Scotland: Miscellaneous

I (semi) promise, this is the last post on our trip to Scotland - even yours truly is getting abit sick of posting too much on the place. Having said that, I'm sure that once we're back in Malaysia, I'll be reading these posts with much nostalgia.

In this post I just would like to talk randomly on a few final stuff we did in Edinburgh.

The Royal Mile, describing the mile of downhill street leading towards the Holyrood palace seems to be where some of the interesting buildings were located in Edinburgh, among them: the Canongate Kirk and the Scottish Parliment (pictured in the tabblo, rather than here).

We walked past the interestingly named pub above.
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Finally arrived! This was the last famous place we had time to visit in Edinburgh - the Holyrood Palace.
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At the palace we met up with Auntie and Uncle De again and had a "civilised" tea at the palace's garden (pictured above).
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In the serene garden, with our delicately prepared beverages and amongst other civilised guests Sarah was clanging the silverware, Emyr was busy sharing his box of cereals with the ants on the ground, Amar was running around the table and Safiya was ... well Safiya was the only good one.

Yup, the little ones wreaked havoc at our table - much to our indifference (we're used to our kids embarrassing us, even though sometimes it's at posh places).
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My wonderful cup of tea, Puan Mama Sarah's hot chocolate, and Auntie De's scone & cappuccino.
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Here's our tea party from a different perspective (our table is where Uncle De is standing far in the background)
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This is our view from our tea table - the Salisbury Crags. (I was so tempted to intentionally miss-spell "crag" just now)

A series of portraits:

Auntie De looking lovingly at the annoyed Emyr (Sarah had a play in Emyr being annoyed no doubt)

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Sarah & Emyr
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Uncle De shot this beautiful picture of Emyr on a slide at the Butterfly Park. In hindsight I should have GIMPed Sarah out of this picture, a bit distracting.
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ps *this blurry picture will be removed at once on request*

Who's this??? A mysterious friend paid us a surprise visit (much to our shock! Pleasantly shocked that is). We had lunch at a scarily high-class Pakistani restaurant called "Kushi's". Puan Mama Sarah expertly translated Kushi as "happiness". (She quoted Khabi Kushi Khabi Gam, which apparently means "Sometimes you're happy sometimes you're sad")

Anyway at Kushi's, all the other Posh customers were looking angrily at our noisy table - noisy with the children's cries! Even my normally thick hide (muka tebal) couldn't conceal the embarrassment, our table was like a small zoo! (and the place was like Harrod's).

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Finally, I can't help myself posting this interestingly designed building. I think the architect based the design on a pair of bo.. wls ;)
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Goodbye Scotland! It was definitely a lovely visit
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Final words

1. A good number of the pictures I've posted were taken by Uncle De (for example, pictures of the "mimes" and clown in the previous post. Thank you Uncle De for contributing your beautiful pictures on the blog (by "contributing" I meant I stole it from him, *tiny evil laugh*)
2. It was really wonderful visiting Scotland with Auntie and Uncle De's family. Really wonderful. Uncle De guided the way very well and at a good pace too. Sarah and Amar enjoyed themselves playing with Emyr and Safiya.
3. I really enjoyed the surprise visit.

I think this will be the last of our long series of travels this summer season (it's not even summer anymore anyway). I think Puan Mama Sarah and I have been travelling every weekend for 2 months straight! I hope the pictures Puan Mama Sarah and I have posted on our blogs have been of interest to fellow readers: hopefully it'd give a glimpse to what the interesting places around UK are like. At least, when I'm back in Malaysia for good (not many months left) I hope to look backwards and feel I've had a satisfactory experience staying in the UK, right?

There are actually three more places I wish to bring my family before we do go back to Malaysia for good. Insya Allah, if all goes well.

*lets out an exhale* It's been such a busy two months! It's nice to finally able to put our feet down and relax ...

Later readers...