​We folded the last of the laundry pile, put the luggage bags away, washed the car, trimmed the hedges, harvested the potatoes, fulfilled the shop orders and started to properly breathe after the a-European adventure we just had. Each breath seemed to lead to a yearning for another adventure. After all, we’ve been really fortunate to have extended dry weather and sunshine since Spring. It seemed like a good time for a wild adventure.
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​​I thought to myself, should we do Europe again? A quick search on the internet reminded me of the great summer robbery that has begun. The trains, ferries, planes, hotels, campsites, attractions are out in full force to fleece eager families who want to make the best of their summers. I wasn’t willing to be fleeced like that. What can I do then that’s exciting for the whole family and possibly fulfil a bucket list of mine? What can I do for more adventure but less money?

The first step was to eliminate the need to pay for expensive transportation.
Planes were £500 just for a hop over to Paris on the most budget airlines
Ferry tickets went from £124 to £250 for the same Dover to Calais crossing
Trains were £700 from home to Paris excluding booking fees and most trains were already full.

At this point I decided a trip on our Island home would be more sensible than crossing the channel into the continent.

The second step was to eliminate the need to pay for expensive accommodation
Hotels cost between £100-200 a night for the whole family
Holiday rentals that usually cost £250 for 4 nights now cost £600

I was ready to give up at this point. How else am I going to do an adventure without transport or accommodation? Where am I going to sleep? In the wild? In a tent? Wait…I could go CAMPING!
We can take the car and maybe…we could do the NC500 that is on my bucket list! Oh wait…Debra and the kids have never camped and Debra mentioned she didn’t like the idea of paying money to sleep on the ground outside….

I convened an emergency family meeting after consulting the Met Office (that was wildly  optimistically in hindsight for its forecast of fine weather in the Scottish Highlands). Shall we do a budget friendly but massive NC500 adventure by camping all along the route IN 2 DAYS TIME? To my surprise, the vote was unanimously YES.

We got busy packing and got the necessary equipment to make our first camping adventure a pleasant one. It is crazy that if you add the cost of the tent, camping table, stove, gas bottles, sleeping bags, mattresses, boxes to organise our utensils, ground sheet, pillows, food and drink supplies up, they cost less than booking a hotel/holiday rental (4 nights), plane tickets or train tickets. Moreover, everything other than the food and drinks can be reused for another trip in future. 

24 hours before we set off, the insanity of the adventure only dawned upon me when I started planning the route. I knew it was going to hard. 

Day 1

Once I’ve managed to stuff the boot full of our home, bedding and clothes for an intended 11 days, we set off early in the morning towards the Scottish border at 6am. Those who know us know that we are rubbish at functioning in the morning. So yes I made a wrong turn and missed our charging stop and as with all our major trips this summer, the heavens opened and it POURED. Had a slight slide on a tight bend in the rain but some gentle correction and the traction control straightened us up in an instance. Passing numerous horse boxes, combine harvesters, cows and sheep later, we finally arrived at the Scottish border for our first ever camping night as a family.

It was bone dry and there was actually sunshine and warmth! Just 5 miles from the campsite, it was just chucking it down and I was drenched unplugging the car at a charging point. This changeable weather situation will continue to be the theme throughout out adventures. A short shop for small pillows and bargain winter jackets for the exponentially growing kids later, we trudged on. This campsite was pretty nice and had a car charging point, clean showers, considerate campers. The gulls, cows and sheep however, were up at first light (which is about 430am).

​​Day 2

We had a solid 6-7 hours of sleep. I wish we stayed longer at this campsite but we had to continue north towards Inverness to begin the NC500.

