Monday, 17 September 2012

The house hunting begins...and the blogging slows down

As time goes by I seem to get slacker and slacker with getting these posts up but gosh I have got a good one for you! I am now in Edinburgh, Scotland which should give you a hint with what is about to follow but first another catch up.
I could not leave Nottingham without doing some serious cooking in a kitchen and I made the most of it, cooking every night we stayed there.  I made some of our weekly favourites from home including chicken and leek pies, stir fry and fish.  It was so nice we didn’t want to leave but to say goodbye to the Nott we headed out to a high ropes course called Go Ape in the Sherwood Forest.  It was so much fun where we headed up into the tree tops and did some zip lines from tree to tree and climbed many ladders and ropes, some a little too high, but I’d highly recommend it to anyone who loves outdoor activities.


Back to London we headed and luckily the weather was still holding out for us.  We were very excited to be able to catch the end of the Paralympics and headed out in the sunshine to see the marathon races.  It was mind blowing to see such inspiring athletes putting in 110% no matter where they were coming in the race. After spending many hours out on the streets we decided to head across to the River Thames to grab a bite to eat for lunch as the Thames festival was on.  I decided on a chorizo salad, which was super tasty, and I loved being able to eat it overlooking St Pauls cathedral and watching the boats go by.  A very relaxing day before spending the evening catching up with a friend from home, an awesome way to say goodbye for London.

As I have mentioned we are already in Edinburgh, after a nine hour bus trip I might add, and have decided we will settle down here and look for a place to live and work over the winter.  I am not sure why we decided on Edinburgh as it is simply freezing and I can guarantee that summer is now over for sure.  It is however a beautiful city and the people are very friendly, it’s a little scary that we have chosen a place so similar to Ballarat when the one thing we hate about it is the weather at winter!  Anyway we have spent a lot of time looking for a place to live (I am not sure how much longer I can tolerate sharing a room with 6 or so other people) so do not have a great deal to report on the city so far.  We have done a few of the tourist things though including walking the famous Royal Mile (where there is sa small street called Jackson's Close), checking out the school that was J.K Rowling’s inspiration for Hogwarts as well as the cafe she supposedly wrote the first two books in and went to say hi to good old Dolly the Sheep, the first ever cloned sheep.  We are yet to go into the castle or walk Arthurs seat but once we settle down they are top of our list and the views of them both from the city are breathtaking.
 
So on to what you have all been waiting for, the Scottish food I have been taste testing.  Well firstly I have to admit I have now had my first bowl of soup which to me says winter is definitely here! It was cauliflower and was actually very tasty alongside my fish finger roll from a really nice pub.  But the most traditional thing that is a must try when in Scotland was Haggis, Neeps and Tatties.  It took me at least 3 days before I would try this as the thought of eating a sheep’s lungs, heart and liver all mixed together was a little too gut wrenching for me but I plucked up the courage and I must admit it was surprisingly delicious.  The whisky sauce it is served with is a welcome change to all the ketchup that we have eaten recently but I would definitely try it again and recommend to all of those visiting Scotland.  Oh and I almost forgot yesterday we stumbled across the parade of Team GB's Olympian's proudly displaying their medals in the pouring rain from an open top bus.  The streets were lined with locals showing thier support for the Athletes so it was certainly worth a few drops of rain.
 
Rereading this it is a very short update for you, but I should get back to finding a place to live so you can all come and visit just to try some Haggis!  Wish me luck as we have an inspection tonight and fingers crossed it works out so you can get some delicious homemade updates sooner rather than later! xx

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