My On-Line Journal
Spring 2004

June 16, 2004
May 21, 2004
May 14, 2004
May 4, 2004
April 27, 2004
April 20, 2004
April 8, 2004
April 4, 2004
March 27, 2004

March 27, 2004

Hi everyone,

It's frog mating season here right now and so we're being overrun by frogs! You wouldn't believe how many we have, it's incredible! For instance, from the window I can see four jumping all over the lawn and each other right now. The other night Andrew and I went down the road to move as many as possible so we would have less squished frogs all over the drive. Even so, quite a lot of them have been flatened. It's kind of gross and sad. Apparently this will continue for the next few weeks, then after about a month or so we'll have little baby frogs all over the place! Crazy.

The weather here is unbelievably beautiful right now. The past few days have been warm and sunny, and the dafodils are out in full force. They grow like wild flowers here all over the lawns and meadows. The crocouses are also starting to come up. The snow drops, however, are past their season and are dying out. And it's only the end of March! The buds on the trees on the other hand, seem to be taking their time. So although we have all these lovely flowers all over the place, the trees are still bare.

We're starting to get busy again for the Easter Holidays. Kids here get a lot of time off for Easter. Andrew gets three weeks! But they don't get as much time off for summer holidays as we do. We've got quite a few families in at the moment, all of whom seem like very nice people so that's great. We're changing a few things around the hotel, adding to some of the children's activities, we now have "uniforms" for activities and monster club. I'm not really keen on them for several reasons, but they look okay. I'm doing circus tricks with the kids this afternoon, my favorite activity.

We had a surprize party for Sonia on Thursday night. Her birthday is today, but she's gone down to London so we had it early. We'd been planing for weeks. The only real problem was getting her over to the staff lounge. We managed though with a lot of persuading and Natalie had to tell her that she was not allowed to ride both of her horses. She suspected something was up, but not until that day. She was plesantly surprised and everyone enjoyed the evening.

The pictures for the new brochure came back. We're also changing some of the ones on the website. I'm in one of them and the journal Sarah gave me is in another :) Some of them have been changed already, but because we're so busy, it may take a while for us to get around to all the changes. If you want to check it out, the website is www.polmaily.co.uk

Sarah and I have sorted out our flights back here in June, thankfully. We had a few tense moments, but it's all okay now. I was looking at my ticket to come home in June and it turns out that, although a direct flight from the UK to Halifax takes about 5 hours, I'm going to be traveling for about 16 to come home because I have so many stop-overs and changes. I get to spend 4 hours sitting around in Heathrow airport, joy of joys. I'm thinking of looking around and seeing if I can get a more direct flight around the same date, otherwise I'll be exhausted for Kat's wedding.

That's pretty much all the news I have for now. I'm going to add a few more pictures to my second photo site and I've added a bit to my "Lost and Found" story if anyone's interested. Hope everything on the other side of the pond is going well! Miss you all.

Jeannie

April 4, 2004

Hi everyone,

Yes indeed, it is another beautiful spring day today. It feels much more like May than the beginning of April here. The weather has been amazing, around 10 or 15 most days, lots of sun and you would not believe the dafodills! They grow like dandelions here! The crocuses and snowdrops are now long past their time and we have a few others starting that I'm not sure the names of, pretty star shaped blue flowers, and some that look like strawberry flowers, but with different leaves. THe leaves are finally getting started on the trees as well. It still rains almost every day for a little while, but the sun is out nearly all day. And it doesn't get dark until after 8pm! I think if any Nova Scotian wanted to come to Scotland, this would be the best time of year, for sure!

Because of all the great weather, we're starting to do more outside activities for the kids. I'm really excited about this. Today I'm going to be in painting, but I've got some fun Scavenger hunts and Easter fun later in the week which I get to do in my new uniform. Yup, I've got a new one now for Kids Activities! No plaid this time though, it's just a black cotton track suit with a white shirt. The housekeepers now have a similar one as well. So we all look very trendy and sporty in our new uniforms. Even Sebastian is going to get a uniform of sorts, a shirt that says "Head Gardener" on it. Won't we look professional.

