Scotland pt 1 - the cities

I took yet another EasyJet flight from Bristol to Edinburgh...

I was staying with Ni (Thanks!) for a few nights, and in between managed to meet up with Catriona, her baby Pipa and Maggie for lunch

Cute baby!

That evening we went out for dinner with Mike and Adam at a Jap place - AWESOME eel (and Sake!)

Good to see the guys, still can't get over the fact that Mike is a dad!

The next day Ni and I went for a walk around the city...

Then I got the train to Glasgow, where Anna G met me off the train, yay!

On the way back to her place, we went past an old police box (this one is now a coffee cart type place)

And BBC Scotland... Flash!

That night, Sarah, Bret, Anna, Rod and I went to a Halloween party dressed as the Thunder Cats, as you do!
Thanks guys for getting my costume sorted out for me!

We got slightly drunk...
The next day Anna and I went for a wee walk about, this is the botanics

Hot!

Lots of pitcher plants

And sundews, pretty

Then, with Sarah driving, we were on our way to the Highlands....

More from south England...

In my final days before heading up to Scotland, I saw LOADS of people!
Including: My uncle David and cousin Dora
Lots of friends from primary school (who I hadn't seen in 14 years!)

Another day at the Farm with Grandad, Oscar and Bridget

These young cousins sure are greedy...

But also good with tractors, so that's ok!

Next, I had a day in Bath.

This is the floor of my family's house there - can you see anything in there??! (hint - the glass section)

Yes that's right - its a Roman Well!!

(how cool is that??!)

The evening started with supper with Andrew and Kit


Then we went out for a few drinks...

And it quickly regressed into a drunken night out!

Kit's best mate Becky joined us too, she's awesome!

Scotland next... yee ha!

Paris

I went to Paris for 2 days to see family, and this is the Eurostar - the only real way to travel!

Unfortunately I can't afford that way... but I did see it as I got the train out to Luton to fly with Easy Jet!

This is the view of where my family have their boat on the river, very pretty :)

My uncle had to work in the morning of my full day there, so I went for a wander around Paris and saw all of the famous places.

I've been so lucky with the weather which is great!

I think the Smart car in front is a good look - there are hardly any asian cars over this side of the globe - love it!

Looking down the Champs-Elysees

lots of flash car shops around, in the Citroen shop they had some of their shiny rally cars on turn tables

After Rupert finished work, we got a bike each (in Paris you can use bikes which you pick up and drop off at various points within the city, they are free for the first 30 mins and cheap after that too), Rupert had his flash new one, with auto lights, which he is very proud of!

Rupert and police horses in front of Notre Dame





Can you guess where this is??!
Love the detail close up

There were heaps of police about, even on scooters... I could take them on for sure!

Then, as we were cycling about, minding our own business, a Scirocco drove past!

Like a crazed member of the paparazzi I cycled after it taking a video, but I was holding up people on scooters and couldn't get in front of it :( Still exciting though cause its the first one I'd seen!

The bike which I had only had 3 gears...

Later on we went to see one at a dealership. I had a sit in it, and it is very tidy - I do prefer mine though :)


View towards the city from where the boat is kept

Here is the Albatross - my families boat

Family pics;

The girls are growing up so fast!!

Jade (now 11) likes to discuss things such as "The thing with gays is..."

She is brilliant!

Paris was great - brilliant to see my family of course. But I wasn't very impressed with the airport; I'm not going to rant, but it's lucky that the country is run with better efficiency than Charles de Gaul, and I don't see what makes the french so special that they can't form queues!