Father's Day Weekend

We really had a fantastic weekend! Grant you we didn't get to spend Father's Day weekend in the states with family, but we did get out and see some of Scotland, did some shopping and castle hunted again. Plus we had a nice date night........our first one since we moved to Scotland.

Friday afternoon Jeff took the day off and we spent the afternoon trying to get our shopping done. We got memberships to Costco (basically like Sam's) and so we were eager to see what all they had to offer here. We were not disappointed! Of course there weren't a lot of American brands or brands we recognized but we were able to go in and get a lot of bulk things and so it was a successful trip for us! We also hit the regular market to pick up the other things we weren't able to get at Costco.

Last week the landlord was by to do some yard work and Jeff and I were out chatting with him and he told us that the castle by the mill, Burns Castle wasn't the castle he was telling us of up on the hill. He said it was up there, its just buried in the trees now. So Jeff and I decided that finding that castle was our mission for Saturday. Its suppose to be so close to the house, on the hill behind us and yet we haven't been able to find this castle. So off we went and sure enough.......after driving and driving we found it! And yes, its buried in the trees now, for good reason. Someone lives there! Which we had read that several of the castles around have been kept up to the point that you can rent them, live in them, etc. In finding the castle we found a back entrance. We had no idea it was the back until we found the front and found the sign that said "Benholm Castle Private". Since someone lives there I didn't want to get out of the car and just start snapping pictures, but I did take a few from the car. Its really a nice castle and it goes on further than we can see due to the trees and its great wall. Someone took great care to make it where you couldn't see it easily. The drive going to it is a long drive thats got trees on either side all the way down. And when you get to the castle it has very little open area around it. There were a lot of bunnies around the lawn when we pulled up to it.
On the way back we went to look at Burns Castle as well. Its in ruins now and I am sure the kids at the near by neighborhood use it as a playing grounds now. I am sure at some time it was a bigger than it is now, but for now...........theres not much to it.

The sign "the crazy Americans" didn't see until after we had approached the castle from the rear entrance and taken pictures. Oops!

But isn't it beautiful! This is the back of it. (sorry about the glare of the dashboard on the window but I didn't think they'd fancy me getting out of the car and just snapping pictures of their home. Since I figured out someone was living there before I seen the sign)

Yes, yes, we even drove around and took pictures from the other side. It was Jeff's idea! LOL

This is Burns Castle (whats left of it that you can actually see), its less than two blocks from our house.

We also had our first date night on Saturday since we've been here. We picked a nice little restaurant that we've read good things about. Its called Creel Inn (in Stonehaven/Catterline) and as you approach it, its nothing fancy on the outside, and older building thats got multirooms to it and nothing like one would invision a restaurant being like. But the inside was decorated with art (for sale) on the walls and there was a nice double sided fireplace in the middle of the room. The rooms aren't super large (small, like most places here), but they did a nice job trying to lay out tables with room between each one so it doesn't appear to be to cramped. On the weekends its recommended that you make reservations, which we did.
Soups are a big thing here. Its more customary to start off with a soup, rather than a salad. So we both had their crab soup. Yummy! It was more like a bisque and was really quite good! Everything was well presented and very gourmet. You can tell the Chef takes great pride in presentation along with the quality of the food. It was all very good. So we had to have dessert...........right?! So Jeff had something called a Hot Chocolate Fondant (which I had to ask what it was exactly). Its basically kind of like a molten cake, only a little more baked. Very difficult to explain but I'd say a nice cross between a brownie and a molten cake. Which ironically I got the brownie and it was nothing like we consider brownies. It was like a dark chocolate molten/mousse consistency and it was heavenly! Both desserts were served with a small scoop of vanilla ice cream and it was very smooth and creamy and I would have to think that its probably made from scratch there in the restaurant. If its not.........then I need to ask next time what kind of ice cream it is because it was really good!
We spent the evening sipping on red wine and just enjoying the atmosphere and took our time. It was really nice. Unfortunately we were both exhausted but looking forward to our adventure through the Highlands on Sunday to go to Balmoral Castle, so we didn't venture out on the town like we had planned after dinner.

