Edinburgh Tattoo - 23rd of August

It was the final night of the Edinburgh Tattoo and it was amazing. The 2 hours went by in a flash. We were lucky that it didn't rain. I have managed to find a few clips of this years Tattoo on YouTube. The fourth group on were the Wellington The Lochiel Marching Drill Team, and they were one of the best things there

The next best thing was "His Majesty The King's Guards Band and Drill Team of Norway", the Drill Team are solders that are from the age of 19-20 who spend only 12 months in the service, these guys were so in time

At the end of the night there was a final fireworks display

All in all this was one of the best things I have been to and I will so be there next year

NI Number

Well one of the first things you have to do here in the UK to work is to apply for your NI number (National Insurance Number). When you phone up they make an appointment for you to go in to have an interview with someone, after taking all sorts of information from you on the phone they give you a date of 5 weeks later!!! Well this morning at 9am I had my appointment, I got to get experience the equivalent of WINZ here in the UK, well I was rather impressed, they have computers on every desk with all the information you gave them when booking your appointment...then they take all that info and write it out on a form add some other info to it and send it through for processing....can you imagine it, wonder if anyone has thought of them just using the computer on there desks and add the few other details they need and it is all done there and then. Didn't have the heart to say anything...not like it is the front line people that get to make those decisions I guess. Either way appointment took 25 mins and my number will be posted to me within 3 weeks. Not bad.

I'm heading to the UK soon!

My UK visa has arrived, and Helen has just booked my flights. I leave NZ on 2nd October.

This is how all our stuff is stored

When I head over to the UK to join Helen, I somehow need to find a way to put into here whatever doesn't fit into my suitcase. Thankfully there's not too much, just a few excess clothes etc. We don't have any room to spare! For all of you who have offered to look after our projector while we're gone, it's right up the back near the bottom :-)

A day trip to Glasgow

Friday I decided to take a trip to Glasgow for the day, over the last week it has been raining non-stop so Friday it decided to clear up a bit so I thought it would be a good day to do a tour of the city....well so did everyone else, its like everyone in Glasgow had been waiting for the rain to stop.
The city of Glasgow was not what I had expected, it was a lot busier than I had thought and the buildings are more denser and taller than Edinburgh but are of the same age. It was a real business city reminded me of Sydney.
One of the main shopping roads has been turned into a pedestrian street and man there were a whole lot of people shopping!!!


I just love the architecture here in Edinburgh and Glasgow, but the buildings in Glasgow, wow




In front of one of the museums there was this beautiful fountain, apparently it is the biggest terracotta fountain in the world and was built for a visit Queen Victoria did to Glasgow and has a statue of her at the top also made out of terracotta

Glasgow is also building a Maritime museum on the docks, and although it will not be finished until 2011, they have already got an old sailing ship at the wharf you can visit from the 1800's that was originally built in Glasgow

One of my Vistors

Here in the group of flats that I am in we have a couple of cats. I think one of them lives in the flat above me but not sure which one, anyway anytime the sun is out and I have my windows open I get a little visitor at the windows, so far I have managed to keep them out but here is a picture of one the my window visitors

A day in Stirling

Today the weather was perfect so I thought I would take a trip to Stirling, William Wallace land.It is only 35 mins from Edinburgh by train. Once I got there I decided the best way to see Stirling was by the Sightseeing tour bus, one of the first stops was Stirling Castle

The view from the castle was amazing


On the way out to the William Wallace Monument we went pass the famous Stirling bridge

All in all a great way to spend a sunny day.

An afternoon at the festival

So this afternoon I headed back into the city as the weather fined up again, so I thought things were busy this morning but it had nothing on this afternoon, you could hardly move on the roads, the buses had pretty much come to a standstill

The Royal Mile was also rather busy.


Part way down the Royal Mile I found this "Interactive" map of Edinburgh, something you can walk on and the kids were loving it. They were jumping all over the maps looking for there homes and schools.

Another interesting thing I found is that the Edinburgh police seem to use BMW's for patrol cars!!!

The Festival has started

Well the city is buzzing, they have closed Princess Street today and there are street shows every where, the markets are out with people buying all sorts of things.


There was also a group of motor bikes that came into the park, there were so many Harleys you could hear them miles away through the valley of the city

Blu-ray...it is every where

The one thing I have noticed in stores is the amount of Blu-ray discs from the High Street stores to ASDA, and how many of the movies they have on Blu-ray now, even the new releases are out at £19.00, not bad considering the standard DVD price for new releases is £12-£13.

A new stores to get use too

Well during my tripping around the city I have come across most of the chain stores and supermarkets, one of the biggest and best priced is no other than Wal-Mart's ASDA, Wal-mart is one of those killer stores that move into small towns in the US and kill all the local stores and then only pays min wages to those that work for them. Here in the UK they don't seem to have quiet the same affect as they are mostly in the bigger centres but I have to say they are the best priced in more ways that one. The Jewel store is huge, I thought the stores in the US were big but this store was so big, anyway DVD's are cheap, and there book selection is cheap.

What a day

So today I decided to go for a walk from the flat, the weather wasn't the best but nothing my umbrella wouldn't keep away. I walked towards Holyrood house about 2.5 miles to Easter Road, it was a great walk down the Royal Mile, which is so busy at the moment with the festival. The House looks beautiful from the outside and is the offical residence of the Queen when she is in Scotland, but I have decided not to visit just yet but wait until the weather has got a bit better. I found a very nice bakery to have a bit, a cup of tea, and time to read my book. From there I decided to take a bus across town towards the airport with a stop off at a ASDA for a look around. While I was there I found the "Corn Exchange" which is were One Republic will be playing on the 20th of the fringe festival, which by the way I have tickets to...I don't think anyone here knows who these guys are, the place they are playing at is rather small, which in my option is great, I might actually get to see them up close :o). From there it was a short trip out to the airport to have a look around, and then a different bus back to the flat. Now it will be a quiet night at the flat watching TV.

My first week in Edinburgh

Well it has almost been a whole week since I arrived, time has flown. The week started off with tours, which really helped me get an idea of where everything is in the city. Then for the later part of the week I have been tripping around on the buses, the Lothian bus system is amazing, and so easy to get around, and what is different to other cities is that each bus goes from one side of the city to the other but always going through the city centre, so this means that buses travel all over the place and cross each others paths in all different places, this makes things very easy to get around and for a very good price. Each ride is only £1.10 or an all day pass for £2.50 everywhere in the city and the outskirts. So I decided to get a weeks pass which has meant I have been all over the place.

We are now landlords

The mammoth task of moving out of our house, and cleaning it, is over. The funniest bit is that I had to write a user manual for the house! So now we are landlords. It is so clean - probably looks better than when we first moved in because it has curtains and other fixtures that weren't there originally. So now I just have to start thinking about packing for the UK, and storing whatever else is left in my bedroom at Mr Jones' house.