Wrapping up 2011 in anticipation of 2012

Well what a year its has been! Manda and I have had the most amazing year; certainly one we will remember for a long time with the fondest of memories!

Europe certainly has given me a new perspective on life; a greater appreciation of home; and a means by which to empathise with so many more. I wouldn't have dreamt it, but there are so many people now with whom I otherwise shared little in common with who I can now converse with so much more easily and broadly; the Italian, Greek, Dutch, German, Hungarian, Bulgarian, Turkish patients at work a great example. Travel is certainly a extraordinary treat and should definitely be encouraged to all! The places you see, events you experience, friends you meet, foods you try, languages you dabble in, means of transports you experience and pleasure from spending that hard earned money is unparalleled. Far more rewarding than anything else we've spent money on recently!!!

Other exciting news since returning home in late August includes, but is not limited to,

-the acquisition of Mango, daughter of Whoopie and Diesel at 8 weeks of age from Sydney on the 17th December. She is a delightful little, but ever growing and forever eating (!), golden retriever. She's into EVERYTHING - all of Mookie's toys, the garden, the hedge, the tissue paper, the Christmas presents... only the odd accident inside; nothing that can't be fixed up! After initially getting off side with Mookie, Mango is now a very good friend of Mookie - they play together gently (although at times it looks rough - especially when Mookie claws at Mango and Mango bears her teeth like a piranha and nips at Mookie's legs and neck) and, after some initial confusion, they now let each other eat uninterrupted. Manda claims that Mango is 'the best Christmas present ever'. When she's not eating her poo anyway! See the following video as an example of the dogs 'play' style! Manda has actually dubbed Mookie and Mango Sabertooth and Wolverine.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AL4u-SgItg

Get the ball Mango, aka Sabertooth! Only problem is that her mouth was too little to fit it in!

-I've been accepted, yes thats right, accepted, to join Royal Canberra Golf Club. Its more of a country club really where you must turn off the mobile phone and wear white socks above the ankles, polo shirt stuffed into dress shorts/pants; no denim or cargo pants here! However, it is a lovely golf course and its going to be a real pleasure to play there (when I can finally hit the ball straight that is!). Tom has accompanied me a few times now and I'm getting a few little pointers so hopefully I'll be hitting straighter soon. Goal of a handicap below 20 at present for 2012.

-Starting work at Cooleman Court Pharmacy as pharmacist in charge and now in the role of business manager. Its a great place to work offering professional services with great staff and terrific patients. As I always say, if you're not happy getting up to go to work every morning then you're in the wrong job! Needless to say I love getting up to go to work (most mornings anyway!) so don't need a career change just yet! I would however rather be back travelling but that's just not possible!

-Manda started work the same day as me (Monday 29/8/11) after being snapped up by a recruitment agency and then promptly being contracted to the NRS, part of National Parks. Having learnt loads and coming to really enjoy the challenge of public service work Manda has now accepted a job with the Department of Health, also based in Woden, working in a division of the PBS I believe looking after the administration and provision of extremely rare and expensive medications provided directly to the patient. These are drugs and conditions that I've never heard of so you'll have to ask Manda what exactly its all about! Having gained an APS level 5 position is quite impressive given Manda's small previous experience with the Public Service so we are both really happy! Manda can now pay the mortgage while I spend all my income on golf!

-#1 Carrington Street (now officially so after Manda had it changed on the public register from 58(?) Stradbroke Street - beauty of being on the corner block!) has been fairly uneventful. The tenants (Rod and Donna) are pleasant enough but have found a few things that require some attention.... Looking very much forward to doing some work on it when April rolls around and have been busy with Tom, Manda to a less extent, taking cuttings and raising seedlings! Only 14 weeks to go!

So with that is the end of a terrific year in the Brady files! It really has been a remarkable and memorable year. We certainly didn't anticipate it to be as fulfilling and educational as it has been but are extremely grateful for our good fortune.

Wishing everyone a happy, healthy, and prosperous New Year!

Brad, Manda and Mango!

Mango in her Christmas costume - it was a battle to get her in and out!