I'll write more tomorrow............tell you about our travel through the Highlands to go to Balmoral Castle. I know, I know, some of you want to hear all about that more than anything else. I promise I'll write and post pictures about it this week!

The Search for Insurance Continues

Its been a rainy day thus far, so what better day to stay indoors and continue my search for insurance for our American "import". It's been quite the task actually. I've called probably 5 insurance companies and I've come up empty handed each time. And our car will be here in about 2 weeks; so I am getting desperate to find insurance for it. I've heard every excuse from we 'don't have a UK license' to 'we don't cover GMCs' and even 'we don't cover imports unless you have lived here for at least two years'. And now that I sit here and think about it, makes me wonder if they don't want to cover a GMC because of the state of the company. LOL, just kidding.
One notable thing about differences in things here and there is how the phone plans work. They are set up similar to cell phone plans in that you purchase packages that are so many minutes a month, etc. So we have a plan that has so many minutes a month, free nights and weekends. To add, we also get incoming calls for free. Which is nice considering I am getting telemarketers here already! But its weird to me because I will call an insurance company and they will offer to call me back "on their dime" (as they say) or they will offer to transfer me to other insurance companies if they can not help me. Its the oddest thing to me. Sadly my cell phone has more minutes on it than our landline. So I use it a lot more than I do the landline. And the flip side of it, its cheap!
And have I mentioned you don't pay a tax on top of things. When they tell you that your phone bill is going to be 12 GBP (Great Britain Pound) they mean just that. So you don't get a bill and its like 25 GBP because they added a bunch of taxes and surcharges. Its all built in. Kind of nice and pleasant! Same thing with cell phones, everything really.

So we are heading to a little Inn, nearby for dinner this weekend. They specialize in seafood and the restaurant is suppose to be top notch. I'm looking forward to it and have already browsed their menu. Its called the Creel Inn in Catterline Scotland. They have a website......look it up if you have time. I think I'm having dessert too..........probably the raspberry chocolate cheesecake! :) I'll keep you posted!

I think we are also going to try and go see another castle this weekend, weather permitting. We have one in mind, so if we go I'll post about it next week and promise to get a few pictures to post. I don't know what else we are up to this weekend but we are looking forward to getting out and about and exploring the place some more. Hopefully I will have something good to blog about on Monday!

Rainy Days - 11 June 2009

FINALLY! We have internet! Goodness, I never felt so disconnected from the world before, nor had I realized how much I rely on the internet for day in and day out things. But we finally have it and I’ve spent the last couple of days trying to play catch up with bills, emails and such. Now if I can just get my bank card, we’ll be set.

Jeff and I purchased some herbs so we could have a little herb garden in the kitchen window and have fresh herbs all the time. I’ve always wanted to have an herb garden and just never made the effort to actually do it. Herb plants are super cheap here. We got 5 hearty herb plants for 69p each! What a deal! We got thyme, basil, mint, parsley and their version of cilantro. I am most excited about that one because now I can make pico de gallo. I’ve really enjoyed making dinner this past week too. I can do so much with fresh herbs! And Jeff and I have been putting a tiny mint leaf in with our hot tea at night and its heavenly!

My little herb garden. I need to get a new pot for them soon!

Its been raining on and off the past couple of days. And its still pretty chilly outside. I think I am finally getting use to the weather though and it doesn’t seem to phase me as much as it did when I first arrived. And I have now started sleeping through the night well enough that I don’t stay awake for long if I do wake up at 3:00 when its starting to get daylight out. So that’s good too. I do still wake up though feeling like I am still very tired. We both feel that way lately. We think its because we are sleeping on the mattress we bought here and its not what we are use too. We are hoping when the rest of our furniture arrives we will sleep much better.