Well here is where the wild Scotland really begins. As we headed North, rest stops become a lot more scarce and less fancy. Some charging stops are just by the side of a lay-by with a public toilet. Others were simply by the side of the road. Driving through the wild mountain roads, we were suddenly surrounded by thick fog. We couldn’t see beyond 5 meters. Both front and rear fogs were turned on but visibility was horrendous. A short while later, the pungent smell of soot filled the car’s cabin and visibility improved, we felt like we’ve entered into an evil wasteland. Burnt trees stripped of their leaves were surrounded by other charred and broken tree trunks. It was barren and lifeless. This wildfire devastated 11,827 hectares of moorland at Carrbridge and Dava in the Highlands.

We pushed through and arrived at a very soggy and foggy campsite in Nairn. Uneven ground, noisy neighbours, soggy all around and foggy from the time we arrived to the time we left.

​Day 3
We decided not to stay the full two nights. And as if that wasn’t enough, as we were packing the tent, it poured. I dried it out with a small cloth as much as I could. We headed over to Inverness ran the car’s battery down to almost 5% because charging points were either not accessible, not working or simply didn’t exist. 4 charging points later, we finally found one. The placement of the charger meant the cable was too short if two cars wanted to charge. Worst part was the car next to mine wasn’t charging at all, the tourists literally parked up, plugged in an went for a hike (Pretending to charge so they don’t have to pay for parking). I was fuming mad by then. Debra took the kids for an Ice Cream while I tried to calm myself down in the car after adjusting it a million times to get the charger to fit. It was 540 miles before we even began the 500 miles around the North Coast. I had to tell myself that this is an adventure and there will be complications.

A little pep talk later we pressed on another 105 miles to our next campsite in Wick. We were rewarded with beautiful views of the east coast of the Scottish highlands, tasted Haggis and got soaked in the rain. We drove through the clouds up the mountains before arriving at a very nice campsite with “toilets are so posh that there’s music” according to Matt. But disaster struck as we opened the tent after erecting it, all the rain on the tent we didn’t wipe off had pooled inside the tent. Debra spent the next half hour wiping the interior of the tent dry while I stood outside wringing the cloth every few minutes. A late dinner and a very powerful hot shower later, we all tucked into our comfy beds.
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​But the wildness of the Scottish highlands is also absolutely testing. Just as we reached the point where we needed to turn back, it suddenly turned dark and we helplessly watched the line of clouds and rain move towards us. We hid in a little military guard post for awhile but the rain did not relent. A very soggy 45 minute walk back to the campsite ensued. We stopped by a Lidl and tasted Iru-Bru for the first time. The cough mixture tasting Scottish soft drink did nothing to raise our spirits. We returned to puddles on the camping chair, soaked shoes, and dripping towels. The biggest shock was when we entered the tent and found that the rain had gone through the fly net, slid off the waterproof windows and soaked all the bags of clean clothing in our tent. The living area was flooded once again. 

We’ve grown to hate this symbol by now.  It must be the go to symbol when meteorologist have no clue. It is a symbol of madness. You’ll truly be able to experience a few seasons in a day in Scotland. No wonder the Romans gave up and left. They must have felt the same frustrations we did.

Thankfully unlike the Romans, we had access to a launderette with washing machines and dryers at the campsite. All the clothing went for a wash. We needed a wash too. A simple dinner made under a sheltered picnic area later, the kids hit the sack while I tried to fill in the gaps of my charging plan on the even wilder west coast of the highlands.

Day 5

Easily the most idyllic day of the whole trip. We had sunshine most of the day so the kids ran around the campsite and found some friends from Glasgow, Leicester and Essex to play football, rugby and tag with. It was so nice to see that the kids all genuinely enjoyed playing together. A lot of laughter and no fuss. That meant I had time to sit down, sip a cup of tea and read a book. Debra managed to have some shuteye and it was a joyful day of camping.

​We made a quick dash to Tesco before Debra whipped up the best camping meal we had all week. Mash, gravy, veggies, and BBQ maple pork loin. Just as we packed most of the things ready to hit the roads again, it turned cold that evening and rained on and off through the night. We are hardened campers by now and slightly more experienced to realise we shouldn’t leave our stuff outside to “dry”.

