Update on Sarah

Good morning to all! Well not too much is new with me, hence the lack of recent blog posts, but some of you have been asking for some updates, so here goes! I'm still at my job with the financial investments company working as a receptionist, but I am currently looking for another job. The job itself is fine, it just doesn't pay nearly enough for us to live on....barely covers our expenses in fact, so I'm still searching. I have had a couple of bites, so I have some interviews this week. We'll see how they go! The problem is that Europe, as you know, is in a credit crunch right now because of the fragile economy, and lots of people are getting laid off from their higher level jobs, which means they are taking the lower level jobs, like receptionist positions. So those jobs are few and far between.

Rob and I are finding Edinburgh to be an extremely expensive place to live. It's a little disappointing because although everything is more expensive, we don't get better value for our money...we actually get less. It would be fine if we could say that we're spending the majority of our money on travel, but we're unfortunately not able to do that....we're spending it on trying to live over here. Hopefully my new job, when I get it, will help.

Due to the fact that the city is so expensive (and our flights home look like they're going to cost us about $4,000), we are realizing that we probably won't be able to do much of the type of travelling that we want to do, which means that we'll, in all likelyhood, be home sooner than we had expected. Rob is done school early June, so we figure we'll have about two weeks to travel, and be home around the 26th of June. There isn't much we can do, so we'll do our best to see 3 countries of our choice ( not sure which ones those will be yet though).

As for travelling, well we haven't done much at all lately, due to the $ situation. We're hoping to check out Edinburgh Castle soon, but we don't know when that'll be yet. As for Christmas, we know that we'll be heading down to England to stay with Pat and Mike's close friends (and ours too!) Ian and Maria. They are kind enough to have invited us to stay with them over the holidays, so we'll go do that.

The leaves are beginning to change here and the weather is starting to get cooler, as we're sure it is doing at home. It gets down to about 7-8 degrees at night and stays constant at about 13-15 degrees during the day. So we're also feeling the crisp fall weather. Apparently Scotland, or this part of it at least, doesn't get much snow....so we're assuming the weather during the winter will be much like that of Hamilton....cold and dreary (but not as cold of course).

The Scots don't celebrate Thanksgiving....so we're missing out on that one.....but I'm going to be sure to get a turkey and make the traditional dinner for Rob and I. We couldn't miss out on that great dinner! However, the Scots do celebrate Hallowe'en....so that's great news!:)

That's about it that's new with us....not too exciting. But we've love to hear what's new with all of you!!! Send us an email at camerosm@hotmail.com to let us know what you're up to!

Lots of love,

Sarah

P.S. I've got some updated pictures of Edinburgh, so I'll make sure to post them as soon as I can. Look for some of them down the side column of our blog. Ciao for now!

Congrats to Rob and Kate on Moving into Your New Home!!!

We'd also like to congratulate two of our best friends, Rob and Kate Ballantyne, for finally moving into their new home! It is so exciting getting a new place, and especially a bigger one:) We're sorry we couldn't be there to help you move (well sort of:) We can't wait to see your new pad....make sure to send us pictures!!

We love you guys,

Rob and Sarah xoxo

CONGRATULATIONS NICK AND ABBY!!!!!!!

Congratulations are in order for two of our best friends, Nick and Abby, on their engagement!!!!! We are so happy for you guys, and have always known that you are perfect for each other. We are sorry that we couldn't be there to celebrate your news with you, but we're partying over here for you! We love you guys and are so happy that you are finally getting married:) Keep us updated on all of the plans.

Also, congratulations on running and finishing so well in your half-marathon. You guys trained so hard and all your work paid off- we're so proud of you!!!! This is a great new beginning for you both, so enjoy it to the fullest:)

Lots of love,

Rob and Sarah xoxo

School Upate

Hey Everyone,

So this past week I finished what is called an 'observation week' where you go to the school that your first placement will be in and you observe how things work and get to know the teachers there. It was quite an eye opener. I had no idea that children here go to high school two years earlier than they do in Ontario, so when I went into my first class on Monday I couldn't believe how young the, what I thought were grade nines, looked. Needless to say because of their age their athletic abilities are quite limited. For example, I taught a basketball lesson on Friday and the children's ability in what they call S1 (I think its equivalent to grade 7) is equal to the skill level of about grade 4 back home (at least when I went through elementary school).

