Stardate: 83625.17 16 August, 2006
Posted in Life and Times! at 9:53 pm by Marg
Again, R is better at doing the diary thing than I am – mainly cause I’m packing stuff! (good excuse!) So further to our travels…
“Well only a few days left now before we get back to NZ. Time seems to have flown really when I think about it – we have done and seen so much in 6 weeks.
We moved on from our friends in Troon, Scotland Friday week ago and drove on up to Aberdeen in the north to some more friends Bill & Carol. They used to live in NZ a few years back. Anyway they live in a nice council flat just a couple of streets off Union St and it was great to see them again. Aberdeen has changed a fair bit from when I was last there in that it is much bigger now and is very busy – I understand that the oil industry is absolutely booming again in the North Sea. The weather was somewhat cooler there but we did have a couple of very nice days. On the Saturday Bill & I went to see Aberdeen play Inverness (soccer) at Pittodrie – good to see a decent game of football at a decent stadium. That night we went down to the beach for a meal (Chinese at Jimmy Chungs) and it was such a gorgeous night, the North Sea was like glass and the sea front busy with some people even in swimming (apparently very unusual!). On the Sunday we took a drive out in the Royal Deeside area of Aberdeen out as far as a place called Braemar (very quaint village) and the temperature was about 28c so just nice! Meantime back in Aberdeen it was apparently pouring rain, flash flood stuff so go figure! On the return we stopped at Balmoral Castle (or at least the entrance to it) – we couldn’t do the visit stuff as the Royals were in residence so the best we did was get a photo of us at the entrance gates next to the M &R sign on the gates and chat to the very heavily armed police that were on duty. We also stopped just a bit further along at the church where all the Royals attend when they are at Balmoral. So it was interesting to see that.
On the Tuesday we began making our way back down to the Stirling district stopping off at a place called Stonehaven – there we had a quick visit to a friend of Marg’s (Sue) that she met when in hospital with Ross when he was born and then on to meet my old boss and his wife, Stuart & Hilda Walker. I worked with Stuart in the offshore oil industry some 22 years ago. It was fantastic to catch up with him again after all these years – we seemed to chat for hours. Stayed the night there and then drove on down to Buchlyvie in Stirling (where we are now) the next day to stay with Marg’s cousin Irene Clements. Buchlyvie is a very small village way out in the country where not a lot happens but is very peaceful and quiet. It is also not far from Striling, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Loch Lomond etc etc. Irene is well and it has been lovely to see her again (for me 22 years).
The next day we did the touristy thing in Stirling, visited Stirling Castle which was very informative (Robert the Bruce, William Wallace stuff for those British history buffs!). The castle is set up high on a hill overlooking the surrounding district and you can see why it was such a strategic position to hold for the Scots in their battles with the English – magnificent views of course!
On Friday we went back into Glasgow city to see the town centre etc and all the different shops and malls – we hadn’t done done this when we went to Glasgow with our friends from Troon. It certainly has changed tremendously from what I remember – went through the jewellery arcade that was there 22 years ago – must be about 20 or so jewellery shops in the one place. Marg also visited her old house in Scott Street where she lived in till she was 7 years old.
Saturday was pretty special as Irene had managed to get three tickets (through a friend) to the Edinburgh Military Tattoo. This is booked out many months in advance so we were very privileged indeed. We caught the train from Stirling thru to Edinburgh about 3.30pm and wandered around Princess and Rose Streets for a while and then made our way up to the Castle to see the Tattoo. It was quite a cool evening but no rain and the show was absolutely stunning to watch. The NZ Army band participated and they were brilliant – innovative and smart as well. The whole show was just captivating and lasted just over two hours – I think Marg felt right at home with all the bag pipe music around her. There were also bands and performers from Switzerland, Chile, China and Uganda (they were something special!). A great night that seemed over all too soon.
On Sunday Irene arranged for a visit (official tour) of the great Glasgow Rangers Football Club ground at Ibrox. This took about 90 minutes and was fantastic – one of the oldest clubs in Britain having been founded in 1873. We saw the famous Blue Room, the trophy room (unbelievable history there!), the players changing room, the bar and members’ lounge and the players’ lounge and then down through the players tunnel and onto the edge of the hallowed turf! The stadium is magnificent and now more developed than ever – just need Rangers under their new French manager to start winning again !