Goodbye London!

Goodbye London indeed; and farewell Europe. What a life changing trip we've had!

London was as we left it: wet and cold. Well the wet stayed away for a day but not surprising came along soon enough. This time however we were thrilled to meet Jo's man Ed who was a real hoot. Ed has come to see Jo and do some traveling when Jo finishes her time here in london. They've just had 5 or 6 months of distance! Impressive work!

After planning to squeeze as much as possible into our 2.5 last days in London we ended up falling asleep in Hyde park with it's cute little squirrels foraging for nuts!

London Underground - very slow but its complexity quite amazing

It's tiring work this holidaying business!!! We did tick off a few of the items on our list such as;

-Harrods - wow! What a store... If only we were rich!

-Trafalgar square which felt a little bit like Rome... Great view of Big Ben!

View of the square from the wonderful National Gallery - see Big Ben centre distant

-the national gallery - wow! Loved it, great selection of impressive works accompanied with interesting commentary, made better yet by free entry!

-Covent Garden with it's markets and live performers to entertain all ages and interests - constant reminders that there are so many incredibly talented people out there.

-the Lion King - arrrrgh - poor seats at the front and far right; only real compensation was that they were good to see the actors facial expressions and makeup... Simba was a fill-in but overall the show was a cracker!

-Red bus trip - sadly no different to any other bus ride, fun all the same!

-Buckingham Palace! the Queen is at Balmoral at present and this means the tourists are given free reign, not literally as entry cost £16 pp and there were rules... Many many rules! Admission was into the state rooms which were incredibly opulent and maintained to a near perfect finish as opposed to many other castles we've visited where paint can be seen flaking from the walls or the carpet is a bit tired. Kate's wedding dress was nice enough and I guess a bit of an added bonus. the lace work was simply amazing. So intricate and all hand done. The cake was also on display, only 3 of the original 14 individual cakes were missing (replaced with replicas).

Crown supply at the palace store

Rear view of palace after tour - no pics allowed inside obeyed!

-dinner at brick lane with Soph O'Shea! The Indian here is cheap and tasty! Bollywood blast was hot going down and torture to metabolise and excrete! It as great to see Soph and reminisce about the old days at Erindale in Canberra.

-10 Bells Bar where Jack the Rippers last victim was last seen!

Jo also took us out to a fantastic spot in the burbs for lunch. With one Michelin star it was a steal at £22 pp for a 3 course meal!

So now we're back on the QANTAS airbus headed toward Singapore, time to get some sleep and try and beat the imminent jet lag!

Brandys Cambridge education

Cambridge, 1 of Englands power houses of education right?! Absolutely! This is the university which witnessed Crick and Watson announcing to the world they had discovered the key to life; DNA. Today they are a leading university in the genetic realm amongst other academic pursuits I'm sure. Our education was slightly less brain straining; a successful lesson in the art of punting a flat bottomed boat along the beautiful river bordering the opulent colleges of King, Queens and St Johns to name a few.

Kings College

Queens College

The punting PHD focused on maintaining good speed and direction and most importantly coordinating this with your Fosters tin in one hand. No easy task, especially as the evening wore on and the empty cans stacked up! I'm pleased to say both Manda and I received passes, despite Manda irresponsibly cutting a number of donuts near Jesus Green! All in all it was a thoroughly enjoyable evening with Helen (great Aunty Wins granddaughter), her hilarious and generous Irish boy John and their mates Cameron and Chris (quite conflicting personalities - Chris from Birmingham who buys stolen bikes and then wonders why he has them stolen?!? And Cameron the more stereotypical smug and pompous Englishman).

Our boat - John, M and Helen

Finishing the night at the local English bar with a good pint of Old Speckled Hen the perfect night cap!

Brad punting

Manda also got to put her newly found 'gift of the gab' from Ireland to good use as we were heavily questioned at St Johns on the validity of our claims to be students! We were triumphant making a huge saving of £1.50 each. Hahaha! Paid for a sandwich I guess!

