I just rode the M&T Express straight to on-my-arseville

Maggie, Thatcher and I still live in an apartment.  A very nice apartment right on the Thurso River next to a fantastic park.  We take about 4 walks every day through the park, down to the ocean and along the river. 

If you know Maggie - and many of you do - you know that Maggie can have an attitude problem, particularly with other dogs, especially red dogs and poodles.  This can be a big deal and lots of people don't like or appreciate my snarling, lunging, barking Labrador. When you have both of them and they outweigh you (I just realized this factoid), it can be a real challenge. 

About two weeks ago, Maggie nipped this really gorgeous red hunting dog, and the owner was not pleased.  Since then, I have been very careful and kept her super close.  We have been avoiding other dogs and changing our route if at all possible.

In the last couple of days, we have come across some really nice guys and their dogs. 

On Sunday, we came across an Alsatian/Rottweiler mix.  I pulled mine off to the side to let them pass, but the guy stopped.  Maggie started getting worked up, but the guy told me it was okay, let it play out, so I did.  She had her fit and then calmed down and had a nice rub and sniff with this very strange looking dog.  We all trotted off feeling pretty good. 

Today, in about the same place we came across this lovely older guy with his beautiful 2-year old black lab.  I pulled mine off the walk to let them pass, but they stopped.  I hadn't realized that Thatcher had crossed behind me on the tandem lead.  Maggie got worked up and Thatcher got curious and answered the black labs call for play - both simultaneously rushing forward, sweeping the lead and my feet straight into the air and right onto my butt, landing in a giant thump.  They dragged me forward a bit while I calculated our weight differential, and I wonder if I could maybe save some money if I cut back on their dog food.

Never fear, the ground is much softer here in Scotland.   I practically sprang back up like I was on a trampoline, after they dragged me about a foot.

Well, Maggie is really worked up, but the lovely guy says, don't worry, let her go, so I do.  He is more worried that I'm hurt, but I'm worried his black lab is about to be Maggie's snack.  She does eventually calm down.  There is some sniffing, and she gets some nice rubs from this guy even though she'd gotten a few nips in on his dog. 

As he is rubbing her goodbye, he says "Poor girl, you want to be friends, you just don't know how to go about it."

Sunday Lunch vs. Potluck

What is Sunday Lunch? 

It's definitely on Sunday and a meal between tradition lunch and dinner/supper.  I think it's where everyone would go to church and then stop off at the pub and have Sunday lunch - roast, gravy, potatoes, Yorkshire puddings, cabbage, peas/carrots.

My glorious friend Gill does Sunday Lunch.  It is almost always at her house, but she occasionally trades off with her friend Sam - whose husband Paul does all of the cooking - unless there is dessert and then Sam is all over that. 

There are lots of rules and assigned chores associated with Gill's Sunday Lunch - like Gill does all the cooking, Paul does the carving, Sam puts away the food and cleans up as Gill is cooking and Graeme, well he helps.  If I am there, my job is to sit on the stool and drink wine and not do any of Sam's chores.  There are the traditions and discussions like who makes the best yorkshire puddings, who can eat the most Yorkshire puddings, and leaving the peas/carrots in the warmer and not putting them on the table.

I brought Jason to Sunday Lunch at Gill's when we working on the bid.  Jason watched the very coordinated frenzy in preparation and then watched the food disappear once it hit the table.  We agreed we would try creating Sunday Lunch once we were settled in Thurso.  And we have done it. 

The first week we stayed fairly traditional with roast and all of the trimmings.  Since then we have had a number of themes, Sunday Piggy Sunday, Spanish, Sunday Nutty Sunday, Greek, and this Sunday was All Lasagana...All The Time.

We have our own rules.  Everyone can make something (like a potluck), but we do plan the menu so it has some cohesion (like Sunday Lunch).  We aren't a slave to the tradition of roast and potatoes (Sunday Lunch), but instead try to mix it up for fun and challenge (like a potluck).  For the most part, we cook together, which is just as fun as actually eating the lunch.

Gill has gone from being excited about us taking on her tradition to being a bit horrified at our menus: 'You had salad at Sunday Lunch?!?'

But there are things we haven't compromised on - there is an open invitation, the day is just as much about the preparation of the meal as eating the meal, and there is no work talk, but instead there is blether (the Scottish word for craic, which is the Cumbrian word for chit chat) about things about town.