Visited Loch Lomond on Monday and had lunch at a friend of Irene’s restaurant (the Ben Lomond!). The whole area is beautiful and reminds me so much of different places in the South Island.
Yesterday afternoon Marg and I went thru to Falkirk to see some of her old neighbours (Jackie and Robin) when she lived here as a small girl – they took us out for a lovely dinner and they were so thrilled to see Marg again after all these years.
Probably bored you guys enuff now so will close off. We are beginning the repacking process today in preparation for our departure for the USA (and Vegas) tomorrow on the trip back to NZ. You may have seen the very recent terror threat here in the UK and plot to blow up trans Atlantic flights – bit scary and a bit of a reality check somewhat. Has certainly thrown a spanner in the works at Britain’s airports, seems to have settled more today and you are now allowed some hand luggage back on planes. Hopefully we won’t have any delays or problems tomorrow. Get to Vegas tomorrow night and the hotel about midnight – meet our bridesmaid Linda there in the hotel – lots to catch up on then !”
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Stardate: 83584.62 02 August, 2006
Posted in Life and Times! at 1:33 am by Marg
We have been back in the Uk now since Monday of last week – we flew from Germany to Manchester (via Stansted) and were picked up by one of Marg’s old school friends (from South Africa days) – her name is Sharon and she drove us to north Wales to where her and her husband Colin and two daughters live in Colwyn Bay. We spent 4 very nice days there and saw plenty of the surrounding area in north Wales – lots of beaches, towns and villages and the weather was terrific. Ate out lots and of course tried several different beers, even had fish & chips and mushy peas down at the beach one night. One of the highlights of our time in Wales was on Tuesday when we hopped accross the border to England and decided to go to Liverpool (about an hour away from Colwyn Bay – we drove to Birkenhead and caught the “ferry across the Mersey” to Liverpool (for those of you who don’t know Ferry Accross the Mersey was a song made famous by Gerry & the Pacemakers a few years…….back). So that was all pretty exciting and the ferry does bit of a tiki tour of the Mersey before dropping you off on the Liverpool side. Walked around the Albert Dock area and then onto the city centre area. We ended up at Mathew Street where the famous Cavern Club is situated – the Beatles performed there many times in their very early days. We went down into the Club (which is several stairs below the ground) – just amazing it was to be there and see all the pictures and history. We of course had a beer and sat right up next to the stage – a young guy performed some Beatles songs on accoustic guitar and he was just fabulous – so it will be something I will remember forever.
Also visited the world’s longest place name -
Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwyllllantysiliogogogoch.
We picked up our rental car last Thursday and said our gooodbyes on Fri morning and made our way to Troon here in Scotland – took about 6 hours to drive but we did have several stops on the way – traffic wasn’t too bad but the motorways are just full of trucks – once we got past the turnoff to Blackpool the traffic wasn’t as heavy. Anyway we made it to Karen & Mike’s place in Troon (just north of Ayr on the west coast) quite ok at about 5pm. They used to live up above us in Glasgow when we lived there in the early eighties and we have remained friends ever since – their eldest son Scott stayed with us in NZ from late 2003 and until about Aug 2004. It was just fantastic to see them again (for me it’s been just over 22 years so a long time between drinks!). I suffered terribly the next day with a bad hangover as a result of our night in Troon ! but it was fun…………………. We went to see Karen’s Mum and Dad and sister on Saturday afternoon down the coast a little where they were caravaning by the beach – so nice to see them all after such a long time.