The other eye opener is the sports that they teach over here. For my placement I have to teach swimming, gymnastics, basketball, TABLE TENNIS, football(aka soccer), rugby and fitness. So things could get interesting especially when I am teaching swimming to 20 pupils in a pool so small they call it 'the puddle'. The other interesting thing will be keeping the pupils interested during a 2 hour lesson on Table Tennis (aka Ping Pong, you're not allowed to call it that here!).

Anyway I have another 4 weeks in class and then I start my placement where I will be teaching all those subjects. Until then as Hal Johnson and Joanne McLeod would say "keep fit and have fun!"

Peace Out,

Rob

Wedding Pictures!!!!!

Hello All!

There are finally some wedding pictures that you can check out online. Mom's friend Danielle has taken some amazing pictures and forwarded them on so Alexander posted them online. She took tons and tons so be prepared:) If you'd like to check them out, just send us an email and we'll send you the email and password to access. There are four pages of them....and they all look great. THANK YOU DANIE!!!! The pictures from our photographer haven't come in yet, but if they're half as good as these ones, we'll be extremely happy.

For those of you that are reading this.....the thank you notes are all written, we're just waiting on some pictures from photographer so that we can include them for you and then send them out. I'm hoping this happens a.s.a.p!

We miss you all....and it has been great SKYPEing with our friends! Hopefully we can chat to some of the rest of you too!

Lots of love,

Rob and Sarah

The Highland Games (and the Queen!)

Well we've finally got to this posting (or Sarah has:) , sorry for the delay. It seems that when you have a job, time flies. I get home, we have dinner, we do some laundry, and then we go to sleep....so I rarely have time to be on the computer, which makes our blog postings a little late.

But here is our update on our trip to the Braemar Gathering (Highland Games) in the Highlands!

We left bright and early on Saturday morning at 8am on a bus load of tourists (from all over) for our 3 hour ride up to the games. Rob would agree with me in that this trip was by far the best from what we've done so far. The ride up can be described as amazing!!!!!!! The scenery was out of this world. The images of the Highlands that I had had before coming to Scotland didn't really do the real thing justice. As hopefully you'll be able to gather from our photographs, the area we travelled through (it was called Glenshee....because it apparently the valley of the fairies and banshees) was mountainous and had tons of vallies. From a distance, the mountains look like they're covered with this brown brush, but up close, we were able to see that it was heather (the purple flower that grows in abundance here). Glenshee is basically a deserted area, which is most likely due to the wildness of it all! We managed to take some video clips as well with our camera, but they don't do it justice either. Hopefully I'll be able to post the clips on the blog. We're just trying to edit them, so bare with us.

We arrived in the cute little picturesque village of Braemar, and pulled into the coach park. Apparently the reason why everything is so lush in the area is because when it decomposes it turns into peat...which is soft and mushy. I'm telling you this because the coach park was made of peat. You can imagine then the trouble we had parking:) The bus was sliding all over the place and the driver had a heck of a time trying to squeeze the bus into a tiny area as directed by the angry little Scotsman parking attendant. However, we finally managed to park safely and disembarked, donned our rain jackets (and we should have had rubber boots too!) and headed off to the games. We were told as we were leaving the bus that the Royal Family (the Queen and whoever else decided to come with her) were expected to arrive at 3pm and leave at 4pm if we wanted to see her. I was quite excited.....Rob not so much:)

We paid our £8 each to get into the games and wandered around a bit. There was tons of available stadium seating, but to sit there you had to pay £14 each for a seat! So we decided that wasn't worth it, so we took our blanket and sat on the mounds to watch. The events took place in a central arena, and there were many events going on at the same time. We were able to see tug of war (which all army/navy crews competed in), and relay and track races. One particular race, over 30 members (of all ages between 20-60) raced up the closest mountain!!!!!! and back down to the start. The winner was able to make it up and back in a shocking 24 minutes.....and this mountain was not small. It was amazing to see these older men with white hair come running through the finish line with mud all up their legs and racing the younger men....and beating some of them!

