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11.7.12

Climbing Goat Fell

So Sunday was the epic hike day for The Goddess, The Kilted One, and The Dae.  The weather up here has been absolute horrendous the last few weeks.  Raining every day, flooding in parts of the nation, and a wet dog smell on the highland coos.  Well, there would be a wet dog smell on the highland coos regardless of how much it rained, but you can't fault them for that.

The day started out bright and early with a trip by car from Prestwick to Ardossan, which would have been lovely, but The Goddess isn't a morning girl and leaving without so much as a cup of coffee, well... that was pushing it.  But 8 a.m. saw her up and getting dressed, putting on her borrowed hiking boots, and shuffling into the backseat of the car.  The ride to Ardossan was uneventful and soon she was being herded onto a ferry.  Now The Goddess hasn't lived near water for most of her life so this was actually her first big boat ride, first ferry ride, first trip out into a sea/ocean, etc.  A whole lot of firsts that were a bit marred by the fact that she was still rubbing sleep from her eyes.  Overall it was a great experience.  No fear, no sea-sickness, nothing negative, well save from loud obnoxious children but what are you going to do about that?

To make things even more grand, The Dae even bought the morning's cuppa to get her started.  The ferry ride was about 55 minutes from port to port so there just wasn't enough time to do more than relax and enjoy the first day's coffee.

When we arrived on the island it was raining, which it has been nearly every day since some time in June, so that wasn't too much of a surprise.  We boarded a bus bound for the start of the trail and began our journey.  

The entrance to the trail is behind a lovely boutique, but alas, the kilt wearers weren't having any of it.  So we trekked into the hills.  The trail immediately became engulfed in woods and foliage and green green green.  Even the tree trunks were green.  The Goddess was impressed.  After about a quarter of a mile of steady slight incline we came to a field with Highland Coos in it.  

Now Highland Coos, if The Goddess had to describe them, most look like a cross between Texas Longhorns and Yaks.  Since first seeing them back in 2010, she is convinced that they must be the most beautiful creatures on the planet and are now one of her favorite animals.  After having the coos pose pretty for pictures, it was back on to the trail.

A steady up and up among the brush and bramble, pictures of thistle, bell flowers, heather, and trees, and every now and then a quick peak over your shoulder to admire the beautiful bay, it was all looking rather lovely.  Even the rain had let up, although, up ahead around the crest of Goat Fell was a ring of mist that proved to be ominous.

The way began to break from the trees and green and become more rugged and rocky as we made our ascent.  It was incredibly steep and all in the party were puffing hard and rolling their ankles at every loose stone.  It was breathtaking, literally, and as we broke across stream and boulder alike the mist creept ever closer.  By the time we reached the highest ridge before the final ascent we were walking among the clouds.  Visibility was just too poor to continue.  One for safety reasons and secondly because if we did manage to get to the summit we would see nothing beyond the mist.

Begrudgingly we decided to stop and have our lunch in the hopes the mist would move off.  The Goddess decided to be particularly adventurous and moved herself off to a far cliff to sit atop a boulder and dangle her feet into the nothingness below.  It was the most amazing experience.  She just had to video it and upload it to youtube.






The hike down off the mountain was uneventful but rushed.  Andy Murray was battling it out at Wimbledon and we were already pressed for time.  We were able to catch the last few games at a lovely lil' pub called Mac's.  The crowd was lively, although we were there too late to enjoy their free strawberries and cream and bubbly.  It was so unfortunate that Andy wasn't able to make it out against Federer, but the amount of support he had from his countrymen was overwhelming.  I would have been brought to tears as well.




We ended up catching the late ferry off the island and had a most uneventful ride home.  All in all, it was a most memorable day and even with the weather, the mist, the loss at Wimbledon, The Goddess could not have asked for more. 

Please take a moment to check out the photo album from the day's events.


7.7.12

Pinterest is a liar!

The Goddess is a Pinterest addict. She spends way too much time there. Follow her at Pinterest.com/ILoveKilts.

Shameless promotion over with, back to the topic.

Recently The Goddess has been trying her hand at some cooking. What better place to be inspired and to find new and exciting recipes than pinterest?! Take for instance the following pin that she stumbled upon recently. Pinned here.

