Friday Fotos

My in-laws arrived in Glasgow already and my husband is there to pick them up. Me and the kids are just here at the house waiting for them. Later, i need to bring Prisco to school and i am very sure, they will arrive after that(that is around 1 in the afternoon). From Aberdeenshire to Glasgow it is like a bus trip from Davao City to General Santos City. It is approximately 3 hours journey by car. I can not wait for them to be at our house and then later probably tomorrow show them the countryside. Here are the views that they will be seeing ...



This is one of the tourist routes here that we really love to pass. We will show this to my inlaws as well. This very nice castle-like house is very, very captivating. It is situated very, very close to nature. The trees on the summer are adding beauty and grandeur to the house. They do not actually have neighbors nearby. It is like an exclusive property on the perfect spot. The place for me is very reflective. Just so peaceful ... so calm ...But although they do not have neighbors on their vicinity, the house is just by the road). Take a look at this...




Here are some more nature photos(mostly trees and other plants) situated not very far from that house above ... I just love trees... Here they are ...Enjoy the fotos everyone and enjoy your Friday!

Welcome to the Wonderful Land of Scotland!

Summer is in the air here in Aberdeenshire. By the way, when i say Aberdeenshire, i am referring to the county of Aberdeen (but this area excludes Aberdeen itself). The county bordered Kincardineshire, Angus and Perthshire to the south, Inverness-shire and Banffshire to the west, and the North Sea to the north and east. It had a coast-line of 65 miles (105 km). The area is generally hilly( as you can see in many of my photos), and from the south-west, near the centre of Scotland, the Grampians send out various branches, mostly to the north-east.

When it is a lovely day, like today, we need to grab it(as it can get very crappy and very windy here at times!). Last weekend, we again took a short trip. What a lovely view! Me and my husband took these shots. We knew that when we grew old and gray we'll gonna look back at these photos and would say, " we'd been there...we'd done that!" And yup, we took these photos! Just a lovely dominant medley of yellow and green colors plus the blue skies! (Don't mind the red, white and gray additional!).

Real Property Maintenance

Do you wonder how much it cost to maintain a very big property? I mean, you pay real estate taxes annually, the electricity and gas bills ( or air conditioner if it's in warm countries), the ground maintenance (cutting of the grass, maintaining the gardens, etc... etc...). No wonder very rich people in the Philippines who have vast tracts of land and big, palatial mansions can have more than 40 servants (it is a lot but it is true,i.e. the Madrigals, etc..). Really, money is nothing for them and to have 40 or 50 servants are nothing for they made a really vast income unimaginable!

When i took a look at castles, like this one recently --- the Castle Fraser in Inverurie, Scotland,(you know how silly i think sometimes) i am thinking how many servants had they got before? How many gardeners maintaining the over 300 hectares of farmland and open woodland, including a walled garden and two forest trails. And the castle itself, realizing that there is no elevator or lift to bring the servants to and fro the high stairs, it is a tough job(but i am sure it was enjoyable. No wonder the governess of the castle was really so thin in her photograph!).

But anyway, take a look at the huge estate. I just love the big, big, green lawn and the tall, multicolored trees that abound the area. The place is really a great scenery. Castle Fraser has recently been used as a backdrop for some of the scenes shot in the BAFTA, Golden Globe and Academy Award winning film "The Queen", starring Helen Mirren.

I took these photos at the very top of the tower. What a very breathtaking view out there. I can still feel my "conquering spirit" after the climb!

A Day in the Strathburn Park

The weather here is really getting nicer and my Scottish friend even sent me an email saying..."you must have been bringing the sunshine with you!"... i was laughing because i know that it is just timely that we arrived in a better season of the year and i know also that weather is so unpredictable. So, while the iron is hot... i mean while the weather is warm, we have to visit some parks and be kids again...
Before my husband went offshore, we went to Strathburn Park in Inverurie. Our boys were delighted as you can see with our photos. Not only our kids but us as well. Look at how we become kids again with our kids!
Welcome to the Strathburn Park --- free for everyone--- to all the young ones and the young once!


Our first family photo since we arrived here! (Ah,it is very difficult to ask somebody sometimes, but this time, thanks to the dad who took our pic!).


My boys had fun on this tanker...


