Edinburgh Military Tattoo

What is nicer than getting something from someone out of the blue? Getting 2 tickets for the Edinburgh Military Tattoo!!!

So, on Wednesday night, we got the best weather so far in the year, and we made our way to the Edinburgh Castle, stood in a queue for a while until the gates opened, and in we went.

Here is what we saw:














What a load of fun. We saw military bands and war music from all over the globe, and some fun acts too. The Edinburgh festival ends on 26 August, 2 days before we have been here for 1 year.

Soon to be our new home!

We went to see our soon to be new house to measure up and see where everything is to fit. These are some of the foto's we took.


As you can see the kitchen will need a bit of redecorating...moving the stove and the boiler. There are more cupboards to the back of me.

Through the sliding doors to the lounge...

Wayne giving me tips on how to add a bit of color...

Looking down from the landing...

Hmmm...a pink bedroom, maybe when I was still 10 years old...this will have to be painted!!!!

There are 2 bedrooms, and a bathroom upstairs. The second bedroom is purple...haha, another room to be painted first up. So, we just await a couple of last phonecalls and then we hope to move in on the 20th August.

The Last 2 days in London

Wayne's first trip to London, so we started with the good stuff...

Wayne the train virgin...

Tower Bridge


Tower of London - traitors gate 0 originally known as trader's gate.

Our Beefeater tourguide
Armoury

We met up with Anne-Marie (collegue friend from Helderberg)

Buckingham Palace

Westminster Abbey

Big Ben and Parliment
our braai.....
Madame Tussades

Wayne and Julia

Captain Jack Sparrow

Excuse me sir!

Now, Tiger, the hole is over there....

Had a bit of an accident in the Chamber of Horrors

Gonna have to get stitches...

Treating Wayne to sights on the way to London....

Check these 2 sexy guys ...are they Englishman or Scotts?

Holy Island: less variety of shells than SA, yet still beautiful.

I think we'd better get a move on...the tide is fast appraoching
Quick!

Bamburgh Castle - extremely big but amazingly beautiful

Last Sunday, Wayne and I went into Edinburgh while Jimmy prepared for a Funeral. Just some of the sights that I showed him...

Edinburgh Castle

Scotts Monument...this building is extremely old


My good friend Mariette celebrated her 20 -something birthday (a women never reveales her age). It was a braai (barbeque) at the Scottish Mission President's house in Crieff as she and their son Jonathan share a birthday.

the thorn amoungst the roses - left, Linda and right, Mariette...and in the middle.....well

A visit from my ou boet Wayne

My highlight of the year...Wayne flew in from South Africa on the 5th July. Shame..there was a delay of 2 hours in Jhb which caused him to miss his connecting flight to Edinburgh, then had to buy another ticket to Edinburgh for a later flight. He eventually arrived in Edinburgh at 4pm. A longggggggg time to not had sleep! Since then we have not sat still for a day! We left for the Scottish Mission Pathfinder camp in typical Scottish weather just outside Dunfermline. We pitched tents in the rain and got all muddy. Not quite the welcome Wayne was expecting I think....lol. Jimmy and Marcel had the privilege of baptizing 7 teens in a make shift pool as you will see from the photos below:

Its great having a fellow South African, an great friend...Mariette Kruger from George.

We then left on Sunday for a week holiday at Doniford Holiday Haven, in the county of Somerset, South England.

Some of our sight seeing excursions:
Quaint little historic town of Dunster

Dunster Cathedral
Low tide at Doniford

waterslide at Doniford

Minehead Station - real feel of what it was like in the old days...

seaside, with lovely each to play on..not Eastern Cape though!

Family photo..have we changed?

The Hermans, Bothas and Erasmus (all South African)

Cleve Abbey - entrance

In front of the entrace to the ruins

The sun was very bright!!!

Quaint town of Cheddar, the only place where they made real Cheddar Cheese the old fashioned way. Not sure if I want to eat Cheese any more!

Matt and his sister Meghan. She is now 5 weeks old.

Summer in the UK

So, you ask me what I think of my first summer in the UK? Interresting, apparently this is not the way it is supposed to be. There should be rain, but not this much. So, there were some flooding in England, some hard rain here, but however it came, I enjoyed every minute of it. Before we left SA, some folks said that we will become depressed because of the rain and weather, but coming to think of it, apart from the fact that I like the rain and extreme weather, I remember so many people in SA being depressed about the drought. It is nice to hear though, that there was much snow in areas in SA, where you would never ecpect that.
What else, the other night, we headed home, after visiting folks close to Dundee. It was 12 at night, you would expect it to be dark and see lots of stars. Looking north, you could see that the sun wasn't too fr beyond that horison. It wasn't completely dark, more like it looks about 45 minutes before getting light. Not to mention the fact that the sun sets around 10 pm these days.
You can imagine how strange it is to go to bed when it is stil light outside. So maybe it is not necesary for me to mention that we seldom go to bed before 11 or 12 at night. What an interresting experience.

This week is the start of our family camp at Killberry, which goes until next Friday, i will take lots of pictures. C u then.

Welcome, Meghan Herman!

Our good friends Clifford and Ophelia Herman were blessed with a healthy daughter on her mommy's birthday (4 June). Her brother Matt enjoys being BIG brother. Isn't she adorable!


Yesterday at the Scottish Mission Day of Fellowship, Meghan was dedicated to the Lord. We are very privileged to be Matt and Meghan's godparents. Clifford and Jimmy studied together at Helderberg College (both Theology) and Clifford and Cedrene graduated the same year. Cliff is the pastor of Glasgow and East Kilbride churches.