little Scotland

Where to start? So much has happened in the last month or so that it's hard to know...

Well, first off, our honeymoon was fantastic. I don't have any of the photos on this computer (I'm on James' laptop cause a whole row of my keyboard doesn't work, and the pics are on my dads computer anyway!) so can't post any on here, but there are lots of them on facebook :) We were in Vallehermoso, La Gomera, and it was relaxing, very interesting, traditional, and just great really. We both enjoyed it so much. You know when you go somewhere and really feel a connection...it was like that for both of us. The people were extremely nice, although they spoke very little English which was a challenge for me as I have never learned any Spanish. We did a few walks, mainly in the National Park (Garajonay), ate out, BBQed, went to beaches, museums, sun bathed, read lots and spent lots of time chilling.

On the Saturday before we left there was a festival on called "Atlantic Sound" (or Atlantico Sonoro) where they had lots of activities on during the day. James had a lesson on the didgeridoo, we both learned how to use the local "clay" to make a dragon tree each (mine was rubbish!) and there were other things on like yoga, pilates, African drumming etc etc. It was basically a hippy festival, it was great fun. That night there was a concert in the main square of Vallehermoso which was awesome! The first band were Spanish and had lots of percussion, including a tap dancer who was used as part of the rhythm section, it was very cool for a music geek. The 2nd band were African and also very cool, lots of drums and strange instruments I'd never seen before. We spent the whole night sitting outside 1 of the bars in the square eating pizza and drinking wine and Gomeron (the local grape brandy mixed with palm honey) and the most hideous shot ever which we could taste for at least 3 days after drinking it. Ew.

Our very last night was spent on Tenerife to make our journey to the airport home easier. Turns out Tenerife is a bit mad and they put lots of alcohol in their drinks. I didn't feel hugely drunk, or certainly not the drunkest I've ever been, but I had the most awful night. It felt like my lungs and sinuses had filled to bursting with mucus and I couldn't breathe properly in my sleep. James woke a few times worrying about how much I was struggling, and the next day I was very sick, which was no fun as half the day was spent in the airport. I was genuinely worried that I'd done damage thanks to not knowing exactly how much I was drinking. At least if you go out in the UK they have specific measures and you know exactly how much you're taking in.

Anyway! When we got home we started packing up the whole house for the move 6 days later. We moved last Tuesday and seem to be settling in quite well. James started back at work yesterday and my mum and sister visited me for a few hours as my sister goes back up to Dundee today and I won't see her again for ages!

As for the title of the blog, as most of you know we have moved to Arran, which is nicknamed "little Scotland", as it's mountainous at the north end and mostly farm land at the south, which is pretty much what mainland Scotland is like. We are living in Lamlash, which is only about 10 minutes drive from the ferry terminal in Brodick, and if you keep going on through Lamlash you hit Whiting Bay, which is nicknamed "little Yorkshire", which I don't think I need to explain lol.

Next week I have my first clinic appointment since moving which is gonna be a complete pain in the neck. It's on Thursday morning at 10.30, which means I need to be on the mainland on Wednesday night so I can be there on time. The other clinic option was Tuesday afternoon, which would be fine for getting off Arran and there on time, but there's no ferry to get me back! It's rubbish to be honest. Means I'm gonna be staying with mum and dad from Wednesday night til Saturday because I'm teaching on the mainland Friday evening and all day Saturday.

I also managed to freak out my new Dr surgery a bit, well, the sister anyway. She admitted herself that she doesn't really know much about CF and was a bit overwhelmed I think by my medical history. So today I'm going to meet my new GP because apparently they like to meet their new patients who have repeat prescriptions. Yawn.

This is a bit of a long blog, apologies, I'll try and update a bit more often so you don't have a book to read!


PS. James and I were very upset to find out that La Gomera has had serious forest fires since we left and that 25% of the National Park has been destroyed and will take at least 30 years to recover. Thousands of people have been evacuated from the west of the island, including from Vallehermoso. Gutted!!!

Mrs McEnaney!

It's official, I am now a Mrs! lol

This is just a quick post cause I can't really be bothered to write about everything and post pictures yet, I will do that after honeymoon and, lets face it, probably after we move house!

We had a fantastic day, everyone has been commenting on how fun it was and how much they enjoyed themselves. We got a lovely day (it only rained at about 8pm when we were all inside) and the castle was absolutely beautiful. I didn't see how it was decorated until I walked down the aisle, but it really was more than I could have hoped for, thanks to our friend Deborah who did all the flowers and setting up of the castle.    

I was picked up in a 1947 Rolls Royce, previously owned by the Princess of Monaco (mad, I know), so the drive to the castle with my Dad, then on to the reception with James was extremely comfortable! Was practically a leather sofa on wheels lol.

I knew absolutely nothing about the piper we had (one of James' pupils from Arran :) ), and although I knew there was a car coming for me, I had no idea what it was. I also didn't know for certain what the first dance song was going to be...

The evening wasn't the traditional set up. We didn't have a table plan, we didn't have a 4 course dinner, we had about 130 dinner guests and they all heard the speeches and ate from a buffet of haggis, neeps and tatties or jambalaya (actually in most cases they had both). The speeches were absolutely fantastic, kept above the belt apart from 1 joke by the best man which had everyone in knots.

After that we cut the cake then had our first dance to John Martyn - Couldn't Love You More (utterly beautiful) which was performed by our friends Ciaran and Ian. The band (The Tatties) did an amazing job! I'm sure they enjoyed themselves too, and 2 members are our very good friends so that made it much more personal. They didn't play any Queen on James' request lol, but more soul and motown than they normally would. We also had another friend DJ for us, as we thought he did an amazing job at our engagement party.

It's been so nice to be able to pull friends in for jobs here and there, and I really don't think we could have done it without their generosity. My Aunt Rosemary made our cake as our wedding gift as well so that was excellent and looked great!

As I say, I'll post pictures another day, but I wanted to write something just now while it's more fresh. Our friend Sharon videoed the whole ceremony (which lasted 13 minutes btw!) and the speeches, as well as other parts of the day. She also drove James and her partner/best man to the ceremony lol.

I couldn't have asked for a better day. I danced my ass off, feeling like I might die off a few times in the process, and drank too much white wine. I was hungover yesterday and only started feeling better after a roll and sausage followed by a chinese, oh, and a sleep.

I'll report back after the honeymoon. We're off tomorrow night to stay at James' Nana and Papa's house as it's close to the airport, then Tuesday morning at 8.30 we fly to Tenerife South, before hopping on a ferry to La Gomera for 2 weeks! Woop!


PS not as quick a post as I thought, but not exactly an essay either! lol