Scotland: Part II

First thing after breakfast, we made the long and familiar drive from Edinburgh to St. Andrews. We were quickly reminded of how remote St. Andrews is.

Freddy was in a contrary mood and refused to wear a coat.

Not too grumpy for a jumping shot, however.

We used to take Moojie down to that tiny beach below the castle.

Most of the cafes and pubs have changed or closed since we lived here, but Janetta's was still going strong. We loved going there multiple times as week, so a stop at Janetta's for ice cream had to be done.

It really is the cutest little town.

I had corporate finance right there on the second floor of this building despite this being the faculty of divinity.

 A row of houses along North Street

 Below is Younger Hall, where we took all of our exams and where I had piano and music classes.

 We walked into the quad right as students were going into lectures. It was so hard to believe how young all the students look. Could we really have been such babies? No way!

 A student was playing the pipe organ as we walked into the chapel on the quad. It made me wish we had gotten married here. It is such a magical, special place.

Below is where we lived in first year, and most importantly where I first met Pai! It was brand new at the time, and now looks like an out of date hospital. 

This was our house in second year on Drumcarrow Road. It had horrible 70s swirly carpet and even worse brown and orange patterned curtains. The children became familiar with the term"pebble dashed house." The upstairs window was Pai's. My room overlooked the back garden.

For third year with Moojie on the scene, we moved back into town to this little two story stone house on Market Street. There is now a Starbuck's right across the street. Oh, how easy kids these days have it. 

Moojie 15 years ago on the same steps coming down from our front door.

For our last year, we split our time between the top floor flat (below) on Queens Gardens, and the other flat in Edinburgh. I thought Moojie might remember this flat, or this street, but he didn't.

We still visited his old nursery school, and lots of other little things around town, but I have to feed the kids lunch and wrap this up. 

England and Scotland: Part I

 We've been trying to get back to Scotland since we left almost 15 years ago. Something always got in the way, but this year we vowed to make it work before Moojie is an adult. My mom arrived just in time to house/dog/cat/Sebby sit for us.

Pai and the kids left a day early to visit the ancestral home his grandmother grew up in, and where his mother visited during the Summer as a child.  Here they are walking the grounds of the house- somewhere in Lancaster County. The kids met their grandmother's cousin who they were amused to discover has a dog called "Meg."  They were also able to visit the cemetery where many of their ancestors are buried.

That night they drove to Glasgow in wretched rainy conditions and were met with bagpipers at the door of the hotel. A ball of some sort was happening in the hotel so their immediate introduction to Scotland was men in kilts walking all around the lobby plus bagpipers.  No photos, of course.

Pai met me at Edinburgh airport the next day around lunch and it immediately felt as if we never left. We just kept walking to the wrong side of the car. There are three places in the world where I feel completely at home and Scotland is one of them. 

 It was freeeeeezzzing up at the castle.

  That afternoon, Pai and I took a walk together through his old law school quad, the book store where we spent so much time warming up, killing time, and getting school books, and then later we met up with the kids and showed them our old flat.

We used to walk through this dark tunnel to get to Arthur's Seat. Tomás was terrified at the time and called it the "túnel do lobo," or the "wolf's tunnel." He didn't remember much of anything from our years in Scotland, but he did remember this tunnel.

 Our flat was right there on the ground floor, with our living room window behind Moojie's head. Freddy had had enough of the cold and walking by this point and opted to stay at the hotel.

We did a little more driving around and couldn't stop sharing old stories with Moojie and Zita. They were good sports and listened to it all!

Next up: St. Andrews

Rugby in Photos

It turns out that a good camera doesn't always make good photos, but I try...

 I caught Moojie's assist, but the rest of the play seemed to happen everywhere I wasn't.

 I can't help but think of National Geographic scenes of wolves taking down a Bison.

 Number 13 went on to score a try right after this shot!

I had to leave at half time to catch Zita's tennis tournament and then Moojie was injured in the following game so there's no rugby until April. That doesn't leave many games left on this rugby team. I can't dwell on too many of these "lasts," or I would be a in a puddle of tears every day.

Tennis Lately

I kind of forgot I even had a blog in these past two months. I'm just going to pick up with all of the sports we've had in the last weeks.

Freddy and Zita did a tennis tournament in mid Febraury. Freddy was happy to do it, Zita not so much.

 He played on a far court on the other side of a chain-link fence for his first match, so I got no pictures of that, but for the second match I stood at the gate where coaches normally stand.
Freddy is never too bothered about winning or losing and looks bewildered at the many tears shed by other boys when they lose.

I took a million pictures of Zita, not because of favoritism, but because she had good center courts, good light (except for the first game), and played a lot more matches. She took second in the 14 and older category! 

When Sebby saw her trophy, he said "oh look Zita! You won some cheese!" In fact it does look exactly like a wedge of cheese.