Torn Motivator Cuff

So its my last week in Scotland before I start traveling. I'm working until Friday, and I'm not going to lie, its a struggle. once you know that there is an end in sight, the motivation suddenly starts to lack. I am however a bit depressed to be leaving my friends in Scotland. I've meet some unreal people here. And so I'll probably be back here before long at all- like end of July. Set up shop and have a travel bas, plus I have to come back for a wedding in august. Anyways I bid adieu to dad this morning, so they are on there back to the home land. Really cool visit, still can't believe they tricked me like that. Super cool surprise. I got to have most my family here at one point or another and that's so cool and not a lot of people can say that. I really wish Freya and her Vos family could have come and seen the sights, it would have been a miracle, but if its any consolation, everyone who came to visit me pretty much just talked about you Carter and Jason- so way to steel my thunder halfway across the world! Just kidding, can't wait to see you guys either.

Anough of the barfy stuff I pretty much have to clean my flat like mad tonight and get ready for Alicia to pay me a visit!!!!!!

Rachel- df. 1.Old Balls: I may be haggard, but people still want to get down with me

Thursday was my birthday, and until Tuesday I didn't' really have any plans because both my flat mates had told me that they were out of town and I had no idea my devious father was going to be here. Anyways so I planned to have dinner that's about it.

During the day Dad Charlene Kevin and I went to the Castle and did I giant tour. It was good cause I have lived here for however long and hadn't seen it yet, so it was wonderful.

Well I did in fact still go out of dinner and it was immense! Best restaurant I've been to in my life I think I can safely say. Then there is George street in Edinburgh that has a bunch of nice spots to have cocktails at and I had never been. So took a stroll down there and stopped at all the nice ones for a drink. that was wonderful- at one pub got asked to be filmed for some promotional thing and was told they were only asking good looking people- so I'm pretty much a big deal. Anyways we were supposed to then meet up with my dad and friends at a pub near my house. By the time I got there I'm not going to lie I was a bit like Paula Abdul on last run of American Idol- good news though, so was everyone else. It got a bit rowdy and dad and Friends went home while the rest of us headed on to espionage and were ridiculous.

I had to work the next day and everything was fine until about 4pm- then I sobered up and was dying.

This is the only picture I took on my birthday

Surprise= My demise

wow wow we wo. What a week. So let me tell you a little story. I'm sure some of you reading this know how its going to end- to you I say good riddens ass hats- for those of you who do not, friendships still on.

So Allie's mom has been here in Edinburgh visiting and having a lovely time with us. Allie said one day hey how about we go to karaoke tonight. I said well I work till 7 but I'll meet up with you guys there. No problem she says, she'll give me the details later on that day. So after work I mosey on down to the Internet cafe where I have a good ol' time writing my last blog and chatting with Heath- she was giving me links to look at like we like sportz. Anyways, Britt gives me a call and says hey meet us at the bank at 9 for some okey dokey karaoke I was like for sure- this was at about 8:50, so I boot it to the nearest bus stop and arrive at the bank, wear Allie says she is waiting upstairs. I'm fairly tired from work just putting around and I can't find the stairs, just being an overall d-bag supreme. I finally find said stairs and trudge my way up them. When I reach the top I see Allie and her mom, AND MY FATHER sitting there with huge grins on their faces.

Now I'm not going to lie, I saw my dad and I broke down crying like when Gretzky left Edmonton. This ass hat thinks he can just fly across the world and not tell me- I was had; more then I ever have been in my life. One time my friends threw me a surprise party in high school- I'm not going to lie I knew it the whole time- this however, was like if you went to see Oprah being taped in Chicago, and when you get there it turns out its here favorite things special - you just had no idea it was coming and its the greatest ever.

Anyways I gave my dad a big hug, and Charlene, and Charlene's brother came along too, to which I gave a hug and said 'thanks for coming'. I was panicking sorry about that Kevin I was a bit delusional. Anyways craziest thing ever. And everyone decided to take pictures as I came up the stairs so those should be mighty attractive.....

