Cyprus Inn Perth and Kinross

Rothes is the little Scottish village where the Glen Grant Whiskey Distillery is located. It is part of the Speyside Whisky Trail, where the largest concentration of Scotch whisky distilleries is located in Scotland. This large valley is popular among distillers because this is where most of the barley is grown for the distillation process.

The distillery has a nice garden and a gift shop.

Dunno if I mentioned that the left hand front brake on our car had seivzed on the first day so Matt clamped the brake line & was using the other brakes. This was proving to be an issue as the front brakes kept locking up & we weren't stopping.

We headed to Aberdeen to find somewhere to get a new brake calliper & had no luck - Matt then bought some new brake pads but when he got the wheel off, he realised ...

... around a bit. We tracked down some wooly coos and got some closeups. And we went to Glen Fiddich! I was really excited about this one. A friend had told me about Monkey Shoulder. I got the chance to try it in Edinburgh and then finally understood why he was so insane about it. Its awesome! Its smooth and tastes of honey; not your typical put hair on your chest and make you breath fire kind of scotch. Which by the way ...

... meant driving was easy. We stopped halfway ion Glasgow for a wander around and were impressed with the street entertainment which included an opera singer and some Scottish drummers. Back on the road the further north in Scotland we got the more like NZ the scenery became. Once at their house we were introduced the new members of their family we hadn't met before which included Roxy (dog), Spotswood (cat) and last but not ...

... recruiting frenzy! With that idea nailed on the head I have turned my head towards going back to University. Haven given it some thought I'm looking at the serious possibility of doing a Masters in 'Social Research', probably in London. I see this renewed interest in my education as somewhat unfinished business. I graduated from Uni in 1998. At the time I wanted to go into some sort of public policy research. For whatever reason this did not work out and I ...

... with all Dublin burglars not to bother risking their neck climbing up to our second floor balcony again - we don't have anything worth stealing. We're not sure whether to be offended or not that they found nothing worth taking? Anyway, back to Inverurie, which was lots of fun, and where I hunted down bears with Tanya's daughter. We caught several. The people of Inverurie can sleep easy in their beds at night now.

... a bit stronger! That afternoon, Tami, Paul, and I headed off to the Glenfiddich Distillery for a tour with Jim and Elaine Young, and George and Marjorie Duthie. Heather and Rachel headed off to a local castle. I've yet to hear how the tour was. That evening we were hosted to a farewell Ceilidh (Kaylee) Elgin style. It started with a whiskey tasting competition hosted by Sandy McDermott. The GSE team with help from the President's son were ...

... agencies. In the afternoon, Graeme took me on a drive to the countryside. Took particular areas of interest included the Lossiemouth harbor and the Foress local gardens. That evening we had the Elgin Rotary meeting, which went well, and then Graeme, Carol, and I spent a late evening talking about Ohio and Western Pennsylvania.

... we headed northwest towards Elgin. Ian took us on a lovely drive through the country as my host had to work. Along the way we stopped at a cooperage (barrel maker) for a tour. I decided that I really needed to catch up on my sleep so I took a nap while Heather and Ian took the tour. Ian dropped me off at the Johnston's ...

... squirrels room and they had put every damn obsticle you could find in my way Casks chair legs and peoples legs one lady shouted down at me to stop climbing her leg and i realise it was her fishnet stockings she had on not a climbing rope so finally i found my way to the loo and lo and behold it looked very much like one of those tasting glasses tyhey gave us but hey you know when you have to go you have to go. I was then presented with a nice 18yr old ...