Daily Archives: July 11, 2013

So today started as most days after a night at Gilbert and Jenny’s:  Frank and I were slightly dehydrated and unable to bend over without getting dizzy.  Par for the course… But at least we could sleep in a bit because the first order of business wasn’t scheduled until 10am:  Gillian was getting her first tattoo.  She’s been pestering me to get one since she was 16 and I kept insisting that she would be perfectly within her rights to get one when she was 18.  So in April she turned 18 and today she went to the Top Mark tattoo shop in Stirling and got this tattooed on her right hip:I’d post a picture of the actual ink but it’s kinda messy right now.  It’s a Gaelic phrase that translates to “live and learn” – or at least that’s what she thinks.  If it doesn’t, please don’t tell her.

We spent half an hour while Darryl worked on her hip and I chatted with one of the other tattoo artists who happened to be from outside Salinas, California. He and his wife have lived in Scotland for the last 8 years as she was finishing her schooling:  getting a PhD in English literature.  Yes, I think I have found a more oddly matched couple profession wise than me and Frank.  We thought we were unusual being the mechanic-PhD economist couple.  We think the tattoo artist-PhD in English literature couple might just have us beat!

Half and hour and no major complaints later, she was being bandaged up (with cling wrap!) and given after care instructions which included recommendations for specific lotions and creams – including using Bepanthen twice a day for three days.  In the US, it might be marketed as Desitin.  Yes, Gillian gets to treat her new tattoo with nappy cream!  (That was the best laugh of the morning for me!)

Then we stopped at the Bluebell Tea Room for a hot chocolate, coffee and gluten free cakes (Victoria sponge and a brownie – both excellent) while Frank and Duncan ran errands for my mother-in-law.  We then met up with our niece Amy and hit the town!  Of all the places we had rummaged through the rummagable, we hadn’t done so in our own back yard so we hit all the British Heart Foundation, Red Cross, Oxfam, Shelter, PSDA shops we could find.  We were pretty successful and came away with more books, a wooly jumper, a flannel and a few other odds and sods.

Then lunch at the City Walls pub – which is a neat place actually built into the city wall of Stirling with a lovely roof terrace where we could eat our bar lunch in the screaming sunshine.  Scotland has outdone itself again with beautiful sunny skies and temperatures in the high 70’s and low 80’s.  Gammon steaks, steak pie, Chicken Balmoral and chicken tikka – typical Scottish pub food – were on the menu for us today.

Then back to the shops.  Gillian has also been looking for a messenger bag – a very particular messenger bag which to me looks like a airline bag from the 1970’s but she is quite keen on.  We saw many versions in leather in Italy for upwards of 100 euros but that was out of her price range.  We saw a sporty, non-leather version in Schuh for 45 pounds which was much more up her alley and so another purchase procured.  Even Duncan enjoyed some success, purchasing his first pair of Doc Martin’s.  This brings the ‘trips to Europe where Duncan has bought shoes’ count to three straight.  (Cue Imelda Marcos joke.)

We decided to complete the day with a quick trip to the only charity shop in Bridge of Allan – they are generally too posh for such things – and found that even the cheap stuff in a posh town tends to be posh.  We ran into Jean and Jimmy on the high street and got a chance to say cheerio as we’ll be off to Troon tomorrow.  They recommended one last stop:  a charity shop in Dunblane so we made one last run and procured even more books before heading back home.

The rest of the afternoon was spent packing and doing wash as tomorrow we vacate this lovely flat and head to the west coast for more family visits:  with my family this time. I see more wine drinking and world problem solving discussions in my future… but first we have to figure out how to get all this stuff into our cases.  That took the better part of an hour and half a bottle of wine to manage.  Then off to a quiet dinner just the four of us before a final visit with Tom and Una and Gran.

Steps: 16, 877 or 7.27 miles

Number of papers with Andy Murray on the front page: 0 (but we did get to see the gold post box in Dunblane!)

Another morning with no set schedule so I was up and out for a run early while Frank helped run some errands with Una for his mom.  Then it was bacon rolls all around and we were out for the morning visit to Gran.