Day 6
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We planned to leave early so we could arrive early at our next campsite in Tongue. Yes, Tongue is a place on the northern coast in Scotland. As usual, the weather had other ideas and we had to sit out a morning shower. After drying the tent as much as we could, we left for John O’ groats. I must say that I was quite proud at that point that we’ve managed to drive all the way from home to John O’ Groats. Not forgetting that we drove from home to France, Belgium, Holland and Germany just the week before.

If you are driving an electric car to Scotland, you’ll find chargers at some of the most beautiful places. But the overall charging experience can be quite shocking if you try using an app or just your bank card. Phone networks are sketchy and many of the attached card machines don’t work very well. My best advice is, order an RFID card from Electroverse. It works with Chargeplace Scotland’s chargers that make up the vast majority of fast DC chargers in the Highlands. Always plan extra stops. We once couldn’t find a charger that was supposed to be there and ran into a fast charger that wasn’t on the map.

​Shortly after we were done eating, a couple entered the cafe with their massive pet dog and the kids went forward and asked to pet it. I was shocked beyond words. For children who used to run away at the sight of an animal, they have grown beyond my imagination. And yes, I’ve been battling requests for a dog at home. I’d love one too but I still have not gotten over the fact that I’ll lose them in 10-15 years time. The guinea pigs we had left a huge hole in our hearts when they passed on.
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We were back on the road again after lunch and arrived at the campsite in Tongue. It looked nothing like what we saw in the pictures. The moment the doors open, the dreadful midges began their assault for fresh blood. More than that, we felt really uncomfortable at the place. We decided to drive a little further down the NC500  and look for another campsite further down the South Western Coast. It turned out to be a choice I now regret.

Gwyn got car sick on one of the roughest and windiest mountain roads. Had to slow down and we arrived at the next camp close to dusk. Unfortunately, dusk is the time when massive swarms of the infamous Scottish midges are most active, hungry and brutal. From the moment we exited the car, they swarmed our face and dug into our eye lids, ears, neck and anywhere that’s exposed. They will even fly into any gaps in your clothing and feed inside your clothing. I cannot express the alarming distress one feels when they begin to swarm around your face. We kept the kids in the car and set up the tent in record time before putting a kettle on inside the tent for some fast instant food. Some midges managed to enter the living area of our tent but we managed to keep the sleeping areas midge-free. It was also a very difficult night because the neighbours were busy smoking, smoking weed, getting drunk and being rowdy until past midnight.

I’m writing this post almost two weeks after our trip and the bites still look ghastly and feel insanely itchy.

Day 7

We had two options:

1. Continue the journey camping completely unprepared and endure the savage blood thirsty skin slashing creatures (midges have scissors like shears for a mouth to lacerate your skin to form a pool of blood to drink from).
2.  Do a long driving day and finish up the final bits of the NC500 before finding refuge at a hotel nearer to civilisation. Skip the other campsites we’ve planned for the journey south.

According to Matt in his journal, “Ytd was midges galore so today, we are going to a hotel. (We’re weak)”. Just like the Romans many years ago, we made our exit from the highlands with our tails between our legs. It was a harsh introduction to the wilder side of the British isles. We packed up our entire camp including the tent into the car in a record 35 minutes while helplessly having our blood robbed of us.
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While nature was quite unfriendly towards us, we met some nice people with amazing talents at the Bridge Cottage Art Cafe in Poolewe. The welcome was warm and the food was delicious. The incredibly talented family displayed their art and photography on the floor above the cafe. They even helped direct us as we had to reverse out of the charging lot onto a busy road. It was a much needed visit after what we’d experienced.

