Christmas in Spain

Hola! We're just back from a fabulous week in Spain. We were very lucky to join our good friends Amy and Juande as they went back for Juande's family Christmas. We flew to Madrid, then navigated the Metro system there to get to the bus station (bit of a rush as our flight was a bit late) to get the bus to Merida where Juande picked us up to take us to Montijo, his home town. We had a great family Christmas eve dinner with them and his family, who were a little surprised by our not eating meat! But we managed fine and had what we think is the best Tortilla Patata ever! And cheese, wine, salad, lovely sponge roll with blue cheese and nuts, and dessert, a cake cooked by the local nuns! We even finished up before midnight, a real achievement by Spanish standards. We were put up in a flat owned by Juandes parents, we were the first people to stay in it. On Christmas day we went to Caceres, a small Medieval town which is really lovely. The storks that sit on the top of all the tall buildings are great! After lunch there (after 3pm!) we went to a small lake surrounded by beautiful rounded rocks. It was the perfect location to watch the sun set, really nice ;-) That evening we went to a cool bar with Juandes friends and drank lots of beer and wine and ate some yummy home made potato chips and fantastic Spanish cheese (queso) yummy. On boxing day we went to Merida for the day, saw a great Roman aqueduct and Roman ruins - an amphitheatre and Colosseum. We cooked lunch with Amy in the flat and ate way too much! That afternoon/evening we went bird watching and saw beautiful cranes and other birds flying right over head, it was really great. We went to some of Juande's friends place for pizza and beers (I think we ate about 11:30pm!), which was really nice. She is an English teacher so we could actually talk to them, most of his other friends have limited English (though better than our Spanish!). The next day we went to Juandes parents country house. Unfortunately it was raining, but we did go for two walks in the rain which was pretty nice, through their orchard of Cork trees, and through a bushland area also. We had a fabulous lunch made by one of his sisters, it was fabulous food. They have these heavy table cloths that go all the way to the floor, then underneath, a brasero, which you either put hot coals in (which is very very hot) or an electric heather. Its really pleasant being cool on top and having your legs tucked under the table all warm. Makes for an easy siesta!! They don't heat the houses otherwise, so it's pretty chilly inside, so you really rely on the table being warm! The last day we had lunch with Juandes friends in a pub and then caught the bus with them to Madrid, where they caught their flight home and we went to check out a new city!

