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Hot Shaves

Well, inevitably the time came.  Ed’s flat top is no longer a flat top – so he had to seek out a hairdresser.  Found one down the road from where we were staying in Edinburgh. The Russian barber set to work, meticulously snipping all by hand.

When Ed finally came back, we thought it looked pretty good…in fact, different from usual.  It was then he pointed out that the barber had shaved off his widow’s peak! Don’t worry Ed…it will grow back!

Glasgow…our birthplace

Arrived in Glasgow and checked into the Morrison Road Apartments. Grand old building

used to be the old *Co-op Admin Building and has been redeveloped as residential apartments, across the river Clyde from Glasgow city centre. Cool place, plenty of room (for all our laptops, cables, luggage and the like!) And a gym downstairs for Lois to attempt to work off the white pudding supper, Scottish tablet, scones, cakes….. (uh oh!)

We all went to the Glasgow Science Centre, much like Sci-Tech Discovery Centre in Perth.  Some great hands-on stuff to do. Fun! Did some shopping and had high tea at the Willow Tea Rooms.

On the Wednesday, we met Tommy (a “Geo-Domainer”, that is, he owns www.glasgow.com, amongst many others.)  Tommy is a Glaswegian, from the Gorbals originally and generously offered to give us a personal tour of Glasgow. 

We had a great time and lots of laughs.  Tommy’s wife, Tricia, actually worked years ago for the Co-op, in the Milk Department, which was located on the second floor, first door to the right – exactly where our apartment 207 is located!

Tommy (quite the knowledgeable unofficial tour guide and obviously very passionate about his homeland) took us to some cool places …first off to the Pollock Park park, where Sasha spotted (in the distance) her first Highland Cattle…or “Hairy Coos” as we call them. Awwww…cute.  We had a stroll through the Burrell Collection at the gallery.  Incredible collection of artifacts and acquisitions by Sir William Burrell – a shipping magnate and philanthropist who had a penchant for things old and expensive (although word has it that he always got them at a good price!)  We then went to Glasgow Green.  There was a massive park with cool play equipment. Yee-ha.

The Peoples Palace Museum was fabulous…here’s a pic of Ed hanging with Billy Connolly (for those of you not aware, we are huge fans and have seen him 4 times).  The museums here are great and all free to get in (liking that…).  Outside was the Royal Doulton Fountain (largest of its kind in the world…just how many of these things are there??)  Here we are pictured at the Australian colony side of it. Also went to the Glasgow Cathedral – very gothic and visited the oldest house in Glasgow too.  We are always amazed at how stone steps are worn away from centuries of use. Wow.

If that wasn’t enough generosity from our Glasgow chums, we were taken out to dinner that night to the Kilted Skirle at Loch Lomond.  What a great time, wonderful company, lovely food and oh, the view(!)…we had a fantastic view of the Loch (well, when the rain and mist cleared….).  Lois had her first haggis in a long while and we all enjoyed puddin’ with custard.

Liverpool

Liverpool was primarily a Pro Development visit for Lois, visiting the Liverpool Football Club’s Academy and learning about their career, education and welfare program for young aspiring footballers (as young as age 8!) Tim, the Career and Education Manager, generously showed me around and shared his knowledge. Drove me past Anfield, the stadium is being rebuilt nearby. I didn’t realise that Everton’s stadium was so close – spying distance!

Didn’t see a great deal of Liverpool, but did find a terrific second hand bookshop and the owner and his daughter were lovely people. Apartment we stayed in was brand new and lovely and had free Wi-Fi, gotta love that. (Found on www.laterooms.com) Ed and Sash had a nice “chill” day when I went out.

Edinburgh

26 June 2008

We are staying at the Central Youth Hostel (five star…well, for a hostel), which is in the “Scotland the Best” book. (Thanks bro..) Just down the road is a highly rated fish and chip shop, so we are going to do some damage to our arteries and have white pudding supper.

Well, no trip to Edinburgh is complete without a visit to Edinburgh Castle. We had all four seasons in one day – with beautiful sun beating down one minute, rain the other, and everything in between.

It was fabulous though. Lots of people, but when we sat down to lunch at a bench in a more isolated spot of the castle (nice salads, courtesy of Marks and Spencers) we were all by ourselves and it was grand.

