BACK FROM BONNIE SCOTLAND

Hi all,

Just a quick little blog to let you know that I am back from the land of Braveheart, where we celebrated my Dad's 80th birthday.  I actually got back a couple of weeks ago, however, three days later ended up in hospital, where they kept me for four days!  Somewhere, along the way, I managed to contract the Campylobacter Virus!  Let me just say, not knowing what it was for the first 24 hours, was definitely the worse 24 hours of my life!  I underwent X-rays, Ultra-Sound, CAT Scan, Hide-a-Way Scan and just to finish it all off - my favorite - the Colonoscopy!  Oh, and did I mention the numerous pints of blood that they must have tested - I wouldn't let my family take a photo of my left arm - suffice it to say that now it has muted to a green/violet color!

I came home ten pounds heavier than I went in (felt like I was nine months pregnant).  I was so bloated with all the liquids they were flushing through me, as of course, until they knew what it was, I couldn't eat or drink anything, in case they needed to operate.  Thankfully, I was able to produce enough of a sample of "poop", which was where they found the answer!

I'm pretty much back to normal now, just finishing off the last three days of antibiotics.  Anyway enough about me!

Thought I'd give you all a quick synopsis of the trip.  Of course, the weather wasn't the best (we had of course, just missed the record breaking temperatures just the week before)!  That's what the Scots always say - but this time it was actually true!

Our youngest, Calum, is soccer mad and his cousin Jack plays for the Youth Club of Aberdeen, so the afternoon we arrived, my youngest brother, Roy, took Calum and Jack to see Aberdeen play Hearts in Edinburgh.  They would then go on to a sleep-over and we would pick them up on Sunday. We took a little detour down into South Queensferry, before picking him up.  This is me with my two older kids, Struan and Gillian, in front of the Firth of Forth Road and Railway bridges.  That's Fife (where my folks live) in the background.

Here are a couple more snaps, of the Railway Bridge and my Mum and me.

We then went through to Linlithgow, to pick up Calum from his cousins:

The next day Calum got to practice with Glasgow Celtic's youth soccer club.  We managed to arrange that through his soccer club here in the States.  He had a fun time - the routine being much different from his practice session here in the States.

Our next excursion was to St. Andrew's University.  Struan had been accepted, but felt that it was way too far away, but said he would take a look.  Looks like I need to find a money making job, as he has now decided that he is going to go!  Established in 1413, they will be celebrating 600 years, while he is a Freshman.  How cool is that?

That's a dormitory (St. Salvator's Hall) in the background.  He thought waking up each morning in a building like that would be pretty cool!

This is the University's own chapel - just stunning!

Those are the organ pipes in the Chapel!

After our visit to the University we walked around town a bit. This is the view from the Pier looking back over to the beach where the film Chariots of Fire was filmed.  Oh, and that's the Old Course Golf Resort on the left too!  On your right - the North Sea!  

Here we are at the start to my Dad's 80th - I won't bother sharing what we looked like at the end of the evening! (When in Scotland - do what the Scots do!)

We lay low for the next day and then took a little tour of the East Neuk of Fife.  It is such a pretty area. We'd stop at one harbour and it would be lashing it down with rain, then the next town along would be bright with sun!  Only in Scotland.

Here are three pictures from the East Neuk of Fife, Crail, Pittenweem and Elie.  Little fishing villages all 

around the coast of Fife.

  

We went for a Birthday lunch with Dad on his real birthday, the 10th of April.  He wanted to eat at a Thai Restaurant in St. Andrews - Gordon Ramsay picked it as one of the best ten restaurants in the UK.  It was delicious - and would you believe it, perhaps a little Thai-Scottish fusion - they served Thai Haggis!! Both David and Struan had it - that's a picture of it in the foreground!  

What a fun trip we had.  And now, with Struan heading that way, I hope I'll have an excuse to get back more often!  Yeah!