I didn't have any adventures this week to talk about on my day off because I came down with some sort of bug on Monday. I worked all day on Monday despite having a fever, but Tuesday there was no getting out of bed so I actually had to miss my first (and hopefully only) day of work. I had a very very bad fever and couldn't eat a whole lot so on Wednesday, my day off, rather than my planned trip to Inverness, I had to stay in bed most of the day again to get better. I'm much better now, Sonia says I look better than I did before I got sick, so maybe two days of sleep did me good. :) I have Monday (tomorrow) off next week, so I'm going into Inverness for a little bit of shopping, and a whole lot of sight seeing. I'm really going to try to find this standing circle tomorrow. Even if I have to walk there in the rain, I'm going to find it. :)

We've been really lucky the past few weeks with amazing guests at the hotel. They've all been really nice with great kids as well. One family in particular had three of the most well behaved, polite children I've seen in a long time. They went out of their way to help the younger ones and learned everyone's name and left me a get well soon note. It's really great to get families like that.

I've discovered that I have to get down to Edinburgh the night before my flight home because it leaves in the morning. I was going to just stay in a hostel and take the bus out to the airport in the morning, but then I decided I'm going to treat myself and I'm going to stay in the airport hotel for the night. They have a dinner bed and breakfast rate that's pretty cheep for a single room, so as a present to myself for being so good with my money, I'm treating myself to a night in a hotel. It'll be really cool to be waited on for a bit. I'll try to be one of the good customers.

I guess people have been a little confused as to who I'm working with now, as our turnover in staff has been a bit hectic lately. So here's a list of who does what etc.

Jeannie - Canadian - General Assistant
Trixi - South African - Sous Chef
Sabine - Dutch - General Assistant (Waitressing and kids activities)
Dennis - Dutch - Restaurant Manager
Emma - Austrailian - Restaurant Manager... leaving soon. Very Sad.
Sebastian - Dutch - Head Gardener also works at the stables
Virendrea - Mauritian - Head Chef
Devina - Mauritian - Housekeeper
Jacky - Scottish - Stable.... worker?... (how do you put that?) Note from Sarah, it's a stable hand
Lynn - Scottish - Head Housekeeper (she's the only staff that isn't live in)

And then there's Sonia and Natalie as well as Neil when he's home from school from the family. I guess that's everyone. There are a few others who come occasionally to do electical or plumbing or things like that as well.

I'm really looking forward to coming home in June, even if it is only for ten days. It turns out that unless my flights change, I'm looking at 16 hours of travel and waiting time to come home. I think I'm waiting four hours in Heathrow and two in Montreal. So much for a quick flight home. Oh well, the flight back here won't be bad. There's a conecting flight that Sarah and I can take from London to Inverness that leaves a few hours after we land and it's super cheep so we're all set. Keep sending me e-mails, I love to know what's going on at home!

Lots of love

Jeannie

April 8, 2004

In Search of the Standing Stones

Greetings from your uncle traveling Mat.... or Jeannie rather. Sorry, we were watching some old episodes of Fraggles the other day. Apparently they were quite big in the Netherlands.

The only adventure I have to talk about was my journey into Inverness on Monday which I would like to do in story form. *ahem*

Once upon a time there was a young serving girl at an inn who wanted to have an adventure. She decided to visit a mystical site of ancient lore that was meant to be in the nearby city. She set out early one morning to catch the local wagon that carries a lot of people into the capital, but after waiting for nearly an hour, decided to walk into the nearby village and wait for the next, slightly larger, slightly more expensive wagon that carries a lot of people. She stopped at a local pub to have some delicious gruel and ale for her journey.

While waiting for the wagon, she met some fellow travelers from her side of the world, though all from the United American States, who had been fooled by an evil inn keeper into thinking they would be able to walk from the capital to her village. Luckily, they had stopped at a pub on the way and enlightened as to just how long a walk it would be. They were returning to the inn to vanquish the evil inn keeper and then continue their journey to the Island in the Skye.

Finally, the young girl made it to the capital. It was a relatively warm day, though the clouds did threaten rain. Still, she set out with her magical map to find the mystical site of standing stones. Unfortunately, there had been a curse placed on her map so that she would not think to look at it until she knew for certain that she was lost. She had walked quite some way when she came to a place that she knew quite well, it was the road leading from her village to the capital. The heavens had just opened up and she was drenched. Finally, she looked at her map and realised she was on the completely wrong side of the canal and had to back track quite a ways.

