I am sitting in one of my favourite cafe’s right now and they are playing Kora, good old New Zealand music.

Back from a whirlwind week at the Carbisdale Castle as part of the “wild and sexy” Haggis team - met some great people, including the dirtiest Santa & Mrs Claus (hilarious couple who we just loved). We worked really long hours but partied hard after finishing!

We all looked as though we were going into battle as on Braveheart since our Scottish tour guide Graham decided he would paint our faces with blue stuff. There were so many characters there at the castle. Except for the Irish guy totally stalking me - in a castle in the middle of nowhere there are only so many places you can escape to. He even brought me chocolates to try and woo me. Needless to say, it didn’t work.

The castle itself has a huge collection of art and gorgeous naked lady marble statues (which of course were the butt of jokes and photos when people were drunk). Such as me below. One of the guys working at the Castle told us that in a past year at the castle, a drunk guy knocked one over and owed 30,000 pounds and spent a night in jail for it. So there is some seriously amazing stuff in this castle.

One of the rooms, number 210, which used to be a nursery is said to have several ghosts. There used to be a secret door under the staircase which could be opened by rotating one of the statues. The massive clock-tower only has clocks on three sides. And there are 365 windows in the castle for each day of the year. Interesting stuff.

A once in a life time opportunity.

Bring on New Years. Hogmanay!

We’ve been very busy gals this week in Edinburgh but decided to sit down for 10 minutes while having a hot chocolate at The Elephant House in Edinburgh (where JK Rowling wrote most of her Harry Potter books).

Anyway so we have been out meeting quite a few people and on the job hunt this week. I have decided temping is the way to go - it means that I can tell them how long I want work for (say, 6 weeks) then they’ll give me something that suits. That way, I can travel, work, travel and fit the work around my plans.

I started a temp job today with a scottish student association in a multi cultural office - Scottish/Aussie/English and now Kiwi office.  They seem really cool and social, am heading out for after-work drinks with them tomorrow night.

And the other exciting news is that on Monday we are working in the Highlands over Christmas in a castle!!! We were reaaalllly hoping to get this job with Haggis Adventures as we didn’t really know what to do with ourselves for christmas without knowing anyone here, so why not work and play in a castle. We met with the guy at Haggis and he liked our enthusiasm so he picked me and Alley as part of a team of 5. Our job will be to welcome people from all over the world who are spending Christmas away from home and make sure they have the best Christmas ever. Serving dinners & breakfasts and also joining them for a wee dance or two.

lucky us

The company covers our transport to/from the castle and other locations in the Scottish Highlands, feed and water us, give us the chance to work with a great bunch of folk AND pay us for the privilege too - ideal for us. It costs each person $700NZD to go for the 3 day tour and we get it all for free (and paid for our work). So we leave on Monday for 4 days up there. Then we will be back in Edinburgh just in time for Hogmanay for New Years!

I am loving it here still, despite the fact its really really cold. Brrrrrrrr.

Imagine over 2,200 santa’s running around under the Edinburgh castle on a chilly Sunday morning and that is exactly what we were doing today. One of the favourite Christmas events in Edinburgh is the Great Scottish Santa Run, the city’s attempt to break the record of the largest gathering of Santas running for charity - which we did today! The charity was When you Wish Upon a Star. They rely on the money raised at this event to take terminally ill children to Lapland and other wonderful places and making wishes come true.

So we have done our good deed for today… we got a little medal for our efforts but the great cause was enough satisfaction for all of us.

Hopefully we contributed to helping make a wish come true.

…for dancing!

This song was so popular when we first got to the UK.

And…

Go the Brits.

I love our apartment. It’s pretty old, in a large apartment building with winding stairs. Having our own space is great. We are living with a couple who I will call M & W (from Chile & Germany) who are really lovely but are hard workers so we don’t see them much. M is working at the university on a project to find out why the building collapsed in 9/11. W is doing a PhD.

We have a few moments of funny language misunderstandings, such as M thinking that if we say something is cool, she thinks we mean it in a literal sense and that it is cold so she turns the heating up. It was too hard to explain what we actually meant.  They are here with us til next Thursday then head back to Chile for 7 weeks so we will have the whole place to ourselves. Fantastic.

I never thought I would like living in a big city but I do. Edinburgh has two parts to it - the New Town and the Old Town. We would be living on whats called the south side (Old Town). Basically everything south of Princes St (the main street) is the Old Town and everything on the other north side is New Town.

