26 July, Monday — Boys’ Day
The girls (and I mean ALL
the girls) went shopping to Edinburgh. That
left Glyn and I with Callum and Brodie for a leisurely boys’ day. We walked through the Glen again, and found King Malcolm’s Tower.
Disappointed how neglected it’s become.
I had to move bottles and an empty beer box just to get a photo. However, we all ended up in the Glen’s Centenary Play Park,
so the kids were happy.
27 July, Tuesday — Off to Glasgow
This was an unexpectedly
amazing, day. We knew we’d have a blast
seeing Ruth in Glasgow in the evening. However, we did not anticipate the
breathtaking Falkirk Wheel. We only stopped in Falkirk
for a break to let the kids run around a castle—we were looking for Antonine’s Wall. The part of Antonine’s Wall near the Falkirk
Wheel is call Roughcastle
Fort, and it was an amazing relic of the Roman Empire in Scotland. However, it was contrasted by the modern
steel and concrete engineering of the world’s only canal water lift.
We headed to Glasgow with little
difficulties. Thanks to Ruth for being
our Glasgow
tour guide! We had Fish and Chips in the
Botanical
Gardens, and Ruth’s friend had to fend off some staggering,
whippersnapper chav
who had downed a bottle of vodka in the same time we’d taken to devour our fish
and chips.
28 July, Wednesday — Quiet Day
Time for a rest! We had a leisurely lunch in Forgandenny with
Glyn and Caroline, but ramped up for a hard evening of drinking and
gambling. Seriously, Glyn and I went out
for a pint with Norman
in the salubrious surroundings of Newmills’ “Anchour Inn.” Bloody, hell, there were some class chicks in
there. There was a “lady” there who made
me look like a shy, quiet, violet!
Still, it added to the colour, and Dad was on form. Pretty much whipped
Glyn and I at cribbage
(card game), as I recall. Magic evening of beer and cards.
29 July, Thursday — The Falkirk Wheel !!
We liked it so much— WE
WENT BACK!! Dad offered to take us on
the Falkirk Wheel. The kids and I jumped at the chance, and
Karyn jumped at the chance to escape and go shopping. I can’t say any more than it is an amazing
structure, but look at the photos. Stuck
in the middle-ass of nowhere (called the town of Falkirk),
this feat of Scottish engineering links the newly renovated Union and Forth-Clyde Canals.
The tour of the Wheel
includes going on a boat, into a barge gondola, and up the 35 metres on the
Wheel. The trip takes 50 minutes, and
the view across that part of Scotland
is spectacular. However, when you’re at
the front of the barge, at the TOP of the wheel, you feel like you’re sitting
on the edge of a precipice. The official
photographer was an ass: our barge was delayed 50 minutes, we were packed in
tighter than a turtle’s undercarriage, and he tries to make us laugh. Good luck.
However, he WAS a good photographer (look at THIS
one), and so he didn’t detract too much from our enjoyment of the tour of the
Wheel.
30 July, Friday — Edinburgh
Zoon and Callum’s Birthday
Huge day, great day. Edinburgh Zoo has
wonderfully re-positioned itself. No
longer a prison for animals which we gawk at.
It is now a leader in protecting endangered species, and even David
Attenborough compliments the Zoo on the work it has done.
However, the highlight of
the day was our son’s birthday. Today,
Callum is SIX—party at Torryburn. Callum
was thrilled to have his Uncle Glyn and Auntie Caroline there, his cousins, and
his Grandad Scotland. Spot the bottle of wine in THIS
picture (the kids didn’t have too much of it).
31 July, Saturday — All Blacks vs Australia in Melbourne
My former country still
has this losing, no-hope obsession with soccer.
So, I had to negotiate hard with the manager of the Pitbauchlie
Hotel to have Sky Sports 2 on for the Bledisloe Rugby, if my family
and I ate and drank enough. Kick-off
11.am UK
time. We took up two bar tables—one for
the food and one for our portable
Thomas Track. Great result,
All Blacks 46 Australia 28.
1 August to 4 August— Sunday to Wednesday— Taking it Easy …...
Didn’t do much over these
days, except to recuperate from the last few days. I’m conscious that there are still folk I
haven’t seen and time is-a-pressing here in Scotland. On Monday (2nd August), we traveled to Edinburgh to see Andy and
Angela for dinner. Andrew Watson
is one of my oldest school friends, and the last time I saw him was at Phoebe’s
Christening. Wonderful to see this
lovely couple again, and great to see Andy is still the good man he always was.
Our children suitably ingratiated themselves, as they seem to do. I’m sad we didn’t take any photos of this
funny evening.
Phil’s back from Greece, so on
the Tuesday (3rd August), the three brothers got together with Dad for more
manly banter and competitive cards. The Pitbauchlie
Hotel has done well from the Gardiner Family this summer — Phil,
Glyn, Dad and I ended up there for the evening. The brothers ended up in Torryburn for the
night, where we reminisced fondly of our combined childhood.
4 August to 5 August— Wednesday, Thursday — 10 Years Married
Can you believe that
Karyn has put up with being married to me for TEN YEARS?!!! To thank God and to celebrate my continued
good fortune being married to this beautiful woman, I took my wife to St Andrews to ‘The Home of Golf.” We stayed in the Greyfriars Hotel, which is
in the very centre of town: 5 minutes
walk from everything. As Karyn had
already been to The Open and the golf courses, we spent the Wednesday evening
walking around the history of the town, especially St
Andrews Castle and St
Andrews Cathedral. Can you
believe St Andrews has a curry house? We tried it, just to make sure (slurp!).
After a sound night’s
kip, we explored the castle in more depth.
The highlight of this ruined castle is the Siege Mine. In 1546-7, the besieging catholic forces
attempted to blow the walls by digging a tunnel to plant the explosive. The desperate protestant defenders dug a
counter-mine, met up with the attackers, and a brutal underground battle
ensued. We were able to climb down into the tunnels. You can see the stark difference between the
pristine, wide attackers’ tunnel, and the desperate, winding narrow defenders’
tunnel.
Many thanks to Mum and
Dad for looking after the kids. They
loved their sleep-over at Gran and Grandad Scotland’s house.
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