My heart's in the highlands...

Oh my goodness, it's been a month since our last post...sorry about that. Well, what have we been up to? Lots of stuff actually. It's amazingly been a pretty decent month, which we have attributed to getting rid of Pinky. Meredith is driving a rental now, which costs a bit of money but it's a drop in the ocean compared to what the pink monster was costing us. Funny story; we sold the car for 250 gbp, as/is to a guy who works for the Council. We made sure to let him know everything that was wrong with it. Meredith got a sketchy vibe from him at the time but we didn't think about it. Anyway, a couple of weeks later he calls Meredith and says he wants to take the car to Doug, a mechanic who worked on it before. However, he wants her to tell Doug that it's still her car and that this guy is borrowing it so he can get a discount. Naturally, Meredith told him to forget it. The whole point of selling the car was to not have to worry about it anymore. So, no disasters lately. Meredith hates her job and I'm really feeling understimulated by mine. Man, I miss doing storytimes at the library.

We have decided on when we are returning to Canada. It'll be the last week in May. I have asked work to extend my LOA until the beginning of June but haven't gotten 100% confirmation yet. However, it shouldn't be a problem. I think that has helped matters as well, since we've (mostly I've) spent the last few months fluctuating between coming home next spring to next summer to "screw it, let's just catch the next flight home". Having somewhat of a schedule brings clarity, I think.

Anyway, pictures. In the first week of October, Walter and Dorothy came to visit and we went up to Scotland for a weekend. I got to meet some inlaws that I didn't even know existed. They all live in Darvel, which is about 30 minutes southwest of Glasgow. It's kind of like the Devon of Scotland). We had a lot of fun, and they are just 'salt of the earth' people. I had some strange nostalgic feelings from this. Being in John and Jenny's (Walter's aunt and uncle) house totally brought me back to being in Grandma and Grandpa Eaton's house in Innisfail. The furniture was exactly the same, the food was the same, it was even too hot in their house by about 10 degrees...hahaha. We were at their house on Saturday.


On Sunday we went to Glasgow for the morning and visited the People's Palace. It is basically a museum of Glasgow's history, with replicas of what a home looked like during the 30s, or an air raid shelter complete with a siren. It also had a greenhouse area kind of like the Muttart Conservatory. After that, we went to the outlying area to see where Walter grew up. He showed us his old stomping grounds and told us how it's changed over the years.

Later that day we went back to Darvel and had dinner at Jim and Jeanette's house (just what is it with the J names ^_^). This is where I had my other strange nostalgic moment. Jeanette reminded me so much of Carmen, it was kind of scary. I just got the same vibe from her, in that she has that sense of what's really important and that 'go for it' mentality.
I couldn't help but feel that they are really lucky to have someone like that. I suppose everyone needs a Carmen in their family.


These last few weekends have been pretty busy. A couple of weeks ago, we went for lunch and a hike with Alan's parents. They're a sweet couple, and we had lots of fun. Also, at lunch Meredith dodged having to eat roast beef with real class. I, on the other hand was in heaven because I got to eat all the roast and yorkshire puddings I could handle. Last weekend we went to Hampton court, which is a big house and garden near our place. It was beautiful.






As you can see, there is an underground garden with a pathway that leads up to the middle of a hedge maze. So cool.










This weekend, Meredith is in Berlin visiting Claire. I opted to stay home, as I couldn't get time off and I'm really not up for flying right now. I'm sure they're having a rocking good time though. Next weekend we're off to Manchester to see the Sex Pistols!!! Meredith scored some tickets in an online lottery thing for my birthday. It's going to be really cool to see them live, even though it's like 30 years past their prime. It's totally a band I'd never get to see in Canada, and they are a big part of rock history. I'm pumped. Meredith isn't too familiar with them, so it'll be fun to see what she thinks. Well, that's it for now. Have a groovy day and if a guy in a green shirt is trying to sell you a pink Volkswagon, don't do it. Love you all.