​​If you thought things were smooth sailing from there, it wasn’t. We drove to our planned charging stop and the chargers were broken. We went further to the reserve charging spot and it was also broken and blocked by a French car that parked across both chargers. We were now stranded. We were stuck with a fellow electric car owner who drove all the way up from Land’s end to John O’ Groats and now completing the NC500. Luckily, the French family returned and moved their ridiculously parked car. The fellow electric car owner and I both called Chargeplace Scotland and asked them to help. They were absolutely unhelpful and told us to drive 50 miles away to the next charging point when both of us were close to empty on charge. ZERO help rendered. Not even an offer to reboot the charger remotely. We tried our RFID cards, phone apps, debit cards of different banks but nothing worked.

Just as I released the brakes and started my risky journey to return to our last slow charging point (a couple of miles more than I have range for), the fellow electric car owner ran after our car and told me to stop! He said the charger suddenly worked and his car was charging. Phew! It was a close call. We stood around and had a conversation while his car charged and when it was done, my car charged up fine too.

As if Scotland really pitied our harrowing experiences for the past week, we were gifted some of the most epic views along the way and at Glen Docherty Viewpoint. We’ll try to put up videos of some of stunning drives we had on socials, so follow us for more!
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​We closed the loop of the NC500 journey and drove down to Glenrothes. Sadly, our tent bedding was more comfortable than the hotel beds and the fighting couple next door disturbed our sleep.

Day 8
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We decided that we had had enough. We are proud that we’ve conquered the NC500 but we were ready for some home comforts after a pretty rough week. The 350 mile journey back home was an arduous one. After breakfast at the hotel where tourists were piling their plates and jostling over food as if they haven’t eaten for ages, I battled my exhaustion and kept driving south. We were once again plagued by non-functioning chargers as we headed home. The only difference was that we weren’t in a wild place with no alternatives. It was nice to be back in England. As night fell, it became increasingly hard to stay awake but some energy drinks and snacks always do the trick. We had to drive past midnight before crossing the county lines back where home is.
It was a great feeling of accomplishment when we finally parked up on our driveway.

I knew it was going to be challenging just not THAT challenging. It is crazy to look at what it turned out to be:

1 tent
2 countries
4 people
4 campsites
6 nights in a tent
7 days in the highlands
38 charging stops
1546 miles (2488km)
Zero tailpipe emissions

Driving via the west from the Midlands
Through the Scottish Borders,
Onto Inverness
500 miles around the highlands via John O’ Groats back to Inverness
Back down to England via Glenrothes & Edinburgh
Finally home down the east to the Midlands

We managed to overcome long distances with a small battery, sketchy charging infrastructure, camping in the scottish highlands as a family with children, the trying weather and prepared food at camp that still catered to our food allergies and intolerances. This trip was far from an easy luxury trip. We faced a lot of challenges but through the chaos, we’ve made fond memories together. It wasn’t easy but it feels like an accomplishment. It feels like we can overcome big challenges together. It feels like we can one day do The overland together.

We started of 2024 with Storm Henk dumping more than 150% of the usual rainfall and lashing the British isles with gale force winds. Winter was bleak and cold. Not the best start to the year having many unwritten essays AND the dissertation waiting to be written. Worse still, the landlord also dropped the bomb on us by informing us that we had to look for a new home by summer. Though he did promise he wouldn't evict us before my graduation, it was still a hard pill to swallow. Life had to go on and birthdays have to be celebrated because the kids will be sad if you don't. Those who are parents and/or with my birthdate will know. We devoured Colin the Caterpillar and drank bubbly pretend champagne! ​

Note: Because this post is really just highlighting the year's events, I won't go into the details because there are dedicated blog and social media posts about all our travels this year. They are free to access!

Januarys always feel a little sad for me because, December. You have all the wonderful gatherings, decorations, holiday seasons and celebrations in December and then it's back to the grind very abruptly. And this explains why I didn't sound excited describing my own birthday. I've never associated my birthday as something celebratory because it always falls on the first couple of days of the new school year. Though we follow a very different routine now, it is still hard to shake those feelings accumulated over 16 years as a student and 5 years as a school teacher.  

