The Adventures of Sarah and Paul
I’m playing a bit of catch up here with a post from an event which happened a while ago.
Back in March, someone in Paul’s family had a special birthday, and we were in Scotland for that weekend. I’ll let you figure out who’s birthday it was.
Oh, all right! It was Paul’s mom’s birthday! More pictures from the big party can be found here in the gallery.
Jul 10th 2008sarahLife & Photos
upon meeting Paul for the third time.
“My what a nice boy he is to hold our handbags while we get our picture taken!”
Poor fellow, he didn’t realize we’d then turn the camera on him!
Jul 6th 2008sarahDessert & Food & Life
So, I made some more ice cream at the weekend. This time I made my favorite, chocolate chip mint. Gorgeous. Basically, I just took a basic custard based ice cream and added peppermint extract. Then I cut up a bar of dark chocolate and added that in after it had churned. It was so good I think I might just make it again next weekend!
The rest of the weekend passed in a bit of a blur. Today we spent the day in London, visiting with a friend of mine over from the States for work. He’s come down from Newcastle for the weekend, so we met up for lunch.
After we left him to catch his train, we wandered over to the National Portrait Gallery. I can’t believe I haven’t been there before. It was an excellent museum, with a broad range of portraits from over the centuries of British history. Definitely worth a visit if you’re in the area. And it’s free, so there’s no commitment!
Jul 4th 2008sarahFamily & Life & Photos
They don’t celebrate that here, the fourth of July. I wouldn’t know why… 😉
All kidding about the UK and independence aside, I’m missing home terribly at the moment. With the warm weather starting to wane and London feeling a bit oppressive, I’m yearning for home and country again. Mainly it’s because I know what I’m missing back home that I won’t get here. I miss the hot days, swimming pools, back roads, and cookouts on top of the hill. Fireworks, county fairs, scratchy lawn chairs and laying out in the back yard. However, I must say that what I’m missing most of all, is a family tradition that I’m not sure we’re all familiar with, and my summers here are never complete without it.
My brother and sisters will know exactly what I’m talking about. For you, dear reader, I will need to explain further. I refer, of course, to the annual trimming of the hedge. It’s not a very exciting tradition, but it’s one that needs to be done. Every year, around the fourth of July, my father trims the hedge in our yard. It’s no ordinary hedge; of course, it’s a fairly awkward hedge, situated on a bank at the side of the road. See the suspect hedge below:
And that’s not the whole hedge! There is a bit more to it further on to the left. The picture doesn’t even do it justice. The hedge itself sits on a fairly steep-ish bank which doesn’t aid in the trimming process, and only hinders and makes things more difficult, or so I’m led to believe…
And my father doesn’t trim it on just any day of the year. Oh no, he trims this hedge on what is always the hottest day of the year. Guaranteed. You want a perfect day to go swimming? You just talk my father into trimming that hedge. Then forget about swimming, he’ll get you involved in the project.
Nope, it’s not just a solo activity. Dad likes to get the whole family involved if he can. If it isn’t starting at the crack of dawn so the teenager in the house is awake by eight, then it involves someone fetching him a glass of water – or at least getting out of his way while he gets on himself! I may make it sound entertaining, but if you’re smart, you’ll stay safely out of the way. I hear that this year he’s already done it, so we can be assured that the summer won’t be getting any hotter.
But, silly me, I miss weird things about home, and this has to be one of them. We may lament about the fact that dad insists on doing this task at the most inconvenient time of the summer, but it wouldn’t be summer without it.
I just have one thing to say: There’s only one hottest day of the year – why waste it? Sod the hedge, surely he’d rather be doing this:
Jul 2nd 2008sarahScotland & Travel
The first thing that struck me when I got off the train at Glasgow Central Station was the number of warm coats which greeted us. That and the distinct lack of tartan, shortbread tins, heilan coos, Scottie dogs, Nessies and any tourist tat in general. It was a bit of a novelty for me, and surprisingly refreshing. Although, I did wonder a bit at what country I had landed in. Surely this wasn’t Scotland!
Walking through town to our hotel (we stayed in the Hilton Glasgow! I’d recommend it, but the drinks were overpriced!) the banter around me instantly reminded me that I was indeed in Scotland. 😛
We checked in and then headed out to discover the town. We had a few hours to kill before heading down to Glasgow Green to see Radiohead, so we made our way up to Sauchiehall Street. Sauchiehall Street is Glasgow’s big shopping street. It’s where you can find all the shopping malls, etc. We spent a lot of time on Sauchiehall Street while we were in Glasgow, and while shopping there I experienced some of the best customer service ever in the UK. I was very impressed and would love to go back even just for that!
We didn’t do a lot of touring in Glasgow, but we did see a few things other than Sauchiehall Street and Glasgow Green. We made a brief stop in The Barras, which is Glasgow’s market. That was an interesting wander – it certainly wasn’t Camden, but we enjoyed it! We also had a look around the People’s Palace, a museum about the people of Glasgow.
We also took in some Charles Rennie Mackintosh while we were in the city. We didn’t see as much as I would have liked, but we found we ran out of time. On our last day, we stopped by the Willow Tea Rooms for our lunch. The Willow Tea Rooms were designed by Mackintosh. As industrial as Glasgow’s history is, it is an artistic city, and evidence of this is everywhere. Street musicians were found all over the place (and I only saw one person playing bagpipes!) and numerous music and art shops all over.
The best bits about Glasgow were definitely the banter, the customer service and the sheer fact that it’s undeniably Scotland – even without all the extra tartan! It was a brilliant place, but almost a polar opposite to Edinburgh. It’s definitely the place to visit for art and music, but if you’re looking for kilts and shortbread, Edinburgh’s the place to go.
