Amanda and Alistair's Excellent Adventure

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2011-09-05T00:57:00.000-07:00

London, Paris, Tokyo....

2009-03-09T14:07:00.000-07:00

...well, two of the three anywayThe view from our Tokyo hotel room down to the street
The view to the horizon
We Will Rock You at the Dominion Theatre

...well, two of the three anyway!

Yes, I´ve been slack at updating the blog constantly through. What can I say, I´ve been out enjoying my holiday, not staying in writing about it :P

We head off from Tokyo today and will be home tomorrow. I´ll do some catch up posts for London and Tokyo then.

Highlights from London and Tokyo have been (not necessarily what would be seen as traditional holiday high points):
London

Seeing the crazy squirrels in Hyde Park and enjoying the retreat from the hustle of the city - we even had a picnic lunch there one day
Watching ¨We Will Rock You¨ at the Dominion Theatre and getting up and joining in for a number of the songs. A large part of the fun of this one was seeing all the people who didn´t know what they´d got themselves into and who didn´t want to stand and clap :)
Visiting the British Museum and seeing the cool glass roof over between such old buildings
Shopping in Vivienne Westwood and Agent Provocateur in London

Tokyo

Realising I haven´t totally forgotten my Japanese and it comes back more each day
Walking along Omotesando and through the Omotesando Hills building
Wandering through various department stores in Shinjuku
Exploring the stationery sections in department stores - I love Japanese stationery
Eating dinner entirely from convenience store food - yum!
Meeting up with my friend Nobuko for lunch - we lived together on the Gold Coast when I was at Uni
The view from our hotel room at night - our travel agent Maria is a saint - we got an excellent upgrade here in Tokyo and also in Singapore
Catching the train from Narita to Tokyo and going through similar looking country areas to where I lived in in Nagano all those years ago - the good memories came flooding back and I had a silly grin on my face
Buying local sweets in both the UK and Japan

Alistair may well have different hightlights, but he´s not writing this blog :P

Last couple of days in Aberdeen

2009-03-05T14:38:00.000-08:00

Amanda, Alistair, cousin Laura, cousin Lyn and Lyn´s son Cameron (the cheeky one making us laugh!)

We had a busy couple of days at the end of last week.

On Thursday we went out to afternoon tea with Aunty Margaret and Uncle Eddie at the Gordon Highlander´s Museum, which was lovely. That evening we took Derek and Carol out to their local, the Ferryhill, for a wonderful dinner.

On Friday we headed to Inverurie and visited Alistair´s Granny with Uncle Ian again. Following on from that we met Ian´s daughters Lyn and Laura, as well as Lyn´s son Cameron. All the girls were at school. Once Aunty Kath had finished work we went to lunch with her and Ian.

That evening we had dinner at Valentine Drive and said goodbye to Aunty Cyn, Uncle Gordon, Jenna, David and Georgia.

Derek and Carol kindly drove us to the airport early Saturday morning and we have spent nearly a week in London.

We´ve had a great week here in London, but I´ve run out of time to blog tonight. :( I must get some sleep before we fly out to Tokyo in the morning.

Using Cameron´s choice of words as we were leaving Inverurie - ¨See ya stinkies!¨. Alistair, Laura and I nearly fell on the ground laughing at that gem :)

Photos of Fraserburgh

2009-03-05T14:19:00.003-08:00

The Fraserburgh town square
The Fraserburgh harbour
Photos just for Jenny :)

Alistair and I went exploring on our own during our last week in Scotland. Thanks again to Uncle Gordon for so generously lending us his car so we could get around.

We drove up to Fraserburgh and then had breakfast in Peterhead. These are both small towns up north from Aberdeen. I really enjoyed driving around in the scottish countryside - it is so pretty and green compared to Oz at the moment.

Visiting Baxters and Huntly

2009-03-05T14:11:00.001-08:00

The whisky shop at Baxters - yes more whisky! Well, when in Scotland....
Dean´s shortbread factory in Huntly

While away for the weekend we also visited Baxters - home of lots of yummy food. They had a number of shops onsite, including an old store that now houses a wide range of whisky. It was surprising how many we had tried.

