Where to start...

Dear all,

I've just come back from a fabulous two week holiday. Do read Derek's rendition of the first week on http://www.mrsmond.blogspot.com. It was so nice to show Derek all these lovely places that I used to go to when I was wee. The highlight was definitely our walk to Loch Tearnait. Lovely lovely.

After we put Derek on the bus mum and me then went to Caithness for one night, on our way to the Orkneys. The next day we took the ferry to St. Margaret's Hope on the Orkney mainland (which I would call an island too, but hey). Our B&B (&D as we also had dinner) there was great! Lovely views from the living room, big bright rooms, my own room with en-suite. Ann, who runs it, was lovely too and the other guest was a very friendly old minister who we chatted to every morning and evening (and who shared his whisky with me:)!!!).

I don't know where to start. We had such a lovely four days up there. Some rain, but also lots and lots of sunshine. The Orkneys are fairly flat with lots of farmland and quite a lot of wee villages. Lots of cows and sheep too. Really much cuter than I thought it would be;). The cliffs are spectacular though. We walked to "The Castle of Yesnaby" which is a massive column of rock sticking out the sea at the cliff side. It was so amazing. We also went to see some, if not most, of the many archeological sites they have. Circles of stading stones, villages and tombs that are 2-5000 years old! Very very impressive. The main towns of Stromness and Kirkwall were also very nice to go and see. And Orkney is paradise for jewelry lovers like me, because they have so many gold and silver smiths. Mum bought me beautiful earrings for my birthday:). I am already saving up for the matching necklace! On the way back we stayed the night in a haunted castle/youth hostel in Culrain, Sutherland. The journey to it was so great. Sutherland is so empty and so beautiful, especially when the heather is flowering and the sun shining. After that we drove via Ullapool (wow! gorgeous!) to Dunblane where we stayed for our last night, and mum's birthday. Unfortunately the B&B was not great... Bit sad, especially as it was mum's birthday... Thankfully the Stirling Arms in Dunblane did a lovely dinner. The whole holiday was really special and I had such a great time:)!

In the meantime the job hunt has been going exceptionally well:)! I have a phone interview with Explore Learning on Thursday (do keep your fingers crossed for me!) and a recruiter I e-mailed got back to me and I'll hopefully have an interview for a customer services job (with a large opticians or something in the city centre:)!) soon! I am also applying for the position of Alumni Relations & Development Manager at Sterling University. All sound pretty promising really:)! I'll keep you posted of course.

I've really got to get back to my dissertation now!

Lots of love,