Bennachie

Bennachie is about a 30 minute or so drive from Aberdeen. I've always wanted to go up the hill and after 2 years, finally got a chance to do so. 6 of us and 3 dogs went out for an afternoon stroll/hike. The first part of the walk was pretty much uphill for about a mile or so; let's just say my calves got a good work out. When we got up to the top, the hill flattens out with a few peaks around it. I believe we went up Mither Tap, which is the 2nd highest of the peaks at 518 meters or 1699 feet. Although a bit windy up top, we got some beautiful views of Oxen Craig (the highest of the peaks) and the surrounding hills in Aberdeenshire. The girls were a bit cold and ready for some hot tea after Mither Tap so decided to head back to the car park, while the guys ran up to Oxen Craig and back. By the time we reached the car park, the boys were literally right behind us! I guess we were talking too much and weren't moving that fast...haha.  I've been slacking on the hillwalking so it was nice to get out and catch up with friends.

Baby Love

Gerald spent the week in Houston for a work conference and while he was there, he got to see some of the new additions to our friend/family network =) It seems like all of our friends are starting to expand their families and I hate to be away during this time, because you miss out on the oh so adorable first year. I am thankful they keep me updated with blog posts and pictures though. While Gerald was home, he saw the newest addition...

Levi, at less than a month old;



Danica, at 4 months old;



Erik, who just turned 1!  I still remember when we were home last year when Erik was just a couple of weeks old, and now he's 1!



Time sure does fly, and Gerald still looks awkward holding a newborn...haha!





We are in for a real treat. I'm not exactly getting baby fever, but our parents are definitely are! I hear it everyday....

Bank Holiday

A bank holiday is a public holiday in the UK, however, you can choose to take it off, or use it towards regular vacation. Meaning, some places are open and some are closed, you just never know. Well, I chose the perfect day to forget my "key"and lock myself out of the house.

I was out on Saturday night with some of the girls and since I didn't want to bring my bulky key chain, I decided to just remove my house key and throw it into my wristlet. When I got home, I just threw everything in the valet tray and called it night. The next day, I decided I wanted to stay in my PJ's all day and watch movies, so didn't bother leaving the house.

Come Monday, I headed out the door to meet my old coworker for lunch, keys in hand; I was good to go. After locking myself out of the house twice before in the past month, I am super conscious about checking my keys before leaving the house. Our front door locks automatically when you shut it, so no need to have keys in hand to lock the door when leaving the house. Anyhow, I went out to Soul for lunch (one of my favorite lunch spots in Aberdeen), walked around town afterwards to find a waffle maker (which was a complete fail), and proceeded home empty handed. When I got home, I grabbed my keys to unlock the door, and what do you know, my house key is not on there!

With Gerald being out of town, I couldn't just call him to come home and let me in, so I went on to plan B. Our management company does routine checks on the house and has a spare key, yay! So I call and get an answer, explain my situation and she goes on to tell me that the Aberdeen office is CLOSED for the Bank Holiday!! The Ellon office is not closed, but they don't have my keys. You see how they can just choose to be closed or not on a holiday; same company, different rules. I go on to phone the emergency line but after 3 unanswered phone calls, I left a message, only to never hear back from them...EVER! They didn't even phone me back to tell me they couldn't do anything. What kind of emergency contact is that? It would have cost me £100 pounds out of pocket to get a locksmith out so I decided against that. My last resort was to hope Gerald left our friend a spare key, since he always talked about it, but that was a failure as well.

Anyhow, after my various attempts of getting back into the house, I was homeless for the night. My amazing friend, Jill, came by to pick me up and took me in, which turned out to be just fine. She fed me taco soup, we watched the Newton Boys, and I also got cuddle time with her sweet lab, Angus =) Also, we had some pretty crazy winds in Aberdeen that night, so good thing I wasn't home alone during it, blessing in disguise.

I'm actually not angry at all, just a bit embarrassed that this happened 3 times in the past month, and out of all the days during a Bank Holiday, while Gerald was out of town! I think I can say, lesson learned - always leave a spare key with a friend or hidden somewhere safe.

