Jul 2007

It hasn’t been too long but I thought I’d better warn you all out there.

While Kate and Terry were visiting I took them to see the botanic garden and feed the Squirrels. I’d been telling them how cute and friendly the squirrels are all day, so I think they were kinda looking forward to it. We grabbed a bag of Monkey nuts (peanuts roasted in their shells) and off we went down to the gardens.
We spotted the first little guy about 50 meters into the gardens and he came running across the lawn when bent down holding a Monkey nut. I was surprised when the little beggar came right up to me and snatched it from my hand scratching me and started munching it. I stood, up holding another nut in my hand, and we watched him eat and chatted to each other. Before I knew what was happening he was on me, clawing half way up my leg, trying to get at the other nut in my hand. I managed to shake him off and get away, while Kate was running away and Terry was in hysterics.
Unfortunately Terry was too busy laughing to get a photo so this will have to do.

Hello everyone
A few weeks ago Emma and Jaz came to Edinburgh to visit us, YAY!!!

They were here for about a week. Unfortunately, it happened to be a crazy busy week for me at work but due to all the over time I did get I take Friday off work to hang out.

They did their own thing for the first few days; visiting the castle, looking around old town etc. A few days after they arrived we all went and got a good old dose of kiwiana by means of a rockn’ Dave Dobbyn Concert. It was great, everyone was so into it! I think the crowd (of only about 200 people) was 99% kiwis. It was great being surrounded by familiar accents. If we had been away from NZ alittle bit longer I think I would have been very home sick. Dave played all the old classics; whaling, slice of heaven, etc and some of his new ones too.

We went for a walk up to Arthur’s seat. It’s a volcanic peck in the middle of Edinburgh. It was great to be surround by grass and open space. It’s crazy how little grass there is around the city. They don’t even have grass verges here. Ok don’t get me wrong there are some lovely big parks and gardens but it just not the same. The start of the track is only about 15mins walk from the royal mile and from the bottom it only takes about 30 mins to walk to the top. On the way we stopped at the ruins of an old church.

The views from the top would have been spectacular if it wasn’t for the Scottish mist.

We took Jaz and Emma to the Garden’s to see the squirrels, of course. We didn’t come across any giant ones this time, maybe next time. Below is a pic of a 200 year old hedge (at least that’s what I think I remember reading).

I know it's been a little while between drinks but there should be more posted here soon. Kate and Terry are coming next weekend and we've organised ourselves a trip to the scottish highlands at the end of the month. Also the Fringe fetsival is over august and we have started to buy tickets to shows. Also we're doing a South England trip early September (already booked flights). After that we can get to the serious business of travelling to the continent.