Apparently everyone knew this was in the works- what the shit guys, you actually caused me to loose a good 3 to 5 years of my life as a result of extreme shock- you'll get yours.

Visitor Centre

Horrible horrible up keep of blog. I haven't been getting to the library now that I have to actually go to work as well as have a life that includes blogs. Really really tough, however I'm back and have made a list of what I have to update everyone on. Where to start?!

Well last time I left off Mom was still and town and we all went out with a bang. We went on this bus tour around the city and it was fairly dud status- except for the exemplary moment of road rage we witnessed. Situation went something like this. Male pedestrian- let call him hold his own Henry- jets across the street at an intersection slightly before a small van goes through said intersection. Apparently it was not Henry's turn to cross and the driver of the van- lets call him Fly off the handle Freddie- gets through the intersection and pulls over and runs over to Henry screaming. Now when Scottish people are angry I definitely cannot understand them but I did understand that Freddie's vocab mainly consisted of four letter words. Henry was like whats your problem pal. Freddie is within inches of Henry's face and raising his fists, Henry simply maintains eye contact and listens to it all. Freddie spits on Henry and walks away. Henry just walks on. WTF. Freddie is probably on parole.

The last true night in town was spent on a pub crawl on Rose St. Hit three fairly classic old man pubs on the strip. The third pub we hit would be the most memorable thanks to one John Burns- an old man in for his night cap, he simply sauntered up to our table and told us two doozeies of jokes and then explained more Edinburgh history then we had received on any of our tours that week. He was a hero. Then pretty much we all got bombed and danced in unison in a club. Had mom out til 3am and then I barfed.

Well heather and Kara were up to Edinburgh and there is where Heather celebrated here birthday, along with Clair and Chad who are also now visiting. Well me Heather, Kara, Chad and Clair went out to dinner at some random pub off George street, it was lovely, and then we pretty much went home- Heather is really rowdy in her old age. Britt and Allie were in Liverpool during this portion and missed out on the action of the birthday party, however they came back on we took the girls out for a bit of a night. Basically we went out and came across a gang of friends who were between 6'5" and6'9" each. It was some sort of requirement. I'm not sure who they were or where they were from, but I do know that they spent most of the night showing people how they could all touch the roof. Thrilling

Before Heather and Kara left we went on the whiskey experience and learned all about Scotch, saw the largest collection of scotch in the world and drank some.

Messages to pass on:
*I witnessed a bird murder in Hyde park in London that I forgot to mention- two birds fighting on the water, end up going under water, only one comes up- life altering horror.
*Claire and Chad found that going down to the local pub they found some wonderful friends, like a man named Richard who help us come third in a pub quiz (we were called the 'ogopogo's', then changes our names to 'dummies and that guy in the corner' and then 'dummies and Richard'- I suppose that I should mention that I actually spelt dummies wrong as well.....on purpose of course....)

Tourist Maximus

London got better.

Heather and Kara met up with us in London on our second day. And how good was it to see her!!!!!!!! I was so excited as soon as I picked her and Kara up from outside of Ripley's believe It or not I took a picture this is it:

As soon as she saw me, she asked me if I had brought an outlet adapter with her so she could use her straightener.

Then we took her and Kara out for fish and chips and Heather got wasted. Just kidding that's just a really bad picture.

We met up the next day and the five us us went on a tour of the London Tower. It was fantastic. So much history, and opportunity to look like a silly American tourist ass hat. We learned about beheading, and got a tour from a very comical beefeater. This is where we decided that we needed to come up with a tour guide ranking system. We haven't worked out the kinks yet, but I'll keep you posted. At one point of the tour we were to enter a church. The Beefeater warned us over and over of a small step to watch out for when entering saying about 3 people would still trip even though he warned. Allie and I joked quite loudly that we indeed would be two of those three. Well when he said step I thought he meant that there would be a small step at the beginning of a few more steps, not one small step into the threshold of the church, this left me looking for the wrong thing and therefor it is not my fault that I was one of only two people who did in fact trip on said step that day- I've brought dishonor to my family.

