kirsty. We flashed ourselves up a bit met the others and headed to the Moulin Rouge. The weather was a bit rubbish and we had to queue outside. We sat down at a table near the front of the stage, and then we were straight onto the champagne. We had a group photo and before we knew it our food had arrived. I really enjoyed my meal of Fois Gras, seared Salmon and Berries. Kim had chocolate for dessert even though she was on Lent! “Apparently it was God’s Will”! The show absolutely blew me away and far exceeded my expectations. A dazzling display of colour, costumes, dance, song and acts. There was a phenomenal juggler, a lady swimming in tank full of snakes, gymnasts showing amazing balance and strength and a clown who even pulled Maddie on to the stage as part of his act, there was side splitting laughter from our group. And how could I forget the fine display of breasts on show as well! Sunday we had to search for a restaurant open early morning as Paris is still asleep at this time! After breakfast we went for a walk down the Champ De Elysee, we popped into the car stores and I even bought some reasonably priced clothes from a French chain. Next adventure was a Segway tour of Paris. After having some trouble finding the place we were taken through a training session by Rick from New York. There were a few people in the group who were a bit apprehensive at first, but people seemed to pick it up quite quick. It was simply a matter of controlling your body weight to control the speed of the Segway. There was only one minor mishap when Kirsty narrowly missed a parked car. We Segwayed to many interesting sites including, The Military School (with bullet holes in the building from the war), the damaged peace wall, Musee De L’Armee, The Louvre, and the Eiffel Tower. We stopped for Lunch, near the Egyptian monument for hot dogs and crepes. It was very cold on the Segway’s so I think the group as a whole was glad to finish the tour around 5 pm. We picked up our bags, said our goodbyes to everyone and caught a ride to CDG airport with Alan, Jane and Kirsty. A fantastic weekend which felt more like a week in length than only two days!

Quinn's 30th/Wedding/Baby Shower

Took a quick fire trip with Kim down to Brighton for Quinn’s 30th / Wedding / Baby shower. We flew into Gatwick and caught a train down to Brighton, we had really good connections. Arrived late into Brighton and walked in the freezing cold, past the Friday night revellers to the Holiday Inn. Quinn picked us up the next morning and we all went out for breakfast. We were tasked with finding mini chocolate éclairs by Laura, which we successfully completed. Checked out Quinn’s apartment and helped him pack before driving to Little Hampton / Arundel. We firstly called into Laura’s parents house (the venue), to drop off some gear and meet and greet some of the family. Then we went 1 mile down the road to drop of our luggage at the comfort Inn before carrying on to Arundel. In Arundel there was an impressive castle, church and a bookshop named after Kim. I picked up a copy of Great Expectations there. We went for a wee stroll to a lake with lots of ducks before returning to the village pub (Red Lion) for a pint and some hot chips. The party started at 4pm so we headed back to change at the hotel and then taxi’d to the venue. A good party, I met up with some old friends, Paul, Jock and Manny. And after short speeches, and nibbles we drank and danced the night away! The following morning Kim and I went for a morning run, before returning to Arundel for a fry-up breakfast. Spent a relaxed day playing scrabble in the cafe and browsing some of the local stores before catching the 3:35pm train back to Gatwick. A nice little weekend jaunt.

Gavin's tour of Scotland

Gavman arrived Thursday night (Jan 12th). He didn’t have a cellphone, so we were guessing which train he would arrive on. Luckily Kim guessed the right train, however we did have a back-up plan to meet at Dundee Dan Statue at 11pm. How did we manage before cellphones?! Thursday night we had a couple of beers, ate my famous Fish Pie (less the eggs) Then we went on a drive up the Law and saw Dundee by night.

Friday was a glorious day! I had an appointment to get my ankle looked at and Gav bought some Undies, from Dundees finest underwear establishment. Then we rendezvoused and went over to St Andrews . Straight to the driving range we sent golf balls flying in all directions. Lunch at the Victoria Cafe, followed by a stroll through the town to the cathedral and castle ruins. Back to Dundee we packed and waited for Kim to get back from Uni. We left Dundee for Granton around 4:30pm with a small detour to pick up a mystery parcel from the post office. We had a nice sunset on the drive up near perth. We stopped at Tesco’s in Aviemore for supplies and in Granton for Fish and Chips. We arrived at Justin’s cottage, unpacked and got straight into the fish and chips. We followed this up with a first to three games challenge of Mexican Trains, which Kim won in a tight contest.

Saturday we awoke earlyish and hit the road. Another fine and frosty day was on the cards. First stop was Culloden battlefield where Jacobites fought the government in a bloody battle (17th April 1746). Between 1500 and 2000 men lost their lives, most of those being the Jacobites, who pretty much got slaughtered. Unfortunately the visitor centre was closed so we wandered the battlefield reading the plaques standing on frozen puddles and imaging the scene of the battle. Next plan of attack was to find the loch Ness monster for Gavin. So we had a drive by of Inverness before heading down to Loch Ness . We pulled over at a Lay by and read the information boards and took some photo’s before carrying on a little further to a cafe. Gavin was craving a coffee, Kim chocolate and myself sultana scones as we watched a video about the history of old Nessie! From the tourist shop we also bought some Scottish tablet and some postcards. Further down the lake we saw Urquhart Castle from the carpark, before heading to find a mystery waterfall, where we stopped for Lunch (cheese and ham rolls). After lunch we decided to head to Castle Stuart and Fort George. We stopped at Fort George, an active Military Base, which was built in response to the Jacobite uprising in nearby Culloden. It occupies a huge area, (42 acres) at the tip of a peninsula it controls access to the port of Inverness. However it was never really used as it was intended, cannons were never fired in anger and a good few soldiers whiled away the hours there. We carried on through Nairn to a historic distillery Dallas Dhu near Forres. We were the only car in the carpark and managed to rush through a tour, followed by a whisky taster. I bought a bottle of single malt whisky brewed in 1982, to imbibe on my 30th. Back to the cottage we had simple meal of baked potatoes and beans and a few beers to wash it down. We had a game of quiddler/ quidditch before heading into town, to take Gavin to a UK pub. We had a great night, there was lots of friendly banter with the locals and Gav and I teamed up on the pool table and managed to take down some of the them. We headed home around 11ish in the freezing fog.

Sunday, A bit of a sluggish start, I popped in to town for a few errands (fuel/gift/cash), while Gav and Kim sorted out the cottage. We left 10:30ish heading home. We stopped near Aviemore at a place called Loch an Eilean hoping to show Gavin some wildlife. A picturesque place, we had fun sliding rocks on the frozen parts of the loch, but alas, we saw no red squirrels or majestic eagles swooping fish out of the lake. The walk lasted about two hours even with a ‘small wrong turn’, whoops! By the end of the walk we were starving, so we headed to the closest cafe, for some Scottish tucker. We ended up at a crazy Chinese tacky restaurant, the food was ok, Gavman had a haggis burger. On the road again we drove through the Cairngorm national park and stopped for afternoon tea and a look at the waterfalls at Bruar. Next stop Dundee after a driveby through Pitlochery, the end of Gavman’s Scottish adventure.