Edinburgh Escapades

Many moons ago, my Grandad's sister and family emigrated to Australia to start a new life in the sun. 30-odd years later, they returned to Scotland for a couple of weeks to catch up with everything they've missed. Like the rain, the accent, the family, and.. well, some more of the rain.

Personally I had never been to a Family Reunion style event before, so the prospect of this one rather interested me, but the same time I was rather skeptical. My brother and I were undoubtedly going to be the youngest there and the Australian relatives hadn't seen my dad since he was my age, but my skeptical views soon vanished as we arrived. Edinburgh has long been one of my favourite cities

The hotel looked lovely (above) and was indeed lovely once we were inside. There had been a mix up with where we had originally booked, so we were transferred and to be honest, I think we got the better deal. :)

This sunny disposition carried on through out the day as we wandered around the city, in the sunshine and took in various touristy places of interest like the Museum. (Seeing as we'd failed to go there each time we'd visited prior.)


The evening went very well, the family were lovely and I think everyone had a good time. If I had of been thinking ahead, I'd have taken a picture of the waffle I ordered for pudding, it was the best waffle ever! According to Glen anyway. When not eating there was an odd mix of Australian and Scottish accents flying over the table, which created a very strange atmosphere, almost as if it wasn't really happening. We all enjoyed it anyway, and it was nice to catch up with parts of your family you'd never otherwise have known about. Rather sad though too as my grandad didnt get to see them again, having died when I was knee high to a grasshoppper. (The only other thing that annoyed me utmost was the fact that due to one person mishearing an introduction, I was called me Emma. ¬_¬ I am now the proud owner of a name badge.)

The following day, the sunny weather had disappeared, I swear it was because I'd thought about blogging, and the rain had set in. Giving up on the hope of shopping, a trip to the Royal Yacht Britannia was planned; however we still managed to get soaked as half the tour was outside on the decks. Formidable Scottish climate. The Australian lot who visited were saying that its in the mid 30s degree in their winter. They were amused to hear we're lucky to get that in the summer...

Speaking of weather; as I mainly do on this blog, then again I am Heather with the Weather according to James, my mum and I were watching the news this afternoon. Amongst the usual weather reports came a special bulletin were shocked to see that residents of Sedgeberrow, the small village we are going on holiday to deep in the heart of the Cotswolds, had had to be air lifted to safety from their rooftops by the RAF! Pershore and most of Worcestershire are suffering extreme flash floods, with thundering rainstorms flooding the landscape. Lets just say, my wellies are packed..

Having discussed the weather situation with James over MSN, saying that he'd best watch the news for sightings of a Scottish girl wearing brightly coloured wellies rowing in circles in the middle of a field, he suggested that I blog it if it does happen. With pictures captioned as follows-

"And this is me trying to row."

"This is me failing to row and cursing heavily at the person who invented floods and boats."

"Me giving up eating a Moaoam waiting to be rescued."

"This was the super cool helicopter that saved me and my bright wellies."

"Oh and there's me waving to a nearby film crew.."

"There's me falling out of the helicopter into a tree..''

"Oh, that was as I landed in my boat, even further up a creek without a paddle."

And so on and so forth. I really shouldn't jest, I could see it happening to me. This may not make sense to anyone else, it will resonate with Shaun and James, but the reason there is an injoke about rowing is all donw to one day we spent in Angew Park. Two Boats, 6 people, 2 English random people with oars, and a whole lot of Maoams resulted in a very fun day. Which I will blog about later in the summer.