Madrid is pretty cool; dirty grungy a bit rough, each area has its own character. It was fun to explore. The first evening we went to Cheuca, a gay district (we only realised that later, but they are hetero-friendly too!) for dinner, in a funky cafe. The next morning we went for a walk along Gran Via, one of the main streets, and then explored the old town area. We started in Plaza de Oriente, which is lovely, beautiful buildings all around, statues in the middle and a Palace (Palacio Real, pronounced like Royal) on one side. We popped into the Cathedral de Nuestra Senora de la Almudena, which took about 100 years to finish (in the 1990s!) and so has some interesting decorations, sort of pop-art style ceilings. We liked it, cos it didn't try to be an old style church, but had some character of its own. Huge ceilings tho, one of the biggest we've been in. We paused in Plaza de la Villa, which has some fantastic interesting buildings on it, went through busy touristy Plaza Mayor, stopped off for some amazingly sweet hot chocolate (that super thick stuff) and donuts to dip in it (so rich we didnt' finish our serving!!!!) before heading back to the hotel for a siesta! We had a quick lunch in a veggie restarant before going to our first art gallery, the Centro de arte Reina Sofia. This is a modern art gallery, a pretty big one, with some big name artists featured. We really enjoyed our visit, we spent about 6 hours there. Picassos Guernica is there, that's probably the best well-known painting there, but we also enjoyed seeing some smaller/less well-known works too. It's a great place. We went to a cool little tapas bar for dinner (ahh, it's a hard life!). The next day we knew we wanted to spend the day in the Prado, so we headed there early. The Museo del Prado is a pretty massive art gallery, but doable (not like the Lourve for example), so we planned to try to see most of it. As usual, we grabbed our Audio guides and headed off on our planned route. It was a pretty tiring day! The gallery is mostly Spanish artists, which made it quite a different experience to previous gallery visits. We really enjoyed Goyas 'Las Pinturas Negras' which he painted on the wall of his house (woah he must have been a dark bloke!), particularly the contrast with his formal portraits on the floor above and the light and floaty works painted to be copied to tapestry on the top floor. It was really interesting. We also really enjoyed the Velaquez paintings, another famous Spanish artist. We'd arrived at 10:30, but by 6pm I was shattered and couldn't see straight, so it was time to leave! We really enjoyed our day, and felt very spoilt to have spent an entire day looking at fabulous, interesting, not-straight-forward works or art! The next day we again headed to a gallery, the third of Madrids world-famous art galleries, the Museo Thyssen-Bournemisza, which I think was my favourite. It has a wide wide range of art, with examples from 14th century all the way through to the 21st. It has examples from all the periods, and is almost like an art lesson in a museum. Unfortunately as it was New Years Eve the gallery was only open 10-2, so we rushed through trying to see all the main bits, but realised that we want to come back!! Oh no! It was great, we both had a few favourites, from different periods, and bought a great Georgia O'Keefe print to put on the wall here ;-) In the afternoon (actually, after our late and indulgent lunch) we went for an interesting walk through some backstreets, marvelled at some fascinating buildings, and great graffiti/street art and then headed out in the early evening for our airport hotel. Wow, what a trip, we really enjoyed ourselves a lot! We feel very lucky to have spent Christmas and the days after with Amy and Juande, who looked after us _so_ well, and also to explore Madrid, a really interesting city that needs more than 3 days to properly explore!!

Happy New Year from Angus and Selina, hope 2009 is a good one for us all ;-)
xx

PS - sorry we're so behind on the blog, in the last few months we've been super busy:
we had a fabulous relaxing trip to Croatia in September, beach, water, sun, wine!
we both went away for work - me to London, Angus to Denmark,
we had more visitors! Suse and Liam came in October, we also went to beautiful southern Ireland for a few days with them.
Angus went away a second time to Denmark and I went to Cairo, and I did a week-long Yoga course with David Swensen here in Edinburgh (8 days in a row of yoga, I was a very tired girl at the end!!)
the days are getting shorter, actually now they're getting longer again! and winter has well and truly set in!
we went to Southhampton for a great weekend and saw Ronald and Yvonne, and visited the Isle of Wight, really nice ;-)
we went away for our wedding anniversary, to Aviemore, and walked in the snow, a really lovely trip.
we've been socialising, yoga-ing, walking, cycling, eating, drinking, guitaring, singing (Angus joined a choir and a band!), photographing, all the usual stuff really!!
missing Adelaide/Australia lots, and all you guys ;-)
good luck to our pregnant friends Danni & Jesse, and Hannah & Owen, thinking of you all lots xxx
love us :)

this is a big update!

Well we've been talking about updating the blog for months now, but it's finally going to happen. Since we last wrote we've been busy busy busy! So here goes:

