Message for Monica and James Ward

Hey Guys,

Spent a night with Gerry and Joanna. They were awesome and we went to dinner at La Scarpetta which is where I understand they took you guys almost a year ago to the day. Gerry is a blast and we could have spent heaps more time with both of them as they made us feel so comfortable. When you catch up with them next, ask how many Balloch's there are in the UK? He will tell you a funny story.....

We took a couple of video messages (although it was a bit dark in the restaurant) and have posted them here for you.

Gerry and Joanna

Bye for now from Frank and family.
:-)

Glasgow - Day 4 - minus 4 degrees!!

Well here we are on the coldest day of our trip. Started off at -5 but got up to -4 when we walked into town. Tessa had a lovely hot chocolate with marshmellows in the city square while Connie and I got our half strength latte's in a nice warm Italian Cafe.

Last night we caught some of the action of St Andrew's celebrations in George Square. There was a really good band with guys in kilt's playing bagpipes, fiddle and piano accordian. They were pretty good. Would have loved to stay longer but Louis was love sick and Connie's feet were freezing......

Had dinner tonight with Gerry and Joanne Ward, that's Jim's brother from Brisbane. Looked after us very well, once we eventually caught up with them.... In case you didn't know, there are two Balloch's in Glasgow and they are about 50 kms apart so make sure you get the right one!! We didn't, so drove an extra 50 minutes in thick fog. What an experience that was.

Must mention the drive from Fort William to Glasgow. What an incredible scenic drive. Highlight of the tour so far for me. Just amazing to see the snow all over the landscape. Pulled up to a roadside food caravan and saw our first deer. Also came across a mad scotsman playing the bagpipes at minus 2 degrees in his kilt!! Check him out on the photo's.

We are off to Edinburgh tomorrow so must get some shut eye. Sun goes down at 16:00 so it's a long night even when you go to bed at 21:00. Hope you enjoy the photo's. Stay tuned for more posts. Sorry about no captions, too tired to sort them all out....

Drop Box

Below is video of band playing in George Square, Glasgow.
(Need to be patient with downloading, unless you have fasssst internet)



Hope you enjoy it all.
Frank.

Aberdeen Photos

Hello again.

Thought you might like to see some photos from the trip.

Internet is not as easy as we thought to come by so this is a quick sampler.

Will get some more going as soon as we get a bit of time and a good connection.

We have had 3 great days of really good weather.  This evening it started snowing in Fort William and we all ran outside to feel the snow float onto our heads.  Everyone must have thought we were nuts.  We drove into town for dinner through the snow.  Again, we thought it was novel but everyone else just saw it as a pain.  We must have looked a real sight taking photos in the middle of town in the snow :-D

We actually had to scrape the ice off the front windscreen this morning before we headed off as the temperature got to 3 below zero......  For us, it was all good fun.

ABERDEEN

Hope you enjoy the early shots.  Catch you all soon.

Frank and Family

Itinerary - Take 2

Sorry about the previous Itinerary post.

I should have checked it.  Hopefully this one works better.

Just click  below and run slideshow.

Itinerary

Frank..   :-)  :-)

Leaving Aberdeen.

Hey Everyone!

Just a quick update of where we are and where we are heading.  We are currently in Aberdeen and about to head west very soon (Fiona is just giving us some brief directions to Fort William - our next destination).  It hit minus 3 degrees this morning and we had to scrape ice off our front and rear car windows.  It hasn't been as cold as we first anticipated however in saying that, our feather down jackets have been the best investment of the trip so far (the second best investment will be the shoes Mum and I buy in Italy - that's right, be jealous!!)

Anyway, heading off now, making our way down to Fort William.  The trip is approximately three to three and a half hours.  A big hello from everyone here, hope everyone is safe and well.

Thank you very much Fiona for being an awesome guide.

Love Tessa

Business Class ROCKS.......

Hi all,

I am writing this post while sitting in business class sipping champagne (Orange juice but could have had Champagne).  We (Louis and I) put Connie and Tessa on their plane about an hour ago and we have been playing up ever since.

This business class is the only way to go.  Pillows, blankets, alcohol, men's beauty kit (haven't opened that up yet) heaps of room and a skybed to boot.  

Just looking over the menu!

For entree we begin with a salad of King Prawns with White Beans and Serrano Ham, and then Main Course is a choice of Green Curry of Kingfish, Roast Herbs and Ricotta Chicken, Beef Fillet with Red Wine jus.  All of these come served with a green leaf salad and herb vinaigrette.

Dessert is a range of seasoned Cheeses with accompaniments, Nice Cream Pistachio and Strawberry, or sliced fruit.  All served with Valrhona Chocolates or Paton's Macadamia Chocolates.

Keep in mind, this is only from Sydney to Bangkok, Bangkok to London is a whole different menu!!

Just for you Bruce and Grace, the wine is list is exhaustive to say the least (I'm not going to name them because I can't pronounce half of them O_o).

Would love to keep chatting, but my massage is waiting.

Bon Voyage!

Just one more sleep

Hello all.

Well this is it.  Just one more sleep although I fancy by the time you read this we will be on the big bird to the UK.

I have included our 90% complete itinerary as I have had a few requests from people so here you go.

Well, stay tuned.  It should get exciting from here ;-)

02:30 so off to get my last sleep.

BTW Shelley, Tessa did go to her party.