Posterous theme by Cory Watilo
Miss Poppy

Happy snaps from the Isle of Man!

Hey everyone!

Some more photos - this time from the Isle of Man!

Our hotel room looked out at the Irish Sea, this photo was taken at about 10pm, sun was only just going down. I love that the sun is out for so long!!!
Mum met up with a distant rellie, this is him - Peter.
We found this little amputee doll at the museum... still not sure on the story of the giant wheel ( I should try to listen better )... and also the graveyard Mum made me go to *sadface*.
I love the photo of Mum and I, can't remember where we were, but it was on the coast (which is the entire Island really) and she went for a walk and stole some shells for her collection back home. I found the dog poo pic while Mum was stealing nature. I love how the poo is steamy.. very realistic example!!!! ;)
The last 2 were taken in Peel, which is on the west coast and really pretty. 

miss P

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Happy snaps from Glasgow!

Hey everyone!

I am spamming the blog today... woohoo!
Most people that know me know that I take lots of photos. So far on this holiday I wasn't really taking that many. Glasgow was even worse, I was rather distracted... ;)

Here are some happy snaps from Glasgow....
A gypsy lady working for money (instead of begging) - I quite liked her. I think she was about 400 years old and she played some lovely tunes on her accordion!!
V IS FOR VEGAN! This V seemed to be a familiar sight at all of the amazing veggie places we went to in Glasgow... I think it was there to remind us that veggie folk have super powers...
Mikey and I had a great day at the Kelvin Grove Museum, and that is us out the front. The dinosaur pic is for my nephew Jude, and the heads I just loved very much, a fantastic installation. The painting with speech bubbles was great - you could enter in lines that would (eventually) appear in them. So I promptly wrote for the lady "I wish he was a rich French vegetarian"...... teehee
Have also included some toilet graffiti from one of the veggie cafes- I love toilet graffiti. Sometimes drunk people are really poetic. ;)

miss P

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Slave labour in Scotland..

Hi everyone

So I bought a dress at Zara (♥) and Mum offered to hem it (because I am so short) so I could wear it while we were away... what an amazing Mum I have!!!!

I took this snap, and it was such a funny moment, and took me back to my childhood with Mum sewing and me annoying her, and then I ultimately get this look... I know the family will laugh when they see this.....

I LOVE MY MUM! 

miss P

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Happy snaps from Loch Ness!

Hi everyone!

Here are some snaps from our time adventuring around the Loch Ness!

The little pub opposite our B&B... some nice snaps from when we were on the Loch Ness itself... Mum's first snow (blurry photo from the car, she was SUPER excited!) and another snap of the rolling green hills that we drove through minute after minute... mile after mile...

Enjoy!
miss P

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Nessie Hunting.... video proof!

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Hey everyone!

So we are back in Oz now, and I'm catching up on the blog. I got a bit sick and then a bit distracted and well, didn't blog as much from the road as I thought I would ;-)

So let's play catch up today!

First up, here is some video proof that the Loch Ness Monster exists!!! I was lucky enough to spot her while on a boat going down the Loch Ness.....

YAY!!

;)
miss P

Isle of Man: a trip back in time!

Hi everyone!

So we ended up on the Isle of Man because my Mum is a Mylrea, which is a very good Manx name, with much family history there.

She has always been a proud Manx, and was very excited about going there after so many years of hearing stories.

Someone in Glasgow made comment to us that the Isle of Man was like going back 50 years, and holy moly were they right!!!!!!

We flew over on a tiny plane, and it took about 20 minutes in the air from Glasgow. We picked up a hire car, and made our way to what was the most shittest hotel ever!! I had been going so so so well with all of my accommodation choices, but woah this hotel sucked arse!!

