SCOTLAND !

I'm so glad we made the decision to come to Edinburgh, it's exactly how you would imagine it. Amazing old buildings that would cost a fortune to build in this day and age, super friendly locals and bars every 20 meters. Our first day we decided to see what lies beneath and check out The Edinburgh Dungeon. Its like a theme park crossed with a ghost tour about the history of Edinburgh's underworld. The whole scare factor was pretty cool but I don't know if I'd take a young one as I have no doubt it will leave them with nightmares for months.

From there we walked around checking out all the beautiful buildings and taking in all the Edinburgh Fringe Festival atmosphere. There were street performers on just about every corner. The guy in the below video manager to somehow place his whole body through the head of a kids tennis racquet. How he didn't need "The green whistle" was beyond me ! For most of these guys and girls this is their job and I was saddened to see a minority of people watch the shows then walk off without throwing them any money for their time. All in all it was a great day with not one drop of rain.

I knew we had to wake up one of these days to the sound of pouring rain and that day had finally arrived. Wednesday was gonna be a wet one but we tried to get around it by looking into hiring a car and heading to Glasgow. Little did we know there were many others with the same idea. I rocked up to the car rental place to find a sea of people lined up out the front. After walking around to the other rental places only to be met with the same fate we decided to throw the towel in and put Glasgow on the top of the list for next year.

We then popped down to the offices of the Edinburgh Military Tattoo to pick up our tickets for the show that night, I was extra excited as my mother had told me earlier that day she'd seen the same show at the same place when she was 13 back in 1958. Inside we met with many wonderful people including Brigadier David Allfrey MBE (Edinburgh Tattoo Chief Executive & Producer). After an earlier team discussion we came to the conclusion the only way to dress for the evenings event was in full Scottish attire. Yes, Kilts, Knee high socks, Hats, Belts, the whole kit n caboodle. David thought our choice of dress was a great idea and decided we needed to arrive to the show at 8pm, an hour earlier for a quick photo with some of the performers. After chatting to everyone in the office about Bondi and Edinburgh we left feeling a lot of pressure to come up with some very serious Scottish clobber. After some wheeling and dealing on my behalf we came up on top with all of us being pretty well decked out for 50 quid each. Not bad for the son of a used car salesman ! With very little under our tartan we battled the wind and rain to make it to the entrance right on 7:45pm. These guys are Military and any later would have been an insult. We were ushered down the red carpet and up the lift to the VIP section to our seats. Not long after we were seated we were taken down to the main arena where we met with the military photographer who had some interesting ideas for the photos, one being where he wanted us to rip our shirts off leaving us standing in the rain in just a kilt. The show wasn't due to start till 9pm but the Tattoo has some very dedicated fans, so dedicated they are quite happy to arrive 1 hour early in the pouring rain. This meant we had quite an audience for our  not so quick and very chilly photo. Didn't the very international crowd give us some stick ! The show was absolutely amazing. To see such a flawless performance in the pouring rain just goes to show the time and effort these dedicated musicians and performers must put in everyday. 

After the show we had champagne and Haggis with some of the most important people in Scotland. We then got extended a special invitation to head back into the Edinburgh Castle to join some others in the former Governors Quarters now the officers mess. The history in the place was a mind blowing and we were all very humbled by the opportunity. Just gotta say a big thanks to the people from The Edinburgh Military Tattoo. Their warm smiles and friendly attitude made that night one of the best of my life.

Nursing a little hangover we opted for a sleep in before the meet and greet later that afternoon, pretty sure I haven't slept past 9am in the last 10yrs, on the other hand Maxi, Gonz and Hoppo were right at home sleeping like bears in the winter till around 12noon. Rolling up to Tigerlily around 5:15pm we were ready to rumble. The place has an amazing atmosphere with loads of nice little areas to just kick back and enjoy food and drinks from their lush menu. The turn up was impressive with some people coming quite a long way at such very short notice. Everyone was so warm and friendly, it was really great to get to chat to real Scottish locals, even if we sometimes we didn't understand their strong accents. We stayed on and had some dinner at Tigerlily, the food was great and again like everywhere in Scotland the staff were awesome.

Now I know I say this at the end of every blog post when I leave somewhere but this time I mean it that little bit more "I'm really sad to be leaving Scotland". From the wonderful Kirsty who drove us around and gave us her 2 bedroom unit for the week to the lovely people at Starbucks for letting us destroy their WiFi internet everyday even the always helpful Edinburgh taxi drivers. Everyone and everything has been fantastic, I cant speak more highly of the place. If you're ever thinking about going to Scotland don't second guess. Book a flight and get your butt over there. Don't let a little bit of rain put you off. It never rains in the pub !

Not sure if you remember but in my blog post about Barcelona we drew a moustache on Maxi's face on the aeroplane while he was asleep. Well Cowboy (Shaun) my very good mate from Australia was the one doing the drawing. This time Cowboy was the one sleeping and Maxi wanted payback ! Cowboy didn't realise it was on his face till he walked past the rental car and copped a glimpse of his new red Moe in the reflection. It was very funny watching him try and smooth talk the flight attendant as he got off the plane. Pretty sure it wasn't his cheesy jokes she was giggling at !

We are now on our way to St Ives, Cornwall to meet up with the beautiful gals from Owl Marketing and the crew from the St Ives surf club. Everytime I have told someone we are going there their eyes light up and they say "you're going to love it, it's beautiful down there". We will be doing some training with the nippers, going surfing and having a meet and greet at Sloop Inn, St Ives on Saturday 13th, at 12noon to 1pm.

Hope everyone is having a great day / night !

Till next time...