Summarising Events

Now, you may all notice I haven’t updated this blog for a bit. There are good reasons for this. Firstly, the amount of events going on has been overwhelming and secondly, I was off gallivanting around Scotland. I’ll try and fit it all into a short and sweet blog, but I warn you, I may ramble on a bit.

I’ll summarise the events of the past weeks as topics:

Alton Towers

The night prior to our day excursion to Alton Towers I slept at my good friends, who I like to call M&S. It was Shelle’s birthday soon and they had planned the trip well in advance, so I booked into their makeshift hotel to make sure I was up on time and didn’t miss the limo. Yes, you heard me right, we travelled there in a limo. It was cramped, with not enough leg space, but it’s not every day you travel in style, so I made the most of it by fiddling with the onboard gadgets like revolving cocktail stand, radio, air conditioning and TV. It kept me amused for the long ride. The photo to the right is of me and Kev, who was a cool guy and is a new friend.

We got there and for some reason I left my coat in the limo. Bad idea, because as soon as we entered the theme park, the dark clouds came-a-rollin in. I was drenched from head to toe and quickly bought one of those plastic macs. The others quickly followed suit and we all toured the theme park looking like contraceptives. Soon after, seeing as though I was going through the several stages of pneumonia, I bought a hoodie from the store to keep me warm.

And guess what..... I actually enjoyed the rides..... well the ones I kept my eyes open on. Closing my eyes made them go by faster. The scariest one was the nemesis. OMG! Upside down, over and under, at blistering speeds, but only lasted about two minutes. Two minutes of sheer terror. The best was one called Air. It really felt like you were flying.... with screaming people behind you, which spoiled it somewhat, but I enjoyed it the most out of all of them. I had to take my glasses off for all of the rides, because I nearly lost them during the first ride we went on. Without them on, the rides were all a blur, which made me even dizzier and jelly legged at the end of them. Dont ask what is going on in the picture to the right. Its most probably the weirdest picture i've seen. Mike opted for the "fook you pose", Kev chose the "chaotic pose" and I.....well chose the "normal scream for your life pose". lol The girl in the pictures below is Kate, shes a cool chick and was insistant on helping me with my nerves on most of the rides. No chance of a romance there, shes taken and not my type anyway :P

The evening came and we made our way home. I had a nap in the limo because I was so tired. When we got back we had a little get together with some other friends which was a laugh. Met some friends I hadn’t seen in a while and made some new ones. A crazy day but one I’ll remember for a while.

Scotland

Hungover from a all day gig the previous day and not really wanting to move any more then a few inches in any direction and a total fear of having my retnas burned out from too much sunlight it was safe to say I wasn’t in no mood to travel thousands of miles up to Scotland that day, but travel we did. We packed everything up and set off really early. I sat up front due to my travel sickness, which I admit isn’t that bad now that I’m older, but to be on the safe side I did. Soon after we set off, I started to nod off, my head bobbing like the Churchill dog. I made a tactical decision to swap with Andy, who was sleeping in the back on the motor homes couch. I thereafter slept all the way there in bliss.

We got there and quickly settled into the caravan and met my dad’s girlfriend’s dad and brother who resided at the holiday caravan during the summer. Later that day and through the week Andy showed me the beautiful scenery and took me for walks to take photos. A few days later there was a major parade. The village of Innerleithan has an event called Games Week, where everyone gets involved to celebrate Saint Ronan. There were several parades through the little village, which I got plenty of pictures also.

Edinburgh Castle

Later on in the week, Andrew’s brother Graham joined our company and soon after his girlfriend and her friend. The others quickly paired up, which left me with my part time companion Ivory my pet Chiuaua. Safe to say I felt a bit lonely. As the week went on I got over it and decided to make the most of the week by drinking and all things related to what happens when you drink, messing about and general tomfoolery. There was a fair there where I participated in bumping everyone to a pulp on the dodgems and being thrown about on this whirling contraption which made my bottom sore. Good times...

The last day in Scotland, I stated to everyone present “I wanna go up that hill!” (the words that I will regret to this day as the hill turned out to be a mountain). I pointed to the biggest one in view. Andrew offered his services as a Sherpa to guide me up this massive hill. The purpose of this mission was mostly to get really good pictures of the surroundings and of the valley the village was in. We started off fine with confidence in every step, but as soon as we were half way up a steep bit, all confidence deteriorated as my legs started to burn and I breathed heavily for enough oxygen. I also noticed that flies had become attracted to my head, mostly due to my hair gel. Having caught my breath and with a new dire need to escape the flies, we set off again fighting through the pain barrier.

Upon reaching a path near to the top, I collapsed in agony. I’m not sure of the distance we trekked, but it seemed like a mile or so up a steep hill. I fell to the stony ground and lay there as flies constantly buzzed around my head. I hate flies at the best of times when there is only one, but with about 30 buzzing in and out of my ears, I felt the need to quickly solve this problem. Unfortunately, I made the problem worse. I doused my head with a full bottle of freezing water. This not only made my gel more attractive to the flies, but froze me to the bone. So..... we ran. We ran up this path searching to get rid of the flies. Eventually, they died down to just one or two and I took some great pictures.

We eventually reached a path down, which turned out to be a mountain bike trail. It seemed more inviting then Andy’s preferred route down, which was to run down a steep hill. The mountain bike trail was full of hidden holes and bumps, it took its toll on my legs, but was fun to run up and down the side of this mini mountain. We made it to the bottom and walked wearily home to the caravan. The day after we made our way home in our lovely motor home.

I'll leave it at that for now, but promise as soon as I have finished modding the rest of the 159 photos I took. I'll post up a slideshow of all of the best ones. Theres a few vids too.

See ya