It's now early August. This weekend we spent visiting our friends Eric & Hilary who live in Dundee, about an hour north of Edinburgh. We caught the train up on Friday night and had a lovely evening with them – they have an amazing flat overlooking the firth of Tay, you can see the bridge and all the water and out to the North Sea – really lovely spot, and a nice new apartment with lots of big windows to take in the views. We went for a cycle on Saturday after a pretty lazy morning but unfortunately the rain came down – really heavy and big drops!! It was almost flooding some of the roads, which was a bit of a challenge! Lucky for us it was also pretty warm (around 20) so it was a bit muggy but we weren't too cold at least. Then on Sunday we didn't do much, Selina did some photography stuff and Angus played some music. Sunday night we went to a fantastic Jazz show – a Stephen Grappelli Centenary Concert, which was simply fabulous, really inventive and enthusiastic. It was part of the Edinburgh Jazz Festival, and we were glad to be able to get along to a show. Next year we'll go to more I think! Earlier in the week we visited Clare and Paul for dinner also. They live out a bit South of Edinburgh in a nice little cottage. We had a great evening with them – Angus just cycled there from Roslin, and really enjoyed riding along the little narrow roads. Selina caught the bus out after work and helped with the cooking and picking berries. It was a nice evening. The weekend before (last one in July) Angus did a music recording course (one-day only) on the Saturday and Selina went to see a great photographic exhibition at the Dean Gallery, it is called 'Foto: modernity in Central Europe', photos taken in the early 20th century, between the wars. It was very interesting and quite diverse, gave me lots of ideas! On the Sunday I had a nice chat to Michelle and in the afternoon we went to see 'Jazz on a Summers Day'. Given some scottish summer days we've had recently we rugged up warmly in jeans and took our umbrella. We were wrong – it was hot and sunny! We sat on the lawn in Princes St Gardens and listened to jazz while we had a picnic. We had some friends join us too. We even needed an ice cream to cool us down! Divine!! The weekend before that (19/20th July) we went to the Isle of Mull. We rented a car on the Friday night and drove to Oban. Then we got the last ferry and got to Mull about 11:30pm. We found the most soft and yummy piece of grass ever and put up our tent! The wind and rain gave us a small window and we managed to get in without getting wet, and slept very well! The rain disappeared again in the morning for our cooked breakfast ;-) We then had planned to go on a cruise to the Treshnish Islands to see the Puffins and other seabirds, but the wind was quite strong so we couldn't go. We went for a nice drive and a lovely walk along a loch, and enjoyed seeing the beautiful Mull scenery for the second time. We met with Amy & Juande and their Spanish friends who were also visiting Mull, and we spied a Sea Eagle young bird in it's nest, which was great to see! We stayed again at Sunart View (a lovely b&b) and once again they looked after us. We went for dinner in Tobermory overlooking the beautiful harbour with all the boats and pretty coloured buildings. Such a lovely spot! We caught the ferry home on Sunday afternoon and it was a beautiful day, sunny and mild. The previous Sunday (13th) we also went birdwatching with Amy & Juande. We caught the train to North Berwick (which is a lovely spot East of Edinburgh) and caught the boat out to Bass Rock, which is home to about 100,000 Gannets. They are large white and yellow seabirds who nest on the rock, and they cover it – literally the whole rock is white from them, and there are thousands hovering above it too – quite a spectacle! We also sat on the beach afterwards and dreamed that we were at Port Elliot Beach. Ahh.

Late in June we were lucky to have Martin & Ivanka come to visit us. We showed them around Edinburgh the day they arrived (they had lots of sleep on the plane!!), and Selina took them to Roslyn Chapel on the Monday afternoon, and we also went to a nice restaurant for dinner that night. On the Tuesday we all had the day off and we drove down to Melrose, a small town in the Borders, and went to see a great Abbey. It is very large and there is an excellent audio guide – we must have spent a few hours walking around it, Martin & I taking lots of photos along the way! We had lunch in a small cafe and went to see another Abbey in the afternoon before going back to Edinburgh. Then after Martin & Ivanka headed down South we followed, catching a plane to Bristol on the Thursday night. Angus and I got a city car on the Friday and went for a really nice drive around the countryside near Bristol. On the Friday night it was raining and we went for a walk from our Hotel – it was really warm which was nice. We found a great little restaurant and spent a lovely evening together there. Bristol is a pretty nice place. On the Saturday we caught a train to Bath where we met Martin & Ivanka and also Ronald. We explored the Roman Baths and had a nice walk around the town in the afternoon. We went to a great seafood restaurant for dinner. Yum. On Sunday we explored Bristol with Martin & Ivanka. It was wonderful to see them and spend some time with them both. We came back to Edinburgh on the Sunday night, and they were off to conferences and then a great tour of Italy.

