Jun 2007

It's heading into festival season in Edinburgh with the Edinburgh festival, fringe festival, book fest and so on. The past weekend was the first of the bunch - the leith festival with it's main event the leith county fair.

Well not the county fair but the gala day of the Leith Festival. It was way better than we thought we were going to get. Not just the sweet stall and bobbing for apples that we expected.

Jamie was really keen to go on the ride that spun you around and tipped you upside down at the same time. I wasn't keen. We decided on dodgem cars instead. I got a very evil look when I smashed into a lady with a small kid. What was she thinking - it's kinda the point!!! Jamie amused himself greatly by hitting into the back of me making me spin 180 degrees. Anyway the 3min ride seemed to be over in seconds much to my disappointment.

After the ride we went on a mission to find candy apples. After asking several stalls we finally found some but to my disappointment (again) they were kinda poo, look good tasted bad.

for those of you that can view this it's a short (20 sec) movie of the rides at the fair.

On the 2nd and 3rd of July the 7's came to Edinburgh, we went along on the finals day to support the kiwis, and they did us proud.

Not only did they win the tournament but by doing so topped Fiji as the overall winners of the year. sweet.

We were sitting close to a rowdy bunch of NZ kids who added to the awesome atmosphere. Although they seemed a bit preoccupied with building huge cup towers, which didn't amuse security. One of the guys turned out to be one of my (rach) workmates. Anyway there was lots of singing, including a rendition of uma rapti.

It was cool to see NZ win all their games. But the crowd favorites (besides Scotland) was kenya with everyone getting in behind the team. Pretty sure they beat the aussies on Saturday!? yay.

28 - nil, and the game wans't even over

As some of you already know Rach has got herself a job. Yay Rach whoooowhoowhowo. This now means that the pressure is right off me and I can just bum around home, read books and write blogs which I know you all love and treasure so much.

To get myself up in the morning I have been walking Rach to work. About a 20min walk through the 'new town' (only 200 to 300 years old). So here's a glimpse of what I get to look at on my stroll home from dropping Rach off to make us some dosh.

This is the street Rach works on, Chester St

St Andrews church on Princess St with the castle in the background

The Edinburgh Castle view from Princess St

The Royal Scot Museum on the Mound

The Scot Monument

A view of the old town

The Royal Botanic Gardens are right round the corner from where we live. To kill time one of the waiting days before Rach started work we went for a walk round the gardens and through the massive glass house and indoor gardens.

You get a little radio that tells you about the different plants as you go round. There’s heaps of different rooms all kept at different temperature's and humidity’s. Stinking hot and humid in the jungle rooms and dry and dusty in the desert rooms.

They even has a fern room, felt like we were deep in the NZ bush (got a little bit homesick 'sob').

After the glass house we tried to find some British wildlife (squirrels). Rach had brought a banana which we used to lure them to us. They are really tame and will come right up and eat out of your hand. Cute little buggers aren't they.

So it's been a few weeks and your all wondering, what have jamie and rach been doing?

Well, we got to edinburgh from london via a few days in manchester. Holed up at a hostel in the middle of the city and started looking for flats. Got one pretty quickly and went right into job hunting. Wasn't that boring, time for some action.

After a week of flat and job hunting we wanted to actaully do somthing so we went to the castle. It's right in the middle of the city, really impressive.

Free guides take you around and tell you stories as you go through. Then you can make your own way around and explore the rest of the place.

There lots of cool stuff, scottish crown jewels, books with the names of every solider who died in the 2 world wars. No Priers but a few Wells.

NZ wreath in it's rightfull place at the top and it's also the biggest

Got to go through the dungeons

Lots of artillery, guns and armour

William Wallace, no braveheart here

The royal mile outside the castle

Rach and the city from the top of the castle