Home to Scotland: day 1

And so.... Back to the homeland. It's an early rise to throw clothes in a bag for both Mountain climbing and conference going. I'm on auto pilot going to Schiphol(Yet again), as it's been a long week of work to get everything finished. I'm in such autopilot, that I'm really early for my flight - so I take advantage of the Shiatsu offered at schiphol airport before getting on the plane as burning the candle at both ends for the past few weeks has left me less than loose....


So not only am I looking forward to a weekend of Scottish adventures, I'm now pretty chilled. Now that I know where the shiatsu is, it could be an addiction. I worry that I'll miss future flights in a shiatsu chair, but not this time.

I get to Scotland where my parents meet me. Before long, we're in a bar/cafe having lunch with my brother. He's just back from Australia, so we find our selves having a plate of Haggis at the Universal Cafe while looking at his photos on my powerbook.







The Universal is a bar with a good atmosphere in the middle of the shopping area of Glasgow. They do good hearty Scottish lunches, so it's a good place to recharge the batteries during a shopping spree.

Nine inch Nina(Link) pops in to say hello. She is, as usual, in the middle of a whirlwind pletgirs if social events, meetings and adventures. She doesn't so much burn the candle at both ends, as take a blow torch to the whole thing.

She is about to have a launch for her paintings, which are going to be hung at a local sushi bar, so she's busy working, painting and networking.

Having had her fill of haggis, sticky toffee pudding and photos of the Australian outback we hit the shops. I need to go to the kilt shop:



I need to get some accessories for my impending Bulgarian wedding in order that no one noticed how Moth eaten(Literally) my kilt is. It's pretty exciting picking out the various bits and pieces for my cultural dress for my trip which seemed so far away when I first heard about it.

My brother is about to buy an apple laptop, so we go to the apple shop and look at what's possible. We have some good fun loading a picture of his hungover self(He's a student) onto the computers to compare screen size. It's strange I'm drooling over the powerbooks even though I already have one - apple are good.

Eventually it's time to pick up Miss Argentina.



She has been in Aberdeen visiting her sister, and I've come over to climb some hills with her. It's strange having a little bit of my Amsterdam social life in Buchanan Street bus station.

Miss Argentina has done the West Highland way(Wiki link), walks around Spain and various other energetic feats, so not only am I sure she can keep up with me, I'm a little apprehensive about whether I can keep up with her on the Scottish peaks.

Tonight the only adventure is to head to my parents in rural Ayrshire and prepare for the weekends adventure:



We get to my parents and have a traditional Ayrshire feast fro dinner; Chinese Takeaway:



Luke Skye-trekker(Link) pops in and we head off to one of my local bars. Luke has a smattering of Spanish, but tonight it seems to amount to "Fuerto Como Toro"

We have an early night before tomorrow's planned Munro Bagging.