The link sent The Goddess over to a recipe on how to make lovely banana chips!  She loves banana chips!  Can't get enough of them.  Well why not give this a try?  The Goddess has plenty of browning bananas.  She decided it was worth the minimal effort to transform them into delectable works of edible art.

And while she was at it, might as well make some gorgeous dried strawberries as well!  The cook time was slightly longer, but since the oven is gonna be on anyways, what's another hour?

And they look so scrumptious!  Pinned here.

Both recipes were fairly simple, essentially just cut and bake at a low temperature for a gazillion hours.  Well, it felt like a gazillion hours.  The Goddess is not known for her patience.  Especially when Pinterest had shown her such beautiful, colorful photos of the end result, just waiting by the oven door was excruciating enough!

The disappointment afterwards was even more excruciating.

Banana Chips Recipe via Pinterest
2-3 browning bananas
Lemon juice
Parchment Paper

Preheat oven to about 175-200f/80-100c
Slice bananas width-wise no thicker than 1/4 inch.
Spritz with lemon juice.
Place on parchment paper as close as possible without letting the banana slices touch.
Pop in the oven for 1-2 hours.  Touch or sample at 30 minute intervals to check if they are as 'done' as you would like.
Pop out of the oven and onto a cooling rack (move the parchment off the pan, don't worry about separating the chips from the paper just yet)
As they cool they will harden some more, so if they are a little bit gooey still, they will solidify.
Eat.

That was the recipe.  Here's what actually happened:

Find two slightly brown bananas and some parchment paper. Take a photo.

Don't like the first photo you took and take another from a more 'artsy' angle.


Needlessly take a photo of the bananas peeled.


Slice the bananas and spritz with lemon juice.  
Look in the fridge for a lemon.  
Skip the spritzing part as you can't find a lemon.
Take another artsy photo of the sliced bananas.


Underestimate the size of your pan and the size of the giant bananas.
After slicing two, you will be out of room.
In hindsight, only use 2 large bananas.
Eat the third one since you've peeled it already.


Put in the oven and bake at 100c for 2 hours.
Open the oven door ever 20 minutes to poke bananas.
After 2 hours pull out bananas and cringe at the not so pretty coloring.
Let cool.
Eat one before it's done cooling.
Not enjoy the taste....
Take photo.


All in all it went as planned.  The Goddess turned 2 bananas into banana chips.  The consistency and texture is perfect, but the taste is not how she recalls banana chips tasting.  It's missing... well, the banana flavor. And what's with the color?  The Pinterest photo is much more reminiscent of banana chips over the end result The Goddess was able to achieve.  Further research is necessary.

The real muck-up and why The Goddess is calling Pinterest a liar stems from the strawberries.

Dried Strawberries
Strawberries
Salt
Pepper

Preheat oven to 100c.
Cut off tops of strawberries.
Halve or quarter strawberries depending on the size
Place on cooking sheet
Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
Bake for 3 hours.
Cool on cooling rack.
Eat.

Easy enough right? HA!

Cut off the heads (laugh evilly) of the strawberries.
Except for one with a stem on it.  
Pose stemmed strawberry on the pile of other headless strawberry corpses.
Take Photo.


Lay stemmed strawberry on it's side.
Take another artsy photo.


Take a photo of the strawberries next to their heads.
None of this is actually necessary, but quite fun playing at being an artist.

Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.... Can't find another cookie sheet, so a pizza pan will suffice.
No where on the recipe's page did it say use parchment paper.  The Goddess is SOOOOO glad she did. 
Find out why at the end.



Take an artsy, close-up photo of the strawberries.
Imagine yourself Queen of the Pinterest Folk with your beautiful photography skills!


Take photo of the strawberries in the oven with the bananas. 


Check on strawberries needless every 20 minutes.
Feel part of your soul die every time you open the oven door.
Slowly your strawberries are withering before your very eyes.
After 3 hours, remove strawberries from the oven.
Take a photo of the carnage.


Had The Goddess not put down parchment paper, the pizza pan would have been stained, of that she is sure.
Take photographic evidence of the battlefield once strawberries have been removed. 


 Pose the strawberries in a custard cup.
Give up on the pretense of creating an artsy photo of these withered nasty things.
Take photo.. dejectedly.