We visited Huntly, where Alistair´s Granny used to live. There is a big shortbread factory here, and the smell of the place was unbelievable - the whole area smelled like sweet sweet shortbread and it really made you want to eat it. We sampled quite a few types of shortbread there :)

Overnight in Keith - and more whisky!

2009-03-05T13:49:00.001-08:00

Alistair, Derek and I sampling Macallan at the distillery
The Strathisla Distillery near Keith - the shape of the building is used for the Whisky Trail and much of the advertising for this area due to the unique shape.
The Macallan Distillery
The original house at the Macallan Distillery
Alistair and I at the house at Macallan

Unsurprisingly, our time in this area had a lot to do with whisky as it is in the middle of the whisky trail. We went to Macallan and sampled the whisky and delicious whisky liquer. We drove all over the countryside and saw a lot of distilleries and also all the whisky in storage.

Carol´s family is in Keith and we stayed overnight there. We had a lovely dinner with them and then sampled more whisky by the fire. Carol´s mum cooked a great roast beef dinner including ´nips and tatties (parsnip mash and potato mash for the Aussies). We followed up with a divine lemon meringue pie. Carol´s dad was very generous in bringing out quite a few of his wonderful whiskies to try and significantly added to Alistair, Derek and my count of whiskies tried. He had some wonderful single malts I had never even heard of and I enjoyed them thoroughly. I giggled over the sound of the glug glug jug we used to put water in our whiskies and now Carol and I both want one for ourselves.

Next stop - Loch Ness

2009-03-05T13:29:00.000-08:00

Urquhart Castle ruins on Loch Ness
Carol (sideways?? sorry!) standing above the ¨no climbing on walls¨ sign taking photos :)
A trebuchet at Urquhart Castle (sideways!). It is absolutely HUGE - the people look small next to it.
Alistair and I at Loch Ness - can anyone see Nessie?
Derek falling into Loch Ness

We headed for Loch Ness on Sunday morning after breakfast. It was bigger than I expected and quite beautiful. It was also closer to Inverness - I had this impression that it was well off the beaten path, but it didn´t take us long to get there.

Our last weekend in Scotland

2009-03-05T13:18:00.000-08:00

Our hotel in Inverness - our room was just above the ¨E¨ in the Hotel part of the sign on the left of the building.

Thanks to Derek and Carol taking yet another couple of days of work to show us around Scotland, we got to see quite a lot on our last weekend in Scotland. We spent Saturday night in Inverness and had a nice dinner out with quite a few drinks too. Alistair and Derek nearly ordered a round with 3 nips of whisky at about $150 each - oops! That´s what you get for just choosing something from behind the bar because it is a whisky you haven´t tried yet.
The River Ness
Inverness Castle - just across the river from our hotel - we could see it from our window.

Visiting the Cairngorms

2009-03-05T01:59:00.002-08:00

Enjoying the sunshine and wind at the Cairngorms. Carol and Derek took us exploring up around Inverness and the Cairngorms. We were hoping to go up to the summit on the Funicular Railway, and even had tickets, but it was shut for the day due to the extreme winds that were occuring. This is clearly evidenced by my hair in the photo above. You can see the people skiing in the background.

Skiing Scotland style
The view from the carpark of the Cairngorms ski resort.

We had lunch at Aviemore and then continued on through the countryside to Inverness.

Lunch at the Inversnecky

2009-03-05T01:48:00.001-08:00

Mmm, lunch at the Inversnecky! We saw this funny sign at the beach - I don't think you could call this a resort by any stretch of the imagination. Remember, we were here in the snow a couple of days ago and people were kite snowboarding across the road.
A Highland Cow - finally got to see one up close!

We had lunch at the Inversnecky and then a bit of a drive around the countryside and went to another beach for a wander. There was a nice walk through the dunes, past pillbox amourments and other signs of the war. Who would´ve wanted to invade Aberdeen and surrounds?