Prisco and Scott on the seesaw...


Look at the monkey in here...Hehehehehe!


That's all folks! Tata for now!

Our Home, Our Neighborhood : Scotland

Okay, here are our photos taken few days after our arrival, during our walk to my son's school. This is the place where we live now. It is actually very peaceful and we are here for over two weeks already and i don't know anyone from this neighborhood! hehehehehe! I am so sure people here are always busy working around. In a country like this, people just value privacy. I am pretty sure people are friendly but they just have their own life, as much as we have our own. Anyway, my boys are my constant buddies here. Take a look...

This is our house. It is two-storey and it has three bedrooms(one master's bedroom and two other not-so-big-ones,yet, comfortable enough. One family room, one living room, one kitchen , one dainty dining room which i really love, a narrow hallway, a laundry room which i really adore, 3 toilets and baths and spacious backyard that my kids could play during summmer. Ah, i almost forget, our computer room. hahaha! Oh well, you can't see the photos of what's inside our house yet. hehehehe. First, the structure itself...


And here's our quiet, peaceful neighborhood.... As i said, i hadn't known anyone yet for almost three weeks that i am here!


My two wonderful boys and our community....


My poser Prisco...


And this is me photographed by Prisco. Ah, it's amazing what kids can do this time. Hehehehe.....


They say, "HOME IS WHERE THE HEART IS" and i am feeling inlove with my home here in Scotland. My heart is really with my family. House is just a structure really and home? It is sweeter word for a house!

Bonnie Scotland --- Part II

I love the rural sceneries of Scotland and i love the idea of how clean the air i breathe. I am far from pollution, far from industrial factories, far from the sounds and sights of a busy city-streets. We always need a variation in our life. Going to a countryside trip is one of that... Here are the photos that i will be sharing... Ahhh, i am inlove with this view --- the crisscrossing of trees in a not-so-busy highway. Oh, how lovely! I always love trees and by looking through it, i am looking at lives that might be reincarnated on it. Ah, just my silly thoughts... Really, trees for me are lovely creatures on earth that best explains the balance of life... the beauty of life... the "green earth" and on this photo the "brown earth"!.

Ahhh, the farmlands --- that farmhouse away from the busy town. I don't know how wonderful life it could be to live peacefully there in my rocking chair when i get old one day? Ah, just one of my silly thoughts again! But the view is still inviting with the green grasslands. Really captivating!

This photo is the same as the one above, although i focused more on the green grasslands. Very well-trimmed grasslands. Such industrious people do this and i am sure they are using the high quality, modern facilities of farming.

By the way, you might think the weather is warm because it is bright. Today, it is very bright and sunny, but when i went outside for a walk, still very chilly. hehehe. Probably 4 degrees celcius and it is always colder with a cold wind damping on my cheeks!!! Ah ,i will get used to it...I will for sure!

Bonnie Scotland --- Part I

Last Monday, my husband,Scotty took the day off and showed us around the countryside of Aberdeenshire. The weather here in Scotland is always crappy so i have to take photos very fast and sometimes just inside the car. The strong wind intimidates me sometimes. And sometimes it will shower so unexpectedly. It is sooo funny how the weather changes in a matter of few hours!

In this solo pic of mine, i went out of the car very fast while my husband took the shot on the vehicle. We can't just leave the kids inside the car. It's either me or Scotty inside or all of us outside...

I took this photo of our vehicle in one of the farmlands of Aberdeenshire. Sooo many acres of land are being devoted to agriculture. i will show lots of photos next time. For the meantime, i better get my jacket 'coz it's getting chilly again!

Prisco's Early Days in Scotland

Our Dependent Visas arrive today from the UK Embassy in Makati and I was extremely delighted.So this means my time in the Philippines is limited.My first son,Prisco Samuel was born September 12,2003 at Aberdeen,Scotland .We spent most of his early months there(from birth to 7 months) although in between those months we keep on traveling vice versa Canada,Philippines and anywhere in the UK.We are looking forward to go back there and live there again .That will be for 3 or 4 years( our visas indicated that it will expire till 2012).So,this means there’ll be lots of time to see more of Europe! This is an expatriate life and though it is stressful sometimes the rare opportunity to travel is a great blessing!