Before that we had a lovely time with Carla & Brian visiting us. They arrived on Thursday evening (June 5th) with all their luggage! (they had a bit of excitement with delayed planes and missing luggage during their trip over to Germany). Angus & I both were very pleased to see them!! We drove on the Friday evening to Callendar, which is in the Southern Scottish highlands. We stayed at a nice place and had a lovely meal in the evening. On Saturday we went the scenic route to Oban - via Rannock Moor, the views were lovely and the snow had melted from when we were here a few months prior. We caught our ferry to the Isle of Mull in the early afternoon and then drove to Tobermory, which is a pretty town on Mull, the largest on the island. We went to a great restaurant for dinner - Cafe Fish, and it was excellent food. It was such a lovely day we sat outside in the sunshine for dinner and really enjoyed the views. On the Sunday we drove via the scenic (windy) route to get the ferry to Iona. There were lots of great views along the way. Iona is very pretty and the Abbey was interesting, and lucky for us the weather was very kind and the sun stayed out all day and we enjoyed blue skies and sunshine! On the Monday we did a wildlife tour which was really interesting. We all got acquainted with binoculars and the various types of birds we would see throughout the day. Unfortunately the weather was a bit bad, but that didn't stop us having a good time. We saw a golden eagle in a tree near it's nest, some Red deer, some Roe deer, lots of little birds, a Peregrine falcon, lots of oyster-catchers and herons, the list goes on! It was a fun day and certainly got us enthusiastic about all the fabulous wildlife to see here in Scotland. We didn't see otters which was a shame, but did see a few seals. Back in Edinburgh Brian & Carla did some sightseeing as Angus & Selina had to work a few days. On the weekend we all went on the bus to South Queensferry where we caught a boat out to Inchcombe Island, which is in the mouth of the Firth of Forth. There is an abbey there, and lots of seabirds nest on the island. We all got divebombed by angry nesting seagulls, which was certainly a different experience! We managed to see some puffins on the boat on the way back which was exciting - they are very small and fast! We had a wonderful time with our visitors and were sad to see them leave on the Sunday morning.

In May we had visitors too. Judy and Pete arrived in Scotland on the 8th of May. We picked up a rental car on the Friday and drove to Fort William, a pretty town right on a loch. Very nice. On the Saturday we drove the rest of the way to the Isle of Skye. We were lucky with the weather, a little overcast but dry. We stopped at the Eileen Donan castle and had a look around which was interesting. We couldn't see the tops of the Cuillin Mountains as there was a bit of low cloud, but the views were spectacular anyway! We stopped in for a short Whisky tasting at Tallisker. Then we drove on to the B&B on the Waternish Peninsula. Along the way the views were so stunning - we could see all the way out to the outer hebrides, misty islands everywhere! We went for dinner in an old pub which was in a pretty special spot right on the beach. The next day we went for a drive around Trotternish, which is really interesting, fabulous views around every corner, and lots of interesting rock formations too. Although we didn't fit a walk in, we really enjoyed our day very much. The next day we drove down to South of the Cuillin Hills, to Elgol. From there we caught a ferry to Loch Coruisk, which you can only access by water or walking. The views were amazing, really beautiful. We saw seals and terns, and the hills are stunning - sharp black peaks and rounded pink hills. We ate our picnic lunch by the loch and took in the views. Back at Elgol we debated a swim because it was so hot but when we put our feet in the water was amazingly cold so we decided against it and got an ice cream instead! We stayed at a nice little b'n'b that night and went for a fabulous seafood dinner in Broadford. The next day we drove off the Island and then up alongside Loch Ness to Inverness. Angus and Selina caught the train back to Edinburgh, and Judy and Pete drove up to explore more of Northern Scotland. Over the next few weeks they came back to Edinburgh and stayed with us on and off for the next few weeks. It was really lovely to have them around for a whole month!