We’ve been planning a few trips and we are really looking forward to them. We are planning to go to Edinburgh in August and sometime this summer we want to take the train down to London and spend a long weekend there. We don’t know exactly when yet; we are still pricing tickets. And we are planning a trip to Italy in September, for our long awaited honeymoon that we had to postpone. J

I know we will both be glad when the yukon finally gets here. We would like to see more things and do more stuff but we don’t have a car so some days its rather difficult. And do you know I came with no umbrella! I must have 3 or 4 umbrellas and somehow I managed to get them all in the sea shipment and none of them in the air shipment. When is sunny out though, the kiddos like to nap on the steps under the skylight. Well Rhett and Audrey do; Simba likes to try and wake them up.

Rhett & Audrey napping, Simba pestering them!

I hope to have something exciting to write about this weekend. Right now its just trying to get things caught up and staying indoors while it rains!

Brown Eggs - 10 June 2009

Have I mentioned that they only have brown eggs here? Have I also mentioned that they typically aren’t even kept refrigerated at the store? You can walk down any given aisle and find them sitting in a big display box, just sitting there. You can also find them on the same aisle as stuff that is kept cold, but again, they are in a big display box, sitting on the floor, not in the actual “cold case”. It blows my mind. They have no “bleached” white eggs! And did you know brown eggs, at least here, actually taste a little different. You get use to it rather quickly though. Oh and forget finding, medium, large and extra large eggs. One kind of eggs, brown, in a crate box………plastic crate box at that. Even more so, don’t be surprised if you pull out an egg and find a little feather on them, or perhaps dirt on the outside. At least I hope its dirt! We wash the eggs every morning before I crack them to make breakfast; it’s a must for my sanity! I’ve not witnessed this but Jeff says he’s cracked one or two along the way that he had to throw out because they were a little too close to being fertilized for him!!!! Ew! For that reason right there, I will not walk across the street to the chicken farm that sells “farm raised” eggs right there. One of Jeff’s co-workers made fun because we buy eggs at the store and not across the street. But that’s my fear………….cracking open a bad egg. To add, as if you need more, needing to wash them almost turned me from eggs forever!

That is all………..go have breakfast now! Eggs! Nice, clean, bleached, white eggs! SIGH!

Ice, ice baby - 8 June 2009

I think I’ve mentioned that ice isn’t a common thing around here, really no need for it. Jeff and I were thinking about getting an ice maker though, so we could have ice but it appears that those are also not something that are easily accessible around here either. However we found something pretty handy that I’ve never seen in the states. Its bags that come in a box much like Ziploc bags do and you take these bags and there is a small opening in the top and its sealed along the bag in a way that when you fill the small opening with a stream of water that it fills it up with about 20 ice cube shapes of water. You then turn the bag upside down once you’ve filled it and it self seals! You then place it in the freezer and once the ice is frozen and you are ready to use it, you turn the bag side to side and it breaks the seals and puts the ice in a “bag”. Its by far one of the neatest things we have seen and used so far. Yes, yes, the small things in life entertain us!

We are having a hard time finding suitable litter for the fur kids. Most of their cats here are indoor/outdoor cats, so they use the cat door when they need to go outside for the restroom. The world is their litter box………….or at least Scotland is. They do have litter here, but its rocks, clay pieces, just not anything that our kiddos are use too. So we’ve been looking for suitable litter for them. They’ve adjusted well, all things considered but I think the fact we still don’t have most of our stuff makes them a little uneasy. We’ve noticed that if we go out for the day, when we return its as if they think we’ve abandoned them. I realize that those of you that don’t like cats or are not animal people can never relate to this. But its something that we do worry about a little and really hope that once our stuff gets here they will feel more at home. I dread the day I have to crate them back up and take them back to the states again just for the flight and stress of it all.

