Scotland = Done.

Diana and I spent the start of the week touring around the Highlands and Isle of Skye with Haggis Tours. It was an awesome time (details of what we did are below). I should have pics up in the next few days. We have spent the afternoon packing up my room and tonight we are going to dinner with my flatmates before catching the night bus to London. It leaves at 10:30pm and arrives in London at 7:30am - it's going to be a long night. We plan on spending about a week at Tyler's place while we tour the city, before heading to Oslo.

Lots of pictures to come and hopefully some decent stories along the way as well.

Highlands and Isle of Skye Tour

Day One

Edinburgh to Loch Ness

* Leave Edinburgh towards Stirling passing by Linlithgow Palace- birthplace of Mary Queen of Scots
* Stirling battlefields- where Wallace and Bruce bravely fought for Scotland’s freedom!
* Through the Trossachs- Rob Roy MacGregor country
* Rannoch Moor- the largest expanse of uninhabited wilderness in Europe!
* Glencoe- site of the infamous bloody massacre in the winter of 1692
* Great Glen- Lochs Linnhe, Lochy, Oich, and.. Ness!
* Fort William and Ben Nevis- the highest mountain in the UK
* Fort Augustus & Morag’s (Nessie’s sister’s) Lodge

Day Two

Skye day-tour

* Loch Garry- affectionately known as “Scotland’s Loch”, and on to ‘The Road To The Isles’
* Glen Shiel & the Five Sisters of Kintail- they weren’t always there you know!
* Eilean Donan Castle- used in the film ‘Highlander’
* Over the sea to Skye!
* Broadford and ‘Beinn na Caillich’- Hill of the Old Woman, grave of Saucy Mary
* Sligachan Glen and a Highland faerie story, and views of Glamaig - hill race run each year
* Portree and magnificent Trotternish- ‘nish’ being the Norse word for peninsula.
* Back over the Skye Bridge to Fort Augustus

Day Three

Return to Edinburgh

* Drive the full length of mysterious Loch Ness, past ruined Urquhart Castle
* Inverness- meaning ‘At the mouth of the River Ness’
* Culloden Moor- where Bonnie Prince Charlie led the Highlanders in the doomed final Jacobite uprising, and changed Scotland forever
* Clava Cairns - prehistoric burial chambers
* Through the Cairngorms National Park to Kingussie for lunch
* Drumochter Pass- the highest road in Britain
* Dunkeld- shimmering River Tay and the ruined Cathedral. Back to the Lowlands!
* Past Perth- an ancient capital of our nation
* Forth Road / Rail Bridges

On to the next round of life.

25 months have passed since finishing University and I have now come to the end of my 3rd job. I've had quite a varied experience so far; lab tech at Cellfor, product management/health & safety work and product testing at Guinness, and finally accounts receivable/invoicing admin work and student liaison with the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland. Not quite sure where I am going to end up next, but I've definitely learned a lot about what I don't want to do in the future. Don't get me wrong, I have actually really enjoyed all the jobs that I have had the past couple of years, but there are a few points from each that make me glad I have moved on;
A) I am a nerd at heart and love science, but I don't want to be a lab monkey working in isolation.
B) Health & Safety policy has got to be the most boring, tedious and mind-numbing topic to deal with; especially the tracking and reporting of compliance with it.
C) Tracking other peoples payments and expenses will never work out as simply as it should, and finding out what has/should have been paid will invariably lead to a dead-end. This is not how I want to spend the majority of days.

Luckily the people that I have worked with in all three jobs have been nothing short of amazing and have not faded into my past, never to be heard of again. I am quickly reminded of this as I count the hours until Diana (a former co-worker at Cellfor) arrives to start our trip around the UK and Scandinavia. It's a bit sad to be moving on, but it is great to know that I have still got a friendly face or two to meet wherever I end up.

The final count down has begun - 10 days of work left...

It appears as though I have neglected posting anything on here the past while, so here is the latest news from Edinburgh.

Like I mentioned in my last post, Jack Law was out to visit a couple weeks ago for a few days. We didn't accomplish all that much aside from a couple nights at the pub and a magnificent, white-trash style dinner of KFC, but I couldn't have wished for much more.

I had a couple more visitors this past weekend as well. Susan and Joan were over from Dublin for a couple of days after finishing their exams for the year. They only had a couple of days before they had to start their next rotation in the hospital (they are med students), so it was a quick visit. I took Friday off and we toured around the city, then we went out for an amazing dinner at Namaste - an Indian/Nepalese place a couple blocks from my flat. Nepal had just been declared a Republic, abolishing Royal rule, so it was fairly fitting to check it out. As if we all hadn't been to enough of them when we lived in Dublin, we went out to an Irish bar that night and saw some of Edinburgh's Finest. This included a group of girls who couldn't manage to walk 50 meters farther to get to the bar and chose to relieve themselves in the street instead (and a busy, public street at that)...

Everything is lined up for my first couple of weeks travelling with Diana at the end of the month. We have timed thing perfectly and will be in London for Canada Day. There is a huge 2-day party in Trafalgar Square to celebrate with all the Ex-pats. It has got to be one of the largest celebrations in the world (definitely the largest outside of Canada itself).

I booked my ticket to attend Smukfest - a Danish music festival the second week of Aug; everything seems to be falling into place.

Also, I have been talking with Jodie this week (we road-tripped down the Oregon Coast in Oct '07), and she is pretty much confirmed to come out and meet up with me this fall to travel around a bit. We are looking at about 3 weeks in Italy (and surrounding areas, time permitting). By that point I will have been backpacking for just over 3 months straight, so it will be the perfect time to see a friendly face again. Plus, we have to work on our Amazing Race skills a bit more - In a race around the world I think we could beat anyone. Once she takes the month of October off of work and books her flights we will start firming up some plans. Currently RyanAir is offering free flights all over Europe, so there are really not many limitations on where we can go. You still have to pay taxes on the flight (and baggage fees), but that is always less than C$50 for a one-way trip.

I haven't taken too many pictures in the last while, but I will put a few up on my FaceBook when I get the chance.

Big Brother started up last night over here (a three hour Launch Show). It is a much bigger deal than at home, much to my disappointment. As soon as the house guests are introduced they become the most famous people in all of the UK. It is not a matter of being on a show 2-3 hours a week like it is anywhere else - There is the regular show which is aired a couple times a week along with the Live Eviction Shows. These are supplemented with Big Brother's Little Brother ("insider scoops on upcoming twists and the very first in-depth interviews with evicted housemates"), Big Brother's BigMouth (chat show with 'celebrity' guests to talk about the show - 4 nights a week), Diary Room Uncut and Big Brother: On the Couch (psychology show analyzing the show - an hour every week). This is all topped off with 6 hours (midnight - 6am) EVERY night of Live Video Streaming from inside the house. Oh yeah, they have a variety of Special Episodes worked into the mix along the way as well. You might say, "well just don't watch that channel", but here's the thing - it is aired on the 3 most popular channels; like NBC, ABC and CBS all showing the same thing non-stop for weeks on end... For this reason alone, I'm happy to be leaving the UK as soon as possible. I really hope my flatmates aren't fans of the show.

These last two weekends are going to be pretty quite I think; just trying to get everything together, avoid watching or talking about Big Brother, and enjoy sleeping in the same place for more than a couple nights at a time (to become a rarity over the next 4-5 months).