Scotland

For our first thirty nine and a half years – we didn’t even meet. We had no idea of each others existence either. And then we start seeing each other for six months. Now a week apart feels like an eternity! Especially for me since I have “out of site out of mind” tendencies. Thank Heavens for text messaging! There is no way I’ll forget Iceman on a short week apart. Strange how easy it is to get used to (addicted to?) sleeping next to another person. But I am pissed as hell that he will not attend my graduation ceremony in Edinburgh though. I was not clear enough that I did want him to be there (in fact I didn’t say that at all) so he is going climbing in Italy with friends while I’m in Scotland. As Opera Soloist told me: “don’t punish him for something he does not know”, so I can’t really be pissed at him – but I can however nag about it on my blog! Love this venting! It’s easier to act mature in real life this way.

Short Voluptuous Friend (SVF) and I took off for Scotland to go biking – or cycling as they say there. What a wonderful country! All men are hunks! (or I’m just ovulating…). I’m sure it’s because Iceman has a touch of red in his beard that I now have a red-beard-radar and it was going on high in the Highlands, that’s for sure.

Since SVF and I started our vacation in a MTB park we were surrounded by sporty hunks. The trip there from Edinburgh was like something out of an old Twilight Zone episode (at least I kept hearing that music). SVF and I were dressed in our biking-gear (cycling for you Britts) and boarded a buss full of old people. They where all dressed up in very classy outfits, the ladies had make-up tastefully applied on their lily white skin (all British women seam to have perfect lily white skin as if it has never ever seen a ray of sun), and there where no ware to sit but on the floor. Could this be the right bus?! Turned out that old people like to have “a day out” and took the bus to Peebles which is right before you get to the Glentress forest. Oh and there where no bus stops once you where out of the city. You had to waive the bus down in order to get on. We had asked if the bus went to Glentress so the driver had written a note and attached to the steering wheel in order to remember to let us off there.

Yes we had rented top of the line mountain bikes and did some tracks for two days. We did not manage to get quite as muddy as most of the other riders though. We’ll charge more next time.

Back to Edinburgh and Graduation ceremony with a garden party. There is nothing like drinking champagne before lunch! My mom and her husband, my sister and her oldest daughter was there with me as was Short Voluptuous Friend. It’s such a big moment and it was even more important when I got to share it with people I love.

Not only are the men good looking and the women have beautiful complexion, but the Scottish people where all so nice and accommodating as well. If you haven’t been to Scotland yet: go! There is the weather though. A group of Italian tourists asked the front desk at their hotel if they knew what the weather forecast was. “It’s going to rain all summer” was his reply. Not a very selling one I might add. We didn’t get as much rain as they had “promised” though. SVF even got a sun burn – she has some British blood and that explains the sun burn more than the weather however.

This fun place we found to eat at was called Two Thin Laddies. Rustic looking interior – sort of like you would find in Tahoe City – and excellent food with large servings. The delicious looking chocolate cakes hade notes on them: “made by the step-mothers” and they looked and tasted homemade! Art was hanging all over the walls to look at and to buy. I was going to until I saw the descriptive text of what the artist had meant with the paintings. Not at all what I saw them as. Could be a good idea to let art be just art: let the beholder judge what it mean. Write a book if you want to TELL it instead.

Our last three days we went up to Pitlochry and stayed at the Poplars. The bike rental place we used had given us nice rout suggestions with maps and even detailed information of when to turn and so on. The bikes had these cool computer things on them that could do all kinds of things even if we just used them for time and distance – oh and speed of course! We could have used the detailed information if we really wanted to, but then we wouldn’t have been as lost as we now managed to get. Two days we went biking and both days we got lost. After riding a hill up on the lowest possible gear on a very narrow and winding road (not sure if cars could fit on it) we reached the top and where rewarded with a fantastic down hill ride for about twenty minutes (it took one hour to ride up the way we came). When we where finally down and so ready to find a place to eat we realise that we are miles and mils off from where we thought we were. Very low blood sugar level now. It was time to “walk that extra mile”. We rode on a visible bike path close to the A9 until we reached the only place where they took American Express in this part of Scotland. Ignoring etiquette, SVF and I bought all food we could get our hands on and sat in the dining room with our dirty bike clothes, helmets and raincoats next to us and ate like we had never seen food before.

Well back at Poplars and its awesome hospitality again, we decided to let the bikes rest for the reminder of our Scotland stay.

And tomorrow I get to snuggle up with Iceman again!