Little mouse, little mouse, where have you been?

Ah travelling, that's what I've been missing. The raw excitement followed by the agonising waiting and the random diversions to places you never intended to go.
Though this one wasn't my fault I tell you, this one was an act of god.
Its been about a week since I've been back and it still feels slightly surreal actually.
One of the little trips that I had planned for while I'm over here was to head up to Scotland to go to the launch of the book that I mentioned during my last post, 209-A Story by Steven Rafter.
It was being held at Balmoral Castle, which is the Queen's Summer Vacationing residence.
So technically, I went to a party at a castle!! Got all frocked up for it as well which I enjoyed to be honest, I've never really gone in for the frocking up before but I found a fantastic dress which I now want to wear all the time, if for no other reason than because it cost me a tiny fortune.
I was sick last week too, came down with one hell of a cold that laid me low for a good while but after many lemsip and bit of bed rest I was well enough to pull myself together for this little trip.
I started out on Friday heading over to Luton to catch my easy jet flight up to Aberdeen.
I'd never been to Luton before, to be honest with you its slightly depressing, I mean I know airports aren't supposed to be aspirational or anything but Luton airport gave me a very miserable kind of vibe for some reason. Got on the plane though and distracted myself with watching the sun set like I always do. Its a quick flight to Aberdeen, usually just over an hour and we were scheduled to get in at about 7:30, as we approached Aberdeen and descended to land I looked down and saw a fog so thick upon the ground, that lit from below by house lights and street lights it looked like phosphorescent mould. That's when I learned you cant land a plane in phosphorescent mould. The plane went in to land as normal and then at the last moment the engine screeched and we seemed to be climbing again, that did nothing to relax me I can tell you.
The cabin crew tried to be reassuring “Ladies and Gentlemen, the Captain has decided not to attempt landing on this occasion, this is totally routine and we should have an update for you in a moment”
Really? Routine you say? What were his stars not right? Was he supposed to get a cookie? Can he not land without the cookie? No, the bastarding, phosphorescent, foggy, mould meant we had to go all the way to Edinburgh. Takes 15 minutes in the air to get to Edinburgh, made me wonder how long it could take to get there by bus. Five hours later when I finally arrived in Aberdeen I had my answer. Hard place to get to Aberdeen it seems. Cab drivers there are lovely though, mine chatted to me all the way to my hotel which was also fantastic, the Douglas hotel on Market St, very handy for the bus and train stations if you ever go. Brilliant breakfast as well, I'm not usually all that into breakfast, beyond bacon and beans it holds little delight for me but for some reason when one wakes up in Aberdeen after being diverted from Edinburgh, one wants breakfast. They had these cute little pots of various jams and honeys on the table and a million different cooked breakfast things and toasts and fruits, you get the idea. I think maybe it was all the breakfast potential that delighted me coz in the end I just had toast and coffee. Headed down to the bus station after a couple of glitches from Neil my GPS, he's spot on in London but in Scotland he seemed as lost as I was. I switched him on and after he locked on to the satellites its as though he said “You're fucking where? Screw you lady, you're on your own”.

Found my bus to Ballater though, dragged on my case carrying my precious dress and various dressing up ingredients and then off we headed, some well meaning Scottish boy tried to chat me up on the bus ride up there but I was so not in the mood. He also struck me as a little odd. Happily he got off about 20 mins in so I could watch the scenery in peace. And beautiful scenery it is too, you drive around a corner and mountains seem to jump out at you, they change colours with the clouds from blue blacks to greens and golden browns depending on how much light gets through. The river Dee pointed our way to Ballater which is about 6 miles from Balmoral and where my second Scottish hotel was, the Auld Kirk. It was a converted church and had a kind of tardis quality in that from the outside it looked all teeny and narrow but once inside it seemed huge. Dropped all my stuff off and then wandered into town to take some photos, have some lunch and do some writing before having to head back to the hotel and get ready. Ballater itself felt a little bit like Kenmare in Ireland did though if anything Ballater felt a little sleepier. After 2 hours of getting ready, which actually felt surprisingly rushed, I'm glad I don't do that all the time, I was finally ready for Balmoral.
When I arrived at the hotel earlier that day I asked them if they could book me a taxi for the evening and was told that there was really only 2 taxi's in Ballater and that there was a gentleman staying at the hotel who also seemed to be going to Balmoral that evening and would I mind sharing with him. I didn't mind as long as he didn't mind I said and hoped that he wouldn't mind because really there seemed to be no other choice. Mercifully the other hotel guest was the lovely John Hammond who didn't mind sharing a cab if for no other reason than that it meant that he knew someone else going to the launch. Besides, he'd already hijacked someone elses taxi, that's how we met George and Kim. After picking George and Kim up from the Hilton, the four of us crammed in with Cyril the Taxi driver and headed off finally to Balmoral. A word on Cyril, Cyril came to Ballater about 27 years ago, prior to which there was no taxi service in Ballater. When he came to pick us up at the end of the night we asked him how he'd be able to get in to the security gates, “I have the security code” he said. How cool is THAT! He's the man with the code to the castle. When you meet Cyril you might think that he was possibly in his 60's, but actually, he's in his 80's. Looking damn good, Cyril. He's like James Bond, distilled into a kindly faced Scottish taxi driver. As we exited Cyril's, cab we were greeted by a lone bag piper. And it is here that I discovered the key to bagpipe music, context, on stage at an ACDC concert it just sounds like noise but at a royal estate, magnificent.