We were pretty tired and settled in for the night, 2 little lumpy beds. My bed was so shit that I slept on an angle...the mattress was the worst ever (even worse than the hostel In Sydney I stayed with Lovejoy!!) !! I can't believe we didn't just pack up and walk out?? But the next morning I did tell the receptionist (she had crazy eye too- ekk!) that it was the most shitful room and shitful beds. They promptly upgraded us to a bigger room with views of the Irish Sea. It was still pretty shit, but less shit than the last room. We decided to stay, and in retrospect still don't really know why!!!! ;-)

However we made the most of our time there, and we both really loved the Isle of Man.

The island is only about 52km long and 22km wide, and it is most famous for the TT motorbike race every year. The TT was over just a day before we got there (we planned it to not be there during the race) and it was pretty cool driving around the coast with all of the race equipment still up- like padding on buildings and poles.

The island is also well known for not having a speed limit for the most part- woohoo!!! Zoom zoom!!!!! I had fun!!!

Everywhere we drove was amazing. And beautiful. And old. Either REALLY old as in ancient, or DATED from years gone by when tourism was huge. Back in the day it was the place to go for summer holidays in the region...but now there are heaps of half empty run down hotels and rooms along the promenade in Douglas (the capital) which is really sad. When you are in the museum and you see photos of the hay-day it is even sadder!

We spent a bit of time at the Manx Museum, Mum did some research on the family.. And generally loved all of the history. It is so well curated we were constantly impressed and in awe.

As is my hot topic in all destinations- there was a great veggie place!!!!! Mum jumped for joy at the site of salad, and it was at about this point that we started to feel ill at the sight of potatoes.

There are 3 vegetables that I think will be off the menu for awhile when I get home- potatoes are in first place. Zucchini and peas are fighting it out for second place.

Menus always have "potatoes and vegetables".. Who knew they should have their own food group?? Driving around was easy and fun. Everywhere was so close... It took about 18 mins from east to west!! I loved Peel, it was really beautiful! We also found a great fish n chip shop and I introduced mum to vinegar on chips. She's not a fan which I am surprised at.... But I can't pour enough vinegar!!! Could do without the potatoes though!!

We checked out a graveyard in Andreas- which was one of the main spots for Mylreas. Finding it was interesting... I drove into what turned out to be some blokes property- looking for a graveyard. After we drove out and pulled up out the front he closed the front gate.... Don't think he had closed it in 50years... Whoops....

Eventually found it, and mum got right into finding relatives. I have a real issue with walking on graves and it was really windy and crows started hovering.... And I have watched the Exorcist movies wayyyy too many times, and it totally freaked me out..... I ended up sitting in the car and left my Mum behind in the graveyard. Good daughter or bad daughter?? This is debatable....

However it is amazing that the graves go back as far as the 1500s, and probably further had Mum kept looking... After this we also checked out St Judes, and took some photos for my brother's little boy Jude!

Mum also looked up Mylreas in the phone book and made some random calls. She ended up meeting a distant cousin, Peter, which was great! He was very nice and I think it was icing on the cake for Mums trip there. I hope they keep in touch!

We talked about the history of the Isle of Man, and the lifestyle of the island. Peter told us a great local saying "Traa dy Liooar" which means "time enough"... They go slow and take their time with everything.. I found this most frustrating on our last day... It was pissing down with rain and I had dropped mum off at the museum and did some washing and went to the post office. Good god! By the time I picked mum up late in the day I was ready to scream, cry, and maybe kill someone... Small country towns make me a little crazy....

I managed to return the hire car unharmed. Our plane to Belfast was the smallest thing I have ever seen... I'm pretty sure it was a toy plane actually...

It was full, all 19 passengers. There were 2 pilots and they sat just in front of us.... We could see out the front windscreen of the plane!!! Wtf!!! Also, one of the pilots handed out mints as we got on... I don't think most of the pilots for Emirates would even unwrap a mint for themselves let alone hand them out to passengers. When he got on, he also loaded the two little steps that we used to get on the plane. They had a tiny hook next to the tiny door for safety... No one could stand up straight. Pretty sure it was built for smurfs!!!