Cambridge was not surprisingly a rich, vibrant, youthful town, nicely contrasted to the old, history rich, sandstone colleges of their well renowned university. A tour of the main sights of Cambridge took us past their cool grasshopper clock unveiled in 2008 by Steven Hawkins who studied and lectured at the uni, the physics lab Crick and Watson worked in, the pub they announced their discovery in, and the unforgettable Queens and Kings colleges with their immaculate lawns and ornate and old (13-1500AD) buildings of which King's chapel was a highlight.

Cambridge from punting boat

Helen, mentioned earlier, was a great host and generously put us up at her cute little joint within walking distance of town. Its tight streets lined both sides with cars bumper to bumper will certainly be something we remember Cambridge for (parking is a nightmare!). Heaven help you if you meet a car coming from the other direction and there is no way you can turn round or get out of their way!

So after a terrific night out with Helen and the gang we hit the hay knowing we'd have a fairly tight schedule to make it back to London the next morning to return the little hire car Giselle. Not surprising I woke early feeling a little second hand but after a great breaky supplied fresh from the local baker by the ever reliable and charming Irishman John we were ready for the 2 hour drive back to London where our UK adventure had started 5 weeks previously. Made it back to Europecar 3 minutes before it was due at 11am. Phew. Everything we have done on this trip has been done on adrenaline!

Bridge of sighs Cambridge (St Johns college)

Back to England

The Lakes district was the first stop back in England on the north west coast. Magical place for walkers and lovers of scenery with it's lakes, mountains, forests and lush rock walled paddocks. A mix of black and white and even grey sheep whilst a little unusual completed the relaxed scene.

Boats on Derwent water

A stop at the Cumberland pencil company museum was high on the to see list. This is where the world famous Derwent pencils are made. I'm sure their range has expanded since Santa brought me my first tin of 12 as they now have water colour pencils, pastel pencils, lead pencils in all different kinds of lead (or graphite as it is now), metallic pencils, skin colour pencils etc etc etc! They also did a secret world war 2 pencil (unbeknown to the Germans) with compass, map and eraser all secretly enclosed! Very nifty! It was also home of the largest pencil which was awarded a Guiness world record in 2001 weighing in at 450 odd kg with 100 odd kg of yellow pencil in it!!

Big Pencil - sharpened with a chainsaw!

They usually have an hours free tuition after the museum but for some reason it wasn't on at the moment?!? On the upside we did get a free lead pencil each with our £3 admission! Will add it to the pencil collection started on ANZAC day.

Pencil delivery van

Next was the Beatrix potter gallery with a selection of her original water colours and then her "Hill Top" home and property (as it was the day she died!). Bought a lovely complete works of the Peter Rabbit tales book with all 23 of her illustrated stories. It's funny how seeing/reading things like her stories brings back memories; I'd forgotten exactly what mum used to read us and when I read the book A Very Fierce Bad Rabbit it all came rushing back to me! They were also offering a free kids cooking apron with purchases of 2 or more books so we bought Peter Rabbit and got the free apron too -  super cute as Manda would say!

Hill Top garden which Beatrix drew pictures of in Peter Rabbit - now maintained by the National Trust

If the children can eventually cook gingerbread as well as Sarah Nelson does/did (she's now dead!) the apron will have been well worthwhile! The amazing Sarah Nelson's Grasmere gingerbread shop has always made the same gingerbread from her original 150 year old recipe. It was a little difficult to find but thankfully her reputation and popularity means you can ask just about anyone, local or not, and they're likely to point you in the right direction. Once there the experience was literally short and sweet; the cute little green shop with neat ivy and green picket fence had a bit of a line so we queued for a few minutes before a baptism by fire - there were 2 frantic ladies neatly dressed in traditional clothing (white bonnet included) filling plastic bags with old fashioned wrapped gingerbread parcels. Each parcel wrapped in blue and white paper with brown string as I imagine it was 150 years ago. We quickly asked for what we were after, paid, quick photo and gone in about the time it took to type this sentence! The inside of the shop was no more than 5 square meters - tiny! We couldn't resist but to try some and it was SO good... Softish in the middle with a crumbly outside and little bits of ginger inside.... £4.50 for 12 pieces and £2.50 for 6. This gingerbread is the kind you won't forget in a hurry and certainly won't find anywhere else. Scrumptious! Poet William Wordsworth's grave was close by so we checked it out too. It was like all graves.