Royal Deeside with Uncle Gordon

2009-03-05T01:37:00.000-08:00

The Burn O´Vat - there is a cave hidden up behind the waterfall through this gap in the rocks. We were unable to go up there as the water was quite high from the snow melt.
The view from up above the Burn O´Vat
Alistair and I up above the Burn O´Vat - it was cold and a little bit wet! Do you like our matching jackets?

We explored Royal Deeside with Uncle Gordon and then had dinner at Derek and Carol´s with all of their family plus Uncle Eddie, Aunty Margaret and Elizabeth. Uncle Eddie was the one snapping photos at dinner, so they´ll have to wait.

Day tripping with Aunty Margaret and Uncle Eddie

2009-03-05T01:19:00.000-08:00

The gardens and pigeon coop at Crathes Castle
Crathes Castle

The falls of Feugh - where salmon jump up the stream in spring.

Aunty Margaret and Uncle Eddie took us out for a day trip to Crathes Castle and the falls of Feugh. These are both places Alistair remembers going as a child :) There were stories of bringing the family and car loads full of food to eat.

Uncle Eddie also had old home movies converted to DVD with each of these places on them. Also on that DVD was some footage of Aunty Margaret and Uncle Eddie´s wedding day, where I could have thought it was Alistair as a child at the church, when in fact it was his dad. The likeness was amazing! I´m sure Mum2 has exactly the same picture of Alistair on the wall in Adelaide - they look interchangable!

Uncle Eddie took many more photos and was kind enough to give us a copy of them all. Unfortunately they are on CD, so you´ll have to wait until we get home to see his brilliant photos.

Taking a break

2009-03-01T13:00:00.000-08:00

Hmm, I think I´ve posted enough for tonight. Please have a look lower down for some new photos. I´ll do some more catch up photos tomorrow.

Yesterday we wandered down to Oxford Street and Selfridges. It was extremely crowded and not all that pleasant to be constantly jostled.

Today we wandered around Hyde Park, marveling at the cute squirrels and looking at all the lovely geese, ducks and other birds in this inner city sanctuary. I´m so glad we´re right next to this green expanse. We also visited the Victoria and Albert Museum which was spectacular. The building alone is worth visiting.

Tomorrow we´ll wander along Bond Street again as well as head to Leicester Square to try and pick up some cheaper tickets to see We Will Rock You tomorrow night. I´m also hoping to have a walk around Notting Hill, Soho and Portobello Markets.

Royal Yacht Britannia

2009-03-01T12:33:00.000-08:00

The Royal Yacht Britannia was in service for the Queen from 1954 until 1997.
While the royal parts of the yacht are lovely, the officers didn´t get such lavish quarters.

It was cold on deck, and I have no idea what we are all doing.
Here are Alistair, Derek and I in the Officer´s bar. Note the silly audio thing in my hand - you could use it as a weapon, and I really wonder how many have disappeared overboard.

Dinner at Aunty Margaret´s

2009-03-01T12:20:00.000-08:00

Here we are before dinner at Aunty Margaret´s. Clockwise from the bottom left are Uncle Eddie, Aunty Cyn, Alistair, me, Carol, Jenna, Uncle Gordon and Jenna. Aunty Margaret must be fetching us girls more Buck´s Fizz. Here is Georgia crawling for the first time.
Aunty Cynthia got caught licking the spoon from the trifle - that is Carol and Aunty Margaret looking on, very amused. Aunty Cyn couldn´t believe someone caught her - I bet she won´t laugh when Derek tells her it´s on our blog!

More snow in Aberdeen

2009-03-01T12:12:00.001-08:00

Here are a couple of shots of the snow on the first night we arrived in Aberdeen. It was so snowy and slippery out in the car. I was glad we weren´t driving ourselves!

Dinner on our first night in Aberdeen

2009-03-01T12:06:00.000-08:00

Here´s Alistair´s Uncle Gordon and his grand daughter Georgia. Alli, doesn´t she look gorgeous in her Aussie Bonds? I swear it makes up half of her wardrobe!

This is our first night in Aberdeen, out to dinner with Derek (Alistair,s cousin) and his family. Around the table anti clockwise from the bottom left are: Carol (Derek´s wife), Aunty Cyn, Jenna (Derek´s sister), Georgia (Jenna´s daugther), Uncle Gordon, Alistair and I.

