Jan 5 2023

A very pleasant day

Fort George, High Tea, a dreary day.

It’s funny how a day goes by quickly when there is only 6-7 hours of actual daylight. You try and cram a fair bit in when you can. First photo. Wake up at 8am and foggy.

Today was a bit like our drive into the highlands but we kept it local. It’s the first time we ate out (by ourselves) on pretty much the entire trip. We did have one lunch out on the Isle of Wight, but we’ve mainly been doing our own preparing and cooking food in our accomodations.

So we went out and had a good ‘ol Scottish Breaky at Girvans in Inverness. Following this very hearty start, we set off to Fort George, which was a working Military Army Base from the 1700’s until… well now. It’s still used and definitely had a military presence while we were there. It houses as many as 1600 personnel and was used to train people during World War I and II.

The Fort is large and well worth the walk around. It was a drizzly day, but hey.. Winter in Scotland, right?

There’s probably not much to say about the fort other than… It’s solid as rock, hard to penetrate from an invaders perspective, has lots of canons and it was just really great to have access to great history like this.

If you look at the photos, you will see what looks like a cemetery. That’s actually a Pet Cemetery used by the Seafarer Highlanders for their dogs. Nice to see.

The only other thing we had actually planned, and booked in for was afternoon tea at Culloden House, near the location of the Battle of Culloden between Charles Stuart who tried to reclaim the British throne in 1745. Again, lots of interesting history in Scotland so feel free to indulge your historic itch, but we went there to have tea, scones and sandwiches with the crusts cut off. History is great, but.. Okay, it’s interesting.. Moving on… Back to the food. We were told very quickly, “We don’t do English Breakfast Tea, we do Scottish Breakfast Tea“, but it tastes the same nonetheless. Ah the Scots…

We had a nice drive prior, through some of the gorgeous towns nearby in a roundabout way to our destination. One of them was of particular interest to me as it was a town named Cawdor and was on highway B9090. I’m not sure if that was a sign or anything, but through my entire career, the biggest highlight I had was being involved with Operation Cawdor, the Federal Police Operation name for the Australian response to the Indian Ocean Tsunami in Thailand, which as you probably know, I was a part of. The significance of highway B9090 was that my Police ID Number. 09090. Coincidence.. well yeah, but cool huh?

Photos of the fort below…. And I ate too much at High Tea…

Jan 4 2023

And into the Highlands…

We had actually been on the move pretty much since we left Launceston. Sleep deprived, mainly for the first time going abroad we hadn’t been able to settle. Maybe it was because Sunrise was around 9am, and Sunset was around 4pm. Far different from the 4:30 am to 9pm days in Sunny and warm Tasmania… So we had a rest day. Jane bummed around doing next to nothing all day… Me on the other-hand… I was a next to Jane. Meaning I was actually doing nothing… But it was a welcome reprieve.

That was the Tuesday (3rd of January). On the 4th, we just winged it. Drove North we did. Through Dingwall, up to Tain, across the fjord to Spinningdale and Little Creich (no idea where Big Creich was) and up to the Falls of Shin at Lairg…

We had driven away from the melting snow of that southern town called Inverness, and we were right up amongst it again further north as we were definitely getting to the highlands, if we weren’t already.

I’ll digress. Scotland is beautiful and the north is absolutely the stunning part of beautiful. If you are ever in the area… Come here! Or go there!! or whatever… it’s lovely. Plenty to see including Railway Viaducts, nice little towns and some bigger ones too. You’ll see a photo below of Dingwall Castle Doocot, which is basically a folly built with stones from the old castle after it fell into ruin and was used as a quarry. Lot’s of history at the castle including a duel between apparently my ancestor Robert Stuart and that dastardly Hugh Munro… I really need to find those documents of my history.

So, a short slide down the ramp to the waterfalls. Okay, the waterfalls were pretty meh by Iceland Standards, but in the summer they are amazing as the Salmon jump or swim up the 3 metre fall to do what Salmon do in Summer… but it wasn’t summer, but it was worth the slide (the icy ramp was rather slippery). Picture those B Grade Romantic Movies where the helpless person has never ice skated and holds onto the side of the rink whilst their potential partner who they fall in love with, break up with because of ‘boof the tough guy‘ and fall in love with again is skating backwards laughing at them. Okay.. too much? You get the idea. that was me. It’s been a while since I had the ice-skates on.

So today was about the drive. Jane found this great road that went into the mountains with no side rails and I guess had a fairly large and steep drop-off. I’m not sure because I was holding onto the steering wheel until my knuckles went white.. So I didn’t pay much attention to the view. But apparently it was nice. It was a lovely drive though.. About 1.5 – 2 hours each way.

