We’re on the move again – how can that be? The time has gone really fast in Scotland,no surprise, and we owe you lots of updates. Well ain’t really gonna happen I guess.

We’re about to go warm up in Spain – Seville – and we can’t wait. The weather has been a lot tougher than I thought and I hate talking about the weather, but man, it’s bloody cold! I know I should toughen up and put another layer on, but I HAVE all my layers on when I leave the house (7 layers).  So what do we do when we’re not warm enough? We get on a bus and drive around the city until we’ve thawed out. We needed to do that last week when we went to the beach Portobello Beach and Lennox filled his gumboots. We did bring extra clothes, but no extra shoes (well actually he only really has gumboots since his shoes we bought about 6 weeks ago have ripped apart). He had cold wet feet and we didn’t want to go home just yet, so we got on the bus and let his feet warm up and dry out.

Edinburgh is HEAVING

It’s a lot busier than I thought it’d be at this time of year. Fringe Festival I can understand but winter? However, it appears the Edinburgh Christmas Market is a huge attraction. It goes on for a few weeks and is filled with activities, stalls and concerts. So for Alpha’s birthday we’ll be doing outside iceskating, the ferris wheel and she really wants to do the “Star Flyer”. I guess I’ll be the one going with her. I love rides and don’t mind being high up, but I feel nauseous on a merry-go-round, so this isn’t going to be all that fun. Nat isn’t going on it and Lennox is refusing, so I guess I will take the hit on this one.  Unless I find a willing teenager hanging around who wants a free ride. It’s going to cost an arm and a leg to do these three, but I reckon it will be cheaper than a birthday party. (Which she misses out on again! I said she could have a party for her 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th, 10th and then after that negotiate. She had one at 1 and 3, and a half-hearted one at 7.)

So we’re going iceskating outside in the dark – that’s 4pm – on her birthday. It’s going to be freezing! We’ve ordered her a  birthday cake from the Sicilian Pastry shop down the street. I have it on good authority that everything tastes amazing. I found a gluten free brownie, but was more than a little worried about gluten contamination. I did risk it and ate it…. totally worth it.

Gluten

Speaking of gluten status. We’ve slacked off on being vigilant about gluten in the kids diet and we’ve realised we have to be more vigilant. Lennox is complaining of stomach pain and Alpha is breaking out in a potential Staph rash again. It’s not Staph, but if we don’t lather on Tea Tree oil and cover it in the special colloidal silver plaster we brought with us, it could well do. So yeah, we’ve done an all stop on the gluten. However, for her birthday Alpha wants garlic bread, cake and pasta. Oh goodie.

When the tunnels are not THE tunnels.

When we get to a new place, we all get to choose one thing we want to do while we’re here (Lennox usually wants the zoo, Alpha swimming, Nat and I some kind of castle). A couple of weeks ago Nat chose to investigate the underground tunnels of Edinburgh. Cool right. This is what we thought it was.
But he mixed them up and we ended up going to this.

Which is actually a show designed to scare(ish) you and try and educate you about life a few hundred years ago. They demonstrate torture devices, show cut up body models, have screaming street ‘kids’, there’s a pitch black boat ride with strobe lighting, ghosts and lots of ‘creepy’ things.

Not really our cup of tea, but not a biggie. Alpha loved it! Lennox on the other hand…
You know he freaks out at Curious George right?!

Lennox hates any kind of anticipation, being told off, stress and scary things freaks him out.

So the ‘tunnels’ — not a good move.

He spent the entire time with his eyes closed trying to be brave. He did really well considering. The upside though, was that experience made it a lot easier for him to cope with watching his first (and Alpha’s first) Harry Potter movie (#3). It just so happened to be in the house that we’re renting. It wasn’t nearly as scary as the dungeons for him, so maybe it was a good thing after all.

After the tunnel adventure and we made it back onto the street, another couple on the tour talked to us, and they too thought they were visiting the tunnels. At least it wasn’t just us.

Oh, call Nat called up to be a ‘volunteer’ to demonstrate the judicial system of the 1700’s, his crime was he had dressed up in women’s underwear, and ran down the street singing “My Name’s Shirley and I’m a big Girlie.” Lucky Nat. The kids thought it was hilarious. Nat’s punishment was to be shipped off to Aberdeen. The couple who spoke to us about being on the wrong tour wanted to assure us that Aberdeen wasn’t that bad – that’s where they were from.

I think Aberdeen is like the Hamilton of New Zealand. We were really hoping to stay there, but it didn’t happen. You can’t do everything when we’re travelling like we are (weekend day trips), and Aberdeen was one that didn’t make the cut. Maybe next time.