Skittles!

I think we have managed to totally forget to tell you guys that we managed to book the skittle alley at the back of the Sheep Heid!
Tuesday 27th, from 5-7, we have the whole alley to ourselves. We can invite other people, or it can be just us.
We booked it a few weeks ago, and that was the only time available. As far as I know, we don't have any plans to do anything else that evening. So yay!

York

Right, train prices are insane! I don't think we want to pay around £220 (for the group). That would be an absolute minimum, involving booking well in advance. There's tickets costs several times that...
I was looking at hire cars, and using this place we could hire a 7-seater for the day for £112. As far as I can figure, fuel costs might be around £60 or so. It's about a three-hour drive, so we could pick up the car at 8-ish, leave by 9, be in York for lunch at 12, have the whole afternoon for wandering around, going to the Minster etc then get dinner somewhere before setting off back at 7 or 8. It's feasible, I think.
Opinions?

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!

1 week, five days and 13.5 hours until we fly out :D :D :D

Gosh, I am getting so excited! Well, I mean to almost unbearable levels! It's worse than Christmas! lol maybe that's because it's more exciting than Christmas?

So obviously we're going to be having quite a hectic first week what with camping and then the naming ceremony and so I was thinking that maybe the first day we're there we could just spend it having a wander around the streets of Edinburgh. That's what Mum and I did the first day we were there last time and it was really nice. Just gave us a chance to relax after the flight and get a feel for the place and see a few little things. And since the rest of the week will be go, go, go, it'll be nice to just take it down a notch. What do you think?

Costs and camping

Okie dokie, I've been having a bit of a think and I figured we needed a thread like this one. First off all, it was because I was trying to figure out just how much camping would cost each couple so we all know how much to set aside for it and secondly because some things have already been paid for and I don't want someone having to foot the bill for the rest of us all because something got forgotten about! So I'll do it in two sections - camping first and then costs. If anyone else pays for something for all of us, either now or even while we're there, make sure you list it on the comments (I was hoping you'd be able to edit my post but apparently I'm the only one who can do that) and then we know how much we owe each other and it's all fair :)

CAMPING

Ok, so I've spoken to Flora about how much the site and the tent have cost, I've gone and gotten a few quotes about car hire and taken the cheapest one, I've made a rough estimate about fuel since I'm not entirely sure how much it is over there and how fuel efficient the car will be but I've not included food since that will all depend on what we decide to have once we're there I guess.
Oh and I can't figure out how to make my keyboard make a pound symbol so I'll just use a $ one and we'll all just pretend :)

Pitch - $107 = $36 per couple
Tent - $79 = $27
Car hire - $250 (approx) = $85
Petrol - $90 (approx) = $30

So we're roughly looking at $180 for each couple, not including food, and hoping we don't go through too much petrol. I guess it seems quite a bit for camping but I'm sure it will be worth it :) Christian and I are so looking forward to it, it will be so much fun!

COSTS

Ok, so there aren't many things that have been paid for in advance as yet but I'm sure that once we're there one of us will book and pay for something or other and someone will do something else and in the end if we're not careful someone could end up paying a lot more than others and I know we're all on a tight budget. So I figured if we keep a tally of it all then it will all work out fair.

So, so far...

Flora - $107 pitch
$79 tent (I know you haven't actually booked it as yet but I was pretty sure you
were going to so I figured I'd add it on here)

Nettie - $60 Adam Hills tickets

Flora, I don't think it's fair that you have to wait for us to get there to pay you for our share and I certainly don't want you to run short because of it so I'll Paypal you our share today :)

Ummmm, anything else I've missed? I'm really annoyed that you guys can't edit this post, cos then we could have made it into a proper list (lol you know me and my lists) but anything that gets added in the comments I'll come and add :)

This time in three weeks I'll be on a plane! Yay!

Dresses and whatnot

Okie, first of all I got some absolutely horrible photos of me done today from Barb. I can never pose for a full body pic without feeling and looking awkward. Plus, you can tell just how much weight I've put on :(

Anyway, this is the dress I thought you could borrow from me Ro. It actually looks much more flattering in real life, trust me. Only problem is, Barb borrowed it off me and now it has a tiny tear in the bottom but you don't actually notice that.

