Nov 30, 2009 | Scotland
Today is St. Andrews Day! It’s a celebration of Saint Andrew, Scotland’s official patron saint. It is therefore a delightful national holiday complete with national festivities and lots of ceilidhs…an all-around smashing good time! I am sorely missing the land of the Scots these days (though I am not particularly missing the weather). Check out Google’s ode to the Scots!
In celebration of Scotland’s National Day, I thought I’d post a couple of my favourite images of Bonnie Bonnie Scotland, so you, too, can revel in the glories of such a beautiful place!
This is Eilean Donan Castle. (Thank Mark for the bonnie photos).
And this has to be one of the most beautiful, and perfectly shaped mountains ever, Buachaille Etive Mor. (Thank Mark for the spelling on that one.)
Now let’s all sing together Scotland’s lovely National Anthem, and afterwards, have a pint!
Flower of Scotland
O Flower of Scotland,
When will we see
Your like again
That fought and died for
Your wee bit Hill and Glen
And stood against him
Proud Edward’s army
And sent him homeward
Tae think again
verse 2
The Hills are bare now,
And Autumn leaves
lie thick and still,
O’er land that is lost now,
Which those so dearly held,
That stood against him,
Proud Edward’s Army,
And sent him homeward,
Tae think again.
verse 3
Those days are past now,
And in the past
they must remain,
But we can still rise now,
And be the nation again,
That stood against him,
Proud Edward’s Army,
And sent him homeward,
Tae think again.
Happy St Andrew’s Day, Scotland! I miss you dearly and hope to see your like again soon.
Nov 4, 2009 | Guest Posts, Scotland, Top Ten Lists
Top of the Week to ya! And this week it’s especially top! Please welcome our first guest poster, Laura Anne! She’s a friend of mine from Bonnie Scotland, who has arranged a special top ten for you this week. If you’d like to read more from this sweet and funny gal, you can check out her blog here! For now it’s on with the show…
Top Ten Ways to Corrupt Your Friend’s Children
So I’ve just spent a week with 2 families on holiday in Cornwall. Enter an almost-5-year-old, a 3-year-old and an 11 month old into my life.
Exit 3 corrupted children…
Amazingly my parenting friends still let me around their children, but if you’d like to have some fun with none of the responsibility like me, here are 10 tips on how you can corrupt your friends’ children. But apply them at your own peril!
10. At a children’s birthday party, teach kids how to eat Milky Ways the ‘proper’ way. Pick off all the chocolate on the outside (sides first, the bottom, then the top last), then eat the soft nougat bit in the middle.
Same principles apply to Jaffa Cakes and Oreos.
In case you're not from the UK, these are Jaffa Cakes! A lovely mess if eaten 'properly.'
9. If you happen to find yourself in a hotel room with your friend’s child – teach them how to throw themselves on/jump on the bed. When parents come in and say “Now no jumping on the bed,” you say “Of course not, no, I would never encourage your child to jump on beds.”
8. Bribe your friends’ daughters into eating their tea (dinner) by offering to paint one of their fingernails or toenails with pink nail varnish for every spoonful they eat.
7. Have many piercings. Kids will ask about them. Then you can tell gory disgusting stories about how each one was done.
6. Entertain babies by rocking out in the form of headbanging with teething toys (noisy ones). By the time they are 18 months old headbanging and moshing will be their preferred methods of dancing and you’ve got the early signs of heavy metal rockstar prodigy right there.
5. Want your friend’s kid to support your football team? Nothing quite like a cute teddy bear dressed in team kit to help them along the way – bear must wear the team scarf. The scarf novelty will make it their favourite bear…and voila…you’ve got another fan!
4. Babysit. With no parents around you can make slides down the stairs with duvets, blow up ready brek in the microwave or get toy lightsabres and re-enact fight scenes from Star Wars.
3. If shopping with children, point out CCTV cameras and tell them that’s ‘elf-vision’…Santa’s preferred method of watching children at all times to see if they should go on his naughty or nice list.
2. Choose your TV programme watching very carefully. If your friend’s kid walks in to find you watching How to Look Good Naked then suddenly you’ll find yourself trying to explain why the lady on the TV thinks she looks hideous and how Gok Wan is trying to help.
1. The ultimate: all children should know we have two stomachs. One for the main course, and the 2nd for puddings and sweeties…but most importantly chocolate and ice cream. That’s why even when kids are ‘full up’ or ‘had enough’ they still have room for pudding!
Thanks for the laughs Laura Anne! And for my American readership, I should note that in the UK ‘pudding’ means any type of dessert, and not just ‘pudding.’
