Right dudes, we’re off on holiday! The flight to Italy leaves in the morning and we’re all packed and ready to go. We’re even ready to face any Italian pick pockets!
Andy
This time next Saturday we will be in Lucca. I’m really looking forward to some better weather as I’m fed up of the cold, wet summer that we’ve had so far … I haven’t taken my jacket off all day today and am even thinking about putting the heating on. IT’S JULY!!!!
I’m just back from another trip to Ocean Terminal where I purchased a couple of Italian phrase books and some new suitcases. Now that we can get our belongings to Italy and say ‘Un caffe macchiato, per favore‘ we’re pretty much sorted for the holiday. I’ve also done a little research at this website and already found a couple of nice looking places for us to get our coffee and ice cream!
That’s the important things taken care of.
Catherine
Last week my Auntie Catriona and Uncle Alan spent a week in Thurso with my mum and dad - the first time they have been to visit for about 13 years!! (Talk about naming and shaming … ) This week they are in Edinburgh and today they took me out for lunch.
Uncle Alan and Auntie Catriona
We went to The Hub which I think might be fast becoming my new haunt. I was there with Jeni last week - so it seemed fitting to return with her parents - and had realised how nice and competitively priced it is. For example, if you order a muffin (which I am prone to doing) you don’t just get a muffin thrown down on a plate in front of you, you get a muffin beautifully presented with cream, a raspberry and dusted in icing sugar. All for under £2!
Anyway, it was really nice to catch up with Catriona and Alan. They were also able to deliver a bag of clothes to me from mum (she’s lending me some items which should hopefully be well suited to the Italian climate) as well as some little gifts from my parents recent holiday in Ireland … Yummy chocolate fudge for Andy, and a yummy looking candle like one of the ones below for me:
I haven’t tried to eat it. Yet.
Catherine
The office was closed today, and Andy had the day off too, so we decided to get up reasonably early and head in to Edinburgh for some shopping at our favourite shopping centre, Ocean Terminal. The plan was to get some clothes that will be better suited to the warmer climate in Lucca. Despite being armed with a list of items I was looking for, I only came away with one top, while Andy got a bagful of items in the Debenhams sale without even trying!
After getting up so early, our shopping trip was over by lunchtime, so we stopped for some food at Orocco Pier in South Queensferry on the way home. We had been there once before for my birthday 2 years ago and we’ll definitely be going back again. It’s a really nice place with great views, and the food is good too! The highlight for me was the creme brulee dessert followed by a Rocky Road Mocha. And to be honest, the sausage and mash I had before that was not far behind in the highlight stakes!
The cool surroundings (and a hint of the view) at Orocco Pier
Well, I would bore you with the details of the hoovering and weed killing that I did this afternoon but luckily for you Mary Queen of Shops is just about to begin on BBC2 so I have got to go!
Catherine
This is my first post in about a week, mainly because I have spent the past 5 days pre-occupied with the excellent Criminal Justice.
Ben Wishaw in Criminal Justice
This was a 5 episode drama running every night on BBC1. Monday night’s episode was somewhat delayed by the tennis match between Andy Murray and Richard Gasquet - but it’s for that reason that I ended up watching it. The extra tennis time gave me a chance to properly read the TV magazine which came with The Times on Saturday and I couldn’t help but notice that fact that they referred to Criminal Justice as the ‘TV event of the year’. I decided to watch the 1st episode and see if they were right.
Well, I was hooked! Every night I had to tune in to find out what was happening to poor Ben, both in prison and the court room. Basically he was accused of murder. All he knew was that when he woke up after a night out, the girl he had met (and drank a lot with, taken drugs with, and done things only married people should do with) was dead, and he had no memory of what had happened. I suppose the idea was that the viewer had no idea what had really happened either, but the BBC obviously hadn’t reckoned with my husband, who cracked the case without even seeing all the episodes. (He always does that!)
Anyway - it kept me guessing right until the end. I was a little bit disappointed with the final episode - I just felt it ran out of steam and wasn’t as good as the others but overall the series was really good. It certainly made me never want to end up accused of anything in future, and I might start looking in to a good honest lawyer NOW just incase … (Because according to this programme there are not many out there, but if you want to discuss that sort of thing then The Guardian might be a better place to do that).
Catherine
It’s only 15 days until we fly out to Italy! We’re heading to Lucca, Tuscany to spend a week with my parents at an apartment they’re renting.
Lucca is supposed to be an amazing city with beautiful ancient buildings and narrow streets and it’s supposed to be VERY hot there just now - so all in all, a far cry from Inverkeithing!
I’ve sorted out my holiday reading - an essential aspect of any good break. I read a review of this the other week which claimed it was a work of genius. We’ll see.
These two I’ve been meaning to read recently but haven’t had the time:
There’s a WEBSITE to go along with it.
Hopefully I’ll find a nice little Tuscan cafe to chill out in and get some proper reading done!
Andy
That’s better, well better than the default one at least. The picture is of us catching some Z’s in the Louvre, Paris. Not many people go to the World’s most famous museum and art gallery and have a kip, but that’s how uncultured we are!
Andy
Oi, where’s our header gone?
We’ll have to get a new one up there soon.
Andy
This afternoon our friend Ali kindly offered to help me get rid of the remains of all the trees and bushes I’d cut down in the back garden a couple of weeks ago. At first glance we thought that it would all fit comfortably into the back of his people-carrier, but in the end it was a really tight squeeze as you can see……
Ali gets to grips with some foliage
At one point, Ali and I lifted up a small platform that sat in the middle of the garden to reveal a massive hole in the ground. The hole is about 4 foot deep and 2 feet in diameter! What’s the deal there? We can only imagine that it was for the fake stream the previous owners had installed (nice!) and which I haven’t properly removed. Madness though - you don’t really expect to find that sort of thing kicking about your garden. Catherine says it reminds her of a rubbish horror film we watched recently:
Andy
P.S. I saved this today:
I’ve named her Catherine; cute in a strange way, but really, really slow
(I’m going to pay for that!)
Last night I couldn’t get to sleep for ages. I think it had something to do with the rain lashing against the window, the late night coffee I had consumed, and the fact that I couldn’t stop thinking about our attic! We’ve only ever poked our heads up there once, but it was dark and we didn’t have a torch, so although we could make out the shapes of objects lying around we’ve never really known what was up there.
Today I decided it was about time that we knew. We still don’t have a torch, but I had decided to solve that problem by using the camera flash! After opening the attic door I also discovered that there is a little window up there, so it wasn’t actually dark at all. I still didn’t fancy going right to the top of the ladder though so I just held the camera above my head and took a couple of snaps which I was then able to check the content of once I was safely back on the ground, and able to run away if necessary! Here are just some of the secrets that our attic holds ….
A remote control car and a purple carrier bag containing I-don’t-know-what.
The box for a karaoke machine and some other cardboard boxes. Do they have anything inside? Who knows!
I have to warn you … I was quite shocked to see this next photograph, and the pair of eyes staring back at me:
I was relieved to realise that the eyes simply belonged to a large (but freaky looking) teddy bear.
Other treasures included some polystyrene blocks, and a trophy from an Inverkeithing Junior Bowls championship!
Ah well, hopefully I’ll be able to sleep better tonight.
Catherine
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