Another event was the hammer throw (both heavy and light). This was pretty neat....the men have huge spikes on the front of their shoes that they dig into the ground to get stabilized....then they spin the hammer around their body about three or four times and then release it into the air and see how far it goes. The movements when they spin are pretty crazy. It is something to see that's for sure!

There was also some highland dancing to see in which young girls, and the odd boy, wearing kilts and checkered socks (although I'm sure they have a fancy name for them) dance on their tip toes. They wear these little soft shoes (sort of like ballerina slippers) and they hop and jump around on their toes. This requires incredible balance and it's neat to watch.....for about 5 minutes:)

The coolest thing we saw all day though was the caber tossing. They didn't bring this out until about 10 minutes before the Queen arrived....save the best for last! A caber is this giant pole (looks like a telephone pole) that the men are required to pick up at the bottom (so that it is standing straight into the air)....then they run with it for about 10 paces and hurl it in to the air with the aim of getting it to rotate top over bottom once and land at a 12 o'clock position. This requires an incredible feat of strenght and only a handful of men were able to rotate the caber....and even fewer (about 1-2) who were able to actually have it land at 12 o'clock. Hopefully you can see from the pictures how hard it must have been for these men.....the ladies will remember this from the movie Made of Honour that we all saw together.

Finally, at about 5 after 3, the Royal Family arrived. We could tell they were coming because all of a sudden, at the entrance to the games, a firing squad (I'm sure mostly for show) lined up on either side of the gates at attention. Then through the gates came the Rolls Royce with the Windsor flag on it's front, followed by a Land Rover....typical royal vehicle:) The cars drove around the stadium and stopped right in front of the Royal Pavillion. Out of the Rolls hopped (well not really:) HRH the Queen, followed by her husband Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh and their son, HRH Prince Charles. We saw them from 20 feet away, as we had made sure to get a prime spot near the Pavillion. She waved her little wave and then sat in the pavillion for exactly one hour....then left in her car led out by a humungous bag-piper band. Rob and I got a place on the roadside too so we could see her as she drove out...this time we were within 5 ft. as their car drove by. All three members of the royal family are looking rather old.....but it was still pretty cool to see them!

That marked the end of the Games, and so we hopped in our tour bus and headed home, but first via a little picturesque town called Pitlochry. It was a former spa town used by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. It would have been nice to stay longer, but we only had time for a steak dinner. (2 dinners and a bottle of wine for £20!). We then boarded the bus and arrived back in Edinburgh at 8:30pm. A long day, but worth it!

On Sunday we walked around Edinburgh, (in the rain of course) and took some pictures of the city. I'll post them as soon as I can....however for those of you who know Edinburgh, the pictures are mostly from Princes St...and not the Royal Mile (which I think is the nicest spot in Edinburgh and the oldest!). We'll get up there this weekend, as we plan on staying in town and relaxing for once.

We miss all of you....keep us updated!

Love,

Sarah & Rob

P.S. And Dad, no we haven't tried any haggis yet......I'm afraid to...yuck....but Rob says he's going to give it a go sometime. I'll let you know what he thinks of it:) And thank you for the recipes! Can't wait to try the last one....sounds great:)

Quick Update

Hello All!

Thank you for your continued posts! We delight in reading them. As you know, this past weekend we went to the Highland Games! What a blast that was....and we saw HRH the Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh and HRH Prince Charles! We were within 20 feet of them all.....was pretty cool. We'll be making a more complete post very soon with pictures, so just bear with us!

Rob's school is going well, although he hates the lectures. Unlike my program at Brock, Rob's lectures are with at least 200 other students (not small groups of 30) and this makes the lectures very formal and very dry. It's too bad, because teacher's college should really be about personalizing the information...not just mass marketing it!