Its starting to warm back up a little this week. We were told Saturday while we were out and about at the mall that this year is suppose to be a heat wave. Since no one has a/c’s here, a heat wave is around the 80’s I do believe. I would think that if it were 80 outside on a regular basis and no a/c, it would get a little unbearable.

Movie Theaters here ROCK! - 6 June 2009

Have I mentioned the long daylight hours here? It’s really starting to get to me! I have the hardest time sleeping a full night. I guess it’s not bothering me as far as feeling tired an such but there’s this strangely odd feeling waking up and seeing daylight break through the cracks around the curtains and look at the clock and see its only 3:30am! My body thinks it’s time to get up. On the “PM” side of that, it’s hard to go to bed at 10pm when it’s still full daylight outside. Right now it’s getting starting to get dark around 11:00, and its starts daybreak around 3:00. Of course we hear in the winter, you have the opposite problem. I am of course looking forward to getting my golf clubs though because Jeff and I could easily play 18 holes when he gets off work at night and get home.

We had a very busy Friday. I started the morning like always, making breakfast. When I opened the blinds in the kitchen there were two pheasants sitting on the slopes behind our house. Beautiful birds just nesting on the slopes. Jeff was excited, said they make good eating. LOL They were big birds. Audrey seen the birds and started talking her “bird talk”, then took off running. I think the size of those birds scared her to death!

After breakfast we headed to downtown Aberdeen to see a movie, have lunch and do some shopping. We found the ONLY sushi bar in all of Aberdeen for lunch. I cannot believe there is only one sushi bar in the whole place. We had this confirmed by some of Jeff’s co-workers. It was really good sushi though! And we hit the movies to see the new Terminator movie. It opened here this week and Jeff really wanted to see it. Okay, so the movie theater here was absolutely a treat! They do not have a “box office” like we are use too, where you buy your tickets and then go to concession. You go straight to concession and get your tickets and any treats you want at the same time. First thing the guy ask us was where we wanted to sit, front, middle or back. Jeff tells him middle and I ask if it was assign seating and he says yes, especially for movies that are open weekend and busy. He says that since we are coming during the day of the week that it might not be as busy and we are welcome to change seats if it’s not that busy. LOL I guess when you think about it, it’s actually quite clever. Because in the states for a sold out movie you are fighting to find seats together and typically someone from the staff has to come in and ask people to move together, if it’s near time for the movie to start. Also among all the tasty snacks you have to pick from are hand dipped Ben and Jerry’s ice cream or packaged Hagen Dazz ice cream, a big candy bend of your own selection of yummys by the ounce, of course your usual hot dogs, nachos, etc and the biggest thing of all……………beer and wine!!!! Yes! Beer and wine! How cool is that! So Jeff had a beer and we got the usual popcorn and candy to snack on at the movies. They have “premier” seating as well at this movie theater and these seats are bigger, like sitting in first class on an airplane. We didn’t know about this, so we sat in regular seats. I think the premier seats are a little more. And gosh at movie tickets here. They either don’t have matinee or they prices are the same all day. We paid 6.20 each, which is roughly $9.50. But it was a good movie and we enjoyed the experience.

Driving on the "wrong" side of the road

Since we don’t have our shipment yet, which means no Yukon yet; we are renting a car for the weekend, every other weekend to help us get things done in Aberdeen without having to take the bus all that way. It is really expensive to ride the bus here and we are finding out that a lot of people in Aberdeen and probably all of the UK are complaining about the high bus prices right now. Gas is high here right now, around the equivalent of $4 a gallon?!?!? You pay by the liter here, so when you see it advertised it says usually 1 lb per liter.

They spell some things differently here. For instance color is spelled colour. So in my effort to “absorb” the culture, I am going to start spelling things they way they spell them here. Also, the guys at the office think I will be speaking “Scottish” before too long. That’s my goal!

The artificial ski slopes by the ASDA
(taken from the second story garage parking lot!!!)