UK Letter Home September 2002

Welcome to the September 2002 edition of UK Bound.

Thanks to those people who responded to my last letter. For those of you who respond to this email, I will share the secret website that we have been working on. We currently have around 400 pictures on there now and constantly adding more.

Over the last couple of months, we have been able to do a little travelling, and getting out and about.

At the end of July, Edinburgh hosted the "Edinburgh Fringe Festival". It was, well, fringe. We saw one OK play from the states, which was totally predictable, and one really funny play about some backwater town pub. Too hard to describe, and, even if I could, wouldn't come across very well in an email. We had booked a third called "Bob's Rude Natural Noises", but it was getting late, and the second play ran late, so we decided to give our tickets away to the person sitting behind us, and we were off home. In retrospect, it was probably a good idea to give that play a miss.

Last year, we missed the Edinburgh Tattoo, but this year we were able to snag a couple of tickets. The tattoo is comprised of military bands from all around the world, and a little military display. The tattoo was held just in front of Edinburgh Castle, allowing the castle to be a backdrop and an entranceway to the square for the tattoo. You've probably heard one, or maybe two bagpipe bands playing in unison, however, there were over 20 bands, all marching and playing. At the start of the tattoo, all the bands were assembled in the square, then they marched off for each band to have a quick demo, and then for the final, they all reassembled in the square again. The band from Canada was from the RCMP, and they also had brought their horses along. The Sargent Major looked like he had eaten too much haggis, and that's no porky! (see if you get that double pun - woosh!). This year was the Queen's jubilee, so it had a jubilee theme. I have several pics on the website under "Edinburgh July 2002", but the pictures or even a video wouldn't do the tattoo justice. Next time you are over in Edinburgh in the summer, I would definitely recommend spending an evening at the castle.

At the middle of August, we purchased a couple of saddlebags, and jumped on the bike and headed south - destination: Wales. Why? Well, we've never been, and we had heard that it was lovely down there. Check out the web site for pictures and more information on the trip under "England & Wales 2002". We took a week off and headed to Wales, via Blackpool. We had never been to Blackpool - it was a mix between Los Vegas, Disneyland and Santa Monica. There were the lights, pier, tower, beach, and the rides - everything that you would want in a summer holiday. We were fortunate as we had arrived just as school was getting back, so queue's were quite small, and hotels were quite reasonable. We continued heading south to Cardiff, where we stayed the night. Over the next several days we wound our way thru the country, from high up on the hills, to the windy roads of the coast. Everyone was really friendly and spoke Welsh to each other. The roads were quite good, and I received a lot of good driving experience. We bombed along the motorways at 70+mph, cutting the curvies in the hills and on the coast, and slipping in mud in the old country. The scenery was amazing - so beautiful and unspoiled.

On the home site, we are planning on getting central heating and getting our attic converted into a spare room. It is really strange here - the roof of the attic is not insulated, and we have electric heaters for heat. You'd think that for a city that's been around for a 1000 years that they could at least think more about heat. We have also done a little painting, and now our front wall has now been brilliantly painted by the two world famous painters Brian "Van Gogh" Carr and Kim "Monet" Carr in minimalist colour(s) - white. So, there was a Picasso influence there as well.

Last year, we went to quite a few hockey games in Prestwick. We are fortunate that the team has moved to Glasgow. Last night we went to our first game, and Glasgow beat Belfast 4-3 in overtime. We'll let you know how the team plays in emails to come.

I guess that's it for now. We'll be talking to you soon. Have a good day.

Brian and Kim.