A Life of Unlimited Possibilities

Beautiful Winter Days in Hobart

I recently spent some time down in Hobart and I'm pleased to say that the weather was just gorgeous with lovely sunny winter days for most of the time I was there.  Yes, it was still quite cool and my winter clothes got a good workout, but with the sun out and no wind it was very pleasant indeed.

Below are some photos I wanted to share with you from one of my mornings I spent wandering around the Salamanca Market.  It's a busy little place on a Saturday morning and there are all sorts of things to see, hear and taste!

Thanks for looking :-)  Hope you're all having a great week.

Searching for Nessie

When I woke up on Thursday I lay there snuggled up in my warm bed trying to convince myself to get out but nearly jumped out of my skin when my mobile phone, which was sitting right near my head on the bedside table, started to ring! It was Visa ringing me to tell me there had just been three very small suspicious transactions charged to my account and they felt that they were fraudulent tests to see if the card is valid and that we needed to cancel the card before they started to charge large transactions!! Full marks to them for being on the ball and detecting that within minutes. Oh dear, visa card cancelled in middle of overseas trip :). Oh well, you always have to have at least one challenge on a trip or it just wouldn't be a real adventure! We have back up plans ready for emergencies so it's all good.

After breakfast and some long discussions about visa cards etc we finally headed off up North to Inverness. First stop was the Culloden battlefield where we heard all about the famous battle between the redcoats and the Jacobites. It was such a massacre and sad to think of all the good Scottish men killed that day. We had a talk with some of the people dressed in costume and got to handle some of the weapons and then went and stood on the battlefield itself.

Then it was off to Loch Ness and the little town of Drumnadrochit. We had a late lunch first then wandered through one of the exhibits which had a film all about the hunt for the Loch Ness monster. There have actually been thousands of recorded sighting and quite a few interesting photos taken. There has even been sonar recordings of something there. But never any real concrete proof, so the mystery remains! I'd like to think she is real :)

The scenery around here is so beautiful everywhere you look. The trees are starting to turn so the beautiful autumn colours are appearing. It is just gorgeous.

Today (Friday) will be a nice relaxing one, time for a rest and a last minute explore of our little town of Aberfeldy. Tomorrow morning Duncan and I head off towards home, arriving back early Monday morning. Mum and Dad are staying on for another week so have some more time to explore, but Duncan needs to get back to school and although I have loved our holiday I am also keen to get back into my work and study. Have really missed both.

Lisa xx

Edinburgh

We woke up yesterday to some steady rain and made a decision to postpone the trip we had planned to Loch Ness and instead do a drive into Edinburgh as we had to pick up some train tickets for Mum and Dad (they are taking the train to London on their way home at the end of next week which will be a nice look at the countryside between the two cities).

I was a bit nervous about finding my way through Edinburgh but the trusty GPS got us through it. The rain was a bit of a bummer so we didn't really do much walking about in the city but I remembered from last time I was here that there was a carpark quite close to Holyrood Palace (the Queens residence when she is in Edinburgh) so we navigated our way down there, dropped mum and dad at the door and went and found our park. Got drenched on the short walk back to the palace but was really worth it as dad and I did a tour through the palace which was excellent. Wasn't allowed to take photos inside unfortunately so only have a few exterior ones.

Got back to Aberfeldy just in time for an early dinner. Eating here has been a bit of a challenge for me. The local supermarket has no gluten free section, nothing much I can eat except the obvious meat and Veges. When we've been out my choices have been steak and veges or for lunch a baked potato with cheese. I don't think I ever want to see another potato again when I get home! Greece was a little easier as their cuisine was a little more naturally gluten free.

Can hear Dad downstairs talking to some friends on the radio. He has a special program loaded on the laptop where he can hook into the radio channel that he usually talks to them on. Not sure how it all works but it's pretty cool that he can do it over the Internet.

Today we are off to look for Nessie in Loch Ness! We will also have a look around Inverness and visit the Culloden battle field. We may even have time to explore a nearby castle. The weather is grey but not raining like yesterday so should be ok.

Hope everyone has had a great day.

Lisa xx

Out Exploring the Scottish Countryside

Our first day in Scotland was wonderfully sunny and warm but the last two have been considerably cooler. We have heard people say that the colder weather is unusually early. None of us mind the cooler weather at all .. It just seems to add to the atmosphere.

Yesterday we had a nice sleep in and then Duncan and I went for a wander around town (Aberfeldy). Found a gorgeous little antique shop and could have spent hours fossicking around. Bought an antique hand carved cameo to add to my cameo collection. Just love it! Passed by a butcher who sold some great looking pies but would love to know what is in a Fidget Pie .. the mind boggles!

Had a scrumptious lunch at a sweet little cafe called the Moon and Sixpence then headed off to visit the Dewars Whisky Distillery for a little whisky tasting ... Can't say I'm a big fan of straight whisky but had to give it a go! Added some to my cup of tea which was much nicer :)

Today we explored a few more areas which we had on our list as places where descendants had lived or died. Some gorgeous little villages nearby. One was Grandtully where there just happened to be the most amazing chocolate shop. The chocolate sculptures were out of this world. We then went on to Pitlochry where we stopped and visited a great little jewellery shop where they make jewellery from Heather plants. Some beautiful pieces and so interesting to see how they are made.

Our exciting news today is that we managed to track down a living relative here in Scotland! Mum knew the last place that her grandfathers brother had lived so she looked up the phone book online and looked for a McLaren with the same initials as it often follows that the first born son is named after the father. She found two in the phonebook and the first was an answering machine and the second .. Bingo .. We have a relative! Mum had a good talk to him on the phone tonight and they have arranged to meet up next week. Very exciting!

