Wee Trip to Bonny Scotland

We’ve settled into German life quite seamlessly. Yoga twice a week, (for me), market days for shopping, using our bikes whenever possible for transport.

Yoga is still a challenge in German, but my vocab is slowly improving. I’m not sure how useful it is to be able to say “put your left leg over your left shoulder” and being able to name body parts is not generally part of everyday polite conversation. Oh well, I’ll keep at it.

We recently spent ten 10 days in the UK catching up with friends and family. Pete and Kath graciously let us back in the gate of their lovely house in North Wales, and we got to meet the new addition to the household – Suzy, a Nova Scotia Duck-tolling retriever - no I’m not kidding. At 10 months she’s very sweet and still quite puppy-like. Daisy, the curly coat, adores her but needs admonish her from time-to-time as older bossy dogs do.

Retrieving dogs

We did some lovely walks with the dogs who absolutely love getting out into the woods and getting muddy. Also went to our favourite pub, The Ship, for a shoulder of welsh lamb.

Next stop Glasgow to catch up with sister Helen and cousin Robin and his wife Jan. Weather was mostly kind and we had some really fab meals. Glasgow really does have some brilliant restaurants, and we always eat very very well there. So we had a few fun nights with the gang, and caught up on the goss.

 

Is there anything cuter than a lamb with a black face?

Driving through Ayrshire

We drove across to Edinburgh for 2 nights as I had only spent one day there in 1990. Lawrence’s friend Maggie (from school days!!) came down to meet us and we had a fab Cook’s Tour of Edinburgh. We also did a spooky ghost tour of the underground vaults of the city. We very disappointed not to get a kick in the bum or a head-butt from any ghostly beings of the night.

 

Edinburgh Castle is still there!!

Scottish Parliament - maybe about to make history - again.

Lawrence and Maggie taking a break

Business wise, things are cranking up and Lawrence is doing lots of stuff with Stuart and will be doing some consulting in the Netherlands next month. I’m still just being a Hausfrau and enjoying it!

Having spent 6 months in Italy, one had developed a bit of a ‘pasta belly’. Continuous pasta, pizza, pastries and panini didn’t do wonders for the waistline, so I’ve been ‘reducing’. It’s been fun cooking lots of different foods on my health kick – including cauliflower-crust pizza!! If you want the recipe, let me know. Lawrence really thought I’d lost the plot when I told him what I’d be cooking, but he really liked it – maybe he was just being polite, but then again – that’s not his usual style.

We are heading back to the UK in Boris at the end of June for an expo thingy for people who are into ‘overlanding’ on motorbikes and 4WDs etc. We are hoping to get lots of good info and maybe meet some potential travel buddies. We’d really like to do The Stans, Mongolia and Siberia with others but need to be careful about finding like-minded people that don’t need hand holding and won’t drink all our wine.

We are both really looking forward to being back in Boris. So many people ask us if we are loving being in a flat, staying in one place, having more space etc. Generally the answer is ‘yes’, but we’d both go back to our nomadic life in a heartbeat and we really miss living in Boris. Who’d a thought?

I’d forgotten what a bore housework is…

 

Dog-sitting Logan, Stuart's Border Terrier