P.S. 12 days til christmas (or 11 for you in NZ)… we have no idea what we are doing yet for Xmas on this side of the globe. But please please Mr weatherman, bring us snow.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words… so here’s my attempt at a few arty shots, playing with the camera and colour accents, of our new home in Edinburgh…

We are finally here, in our new home - Edinburgh, Scotland… aka Auld Reekie (Old Smoky).

It is the first time since leaving New Zealand that I have felt really overwhelmed - but in a good way. The sound of bagpipes, the amazing old architecture full of history, the rolling hills, the vibrant christmas markets and just the overall view of Princes St.

After both of us feeling pretty content with the choice to move to Edinburgh, we explored the German christmas markets which sold mulled wine, chesse burgars (spelling error or another language?) and lots of german delicatessens. As we walked along Princes St, we saw our first two men in kilts wandering in the shopping area. A guy told us that, culturally, it is very rude to lift a kilt up from the front, but from the back is quite ok - cheeky huh?

We decided to do a pub crawl to meet some people - turned out we were the only females. Here we are, vino in hand…

edinburgh pub crawl with bristol boys

The scottish people in Edinburgh generally have a friendlier feel about them than Londoners. The streets are still busy but not like London. I’m not sure what it is but it feels slightly more homely. Even though the streets and architecture look absolutely nothing like home. We get excited every time someone refers to us as ‘lass’ or ‘lassie’. Quite cute really.

I love the Camden Markets in London. Funk. Punk. Anything goes.

We went to the beach today, yes - the beach in winter - in the UK. Crazy? Yes. Dumb? No. It was much fun despite the icky weather. We jumped on the train to Brighton, which is located on the south coast of London (very popular with the Brits). As we got to the pier, my £3 umbrella couldnt withstand the wind/rain and turned inside out instantly and broke within a few seconds. It was rather hilarious in a strange way, the three of us being blown around like ragdolls.

After checking out the beach, we walked up through the many small lanes in Brighton filled with cute boutiquey stores (very different to the big department stores in London). Much better shopping in places like these, you can find stuff that’s unique. It’s so true what everyone warned me about before I moved to the UK about not converting the British pound back to what I would be spending in NZ dollars - it can be soul destroying. $15 for a pint of beer, no freakin way.

funky shops in brighton

We are staying with friends at the moment in Surrey and we are feeling very spoilt. They are a couple who live in a gorgeous yet quaint English home which is just a lovely place to be at around Xmas time when so far away from home. Inside is a christmas tree with charming decorations and beautiful lights and candles. Walking down the streets here appear almost picturesque. Our hosts tell us that a lot of the homes around this area are in the multi million dollar mark.

I love the xmas spirit in London, with the streets lit up with dazzling lights and intricate santa/elf displays. It gets dark here about 4pm but the gorgeous streets at night make up for it.

Nearly Xmas time, our first xmas away from home. We are hoping for a white one.

Well we are living it up here in Londontown. We’ve been here a few days now and have visited Big Benjamin, had a cuppa tea with the Queen and visited Westminster Abbey thanks to our friend and tour guide Kylie. Gotta love Kylie’s informative tour guide style - “well guys, this is Big Ben - it’s a really big clock” was about the extent of it.

Running in the rain was great fun and we went for our first pub grub meal and had jacket potato and cider mmmm. I can see why the UK have the pub lifestyle here - when it is cold outside and you see a warm and inviting pub, possibly even with its very own log fire and pub grub, how can one resist? It’s no wonder the Brits love em.

London is a beautiful old city, with an abundance of character. A lot less tacky than the streets of Hollywood. But hecticly busy.

We also officially hit our lowest point thus far. After landing in London, we went straight to a backpackers bar (one of those great ideas to have one drink that goes downhill quite quickly), drunk til all crazy hours of the morning, then jetlag suddenly kicked in, which was then followed by homelessness. With nowhere to sleep (and too early to check in to a hostel), our only choice seemed to be sleeping in the local library… in the kids section… which resulted in us getting kicked out. Slightly embarrassing.

Here is a photo of Alley “reading a book” with her eyes closed (we had 20 minute sessions each to keep watch for any scary librarians while the other was catching some Z’s)… we managed to get a bit of sleep to recover from our self-inflicted jetlag/hungoverness before being asked to leave. We are all class.

Hoping to catch up with my cousin from Iceland in the next few days.

Well its time to put our snuggly coats on and brave the cold. Wish me luck!