Oct 21, 2009 | Baby Photos, Scotland, South Africa, Stories, Top Ten Lists
Top of the week to ya! This Sunday was the Bear’s 14 Month Birthday, and I think that is just plain special! Since everyone seems to like to see pictures of him, and his grandparents most especially miss him, I thought I would arrange a special Top Ten plus Four for you this week, with 14 of our favourite photos of our special wee man.
Hope you enjoy!
1. This one is from the day he was born… His first good shot in good lighting. (The delivery room was kind of dark at 2 am.)
2. This one is from when my Mom was visiting and helped him nap on his tummy so I could get some rest…
3. Aunt Dodi gave him this adorable onesie and he just posed so well in it!
4. One day, I got ready to take the Bear outside in the Scottish cold. I bundled him up and left the room for a moment, because I’d forgotten something. He started crying while I was away. I wondered why he seemed so upset, but then he got really quiet. This is what I returned to…
5. This was taken the first time he saw a Christmas tree. If you look closely, you can see the lights of the tree in his eyes!
6. This was at a snugly wuggly bafftime.
7. This was also an outfit from Aunt Dodi…also taken in South Africa. How precious is this baby zebra?
8. This was in America when he found his feet for the first time. I had no idea how adorable babies playing with their feet could be. We took lots of pictures of him in this pose because he was just being so adorable. At first we got lots of naked shots, which were of course so cute and funny, but then we decided to slap a nappy on him so that he didn’t grow up to rue the day his parents bought a camera. I think that was a good decision.
9. Here is the Bear, posing as a very very very young version of Rocky. Adwiannnn!
10. You may have already seen this one…still a personal favourite. The hair, the moobs, the drool…fabulous.
11. I call this one ‘the bairn upon the rock’ because this is on the Isle of Skye, in Scotland and ‘bairn’ is a Scots word for child. I don’t know why I love this one. I just do! (Mark was hiding behind the rock to make sure he didn’t fall off!)
12. Sorry, Mom…I just can’t let this one go. I mean look at his face! (And yours! Tehe!)
13. This was at the Bear’s First Birthday Party! He had some of his amazing jungle birthday cake and I think he rather liked it!
14. And here he is … looking almost grown up! Our 14 Month Old Bear!
So that’s the fantastic fourteen! Many thanks to the little bundle bringing us so much joy! Happy Birthday Bear!
Sep 12, 2009 | Scotland, South Africa, Stories
Well folks, we are safely in South Africa and it is really really good to be here. Our most recent travel experiences really deserve a mention. By the end of this you might think I’m writing a paid advertisement for Emirates airline, but honestly, this is just me telling you what a great experience we had. (Although if they wanted to pay me, I would take it!)
This adventure began with our last few days in Scotland, staying with our dear friends Rob and Alice (travelling Rob), and catching up with more friends, (who had birthday prezzies for Asher, no less! thanks Worwy and Sawah [above]!) connecting with friends at church, and catching colds because it was so cold and rainy and wintry. A million thanks to the Andersons for hosting us so graciously (Rob could run a fantastic restaurant of culinary delights), to Adam for driving us to the airport in Glasgow, and to Hope for letting him when she’s so pregnant she’s about to burst and has two wee ones.
We were…shall we say… a bit concerned about our baggage because we thought the Emirates allowances were the same as Continental’s, but we discovered we were mistaken the day before our flight. We were looking at 25 to 35 pounds — that’s British Pound Stirling — per kilogram overweight. And we had none too few extra kilograms. But the travel agents were as friendly as Nessie is hard to find, and did not even mention the extra weight. When we walked away from the counter we felt like kids on Christmas morning. That upgrade we prayed for just happened. They only made me taste two baby food jars at customs (yeah… seriously) and when we arrived at the gate, they came and checked our pram (stroller) for us, and told us although it was checked to Johannesburg, there would be a pram waiting for us while we were at our layover in Dubai. That was great. The layover was more than four hours in the middle of the night, but at least we had a pram! And I am now convinced Dubai is quite possibly the coolest place I’ve never been. (Since the airport doesn’t count).
Our two eight hours flights were easypeasy. On each leg, the flight attendants gave us toys and other stuff for Asher…he got a hand puppet camel on the first flight (along with a colouring book and coloured pencils) and he got a hand puppet tiger for the second leg of the journey! They also gave us baby food, and a little pouch with a rattle, a spoon, baby wipes, a bib, baby lotion… they just really took care of us. And they took Asher’s picture and put it in a little paper frame with an airplane on it. “Best wishes from Emirates to Asher†with the flight number and crew member names. So sweet! He wasn’t looking at the camera so they tried twice. Sweet anyway! We also had a row of four bulkhead seats to ourselves on the first flight, and three bulkhead seats to ourselves for the second. Upgrade!