So you're probably wondering, what holiday is it exactly on the last Monday in September? Well, it's an "Autumn Holiday," observed only in Scotland; more specifically, in these areas: Aberdeen, Angus except Carnoustie and Monifieth area, East Dunbartonshire, Glasgow, North Lanarkshire, paisley, South Lanarkshire, West Dunbartonshire. The other areas observe this Bank Holiday on a different date of the month.

Pitmedden Gardens

It seems a bit late to enjoy blooming flowers in the gardens, but here we are! A group of us from the AWA went out to learn a little bit about Pitmedden Gardens and admire the beauty of the boxed hedges and flowers in it. The garden is full of wonderful flowers, which is great for some photography, so enjoy!

Game Day Goodies

One of the things I miss most this time of the year is football! Longhorn football in particular...

I use to look forward to having friends over, grilling, drinking and bleeding burnt orange! We haven't been doing the greatest the past two years but I still love seeing the stadium filled with burnt orange and hearing our cheers on TV! Texas Fight!

Anyhow, this is the first weekend we've been home to watch some football since the season started and it just so happens Longhorns were showing on ESPN. So we recorded the game and went into a scoratorium for the morning. We cheered on the team with French toast and coffee!

Our friends got the NFL game package on their iPad so were going over there later for a football party! To celebrate our first football party in Aberdeen, I made my version of 7 layer dip and some buffalo wings. Who said you can't get good wings in Aberdeen? That's one thing about football season, it's hard to be healthy, but I shall try:)

Go Texans!

Beautiful & Stylish Florence

On the way from Chianti to Florence is The Mall, which is an outlet for all things designer. We stopped off for a bit hoping to score some good finds but left empty handed. Living in the UK has it's perks, but not when it comes to shopping in Europe. Most places gave us prices with the tax rebate included, but when we told them we live in the UK, they just said, "oh sorry." Not that it would really matter, but I guess saving an extra 10-20% could be nice. Anyhow, it was nice to just browse around.

Instead of heading to a hotel, we decided to do things a little different, and stay in an apartment. Gerald did all the research and found us a great pad with a great location. It was located in Piazza Passera, which is the more residential area of Florence. Flavia, the owner, let us in, gave us the keys, and left us to pretend we were locals for the next few days. Too bad we didn't spend more time in this place, because it was beautiful!

















Since we both have been to Florence before, we decided to skip all the touristy museums (except for Gucci and Ferragamo) and focus on the food instead. Thanks to Luxe City Guides, we were not disappointed.  They gave us tons of off the beaten path suggestions; from artisan shops, gelaterias, restaurants to sightseeing.  I will definitely be using these guides for future trips. I especially enjoyed their suggestions because they were places where you would see locals or expat type people, rather than the masses of typical tourists. We did the typical tourist thing the first time, but being an educated tourist is so much better!

Our last evening in town, I wanted to see the sunset over Florence so we walked up to Piazzale Michelangelo to take in the view.








To end our wonderful adventure through Tuscany, we browsed through the local antique market in St. Spirito square. It was a very relaxing way to end our trip!



Until next time Italia, Ciao!

Ciao Tuscano!!

Sitting at the airport lounge, happy and satisfied with our one week in Tuscany. We are going home with a few extra pounds in our belly and luggage:) I can't wait to share all the things we did. We have officially decided that Italy is by far one of our most favorite country to visit. It's almost like we've visited four different countries in the four times that we have been here, because every region is so different. That's what we like about it most. Here's a summary of Chianti and Firenze. Now let's just hope I can work off all that gelato and pasta I've been eating :) Ciao!

Castle Brolio

Today, we were heading back to Florence for the weekend to finish our Tuscan adventure. Before heading out, we decided we should stop by Castle Brolio, since it was on the way. Gina, from our cooking class also told us that you could see wonderful views from the castle, as well as taste some wine, of course.

"Brolio Castle belonged to Barone Bettino Ricasoli (1809-1880), Prime Minister during Italy's unification, then in 1874 he defined the Chianti Classico blend formula."

The stop was fairly short, but we got some fantastic photos! I thought Scotland had a lot of castles, but apparently, so does Italy. Most of them here in Tuscany, of course, house wineries since they are surrounded by great soil and climate.















We stopped for lunch at a pizzeria in Gaiole in Chianti. This was actually our first pizza of the trip and it was yummy!

Well, that concluded our 4 day trip in Chianti, now off to Firenze for some city life.