Nothing I did today was as how I anticipated spending today. I love it when that happens!!

Firstly, I expected to be involved with a necessary pre-holiday house clean (well obtain a status that H&S would deem passable). I was half way though hoovering the stairs when the call to participate in a cycle trip came. Now obviously everyone should put their health before cleanliness so off we went, Nozbert and Kazbert, Old Al, Rookie Steph and finally the 4 of us. Jack was on a bike attached to mine, and added turbo power...initially! I'm sure latterly he was sleeping on the job although he claimed he was just resting. 

Two of the bikes had those thingys attached that tell you how far you have cycled. One noted 18.5 miles and the other 16.5 miles so what a load of crap they must be.

Kazberts heart monitor said that we used up in excess of 1400 calories and so we started the process to regain them almost immediately on arriving home by ingesting copious amounts of tea and biscuits chez Steph.

The afternoon was spent on the annual blackcurrant harvest. If not done today, the birds will have eaten them all by the time we return from holiday and the finest jam known to humanity will not exist in a 2005 vintage.

It still may not. Due to a prolonged visit to the pub for 'one', the 4lb of fruit is sitting in a saucepan of water. What effect that will have on the quality of the jam I know not (although I have to say some of my previous scientific experiments have showed great successes after unplanned 'overnight incubations'). However the chief jam maker (moi) is not in a suitable state to be dealing with cauldrons of bubbling, frothing fruit. I can hereby confirm that all lost calories have been duly replaced with gin and tonic (and I'm talking slimline tonic).

So the jam isn't made, the house remains a shit pit, the kids went to bed three hours late, I have had no dinner.... but I have journeyed well today!

I will report back in later with stories of sea swimming, harp recitals on the beach and scenery to make you think that heaven probably looks like the Scottish highlands.

Meanwhile...just had to put this in..funny!.

Part Freaky Kisser

When you kiss, you want to experience something new A new technique, a new partner, a new piercing... And your own personal kissing style is very unpredictable There's no saying where your tongue or hands will go

Part Passionate Kisser

For you, kissing is about all about following your urges If someone's hot, you'll go in for the kiss - end of story You can keep any relationship hot with your steamy kisses A total spark plug - your kisses are bound to get you in trouble

What Kind of Kisser Are You?

Took the kids for their first walk up Arthur’s Seat, this being the huge hill that dominates the skyline of Edinburgh. It is in fact the remains of a volcano plug from over 300 million years ago. I was very impressed as both children managed to make it to the top without too much whinging and without being carried. On the way down it was great to see them find a grassy bit and roll down. I soooo much wanted to do the same but it was a really sunny day and there were just too many people around...

Sunday was quite literally a different ball game as it was Jack's birthday party. Twenty-one seven year olds bowling..hmmm. I do believe I have spawned a competitive monster as Jack was nearly in tears every time he didn't get a good score. I am really not sure what I have done to instil this behaviour..although I do have to admit to being a tad competitive occasionally. Very amusing to watch the boys really going for it, queuing up, bowling balls in hand in anticipation of their go whereas the girls were far more interested in the face-painting and feeling a bit sick, hungry and/or faint. Nature v nurture?

Can't believe the wee man is nearly 7 years old. He got quite a lot of money instead of pressies from his classmates, which I carefully extracted from the cards and put in my pocket. One BBQ, various glasses of wine and a trip to the pub it didn't even seem strange that I had lots of money to buy a round of drinks. (I'll give it back to him ..honest..)

..which brings me to the fact that this morning I was reminded by e-mail that it is my wedding anniversary. I'm just not good at remembering occasions at the end of the month. Any date between the first and the tenth of the month I can remember, in the twenties....no chance.

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Writing about Arthur's Seat this morning gave me the idea to go running around it at lunchtime. Even though it was AROUND it and not UP it, it still involved a lot of running in an upwardly direction...and at 70 degrees I felt it.

On MP3 player whilst running: Athlete - Tourist

On Tuesday I took a late night walk to my favourite place, the ancient hill broch I have written of before. Being the Summer solstice I was hoping to bump into some visiting druid or pagan who would entice me away into some sex cult. Something sexy about the thought of men in robes (although still one step behind the leathered traffic police!).

Alas it was just me and the rabbits and more slugs than I have ever seen in one place. I wonder what the name for a group of slugs is? A slime of slugs? A salt of slugs?

Still it was a beautiful evening and I lay on the grass in the middle of the broch as another day drew to its close.

'We are Earth's best, that learnt her lesson here.'

 

 'Travel is only glamorous in retrospect.'

 Paul Theroux

 'No one travelling on a business trip would be missed if he failed to arrive.'

 Thorstein Veblen

 

and a repeat for JP

 

 'The scientific theory I like best is that the rings of Saturn are composed entirely of lost airline luggage.'

 Mark Russell

 

Just to say that I will be away for a few days. Tomorrow morning I am off to Munich for a couple of days with work. I imagine that tonight I will be busy ironing some vaguely smartish clothes. Thankfully I don't have to do that every day. Anyway blogging time will probably be limited.