The safety video was by a bunch of 10 year old Manx kids, which was pretty cute, the wings of the plane were above us out the window which was a new concept... And there wasn't enough room to take jackets off and mum was glad she had hers on (a raincoat no less) when water poured out of the air con above her seat. The baggage was stored in the nose of the plane, but most people had carry on. I don't know how they fitted it under their seats?? There was no where above the seats to store anything,

It was only about 20 mins in the air to Belfast... And it was surprisingly smooth. I will admit it was the first time I've ever got on a plane and checked if my life jacket was under my seat. So I was glad that we survived and made it one piece... Phew!

I have a photo of the plane somewhere, will dig it out when I upload the other pics. You can almost see it from behind the baggage cart!!!

I have attached a picture of the Isle of Man symbol which I really loved. The story of where it came from differs from who you talk to you and what book you pick up...

Another really famous resident of the Isle of Man are the Manx Cats... But I only saw a stuffed one at the museum, no real ones in the street. So I will file them under "myth" for now. Meow!!

So we have been to London, Newcastle, Edinburgh, Fort Augustus, Glasgow, Isle of Man, and now it's time for Northern Ireland..... First stop Belfast!

miss P

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Sent from my iPad

Glasgow!

Hi everyone!

Our time at Loch Ness was wonderful but we hit the road again after two nights in the lovely B&B Abbey Cottage. The next destination was Glasgow.

Driving the little merc was super. I'm very glad we had a good car for this drive in particular. It was one of the most beautiful routes... And one of the most scary! Some of the roads were so tiny they really are only wide enough for one car at a time, and you have to wait at the lights for your turn. Many of them you just had to move to the side really quickly so you didn't die!

Mum took many many photos, and kept saying "oh my god look at that" but I couldn't, because I was fretting looking at the road!

When we got into the valley of the mountains, the views were amazing. I couldn't believe how many people were hiking? Anytime we saw a hiker or cyclist one of us would end up saying "they are nnnuts!".... Some of my friends are into this healthy holiday thing, but I don't get it!!!! These people looked cold and worn out- I'd rather be warm for starters, and you know, relaxed!!!

But there were a few moments driving through the valley that I didn't feel so relaxed... One in particular was a tiny bridge we were on, where a camper van suddenly came out of no where, going in the opposite direction. It gave me such a fright, I really did think we might die. There was no where to turn or move, and I closed my eyes, breathed in (funny how that is an automatic reaction hey?) and just put my foot down.... We obviously survived... And yes Mum screamed! :-/

I think it was after that she said something about me being a reckless driver hahahhaa... So I offered for her to drive but she quickly changed her words to "oh no, you're doing a good job".... Bloody back seat drivers!!!!! 

We had a pit stop in Sterling, a lovely town, and famous for being William Wallace's home. 

In the end, we made it to Glasgow alive and well. The final few roads were beautiful and wide and much nicer to drive. We dropped the hire car off and made our way to the hotel. 

In the cab to the hotel I asked the driver about the weather prediction for rain and he said "it's rained everyday here for 52 years love" hahaha.... :-/

The lovely Mikey had flown in from London for the weekend and we went off adventuring and left Mum to her own devices for the most part.

We went out to dinner to a great veggie restaurant called the 13th Note, and it felt and looked like the Zoo, circa 1995... It was really lovely!! I got to eat deep fried tofu (gluten free!) and this made me super happy!!! 

Sunday was a lovely day, we had brekky with Mum, and went off to the Kelvin Grove museum, ate more amazing veggie food (this time at The 78), and spent the afternoon there enjoying the bar.... and Mum joined us for dinner later on.

I really wish Brisbane had some decent vegetarian places, and like The 78 in particular!!! Very cool bar, great food, atmosphere, relaxing... I loved it!

That day Mum was walking the streets, seeing the sites and taking it all in.... She loved Glasgow, especially all of the architecture in the city. At this point Mum was still resisting the use of maps, and she admitted later about taking an unfortunate amount of time to find her way back to the hotel.... Awww!

We did the hop on hop off tourist bus the next day, and it was great! Glasgow was definitely my pick of Scotland. Mum's was Loch Ness.