During the time when Judy & Pete visited we also had some other visitors. Rachel came and had dinner one night, and Graham & Michaela & Karina also visited us, we had two lovely dinners with them. Selina and Angus also had a quick weekend in Paris. We visited all the main sites. The highlight for me was on Sunday traffic is closed on the road next to the Seine, so we picked up some bikes and went for a lovely relaxing cycle next to the river, right in the heart of Paris! I loved the Louvre, I could go back a few more times I think!! We did a tour which I would recommend to anyone visiting. We ate really well (no surprises there) and drank lots of coffee. We also visited the Musee Rodin which was excellent.

So thats the update from us for the last few months! It's festival season here in Edinburgh now, so it's all busy and go go go for us for a while (no changes there really). Summer is a joke and we're missing the Australian summer (we know you're all cold there at the moment ;-) We had a quick visit from Jasi too a few weeks ago when she was touring around. We took her to a great little vegetarian restaurant in the city. She managed to see a lot of Edinburgh while she was here! We like visitors and hope to have some more soon (hint hint!!)

Angus is officially a doctor now too. He got his PhD results a few months ago and got very positive comments from both markers. So I'm very proud of him ;-)

We have an Adelaide phone number now too. I'm not going to put it in the blog, but you all know where to email us to ask for the number. That means it's really cheap to talk to us, so hope we can chat to some of you soon!

Bye for now, Selina & Angus
xx

PS- some photos updated now, and will keep working on more ;-)

April '08

A busy month ;-)

We had dinner with one of angus's colleagues, Chris and partner Katie at our flat. And the followign monday night we had a great dinner with other friends Clare & Paul - a very chilly evening at their cottage on a farm south of Edinburgh. Off to London for a long weekend. We caught the train down - it was great! Met up with Hannah &Owen & Dave on the Saturday - a big day of wandering museums, sights, sunshine and rain in London! Sunday we met up with Ronald and went for a walk in Hyde Park, after a morning coffee break in Notting Hill. We explored the fabulous Victoria & Albert Museum with Michal in the afternoon. A tasty meal all together in the evening. Great being able to meet up with two cousins!! We spent the Monday together going to the London Review Bookshop - what a fabulous place! And then we just wandered around London before catching our train back in the evening - a lovely relaxing way to travel and it all went smoothly.

The following weekend we had a visitor from Germany! Yvonne came to stay with us! We did the touristy thing in Edinburgh on the Saturday - a pretty windy day, and had a tasty meal at home in the evening. On Sunday Yvonne came to church with me, and we visited the modern Art museum nearby. The afternoon was sunny and we sat and soaked up the sunshine in our flat with a relaxing afternoon chatting ;-) The following weekend was beautiful weather. We did a yoga workshop on the saturday - acroyoga, which was great fun! On the Sunday we had a lovely walk through one of the nearby allotments (lovely little gardens) and sat in the sunshine on the hill in Inverleith park. I had lunch with Mandi in the sunshine and managed to get a mini-tan! Work is going great for both of us, and we're busy and happy ;-) Cheerio till next time!