Enjoy the photos. What a lovely day out just exploring.

Jan 2 2023

Scotland – On our own

Okay, So I left off as we were heading to Heathrow Airport. A perfect drive back, except for maybe 3 or 4 wrong turns into and out of Carparks (costing us £’s as we left the carpark, 30 seconds later). But other than that, we had the best time in the Sofitel at Terminal 5 having our free drinks, plus extras, and several Tapas items from the bar menu.

Sunday 1st January 2023! – Happy New Year!

An early wake up and slept through the New Year. Off to the airport lounges in the terminal before we found our gate, hopping on an airport bus, driving us to somewhere on the tarmac between Terminal 5 and Terminals 2/3. All ahead of schedule as well, until… Apparently we couldn’t leave because Edinburgh Airport had closed, because it’s entire Landing Through Fog Radar System had crashed… Better the system than us I guess, so we sat in the tarmac the best part of an hour before we were cleared for take-off.

We arrived and made our way through a very long airport (Launceston seems so small now) and got our Loan Car. They didn’t have what we had requested (surprise surprise) but we ended up with a Mercedes Camry.,.. I mean a Mercedes A200. Nice car, but I have to ask about German Efficiency. Why do they have to have the indicator on the left stalk. ..with the windscreen washers, and the headlight dimmers.. All on the same stalk!! The answer is so they can fit the park brake, the gear selector on the right stalk… Learning curves eh?

So, where were we off to? The Scottish Highlands! Inverness to be exact. About 3 hours north along the A9, with the roads covered in Snow, Ice, Slow Cars and a single lane. But it was a lovely trip. Seeing so much snow was what I had dreamed of, but didn’t believe we would get. How Lucky are We?

A quick stop at Morrisons for food shopping and we made our way into our next Airbnb overlooking Inverness in a wonderful apartment in Great Glen Place.

There’s plenty to do here in Inverness and there is no way we can see it all in a week, but we can see a few places, but it is important to relax along the way.

I hadn’t really done much research into the Scottish Highlands but knew it could be beautifully picturesque in both Summer and Winter. I didn’t even realise it was less than 10km north of the World Famous Loch Ness.

Now those who believe in the Loch Ness Monster.. Nah.. As they say, 98% of sightings are by tourists, but the lake is really long (about 40 km) and quite wide in parts (around 1.5 km) and in places, over 200 metres deep. I know all this because we drove the entire length of it, to arrive at Fort Augustus and went on a Boat Ride for an hour.

Prior to that, we stopped at Urquhart Castle which was on the way. Urquhart Castle is about 1000 years old and is mostly in ruin after it was partly demolished in 1692 by a bunch of dummy spitters, although much of the castle is still standing tall, facing the Loch. It has a rich history of changing occupants between the Scots and England including control by Robert the Bruce in 1306.

Oh by the way… Temperature of the day varied between 4° and -2°. Scarves, jackets, beanies, jackets, anyone?

So…. We made our way south to Fort Augustus as mentioned and did a tour in part of the loch, which lasted about an hour, as previously stated. And as an aside, if you go to Fort Augustus from November, through the winter and toward Spring, you don’t have to stand at the carpark payment machine for 5 minutes, trying to work out where you put the cash, because it’s free during those months… There you go, a quick tip so you don’t embarrass yourselves in front of the locals.

We chose a seat on the top deck, behind cover on the Port Side… (that’s the left side for all you land-lubbers….Google said so). We got some amazing views of snow topped mountains, every colour of tree and the black swamp below us. Loch Ness is really an interesting place that stretches so long and so straight.. Check it out if you care…

I enjoyed snapping away,.. Anywho… I have attached a gallery of images taken on the day. Enjoy and see you tomorrow. Last photo is of the Loch Lock!

Jun 17 2016

Happy 50th Birthday Jane

1987 Stephen and Janes Wedding 01 I would like to express my love and devotion to my wonderful wife. I’d shout it from the rooftops if I could, but not many would hear it. So I’ll do it here where everyone has access to the World Wide Web. I’ll also #myloveforjane and maybe the twitterverse will see it too.

I would have been 16 years old when I first met Jane. I know exactly where it was; on the back of a Church Bus as part of a Friday night youth group at Craigmore. I can even tell you that we were on the way to Bartholomews Church in Norwood South Australia for a sing along thing. My brother, the Reverand Paul Hunt will likely suggest this was God bringing us together. I’m not so sure. I’m not at all religious but despite that, even if it were true, I’m not sure he would have approved of us snogging on the back seat pretty much the entire way there and back. However, the relationship didn’t last long with Jane and I dating for about a week before we ended the pairing. It wasn’t the right time I guess.

