We took a detour and went to Lochcarron weavers! oh beautiful tartan! they make tartan for designers such as Paul Smith, Paul Frank and it is all so shiny and pretty! we picked a tartan and then alas were told no.. they don´t have a long enough bolt in stock.. SO! funny thing! their head office was south of Edinburgh and yes! most certainly we could go pick up our selected tartan post our owl experience as we were heading down that way anyway! HOW AWESOME!
We arrived at our hostel only to find it was closing down in 2 weeks.. a beautiful building by the sea with stunning views.. and yes.. no one will buy it.. they´re boarding it up and closing it down! anyone feel like buying a palacial sandstone building with sea views in Edinburgh? Ciara will design all your royal Jewellery and Ill tend to your Owls & Falconry needs while working ´from home´ for my Australian-based employ!
A wonderful part to the evening was when it was highlighted to me just how much I have learnt from my darling wife.. Take one mosquito flying around your room.. picture it.. the buzz.. the sting.. the buzz as it passes by your ear.. take one bag of laundry detergent and one wife.. wife hits mosquito.. coats the room in soapy white powder! OH HENRY! (oh henry is a candy bar we ate in NYC but funnily enough every hostel we stayed in used a Henry Vaccuum cleaner like the one we have at home!) The best part was that whole experience was something I´d usually be in the middle of but I warned Ciara and she didn´t listen.. Men 1 Women 0.. actually if I might just clarify.. Men 0 Women googleplex.. (men aka tom was actually -1 for being toolish and women are always right)
The next morning we awoke to... OOOOWWWWWLLLLL DAY!
I was so excited to experience something I´m so passionate about with the woman I adore! Ciara was excited as I was!
We drove to Dalhausie castle.. I barely pulled up the handbrake before I was out of the car and cooing at every owl and falcon there.. yes I get it! I´m clucky and living vicariously through owls.. no actually the owls were AWESOME!
Ciara (and Jiku) fell in love with a ´Little Owl´ called Doctor Zoidberg (yay futurama!) he had cool eyebrows (see below)
we took photos of an awesome array of owls, a great grey, a turkmanian-scandinavian eagle owl called ´shiloh´ who´s parents were in Harry Potter! Ted & Betty were 2 tawny owls.. It was so cute seeing Ciara´s face light up too! we got to see barn owls and even a Mexican Striped Owl called Nimouhey (at the time the only one in the UK..) We showed Jiku to her friends.. boy that didn´t go down well! I think they wanted to murder her!
The first owl we flew was Ted.. we walked down a wooded path while he flew to us from tree to tree.. Shiloh we flew second.. she was HUGE in comparison and very heavy on the hand! then they were kind enough to let us fly Doctor Zoidberg! He was in training so we got to extend a leash each time he flew! Poor tiny owl.. he hopped and flew as best he could.. the sad part of the day was feeding and seeing ´Nimouhey´ (probably my favourite).. she´d suffered a stroke and was such a sweet little owl but it was upsetting.. I got to help feed her her chickens and stroke her above the beak..
It was such an awesome day for both of us!! IF IT COULDN´T GET BETTER! off we went to tartan town! we picked up our tartan..
ok.. ok.. i get it.. today was all about me.. poor Ciara.,. even dinner was about me.. Ciara took me to Toby´s Carvery! Think all you can eat sunday night Grandma´s roast for 6.95.. AWW YEAH! I think they´re going to have to freighter me home..
The best part of today was just getting to share the experience with my loving supportive wife.. like into the wild.. sharing an experience is so much more than having the experience alone..
The next day.. the weather turned.. Edinburgh opened it´s floodgates the day we decided to explore the city! (there´s so a theme going on with rain and us!) we went shopping, saw the castle.. burned dvds and tried to wake up and brave the rain! we tried to keep it low key because 4am! London then 8 hour layover then.. Iceland!
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