My Scottish Adventure

or

I Survived Her Pinkness

September 2004

This picture was taken on our way back from Ulla Pool, located on the west coat of Scotland. But let's start at the beginning..........

I arrived at Inverness on Thursday, August 2. 2004. No complaints about the flight....everything went smoothly. I had had to transfer in Gatwick, but that was no problem at all. The flights were punktual and fine. Pinkster arrived soon after I had picked up my suitcase. I recognised her right away. We hopped in her car and started the long, 1.5 hour drive to her home on the West Coast of Scotland......

Pnkster and her boys in front of her home

This is the view from my bedroon! Just fantastic!

View from her front yard

What a place to live in!!!

Since Pinkster had plans for the first weekend to fly with her boys to London, I took the train to Edinburgh where I met Pegasus! We took a tour bus the first day. typical tourists heehee, and visited the most important sites, including the castle and Holyroodhouse. Since I was always interested in the stories about Mary, Queen of Scots, this was all very interesting for me.

 We also did some shopping.... I expected cold, rainy weather and had brought lots of WARM clothes.. I ended up buying some short sleeved T-shirts. We also found a pub that sold BEagle's favorite delicacy:

The highlight was the fireworks display Sunday night. We had had great weather so far, but on Sunday low clouds drifted in. We walked up one of the many hills sides to watch, along with hundreds, if not thousands, of other people, and waited for it to get dark.

The Fireworks were set up on and over the castle and were synchornised with the music played from an orchestra (which we couldn't hear). The higher fireworks disappeared into the clouds, but it was still quite worth it. Of course I took pictures, but I don't want to bore you with them!

On Monday I returned to Inverness. Both trips with ScotRail went fine... nothing really to complain about, but it was interesting how differently things are done. I couldn't even get unto the track until a gate was opened, even though the train was already waiting. And the still use turn-styles that "eat" your ticket when you leave the track... no ticket, no exit.

I had to wait some time before Pinkster could pick me up. She had return from London as planned and had then gone shopping.... where she lost her boys (or they lost her??). Then we embarked on the long drive back to her home.

The weather was still fabulous. We had planned so much to do in the house (repair computer printers, shorten a dress, configure a computer, etc. etc.), but instead we spend a lot of time out doors. I even got a tan! No one back home was going to believe I had been in Scotland!!! You can see by the picture above how great it was. This picture and the one at the top of the two of us, was taken on our way back from Ulla Pool. The landscape reminded me a lot of California... bare, rocky mountains, blue skies.... I was almost getting homesick!

In the photo above you can also see Pinksters famous PT cruiser (gold, not pink). With this car she has driven miles and miles the last months... not only to Inverness and back, but also on various trips to England (long story... all in her thread on Pprune....).

What a life!! My visit was drawing to an end...   I managed to get her dress sewn, one of her four printers to work, her iMac computer configured, and to read a book about the Scottish "Stone of Destiny". Now it was time to return to Inverness for the Pinkster Fly-In!!!!

These are the "famous" Pink Headsets...

for the uniformed, Pinkster obviously loves the color pink. When she started learning to fly, she wanted pink headsets. So her instructor, Mad_Jock, started a thread on Pprune (a British pilot's forum) asking where such things could be found. This thread turned into a type of soap opera about Pinksters trials and tribulations of learning to fly! It's the thread that got us all together........

All participants of the fly-in recieved special coffee cups, made to the order of Pinkster. THANK YOU Pinkster!!!

The weather had turned rainy and cold.... more "typical". It got good enough for Pinkster to take me up in the Pa-38 Cadet on which she had spent so many training hours. We took off for a short jaunt over Inverness and Loch Ness.... (no, we didn't spot Nessie....).

Taking off from Inverness

yes, that's the Pinkster

Westy (me), Mad_Jock, Pinkster, Knobby, Papa_Charlie, Mrs. Papa_Charlie, and Brookland