This was an unusual start to a holiday - Mark and I had already been away for two nights for my Dad's 60th birthday in Fort William in Scotland. So we were very much trying to unpack from one trip and pack for another in less than 18 hours and try not to forget anything - on top of all that, we were at a Golden Wedding Anniversary party on the 4th July at night so we had very little time to get ready!

Fortunately I took our Bangkok LP guide to Inverlochy and had highlighted the things I wanted us to do and had made a list - where to go, how to get there (mostly on the SkyTrain!) and how much to get in. I think Mark thought I was mad - I'm not normally so organised, but knowing what Bangkok is like, I knew we needed a loose schedule!

My parents picked us up around 0900 for our 1200 flight from Edinburgh to Manchester to begin our trip - this is another reason the start of the holiday was odd, we almost always go from Glasgow Airport, but the Emirates flights we were supposed to take were MUCH more expensive from Glasgow (around £350 - 400 more per person!) so we decided to use the money saved for cheap flights to Manchester and have a bit more spending money.

At last, we were off - crammed very uncomfortably into the back of my Dad's new car - he's bought a Volvo hard-top convertible and needless to say there was a struggle to get the suitcases into the boot! But the fitted in eventually, and we were airport bound!

PS: I'll probably put all the photos online before I write the blog - that way the photos can remind me what we were doing each day!

This was a very early start! Mark and I were up around 0600 to finish packing, have breakfast and take the kitties to the cattery for their holidays before we headed to Loch Lomond to meet Mum and Dad and apparently surprise Dad...as far as he was aware, we were going on holiday today to Thailand - in fact we'd moved our holiday on 2 days from the original departure date of the 3rd July (which is my Dad's 60th Birthday) so we could be with him on his birthday - my Mum's idea, not Dad's!

So it was up at the crack of dawn to finish packing, because we were still doing laundry the night before so the radiators in the house were on full blast to dry stuff, both for Inverlochy and Thailand! Once we'd squeezed our bag into Mark's boot - we'd managed just to take one big duffel bag between us - we wrangled a very vocally unhappy Sam and a squirming Ziggy into the cat boxes - two grouchy cats!

And finally, we were on the road for what was going to be a long day of driving!

This is a trip I'd really been looking forward to - my parents had gone to Salzburg at roughly the same time last year, and I was desperate to see the city. To be honest, part of my obsession stems back to my childhood, the year 1993 to be exact...if you're sitting comfortably, then I'll begin.

Basically, as a child I was full of beans and used to go to dance classes three times a week. A group of us from my dance school auditioned for a pantomime (for non Brits, that's a usually musical-based performance of childhood fairy tales, usually stories like Tom Thumb, Cinderella, Aladdin, etc) at one of the Glasgow Theatres, and for 6 weeks we were part of the troupe. It was a great experience...for me mainly because it mean missing most of a day of school a week for matinees! The fact we got paid - even for rehearsal time - helped too. Heck I was 11, I was imagining what amount of sweets I could buy per show's wages! Anyway, on our last night of the show, we were told a production company were holding auditions at the theatre the next day for a professional stage production of....The Sound of Music! It was a movie I'd always loved, an affinity inherited from Mum, who also adored it
So, we all turned up the next day and I was the only one who got beyond the first round, by lunchtime I'd had two more singing auditions and was asked to learn a script over the lunch break. They were looking at me for one of two 'Louisa' roles (there were two teams of youngsters because Equity laws in the UK mean under 16s can only work a certain number of hours a week: because the show was to be put on in both Edinburgh and Glasgow they were going to pick one group of 6 kids from each city (Liesl was being played by then up-and-coming English actress Amanda Holden who, at 21, was allowed to do each show) and they'd both perform in the King's Theatre in Edinburgh and the King's Theatre in Glasgow. So...after a very long day it turned out I lost out to a 15 year old for the role of 13 year old Louisa, and the girl who got the part had actually played Louisa in the last tour of the same production. Oh well I thought, perhaps I won't tread the boards.

This was the Saturday...on the Monday I'd come home from school and honestly, not deliberately, put on the "Sound of Music" video. Mum wandered through after some time and sat watching with me. She asked if I was disappointed to which I answered not really, which was the truth. It was at the point she said the producers had called her at work and asked if I'd still be available to be Louisa...the director decided three teams of children were needed, one solely for Glasgow, one solely for Edinburgh, and one which would do shows in both cities, thus working for four weeks across both venues, instead of just two weeks in one! I was over the moon! Imagine a very blonde, very hyper, very loud 11 year old girl who from then on didn't stop singing S.O.M. songs!