It was still light so we had a quick wander around to take our obligatory pictures of us standing casually in front of a giant castle. As others arrived we headed into the hall for champagne, canapes and mingling. The wait staff there were magic, you would get to the last draught of your cocktail or champagne and then magically, a kindly lady would be there to offer you more. As the festivities of the evening got underway we were treated to a display by the Queens highland dancers, bloody hell those girls can move. There were readings from the book, some beautiful speeches from Steven as well as his friends and family and then we all were presented with out own copies of 209-A Story. I'm reading mine at the moment, I'm really enjoying it too, go get it. We stayed much longer than we were supposed to originally but got the hint that it was time to leave as the bar staff subtly closed the shutters on the bar.
This is when you find it is a disadvantage to only have 2 cabs in Ballater. There was one van load of people that headed into town to party on then Cyril turned up and took another four people leaving me, John and a couple of others to wait it out for his return. We busied ourselves taking last pictures in the grounds and I practised my royal impersonations before we realised that it had been quite some time since Cyril had picked up the previous lot and it was really rather cold, clearly the cocktails were wearing off. Someone had a feeling that he might be up at the castle for some reason so we walked up there in the dark, the deepest pitch black dark I've experienced thus far, you're surrounded by trees and the only light is that from stars that you glimpse though the canopy. Beautiful it was, only the sound of the wind like a sea through the trees and my heels clicking on the surface of the driveway. No Cyril at the castle though so back we tottered to the school house. Then we decided hey, maybe he cant get into the gates, we'll walk to the gatehouse. This was before we knew of his connections to the top. I think that this is a beautiful life that lets me tell you that I walked the queens driveway, in the pitch dark, listening to the shushing of the trees and watching the winking of the stars, while in a ball gown, satin covered shoes and fake diamonds.
Dear god my feet hurt by the end of it though, I think I lost most of the feeling in my toes.
Cyril turned up about 10 mins after we got to the gatehouse and whisked us back into town via my hotel so I could put my runners on and get rid of those damned high heels.
Yes, I'm not a refined lass but be damned if I was going to spend the rest of the night in pain where there was dancing to be done and I was still wearing my ball gown so at least from the feet up I was glamorous. We met up with everyone at this pub in town that also had a disco, you gave three pounds to this little old man who sat entirely unjudgementally by the door and then stamped your hand. All the locals were fantastically friendly and though that we were all brides because we were in our formal gear and the guys were in their tuxes. We danced stupidly to songs I hadn't heard in years and a few I'd never heard without care or concern for how we looked to the outside world.
At John's instigation we did shots of something called Aftershock, I don't know what it was and frankly I don't want to know, it was like alcoholic mouthwash.
This was one of those evenings that regardless of who anyone is or what they do or what they have happening outside of that place and time, we all put it aside and fucking revelled. I really could have done with an extra day there if for no other reason than for more sleep but soon after the sun was up I was eating my breakfast at the Auld Kirk and packed to head back to Aberdeen for a little exploring/caching and my flight back to London.
I feel beyond privileged to have been a part of that occasion and think you should all get out and read the book, I recommend it and its out now so you can order yourselves copies.
Right now I'm back in London, back to work before heading up to Newcastle for Easter next week and planning my next trip which is to Italy.
Arrivederci amici, parlarle presto.