So here’s my thirty second Emirates promo: “At a time when most airlines are debating charging customers for extra baggage or even for going to the bathroom, Emirates is handing out hot towels and amazing meals. They’re serving cake and ice cream with tea and coffee at snack times. They’re giving kids toys and making sure their families are comfortable. Their prices are competitive, but their customer service blows the competition out of the water. (Or sand dunes, if you will). From perhaps one of the best-traveled babies in the world, Emirates gets a one-tooth smile with lots of drool, and two happy hands up!”
Thanks for allowing that digression. As the story continues, we are now safely in South Africa and it’s great to be here. We arrived in Johannesburg, stayed the night with Mark’s sister, Lyn, (who also had great birthday prezzies for Asher!) The next day was, praise the Lord, our final flight — Johannesburg to Cape Town. Mark felt prompted to wait one more day before buying those tickets with Kulula, a domestic South African airline. A one-day sale started the next day, and (thank you again, Lord!) we saved a huge amount on the tickets. Unfortunately, we did have to pay for our extra baggage on that flight, but since we’d saved so much on the tickets, we pretty much broke even.  And now the real adventure begins! Since I’ve gone a bit long, I will perhaps save the story of our arrival for tomorrow. =)
xCC
Sep 4, 2009 | Scotland, Stories
Hi guys and gals. Thanks for your prayers. We’ve made it safely to Scotland! We just had one slight delay on our long flight from New Jersey to Edinburgh, so we hung out in the airport there for a wee while. Asher was, as usual an absolute star traveller. He didn’t get to sleep until 11 pm Wednesday night and was still his sweet lil’ self yesterday. We’ve been welcomed to Edinburgh with temps in the 50s (Fahrenheit), rain, clouds, wind and darkness. It feels like a confirmation from the Lord that this is not where He wants us anymore. Sure is a cold confirmation! Here’s the top travel story from this adventure:
So you know how the computers at the airport have the touch screens on the front side that are connected to the travel assistant’s computer behind the counter? Well…at our departure from RDU, I swiped my passport to start checking us in, and it didn’t come up as having a travel itinerary, so the flight attendant came to swipe Mark’s and help sort us out. Our computer sort of froze, so she switched to the other touch screen, but went behind the counter to start searching because I still wasn’t coming up on the itinerary. Â Someone else came along to check in and started using the front side of the computer while was she was still busy searching for our itinerary at the back. I tried to say, “I think she’s using that one…” but the lady had a Continental assistant helping her, and they didn’t seem bothered and just kept on checking her in. I thought, guess it’s not a problem then. Eventually the lady helping us found me in the itinerary, checked us in, took our bags, gave us our boarding passes and we were off to se-cur-ity (a la Bon Qui Qui).
But guess what? Â When we arrived in Edinburgh, two of our bags were missing. Where have they gone, you might ask? Well, they were tagged with the labels for the other lady who was using the computer in front of the counter while the flight attendant was taking care of our stuff on the other side! If they’d only listened! So they’re in Portland. Yeah, that’s Oregon. Mark is without all of his clothing, and we’re minus our toiletries, half the baby’s clothes, most of my shoes, and some other stuff. They are supposed to arrive tomorrow, so hopefully Mark can make it in his shorts until then. Thankfully, a lot of our stuff did make it, and nothing is lost per se.
So, yay, we’ve arrived safely. As I’m finishing this, the sun is beginning to break from the clouds. We’re looking forward to seeing our friends around here again. We’ll be here through the weekend and then the journey to South Africa will begin!
xCC
Sep 2, 2009 | Baby Photos, Scotland, South Africa
This is a “Traveling Wednesday” because we are actually traveling today, and a wee ways into tomorrow. Mark, Asher and I are on our way to Scotland for a few days before the journey to South Africa begins. Having a round trip ticket looks better to the US government (since Mark is in the middle of the spousal visa process) and it was cheaper to get a one way from Edinburgh than from North Carolina. (AND we get to say hello and goodbye to our dear friends in Edinburgh again!) We take off tomorrow afternoon and arrive in Scotland Thursday morning. If you fancy praying for us, feel free to pray that Asher will be happy and peaceful, we won’t have any delays and things will go smoothly, our stuff will arrive safely, we’ll get upgraded to better seats and have lots of room, and that there will be warm weather in Scotland when we arrive! =) (No reason not to ask, hey?)
We’ll leave Scotland September 7th, arrive in Johannesburg September 8th, and fly to Cape Town September 9th. Perhaps let’s add in one more prayer — that Asher’s teeth, who are long overdue, won’t decide now’s the time to make their grand appearance. Praise the Lord who is with us in every circumstance and holds all things together…airplanes, suitcases…and even teeth!
xCC
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