Hi All,
It has been a while since our last update and almost a year now since our move to the UK. 2005 was probably the most hectic year of my life; moving to the UK, starting new careers, acclimatising to British weather and our travels to stunning Paris to see the final stage of the Tour de France cycling race, to Venice to celebrate our second wedding anniversary, then all over England visiting family and the sites, back to SA for a short visit to see Oupa and recently to Edinburgh for our Christmas celebrations. Then both our little brothers got engaged, yip Nic & Michelle and Tom & Carin are getting married and we are so pleased for the all of them, just a pity we missed out on all the engagement celebrations.
Now back onto our trip to Edinburgh, we flew up the day before Christmas with more luggage than you can imagine, we had all the Xmas presents along with everything we needed for the Xmas lunch (gammon, Xmas crackers and all) just imagine what the guy at the airport was thinking when our bags went through the x-ray machine. We stayed in a lovely apartment on what felt like the 6th floor of a terraced house. The house felt very stately, almost as though you needed a ball gown to walk down the steps. It had all the luxury bits and bobs we needed along with a phenomenal view over Edinburgh. We managed to see most of the sites from the Castle to the Royal Cruise liner (The Royal Britannia) and went on a tour to some of the stunning lochs - but it was freaking freezing with snow and even some of the lochs freezing over. Oh, I managed to get me a bottle of some fine whisky too (Blair Athol, 12 year old, single malt). I did not manage to try out the traditional ‘Haggis Neeps and Tatties’ but I brought one back which is now sitting in the freezer – still need to build up the courage to cook and eat it. There are lots of photos loaded up for you to have a look at, all taken on Shawn’s Camera as mine was out of action… another rather amusing story.
Just before Xmas, Gwyn and I had taken up ice skating on all the wonderful outdoor ice rinks here in London. So we had booked to skate at Kew Gardens, a really stunning location with an ice rink built around a Xmas tree. So with all the skating practice I began to get a bit confident, taking on the speed skaters and started to show off to Gwyn - doing pikes and spins, it felt great, until WHAM, I lost all control and was lying face down in ice cold slush. This of course was something which would never happen to me and in my over confidence thought that I could safely carry my camera with me, which was now practically cracked in two. The good news of this whole story is that I sent it off for repair (keeping the battery and memory with me) and got a brand new camera back with additional battery and memory. So get ready for even more photos….
Before I babble on even further I just want to wish you all a fantastic 2006 ahead and would like to thank you for all your support in 2005, we couldn’t have done all of this without you.
L&G
