Thurs after midnight

I'm happy to see that we already have a follower for the blog! Welcome, Vicente! Now, would some of you beloved people whom I actually know please become followers too? ;)

Today, after a leisurely morning of Wheatabix and a group-lambasting of the educational systems on both sides of the pond, Andrew, Gwynneth and I took a day trip to Stirling, a small town about an hour North of West Linton. We stopped off at Avis on the way to switch to an automatic, which created AMPLE reasons to whinge, as customer snarkiness is apparently common here. The car switch was worth the wait, however, and has made driving much easier for both Andrew and me.

Stirling is a wonderful combination of the very old and the very new. The city is watched over by a castle on its highest hill. Satellite dishes are affixed to buildings several centuries old and bored-looking hairdressers with bright red nails smoke cigarettes in arched stone doorways covered in black soot and moss.

Statues of historical figures seem to be around every corner:

Robert Burns Rob Roy

We visited the Church of the Holy Rude, because of its name, of course.

The graveyard was scenic, with many gravestones so old they were worn beyond readability.

We arrived at the castle too late to go inside, but there was a marvelous view.

We ended the trip with a visit to the Falkirk wheel, a giant gadget that lowers or raises boats between two canals that are about 300 feet apart in altitude. Pictures tomorrow?

Tomorrow, we're off down the coast towards York, where Andrew went to university.

OK, must get off to bed! Hugs!

-Erika

Day One: Oh the travel travails!

Of course, the morning we were packing to leave, our journey started with a fabulous omen. SOMEBODY BACKED INTO MY CAR while it was parked in front of the house. To make it even worse, she was very nice and had a cast on her leg, so I didn't even get to whinge about it.

Then after filling my cat with 100 mL of saline to make sure she didn't wither into a little prunecat, I was treated to Andrew's inevitable pre-trip anxiety, which I attempted to cure by spritzing him gently with a spray bottle while dancing around like a crazy monkey. Didn't work. He can get really grumpy when he's moist.

I think we packed too much because Andrew had to use some sort of grease to get the suitcases into the back of the hybrid. I had already tried three different arrangements, to no avail, but then he tried and voila, there they were, sardined in. Every once in awhile, he is like a god to me.

Getting through security was fabulous because Andrew is also a godhead to United (again, no chance to whinge!). The best part was Andrew got sniffed in the big sniffy machine. He had this bemused look on his face the whole time, as if to say, "Ha, stupid TSA people! I have never been within 100 feet of any illicit substances!" (Of course, we all know explosives are another issue. But I shouldn't be typing that in an airport.)

So now we are waiting in the Red Carpet Club for our plane to board. It has already been delayed an hour, which means we'll miss our connection in London to Edinburgh. It's not a huge deal, because flights run hourly, but we're crossing our fingers that the flight isn't delayed any further. And yes! This is the purrrrfect opportunity to WHINGE! As a couple, we are quite good at whinging. In fact, it just may be our superpower. :)

More soon! Hugs and Kisses!