Having been doing the main tourist things here in the Lake district it was now about time I got out and did some walking! The 3-4 hour walk to Latrigg hilltop with its sweeping views back over Keswick, Derwent water and to the looming mountains behind was done at a jog in an hour. Perhaps not the wisest idea running down a steep wet grassy hill in joggers as I ended up on my bum for the best part of 50m but otherwise a pleasant excursion! Don't think Manda even missed me!

Some of the surrounding countryside (taken at Beatrix Potters actually!)

Derwent Water (lake here near Keswick and a feature of the NP) incredibly picturesque; Peter Rabbit and friends story books do it justice and It's certainly the sort of place you could well imagine an artist with their water colour paints/Derwent pencils in a cute country garden or by the hills. Not a wonder really that Beatrix Potter did so well by combining the two to such good effect!

Manda at Beatrix Potter Gallery where many of her original pictures are housed

Oh and the people in room 5 here at the lovely Abacourt B&B have the loudest giggity we've ever heard! It was quite embarrassing for them at breakfast, that's for sure!

Manda's first married and overseas birthday!

Birthday 24 was finally here! A little lap of luxury was granted with a good sleep in til 8.30am (in the car but a sleep in nonetheless right?!), quick opening of a birthday card (written in the night before in the car with Manda ie no surprise!) and scratching of £2 scratchie then we were up and off!

Sleeping in the car on the b'day morning

View from car accommodation

A rather slow lap around the isle of Skye was done and thankfully the crossed fingers had worked: the weather, whilst cloudy, was 100% on the previous day. Road re tarring and the odd motorbike like track (they call it a road) helped me drive to a more leisurely pace all the while knowing we had a long drive ahead to get back to Oban (still just in Scotland). The scenery was similar to Ireland with the rocky and bare hills and the little inlets with their yellow/orange seaweed and large tidal swells. Funnily enough, we didn't see one accommodation place without the no vacancies sign up! Busy and popular place!?!It was a longer drive to Oban which reminded me of Honfleur in France; another pretty but small fishing/tourist town. The isles just off the coast made it an incredibly pretty spot and created a lovely calm harbour. Just what we wanted for a birthday bash!

Quite typical of the Isle of Skye

Oban marked a few momentous occasions; first haggis feed, first time I initiated a cafe stop for coffee, first time I've ever been embarrassed whilst having happy birthday sang to someone other than myself, and Manda's first married and first overseas birthday! More on them later!

Oban harbour

A birthday dinner at highly regarded Ee-usk was terrific. An impressive offering of fresh seafood with plenty of fresh light flavours. We had a delicious platter to share with thai fish cakes, prawns wrapped in smoked salmon and a mountain of soft mouth watering garlic mussels! I couldn't resist but to temp fate with one of their local fresh oysters which at nearly £2 was a rip off but great all the same. Mains were a real brainstrain as everything sounded great! Manda settled for a trio of steamed fresh fish (monkfish, halibut and sea bass) while I stopped at the seared local scollops with savory mash, salad and mornay sauce. Treacle pudding slices with butterscotch sauce to finish! So good!

On the trip into Oban an older and considerably fuller lookalike of James Bond passed me and 4 other cars like we were standing still; I didnt see him coming up behind me, just the roar of his Austin Martin engine, scared the life out of me! It wasn't the last time we'd see him or the car; needless to say I couldn't stop myself  making a flippant remark when I saw it parked close by the restaurant and recognised the driver inside who booked the table for me. A bit of a laugh came of it but no offer of a quick spin. No harm in asking right?!