The Goddess has NO idea what happened to make these poor strawberries wither and become shells of their once lustrous selves.  They taste bitter and sharp, but very much like strawberries.  If only they looked as delectable as Pinterest told me they would.

Oh well.

The main purpose for giving these two recipes a shot was to have some hand snacks available for our walk of the Isle of Arran tomorrow.  All in all, these will be eaten... just no photographic evidence for pinterest. 



6.7.12

Walking the Isle of Arran

So The Goddess is gearing up for a bit of a trial run this weekend. Weather permitting, The Goddess, The Kilted One, and The Dae will be walking a few trails on the Isle of Arran.






This beautiful island is just off the coast of Prestwick and we will have to take a wee ferry ride over to the trails, but the choices we have to choose from is pretty remarkable. Walk Highlands has the routes in three separate ranges with dozens of routes within those areas.  Castles, waterfalls, mountains... Arran is referred to as a mini-Scotland.  The Goddess can get used to that idea.  The Land of the Kilted Ones has been her absolute favorite place on the planet so far.

Which is fortunate as this walk is going to be a wee trial of her capabilities.  If all goes well, The Goddess and The Kilted One may do... the... West Highland Way! 96 miles of walking from just outside Glasgow to Fort Williams.  Here is West-Highland-Way's suggested times and distances:

Milngavie to Carbeth - - - - - - - 5 miles (8 kms) / 3 - 4 hours
Carbeth to Drymen - - - - - - - - 7 miles (11.2 kms) / 3 - 4 hours

Drymen to Balmaha - - - - - -  - 8 miles (12.8 km) / 4 - 5 hours
Balmaha to Rowardennan - - -  7 miles (11.2 km) / 3 - 4 hours
Rowardennan to Inversnaid - - 7 miles (11.2 km) / 4 - 5 hours
Inversnaid to Inverarnan - - - - 7 miles (11.2 km) / 4 - 5 hours
Inverarnan to Crianlarich - - - - 6 miles (9.6 km) / 3 - 4 hours
Crianlarich to Tyndrum - - - - - 6 miles (9.6 km) / 3 - 4 hours
Tyndrum to Bridge of Orchy - - 7 miles (11.2 km) / 3 - 4 hours
Bridge of Orchy to Inveroran - 2 miles (3.2 km) / 1 - 2 hours
Inveroran to Kingshouse - - - 10 miles (16 km) / 4 - 5 hours
Kingshouse to Kinlochleven - - 9 miles (14.4 km) / 4 - 5 hours
Kinlochleven to Fort William - 16 miles (24 km) / 7 - 8 hours

The route would take just under 5 days to complete, but to be honest The Goddess has ALWAYS wanted to do something like this.  Lets face it.  She isn't a runner, she is a traveler, and she could probably walk the earth... Probably.

The Goddess is more than excited for this upcoming adventure and of course pictures will follow!!!
20.6.12

Working Backwards

The Goddess has been remiss in writing down her thoughts and feelings regarding her most recent travels... To correct that she will be adding in blog posts for the more memorable events over the last four months. The posts will go up all out of order, but no bother. The Goddess just wants to leave behind a great trail for her future wanderers to follow. <3

Over the coarse of the last 6 years The Goddess has had four separate blogs: Thai-Fly, I Save You Save, This Lil' Diet of Mine, and Winged Abode.  For the sake of being chronological and for putting all of her posts into one blog, those previous blogs have been added and incorporated into this one.

Six years of blogging about everything from travel, saving, shopping, dieting, exercise, politics, and education.  Personal and professional, it has been a great 6 years.  The Goddess is quite pleased with her legacy at the moment.
13.6.12

Creamy Chicken Enchiladas

The Goddess enjoys a great many things in life. None more so than mexican food. Who would have thought that a bit of cheese, a tortilla, and the following chicken recipe would change her way of life? 

Not this girl. Well what kind of a goddess would she be if she didn't at least share it with you?

Creamy Chicken Enchiladas
1 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 c onion, chopped
1-2 fresh green chiles, chopped
8 oz cream cheese, cut up and softened*
3-1/2 c cooked, chopped chicken
8-10 flour tortillas, warmed
1 1/2 c green chile enchilada sauce
1-2 c Cheddar & Monterrey Jack cheese, grated (as desired)

Preheat oven to 250f.