March 08

I thought i'd quickly write an update of what's been happening for us in March. We arrived home from our (fantastic) Chamonix holiday both with colds that proceeded to last the next 3 weeks! That meant we needed to have a few quiet weekends. The first weekend in March came and went, we didn't do much. Marigold visited us on the second weekend, which we were thrilled about. She arrived in at the Waverley train station in the early afternoon, where we met her. We took her on a slow walking tour of the old town, up to the Edinburgh castle and around the back side through the Princes St gardens and then down the hill to our flat in Stockbridge. We took most of the afternoon to do so, which was lovely and relaxing. The weather was ok, cold but bearable. We had visited the butchers in the morning so had a lovely piece of lamb prepared for a roast dinner which went down a treat! The evening was long and full of very enjoyable conversation. The next morning we shared breakfast before Marigold left for the next leg of her journey to visit Owen and Hannah in Cambridge, which by all accounts was lovely! We enjoyed a quiet Sunday together. On Wednesday night we picked Zoe up from the airport for her stay with us for Easter. Angus and I managed to get the Thursday off work too, so we had the whole time together. During the next four days we did some walking around the city, visited the Pentland hills (where we were hailed and snowed upon and almost got blown away), the Roslyn chapel (lovely and definatley worth a visit, it is amazingly filled with sculptures, on every single wall there is a different set of sculptures, all stunning!), North Berwick, on the coast with lovely views but a brisk cold wind, and we had Tony & Sue & Josh for a 'family-style' Easter lunch on the Saturday which was a great success. It was a lovely time and it was only the weather which tried to spoil our plans! Angus and I went to dinner on the Sunday evening to an organic restaurant which was very nice. The following weekend we were meant to visit some friends in Dundee but that got cancelled so we had another nice quiet weekend at home, visited a museum and did some shopping. Now April is upon us and we have a lot planned to keep us busy, and even more in May and June! Au Revoir for now from Edinburgh ;-)

Chamonix

Well we decided it was time to go back to France, so on Friday a few weeks ago we got on a plane to Geneva (after almost being too late to check in!! Mental note: when you fly EasyJet, get there early, or you don't fly!!!). Geneva is of course in Switzerland, something I didn't actually remember until we landed and I thought - hmm, weren't we meant to be in France? Luckily I had booked our flight to the right destination and we caught a bus to Chamonix (France). We arrived, checked in to our (quite comfortable) 2 star hotel and then went for a wander around the town of Chamonix. There is a lot of money walking around that town! Lots of fur coats and people looking far too fancily dressed than necessary. Oh well, we looked like actual skiiers and that's all that mattered to us! We bought Angus some ski boots, picked up our lift passes, hired some skis (and poles) and got excited about spending the next 8 days on the slopes! Yay!

We decided to spend the first day skiing on Brevant/Les Plaz which is located right next to Chamonix. From our hotel we walked (up a big hill!) for about 20minutes to get to the cable car. We rode up and the views just got better and better! It was a good morning of warm up skiing, we saw some people gliding down the mountain with paragliders attached - a very cool way of getting down the mountain. It was really really warm - about 15degs on the slopes, at least 10degs warmer than Edinburgh!!! So the first few runs were nice and crispy but then it started to get a bit slushy. We didn't mind as Angus was getting his ski legs and I just enjoyed getting into it and the views that were so lovely! We had an unfortunate discovery mid morning... We had been organised and bought baguette, cheese and tomato to eat for lunch (our traditional French meal!) and had stopped to take the camera out when I realised that the bag smelt awfully cheesy (and my camera for that point!) Given that it was 15degs and that the cheese was quite soft to start with meant that it managed to get a bit spread over the bottom of the bag. Not very cool. We had lunch a bit later sitting on some rocks at the top of Les Praz looking over the very beautiful Chamonix valley, in the sunshine, with jackets off and feeling like we'd be getting sunburnt if we stayed too long! We later on saw some other young people sunbathing up on the rocks above the ski runs! Amazing!! We found some good bumps later in the day to keep me busy and it was fun.