Bo and Dyan Go House Hunting

Bo and I decided to go looking for houses together since there was limited availability and the company has hired the same relocation agent for all of us.  We went out on a Saturday to take a look at everything available.

We are given an allowance for our rent.  Unfortunately, one of our team mates had paid a very high rent for a property.  Thurso is a small town and everyone knows everyone and their business.  It seems that most of the rental property is managed by a couple of families.  Once the news of this rent got around,  the rates started to creep up.  This coupled with the time of year meant there just wasn't much available in our allowance, which required a lot of paperwork, e-mails and pleading to revise the allowance. 

We saw a couple of places that day and the place that Bo ultimately picked for he and Leslie.  It was my favorite too, but just a little too remote for me to be on my own.  It was right on Dunnett Beach and as you can see, it was a glorious day to be looking at a beach house.  This home has 1 bathroom, and it's super cute.  The floor is made out of pebbles - like real pebbles.  Bo has confirmed these are a bit unpleasent in the morning on bare feet.

House hunting is fun as each place is completely unique - no mini mansions here.  We did see one house that was an episiode out of hoarders, and we saw a kitchen that was so tiny you couldn't even make cereal in it.  But it's a great way to see the different villages.

The following day, I went to look at a house in the village of Halkirk.  It was way out of my price range, but the house was incredible, perfectly located and with really nice people.  The house belongs to a  retired doctor, they lived in the main part of the house and had a doctor's office on the side.  They have done some fairly incredible renovation to the house and portions of it are very modern, while it still retains it's original character. 

The relocation company wrote an e-mail to the CH explaining the lack of properties, and the issues with the rent/allowance and my lease got signed this week.

If everything goes as planned, Bo will sign off on the house, set up my internet and receive my shipment from America while I am in Phoenix.  I'll come back to my own place and Maggie and Thatcher will have their own garden with a koi pond that I hope Maggie doesn't think is a super fancy Labrador recreational snack bar.

JASON WE'VE LOST THE BACON...

Two weeks here, and it's time to got to Wick and see the big Tesco (grocery store). Jason and I went together to gather supplies for Sunday Lunch.  This Sunday's theme was pork and dubbed Sunday Piggy Sunday.  Wick is about 20-30 minutes away depending on tractors and speed limit compliance.

We spent hours in the store.  Up and down every aisle, things seemed to be separated by who made them not what they are.   For example nuts are in the produce section, snack section, health food aisle, baking section, and the ethnic food sections (at least 2).  Interestingly, the pricing is variable on the same thing - say Brazil nuts most expensive in the produce section and least expensive in the ethnic food section.

Jason and I spend £500 between us.  We are still working on a cash basis because our accounts are not set up, so the check out counter can be exciting and it's nice to have someone there that might be able to bail you out if you over spend.  Everyone at work was very surprised at our spend at Tesco and asked us what we could have purchased for that amount of money, but Jason and I were fairly stumped as the car was full, but it was not that full.

When we leave, the wind is blowing so hard I can’t push my cart straight and end up bouncing off of several concrete bollards – thankfully no cars.  Jason let’s go of his cart so he can laugh at me and his cart zooms though 2 rows of cars until he catches it. 

We make it to the car and start putting the groceries in. The bacon flies out of my cart.  So I race across the car park trying to get it – almost make contact 3 times, but finally give up as I am heaving with laughter and have to rest against someone’s car. 

Our bacon lost forever in the countryside of Caithness.

We finally get everything in the car and I notice that there are a couple of people watching us - sort of like we are crazy.  We sit in the car for a little while - and watch the time earned technique of this little old lady striding through the car park with her full cart: knees slightly bent, purposeful strides, arms straight out in front of you. 

We will know better for next time, and Sunday lunch did not suffer as when we unpacked the groceries, we realized it was the prosciutto, not the bacon that was lost. 

Never Let Bo Make Your Travel Arrangements

After the contract announcement, there was tons of rushing around while we all tried to get things in order to leave a job, start a job,and  move...  Since I had to come over to Scotland for the kick-off, Bo asked if there was anything he could do to help me and I said, it would be great if you could make our travel arrangements for mobilization the first of January. 

Typical Bo style he said, no problem.