Now girls, you know the dilemma – travelling for months on end…what do you do with your hair?? Cut it short? – easy to look after, but then you have the agony of finding hairdressers in strange cities (who may misinterpret your “just a trim” for a Sinead O’Connor) Or…grow it long, and have to tackle that awful in-between stage. I know…the horrors!! Well, I have the answer. Buy a hat! Here I am in my new hat – the only trouble is the army lads saw me and tried to recruit me. Lucky I wasn’t wearing my khakis that day too.

Actually, these Edinburgh army lads were very funny. We walked past and asked for a photo with them, they remarked about us being Australian to which Ed informed them that we were both born in Scotland. They asked where and we said Glasgow. “That’s nae Scottish!”, one of the cheeky so-and-so’s responded, and another chipped in with “Wegies! Ye weren’t brought up…ye were dragged up!”

Dubai

Well, we are now on our way. Having had a lovely 3 day pre-trip holiday in Dubai

(where we succumbed to the “mall trawl”, lovely hotel and enjoyed the pool (and the pool bar!) Lois is still searching for the perfect pair of khakis… Needless to say, not much work done, but a good time was had by all.

Wi-Fi was prevalent but charged for mostly, rather than being free. A fellow Aussie gave us a card in a café so we managed to get online briefly with that.

Birmingham

Have spent the last three days in Birmingham with Lois’ grandparents (Sasha’s great grandparents). Sash got a private lesson in watercolours from her Great Gran and produced some lovely paintings. What terrific memories created, and something shared to show for the time they spent together too. Priceless.

We spent some time in the city centre of Birmingham (more canals than Venice did you know?! – we smiled…our claim to fame about Perth is that it is the most isolated city in the world and we love telling people so.) We got to see the “Floosie in the Jacuzzi” as she is known – pic below. Great architecture. Another highlight was the Harvestival by Ribena – which meant freebie food and drink (yay..and yum! ) Budget travellers, we are.

Meeting up with a fellow e-preneur

Ed made contact with Dave, a fellow domainer (owner/trader of domain names) and web site developer, amongst other things.

Dave and Jan made us welcome at their lovely home, currently being renovated and we met their 3 boys. Sasha was appreciative of some young company after being with adults all week, so a great time was had by all. The big boys caught up on the latest and greatest on the online scene and the girls got acquainted and got on like a house on fire. What a wonderful afternoon and some new friendships made.

Meeting up with a fellow player development manager – Jason who looks after 3 English rugby teams’ player development.

Off to Cambridge on the train today, having intermittent success with the 3 “dongle” (as Ed calls it) so online, offline, online…

Jason (an Aussie living in Cambridge with his family) was fantastic, he arrived to meet us at the Cambridge Youth Hostel, on his bike. It seems to be the most popular mode of transport in this University town. What a lovely place. We had coffee and talked “shop” a bit.

Jason took us along the river on a punt – fortunately for us, he has done this a dozen times and he is a great historian. So we got a great tour (and being a former front rower, he punted along expertly and didn’t land us in the drink!) Although, we did enjoy some refreshments at the Eagle pub afterwards.

Currently Reading:

“Observations of a Very Short Man”, Nigel Marsh (funny book, kinda personal development but author denies it… good to ponder, humorous, easy read.)

Lois is on the search for a new book. Feel free to let me know your best reads.

We have sold our Helena Valley home, taken Sasha out of school, sub-contracted work (Lois), got a laptop each, and have taken off overseas. A sea-container which holds all our worldly possessions (except photographs) is located on a friend’s property.

Our thoughts went (kinda) like this….. want to move house, grandparents in England are in their eighties, we want to see the world, can combine work and travel (Ed, and to some extent, Lois), Sasha is a self motivated learner…the only thing stopping us….is ourselves! (oh, and our little dog Sophie, who Mum and Dad and friends Carole and Rob are kindly taking care of) So….we are off on a 7 month adventure – Dubai – England – Scotland – Europe – Canada – Japan – KL, then home.

Join us as we travel, work (we intend to build websites, do some consulting work…get creative), study (Sasha) and meet up with friends, family and colleagues. We will share the trials and joys of being laptop nomads. Please feel free to comment on the blog – just click on comment and type / rant away!

Lotsa love,

Ed, Lois and Sasha