In the end, this turned out to be fortuitous, for in crossing the canal, she had to go through some amazing mystical islands that looked more like settings for Myst or Riven than real places. She even saw a giant sea creature that had crawled up onto the land! Luckily it wasn't terribly hungry so she was able to quickly get passed.

Finally on the right track, the young girl walked for miles and miles without a pit stop up a road with many horseless carriages, most of which were driven by people in a great hurry. The scenery was quite beautiful, however and nearly made up for the peril of walking down such a treacherous road.

At long last, she came to the woods where her map showed she should go. She was very worried that she wouldn't be able to go into the woods without having to cross over a large wall or break through a force field, but luckily these woods were open to random travelers and had a large number of tracks that were very confusing, crisscrossing the forest.

She was once again, quite lost. The paths seemed to go on forever but not get anywhere. She thought perhaps this was a magical forest where nothing was as it seemed. Finally, she climbed the highest hill she could find and pulled out her map, only to find the stone circle had magically moved to outside the forest boundaries. She set off to the edge of the forest, making her way through horrid stinging prickly nettles, and was battered by a hail storm, to find the edge, marked by an impenetrable force field. On the other side, all she could see was a large field. There was one place in the distance which could have been simply a pile of rocks, a broken down fence, or perhaps the remnants of the standing stones, but the field was also populated by fearsome dragons who 'baa'ed menacingly at her. So not wanting to disturb the dragons or any dragon farmers who happened to own the land, she sadly turned back towards town.

Now although she didn't find exactly what she was looking for, she realized that this was one of those stories that has a moral about it being the journey that is important, not the goal and so she had to be content with that.

THE END for now....

April 20, 2004

Hi everyone,

Sorry I haven't written in a while but I've been insanely busy at the hotel because of Easter Weekend (they get three weeks off for Easter here) and so besides not having much time to write e-mails, I haven't had much to write about other than work. I didn't even really get a day off last week because I ended up babysitting two kids while their parents went to Isle of Skye. I didn't really mind though because the kids were really great and we had a lot of fun. Plus we get paid directly when we babysit and we get tips! Yay! I did manage to get out to Inverness in the afternoon, but only for a little shopping. Nothing too eventfull. I got some nice new PJ's and a great going away present for Emma, but that's about it.

Yup, Emma has left us. We're all really sad that she's gone. There was lots of crying the day she left, mostly on my and Trixi's part, which was a little inconvenient because I was working at the time. But I totally understand her reasoning for going and hope that our paths cross again some day.

Oh, I wanted to thank everyone who e-mailed me about my last entry. And no, Keith, I do not have too much time on my hands, anything but! But I wanted to make the story sound a bit more interesting and had plenty of time to think it up while walking over 8 miles that day. As it turns out, writting may be an anscestral trait! I did a little research on the Currie Clan, my maternal grandmother's maiden name, and found out that in the olden days, like medieval times, the Curries were a bardic clan in the Highlands of Scotland that wrote balads, poetry, biographies and the like for influential clan chiefs. Pretty cool huh! There's a web site www.clancurrie.org if anyone's interested.

So on to today.

I had a day off today and didn't really know what I wanted to do. I didn't need to go shopping again and was in the mood for another adventure. So I grabbed my backpack, a bike, and set out for a forestry trail about a mile up the road. The day was sunny and warm so I didn't bring a jacket or anything, just a light jumper (sweater). I took tons of pictures, mostly of the mountains as usual. The way there was mostly uphill and I took frequent brakes for pictures, water and just to rest. I was following the main trail, feeling very much like I was in Point Pleasant Park for the most part. I saw a trail going downhill through the trees and thought I would take that path. What a mistake! It was very steep, very muddy and very rocky! I had to use the brakes almost all the way down, missing most of the beautiful trees and scenery in my bid to stay alive and keep the bike from skidding. I'm sure Jeff is laughing at me right now, but an off-road biker I am not. Finally at the bottom, what do I see? A farm house. The trail led to a person's property and therefore I could go no further.

