This is our online journal of documenting our great escape to Scotland.

29 May, 2001.

So we haven't posted in a while - sorry about that guys. We've been very busy. Over the past couple of weeks we have had some pretty crazy fun times. We've gone dancing and out with friends and hanging at the park. Stuff like that.

Things we have done - well - we have gone to some fun 60's clubs and I got to meet some really cool people. A friend of ours, Sean, works for EICC (Edinburgh International Conference Center) and he had a great event - Salsa into Summer. It was so fun - there was a salsa band (Salsa Celtica - but I'm not sure where the Celtica came in), Mexican food, a movable conference room and Intellibeams! It rocked! We ate and drank and sorta danced and watched jugglers and stuff. It was fun and Sean did a killer job!

A couple weekends ago, Jano and I rode to Culross, which is on the other side of the Forth for a scooter happening! The ride was so fun! It was 25 miles round trip and we took the train to Dunfermline. Boy that was quite a ride! As we came into Culross, I almost ate asphalt on this steep steep hill. The scooters were pretty cool, but I'm not sure the burger we had was actually meat of any kind familiar! On the road back, we ended up in this town that had 5 houses! That's it - 5 houses. It was super fun! We were exhausted when we got home!

This past weekend, I was feeling pretty darn homesick, but we ended up at a Rockabilly do at the Spider's Web. Can I just say that was quite the crazy fun evening!!! If you are ever living in a foreign country and want to just relax, have fun and just feel alot better - go to a rockabilly evening! We went to the show with Sean and Joanne and we had just missed the band. What a shame, but it was free for us! Sean knows bunches of people there and he made sure we knew them all too! I can't remember all the names, but everyone was lovely! Within no time at all we were dancing and having pints with everyone! Oh I just had the best time and I can't wait 'til the next evening.

This past Sunday, I had another meeting here at the flat with the Digital Eve ladies. We talked about the DE-Edinburgh website and I think we are just starting to gel! It's really nice to have this support network.

All in all, we are having a wonderful time still - I've been battling a bit of homesickness. Not too bad, just missing the familiar! It'll pass and with evenings like the rockasilly one - it'll pass super quickly! Missing you all!

6 May, 2001.

So Spring has definitely sprung here in Scotland. Jano and I have had a completely fantastic weekend in the sun and here's the story...

But let's start at the beginning of the week. Jano and I have begun taking Capoiera martial arts/dancing with DanceBase on Monday nights. Our first night was just this past Monday and it took us until Thursday to actually begin walking properly again! We learned the basic stances and the basic kicking/defensive moves. I learned that I cannot do cartwheels to save my life, but I'll get there soon enough. I pretty much just laughed my way through class. I really like the teacher and her assistant. She's got this thick Portugese accent, and her assistant looks Brazilian with an English accent. Very odd combo.

This week was quite busy with my work and Jano's search for work, so during the week, we didn't get to participate in the real world much. I was coming home more or less exhausted, but hopefully that will get better each week.

Thankfully, Friday came about much quicker than we hoped and it was pub night with the boys from work. Jano joined up with us this time and it was a crazy carousing evening. The guys introduced us to the Mission Impossible at Bar Kohl and Cointreau at Frankensteins. I think poor Steven was trying to extricate himself from the clutches of a female of some sorts, but we figured he could take care of himself. We got to watch Frank come down outta the ceiling a couple times - wooo. But we did have a great time and ended up meeting up with Andrew (the guy who left the company last week). Jano and I decided pizza was in order on the way home, and so we indulged.

Saturday, Jano and I woke a bit worse for the wear so we ended up going to see The Mexican at the theatre. It was surprisingly entertaining. It could have been the hair of the dog though too. After the movie, we ended up instituting a long long tradition of the weekend wander and ended up at Jeremy's house for an afternoon on the roof with mexican beer in deference to Cinco de Mayo. The day was perfect and we just hung out up there people watching and enjoying the sun while Charlie classified rocks. Very illuminating. Later on, we had a couple people over for fajitas and more mexican beer. Charlie had never had fajitas before so I loved watching him try to assemble and then eat his creation.

Sunday arrived in blazing sunny glory. It was amazing! Jano and I got up early and decided to hit the Union Canal to Linlithgow since we didn't get to do it 2 weeks ago. With sandwichs, bananas, crisps and water in tow - we hit the trail. The ride was fantastic! My favorite part - well - I have 2 of them. The bridge going over Almond River and the motocross track outside Broxburn. We stopped off about 12 miles into the ride for a snack in the woods. It was so quiet and beautiful! As we approached Broxburn, a swan tried to attack us. It turns out it was protecting it's mate and the eggs. It wouldn't let me by at all. Jano had to come and protect me. His bike has big swan beak marks on it's tires. I couldn't stop laughing. Just passed the evil swan, we heard the sounds of two stroke bikes! As we got closer, it turned out to be a little motocross bike track. It was so cool! There were these little kids on these big bikes trying to go over the hills while the bigger bikes went storming over them. As we got closer to Linlithgow, the trail just got prettier and prettier. Oh - we did have our first up close encounter with the foot and mouth crisis as we had to bike/walk over numerous antiseptic carpets. All in all the ride was just over 23 miles and 2.5 hours.

Once we ended up in Linlithgow, we bought our train tickets home (what a bargain that was) and set off to have a bite. As I keep saying, the day was just so amazing, after lunch, we ended up with ice cream in hand, sitting over a nice little man made loch at the base of the palace. We watched the sailboat classes and the kids running helter skelter. It was just a magical day.

I just have to repeat that - it was a magical day!