But he is enjoying the practical part of it....last week he learned about how to teach gymnastics:) Although all of those rolls and tumbles he had to do (because before we can teach we have to do!) made his head pretty sore. The concussion that he received (not like a present:) in February is still causing him some problems and so he has decided to not play rugby at the moment. The most important thing is that he gets healthy....then rugby can come next....he'll try again in a few months time. But for now, he's taken up swimming, which he seems to enjoy.

As for me, I'm still at my job! As for the teaching market, that is completely closed to me now, as I was informed by the General Teaching Council (the governing body for teachers) that I do not meet the qualifications for either a primary or intermediate school teacher (as my qualifications are junior/intermediate). Apparently the Scottish system does not have an age bracket entitled junior/intermediate. I am not that upset about it though. Although it would have been nice to teach, it is also nice to do something other than the school I have been doing for the past million years. However, as Gina suggested, I will try to keep my hand in the system for resume purposes (and experience too!).

I'll do my best to get on the internet tonight and post the Highland Games blog. Also, for those of you that don't know, Rob and I have just signed up for SKYPE, and we have a webcam....it is free for us to talk to any SKYPE users (and free for them too!) and you can see us via webcam. Kirsten and I chatted on it a couple of days ago. If you sign up for SKYPE (that's free too!) and then search for rob.and.sarah.ashwood, you'll find us, then add us as contacts, and you'll be able to call us over the internet. The best time to catch us is between 7-10pm (our time) so 2-5 (your time). If you can't make it on till later, just email us and we'll try to set up a time to be on the net. No problemo! It really is great to chat face to face. Dad I've tried you a couple of times but you never seem to be there....I'll try you again soon!

Lots of love,

Sarah

This Weekend

This weekend Sarah and I are off to the Braemar Gathering for the last Highland Games (and most popular because the royal family is often in attendance) of the season. We'll be there all day Saturday and then coming back to relax on Sunday. We'll make sure to keep you updated though! If you want to know a bit about the games, click on this site (which is the official site of the Braemar Gathering) or this site (which tells you a little about the events in particular) Write to you soon!

Rob

Dundee Trip

Well, back from another adventure! As you may have gathered from our last post, we went to Dundee yesterday, which is about two hours north of here. We hopped on the bus at 8:30 am and it took us to 11 am to get to Glamis Castle, which is just outside of Dundee. It was a fun trip...but guess what? It rained all day!!!!

As mentioned in the previous blog post, Glamis Castle is the current (and has been for the past 600 years) of the Bowes Lyon family (the Lord and Ladies of Strathmore). The late Queen mother was Elizabeth Bowes Lyon before she became the Duchess of York, and then Queen. It was pretty neat going to this castle because not only were we able to see a really great place, but we learned a bit about the history of the current Royal Family....which we didn't know much about before. Apparently, Lady Elizabeth Bowes Lyon met the Duke of York (he was not yet King), his brother was king at the time. He was King Edward VIII, and he stepped down because he married a commoner. This left the throne to his brother, the Duke of York, who became King George VI, and made the Duchess of York his Queen Consort. They took on the family name of Windsor, because the King quite enjoyed his time at Windsor Castle. They had two children together, Elizabeth and Margaret, and when King George VI died, Elizabeth (as the oldest) ascended the throne as Queen, and making her mother, the Queen Mother. So that's a little bit of history for you!

Anyways, back to the Castle....it has been in the Bowes Lyon family since 1372 when it was gifted to Sir John Lyon by King Robert II. The castle still has parts that are retained in their original condition, as you will see, with their stone walls, and not the plaster and painted ones that followed in later centuries. The Castle is still a family home to the Earl and Lady of Strathmore and their son (which you may see from the signs that were posted around certain parts of the property asking visitors to not enter so that the family's privacy may be respected. It amazed us that people still live in this beautiful place! However we're sure, although we weren't able to see them, that their apartments are quite modern.

We entered the Castle through a side door and quickly caught up with a tour that started in the beautiful Renaissance style dining room. It is beautifully decorated and has a huge table that can seat up to 40 people comfortably. The pictures you see are unfortunately not actually real live photos of the castle, as we were unable to take pictures inside to preserve its contents, but we did buy a guide book, and we took pictures of it! However the pictures you will see of the outside are real from our camera.

