Happy Hogmanay From the Goulds

The Scottish celebrate Hogmanay for New Years. Hogmanay celebrations vary from area to area. According to Wikipedia, for the area we're in:

"In Glasgow and the central areas of Scotland, the tradition is to hold Hogmanay parties involving singing, dancing, the eating of steak pie or stew, storytelling and consumption of copious amounts of alcohol, which usually extend into the daylight hours of January 1."

Done, done and done. We didn't drink a ton, but we did drink our champagne out of sippy cups. Classy.

We went to a street festival in the small farming town of Biggar. Biggar had a large bonfire in the middle of town. Everyone just stood around the fire, drank, attempted to avoid the raining mist and cheered at midnight. It was low-key and the perfect way to celebrate Violet's first New Year's Eve.

Snow (in this case rain) suit for the new year. This picture totally reminds me of "A Christmas Story."





Our crew: Craig, Alison, Isla, Denise, Amy (she's small, look close), Gordon, Violet and Dave.

The Biggar bonfire, could have been bigger. Heh.

Stirling Castle and the Wallace Memorial

Today we finally got some "authentic" Scottish weather. It was dreary, wet and cold. On one hand, it killed the views from the places we visited. On the other, it added to their ambiance.

First was Stirling Castle. It was nice to show Alison around Scotland, as this was her first time to Stirling and we've been to Stirling twice this week on the train. The third time is the charm, as we actually got out and had a look around on today's Stirling excursion.

Not everyone can say that they've pooped in a castle. Violet can!

As ladies, we had to go native, follow the rules and look out.

Dave takes his position of authority very seriously.

I did a little research to figure out what movies Stirling Castle has been in. I didn't turn up much, but I did find out that scenes from "Flash Gordon" were filmed in Scotland. I love Flash Gordon.

Then we went to the Wallace Monument. Had the weather been better, we would have done all sorts of "Braveheart" reenactments here. Be thankful that the weather wasn't better.

Other photos from Stirling.

Fever Update

Violet's fever finally subsided last night. Poor thing woke up sweating at 3 AM and she didn't like that, so everyone woke up at 3 AM. We were so happy that her fever had broken that we didn't mind waking up with no sleep.

This was the first time that Violet had a significant fever and it was scary. Her fever was consistently around 103 for over 24 hours. So far in my life, there is no worse feeling than being able to do absolutely nothing to help my child. Awful.

Whatever it was, she seems to be over it. We're very lucky.

Violet and Isla: Cuteoff 2007 Part I

Today we held the first of several "matching" photo shoots we plan to do with Isla and Violet. Check out Alison's blog for full coverage.

Glasgow Cathedral and the Necropolis

We love churches, old cemeteries and stained glass. Glasgow Cathedral and the Necropolis brought it all to the table.

Glasgow Cathedral is Scotland's only full Gothic building and was founded by St Mungo, the city's patron saint.







The Necropolis is a big Victorian cemetery next to the cathedral. I convinced Alison to let her ugly American side come out and drive up the hillside through the "Authorized Vehicles Only" gate. I mean, who's to say that we're not authorized, right? Besides, we have two babies with us, it was getting dark and we didn't feel like getting stabbed. I can rationalize all day...






I highly recommend breaking the rules and driving to the top of the cemetery, because it looks like a muddy, pain-in-the-ass of a climb.

The Ubiquitous Sh*t

I've been wanting to go to the Ubiquitous Chip for more than two years. Today, we went. The food is decent, the atmosphere is excellent (it's a greenhouse type of set-up in Central Glasgow), but now all is not well in the state of Denmark -- my ass being the state of Denmark.

At lunch Violet found a food that she likes. Ice cream. Great. She likes rice cereal, oatmeal and ice cream. Great dietary start.



...And Isla took "bats in the cave" to a whole new level.

Second Train Ride, Stinky Train Ride

This morning we took the train back from Aberdeen to Glasgow. Guess who stunk the entire train car up and got poop all over her one poop-free outfit, so that she had to wear her poop outfit out to a very nice restaurant?



On the plus side, stinky babies are a sure fire way to ensure that no one sits in the seats adjoining yours.

Dunnottar Castle

Violet perked up a bit mid-day (she's back to having a fever now), so we took the short trip to Dunnottar Castle on the North Sea. The place is stunning, but freezing cold. Definitely worth a stop if you're visiting Scotland and your baby is not sick.











Scottish "bats in the cave:"

First Train Ride: Glasgow to Aberdeen

Yesterday Violet took her first train ride from the knifing capital of Europe, Glasgow, to Aberdeen. Aberdeen is known for being dreary, cold and wet. Today the sun is shining and it is gorgeous outside.









We're in northern Scotland for two days visiting Dave's cousin Rhonda, her husband Scott and their kids Heather and Jenna.







Last night Rhonda made Haggis for Dave. Yuck. Needless to say, I had the chicken.



Violet isn't feeling well today. She's running a fever (it got up to 104, but is currently at 101.9), so we're currently trying to not freak out and to keep in mind one of the reasons we selected Scotland for this trip is because health care is supposed to be pretty decent and readily available. Hopefully we won't have to do any further research. Baby Tylenol seems to be doing the trick so far. Fingers crossed.

When the Buchanans are Away...

...the Goulds will play.

We tried to minimize our jet lag, but there's only so much that you can do to minimize jet lag with a baby. Last night was r o u g h. We did have a little fun though. After the Buchanans went to bed, Violet tried out some of Isla's new toys.



Please let our luggage get here today! We had a total "European Vacation" moment yesterday when Alison took us shopping for some new clothes with our "lost bag" travel allotment from Continental. $50 US (per person) doesn't go very far with the current exchange rate. We still picked up a couple of cool pieces of clothing from Marks and Spencer's -- they're just not very practical for, what I'm pretty sure was, the freezing rain we heard throughout the night last night.

Hopefully we'll get a nice wintry surprise when the sun comes up shortly...

Reporting Live from Scotland

Some highlights from the past 24 hours:

• In an effort to spend our 2007 flex dollars before leaving the country, I purchased new glasses for each of us and spent $467 on over-the-counter medication in less than one hour yesterday morning.


• Violet’s green poop is now the same color as the dark green corduroys I wore on the flight over here. This is noteworthy for two reasons…1. I had to wipe poop on my pants during the flight over and 2. We’re in Scotland. Our luggage is in New Jersey, but we’re in Scotland! – Who doesn’t enjoy sightseeing in poop pants?





• The bulkhead and baby bassinet on the flight worked out very well, except for the fact that Violet can now pull herself up in her crib.





• Violet met Alison, Craig (not pictured…yet) and Isla.





• We found a place to buy replacement parts.





• We went to Rosslyn Chapel – this is the chapel from the “Da Vinci Code.” This is not why we went to Rosslyn Chapel.










• Guess who loves the acoustics of old churches?

Other random photos…