That evening the Canadian posse went to a miracle: aka Wicked the musical. If I had not explained in enough detail earlier how much I love musicals then you don't deserve to witness the beauty and magic that accompanies a West end production. I would sell my soul to sing like the wicked witch of the west. I guess it was pretty good.

The following day we said farewell to Johannes and hello to Madam Tussuad. Allie, Marg and I hit the wax museum and came out with some of the greatest pictures I've taken so far. I'll only give you a small sampling of the best and leave you with this story. We had been having a good time with wax David Beckham and Tom Cruise when we decided to venture into the High School musical room. To get there we had to go down a long hallway and then down two small steps. At the end of the hallway, before the steps was a wax Zack Effron. I looked at it and loudly proclaimed "is that supposed to be Zack Effron, its looks nothing like him what the hell were they thinking" the statue then started to fall, I thought I had offended the wax into becoming ashamed of itself and calling it quits, however I was freaking out thinking how much this destruction was going to cause me when BAM wax Zack Effron came to life and started laughing to which I screamed, jumped, and fell down the stairs. Classic. I mean can you honestly say you have never been that dumb American tourist yelling at incompetence about a wax figure that isn't actually wax. ya didn't think so.

Not again!

Pope- what a stich! Risky Business Finally Someone to level with!

London Baby

So we went to London. On a train, in case you were wondering. We stayed in a hostel in Piccadilly Circus, which was the greatest location ever fro a hostel because we could walk to a lot of major a attractions, and we were amongst all the theatre for the West end shows. Anyways our room was made of a pair of bunk beds, Allie and I occupying top bunk of both, and Margaret on bottom left; bottom right was empty...but not for long. Our room mate moved in while we were out for a walk, we had not met them but there stuff was there. He did not return that night to even sleep in his bed. The next day however, Allie and I left Margaret in the room for no more then five minutes, and returned to find out our new bed mate had come and gone. in this short span of Time good reliable Margy learned his name, age, where he was from, what he was doing here, and why he had not spent the night in our room with his stuff the night before. his name was Johaness, from Italy, in London for a min-break holiday. Allie and I referred to him as Jojo from then on out, and never once got as in depth as conversation with him as my mom- new bff obviously.



Anyways the first night we let no time lapse during our short stay and wen to see Grease. Well let me tell you it is the word. Immense. I'm sure some of you know this, but for those who don't; musicals give me a boner. I said it, I don't know what it is, they float my boat. Immediately after seeing them I delve into delusions of myself becoming a part of Broadway, even with my lack of vocal talents, zero dance training, and as much coordination as a deaf dumb and blind baby horse. Long story short Grease was incredible, most specifically one added scene where backup dancers come out of shower stalls in small towels holding large lufas in interesting places. My favorite character was backup dancer #2 a tall, blond flamboyant fellow who could high kick his ass off, Rizzo was a close 2nd.



The next days we went on another free guided tour. it was put on by the same company that we did the Edinburgh tour with, however there was less gun-hoed-ness by Margaret in becoming long lasting besties with this tour guide. We saw basically everything you would want to: Buckingham palace, changing of the guard, Parliament, big Ben, Westminster Abbey, the filming of a T-mobile commercial featuring Pink, Trafalgar Square, the London eye, Wellington Arch, red phone booths. We then went for a detailed tour of West Minster Abbey which was really really cool, and I highly recommend- unless you see dead people, cause then you'd be bombarded.

Tour's pet

The last week I started my holidays from work. I was saying I was on vacation, howeverI was informed by my coworkers that only Chevy Chase goes on vacation, everyone else is on holiday.