I mentioned before our embarrassing happy birthday singing episode... I'd asked when booking that they put a candle on the dessert which I felt sure Manda wouldn't find too embarrassing, a candle is fairly discrete isn't it?! However I didn't consider that the staff (perhaps 10+ waiters and the boss) would all come from their posts and sing loudly creating a hugely exuberant scene. The lone candle on our small island of sticky treacle pudding in it's ocean of butterscotch sauce even wavered in the spectacle created. Fun times! Poor Manda, all she'd asked of me for her birthday was that no one would sing to her, which is usually the case, and I couldn't even manage that!

So the birthday thankfully had worked out ok! What a relief it was!

Scotland

Edinburgh, stop number one. A small town really, only about 400,000, so not much larger than Canberra and much more closely built. With castles built at each end of it's main 'old' street (Hollyrood House Castle, the royal families hangout and perched high atop the hill built on the cliff at the opposite end Edinburgh Castle now a tourist beehive best remembered for the Military Tattoo) it's no surprise it's known as the Royal Mile.

Holyrood Castle

Edinburgh Castle

Some lovely shops, pubs, restaurants and hotels along here scattered with super tacky Scottish souvenir shops account for the bulk of the shops but at this time of year the spectacle is more the Fringe Festival with it's 1000's of street performers and purported millions of spectators who flock in over its few week duration. The Camera Obscura also lives on the Royal mile near Edinburgh Castle and has an ecliptic and somewhat quirky collection of interesting visual and interactive displays.

Camera Obscura funny mirror

Another funny photo from Camera Obscura

These displays include a vortex you walk through which makes the level floor feel like you're going to topple over, a heat sensing camera like they use to find crooks at night or in the dark, a photo morphing gadget, soccer field with light projectors and sensors that allow you to kick a projected ball and a few others odds and sods with the jewel in the crown on the top floor being their camera gadget which I liken to a periscope. This gadget reflects great views over Edinburgh from the distant mountains on the horizon to the little people milling around below on the Royal Mile, with amazing clarity onto a huge round disc. Good fun watching the people below and a great view 360 degree view over town!

View over town

The Mound Museum with £1 million on display (cancelled of course) and a fun safe cracking game was also good fun even if I didn't crack the safe and get the 4 chocolate pennies (questions to give you the safe code were all Scottish so we never stood a chance!). Sadly we missed the Rosslyn Chappell where The Da Vinci Code ended which we would have enjoyed and just as sadly we couldn't find the headstones/graveyard JK Rowling used for Harry Potter inspiration. We did manage to find the grave site and statue of Greyfriars Bobby where it is said John Gray's widowed Skye Terrier puppy Bobby stood watch over his grave for 14 years until he too passed on in 1872. It's quite a memorial and testament to mans best friend's loyalty I guess which people still flock to today!

Despite missing the odd attraction as mentioned above, with the bagpipes blasting, kilts flying like kites, copper knobs (as Win calls then) everywhere and a hint of whiskey on the breeze there was never a doubt this was Scotland!

Camping in Edinburgh was costly (£25, but cheap compared to youth hostels, hotels or b&bs which all had well inflated prices for the fringe and the international festivals it hosts over August), overrun (place was chock a block!) and pretty much a quagmire; this made it incredibly difficult to find our allocated pitch spot! Eventually we got the tent up on some spare soft muddy grass, concluding that this was as good as we were going to get (it was so close to the next tent I could have reached out my door and pulled his tent pegs out!). Remembering the state of the ground, I shouldn't have been surprised to find that my bed that night was soft like a water mattress and freezing cold so around 3am I went to seek refuge in the car with Manda who'd had the good sense to move their earlier. Alas the car was locked and Manda was in a surprisingly deep sleep so I returned to the tent to see the night through. Had I been able to wake her I'm sure she'd have almost died of fright; I was wearing her fluorescent pink jumper and probably looked like some kind of camp ground killer or at least pervert tapping on car windows! Hahaha! Even when I woke her in the morning I think she got a fright!