London´s calling

2009-02-28T10:43:00.000-08:00

Well we´ve made it safely to London.

The hotel certainly has some ´charm´ - but that´s what you get in a place built in the 1850s. Our room is the size of a small walkin robe and slopes in four different directions. That said it will be perfect for the next week and we´re currently looking out onto Hyde Park from our bed (not that there is any room to sit anywhere else).

We need to download photos to the computer from the last week so once we do that we´ll try and post again tomorrow. (Happy with that Kek?)

Alistair

Edinburgh weekend

2009-02-22T01:18:00.000-08:00

Here are Carol, Alistair and I at Tigerlily for drinks. Note the Mojito - and my desperation to drink it! There is also the ever present whisky for Derek and Alistair - he has now had 18 different whiskies and counting. I´ve also sampled nearly that many - when in Scotland, do as the Scots do. It sure helps ward off the cold.

We had a great weekend of shopping, dining and wandering around Edinburgh with Derek and Carol.

This is Tigerlilly from the outside. We we had great dinner and drinks on here on Sunday night.

Here is Edinburgh Castle with some random woman who wandered into shot.

Alistair got some new shoes

2009-02-22T01:09:00.000-08:00

Alistair got some gorgeous Churchs (why doesnt my apostrophe work?!?) for Valentines Day. They are a lovely dark green colour.

Some of our purchases

2009-02-22T01:02:00.000-08:00

Amanda got shoes for g0ing out.

She also got a lovely Mulberry bag that is a much darker colour than it looks here.

Derek and Carol's

2009-02-13T10:29:00.000-08:00

Here are some photos of Derek and Carol's (Alistair's cousins) street. They are kind enough to let us stay with them while we are in Aberdeen and are also showing us around. We are heading to Edinburgh with them on the weekend.

Alistair's Granny

2009-02-13T10:22:00.000-08:00

Today we went to visit Alistair's Granny at Blythewood House.

It was wonderful to meet the woman who I had only spoken to on the phone previously.

Alistair's uncle Ian was kind enough to come and pick us up and take us there.

Granny has asked us to visit her again before we leave.

Mum2, I hope you like the photos :)

The naughty little puppy we spend lots of time with

2009-02-13T10:08:00.000-08:00

Here is Bodie - the dog of boundless energy and jaws of steel.

Bodie is Derek and Carol's (Alistair's cousins) dog. We are staying with Derek and Carol and Bodie stops me from missing my boys too much. He is a beagle cross spaniel (allegedly cocker, more likely springer). He is absolutely gorgeous, but doesn't know when to stop.

He loves playing in the snow.

Now where was I?

2009-02-13T09:06:00.000-08:00

Ah, yes, Sunday in sunny Aberdeen!

We had dinner at Alistair's Aunty Margaret's house. The girls started with Buck's Fizz. Dinner was lovely and we had a veritable feast. It was great to catch up with Elizabeth too, and she really appreciated the Cadbury Dream :). I think someone tipped Aunty Margaret off on the Tim Tams, as she asked about them!

Monday and Tuesday were spent shopping on Union Street and surrounds. Tuesday night we had drinks at Derek and Carol's local, the Ferryhill.

Wednesday we went to visit Jenna in hospital after her ankle operation, then went and saw David and Mhairi at Valentine Drive. All of you who are not family probably need a family tree about now - I could do with one too, though it is all a lot clearer after meeting everyone.

We also went to the beach on Wednesday - look how warm it was! There was only the two of us, so we had to take photos of each other.

You can also see the Scottish winter version of kite surfing - kite snowboarding.

Yesterday we went for a drive and then had lunch at the Dutch Mill with Elizabeth. Last night was great with going to Elizabeth's work for dinner, then to see Bolt 3D, which was great. I giggled at Alistair, Derek and Carol in their 3D glasses.

Perth - Aberdeen

2009-02-12T02:13:00.000-08:00

We spent our first night in Perth, at a lovely hotel called the Isle of Skye. We had a lovely carvery dinner and a fairly early night. The picture above is the view from our hotel room window.