Caching, cocktails and weekends at the Queens place

Alright so update is probably in order then. Much has happened since last I wrote. Firstly was the Sky Christmas party, yes I know, its very late for a Christmas party but better late than never and it meant that I got to go out and get drunk with my new work mates. We went to a place near Drury Lane called Guanabara, its a Brazilian themed place so we all got smashed on mojitos and tried to fill up on cassava chips. Some danced to the live band, some got drunker than others, some mysteriously disappeared then some time after 1 am we all drifted off into the night after finding someone to foot the bill. A highlight of London: late at night when you're a little merry and you dont particualrly want to have to fork out for a cab, London helpfully provides night buses, they don't really cost all that much and in my experience thus far seem to be fairly regular. I caught the night bus back to Acton with the lovely Vanesa who also works at sky. I was a teensy bit freaked out about walking home on my own at what was now 2:30am, there was only me and the occasional drug dealer out and I steadfastly refused to look at them. Time was that I'd have no hesitations in heading out at that time, often I'd go just for the walk, maybe I'm getting old. Maybe its just because its a newish town.

Recovered quite admirably the next day though, made my way down to the farmers market and got myself some fruit and veg as well as spending possibly too much on some silk scarves and a wrap that I wanted to wear for Balmoral. That's the other thing that's been happening lately. The gorgeous and talented Steven Rafter has published a new book which is to be launched next weekend at Balmoral Castle in Scotland and I have been lucky enough to be invited. I cant tell you how excited I am about it, when in my life am I ever going to be invited to one of the Queens residences for anything let alone a book launch. I've been busy planning what I'm going to wear and booking hotels and flights and figuring out how to get there. I will absolutely be taking lots of pictures for you all and blogging to let you know how it went. Go have a look at Steven's website and if you see a copy of his book in the bookstores, grab it while you can http://www.209astory.com/

Beyond mojitos and weekends at Betty's summer place I've finally bitten the bullet and gotten myself a GPS system so that I can go Geocaching. I may possibly have bored some of you before with tales of Geocaching but in case I havent, basically its a world wide treasure hunt involving GPS systems. You go running around with your GPS device following co-ordinates and clues and finding little caches that are hidden in all kinds of places. My brother introduced me to it before I left home and I thought it would be a fantastic way of getting to know a place so I resolved to Cache once I hit London. I found a way of doing it using one of those in car navigational GPS's that you can pick up pretty cheaply so I went and bought myself one on Amazon the other day, it arrived on Saturday morning so I ran around like a mad thing getting all my shopping done and buying the last few items for my outfit for Balmoral so I could have sunday completely free for caching.
There is apparently a cache right near where I live in Acton so when I headed out on Sunday that was the first place I went, it was a bit hard to find and people were starting to look at me like I was casing one of the houses or something so I decided to move on and look for it on the way back. I jumped on the Picadilly line, because that's where I seem to live my whole life, and headed out to Russell Square. Got out onto street level, whipped out the GPS, which I have christened Neil, and went hunting for my first London cache. It was near the Foundling Museum next to a statue of a man called Thomas Coram. The clues to the cache made me think that it would be on the statue itself so I went round and round this thing checking it out. Clearly I weirded out one of the volunteers in the museum because she came out and tried to figure out what the hell I was up to, she gave me a little history of the museum and I pretended to be very interested in the statue and as she was talking to me out of the corner of my eye about 10m's behind her I found the cache. I told her I wanted to take a picture of the statue and she seemed satisfied by this, probably thinks I'm just some very strange tourist, and I made a big show of riffling through my bag to get my camera so that I'd have the chance to grab the cache and sign the log without her noticing. Signed it, slipped it back into place and then took a photo to try and make it seem like I wasn't a total freak, then it was off to my next one! Found another one in a little secluded park I would never have known existed if I hadn't gone looking for a cache and then decided to go for a third one behind Grey's Inn. This time I think I spotted someone else who was caching but he was looking in the wrong spot and then wandered off so I don't know if he was just lost or if I scared him off. This third one was particularly well hidden so I felt all clever about it.
Last weekend Katie and I met up at Covent Garden and went for a look around the markets after having lunch in one of the pubs. I was pretty close to Covent Garden by this point so rounded off my day with another wander down there using Neil to guide the way.
Next time I shall go caching in the other direction and see what I can find around The British Museum. I'm such a geek.
At least you get to see a picture of the statue that I took to try and cover up for the fact that I was caching, I should so be a spy!