A quick trip through the interior via Perth (and past signs to Armadale!) up to the Queen's summer holiday house Balmoral which she visits every August was next on the agenda. Her visit meant it was closed! We should have realised! A real disappointment given we'd driven many miles out of the way to see it. I did feel it was made up for by the friendly Bobby on duty at the palace gate who told us all about the palace, a 2 minute history lesson on it and its acquisition by Queen Victoria (as it was supposed to be in the driest place in the UK - she got this wrong I'd say!), how she had it moved 200 yards, and what activities the current Queen gets up to here - no, not arts, crafts or even knitting but horse riding and walking the dogs!!! Not bad for an 80 odd year old! Also noteworthy was when a fairly normal looking station wagon with kids approached the closed gates and was granted entry, Manda quite predictably asked why they could go through and not us?! They were staff. Then, with just as much predictability, she asked what if she were to follow them through? You could guess the guards response! The drive was also made up for by the amazing and rugged alpine like scenery; we had a lovely day with mainly clear skies. Then the clouds came across in large fronts during the late afternoon which made for quite a sight. Fortunately our "miles out of the way" I mentioned before also meant we were now close enough to get to the whiskey country! More good luck than good management!

Dufftown; the home of Scottish Whiskey, the most widely recognised of which I guess would have to be Glenfiddith.

We arrived late at Glenfiddith to find there was a fire alarm going off and a large exclusion area meaning no decent photos! Later on we passed them again so had a sticky and got the photos! It's amazing at the distilleries, you can smell the malted barley a mile away!

Aberlour distillery was next on the hit list mainly for the fact that the lonely planet recommended it above all others... Not always a good idea to do as they suggest but Aberlour was perfect for us (whiskey virgins as the guide called us).

Cute Aberlour Distillery

For £12 each we got a 2 hour tour of the distillery and 6 tutored tastings with Boa, a Swedish gentleman and clearly a whiskey connoisseur. Each tasting was a full sized english dram (English dram is 25ml, Scotish dram better value at 35ml!) and cask strength (meaning it was 40-50%) this equated to approximately 8 standard drinks so driving was off the agenda afterwards! We had everything from the raw new spirit at 70% (rub it on your hands for a germ killing experience and interestingly a good new spirit will leave a raw ingredient smell: in this case barley!) to their 16 year old and A'bunadh drops. Still wouldn't call myself a Whiskey fan let alone enthusiast. Smelling the vats with 1st and 2nd wash in them was interesting with the 2nd wash vat nearly suffocating us! All the carbon dioxide gas from fermentation collects with very little oxygen. A big sniff over the vat's man hole felt like a whack in the face with a tennis racket and a splash of acid to follow. Not the sort of experience you'd go back twice for but one you would pay to watch! The drinking of the wort from the 1st wash was also interesting and not surprisingly tasted like flat un hopped beer; pretty foul to be honest! Thankfully they work a little more on it and after a double distillation and minimum 3 years in the barrel its able to be more happily consumed. Interesting fact: only 3% of the world barley is made into whiskey, the best part of the remainder is brewed into beer! The other optional extra at a mear £65 was to fill your own bottle of single malt cask strength whiskey straight from the barrel (at about 58%) and do your own label. Didn't have the funds left after the £12 admission sadly so couldn't participate.

Walkers shortbread factory also in Aberlour where we picked up buttered shortbread in all it's forms; round, triangle, fingers and the unmissable fruit mince tarts and treacle biscuits. Each packet weighing in at 400g and going for the bargain price of between £1.50-£2! Score! The cheap stuff is the first run for the day or week packaged in a no frills packet. Perfect! And so good. 9 fruit mince tarts devoured in less than 24 hours and let's not forget Manda isn't their greatest fan!

Walkers

Speyside, near Aberlour, completed the whiskey experience with it's coopering factory, no beer here sadly! They make the odd new oak barrel but the majority of their work today involves reassembling flat packed pre loved American white oak barrels used in the states for the maturation of bourbon (legally only allowed to be matured in a new barrel each time so they have loads to get rid of). Still a very intricate and skillful job for the coopers who are paid by the barrel not an hourly rate. The guide wouldn't tell us what the rate was for a barrel but we did find out at Abelour they pay £20 each. Each Cooper makes about 20 barrels a day.... They had massive stacks of barrels outside which can number 150,000 at times! Impressive!