The next morning we went into the centre of town for a great breakfast and the best coffee I'd had in a week! I'm really struggling with the coffee here - it's just not the same.

We did a little shopping and then took the coast road back to Aberdeen, stopping in Montrose for "lunch". Lunch was really just dessert!

We also stopped at Stonehaven on the way back, where it was very cold and windy and there was snow on the beach.

We went to Valentine Drive and had dinner out with Cyn, Gordon, Jenna and Georgia as well as Carol and Derek. Derek took some photos, so we'll have to try and get them.

Alistair and Derek had fun shovelling snow and trying to get Cyn's car out of the driveway. I'll get the photo that Jenna cheekily took of them at work.

Updates

2009-02-11T01:13:00.000-08:00

Good Morning!

Gee, I'm already pretty bad at updating this, sorry! So how is it we've ended up here with one in twenty year weather? It's freezing here (literally), however I won't complain too much as I know things are much worse at home. My condolences go out to anyone who has lost a home, a family member, friend or pet in the bushfires. If only you could have some of our cold and snow!

So, we eventually got out of Heathrow and proceeded up to Aberdeen....well that was the plan. We actually circled Aberdeen for about 30 minutes and then we were diverted to Edinburgh as Aberdeen airport was closed. The next part of the fun was that the pilot had exceeded his flying hours for the day, so even if they opened the airport again, he couldn't fly us up there. There was going to be about an hour wait, and then a bus ride to Aberdeen :( By this time it was about 4pm, and we had been scheduled to get into Aberdeen at about 10:30am. We had been awake for nearly 48 hours straight and were totally sick of travelling.

We finally worked out the phone numbers and called Carol. She insisted we were not going to catch the bus, which would have probably taken about 4 hours in the snow. What an angel! Carol and Derek left work early and drove down to Edinburgh to pick us up - it was wonderful to get in a comfy car instead of public transport.

To be continued....with photos

Good Morning

2009-02-06T01:00:00.000-08:00

Is anybody reading?

We've landed in the UK, and we're stuck at Heathrow due to the weather. Our flight in was delayed, then our connecting flight was cancelled...bummer!

We've now been travelling for over 24 hours on little sleep and we're a bit over it.

We'll get there soon enough and I bet it's sunny and warm in Aberdeen :P It is currently snowing and only 1* in London.

...and another thing

2009-02-05T05:07:00.000-08:00

Alistair bought me a pretty shiny thing at Tiffany.

Happy Chinese New Year

2009-02-05T04:59:00.000-08:00

Sitting in QANTAS club in Singapore. Too tired to write anything interesting. Annoyed our flight has been delayed, but happy we won´t be getting in to London any later than planned. I´ll update with more photos later or maybe from the UK.

xxx

Why are we waiting?

2009-02-01T20:08:00.000-08:00

Weŕe sitting in Sydney patiently (NOT) waiting for boarding time. This sitting around in airports is probably the hardest part of traveling for me. At least once you are on the plane you are usually on your way.

I am grateful that Alistair traveled for work enough that he has access to the Qantas business class lounge - I think I´d be really annoyed without the perks that come with it ;)

So I´m waiting as patiently as I can, hoping the time will pass quickly. Now, if I could have a nap I´d be fine! That´d make the waiting much more bearable.

The bags are packed!

2009-02-01T02:30:00.000-08:00

Well we think we're ready for our trip. Our big adventure begins tomorrow morning. I didn't sleep much last night, so tonight isn't looking good ;)

We'll be well on our way to Singapore at this time tomorrow night, and hopefully I'll be catching up on some sleep.

I hope our meals aren't like those Virgin ones Jenny! Thanks for sharing - we won't be eating any custard like substances we're served.

We'll probably check in again in a couple of days with some news from Singapore.

2009-01-28T22:58:00.000-08:00

Well, I've succumbed, here is our shiny new blog to record our adventure.

Alistair and I head off on our adventure Monday morning.

One more day of work to go :)

I'll post more once we're on our way. First we have to get through our last day at work tomorrow, then pack over the weekend.