We decided however that it was a good idea to search out some lessons for Angus and a group for me to ski with. We landed upon Ski Fun Tours which sounds a little tacky but was in fact great. On the Sunday morning we were picked up and driven to Grande Montet where Angus was in a group of 2 (which shrunk to 1 in the afternoon - private - lesson bring it on!) and I was in an advanced group of about 6. It was excellent. Angus learnt lots and I skiied some great slopes! We managed to skip the queues and ride all the way up to the top of Grande Montet and ski down the Glacier Argentiere which was simply stunning - good steep slopes with lovely lovely snow and some bumps and, oh it was just lovely! The thing about skiing in France (and possibly generally in the Alps) is that you really need a guide - because otherwise skiing off-piste means that you're not covered by insurance or the ski patrol won't come looking for you. And off-piste is actually anywhere that isn't a named run, even if it's within the general whole ski-area-boundary. And also when you're skiing on a glacier where there are crevasses (many people only ski on the glacier when wearing a climbing harness and carring survival gear) and big patches of blue ice to watch out for on the slopes, you basically can't ski on your own (unless you're a bit silly), so the guide was the way to go!

We skiied Grande Montet a second day, and we skiied the face which is under the cable car, and is very steep (about 40degs I think) and can only be skiied in certain conditions - it was great! Really excellent snow and nice and steep, I really enjoyed it! Angus had a private half-day lesson and skiied the morning on his own. On the Tuesday we were doing the adventure day. I'd heard a bit about skiing the Vallee Blanche, but I wasn't terribly excited. It involves a walk along a ridge that has basically sheer slope either side. Wearing all your ski gear of course. I was very nervous about the prospect of this. But I was convinced (damm peer pressure) by my friends in the group, and Angus was super keen too. He went with an intermediate group before me, and enjoyed himself but unfortunately was skiing in the cloud most of the time so didn't get to see the beautiful views. My group went up later - we all dressed ourselves in our climbing harnesses and taped our skis together so that we wouldn't drop them, and then loaded up into the cable car. At the top we put on crampons (on the bottom of our ski boots) and were all tied together in a long line by Pascal (our guide) and with hearts racing headed (or were herded) towards the ridge. EEK! I was pretty nervous but it wasn't too bad. But we couldn't see - i think if it was a clear day it would have been harder! The walk down the ridge was challenging at times, I was certainly glad to have the crampons on! It took about 30mins, and it was really really cold up there too, and because we were at the top of the ridge the wind was blowing a gale!! But we made it to the platform ok and could detach ourselves from each other and get ready for the ski down the glacier (about 20kms). It was pretty easy, just a few big bumps. Then we stopped and the clouds started to lift, and then they were lifted - the views were stunning! We were standing on a massive glacier surrounded by mountains covered in snow and ice and there were lots of little glaciers coming down onto the big one we were skiing on! It was really beautiful! We kept skiing on, taking a few breaks to pull out the camera (I bought a new bag so that I could carry my SLR up with me, boy was I glad I did that!!). The skiing was lovely, but the views were really why we were there! We had lunch in a refuge on the edge of the glacier. After lunch it was one big bumps run (right next to the glacier flow) before the long run out. It was really fantastic! At the bottom we walked up about a million steps (oh we looked in a hand-carved ice cave too!) with all these tourists coming down that didn't feel the need to give way to a skiier walking up carrying skis and trying not to trip over in ski boots. Hurrumph. It was a hell of an experience, and I would definately recommend it to anyone visiting Chamonix!!

The next day we went to Italy and skiied the resort called Courmayeur. It was nice and Angus & I skiied together and met the others for lunch. Then we skiied another French resort on the Thursday (big danger of avalanches because of the high temperatures so we only went off-piste on a couple of runs carefully chosen by Pascal!), and on Friday it was back to Grande Montet. The weather had changed a bit though, and there was fresh snow up on the glacier and more coming! After lunch the advanced and intermediate groups skiied a run together on the glacier and it was very challenging - visibility of about 30m and at times it wasn't obvious what the terrain was doing or even which way was down! I was at the front of the group after Pascal and it was really fun - lots and lots of fresh thick snow! Angus really enjoyed himself too! Falling in that sort of snow is just good fun!