And this is the dress I was thinking of wearing. It's no where near as nice now that I've put on a few more kilos but it'll still do I suppose.

What do you guys think? Ro, do you like that first dress? And is mine too dressy? You can't really see the lace in the photo but the sleeves are lace and that carries on around the back...

Okie, enough of that. So I was thinking of things that we've kind of got set in stone and I thought I'd list them so we know what days we've got booked up. So...

Sat 17th - Arrive at 12:35pm, Glasgow
Sun 25th - Naming ceremony
Tues 27th - Thursday 29th - Camping
Thurs 5th Aug - Adam Hills

Is there anything I've missed that we've definitely decided on? It felt like there was more...
Anyway, so Christian and I wanted to do a day trip down to North England etc and since we'll have to hire a car for camping, it's probably best if we do the day trip either on the Monday or just after camping, so we don't have to hire it out twice. I guess either day will not be that great since the Monday we'll probably all be tired after the ceremony and camping is generally exhausting but I guess we'll just have to suck it up lol. Maybe after camping would be better since it will mean a very early start and probably getting back late and I'm sure we won't be gone all day Thursday, therefore giving us some recovery time...

I'm sure other stuff we can figure out once we're there but you know me, I like making lists :D

Can't wait for tomorrow because then it's exactly three weeks till we fly out! I am getting so damned excited! Yay! :D

Camping

So, are we wanting to go camping? Because I think we'd really need to book it soon if we do.
And for that, we'd need to know how many of us are going, whether we'd need to hire a car / people carrier, that sort of thing.

What do you guys think?
We'd be up for it, but it would have to be the first or second week, as Matt probably can't get the third week off work.

Money-saving

Ok, so I have some vouchers...

Five vouchers, each for £5 off entry to the Edinburgh Dungeon. (Chris doesn't want to go.)

Six vouchers, each giving £2 off entry to the Camera Obscura.

A leaflet which would get us £1 off the entry costs of up to six adults for Deep Sea World.

A Snapfax, which contains a lot of offers including: money off Papa John's pizza, Pizza Hut (delivery or collection), KFC, Subway, plus good offers for TGI Fridays, Chiquitos, Bella Italia, Khublai Khan.

It also has an offer for 1/2 price tickets to The Stand comedy club on Thursday (making it £4 each).

Oh, and it has offers for the Dungeons and the Camera Obscura too, but I'm not sure if they're better value or not yet.

Updated list

Updated list

1) Mary King's Close
2) Fancy Dress Party/Nettie's bday party
3) Zeph's baby naming ceremony
4) Linlithgow Palace and the other castle Flora has forgotten
5) Portobello Beach and Crammond
6) Glasgow day trip, science centre
7) Ghost tour
8) Camera Obscura
9) Festival stuff - circus, comedy club?
10) Samba gig
11) Edinburgh Dungeon
12) Camping!
13) Charity shopping! Wander about looking at pretty stuff
14) Zoo!
15) Rosslyn Chapel???

8 weeks to go!

How fantastic is that? Only 8 weeks till we invade! Yay!
I am getting so ridiculously excited, I cannot wait. I'm kicking my butt into gear and finishing up buying all of your pressies and am trying to sort out appointments and bills so nothing will be due while we're away.

The other thing I am really excited about is that I'll be there for my birthday :D It will be so awesome to celebrate it with you guys! Best birthday present ever!

Ok, not much else to say, just needed to vent all that built up excitement :D :D :D

Oooooooh!

I was thinking...

Don't know if you guys know or not but Barb and Co went camping over Easter and it made me want to go camping again. Christian and I would love to go away for a night or two somewhere and I got to thinking that maybe we could all go camping! I love camping so much and I think it would be awesome with you guys :D

Places we should go.

