The Adventures of Sarah and Paul
Oct 11th 2007sarahMusic & Scotland
Today is almost over, and I can’t help but think of the coming weekend. Guess what we’re doing? Anything? Anything? Nah, I didn’t think you could guess.
We’re headed out on Saturday to see The Proclaimers. They are Paul’s number 1 favorite band, you know, being Scottish and all. 😀 It is going to be excellent.
Well, all’s right in the world in the Rudders household. Scotland has triumphed over France tonight in the soccer (football?? nah, don’t really want to get into that right now).
Clearly this isn’t a common occurrence. Ok, not too common an occurrence. It does happen every now and then, as tonight proves. Needless to say though, the Scot in this household is quite pleased with the performance of his national football (soccer?) team.
Here’s the match report for those who are interested.
Jul 27th 2007sarahBritain & Family & Scotland
Here’s this week’s picture! Just thought I’d share mom’s gnomes with you all, and of course there’s a bit of a story to go along with it all!
Paul and I were driving mom and dad back the road to the place where we got married. It’s quite a rural route, lots of green stuff, woods, fields, sheep, etc. We’re driving back to the hotel, quite carefully, as it’s a one lane road, and at this time mom and dad are gawking around, acting like the tourists they are. You know the stuff, asking weird questions, taking pictures of sheep, exclaiming over how gorgeous Scotland is and how much they want to come and visit again – the usual tourist basics. When, all of a sudden, Mom yells out “there’s gnomes up there!” (okay, those may not have been her exact words, but you get the gist!)
On go the brakes, but it’s too late. We’re past and no one else spotted the illusive Scottish gnome. Of course this doesn’t go without comment. We all have a laugh, and Paul, being the nice guy he is, says, “We’ll keep an eye out on the way back, and have a better look.” Meanwhile I’m sure he’s rolling his eyes and thinking, How in the world did I get myself into this?!?!
And so, off we go on our merry little way. Enjoying the trip down through the Scottish countryside. We stop at Ardanaiseig Hotel, which being at the end of the road we were driving down, I’m not sure where else we’d go!
Ardanaiseig Hotel just happens to be the gorgeous place where Paul and I tied the knot a while back. We had a good wander around the grounds there. It was pretty muddy, but Dad and Paul wandered down to the waterside – Ardanaiseig is right on Loch Awe. That’s where Dad took this awesome picture. I’ve added the picture here because it is just simply something else. The place just looks so lovely. We even went inside and had a good nose around in there.
Having had all the fun we could, we hopped back in the car – ok, we didn’t exactly hop – but we got ourselves back in the car and headed down the road. Extra slowly. Just so we can see these gnomes! By now we’re all pretty interested.
Slowly, slowly we went. And low and behold, as you can see by the picture featured in this post, the woman was correct. There were indeed gnomes up there, hiding amongst the trees on the bank. So, like good tourists, we stopped and had a good old look. Dad climbed up onto the bank to have an even better look, and got that picture – just to prove mom’s NOT the crazy woman we were all thinking she was turning into.
It will have to be another day when that happens. And now we all know that gnomes DO exist. They live in the forests of Scotland, apparently.
Oh yes, we pretty much did. We returned late last night from our weekend away in Scotland. A good trip, we went up to see Paul’s folks, make sure they’re still alive, and remind them how much they miss us. Oh, ok, maybe not, but it was a good trip. It wasn’t a long weekend for us, so it was just a short trip. We left Friday after work, and didn’t arrive at his mom’s until after 3am!! So, I’m not lying to you when I say we drove all night! The ride home was a bit better. I helped break it up a bit by driving a bit on our way out of Scotland. First time I’ve driven our car for any real length of time, and I do have to say I really enjoyed it.
Strawberries are in full swing here, so I made a shortcake to take up north with us. Shortcake really isn’t a thing here like it is at home – I guess I mean more mom and dad’s than anything. Most people here seem to be happy just eating strawberries with lovely double cream, but I’ve got enough of my mother in me to think that strawberries need a shortcake. I do have to say her recipe is the easiest thing in the world to mix up, so it’s no wonder I’m now becoming real convert! I’m going to do something a bit different later this week, though. I’m getting local strawberries in my weekly box from Abel and Cole and I’m intending to make strawberry ice cream. Yes, they may do better in a pie, but Paul does like his ice cream.
Jan 1st 2007sarahHolidays & Scotland
Happy New Year! We had a good one, staying in – yes a bit boring, but it’s what we did! I have to say it was a good night. Paul insisted we buy a Wii, so we ended up playing that. We had earlier in the year planned to go to Scotland over the New Year, to visit Paul’s folks and spend New Year’s Eve in Edinburgh. Turns out we made a good decision, as Edinburgh’s Hogmanay was cancelled, due to adverse weather conditions. It would have been nice to visit family, but we’ll save up some money and visit for a longer period in the New Year. And besides, the Wii was tons of fun. I beat Paul at bowling three times.Â
Anyways, hope you all had a great New Year back home. We’ll see you in June!