About a year later, we came across each other again in the Craigmore Church on a Sunday afternoon. A day later, resulting from a phone call I received from Janes best friend at the time (Roseanne). I rang Jane and asked her out again over the phone. It was about 7:46 pm on Monday 20 July 1981. The answer was yes. That was the time we became a couple for life.

Fast forward a few years. We decided to marry. It wasn’t a down on one knee, pop the question kind of engagement surprise. We had often discussed it and it was probably assumed after being together for 4 or 5 years that we were always going to marry. We decided to head into the city and ordered a ring from Bell & Brunts, a wonderful handcrafted jewellery maker of Adelaide. We celebrated with a Chicken Hot Pack for dinner.

In early 1985 Jane and I moved out together into a 2 bedroom flat in Salisbury. What an experience that was. We really started to find our place in the world. With great friends with help when we needed it (from the likes of Dave and Mel Belton & Trevor and Julia Dansie) plus our own families, we started to carve our way through life together. I had joined up with SAPOL and Jane was with the State Bank. It was certainly a busy period of our lives.

P1050864 Our joint love of Softball went on for many years. But whilst we gave our all, eventually we needed each other more, and found that Softball whilst being thoroughly enjoyable, took away time from each other. Jane however achieved some fantastic successes in her roles, particularly as an administrator. She won the “Australian Softball Federation – Administrator of the Year” award and was given this accolade by a female sportsperson she looked up to, being Australian Swimmer Nicole Livingstone. This really topped her career off. However she was also involved in many SA State Teams as a statistician as well as being the South Australia Treasurer and Vice President. I won’t even go into her life at the local softball association. Such is the respect she deserved.

But she has also met many friends who have remained very close to her. None more than Tracy Wolter who Jane left a visit to the United Kingdom to be with her ailing Uncle to return to see Tracy when she was in need of a friend, whilst undergoing surgery. Jane is that kind of friend. Devoted and loyal to the end.

Her family mean everything to her. She was adopted into my family from the start. We were always destined to be together forever. She is trusted and respected by all.

However, in more recent times, Jane has developed a closeness to her English family. This includes those living on the Isle of Wight as well as the mainland UK. She has fostered those relationships and extended a friendship, or kinship that wasn’t really present in times gone past.

Again, as friends come and go, Jane and I have regained a lost friendship that had gone missing. By this, I mean we had lost contact with our friends, for no apparent reason other than distance. It’s one of the things we have managed to forge back by not being involved in softball. Distance and timing is much more accessible now. However I want to say to our softball friends, that you are not forgotten, and like many things, it is something that we need to work on to regain that friendship, or closeness that has been temporarily severed. We still love you guys. But at the moment it is important to re-establish those other things that have been missing for so long.

A close friendship rejoined by the entrepreneurship of the daughters of Dave and Mel Belton, for a surprise birthday in the Sunshine Coast, Queensland. Several trips later where we have caught up (in Sydney, New Zealand and in Adelaide). Currently we are away with one of the 3 groups of your young adulthood with Trevor and Julia Dansie with their son, Steven. Another reunion of all 3 with other good friends Mick and Margaret, will continue the reunion.

But that’s not to discount the other strong friends we have made along the way. Eve Allen is a big part of Jane’s life. Having met Eve during a transitional, or developmental stage of Jane’s career, Eve and her daughter Megan have cemented themselves into her life. The initiation of this friendship came at the right time where Jane and I had our only son, Geoffrey. Megan, being a young 15 year old became a trusted member of our family by being Geoff’s babysitter. Eve and Megan hold a special place in Jane’s heart.

There are probably too many people to name, and to single some out would be disingenuous to those who are not named, however people like Sharon Perkins and Kim Sanderson are right at the top of the list in softball. But there are many many more, and I am sure you know who you are. Friends for life no doubt.

This leads me to Geoffrey… Our son, born out of our love when Jane was working at the Hyatt Adelaide. He changed our lives forever, and as we have seen him grow, through initial health issues, to become the person he is today, is a never ending source of pride for Jane. The respect and love she has for him knows no bounds. Yet, to let him go and be free to develop his own life, often away from us is hard, yet necessary. Jane has been a great source of knowledge and support for Geoffrey (as she should be), yet continues to help guide and mentor him when he needs it. Her love for him, as is mine, without bounds. Without him, we are empty.

Jane’s happiness is linked to the people around her. She has found herself in a place where her friends and family are such an important part of her life, yet she continues to grow in all areas of her life. She has friends and family who trust and often rely on her, friends who love her and are as much a strength to her as she to them.