There's one thing I really hate to do, and that's backtrack. I don't know why, but it irks me. Plus, due to the state of the road, there was no way I was going to be able to bike up the hill. I walked partway up, taking a few pictures of some interesting rocks, when I found another trail leading off the one I was on. It looked grassier and less steap so what did I do? I took it of course! Still unable to get on my bike, I walked for quite a while through a great deal of mud, following a little stream. I was really surprized when I came to a clearing and could see accross the valley and saw, of all things, Polmaily House Hotel! I kept going on this little path, rappidly dimminishing in it's pathness until finally I turned a corner and it just ended. I was now in a big open area with a stream and lots of rocks and stumps. I decided to sit down and have some food rather than deciding what to do next. I didn't want to go back the way I came, that was for sure, but where else could I go?

The answer? Up the hill! Without a trail or anything to follow, over stumps, rotten logs etc, I made my way, pushing the bike up the hill following, vaguely, the stream, not sure if I would come back to the main path or not, and there seemed to be no other way back through the densely packed trees. I did, eventually and luckily come back to a path which I thought was the main path. It seemed a lot muddier, but I was really happy anyway. I tried to go further down the path, but it ended, once again, at a farmhouse, so I turned around, but hadn't gone far so it was okay.

I sat down to write on a stump for a bit, looking out over the glen directly at Polmaily and strangely enough accross from the rock behind the hotel that I normally sit on to write. Suddenly the wind picked up and the storm clouds that had been threatening rain were a lot closer. I jumped up and got back on the bike. The way down was much easier and I soon rejoined the actual main path. The skies opened up soon afer I started back so I went zooming down the hill getting absolutely drenched, but laughing and singing all the way.

It is so much easier to go home than to go anywhere when I travel in that direction because it all slopes upwards from the hotel. Getting back was a snap and took about half the travel time. I had a lovely swim and a nice hot shower when I got back so that hopefully I won't be too sore tomorrow.

Well, Trixi wants to go watch a movie now, so I should get going.

Love

Jeannie

PS Note from Sarah: I've fixed the link to the Polmaily House Hotel Website, in which I had accidently typed a comma instead of a period. Oops. Sorry for anyone who tried it if it didn't work. (I'm still learning all this HTML stuff!)

April 27, 2004

Hi everyone,

Well, this week is really quiet and so off I went on another adventure today. After staying up late helping Andrew with his homework and WAY too much jumping on the trampoline (I'm really sore) I decided to finally head up to Glen Afric, a beautiful walking trail through the only remaining virgin forest of Caledonian Scots Pines (It turns out that they're the kind of pine tree that grows in my backyard, only much much older). I knew that I wouldn't be able to switch my days off and go down to Edinburgh of Friday like I wanted to, so I decided to make the best of it.

I got up really early and caught the bus, which happened to be the school bus as well, a bit embarassing to be the only other adult other than the driver, but the driver was really nice and let me off right at the road leading up to Glen Afric. The road itself was about two miles long before I actually came to the actual park, but the views were spectacular! I felt like I was walking into the forest on Endor or some faery tale forest. It was amazing. And the river was incredible, not to mention the mountains and the birds and... well... everything.

The Dog Falls was amazing, I'd never heard such a loud waterfall before. The birds were really funny too. They weren't at all afraid and one even pecked my fingernail looking for food. And I thought pigeons were fearless! Of course, at one point the beautiful warm sunny day turned cold and it poured for a little while, but there was a beautiful rainbow and it soon cleared up again.

The one major misfortune was the fact that I didn't pack a lunch so at about 12 I had to hoof it back to Cannich, about two miles from the bottom of the road. So after all that walking I was even more hungry and went into the only restaurant in the village. It was empty other than me, a thing I hate, there was no background music and I felt distictly unwelcome, but the food was decent and filling and that's all that really mattered.

I now had about two hours to spare before the bus was due. I went into the post office/corner store for a few minutes but was at a bit of a loss as to what to do. I didn't really have enough time to go back to Glen Affric, but I didn't want to stay in Cannich, so I decided to walk to Corimony and visit the cairn again and catch the bus up there.

