Dumfries, Scotland: Saturday - Spring. Sydney, Australia: Saturday evening - Autumn.

"Congratulations Stu and Lou! Stuart and Louise were married on a beautiful spring day in Scotland. They were really lucky with the weather. It rained the entire week we were in Scotland except for two days - the wedding day and the wedding brunch day (the day after). It was our first British wedding and we felt like we were in Four Weddings and a Funeral. The service was performed in a little church that was adjacent to Louise's family property. After the service we walked through a field of bluebells to the reception which was hosted in a marquee at the family manor. I kept expecting to bump into a floppy-haired Hugh Grant. I'm not sure what Louise's family made of Stuie's rowdy Australian relatives. We all had a great time at the reception so I'm sure that first impressions were not entirely positive."




Check out Sue's day at noodlebowl.net and her photos on Flickr.

"The search for animals that fall outside of taxonomic records due to a lack of empirical evidence, but for which anecdotal evidence exists in the form of myths, legends, or undocumented sightings."

The Loch Ness Monster is surely one of the world's most famous cryptozoids. No trip to the highlands of Scotland would be complete without a visit to Loch Ness for a bit of Nessie spotting. We drove the length of the loch but didn't spot the monster.


In Drumnadrochit, we visited the Loch Ness Exhibition. The museum explores the legend of the Loch Ness Monster and the research that has been conducted to find Nessie. I was actually surprised at the time and money that has been spent looking for Nessie. First, they posted lookouts on the shores for a year or so. Next they formed a flotilla of boats dragging sonar equipment to plumb the depths. After that they submerged a vessel in the loch for a bit. It recorded the goings on in the loch (fish getting it on probably). After all this, they still have no conclusive evidence that Nessie exists.

The lack of evidence, points to a lack of Nessie. Apparently the population of fish in the Loch (even with all the getting it on) is not enough to support a creature the size of the supposed monster.

The exhibition also examines the photos that have captured Nessie and explains what they might be. A deer swimming in the lake, a blurry bird, the wake of a boat. The most famous photo of the Loch Ness Monster is a proven hoax. The exhibition is pretty non-judgemental towards the wackos that have "seen" the Loch Ness Monster. It concludes with a phrase about the wonderful powers of imagination (sure, sure! We know they are wackos).



I'm not sure it was worth the £6 entrance fee but I found it extremely interesting. A recommended pit stop if you too have a curiosity for the strange and mysterious.

Our visit to the The Loch Ness Exhibition was part of our "Emergency: Jess needs to renew her visa" trip to Scotland on the August Bank Holiday weekend 2008. Other entries from this trip include: Real men wear skirts and Now here are the results. Yep. And we're going to....

More photos on Flickr

One of the highlights of our Scotland trip was our visit to a highland games. In Summer, highland games are held throughout Scotland to celebrate Scottish and Celtic culture. We visited the games at the village of Grantown-on-Spey which is an hour's drive south-east of Inverness.

Andrew and I arrived early and were able to grab a seat on the side of the arena. The agenda for the day included Highland dancing, running races, bicycle races, long jump, high jump and some kids events such as haggis tossing and welly throwing. The main reason we were there though was for the highland athletics. We were keen to watch traditional events like the hammer throw and the caber toss.

The day started out with the junior (18-25) heavy events. Although junior implies boys, most of the competitors were tall, muscled men. I guess you need muscles to compete in the heavy events.

My favourite events were:

Weight for Height
Competitors throw a heavy weight as high as they can. The weight was a rectangular lump of metal attached to a chain. It was thrown one handed over a bar which was set at increasing heights above the thrower. Like a high jump bar, except you're throwing a 12kg weight over the bar instead of yourself.



Hammer Throw
The Scottish hammer throw is similar to the modern hammer throw but it has added difficulty. In the highland games, a round metal ball is attached to a shaft about 4 feet in length to form the hammer. Competitors must stand with their feet in a fixed position (no spinning), whirl the hammer around their head and release it over one shoulder.


Caber Toss
The caber was a large log, and was heavy enough that it took two men to carry it onto the field. The object of the caber toss is to have the log turn end over end and land on a line leading directly away from the thrower. A perfect throw ends with the top end nearest the thrower and the bottom pointing directly away. Think of a clock. The caber must be in the 12 o'clock position.

Of the 12 or so boys competing only 2 were able to complete the caber toss successfully. Some boys even had problems picking up the caber. They would hoist it up, attempt to balance it against their shoulder only for it to fall behind them (and the people behind them would scatter.) Sometimes it was even a little scary for the spectators. Part of the caber toss is the "approach" when the athlete runs to gain momentum. Some of these approaches veered off in the direction of the audience. I was ready to make a quick exit if necessary.



We watched all of the junior events and a couple of the masters' events. I developed a bit of a crush on the winner of the junior title. Craig Sinclair dominated the junior events and then went on to compete and perform admirably in the masters' events. I've never been a fan of the pink shirt wearing metro boy. Give me a real man who can toss a caber anyday!

More photos on Flickr...

Be allowed to stay in the UK.

I mentioned in my last post that Andrew and I organised a last minute trip to Scotland on the August bank holiday weekend. The purpose of which was not entirely recreational. The main reason we had to go to Scotland was to renew my visa.

My visa was due to expire on September 1^st and needed to be renewed before then. In mid-August I started researching renewal options. It was then that we realised that if I had applied by post it could have take up to 14 weeks for the application to be processed. Since you have to send your passport in with your application, you're without passport for this time. Not usually a problem but we had a pre-booked trip to Slovakia for the last weekend in August. We'd be flying back into London on the 2nd of September, the day after my visa expired.

You kinda need a passport and/or visa to get back into the country, so applying by post was out. Obviously I had to apply in person. After a quick call to the visa hotline to make an appointment, we discovered that Croydon (the office which is closest to London) was totally booked out. The only availability was at Sheffield (2 hours north), Liverpool (4 hours north-west) and Glasgow (in Scotland). We decided to book an appointment for the Friday before the bank holiday in Glasgow and then turn it into a mini-break.




So in the end, it was a great weekend. The visa application process went very smoothly and only took an hour. There were no queues, I just went from window to window. Submitting the application, making the payment and then receiving the visa. It made me giggle when they weren't interested in my financial situation at all. They were only interested in Andrew's financial records. As it's a spousal visa and I'm dependant on him, he has to show that he can keep me in the style to which I've become accustomed. Obviously he can, as we got the stamp of approval.




We managed to see Stirling Castle, Loch Ness, Inverness, Highland Games, more castles, more lochs and some of the beautiful Scottish Highlands. And we made it back to London on Monday afternoon in time to see some of the Carnival.




I'm a little bit ashamed because I'm usually quite organised about these kind of things. But we certainly made the best of a bad situation. You can't complain about a chance to see more of Scotland.

New Year's Day turned out grey and overcast. As appealing as the thought of just sitting in a warm pub was, I thought I should try to do something a bit energetic. After a quick walk around the outside of Holyrood Palace (the Queen's digs when she visits Haggisville) I headed over to Holyrood Park, a former hunting ground of Scottish monarchs. It was still cold and windy, and the recent rain made the path up to Arthur's Seat muddy and slippery. At the top I had to hold onto the trig point so I wouldn't get blown over.



The view from the top was great. Panoramic views of Edinburgh and across the Firth of Forth (estuary of the Forth River). Since I hadn't had a chance to play frisbee in Scotland, I figured I'd have a bit of throw on the way back down, but throwing a frisbee by yourself gets boring pretty quickly, so I went to have a quick look at what is left of St Anthony's Chapel. On the way back to the hotel, I went past Edinbugh Castle to get a night shot.