Archive for August 10th, 2009

Just got back from an amazing trip to Scotland — just hubby and me (well, and the as-yet-to-be-named baby due September 16, but he didn’t cause too much trouble except forcing me on a tour of the public loos of the UK).

I’m hoping to write more about the babymoon concept and am exploring avenues for doing that, but in the meantime, I had a few key learnings:

* You know how the airlines say you need to be at the airport 2 hours ahead of time for international flights? Due to wretched Friday afternoon traffic, we arrived at Newark at 7:05 for a 7:35 flight. The check-in agent noted Michael’s platinum status on the airline and called ahead to the gate, a TSA woman taking pity on my hugely pregnant self hailed a cart to rush us through the terminal, and the driver yelled at the gate agent not to shut the door. Net result? We sat down in our seats at 7:28 and the plane took off on time. I hope never to repeat that experience again in my life.

* North Sea beaches look as pristine as Caribbean ones, but you will never get out of your fleece while sitting on them. Even in August.

* Scotch whisky is made from barley, yeast and water. The distilleries in Scotland (and there are many of them — we toured three) all have various elaborate processes and secrets, which I find kind of funny since it turns out that 60% of the whisky’s flavor comes from the wooden barrel it’s aged in. Given that most Scots proceed to dilute their whisky with water, you’re not tasting much beyond oak barrel, water and a lot of alcohol by the time you take a wee dram.

* Senseless gang violence is nothing new. We toured a museum on the Isle of Skye which mentioned a vendetta between two clans. One fine Sunday many years ago, one clan’s members located the other clan at church, set fire to the church and thus killed most of the people inside. They were on their way to get back in their boats when other members of the attacked clan tracked them down, trapped them on the beach and killed all the attackers. The outcome? Dozens of dead people for absolutely no reason whatsoever.

* Some people like to claim that mornings are rushed, what with getting kids ready for school and all that. Apparently, even early in the 20th century, it was common for “crofter” (sharecropper) Scottish women to go out into the fields, hack down some oats, grind them by hand, and then make this into bread or porridge before the children took off for school. Pouring Lucky Charms is nothing.

* Modern communications technology makes it possible to never truly unplug… and we’re OK with that. At one point we were in the Glenmorangie Distillery parking lot in the tiny town of Tain up near the North Sea and I was on my cell phone doing a radio show in Vancouver and Michael was lying in the grass beside a field of thistle talking to one of his teams.

* “Scottish cheeses with oatcakes” is a dessert that exists at all price points, depending on the restaurant. It tastes the same in all of them.