A wintery festive season

So a couple of days of work after getting back from the sunshine and heat of Egypt, and it was Christmas Eve. We headed out to Heathrow to pick up a rental car and whip out along the motorway and wind our way through country lanes to Cheddar. You might wonder to yourself, and rightly so too, where the f*ck is Cheddar? Cheddar is in Somerset, southwest of London, about 30 minutes drive from Bath. Cheddar, obviously when you think about it and read the tourist pamphlet on the town, invented cheddar cheese. About 300 years back in the famous Cheddar gorge caves (complete with stalagmites and stalactites!) some milk maid put a pail of milk in the cave and it solidified into cheese (the legend goes something like that!) Wikipedia it. It was a two and a half hour drive out of London and our zippy wee car with 6(!) gears and Ryan behind the wheel did it in no time! Once we got off the motorway we wound our way through the craziest lanes and narrow streets in tiny villages that sprung up every couple of miles! Very Postman Pan. When we arrived at our cottage and opened the door we were blown away. Inside the lamps were on low, and a Christmas tree all decorated and light up with presents underneath greeted us, the table was set all fancy like, complete with wine glasses, serviettes, candles and a flower arrangement. There was a fire, albeit with fake gas flames and the cottage was gorgeous! So the hacksaw Ryan had bought with him to hack down a tree in the middle of nowhere to be our Christmas tree was definitely not needed! So we settled in, cooked some dinner and called family back home to wish them a Merry Christmas. On Christmas, we spoke to some more family, and set about whipping ourselves up a delicious roast dinner, appreciated all the more as it was far closer to 3 degrees than 23 degrees! We gorged ourselves on a piece of roast NZ lamb slathered in spices, garlic, onion and olive oil Jamie Oliver style, sweet potato, normal potato, carrots, corn, roast parsnip and gravy, followed by ambrosia, mini éclairs and Christmas pudding. Needless to say it was one of those standard Christmas dinners where you’re not very hungry for dinner! We opened our presents to reveal our goodies, including more notably, some warm socks from me mum and a series of Outrageous Fortune (thanks mum!) and some mo-mite from Errol and Alana (thanks guys!), and then snuggled up in front of the fire and watched some Flight of the Concords and started watching the first season of Outrageous Fortune, as we’d never really gotten into it back home. It is now our favourite, favourite program and the best drama NZ has produced in...ever! Pah Shortland Street, what street? On Boxing Day we headed out into the bright sunshine and bitter cold (like 0 degrees bitter!) in Bath to look around its World Heritage town centre, taking in all the famous bits, the Bath Abbey, the roman weir, the crescents, both Royal and Circus, a piece of medieval wall and more. Bath is beautiful, would be a neat place to live if we ever get sick of London! The following day we tiki-toured through the countryside to Stonehenge. Again it was bitter cold but we managed to grimace our way through the obligatory photo shots, largely free of busloads of tourists (an upshot of the cold weather!) and even listen to some of our audio guide about the ‘henge of stone. We then did a wind whirl stop in Salisbury, making time to see the infamous Cathedral. After spending another night snuggled up in front of the fire watching more of the West’s (and if you don’t know who they are, then I suggest you get thee self quick smart down to a video store and hire Outrageous Fortune) we packed up a lot less food and headed back to London, via a stop off in Bath to go to its namesake; the Roman Baths. Which was a surprisingly large complex of baths, and very impressive! After a night back in our own bed, we jetted off to the Dunedin of the north, a little slice of home; Edinburgh. We arrived and instantly struck the friendliness that the Scots are renowned for. Checked into our hotel in the suburb of Leith and walked into town and up George Street into a carnival atmosphere and had our first glances of the magnificent castle, perched above the town’s main street. Soaked up the atmosphere and explored the royal mile. Wandered around part of Arthur’s Seat, until I threw in the towel in footwear totally unsuited for a spontaneous stroll up a mountain path! Names on the street map, like Heriot Row, Queen Street, Princes St, suburb names like Portobello, Leith, etc made for a strange experience. Edinburgh is like Dunedin but with far better history and architecture. Can’t vouch for any nearby beaches, but if it has any, then it may have Dunedin beat… The next day we spent hours wandering through the castle, seeing the Scottish crown jewels, and then down the Royal Mile and into Holyroodhouse, the Queen’s official residence in Scotland and the home of Mary Queen of Scots.

New Year’s Eve dawned grey and foggy. We walked into town (like Dunedin you can walk anywhere) and up Carlton Hill to wander round the monuments up there, including the Nelson monument and the National monument, which bizarrely is built in a greek style and never been finished, and no one knows why! After a (I ashamed to admit it!) nana nap, we put on as many layers as humanly possible and headed back into town via a kebab shop (I know, I know, the kebab should have come at the end of the night!). We headed along the main street and took up a good posie on the pavement directly in front of the Groove Armada stage, which was down in the gardens. We boogied the night away to the warm up bands, and shortly before midnight Groove Armada come on and they were pretty wicked. Following a countdown, Edinburgh put on a fantastic fireworks display from the castle and a laser show from Groove Armada who then pumped out some old favs, including By the River, I See You Baby...Shaking that Ass, My Friend etc. New Year's Day we then wandered into town and Arthur’s Seat, hiking to the top. It was still foggy, and the fog hadn’t really cleared all that much when we got to the top, so the views were pretty non-descript. After hiking back down we explored Grassmarket and then dragged Ryan (but there was no kicking and screaming!) around Charlotte Square, part of the master-planned ‘New’ Town (new being about 300years old). We also spent some (more!) time cosied up cafes with hot drinks warming our chilled innards!

On our last day we headed down to the harbour, which (spooky parallel to Mayor Chin’s fabulous plans for opening up Dunedin’s waterfront) is undergoing regeneration. We killed most of a rainy day in the big new mall on the waterfront, before heading back through the streets, via the statue of Robbie Burns (who it turns out, and I must admit I didn’t know, penned Auld Lang Syne) to our hotel to get our gear and fly back down to London-town. We loved Edinburgh and Hogmanay and if only I could get a job there in planning, then we’d probably look to move there for our last 9 months or so. But we’ll see. And that took us into 2009! Can’t believe that we’ve been here 7 months! Only 17 to go. Make that 16, as its now the end of Jan!