17 July, Saturday — Karyn’s Reply, St.
Andrews Open
Hi everyone. Karyn here, replying to Paul’s “love” of the
St Andrews Open. Well, I figured that
for a 6 pound return bus fare from the camping ground to St.
Andrews I really had nothing to lose and a day free of children
was also rather tempting. If I didn’t
want to watch golf I could always go shopping.
Upon arriving at St. Andrews I followed
everyone else and found myself at the entry to the Old Course. They were just announcing that the day’s golf
would begin at 10.00, so I decided it was meant to be and paid my 60 pound
entry fee for the day. I had a map of
the course and they were handing out last minute copies of the start sheet, so
I had a rough idea of who was playing with who and where I should go to get a
good view. I decided that the stand by
the 6th hole looked like a good spot so made my way to it in time to see a few
familiar faces, such as John Daly and Phil Mickelson, neither of whom were
having a particularly good time and so were at the beginning of the field. It was a typical Scottish day, with rain
threatening a few times and everyone pulled out their umbrellas but it never
lasted for more than 5 minutes. After
about an hour I decided to move on further down the course. I saw there was a large stand by the
linked 7 and 11 greens and after a half
hour wait finally got in there. It was a
great stand to be in and I ended up there for a couple of hours, watching a lot
of players come in, go out again and then come back again, including Tiger
Woods, who did not have a good time at the Open. It was fascinating really as the 7 and 11
fairways cross over each other so the players had to give way to each other. By about 5.00 it was getting a bit cold and
very windy so I decided to start making my way back, as I had to catch a bus
back in time for Paul to pick me up near the camp. Unfortunately that meant I had to leave
before the leaders came past, as they hadn’t teed off until 4.00ish. I was pretty exhausted by the time I got on
the bus, but thoroughly enjoyed my day at the ’Home of Golf’. I was particularly impressed with the lack of
commercialization of the event. Sure
there were plenty of souvenirs for sale and lots of food available but many
people had their packed lunches and flasks of coffee. And the prices for the food pleasantly
surprised me. Most of these events with
a captive audience will charge an exorbitant price just for a cup of coffee but
it was all very reasonable. So I was
glad I took the opportunity to go, but am glad it was just for one day. I certainly couldn’t have handled all 4
days!!
17 — 19 July, Saturday to Monday — Quiet Days (!)
Only a little paragraph,
because we didn’t do a lot. Saturday for
me was scrounging off the caravan camp office’s router (they gave me the
password!!) to tidy up my web pages and browse a wee bit. However, toward the end of the day, it became
difficult as Karyn and I worked round the logistics of picking her up from the Open. As I had the mobile, she used payphones. How did we manage before mobiles, with just
payphones???!!!
Sunday was packing up as
we left the caravan to go back to our digs in Torryburn, but we spent Monday at
Liz and Norman’s
picking peas. This was great for the
kids. Norman has a bountiful pea crop this year, so
Phoebe, Callum and Brodie are learning that peas don’t just come from the
freezer.
20 July, Tuesday — EDINBURGH
Day (and I mean a full
day!) to Edinburgh,
with Glyn and his family. This was a
great adventure for the wee ones. From
Dunfermline to Edinburgh,
we cross the famous Forth Rail Bridge,
and the kids were suitably awed. Even
without the bridge, the journey was an adventure for our train-mad wains.
Tempting though it was, we had to baulk at the museums, including Edinburgh Castle. We have kids that would have been bored in
the first 10 minutes, so these expensive museums would have been a waste of
money. However, the bus tour was exactly what we
needed for the kids. Callum and Phoebe
even tapped into the audio track on the bus.
They lapped it up!.
We lunched and spent the afternoon in Princes Street
gardens. The gardens, including Waverly
Station, were once the locale of Nor Loch,
which was drained to for the very purpose of creating a new Edinburgh, north of the castle
21 July, Wednesday—Toy Story 3
Went to see Toy Story 3 at
Dunfermline Odeon. Brodie was scared out
his wits! I was horrified. I thought at one point, “This is NOT a kids’
movie!!!” Phoebe and Callum, of course, loved it.
22 — 25 July, Thursday to Sunday — Quality time with Brother …. and
Families
Spent some good quality
time with my brother Glyn, over these days. On the Thursday, we went up with
Glyn and Caroline to take all our kids to the Active Kids Toy Park
in Stanley, Perth.
Stanley
was a village built soley for the local Mill in the 18th Century. So, Glyn and I were given the pink tickets to
go and visit the Stanley
Mill Museum, while the girls
looked after the kids for a bit. Most of
the former administration buildings are being sold off as apartments, but the
museum complex is sill vast and interesting.
On the Saturday, the
brotherly revelry continued when we plundered Edinburgh.
Nothing subtle—we visited pubs and eating establishments until we could
eat and drink no more. Then, we crashed
at Brother Phil’s flat. Where was Phil
while this was going on? He chose to go
on holiday for two weeks to Greece
with his girlfriend.
However, as with most of
this holiday, family time prevailed.
Glyn and I recovered, then took the train back to Dunfermline on the
Sunday, and met up with the girls in Pittencrieff
Park (“The Glen”). The Glen was a private estate until Andrew Carnegie
(born in Dunfermline) bought it for the people of Dunfermline, with the fortune
he made in America. The latest addition is the new playpark,
opened by the Queen around 2007. We come
here with the kids many times this holiday, and they never tire of it.
We had a family day in Dunfermline, seeing the sites on our doorstep. I finally paid money (ouch!) to see Queen Margaret’s
Palace and also Dunfermline
Abbey. The Palace was sacked by Edward I, so it is a set of fascinating
ruins for the kids to explore and run around.
The Abbey is famous for many things, most notably because Robert
the Bruce is buried there
under a magnificent bronze tablet (hey—it’s Scotland, it’s not going to be gold
or silver, is it?). Forget yer
“Braveheart” nonsense, Robert the Bruce was the man who united Scotland and
freed it from English tyranny. In
addition, Queen Margaret
(later Saint Margaret) and her husband Malcolm Canmore
are both buried there.
So get this. We are customers paying a significant sum
flying 5 people across the world.
Correct? Well, tell me what other
industry throws their customers out of their comfortable seats, turfs them into
an unfamiliar building, subjects them to an hour-and-a-half of queuing and security checks, then finally files them back
into their seats dragging the luggage which they were required to haul with
them — for no real reason than to change the people servicing the
customers? Uh oh - I feel another letter
coming on……