Chilled out on Sunday with a visit to the pub in Troon to watch Glasgow Rangers play Motherwell in the their first game of the new season. Thankfully Rangers won and they played some brilliant football. At home we had earlier watched the AB’s just beat the Ockers – bit of a nail biter to say the least and I thought we muffed a few tries (along with them as well I suppose…………). Yesterday we took a visit up to Glasgow (about 35 miles from Troon) mainly to see where we all used to live in Wilton Street – a bit nostalgic I’d have to say seeing the old flats again after all this time – Ross spent the first 10 months of his childhood there. Got some photos of us all standing outside the main entrance to where our flats were – they seemed a bit run down from when we used to live there. Then we went and visited our old local the Pewter Pot and several drinks later we were still there! Ended up at Scott’s flat (not far from Ibrox, Rangers home ground) for an Indian takeaway and sing Karoke – just fantastic food and the selection on the menu was enormous!
Glasgow itself has obviously changed heaps from when I lived here and there seems to be lots of building going on.
Today is somewhat slow again after yesterday and the drink but it was fun………… Temperatures have changed dramatically over the past few days so I hope that the summer hasn’t gone as well.
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Stardate: 83584.39 01 August, 2006
Posted in Life and Times! at 11:27 pm by Marg
This is from R’s last email to work..
“We continued our 2nd
week in Bedfordshire with a visit to St Ives, a beautiful little town on the river
Ous and the weather was just so hot !- it is near where Oliver Cromwell was born .
Got to the Newmarket races on Wed 12 th – it was very crowed and also ladies day so
that made it more interesting, they all seemed very boozed to me but they were
obviously out to have fun ! – a great experience to get to the “home of horses” in
the UK but it was a trifle expensive there (18 GPB each to get in for a start !),
didn’t do any good but it was fun and the meeting that day had group one race on the
card – the course is unusal to that of ones in NZ in that it is not an oval course -
just a very long straight. Went up to a place called Upwood the next day, about an
hour or so from Sandy and I drove George’s car which was ok – went on some of the
smaller routes so we could see more of the English countrysides and small villages.
To get to Upwood you drive thru part of what they call the Fens (reclaimed land from
the sea and is prone to flooding). We went there to deliver the painting our NZ
friend did for his brother – we stayed the nite there at Neil & Jan’s place, they
own bedroom B & B . We were treated to a lovely dinner at a huge victorian type
table and then drank wine till about 1am in their Victorian “lounge”, something to
be seen to be believed!
On Saturday nite we took Mary & George out for pub dinner and then on Sunday we had
a traditional South African lunch with Mary, George and their two children Kate &
David – the food is called a pootjie , something like a stew done in cauldren pot on
the charcoal barbeque – it was venison and a whole heap of vegetables that took
about 4 hours to cook but was worth wait.
On Monday this week we said our goodbyes and departed from Stanstead to Dusseldorf
in Germany to visit our very good friends, the Molls family (met thru one of the
homestay students in 2002/2003). Almut & Werner met us at the airport and took us to
their home in the beautiful town of Krefeld (about 20 minutes from Dusseldorf
airport). Been here now a week and have had such a tremendous time – wined, dined,
visited various small towns here in the north (such as Munster, Ostenbach, Krevelar
etc etc – lots of beer gardens and of course have sampled many beautiful German
beers – I feel like that I am all beered out ! The food, restaurants are all
fantastic and so beautifully presented. The Germans really know how to socialise and
enjoy their food. I could very
easily live here and the prices are good too.
The Molls have a beautiful home with a big back garden and swimming pool – I have
been swimming twice a day here as the temperatures are unbelievable, have been
averaging about 35c each day which is very warm indeed – I here it is still rather
cool back home so I really feel for you all !
Have been to Dusseldorf on Thursday and their famous “expensive” street Königs Alley
is something to be believed – if you think that the mob that live in Remuera have
money then think again – the place is just dripping in gold ! Went to Cologne on
Friday which was great to see again (for me) – Marg climbed the the famous Dome but
too high for me so Werner and I went for a meeting in a bar !!! Went shopping in
Krefeld yesterday and today we went south to Bonn and a small town past there and
went on a cruise on the Rhine – just brilliant and the weather was gorgeous. Ate out
tonite with all the family (including their two daughters Annika and Leonie) at a
great restaurant – great food, beer and wine!
That’s it for now – back to the UK tomorrow morning and onto to Wales then up to
Scotland.”
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