I flew off to Scotland and got a couple of emails about the trip and I said, just take care of it; it'll be fine.  I also got an e-mail from my fabulous secretary that said something like, you need to check this - I very breezily said I am sure it's fine; ticket it.

So, we left on Wednesday the 4th of January and travelled from Pasco to Seattle.  Jason had decided to fly with us, so he had gotten up early and flown from Idaho Falls to Salt Lake City to Seattle to join us.  Flights were fine, and we got on our plane from Seattle to Amsterdam.  I used my foolproof champagne - ambian - wine method and slept through the flight.  Bo took an ambian and 3 Tylenol PMs and didn't sleep a wink.  Who knows what Jason was doing up there in the bulkhead. 

We arrived in Amsterdam as scheduled and went on to our flight London - again no problems, shortish layover that allowed us to go to the lounge for coffee - all the while Bo is talking a mile a minute (much of it confusing gibberish).

We landed in London in terminal 2, I think.  We collect our luggage - and there is a lot of it.  I have checked 2 bags and carried on a bag and have my handbag.  Bo has checked 3 bags - all heavy and Jason has checked 2 bags - one that you could easily put 2 children in.  Well, we have so much baggage that we cannot use the train to get to terminal 5.  So, after about an hour talking about it and dragging our bags around, we decide to take a taxi.  We have so much luggage, we have to take 2 taxis.  Jason hops in the 1st one with his bags and 2 of my bags.  Bo and I get in the next one with the rest - we were supposed to go to the hotel at terminal 5.  Bo gave the same directions to both drivers.

Bo and I arrived at the hotel and check in.  We wait and wait and wait.  Minutes turn into an hour, and there is no Jason.  Bo decides to go look for him - I know, but I couldn't stop him.  Jason has no phone so we just give in and go to our rooms after an hour and a half.  Jason calls about 20 minutes later - taxi took him to the terminal, not the hotel. We get checked in and head into London and pick up our phones and computers at the office.

We also end up taking 176 stairs out of the covent garden tube station, which gets me to wheezing a little bit, then we get lost a couple of times and then we find my favorite Thai place and eat until we nearly pop. 

Bo announces that he must have slept on the plane and didn't know it.

We head back to the hotel for a good nights sleep.  The next day we get up and wait around for our flight at 1545 - in the afternoon.  We check in, which is complicated by our luggage, and we all have to pay extra Jason and Bo especially.  Then we fly from London to Manchester.  Best part of the flight was watching Jason talk to this young couple sitting next to him - you could tell he was like thank goodness someone else to talk to...

We arrive in Manchester and all end up missing the turn and having to go back through security, which is fine because we have a 3 hour layover - dinner is eaten.  We then fly from Manchester to Inverness and arrive around 10.  Luggage wrangling, 3 rental cars are found and packed, and we drive over to the Holiday Inn and check in for the night.

The next day we all wake up, do a little shopping and then Bo and I caravan to Thurso - it takes about 2.5 hours and I arrive 1 hour before my dogs arrive. 

Bo smiles and says, perfect timing.

Maggie and Thatcher make THE Move

On 7 January, Margaret and Thatcher moved to Scotland (aka: the things I do to my dogs). 

It was a difficult trip that involved a 9 hour car ride to Seattle from Kennewick, Washington with a very scared wiener dog and a strange lady that made a 3 hour trip take 9 hours. 

They stayed for 2 nights in Seattle and then went to get on the plane to London.  Unfortunately, they'd lost the tickets and had to wait around for HOURS until it was sorted out.  They had arrived in London 5 days after the UK had lifted its quarantine ban on animals, which meant that the reception center was overrun with 150 dogs - they stayed there that night - YIKES.

The next day Thatcher had to get downsized because his crate was too big to fit on the plane with Maggie - so it was a smaller crate or fly separately and Maggie would not stand for separate flying, so it was smaller crate for the big boy.  A short flight later, they arrived in Glasgow.  It was late so they stayed the night with this fantastic couple in Glasgow that took them on walks and sent lots of texts. 

After a six hour ride the following day, they slunk out of the van and into my waiting arms - having just arrived myself: please see Never Let Bo Make Your Travel Arrangements.  They were quiet and every time there was a loud noise Maggie would touch her noise to her butt in a move I called: standing donut. 

This lasted for about a week and then it was back to the standard dog rodeo - Scottish style.