On the way, I walked through a woods with really tall trees beside the road criss crossed with paths. I came towards what I thought was a house but turned out to be a really old Catholic church. I investigated a bit and it seems it was buit in 1863 and had a really old cup marked stone, something that's found a lot around old cairn sites and is thought to have been part of ancient Celtic rituals. This one had been passed on through several churches from St. Columba and is now used for baptism. It was a really pretty old buiding and surrounded by trees.

I walked for a really really long time. Two people asked me if I wanted lifts and I declined but by the third time I accepted as I was getting really tired and I wasnt' sure how much further I would have to go to get to Corimony. A really nice elderly gentleman with a really strong scotish accent picked me up and told me all about his granddaughter and about the site I was about to visit plus the trail behind it which I went on a few months back.

So I got to Corimony with plenty of time to go and visit the cairn and this time I knew that you're meant to place a stone on a cairn when you pass it for good luck. I read that in a book about Skye that I bought when I was over there and finally managed to read. It was really beatiful, just like last time and I went away very happy.

Then the heavens opened up again and I got another soaking. I was glad I had worn so many layers because I needed all of them. I walked in my t-shirt for a time, sometimes just my sweater and sometimes I need my jacket too.

Back home, I went straight into the show and was dismayed to find not one, but two ticks on my leg. Even though I spent a lot of time in the woods at home, I've never been bitten by a tick before. The day before yesterday in the shower I found one on my stomach and today two on my leg! It's insane! I managed to get them all out without problem, and while one left a red mark that looks a little like a ingrown hair, the other two didn't leave a mark at all. I looked in my touristy book and they say that most times it's no big deal but sometimes ticks can carry diseases. But so can mosquitos so I guess I shouldn't worry. What I really want to know is how they managed to bite me through my clothes! It's not like I was wearing shorts or anything, I had jeans on, and two shirts the other day when I got one on my stomach. Very strange.

Anyway, in other news, Lebo, the new girl from South Affrica left the other day and Sabine, from the Netherlands, is leaving soon as well. Hannah is coming back from Edinburgh in about a month and Lynn the housekeeper is out sick. Lots of fun. Luckily we're pretty quiet over the next month.

Not much else new. I hope to hear from everyone, I love getting e-mails.

Love

Jeannie

May 4, 2004

Well, what a week this has been! There is something deffinitly going wrong here, we're just not sure what it is. I think it all started last week when a pipe burst in room 3 (the honeymoon suite) and it started raining on the guests in the lounge. The poor people in room 3 had to wait up till midnight before we could get it temporarily fixed, and they still didn't have any hot water. So in fixing that leak we managed to have a flood in room 5 which caused another rainstorm, this time in the laundry rooms and a hot pipe burned a hole in the carpet of room 3. We also had the heating go for a few hours on a really cold evening, and then on another day we had a fire in the fuse box which caused our phones to go down. Then the next day we had to deal with not having any electricity for a few hours.

Also, two girls who go to Dal stayed in the hotel last night. They e-mailed to reserve a room a few days ago and said that one of the girls' great-great grandmother used to own this place. So we were pretty excited about that. They're both really nice and I talked to them for quite a while last night.

I'm also working on this Thistle Award thing for the past week. It has to be about 750 words, and of course I'm afraid I'm going to go over the limit, but I'm trying to keep it as short as posible. It's turning out to be just like an essay though, I even have a footnote in it at one point!

Anyway, I have to get ready for work now. I'm working till 7 and then 7:45-10:15 for monster club, though I haven't any monsters so Sonia will probably find something else for me to do. I hope everyone else is having a better week than I and I hope that Sarah's plane ride was okay.

Love

Jeannie

PS
Amy's e-mail box is full. Can anyone tell her to un-fill it?

May 14, 2004

Hi all,

Welcome back to the next edition of my crazy hotel life! In this edition we have affairs gone horribly wrong, black outs for no reasons in the middle of dinner service, another change in staff, and a plague of heather eating beatles!

I still think we should try to sell the events of the past month or so to a tv network and see if they could make it into a soap opera, but I think they would reject it on grounds that it's not realistic enough. On the whole, things are going pretty well. All the staff is getting along, Sabine has left, and Hannah's back and we're looking for someone to work here basically until I come back from home, but there aren't any major problems going on.