But part of us moving to the UK was about healing and exercising our freedom to choose how we should live. Therefore we chose to make homeschooling flexible, rigorous and interest driven at the same time. Despite all the challenges, it was a good year for homeschooling. 

We've got two very motivated students who have chosen a skill on their own accord and practice so that they could excel. We've also got two students who breezed their UK SATs that we just decided to administer on a random day. I feel that we are definitely on the right track in terms of ensuring our kids do not go through the same educational traumas we encountered. These traumas shape you as a person and it is very hard to undo them. 

So while Debra very valiantly held the fort for homeschooling and cooking, I was imprisoned to my chair and laptop for most of January till May. Most of the 19,000 words required that semester was penned in the bleak mid-winter. Gwyn became so accustomed to seeing me type on Microsoft word that she would sternly question me about the word count that barely moved. 

My chair imprisonment was only punctuated by a terrible flu and a surprise visit from the kid's favourite aunt. 

It was a really nice time together and we thought she'll probably visit again in a couple of years for another holiday. There were lots of tears while we travelled home from Heathrow that evening. 

All the travelling around gave us the momentum of seeing more places in February. In between trying to work on the major research paper, I fell into an absolute rabbit hole of wanting to see Scotland. We did try and visit Shakespeare's hometown to make up for it. That just made us want to see what the land of unicorns, whiskey, bagpipes and deep history had to offer. 

Still can't believe we drove a total of 12-13 hours for the return trip. It was a good couple of days in Edinburgh we are so glad we said yes to the adventure. 

Spring was a little disappointing because yeah the chair imprisonment! It was getting all consuming and anxiety inducing because the dateline was drawing close. Despite cracking my head over the ethics approvals and data analysis, we found time to walk off our anxieties along the seaside town of Skegness. We also managed to pop by an amazing brand new cafe in our community, watch the squirrels, enjoy the blooms, bring the kids for their first live concert.

I think it is worth highlighting that when went for the unveiling of the late Queen Elizabeth II's new statue, the kids told the reporters there were okay to be interviewed (and made it on the actual BBC News) with their friends. I don't know how they turned out so audacious and confident. I don't think Debra and I are good examples haha! 

At this point, the birth pangs of the dissertation baby was getting unbelievably unbearable. But I'm happy to announce that the dissertation baby was born successfully and I was released from my chair. Just in time, t-shirt weather and sunshine was upon us! So we made use of all the long sunshine hours and saw Cambridge as well as Hafren forest. It felt so freeing to be behind the steering wheel and not the laptop, on the camera trigger and not the word counter. 

We also got to yell the whole building down because Man United beat Man City to win the FA cup in the finals. To be honest, I completely lost faith by half time. The kids made the trophy that morning in faith and I was absolutely ashamed for feeling a fair bit of doubt. 

With summer in full swing and a window of good dry weather in sight, we were once again beset with the question "to go or not to go". I sprung the question on the family at an emergency meeting around our bed and the council voted 3-1 to do CORNWALL! We packed our luggage that afternoon and headed down for the ridiculously picturesque south west coast. 

This year we have been very fortunate to be visited by my entire family. They flew into the UK for more than 2 weeks to be with us and visit the place. We are also really fortunate to be given the right to vote in UK's General Election this year. These are things we don't take for granted at all. And to top it off our children have decided they would like to make their commitments to following Jesus. 

It was great showing the family the land we call home now. We traversed beautiful parks, museums and enjoyed meals and rode steam trains. It almost felt like the two weeks happened in a flash!

At no point of pursing this I dared expect to be conferred a Master's degree with distinction. Not even in my wildest dreams I would conceive the idea of topping my course. The majority of my Singaporean education has taught me that I'm never good enough. So I did doubt myself. Moreover, it was hard going back to school more than 10 years after undergraduate/post-grad teacher training. These are positive memories will help me say no to negativity for the years ahead.