So with these holiday hours I've been taking Margaret out to explore Edinburgh. We took a wonderful walking tour, that was guided by a girl from Calgary. I'm not going to lie to you, it kind of chaps my ass when I'm given a guided tour of a city by someone not from taht city. I'd like things to be authentic, and how can that get accomplished by some ass hat wearing Calgary flames earings. Well let me tell you, Marg diod not let that stop her; she was BFF with the tour guide before you could say 'over-eager-tour-taker-with-too-many-questions'. She was hanging on to ever word, much to the tour guides delight I might add. She was not inhibbiting to anyone elses experince however, just keen on making that tour worth every penny...oh wait it was free. A gentelman, who I've since nicknamed Anothony Gigglebottoms (tony G for short), did encrouch on our tour, laughing bosterously whenvere possible- appropriate or not. This would have been okay, but Tony G was also wearing a large plaid golfing hat he had obviously picked up from a souvenier shops and "was going to make happen" back home. Tony G's hand also flew up at any possible questioning period and left us with odd comments about wars and whiskey... awkward Tony G, awkward.



After that lovely endevor Ali, Margy and I went down to Glasgow for a day and got on a bus tour. We got some great pics and learned quite a lot about the city, but most of all we learned about relgion thanks to St. Mugo. I was drawn to a stop on the tour called St. Mungo's cathedral; not because of its religious of historical importance, but becasue the name sounded extra funny, and could almost be rhymed with bung-hole. Well it turned out there was a museum of religion at St Mungo's cathedral and we jsut went on a learning spree. All religions were highlighted however it was this case that drew my attention the most: That would be a beard, from a persons face, then displayed here in this case, a human beard. Mind boggeling.


The next night we went to a quiz night. Basically everyone in the pub gets on a team, there are numerous questions answered, every team writed down their answer and teh team with the most answers right wins a 50 pound bar tab or soemthing along those lines (however when I explain this to Allie she thoguht I said 50 pound ham, and was disapointed when she foujnd out it was liquor, not pork). Anways me Allie, and Britt took my mom to one and we had a pretty good showing, however we did not win and there was no free alcohol, or pork products, for us that night.

Creep-fest 2009

Alright so tonnes to catch up on because I have really fell behind on blogging again. Well as everyone saw from the guest post my mom is now in town with me and letting no time be wasted. Day one included karaoke. It was good, none of us participated but there was a fantastic Elvis impersonator man and a handicapped chap who insisted I buy a drink for Britt and did a fabulous rendition of a Celine Dion song before he caught the last bus home.

Day two: aka D day- Margaret lost her wallet in the library. Short and simple it was mayhem and we all lived off my dime for the past tow weeks. Marg doesn't like to talk about it so I'll leave it at that.

The next few days we relaxed, and took the lovely Lady out to the pub we (really just Britt) work at as well as some pubs we like to go to. Here my mother got a really good taste of what Scotland is about: Drunk creepy men. We stood in a spot at one pub that we noticed gets a high volume of creeper traffic just so she could get the full effect. And the scary McCreepers did not fail us. The first sneak attack came from a couple of well dressed Italian men. How did I know they were Italian you ask? Well one of them whispered "do you know what Bella" means in my ear. Obviously I was captured by this suave man and his sweet nothings.... if sweet nothings cause reactions like vomit appearing in my mouth. Next three guys came up to talk to us, an Irish guy who seemed to have a liking for Britt, a Scottish guy who was kind of navigating his friends around, and a bald Turkish man. Again, how did I know he was Turkish you ask? Well his Scottish friend yelled out for us to meet his giant Turkish friend at any moment possible. Well this Turkish friend, I'll call him Dr. Baldy, seemed to take a liking to me and bought me a drink. Mom was quite wow'd with my skills however her favorite skill of mine was how I got rid of these Creepo-holics. Dr. Baldy put his large leather coat around my shoulders, with no provocation I may add. And how did I react to this- by rifling through his pockets, finding his wallet, and searching it for anything of value. I then pulled out the picture of Mrs. Dr. Baldy he had beside his drivers license and comment on her beauty. His Scottish and Irish friends erupted in laughter and pointing, as did I, and he was never to be seen again. Although you may think this was the greatest Creep-tastic story of the night, you would be wrong. That honour goes to a man who waltz (stumbled) out of the men's washroom, gave Margaret one look, pointed, and made a bee line for this lucky lady. He got close enough for me to go oh mom I think he likes you. Mom said "oh you are drunk" to him and he replied with this gold bullion of a response. And I quote "I may be drunk, but I am still wanting"

I'll leave you with that.