Nothing to report

Yes, that's right. I really have nothing to say. Actually, I have tons, but none that I feel would be appropriate in this little obscure corner of the oh-so-public world.
That being said, I'm all aflutter. Yes, you heard me. Aflutter. yougottaproblemwiththat?
I think I'm feeling the arrival of spring.

Work has eased off just a little bit - enough for a little breathing room. We lost a full-timer at the end of last summer, and it's been up to me to take up the slack, as well as do my own regular job and take charge of a new software roll-out. Good times. I'm just glad I've survived this long.

I know that I will travel soon, with hopefully a minor trip along the east coast even before I take the major trip with my family in April. Impending travel is a lovely thing. The anticipation is delicious.

My garden is slowly beginning to thaw out. This is a good thing, as I desperately need to move some plants to form a fence - "herbaceous border" I think they call it - along one side of my yard. I think it shall be my project for tomorrow.

As I said, there's nothing really new or exciting to report, but somehow life does feel just a little bit new and exciting to me nonetheless.

I hope this feeling lasts.

History is crazy, man!

One of the places we're excited to visit while in Scotland is the Culloden Battlefield. In addition to the historical reasons to visit such a place, Culloden figures prominently in a series of books that my mother and I (and now possibly my father) have been reading. I wanted to brush up on the history a bit before we get there, so I know what I'm looking at, so I've been doing a little reading. Tonight, that reading blew my mind. Read on, and you'll find out why.

From Undiscovered Scotland's Culloden feature page:

The Jacobites reached Derby on 4 December 1745. It was becoming clear that support from English Jacobites was not emerging as Charles as hoped. And it was becoming equally clear that the French were not going to invade in a timescale that would be of any help to Charles' Jacobite army. Meanwhile Government armies were gathering and the military situation looked increasingly bleak.

Charles Edward Stuart met with his key advisers in what is today the upstairs room of a Derby pub through most of 4 December. Charles was all for pressing on to London: the majority wanted to retreat to Scotland. Charles finally angrily accepted the need to retreat as night fell. The Jacobites began their retreat from Derby on 6 December 1745. What none of them knew was that the Welsh Jacobites has risen in support of them, and others in Oxfordshire were on the point of doing so. Neither did they know that London was in panic and that George II's court was packing his belongings onto ships on the Thames ready to flee to the Continent.

It has been said that had the Jacobites pressed on, George II would have fled; that the English and French would have avoided a further 70 years of conflict; that the English would not have had to raise taxes in the colonies to pay for the French wars; and that the Americans would have had no cause to fight a war for their independence. And, arguably, the French revolution would not have happened. The world might have been a very different place but for a closely argued decision taken in the upstairs room of a pub in Derby one dark winter's evening in December 1745.

Wow.

So basically, if they'd had phones back then, the world would have been a very different place.

Highlands on my mind

This upcoming trip is occupying a lot of my mind, whether I'm conscious of it or not.

-If there's a purchase I need to make, I consider whether it will be useful in Scotland: New walking shoes? Absolutely. New curtains? Definitely not.

-I've been making the packing list in my mind since Christmas, determined to pack half as much as I did the last time, and trying to figure out how to make the most of the smaller suitcase space.

-I've tried to convince myself not to take my laptop, but I just can't seem to get that far.

-Travel books have become my new evening reading, and gleaning the choicest bits of information for inclusion in my small travel notebook is now my obsession.

-The movies I watch must be somehow related to at least Great Britain, with special precedence given to histories, or romantic comedies set in Scotland. (oh darn, Gerard Butler again??)

-When I take a mental break from work, I do tourism searches on the different towns and cities we'll be visiting, and write down anything of particular interest in my little book.

-As I'm trying to get to sleep at night, I wonder what's the best way to ensure a little nap on the plane before we arrive in Edinburgh.

I get more and more excited with each passing day, and I want to just go ahead and get there already! But then I realize just how much more I need to do before I leave, and that brings me back to the moment. Like right now, I must get back to work, and shore things up so that I can be gone for 2 weeks without the place burning down.

But if anyone has any tips for sleeping on the plane, I'd be glad to hear 'em!

Scotland Itinerary

For those of you following along at home, I have the basic itinerary for our trip to Scotland:
Tuesday, April 27 Travel day
Wednesday Arrive in Edinburgh, stay the night
Thursday Play in Edinburgh, stay the night
Friday Travel north toward St. Andrews; through fishing villages of East Neuk; lunch at Anstruther, spend the night in Pitlochry
Saturday Drive toward Inverness; possibly visit Loch Ness, stay overnight in Inverness
Sunday Visit Culloden Battlefield and Cawdor Castle, stay overnight in Inverness
Monday Head toward Isle of Skye, spend night on Skye
Tuesday Head south toward Oban, overnight there or on Iona
Wednesday Iona and perhaps begin driving toward Edinburgh
Thursday Arrive back in Edinburgh (via Stirling)
Friday Fly home

New News!

I'm going on a trip!

Scotland, this time. With my Mom, Dad, and Aunt Becky.

I will try to get this little blog back up and running, so I can post photos and journals of what we do while we're there. In the meantime, to get back into practice, I'll talk a little bit about the planning process.

First, how the trip came about:

Mom and I wanted to take another trip together, and ever since our France/England/Wales trip, we've wanted to see Ireland. Or Scotland. Or maybe both? Yes, both.

Two weeks was what we had decided on, and were taking it one week, and one country at a time. For some reason, the Ireland leg was proving rather difficult to plan, but when we switched to Scotland, everything just fell into place. I suggested to Mom that we just make it a week-long trip, and cover Scotland a bit better, and she agreed.

With the trip being shorter now, it seemed that we might be able to add a passenger. Since we knew that Dad would love the scenery, and we probably wouldn't be doing nearly as much hardcore walking on this trip, we asked Dad if he'd come along. It took a couple of tries, to get him to say yes (I think the trip's during hunting season or somesuch), but he finally did.

After Christmas, Mom and Dad managed to pick up another passenger, my Aunt Becky, as a roommate for me. I'm not sure how that conversation went down, but I know she's done a fair bit of traveling, and I think she'll be a good addition to the group.

So that's the "how it all started" bit. I think I should pace myself, and cover the itinerary and locations a little bit later.

'Til next time, I leave you with a bit of inspiring scenery:

I'll let you know if the picture does it justice or not.