With this chapter closed, we focused on enjoying the rest of summer and then addressing the elephant in the room. But first we decided to take the kids to the cinema for the first time in their lives. Yes tell me these kids grew up during Covid without telling me so. We throughly enjoyed The Minions but it made them talk gibberish for the next few days about bottoms. haha!

The rest of our summer was dominated by going for property viewings and hosting viewings for our landlord. We were anxious to move while there's sunshine and long daylight hours. This was punctuated by our little trips to Sheffield for the Monopoly Trail, the Black Country Museum as well as the seaside town of Skegness. 

When you know that the Earth is going to do its tilt in a couple months time and you won't get this much sunshine, we were naturally very motivated to make the best of summer. Our second Balloon Festival (even better than last year!), numerous meet ups with friends to enjoy the countryside, more Welsh mountains and the Royal Mint where we realised what could make our boy smile the widest....GOLD! 

As summer drew to a close, that also meant that it was Birthday season! Yummy cakes, family time and presents. Love their big smiles whenever there's cake ❤️

What made the kids smile even more was that their favourite aunt was going to be in the UK from Autumn semester for her studies!

But it was also around the beginning of Autumn that we received the 2 month notice to vacate our home. A lot of end September and October was a complete blur. We searched every major town in the county for a home because we didn't want to give up the community we've grown with for the past two years. I still call it our miracle because it is! One day, Debra suddenly received a call from a friend who just landed in Spain for her holiday, we were a little confused as to why she would call us while on a nice holiday! By the end of the call, our search for a home was ended. We were offered a property in the very village most of our community and friends live. 

So while the leaves were falling and storm season began again, we were now suddenly thrusted into a new direction. We had two months to pack all our belongings, plan and purchase all the furniture/appliances we needed for a partly furnished house and move in November. Before that we had to sell our beloved car and get a bigger car to do the moving ourselves and also accommodate anyone who visited us. 

​It was a month of madness.

I don't know how but we even managed to squeeze in an entire day at Legoland Windsor to surprise the kids. They really enjoyed the spooky theme for Halloween! As if we didn't have enough excitement in our lives, we took Gwyn on her first legit roller coaster ride and I was genuinely scared as an adult. ​

We were rewarded with one of the most beautiful displays of the Aurora Borealis right from our study's window. It's like the skies threw us a farewell lights show before the endless packing went on. Eventually, we did get there after 4 full car loads and many trips up and down the stairs of our old apartment. My watch recorded me climbing 61 floors on one of the days. 

We made it!!! After an entire week of unpacking, building numerous Ikea furniture, slogging it out in the garden, extracting carpets, my laptop no longer recognised my fingerprint. And we were absolutely shattered. Just in time, the kids got to enjoy this winter's first snow! (Yes, Gwyn scored a headshot 😂)

We visited Christmas markets, put up the Christmas tree and did our best to settle into the new home, surroundings and our new routines. We've been truly blessed considering how precarious it was just 2.5 months ago.

We were so excited to enjoy all the Christmas festivities in the village church and actually did manage to attend a few. We managed the yearly Christingle service, Carols by Candlelight, Kids Christmas party and trail with all the good people and friends! In the midst of all these, we were also acutely aware that my dad would be so happy to be part of this. 

We squeezed in a trip to Cambridge and before we knew it, it was Christmas Day! 
Opening presents was the first order of business before the best lunch of pigs in blanket and mouth-watering goose fat roast potatoes. As per our family tradition, we watched the King's Christmas speech (it was the Queen for many years). 

Sadly by late Christmas afternoon, Debra and I were completely down with high fever. Things ground to a halt. Over the next few days, the kids too developed high fever. A trip to the supermarket medicine aisle confirms that there's a massive spread of this horrible flu. 

We are all on the mend now and hope we can enjoy the last day of 2024 before we welcome 2025. This is how our year went. Huge challenges, more than sufficient grace. Time and time again, we have been reminded that miracles do happen! From all of us at Hiro & Jack, we pray that you'll experience that too and have a very joyful 2025! 

