Holidays

Well, I know it's been a couple of weeks since we last wrote anything on the blog but it's been a busy time! This week however we're on our hols and so hopefully we'll be able to get a few more notes onto the blog as well as catch up on in-between events!
So where are we? Currently we're in a lovely village in Scotland called Ballater - it's north of Perth and east of Aberdeen. Apparently it's where the queenie comes to church when she's at Balmoral (which is only round the corner). We're staying in a lovely little cottage right in the centre of the village which we managed to find on 'Cottages4you'. The basic search criteria were (1) a real fire (2) a pub nearby and that's exactly what we have got. Another advantage was that we could use Dan's Mum and Dad's place in Errol as a jumping off point - we did look at places which were much further west, but this seemed to suit us fine. 2 hours drive from Errol - it's only 70 miles!!! Wiggly roads and lovely views. We are actually in the Cairngorms National Park so great views wherever you look!
After leaving work on Friday night we drove up to Errol arriving just before midnight - we spent the morning with Conrad & Michele, and then at about 2pm on Saturday we headed on up here. The lady who owns the cottage was just leaving after having made sure we had loads of logs for the fire, and so we settled in to 'The Stables'. A quick unloading of possessions was followed by a run around the town to get some provisions. With this place being so close to Balmoral, quite a few of the shops bear the royal crest saying that they are providers of their produce to HRH Prince of Wales or Queenie herself. The crest things they have over their shops are quite impressive - about 3 foot high and all decorated in bright colours! I'll attach a picture at some point. So the town has a rather swanky old fashioned butcher from whom we purchased some lovely sausages & eggs. Then we were going to go to the equally swanky deli, but stumbled upon the COOP which we raided with a vengeance for goodies.
So that was us for the night - we got the wine open, and the fire lit - I roasted the sausages & we chopped them up and ate them like party food dipped in tomato sauce, alongside some potato wedgies I made! A perfect evening.