My love for her is the same. Without her my heart would die. And I think the same is true the other way around.

My love for her is eternal, and whilst she is celebrating her 50th birthday abroad with many people who cannot be with her, know that you have all played a strong part in who she is today. I hope that you share this day with her, at least in your thoughts if you cannot be here.

A message from your devoted and loving husband x

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Jun 16 2016

Scotland. The land of the kilt.

Edinburgh_03

No cliches here about Scotland. They’ve all been done to death. Now lets talk about the weather! It was about 3:30 -ish as we drove down a fairly steep decline to drive into the town. One way streets, huge bank of cars and the fog had just come down to greet us. Thank you Summer! We were looking for a place to drop the bags off, as it started to rain down on us. We were on the “Royal Mile”. It was supposed to be a good location for an Airbnb apartment we were staying in. I have to admit, I didn’t know what the “Royal Mile” was.

Edinburgh_15 Now I do. It is the mile of road located between Edinburgh Castle and the Palace Holyroodhouse (the Scottish residency of the Royal Family). It is also the busiest section of road in Scotland, covered in very old and undulating bricks (I won’t call them cobblestones). We found a place where we illegally parked to dump and run and went to find a carpark. We drove about 2-3 miles (in mostly circles) along the one way roads and found our park. We walked back to where everyone was standing in the rain. The walk was only 500 yards but steep up a hill! We found are apartment and climbed the staircase, which was hidden behind a small door on on the Royal Mile. The staircase was almost a ladder. It was small, steep and difficult to ascend with 20+ kg of luggage each. But we managed. The apartment was old, (although refurbished in areas), was a little like a warren of hallways and rooms, but it was ‘okay’. Certainly not “The Threshing Barn“. The beds were small, the mattresses were springy but we were comfortable enough. The rain slowed down and we were able to make our way up and down the Royal Mile for a tourist visit.

Julia had on her bucket list, a tour of The “Real Mary King Close Tour“. It is a tour under the old government buildings where previous lives were lived, through the settlement of Edinburgh and the days around the black plague in the mid 1600’s. A tour that I recommend to all if they do come to this town. The tour is full of actual accounts of Real people in those hard times

A tired and restless sleep we woke the next morning and went out separate ways for a good portion of the day.

Group 1: Julia, Trevor and Steven
Group 2: Stephen and Jane
Group 3: Tracy

We started off at the same place for breakfast (The Edinburgh Lader). Literally the best eggs I have ever been served. Scot from Scotland was our waiter. I said no cliches didn’t I? Sorry. He was brilliant. Friendly, funny and very helpful. I recommend this place for meals.

Holyroodhouse_01 We then split up. Tracy did come with us for a short time, as we made our way to the Palace of Holyroodhouse. There is a lovely cafe at the front/side of the entrance where Jane ordered a very royal cup of coffee. We didn’t decided not to take a long walking tour through the palace, because we were intending to walk back up the ‘mile’ and look through Edinburgh Castle. This was probably a mistake in hindsight. However, this was the choice we made, but I did get to visit the Gallery Exhibition to view “Masters of the everyday: Dutch Artists in the Age of Vermeer” which I thoroughly enjoyed.

Holyroodhouse_05

We made our way back up the mile (where we bumped into the Dansies) and we did some present buying, including a purchase of my new hat. I love my hat 🙂 Several photo’s on the way, including a beautiful little close that Jane had spied. White Horse Close is a hidden gem of a group of houses, actually on the Royal Mile.

Bow before your king!

There are many buskers on the Royal Mile, from beggars to bagpipe players, witches mysteriously floating above the cobbles, and a certain “King Robert Bruce” we spied just before entering the castle. Jane struck up a very find conversation with the Mel Gibson lookalike before posing for a photo with him. He was raising money for Leukaemia and had just had an altercation with an 80 year old woman who took exception to him yelling out. “Bow before your king you dog!”. He insisted a dog had just walked past.

A donation from both Jane and I, and we continued on to where (apparently) the Sovereign Leader resided.

It was about 3:30 -ish at this time. The fog was starting to roll in again. Is this a standard thing here in Edinburgh? This was SUMMER!!

We slowly made our way up the castle and through some of the very many nooks and cranny’s that these castle are built from. We certainly didn’t go through every area. We where starting to tire a little from the days activities. We’d been walking most of the day at this stage. I know it sounds like we didn’t do a lot. But I can assure you…

We finished the day, catching up with our friends and eating some fine Thai Food. A terrible nights sleep, but an accomplished stop in a lovely, old part of the United Kingdom. I wish we could have stayed longer.