So anyway, this was in the January, rehearsals started early February in Edinburgh (great, more time of school, two days a week to go through for rehearsals with some of the rest of the cast) and the show was put on late February (I think...). The 'family' was made up of 5 children from the Glasgow area, and one, our Gretel, who was from Edinburgh direction. It was absolutely amazing, we featured heavily in the local newspapers and we were on TV too. I thought getting £25 per show was a great deal and bought a television and a SEGA Mega Drive and several games with my earnings (which I think totaled £375 for 15 shows), and even had change for my bank account...can't imagine that amount of money would get you so much these days!

And from there on in my fascination with The Sound of Music and Salzburg was firmly established, and from then on, I wanted to visit the city! In October 2007, Mum made my dreams come true by booking this trip. 29th November was our departure date, and I couldn't wait!

I'll admit it is always nice to be back home, regardless of how amazing a trip away you've had, even a short one.

The couple of days of a break were exactly what we needed, but that doesn't mean we wouldn't have liked longer!

We'll probably go back to the cottage at somepoint, perhaps in September, but it's nice to know it's there and we can always stay there if we fancy a nice meal at The Cellar but don't want to drive home!

Needless to say, when Mark and I try to leave for a trip things get a bit crazy. It was worse this time around because we had to take things like towels and bed linen, and we ended up taking our own duvet and pillows so there was a lot more to get in the car than just two suitcases. I was also trying to hide Mark's Valentine's gift which was difficult because he kept re-packing the car.

The whole time we were getting ready to leave we had two unhappy cats watching us. We'd decided just to leave them in the flat and my parents agreed they'd pop in a few times a day and check on them. But Sam and Ziggy knew we were going away...

When we finally left the car looked like we'd emptied the house into it...there were shoes sticking out the duvet, books pressed against the rear windscreen and a bag of steak and potatoes trying to escape from the back door!

OK, Sam is adorable, and I thought he maybe needed a wee friend to keep him company while Mark and I were out. And then when I was off work after a knee operation which I underwent the week after we came home from our honeymoon, I felt sorry for Sam just having to make his own fun. Looking back he was probably absolutely content (and we really annoyed him by plonking a kitten in his territory), but I also thought a wee kitten running about the house would be fun!

So while I was recovering - once I was allowed to drive but not very far, i.e. I couldn't get to work (90 mile round trip) but could go to SSPCA (1.5 mile round trip!), and I popped down a couple of times - there were some lovely adults but we really wanted a kitten. One day they finally revealed they had a kitten room full, and were ready to re-home a big bunch in a week. They wouldn't let me in to see them, but Mark and I went back the next day, saw them and fell in love! We reserved a ginger male, but because there were so many we couldn't specify which on.

A week later I picked out Ziggy - I couldn't choose between him and a shorter coated version, but I was assured they were all reserved, and the other one would go home later that day. So after two phone calls to Mark, who said it was up to me (!) I chose Fluffy.

He cried the whole way home, Sam tried to maul him as soon as he saw him (he came round after 4 weeks and could then be in the same room as him - they still tussle but nothing mean. Sam is also still very agressive to other cats on his patch - he went mental at once through our living rom window one night: hissing, spitting and puffing up his coat), and he fell asleep in Mark's arms that evening! We didn't name him until 5 days later, and he was almost Tigger, Gus, Olly, Jack and

Anyway, he's been a perfect pet, he and Sam get on much better and I'm now in a house full of boys! I only hope if we have children we have a girl!

Today we got Sammy, or Sam as he now answers too - he's our new cat! We got him from the Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SSPCA) near where we stay, his birthday is June 2nd 2005, and he's just adorable.

Mark and I are both dog people, but because we live in a flat there's no way we'd have a dog, so we got Sam after a good six months of me saying 'Kitty!' to Mark at every possible occasion (think the way Boo says it in Monsters Inc)! Mark had never even picked a cat up before, and it was still a good six weeks after we had Sam before he was brave enough to do it!

Anyway, Sam, who is occasionally Fat Sam, is now a part of our lives we wouldn't be without! When I was off work August 07 after a knee op he'd some a sit with me, it was so nice to have someone in the house when you're in alone a lot.

So yes, introducing Fat Sam!

Mark and I got married in my church in the village of Bothwell, about 20 miles outside Glasgow. We had some photos taken at Bothwell Castle and our reception at Glenskirlie House, an amazing restaurant in a place called Banknock.

An amazing day...wish we could do it all over again!

:D