Coopers at work

Sheep Shagers Ale whilst not tried was a good laugh! The bloke at the B&B thought us Aussies should drink it: but don't worry, I set the record straight pretty quickly that he was thinking of our cheeky kiwi neighbours. He then proceeded to call Aussies wallaby rooters - there was no winning with this nessy rooter...!

Our Scottish fish and chips and chip butty (chips in a bread roll?!) were quite nice, as was the fast flowing and somewhat dangerous looking Spey River. The other danger was midges! Little cootes have eaten me so badly I now look like I've got scabies! Grrrrrgh! Forgot to take the aeroguard with us! Manda also thought a Vienetta for dinner might be nice as they were on special for £1 however after nibbling away at about a third of it we had to dispose of it... It ended up in the dunny as we could hardly bin it in our B&B! Tough to flush!

I then did a brief spot of unsuccessful dolphin hunting at Fort George just north of Inverness on the inlet in the torrential rain. The military fortress was quite however impressive and even today still houses their army people who I managed to get a film of in kilts marching around the square in the wettest of weather!

Fort George

Inverness was more a point of reference on the trip onward to Loch Ness's western side so we didn't bother to stop in. With the skies still chucking the stuff down the loch was a little misty but i guess it added to the mystery of the place. No nessy sighting sadly as it was our one chance to become famous but I get the feeling you could spend your life here and still not spot her so we weren't too disheartened! Urquart Castle on the loch towards the southern end was pretty. Pretty derelict I mean. Made for a pretty photo with the loch behind it but that was about it. Still the rain poured so again it was very mystical and foggy!

Castle on Loch Ness western side

Pretty cemetery

Finally late in the afternoon after many more miles of slow wet driving with loads of cloud obscuring the normally dramatic landscape we arrived on the Isle of Skye. The rainbow bridge wasnt it's  usual spectacle as it was cloudy too so the effect of driving up it and into the sky was lost a little! It was then we started to notice no vacancies signs... Even the big hotels had permanent looking booked out signs. Not a good sign as our little leaky tent was also out with the wet weather (as it still leaks) so after much driving and many knockbacks for accommodation we gave into sleeping in the Golf. We found a pretty spot out of Broadford on an inlet and away from the road and set up! With the exception of more midges that ate me while I ate ritz with 3 day old cheese and tomato in the rain it was a great spot to stay. So we slept in the car by the inlet for Manda's birthday eve. Not quite what she'd hoped for I'm sure but as good as we could do given the lack of accommodation and miserable wet weather! Fingers were crossed for better weather and fortune come morning and the birthday!

Haggis before being sick!

Yorkshire

York. What a lovely place, once you've navigated the terribly busy one way street circuit, found a park and come to expect parking could cost more than 2 pints at the Pub! Nonetheless that's the price you'll pay to visit town who's tourism industry is constantly growing. After finding a B&B within 15 minutes walk of the old town hence no more car concern we were set.

One of my funniest memories of York was making the decision to walk out of the information centre into the pouring rain. It wad so heavy cars had stopped driving and the usually busy streets were completely vacant. Like a ghost town! How naive we were to think £1 umbrellas would stand up to the deluge... After having them blown inside out a few times and now considerably wetter than we were 2 minutes prior we made a bee line for the ever present Minster (not more than 150 meters). Our ever growing awareness of good photo opportunities (generally the main criteria is for it to be free of random lurching people) soon had me out in the torrential rain trying to make a positive from the wet weather - not a person in sight. Got marginally wet but I'd bet it's the only way to snare a crowd free pic of the jaw dropping Minster.

Did a very informative tour of the York Minster (aka St. Peters) which I feel will suffice for the rest of my life looking at churches! Went for nearly 2 hours! As I say, it was interesting enough: 3 interesting facts;

1. Large stain glass window (as big as a doubles tennis court and amazing intricate) cleaned every 125 years at a cost of 20 million pounds! It's presently being cleaned and will take 10 years! Incitement they clean one window a year on average and there are 120 original gothic windows in the Minster. The windows and stone supporting them (in the case of the large window presently out) is all removed, lead beading removed, then all replaced carefully, and new stone cut as needed. HUGE job. Equally HUGE cost.

