Great Scot, it's a great Scot!

Time to introduce our favourite flatmate (and landlady), Mhairi Brown! Some of you may recognise her from her travels in NZ, but if not, she's Scottish and very good at tennis. The picture below we took of her playing in the Scottish Open at the semifinals (she won).

We were a bit worried when we first moved in that she'd be one of these athletes that live on a strict diet of carbohydrates and fresh air and we'd feel horribly guilty about the odd glass of wine, but luckily we were mistaken. In fact, she's an excellent barmaid and has on many occasions has greeted us at the door with a well prepared G&T.

Over the sea to Skye

We took our first proper holiday from our jobs and jaunted up to Skye. On the way we climbed a small hill called Ben Nevis, you can see Mark halfway up or so. There were quite a few small children and large tourists climbing too so we felt the challenge was somewhat dimished. The crazinest bit was meeting Kieth Agmen from Christchurch on the top (when we didn't even know he was in the UK).

Skye has a reputation for beautiful scenery, rain and midges. We only managed to see one of the these; luckily it was the first. There was also a heap of castles - the one to the left was a particular favourite with the swarm of camera wielding tourists (I don't really have the right to be scathing about this do I).

We roughed it the first two nights but our last night we splashed out on a hostel room which contained the usually early-to-bed snorer so I do wonder if the tent wasn't the better option. The free hot chocolate was a nice touch though.

The spectacular Cuillin mountains had Mark eagar to return with his climbing gear (and a decent climbing partner) but since he had neither we contented ourselves with a trek to some iron-age remains (that we never found - navigation by tourist map should be a new orienteering event).

It's painting, but I wouldn't call it art

Hello. I went paintballing at the weekend with some guys (and one girl) from work. To give you some scale, the red circle in the middle is about 20 mm across so it's a wicked bruise. But I had fun because we really kicked butt! And I'm sure I inflicted more pain than got inflicted on me so it's OK ;-)

Similar to back home, but with some different games and toys (they use smoke grenades, I thought they were a gimmick but actually quite effective when used appropriately). Not sure I'd pay 35 quid for it but fine when someone else is paying.

Big Jane's BBQ

We finally got around to visiting Jo and Bill down in Yorkshire for the weekend. To make it fair we met halfway, at the gloriously rural town of Clapham, where Jo and Bill spend heaps of their time.

Mark and Bill squirmed into some local caves, while us girls indulged in a long awaited gossip session.

The highlight of our stay was attending the Clapham town BBQ, held at Big Jane's place. It was hilarious as all the village characters were there - the vicar, his daughter, the local gossips, the head gameskeeper. The local policeman wasn't there because they don't like him. The local celebrity came along to - the guy who sang "You're Unbelievable".

It was great to see Jo and thoroughly entertaining to be exposed to small town English life in all its glory!