Bread Zepplin and Blimp Biscuit

So much for regularly updating this blog!  I realised only yesterday that it had been an embarrassingly long time since I had written anything so I decided it's time to update.

We've been exploring Edinburgh quite thotoughly.  A few weeks ago we attempted to walk to Crammond Island which is a small island with some ruins on it.  At low tide you can walk to it but we realised that we will probably need gumboots as there's still quite a bit of water and it's to cold still to do it bare foot!









We've also been to Musselburgh, which is only about a ten minute bus ride from where we're staying.  It's a little seaside town that had a lot to do with mussels, hence the name.  We've been to the botanical gardens with the biggest bloody hedge I've ever seen in my life.  Also climbed a hill opposite Arthur's Seat where the Royal Observatory is and took photos.

We've been doing a little Geocaching as well, which is pretty much how we've discovered all these little nooks and crannies.  Great times, great times.  Just had to share this guy with you.  At first glance he looked like he was guarding a home quite well but we burst out laughing when we realised what someone had done to him.  What I love is the slightly offended look on his face, if Lions could look slightly offended.  Classic.








Last weekend we went down to Bolton in Lancashire (or Englandshire as some of the Scots like to call England) to visit my Dad's aunt and his cousins.  I'd met Aunty Barbara before but the last time I saw her was about 15 years ago so it was nice to see her again.  It was great to meet my Dad's cousins Michael, Paul and Stephen and Stephen's wife Tina and their son Joseph.  Michael did a great job of showing us around Bolton and the countryside.  We went to Union Road where my Dad lived with my Nanna and Pop when he was a kid.








Michael also took us to see Hall i'th' Wood which was were Samuel Crompton lived.  We went into Bolton itself and he also took us past a big mill called Beehive Mill.  It really was a massive place.  Most of the mills have gone now but there's still a lot of people who live in Bolton.








On our last day Justin and I walked up to Turton Tower which is a medieval hall/house that's been turned into a museum.  We were lucky enough to catch them on school week so we watched some of the demonstrations and activities the kids got involved with.  Justin was so excited when he got to try on a helmet and hold some swords.  I didn't get away without putting a knights helmet on.  Genuine article as well, bloody heavy.

On the way back to Edinburgh we stopped at Preston for lunch and had a beer in a pub.  Yes that is a photo of Justin posing with Foster's.  No he wasn't drinking Fosters, they just put his beer in a Foster's glass!

Back to work for another few weeks before we take off for the next leg of our journey around Ireland.  After Ireland we go through France, Switzerland, Monaco, Italy and Germany before back to London for a few days.  Then we do the muscle-cramp inducing flight back to Australia.

Cheers
Melanie
X X O O

PS - If you're intrigued by the title of this post it came about yesterday when Justin bought the biggest loaf of bread that I've ever seen.  So we started fooling with food related band names and came up with these two...

PPS - Happy Birthday Mum!