I spent the whole of summer mulling over visiting Scotland. First I waited for the hotel prices to fall because summer prices were crazy. Then I waited for the weather to settle but we have had 10 named storms since September. Living in the midlands also gives us very good access to most places in England and Wales. Naturally, we chose the 1-2 hour drives over an almost 6 hour one. But Scotland never left my mind. In fact, I continued looking up hotel prices and weather so often that Debra got a little annoyed.  Before we knew it, it was 2024. 

​Last week, we had a clear break in the weather when most of the UK was dry. I thought it was an amazing time to make the 676 mile (1088km) round trip. It was after lunch and I got a little distracted from writing. I scoured the internet for reasonably price family rooms in Scotland. This time the stars all aligned. 

KIDS!!! COME UPSTAIRS FOR A FAMILY MEETING! Our parliamentary vote went 3 against 1. The kids were totally on board with heading to Scotland. Within 30 minutes, a tiny luggage was packed and we got into François (our tiny car is lovingly named that because it is a French make haha!) for our super impromptu trip to Edinburgh, Scotland! 

ENGLAND ENGLAND ENGLAND......SCOTLANDDDDDD!!!!
We got into Scotland a little past bed time and immediately settled into our hotel room. To be very honest, the night didn't go as planned. You see, since the kids were born, we've NEVER shared a bed or room with them. In all our travels, we've always given them separate connecting rooms/rooms next door. Believe it or not, it was the first time in almost 10 years we shared the room with them. You combine that with the "first night syndrome" when you get used to sleeping in another bed, we barely got any sleep. I salute all the parents who co-sleep with their children. HOW DO YOU GET ANY SLEEP?!

The next morning, we enjoyed our own gluten free PB&J and each got a nice soak in the bath before heading into Edinburgh.

Edinburgh is absolutely GORGEOUS! It feels so much more intact than London. The old buildings seem to go on forever, seemingly unaffected by modernity. The charm of the cobbled stones and sand coloured stone buildings instantly stole our hearts. Not surprisingly, the person who voted against the trip had her heart stolen as well. 

I must add that I have nothing but respect for these men in kilts because it was absolutely freezing cold. If you ever visit Scotland dress EXTRA WARM. We had the same temperature in the Midlands but it felt WAY colder in Scotland. I think COLD is always spelt with bold letters in Scotland. Just to give you an idea how cold it always is....they simply leave ice cube deliveries outside. 

All warmed up, we were back admiring the stunning streets, buildings and views from the Royal Mile to Edinburgh Castle. 

It is quite expensive to visit the insides of the castle so we decided to spend our time at the National Museum of Scotland instead. Completely free of charge and so much to see you'll need an entire day to see everything. On our way to the Museum, we saw many souvenir shops along the Royal Mile. They are mostly chain tourist traps owned by the same people selling the same cheap factory made souvenirs. The prices were tempting but as craftspeople who ran a handcraft business, it didn't sit right with us. It is the local people, businesses and crafts people that need the most support. In fact, they are the custodians of the local culture and traditions. In the end, we shopped at the National Museum of Scotland's museum shop on items made by Scottish craftspeople (and wool from Scottish sheep). The profits also go towards the upkeep of the museum. 

Apart from the shop, we had a pretty fun time learning about magnificent animals, space, transport and fashion before calling it a day. That was as far as our feet could take us. 

We really didn't manage to do very much for this short trip. We are longing to return to Scotland again because there is just so much of the country that we've not seen. This was a very short and brief introduction but it was an impactful one. So impactful that on the way back south, Gwyn asked us if there were churches and ballet classes in Scotland. (her current priorities in life haha!) We told her there is and her immediate response was "WE CAN MOVE TO SCOTLAND THEN!" + a big smile on her face. 

P.S...dont' worry we are not considering that! We are fine where it's a little less rainy and cold in the Midlands.