Then we went from the dining room into the Crypt, which was essentially where the servants would eat (and is not decorated this way now), and not an actual crypt where bodies are buried. (although the walls are three meters thick!) As you can hopefully see from the picture, the crypt is styled in the Middle Ages as opposed to the Victorian era dining room. We thought this room was super cool!

We then moved into the Drawing Room which is plastered and painted a pale pink. It has a huge fireplace and lots of paintings and is fairly typical sitting room for a Castle. The Castle also has its own private chapel, which is very nicely decorated, and apparently is still used by the family today. It also houses a ghost, Lady Douglas, who was killed long ago. But apparently she is a happy ghost...if there is such a thing!

The Billiard Room was next, which has a huge pool table and a grand piano which the Queen Mother used to play. This room was apparently used as a hospital room during the Second World War, for soldiers who were housed at Glamis.

Next was the Queen mother's apartments, which were decorated and made for her by her mother as a wedding present. In this rooms, Elizabeth and Margaret played when they were little...Margaret was actually born in the Castle, and was the first royal baby to be born in Scotland for over 300 years.

Finally we went into Duncan's Hall, which housed the arms of the soldiers (weaponry, not the actual appendages:) It is also thought that this is the scene of the crime in which MacBeth kills King Duncan. This hall also holds a stuffed Canadian Bear, which was the pet of the family, and who died, unfortunately by playing one day with one of the Highland Cattle (or Hairy Coos as the Scottish call them). As you can see, they have deadly horns, so the poor bear didn't fare very well.

The Castle was pretty cool, but we didn't get to see very much of it, because it is still in use. But we were able to explore the majority of the grounds.....which are amazing! The Castle is surrounded by many acres of fields (which are still used to grow hay) and grazing fields, for the Hairy Coos, and forest and gardens. The Italian garden is a beautiful enclosed area, with stunning flowers and little archways made out of hedges. Nearby is the Princess Margaret memorial, which commemorates her life and death. A little further away is the Pet cemetery in which you can see the pets of the Queen Mother and her daughters. Finally there is the walled garden, which is not much to see now, but used to be the vegetable and fruit garden that provided for the Castle's inhabitants.

All in all Glamis Castle is worth the trip! The trip up to it was beautiful as well with rolling hills and greenery...oh and of course sheep and hairy coos!

We also saw the HMS Unicorn....the oldest, still well preserved British battleship. To be honest, it was a little boring. It would have been a lot cooler if it had been fully rigged, but once we were inside, we found out that it had never been rigged, and had never seen battle, as it was built in an era in which the Navy was not in dire need of Battleships. But it was cool to see how they might have looked. Cramped quarters that's for sure!

Well, now that was long-winded. It's so hard to explain what it's like to you, so we try to be specific.....we want you to feel as if you were all there with us! Hope we gave you a taste!

On another note, today was Sarah's first day of work, and it went really well. Boring, but well. The company that I work for (I'll write as me now) is pretty prestigious....the building is gorgeous. My job is to listen for the telephone from the reception desk downstairs (I'm on the fourth floor), and they will tell me that so and so has arrived and is coming up for the meeting in such and such a room....and I have to meet this person (s) at the elevator, greet them, and take them to their room for the meeting. Then I go and call the host and tell them that their guest has arrived for their meeting. Then I go back to my desk and search BBC.co.uk until the next call. (That is the only web page I'm authorized to look at:) So needless to say, I know what is going on in the world now! But apparently they liked me and still want me back tomorrow, so that's a good thing!

Okay back to Rob/Sarah mode.......we'll continue to keep you updated on our travels....no plans this weekend yet....maybe we'll try take some pictures of Edinburgh for you as the festival officially ended yesterday! Yay! Keep well...we love you! And Ciao for now! (P.S. Below are pictures of the map that we got for the grounds, just so you can have a sense as to the size and location of the estate.)

Lots of love,

Rob and Sarah