Tonight we are off to dinner at one of the local pubs, looking forward to a nice pub meal.

Lisa xx

More Scotland Photos

Just a few more random shots from yesterday. Duncan has been stealing my camera occasionally so I actually have some photos of me which doesn't always happen!

I was quite amused to find haggis in a can in the supermarket. Not sure I would be game enough to try it though.

We came across a cute little place along the road which was a horn carving workshop. Such fascinating things in their shop.

Had to get a shot of McLaren Hall as that is the family name we are researching while we are here.

Not sure what we have planned for today yet. Will get out of my warm snuggly bed and get some breakfast, post these blog entries and then hatch a plan!

Lisa xx

In Transit

Our transit day started very early with the alarm going off at 4:30am. A quick shower and repack of the bag and down to reception at 5.30am to catch a shuttle bus to the airport. We are so used to having to get to the airport early to check in so we were so amused to arrive and find the airport wasn't even open! People were milling around the front door waiting for the doors to open. I guess it's all pretty casual there and they are all small planes coming in and out of Mykonos so the loading and unloading doesn't take too long.

When we were waiting in line there was a cat walking up and down and we decided it must be a sniffer cat making sure we don't have any drugs in our cases :)

It's only a 35 minute flight to Athens so it seems that once they are finally up in the air they almost immediately start their descent again! They barely had time to serve us a cup of water as they were collecting the cups before we had time to drink it.

We had a quick walk through Athens airport to our next departure gate. We have requested wheelchair assistance for
Mum at all the airports and it has proved very beneficial for all of us as we've been able to jump the queue at passport control and customs and also be the first people on the plane. Those of you that have flown international before will know how long those queues can be sometimes. It's saved Mums legs enormously because some of those airports are massive. Duncan and I have dubbed her "fast track mumma" :)

We flew from Athens through to Heathrow, which is about 4 hours, but our connecting flight to Edinburgh was cancelled so we had rather a long wait at Heathrow airport. We filled the time drinking coffee (you only needed one because the cups were massive), eating, reading and twiddling thumbs! We finally flew into Edinburgh just as the sun was setting. We picked up our hire car, hooked up the trusty GPS and off we went. Two hours later we arrived at our cottage in Aberfeldy which we will be using as our base for the next week. It didn't take more than a minute to fall asleep when the head hit the pillow.

Lisa xx

Final Goodbye to Mykonos

Our final full day in Mykonos started with a lovely sleep in followed by a leisurely hotel breakfast then a walk into town to do some last minute exploring and shopping. Duncan and I wandered around the little skinny alleyways for hours, always something new and exciting around each corner. Mum and Dad came down to the town and met us for some lunch in a lovely restaurant along the waterfront.

While we were sitting there a procession went by which we soon worked out was a wedding. The girl was on a donkey with her groom beside her. They had some musicians leading them and a long line of guests behind. It was lovely.

In the afternoon we had a follow up with our teachers Karen, Jenni and Ali. They spoke about how special it was for them to come to this sort of retreat where they actually got to connect with their students over the week rather than the normal classes they do. They were all such lovely ladies and I was so pleased that I got lots of chances to chat with them as well as do their fabulous classes.

That night we had a farewell dinner followed by some cocktails, some fantastic Greek music and some Greek dancing around the pool led by my friend Elina. At the end a few brave souls plunged into the pool. I was tempted to join them but being the practical one all I could think of was that I didn't want to carry wet clothes with me on the plane early the next day! Boring I know!

What I will miss about Mykonos .. The food (mostly the Moussaka, lamb dishes, Greek salad and Elina's yummy Strawberry Salad), the cats (they were everywhere we went), and my friends Elina and John.

I won't miss the constant wind or climbing so many steps :)

Lisa xx

Exploring the island

Yesterday we went on an exploratory tour around the island with our photography teacher Karen. It was a great morning topped off with a delicious lunch of 6 courses! The food just kept coming and everything was delicious.

Below are some of my favourite shots of the day and I'm proud to say the camera is off auto and now on manual settings for good!!! Thanks Karen, for explaining all the technical stuff in an easy and fun way until we all understood.

Lisa xx

Meeting the scrappers

Last night we watched a beautiful sunset from our terrace then headed down to the restaurant for dinner and to meet all the other scrapbookers. The whole hotel is booked out for this event for the week so anyone you see here is part of the group. They are mostly from the US but also some of my friends from Italy and other countries.

We started with some cocktails then moved on to dinner which was a lovely buffet with a great variety of dishes. The restaurant winds it's way around the pool and looks amazing at night. One of the shots below is of my photography teacher, Karen Russell, in action taking photos by the pool. I have my first class with her today and I am looking forward to her classes the most! It's a pretty full schedule this week but still lots of time to sit and watch sunsets :)

Lisa xx

A walk to town

Yesterday afternoon we ventured into town. Mum did a brilliant job given the many steps down to the road and nearly a kilometre walk! We can't avoid the steps, there are about twenty five steps just from our room down to reception then some more to get down to the restaurant. It's worth it though, the view is just amazing and the hotel beautiful.

Downtown Mykonos is lovely. Skinny cobblestone streets, nice cafes, lots of shops, lovely atmosphere. We will definitely do some more exploring there through the week.

We stopped and had a nice cold drink and a snack. Mum and I shared some moussaka which was delicious.

Lisa xx