There was a group change on the Saturday, and we were sad to see the group we'd skiied with change, but the new guys were good fun too - 3 Irish brothers who were particularly funny to ski with! It was raining heavily in the valley and we were not optimistic of a good day ahead, as the gondola and cable car were closed too. But we did a couple of good runs before lunch (Angus was in our group too, keeping up very well, but still falling over lots!) in good fresh snow which turned to wet concrete about half-way down the mountain! We had an early lunch and then - very luckily - the gondola was opened! Yay, that meant the top half of the mountain was now accessed, though not the glacier at the top (too windy). We did some really great runs - fresh snow, most people staying on the runs so the off-piste was all for us! Unfortunately there was a guy in our group who had no concept of control and tried, on seperate occasions through the day, to wipe all of us out! He was pretty amusing to watch, but not that great to ski with! The weather came and went all day, and one run was cloudy/sunny/blizzard/snowing all in one run! Like melbourne weather but a bit more extreme ;-)

So the week was a great success - we found two favourite restaurants in Chamonix, one Italian, one Japanese, and ended up going to them both 3 times! We went with the 3 brothers on the Saturday night and laughed so much we both thought we might die! They were so loud, raucus and funny it was incredible! We got asked at least 3 times to be quiet by other tables and I thought we might get asked to leave the restaurant! We haven't had such an amusing evening ever I think!!

I had a bit of a hangover on the way home by I deserved it and at least I wasn't skiing! The trip home was uneventful and we were back in our little flat here in Edinburgh by about 2:30pm. A great holiday ;-)

I've got a job! :-)

Just a quick update - I had a second interview with IceRobotics this week, and they've offered me a job which I've accepted. They're making devices to help dairy farmers monitor their cattle. They also have ties with academia (animal scientists) and are doing a few other cool (and fun-sounding) things. I'm starting on March 3rd, and am pretty excited!

Also, the office is at Roslin, so I'll get a good cycle into the countryside each day ;-)

Scottish Weather Lessons #1

So yesterday morning I thought, ‘oh it’s been warm this week, I’ll just wear my short jacket to work’. I always carry an umbrella, and I took the big super strong one yesterday. It’s got reinforced struts and is quite large, but the first time Angus put it up he managed to turn it inside out (???how I don’t know!) and it took us about 5 minutes (in the rain) to get it back around the right way! Anyway, I had the umbrella. I walked out our flat and up the hill and it was raining gently, but this didn’t bother me much. By the time I got to the bridge it was pretty windy and the rain was coming down. Normally when I cross the bridge with the umbrella up I’m a bit nervous that I might get picked up and blown off the bridge, so I hold the umbrella with both hands! This time it’s pretty bad, and I can’t really use the umbrella, so I’m getting a bit wet… By the time I’ve crossed over to the end of the bridge the rain has turned to horizontal-ish sleet. Hmm. Perhaps I should have worn my longer jacket today. The sleet continues as I walk through town to the office, and by now I’ve given up trying to keep dry, just hold on the umbrella and keep walking! It started snowing before I got to the office, which is a little kinder but still pretty wet! When I got up to my desk I realised I was soaking wet, so it wasn’t the happiest start to a working day I’ve had!

Lesson’s learned.
Watch the weather forecast.
If it’s forecast to rain sleet and snow on the way to work, wearing a) longer jacket and b) waterproof pants is sensible.
Weather here is amazing!! And apparently it get’s worse – it was warm yesterday but could have been 5 or 10degs colder!!!

Today I wore my waterproofs and looked a bit dorky but I’m over that anyway!

Today is Burns day (or Burns night tonight to be more exact) to celebrate the birthday of Robert Burns. Shame on you if you don’t know who Burns was (check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Burns) if you are interested. (anyone heard of the song Auld Lang Syne?)Apparently the thing to do is read his poetry and eat haggis. So we’re going around the corner to our friend Amy’s place and apparently they are cooking haggis! Yay, home made haggis!

On the weekend we’re off to Aberdeen, the Granite City.

Cheerio,
Selina & Angus