The family of that man I told you about came by. It was really awkward and no one really knew what to say, but they were really nice and left some flowers and a really nice letter apologizing for us having to be involved in the whole thing. We sent them a card today and we hope that they will find some solace in the fact that we are thinking of them.

But the strangest thing that's happened is the infestation we had! Around Monday or so, we started noticing that there were a lot of these little beatle things around. We couldn't figure out what they were, but they didn't seem to bite and other than being annoying and landing on your clothing, we didn't think much of it. Then the next two days, that felt very much like summer, they came out in full force! They were even in the newspaper there were so many of them! It seemed they were attracted to heat because they would cover things like rocks lying in the sun or warm deck chairs. They were everywhere! We actuall had to get the vaccume cleaner out to clean some of them up, but two minutes later they'd be back! They think they're some kind of heather eating bug, though why they'd be here I don't know because we don't have hardly any heather on the property. They've mostly gone now, though I keep finding their bodies all over the place. Very gross for sure.

A couple of days ago I went on a mini adventure. I went out for a walk around Rychraggan, on the trail I always take, but I came to the crossroads where there's a road I never go on and decided to go up it rather than continue the way I normally do. Most of it was pretty much the same as my normal walk. Lots of trees, a few sheep fields, things like that, but then I came to this giant area that had been clear cut. It was really sad to see and I guess I now know the reason for the road, it's an old logging road, like most of the trails around here. I went right up to the top of the mountain and the view was amazing, well worth the walk. I could see all the way to the Loch Ness, plus a number of smaller Lochs and rivers. On the way back down I saw a small "trail" and I use that term very loosely, that looked like it might lead back down to the road I wanted to be on. And me being who I am, I would much rather risk a short cut than to travel down the same road twice. Besides the fact that I'm not afraid to ask for directions, I kind of travel like the steriotype of a man. Anyway, I walked down this "path" for a long time with lots of mud with some interesting animal tracks, mostly deer and possibly some sort of small mammal. I'd say raccoon, but I'm not sure they have raccoons here. The path ended at an old abandoned stone house next to an old field with a big stone barn. The house had trees growing up inside of it and was shaded by a giant oak tree. It was so beautiful it made the whole trip worth it. I keep thinking that it was probably abandoned way back during the Highland clearances. I did end up having to back track, but at least I didn't get any ticks that time.

Yesterday, Trixi and I had the same day off together again Yay! so we decided to go on one of the cruises on the Loch Ness. We chose one that included a coach tour, cruise and entrance to the Loch Ness Monster 2000 exhibition. After getting our tickets we had some time to kill so I went out and bought myself a new cell phone. I know it seems silly, but it's the only way people can get a hold of me when I'm traveling all over the country side, and when I meet people it's nice to be able to give them a number that's not my work number. Anyway, my new number is 079441 87189. Of course, I can still be reached on my work number, and it's easier to talk on my work number because the reception in the hotel is crap, I have to go outside to talk to anyone because the walls are too thick.

The coach trip was a bit of a dissapointment. The driver didn't talk a whole lot, though I did learn a few interesting bits about the huge hill in the middle of Inverness and about the cannals and lock systems. The boat trip was much better. It was really windy, but beautiful. Seeing Urquhart castle from that point of view was really cool and I took a tonne of pictures. The exhibition I was expecting to be really bad, but actually it was great. It was more about the science of what they think the Loch Ness Monster might actually be, and how they proved the hoaxes to be just that, and what they're doing now to try to solve the mystery. Very interesting and well done.

That night, I was hoping for a nice quiet evening to write and watch a little TV, but a family need a babysitter and I was the only one available so I went up to room 11, way at the top, with two babies and a chatty four year old. The babies went to sleep fairly quickly but the little girl didn't seem at all sleepy. Then, right at the end of a Goofy Movie, the power went off. We already had all the lights off so it wasn't too much of a shock, luckily. It was off in the whole hotel and there was a huge party of 17 down in the dinning room. The kitchen was all working by candle light and being thankful that we cook almost everything with gas, even so, it was a long night for everyone. The parents came back at about 10:30 and I went down to the kitchen to lend my trusty amazing flash light (thanks mom and dad). The power was off until about quarter to 1, and it wasn't just our hotel, it was all over Inverness-shire. Apparently something had blown up. But we survived and everyone went away happy.