Once we had popped round to check in, we headed east under cloudy skies with fairly cool temperatures.  This was the Scottish weather we had planned for! We headed to Falkirk to continue the quest for Gillian’s jumpers.  We must have hit 6 or 8 charity shops (thrift stores in the US) looking for donated wooly things but with no luck.  My quest for books that I can’t get at home was much more successful.  Wandered into the Waterstones on the high street and they not only had the Camilla Lackberg book I was looking for – the next one in the series – but they also had the most recently translated one still in hardcover that I thought wasn’t going to be available in English anywhere until the fall.  Score!

I bought both and then we wandered into the charity shop 4 doors down the road and what to do I see on the shelf:  the paperback book I JUST BOUGHT for full price in the book shop!  So I bought the second hand one for 2 pound and returned the new one that I paid 8 quid for to the book shop.  The difference was enough for a bottle of wine!

Then a light lunch at a tea room where I got a jacket potato with Coronation Chicken, Gillian got a chicken and mango chutney wrap – Frank got the panini version – and Duncan got a haggis and cheese toastie with sweet chili sauce.  He insists that it was delicious and I was glad I had an excuse not to have a taste.  Eew.

Then off for some history.  By the time we were finished with lunch, the sun had broken through the clouds and it looked like another lovely, albeit cooler, day was on tap. Today’s destination was Linlithgow palace where Mary Queen of Scots (and many other Stewarts) were born and lived.  The palace dates back to the 12 century and although a ruin now, it is a very well preserved ruin.  We arrived on a day when there were junior tour guides in from the local school and we did a short tour with two young lassies (around 12 or 14) in period dress who pointed out some of the features of the palace.  Like the fact that the fireplace in the great hall is the largest in Scotland.  Very well done and very interesting.  A climb up Margaret’s Bower gave some beautiful views of the the loch and the surrounding countryside.  Frank even made it up the tower for a wee peek and then headed back down to terra firma.

Because no outing is complete without some stained glass, we popped into St. Michael’s church next door to the palace which is now a parish church for the Church of Scotland but was once the royal church for the palace.  Dating back nearly as long as the palace, it is a lovely place, also very well maintained, with some amazing stained glass windows in the east transept.  They certainly don’t date back to 1242 when the building was consecrated (more like 1992) but they are stunning nevertheless.

So our history lesson more or less complete, we continued east to South Queensferry, a lovely wee town just to the south of the Firth of Forth with stunning views of the Firth and both the road and rail bridges.  It was time for a treat so we got some ice cream from a local shop – Duncan’s was Malteser flavored and Frank had Irn Bru sorbet! – and had a little wander around.

Then it was back for the afternoon visit to Gran before our evening out in Cambusbarron at Gilbert and Jenny’s house.  This time we didn’t even pretend that we would be in a fit state to drive home and we walked the 1.5 miles from the flat.  It was lovely as always to see them and hear about their holiday in Turkey and how Gilbert dislocated his shoulder – not something anyone wants to do in Turkey I would think.  Chinese was the take away of the night – it still amazes me how much ethnic cuisine differs across areas.  Frank and Gillian had a dish that was called Kung Pao chicken and yet it was nothing like what we would get at home ordering the same dish.  I got a version of sweet and sour chicken that didn’t have the meat breaded.  It was very tasty but again, nothing like what we get at home:  much more tomato flavor to the sauce and actual tomatoes in the dish with the chicken. But they do have one thing here that we don’t and should:  prawn crackers! I’m sure they are incredibly bad for you but oh so tasty!  They went well with the food and all the wine and beer that was consumed.  As Gilbert had to work on Thursday, we took our leave and walked back to the flat, arriving just before midnight.

Steps:  15, 590 or 6.71 miles (much of which was up and down tower steps in the palace)

Number of days Andy Murray is on the front page: 4ish.  He only made it to the tabloid papers today.  The other papers were screaming about the heatwave.  Apparently, the rail lines around Edinburgh got too hot yesterday for the trains to run so they had to pack folks onto buses.  The headline on the Herald says: “Scotland swelters in 84 degree temperatures”!!!!