2. One of the statues has two right feet! Apparently the master sculptor did most of the statue then asked his apprentice to do another right foot (oops! He meant left foot!) which his apprentice diligently did!

3. The Minster has it's own police to keep things in order!?! They seemed to be doing a lot of sitting around drinking tea when I saw them! I think they're scared of another fire being lit (which has happened a few times here)?!?

A town walk/tour with the canny but limping Fred was also quite informative. He spent a lot of his time discussing the big impact that the Romans had on York. Quite amazing how advanced they were back then with sewage and water systems etc etc. He also enlightened us to the origins of union jack (english + scottish flags) and the coming of the Anglo-Saxons.

Old remains of church from Roman era York

The Shambles was another good place to see with the rain pouring as the crowd were thin also. It's buildings converging towards the top more evidence of seemingly obscure taxes (taxed on floor space of lowest floor, so to minimize tax simply build a larger floor on top and have it overhang the 1st one and so on as you build more levels... Perhaps not the safest of schemes but tax efficient!).

The overhanging Shambles

York was also the place we discovered haddock and chips could be served with scraps?! What's more, the scraps part was at no additional cost?! Hard to believe considering you'll pay to get a teaspoon sized serve of tomato sauce. Anyway, the scraps as we discovered after ordering were the little bits of loose deep fried batter from the fish sprinkled over the chips when serving... Oily delicacy we were assured by another young english customer who was surprised we'd never heard of them before! We ate them but as they say, you don't get something for nothing; I'm sure one way or another those scraps will catch up with us!

After the excitement of York we ventured further north to county Durham. It was time to meet (meet for me, catch up for Manda) Tom's Aunty Win in High Etherly. We made it to Bishop Auckland no worries but had a little more trouble finding her house there... Problem being that it wasn't in Bishop Auckland. After consulting google maps courtesy of Maccas and 10 minutes driving we arrived at 14 Auckland View, High Etherly, Bishop Auckland to a very excited Win! We had the most terrific 4 nights with Win; talking, eating (beef casserole with puff pastry topping, wine, cheese and crackers, port, cooked breaky, and some wickedly good Yorkshire puddins filled with pork gravy and mint sauce!) and drinking cup after cup of tea!        
Win was in great form and hopefully she enjoyed having us as much as we enjoyed being with her!

Durham cathedral with St bede got a quick look given we'd spent hours at York Minster only days ago. Interestingly they advertise it costs £60000 per week to run it. Hardly small change! No archbishop here (the north's is actually at York Minster, south's at Cantderburry) but still an impressive and interesting building.

Durham Cathedral inside courtyard

The Durham Castle was closed for renovations but surely it isn't much more than the other castles we've visited.

A good hearty surf and turf dinner with Win's Gerald and Pam and their son Paul at the golf club (where coincidntly Gerald is the club captain) was just the trick after months of fast, nutrient lacking but calorie rich food. Black Sheep Ale pints (a local drop) pretty good!
In other news, we managed a quick catchup with Floss (Danny's sister, Manda's great Aunty I guess you could say) in Newcastle. After initially thinking we mightn't have been able to arrange it, it all fell into place! We did well, squeezing the 45 minute trip up to Newcastle after mass and a delicious lunch with Pam and Win in Bishop Auckland. We even managed to have some photos and the speeches from Danny's farewell emailed to us and printed which we gave to Floss. Yet again it was a pleasure to meet more of the extended family and for Manda to catchup with so many of them!

Hadrians wall was the last item on the agenda before we headed into Scotland and after following it roughly in the car for 30 miles we finally got to the site of a past Roman fortress on the wall so ventured in for a look! The wall was quite impressive spanning basically the whole distance from east to west with the purpose of keeping the Scots out of the then Roman occupied England. After buying tickets and later returning them, as it wasn't necessary to buy an entry pass because you could see in no worries from the adjoining sheep paddock, we had our obligatory photos and were back on the road to invade our last country, Scotland!

Small section of wall