Next week, I'm going to Brighton to visit with Sarah and her Grandmother for a bit. Sonia offered to let me have an extra day off but I have to talk to her about it again to see if I can shuffle around my schedule a bit more and get the morning of the next day off too. And then Sarah's coming up to stay with me next week for a few days! That's really exciting. More people should do that.

Anyway, that's enough for today I think. I hope everyone's well. Congratulations on graduating to Leah, Josie, Ryan, Ivy, Jeff, Meredith, Zoe, and anyone else I'm forgetting!

Love

Jeannie

May 21, 2004

Well, I made it back in one piece. A little big deaf and I think my ears will be popping for weeks to come, but I'm back at Polmaily, and let me tell you, with how things were going with this trip, I was a bit afraid I wasn't going to make it. I'm not a terribly superstitious person. I know some of you are laughing at that statement because I am superstitious about some things, but for the most part I can be really practical and down to earth, but there was a part of me that really didn't want to get on the plane to Brighton just in case the universe was trying to get my attention.

First there was the problem booking the flight. After much time delaying asking Sonia to borrow her card, I finally did but couldn't get it to work. Big annoying problem, solved when Sarah lent me hers. Okay, great. There was a little problem getting my shifts covered, but not a big deal. So on the morning of my flight, I was all set to get up early, shower, have some food and get the early bus in. My alarm didn't go off. I woke up with 30min to jump in the shower, shove the last few things in my bag and tear down the driveway to catch the bus.

Then things were much better for a bit. I had plenty of time to have some breakfast, though my stomach didn't really want to eat much, and I walked around a few shops then caught a bus to the airport. There I found the flight had been delayed about an hour. Okay fine. I called Sarah to let her know (and woke her up in the process). While I was sitting in the lounge, an official looking man came over and asked if he could ask a few questions. I had a moment of fear wondering if I was in trouble, but it turned out it was just a survey.

So I got through security no problem, into the departure lounge, and the plane had apparently had some "technical difficulties" in Gatwick and was delayed even further. Around 2 hours after it was meant to leave, we finally took off. But by that time I was really tempted not to get on the plane. The flight was just fine though. I had a good book and my ears were not as bad as usual. I was still quite deaf when I landed and it took a really long time for them to pop fully, but it wasn't as painful as it has been in the past. Plus, I hadn't had to check my bag so I zoomed through the airport and jumped on the first coach to Brighton.

The visit in Brighton itself was wonderful. Sarah's grandmother gave us great food and a really nice twin room, a big bonus with us both having a bed to sleep in without either of us kicking or stealing covers (I know, I know, you don't do that anymore Sarah, or so you claim *g*) though I did keep her awake the first night a little with my snoring. We went for a beautiful walk along the chalk cliffs in PeaceHaven and took lots of pictures of the strange rock formations and of each other doing silly things. The next day we went on a bit of a shopping spree, mostly for clothes because we're both better clothes shoppers with each other. Then we went to Brighton Pier and played some interesting games. Sarah had her aura read by a machine called Psycic Sarah, which after she used, no one else was able to use for some reason.... hmmm..... *theme song to Twighlight Zone*. I had my signature analyzed, but we figure it was mostly just random character traits, and most of them were wrong, like that I don't make lasting friendships very often. I think that one's just a bit wrong. We also went on the roller coaster, my first in many years, and the bumper cars. Sarah got chased by some boys who kept cornering her. Boys have very strange ways of flirting.

Then back to Nan's for some tea before dinner. We went to The Carvery, a really great restaurant where you can get normal main dishes or you can get all you can eat roast dinner. I had a vegetarian dish with veggies from the roast dinner table. We had a really new and very young waiter who was kind of smitten with me. It was really cute.