I fly back late on Friday and will need to go straight to a 40th birthday party. Friday is also my other half's birthday. As usual things have crept up me at rather an alarming rate and a birthday present purchase is also an outstanding task.

It's only 2 days away but going away always seems a major feat of organisation since the children arrived. Childcare, etc....Makes me wonder why I bother going away at all. Then I remember there are a few advantages...a night in a hotel room on my own! I can sleep beyond 6am. I can have a shower without Eddi complaining that her brother won't let her watch her show. I don't have to make packed lunches. Joy!

So anyway excuses out of the way, I apologise in advance for a no show on Indigos PROM assignment. What the bloody hell is a prom anyway!

I have to thank Psychedelic Pariah for his most recent post. This morning it inspired me to pull the Scissor Sisters CD out of its case, put it on full blast and sing all the way to work.

Hearing my 4-year old join in to the chorus of Filthy Gorgeous was very funny.

Its going to be a good one!

'Cuz you're filthy Oooh, and I'm gorgeous

You're disgusting Oooh, and you're nasty '

Both kids are also into Green Day in a big way, although whilst reading the lyrics the 6-year old boy is showing slight concern that there is a 'rude word' in every song. Bloody school, teaching children to read!! Thank the Lord that we have moved on from the Tweenie tape that has been played continually for about 2 years now.

'I walk this empty street

On the Boulevard of Broken Dreams

Where the city sleeps and I'm the only one

and I walk alone'

 

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I'm not really a stats geek but I just happened to look a few minutes ago and by some miraculous fluke, PP was also the 30 000 visitor to my wee blog. How did he manage that?

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Approximately three hours until The Edinburgh 10K race. Due to a sore knee that developed whilst running about three weeks ago, I haven't been out running at all. I also haven't been to the gym either. I thought I'd be better off just leaving off all activity, waiting and running on the day. This, together with more than one glass of red wine last night, is undoubtedly not the best training program!

So, Ibuprofen loaded, I will report back later.

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Just got out of the bath...a very long bath.

Phew that was tough; I’m totally shagged. Did I forget to mention something about Edinburgh? It's full of hills. The course organizers obviously thought it would be amusing to make all 8000 of us run up most of them!! There are markers every kilometer; fortunately I only saw the 3K and the 9K ones. You always think you have gone farther than you actually have and by 3K I could happily have given up. Unfortunately my dogged perseverance and masochistic tendencies forced me on. Sometimes I find running easy, other days it is really hard. Today was one of the latter.

What’s worse, and quite definitively the most nauseating part of the whole day...is that my other half crossed the line a minute BEFORE me!! Buggeration. I beat him by 4 minutes in the last 10K. Still I was injured and had drunk a bottle of red wine more than he had. So back to intensive training. Can't let that happen again.

Don't know my official time, we had timing chips round out ankles so I'll check the website later. But I think around 53 minutes (confirmed as 53 mins exactly). Did my last one in 49 mins 21 secs....so approximately one minute per glass of wine.

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Off to pub to celebrate...finishing.

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Ten hours later and I have to say my knee is starting to hurt significantly, the ibuprofen has worn off. I think I am beginning to sound like a bad loser! And I wonder where my daughter gets her whinginess from!

OK, I take Nomadic-Camel-Breeders point..yes I admit I was beaten by a better runner..on the day.

Thanks all for your kind words of support and congradulations!

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Joy of joys.

Asda at 11:30 pm. Get to till and they take my beer and wine away from me! I am not charged with drinking and driving a shopping trolley..no, they just don't let me buy alcohol after 10:00 pm.

 

So what is the point of 24-hour shopping?

Guess I'll just go the fridge and get a ......... damn.

I'm off to bed instead (again).

Can't blame MSN for this one.

 

Got this 10K run in a couple of weeks and I have been slacking a bit. However I did get out for an early morning run yesterday. Thought I'd get out prior to the London marathon so that I wouldn'tt sit on the sofa watching it and feeling guilty. I hadn't done the route for a while but it is great. After about a mile and a half you pass Hailes Castle.

The original castle was built in the late 1200s although the building as it is today is mainly from and the existing building the 1300s and 1400s. The castle in its time has been captured by the English (they get everywhere!) and saw Mary Queen of Scots visit in 1567. 

A couple of miles later and after running up a hill for about a mile you pass Traprain Law.

Traprain, of volcanic origion, was once the hill-fort home to the Votadini, a tribe of that co-existed amicably with the Romans in the first centuries BC. A hoard of silver buried by the tribe was unearthed in 1919.

After Traprain it is almost downhill all the way home with beautiful views over the Firth of Forth and Bass Rock.

Bass Rock is a volcanic plug that is the home to one of the Worlds largest colonies of gannets, hence the whitish appearance of the rock. The gannet also get its latin name Sula bassana from the Bass Rock.

Not a bad run!  

And here endeth todays history lesson.