Camera Obscura. Definitely. It's SO awesome, and we didn't go last time, I don't think.
What sort of things do you guys like? The Dean Gallery is great, even if just for the gigantic metal statue of Vulcan. The Museum of Childhood is fun, as are the other museums. Ooh! I should see if there's an event at Lauriston Castle again! And it's just round the corner (sort of) from Cramond, which has beaches.

SO excited!

Did I mention?

That I'm ridiculously excited? No? I forgot to mention that part? Well, I am :D

And Flora, where's your post? Come on woman, share your ideas!!! ;-)

The invasion is coming!

Firstly...

I AM SO BLOODY EXCITED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

*cough* ok, so now that that's out of my system...

I've asked Christian if there's anything in particular he wants to do and he just shrugged and said he's happy to go along with whatever. When asked if there's anything he doesn't want to do, I got much the same response.

So, things that haven't already been mentioned but I would like to do :)

*Climb the 'big hill' again. I know this is pretty much a given since Flora lives on the side of Arthur's Seat but it doesn't hurt to mention it...

*The science centre thingy in Glasgow has always looked like so much fun whenever it's been blogged about and since I'd like to see a little bit of Glasgow (so I can confirm I like Edinburgh better - I already do but it I guess I should base it on fact lol) maybe we could do a day trip there? I doubt we'll see much on our trip from the airport.

* A really bad movie night. We are getting into the spirit of things this weekend when we watch Mega Shart Vs Giant Octopus but you have so many I want to see! I'll also bring Night of the Living Dorks along but Christian has said he'll refuse to watch that again lol.

*Perhaps we could have another genuine Scottish bbq? You know, just so Christian gets the full experience. That of course will need to be scheduled on a day when it's most likely to rain lol

There's not a whole lot else I guess. Obviously the festival stuff depends on what we can get tickets to etc etc but the circus did sound good. Also, maybe we could hire a car for a couple of days and have an overnight trip somewhere? I don't really know where to...are there any castles you can stay overnight in? :D Cos that would be awesome! lol
But I'm just really looking forward to wandering about, seeing it all again. You guys have no idea how much I love your city. Actually, maybe it's as much as you guys love Perth lol. But I'm pretty sure I wouldn't love it nearly as much if you guys didn't live there :)

It's such a shame Eurovision isn't on...

I'm sure the boys will want to play lots of xbox games or wii games or whichever games are available lol

Oh, and I want lots of cuddles!!! I know it will be a lot easier having Christian there with me but I'm going to be missing Myles so much :(

Oooh, somewhere for us to eat. Is that tappas place still open? That was rather nice I thought :)
I wonder if we'll consume quite as much pizza this time? I'm sure Flora and I will get over tired again and snap at each other about 2am because I won't try black pudding lol. Christian is quite a fussy eater too so I'm sure we'll drive you both batty but hopefully we'll figure it out.

I'm really looking forward to Zeph's baby naming ceremony, it's going to be great. And at least you'll have lots of people to help set it up Ro!

We shall have to have a cocktail night at some stage and make fruit tingles! Yummo! Getting pissed with you two is towards the top of my priority list since I don't think I've done it properly yet. Certainly didn't happen when I was there and I don't think I got drunk when Will went missing since I wanted to make sure Barb could lol.

Okie, there was somethng else I was going to mention now but can't quite put my finger on it...I'm stupidly excited about getting my bus pass thingy with the photo but I know it wasn't that...I'm also excited about getting to have tablet again (even though I can buy it down the road here) but it's better when it's proper Scottish Tablet...is it silly to be this excited about going to a Tesco? You're shops are so different...

I think I'm just babbling now so I'll bring this to an end. I miss you guys, and really can't wait to come see you!

Woohoo!

Ok, so we're all getting extremely excited! This is a place for us to make suggestions for places to go, things to do, places to eat and so on, so that we all know what we've all been discussing...

1) Portobello beach - it's not on a par with Aussie beaches but it's the best we've got!

2) Linlithgow Palace - nice and castly, we could also walk round the loch.

3) Zeph's naming ceremony is going to be on Sunday 25th July, probably afternoon.

4) Fancy dress party - Friday 6th August, as a finale to the trip?

5) Mary King's Close