Getting to the airport the next morning was a bit of a pain because I had to get up around 6am after being awake till 2 talking and listening to music. I did manage to get there on time, though my stomach again wasn't terribly happy with me. The big bad event that day which could have been sooooo much worse was that I dropped my passport at some point. I got all the way to the departure lounge #106 to get on the plane and all of the sudden realized it was gone. I told the first security person I saw and I was totally paniced. I was so afraid someone had stolen it. Luckily, he called up to the security desk and someone had passed it in. So I had to run all the way back to security (the estimated time from security to departure lounge 106 is 15 minutes and I only had about 20 before my plane took off) they had to make sure it was mine (really simple. They looked at the picture and said "yup, that's deffinitly you") and run all the way back. I was one of the last people on the plane so I had to have an isle seat, but it was near the front so it wasn't too bad.

The flight back to Inverness wasnt' too bad. A little wobbly because of the wind, no major turbulance though. It was nice to get back to Scotland. Brighton is beautiful and England reminds me more of the Halifax area, whereas Scotland's a lot more like Cape Breton. I had a horrible sandwich for lunch that I ended up not able to eat even half of. I'm not sure what was on it, but it tasted really gross. I got into Inverness with an hour to spare so I did a little bit more shopping, just got some Valerian tea, some lavender for my carpets and stuff and some window shopping. I was at the bus stop. Saw the bus coming, waved, picked up my bag and watched the driver drive right past. I couldn't believe it. I was exhausted, hungry and my bag weighed a ton. I called the hotel on the off chance someone was coming in. Dennis was in Inverness so it was arranged that he would pick me up at the bus station. The thing was, I was at the bus stop, one of the major ones, and didn't really think until I'd been waiting a really long time that that wasn't where I was meant to be. I couldn't even think of how to properly get to the bus station, only that it was near the mall. Anyway, to make a long story short, Dennis waited there a long time and left and I, in a really bad mood, had to get the next bus home. So rather than have a little time to sleep, I went straight to work, but it was quiet so it was fine.

Last night we all took Sonia out to dinner at an Indian restauarant and then to a club. It's a bit strange taking your boss to a club, but we all had a great time and slept really well last night. Sarah's coming up on Monday to spend a few days here and now she'll have a room to sleep in because Trixi's moved into the staff lounge with Hannah. They've fixed it up really nicely. I'm probably going to move back into my old room when I get some time. It has a window.

Anyway, I have a long day ahead of me tomorrow, so I should get to bed. Good night all!

Love

Jeannie

June 16th, 2004

Hi everyone,

Well, here I am, living it up in Edinburgh for one night! I'm staying at The Six Mary's, a really great B&B in the new city. A bit far off from the centre, but not bad. It's a beautiful old building and I get all the perks of our rooms at the hotel plus a few more, like bathrobes and a key to the front door so I can come and go at dawn if I want. They also have a computer in the lounge (which I'm on right now) with internet access all the time! Yay for modern conveniences. Breakfast starts at 7:30 so I'll be able to eat before I leave. My flight's been delayed a little (go figures) so I'm not going to be in until a little after 10pm now. 5 hours in Heathrow here I come!

But I enjoyed myself today. After having some tea and TV in my room, I set out for the Old city to just walk around. I went to a theatre where there seemed to be something going on. It turned out to be a dance troupe from Michigan. I bought a ticket but had half an hour so I wandered around a little, and went into a shop that I really liked and ended up in a really long conversation with the shop keeper and missed the show. Oh well.

Then I went up onto the High Street and decided to do one of the tours. This one was of Mary King's Close, all underground (and therefore dry. It was smizzling all day (really heavy fog)) and I have to say that it was better than the other two tours I did. Much more special effects and really interesting stories. I was in a tour with four americans, so we were a very "new world" tour group. The only dissapointment was that the tour guide wasn't actually Scottish. I'd say she's probably american but she put on an accent that was sometimes english and sometimes scottish and sometimes neither. Then I went and ate at a very posh restaurant. I hate eating in restaurants by myself. Cafes I can handle a bit better but they were all closed and I wanted to treat myself. The food was good, as was the wine and it wasn't that expensive so I shouldn't really complain.

Well, I'm off to bed now. Have to get up early to catch a bus to the airport. I'll write again when I'm home.

Love

Jeannie

"Q: Why do seagulls fly over the sea?

A: Because if they flew over bays they'd be bagels!"

- Penguin chocolate bar wrapper

E-mail me [email protected]

Home Journal Fall 2003 Winter 2004 Summer 2004 Sarah's Journal