It was pretty cold when we were there... crazy Scottish wind! Overall it was a great weekend in Glasgow, and we were all very sad for our time there to end.

There is probably so much amazing stuff to tell you about Glasgow, but I was distracted and can't remember all of it. I did get a spoon though. Woo! And- Mikey bought me a London spoon and also a Will & Kate wedding spoon- I had forgotten to buy them myself while in London! I've never been off my spoon game before!! So the spoon collection continues to grow at a healthy rate.

Mikey headed back to London around the same time we flew to the Isle of Man... We were all at the airport together, and on our way to the boarding gate for our flight, Mum wanted to go to the toilet. We said oh look there is a lift down to a toilet, which Mum took.... And it turned out to be a lift to the baggage collection... And yes, Mum had to go through security all over again.... Yikes! We almost missed our flight, but it all worked out in the end..... Mikey waved us off and we left the motherland for the tiny little Isle of Man....

miss P

Nessie hunting!!

Hi everyone!!

Well we couldn't come all the way to Scotland without going to look for ol Nessie!

We hit the road from Edinburgh, it was a stunning drive! Rolling green hills on your left, your right, in front of you and also in the rearview mirror. This started Mum's new hobby of taking photos in the car. Click click click click click click....

We made a stop at Tesco on the way.. The "Free From" range is super! You name it they have a wheat/dairy free version of it!! We parked and got out of the car but I couldn't figure out how to turn off the TomTom and we were in the door and it was really loud saying "turn around when possible"... Haha...

We drove north west up to Fort Augustus, which is at the base of the Loch Ness. There were so many amazing old buildings, and lots of awesome farm animals hanging out together-sheep n' cows in perfect harmony!

Driving alongside the different lochs was really beautiful... The water looked amazing! It was all very much postcard perfect.

We stayed in a fantastic B&B called Abbey Cottage. I highly recommend it if you are ever in the nighbourhood! It was so pretty, clean and well let's just say it ruined me- no other B&B will ever live up this place! The boys who run it were really helpful, and we made the most of our time there.

We got there late at night (but of course it is daylight until 10.30pm so that doesn't mean so much?) and we had a good sleep, in preparation for Nessie hunting the next day!

Woke up, and first of all went for a cruise down the Loch Ness- so very pretty! The water looks black which was very surprising! The captain of the boat reminded me of an Irish version of my uncle Gary! Great story teller. He (the Captain, not Gary) is a believer, and said that they keep up the myth of Nessie to protect the truth, that the Loch is full of little sea horses (just like you could buy in Archie comics in the 80s woohoo!!).....

Did you know... That the Loch Ness contains more fresh water than than all the other lakes in England and Wales combined! And that it is estimated that the entire world population could fit in there- TIMES TEN! I didn't know these things... All very interesting!

We went for a drive up to Drumnadrochit and checked out the weakly touristy centers and museums... I loved the myths as much as the myth busting. However the only Nessie we saw was a bunch of stuffed look-a-likes in souvenir shops!

The drive was so lovely, Mum took thousands of photos... And made lots of comments about the narrow roads- little did we know that it was nothing at all compared to the next leg of our adventure!

For the sake of my nephew Jude who loves his dinosaurs.... Nessie is a probably a plesiosaur, and must have survived the ice age. The Loch Ness is so big it doesn't even freeze in winter!! More for the mystery!!!

All in all, so very glad we went there... Fabulous! Photos coming soon! :)

miss P

My Mum's mad photography skillz..

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Perhaps this post will appeal best to my family (and no doubt Angus will tell me I am mean!).

Over the years my Mum has been known to have pretty awesome photography skills. She is fantastic at chopping off heads, including her own fingers in the photo, adding the blurry filter, and often taking such great random photos of nothing at all..... Like her handbag or foot.

On this trip Mum has added more skills, including that of taking millions of photos out of the car window, which often includes part of the car, reflection from the glass and sometimes lucky ol me.

Here is one photo I thought you might like of some horses.

I love you Maz!

miss P