I know it's going to happen soon. Around this time of year you can just sense it. I am so looking forward to my first smell of cut grass.

Well although the antibiotics seemed to have kicked in to some extent versus very painful sore throat (diagnosis - Streptococcus pyogenes, or Strep throat), my glands are still pretty swollen. Whats more worrying is that I have a pain where my left lung is and I have self-diagnosed pneumonia (yes.. I know I'm not that sort of doctor but what do they know anyway). So I would just like to say it was nice knowing you all in case I don't make it....

So if you don't hear from me....

Its because I'm going to the Big Smoke for the weekend. En masse visit to London where I believe the boys will be attending a certain Scotland v England rugby match. As per normal the chicks will be left holding the babies. Where is that modern man lurking?

Anyway...good luck to the boys in blue. Go Scotland!

Concorde arrived in East Lothian April last year. Its 16-day journey to Scotland was mostly by sea, landing at Torness (about 6 miles away from where I live). It then continued towards its final destination by road, along a new section of the A1 (wings off of course) and finally was dragged across fields for the last couple of miles until it reached the small air museum at East Fortune, just up the road from here. Most of the village were out watching the show.

Concorde has since been hidden away in Hangar 4, being reassembled to its former glory. It is now ready and TODAY was unveiled for public viewing. I can't wait to go and see it but just hope visitors don't clog up the roads round here!

Time to return to the ancient place, long left to face the elements alone.

Shadows of women and children at the babbling brook, racing through the crippled trees, collecting water and back to the safety of their fortress.

The trees still hold their leaves, the light on them the same as before.

The round house needing paint, the tree house from heaven, the slatted bridge, unchanged.

Ground beneath is harder and speckled with snow, the chilled winds urge me on as I walk faster this time.

I want to get there, to sit and think of hopes, dreams and what went before.

Yet I can only cling to the strong walls until ready to leave.

©Lisa 2005

So the East Linton Outdoors Activity Group (ELOAG)..still love how that rolls off the tounge, spent a great weekend in Caputh and Dunkeld doing all sorts of outdoor activities (at least David and Pete went outside for a smoke pretty often). 21(sorry 22 with Fingal) of us made the trip and we had enough food to feed us for a month. Plenty of alcohol too although we obviously all just had a glass of wine with the meal and retired to bed at 9:30.

To be honest the weather was not the best but it didn't stop all of us venturing out on the Saturday for a couple of hours in the wind, rain, sleet and snow. Most of us took the easy option of a pleasant walk in the Hermitage at Dunkeld, using small children as an excuse not to do anything more adventurous, whereas Alistair and Rob took more challenging walks.

A relaxing swim and sauna followed for the majority. Pete who couldn't see the point of getting wet after a walk in snow had noticed that Dereks face had gone into complete panic at the thought of nobody choosing the pub option. As I was without swimsuit I was happy to help the boys out and drive to the Taybank (sacrifice, I know!). A cunning plan was hatched and the swimmers joined the advance party later.

David bumped into a female and from the hug you might have thought there was previous form?! Anyway I am sure that the pub had nothing to do with his decision to return to Dunkeld a few hours later, having collected money from us all, to buy lottery tickets. Luckily he took Neil and Pete with him as they said that they had to pull someone out of the snow? and were gone for quite a while! (As person in charge of checking the lottery numbers, unfortunately I have to announce that we won sweet FA. I would also like to say it was lovely to know you all and this will be my last blog entry as a private jet is arriving soon to take me to peruse properties in the Bahamas).

But the best moment of the weekend for me was the sight of David with his beautifully straightened hair that made him look like an aged rock star. We paid £1 for him to do it, it was worth £20!! (Norrie's legs in his 'leisure' shorts came a distant second). Indeed Rachel, Jess and Hannah did a fine job of straightening the hair of anyone who happened to walk past their room. I was quite proud of my new hair do, very Jennifer Aniston, until I walked in the room and was told I looked like a schemey (a derogatory Scottish word meaning you don't look great darlin')!

Music, alcohol and chat flowed and everyone had a great time!

Photos provided as evidence that we did make it out of the hostel!

Very cold day..nevertheless managed to drag myself away from the remains of the Xmas cake and went for a wee tramp around Spott, East Lothian. Unfortunately it was very, very muddy!

However did find the 'Witches Stone'...supposedly famous as almost the last place in Scotland where reputed witches were burnt . Church records from October 1705 state that `Many witches burnt on the top of Spott loan'.

Managed to get past the stone without someone jumping out and trying to roast me on a bonfire!!

After staying in bed until after 9:30 (first time in over 6 years!).

I realised that I needed to go and explore a bit, reverse the effects of Xmas day eating etc. Visited one of my favourite places. Funny thing was that I hadn't noticed the stairs in the wall that went nowhere last time. They must have gone somewhere one day, I suppose. I think the walls were much higher when it was in use. Its quite a while since I was there before and although much was as I remembered it, for some reason it felt very different. A really special place.