For starters The Goddess always boils her chicken in either a mixture of chicken broth and water or just in the water itself.  She also chucks in some chopped onions or green onions while the chicken is boiling.  This is of course option, however if you want to have a uniformity to the chicken in your enchiladas, The Goddess recommends shredding by hand or with forks over chopped chicken.

Mix the onion and oil in a pan and saute until soft, usually about 5 minutes.  Add the cream cheese and green chiles.  This is ridiculously hard to find over here in Scotland so The Goddess tries and make do with green onions and jalapenos for a bit of a kick.  Mix until gooey and melted and then add the shredded/chopped chicken.

Stir until chicken is coated.

Take a warmed tortilla and spoon a glob of the chicken goop onto the tortilla close to one edge.  If you do not know how to roll a tortilla for enchiladas, please see video below:



Enchiladas are not burritos and should not be rolled the same way. When you have your pan full of enchiladas, cover each tortilla with sauce until sauce is gone.  Add about 20 pounds of shredded cheese to the top and place in the oven until sauce is bubbly and cheese is melted.

Serve hot and with a side of beans, rice, sour cream, and The Goddess's guacamole.



17.5.12

Breaking Bread

The Goddess used to think she couldn't cook.  Then she realized, she'd never even tried.  For goodness sake, she'd been eating out of cans and boxes and cartons and all sorts of nasty processed sources her entire adult life.

Well this all changed yesterday. The Goddess MADE bread.  Albeit a bit doughy, it was bread nonetheless.


 Two loaves of bread!  One white, the other Cinnamon Swirl.


The recipe was ridiculously easy to follow and used ingredients already in the cupboards, so no additional shopping was needed.  Although the only drawback with using an American recipe here in the land of The Kilted One was the measurements.  There are no measuring cups, spoons, or other devices with units of measurement The Goddess is familiar with in The Kilted One's kitchen.  It is all in liters, mL, etc.  So after many conversions the dough took shape and after it was baked it looked delicious.  Then the first slice was made and to The Goddess's horror was not thoroughly cooked throughout.  A bit more recipe tweaking may be in order, but for a first try... well, The Goddess is pretty pleased with herself.

As The Kilted One would say, she's rather 'chuffed'.

Here's the recipe I followed
Amish White Bread
  • 2 cups warm water
  • 2/3 cup white sugar
  • 1 1/2 Tbsp active dry yeast
  • 6 cups bread flour
  • Vegetable Oil
Optional
  • Butter
  • Cinnamon
  • Sugar
  • Brown Sugar

Dissolve sugar into warm water and add yeast.  Allow yeast to 'proof' til the water becomes frothy.  The Goddess's water/sugar/yeast mix started rolling around like an alien lifeform and she had to kill it with flour.  She slowly added the cups of flour.  The Goddess decided mixing with spoons was over-rated so she mixed the flour in by hand... in hindsight, she might have stuck to spoons as her hands were quickly covered in goo that made adding additional cups of flour a messy undertaking.  Eventually the dough took shape and The Goddess removed the dough to a lightly floured surface to knead it into submission.  

Now this part is her favorite.  The twisting, pounding, rolling act of kneading is all a girl needs to relax and vent her frustrations of life.  Yes.  Even The Goddess feels the frustrations of life.  After the moment of venting has passed the dough should be kneaded thoroughly and placed in a well oiled bowl.  Plop the dough in and swirl it in the oil and then flip it over and swirl again so the entire mass is coated.  Place in a warm place, covered in a damp cloth.  The Goddess just put it in the oven on the top rack and placed a shallow dish of HOT water beneath it.  Something about atmospheric conditions allowing the yeast to rise.  Blah Blah Blah... The Goddess hated chemistry.

Now this part is important.  Forget you're making bread for an hour.  Just go do something else and become completely immersed and when you get around to having the thought "What was I doing earlier that I should be doing now?" the dough should have doubled in size.  The Goddess strongly advises reading a book (currently reading "The Long Walk" by Stephen King) as the time will pass quickly.  

Return to the doubled dough and while it is still in the bowl, punch the tar out of it.  Don't hold back (well... do hold back if you are using a bowl you'd rather not destroy) and just punch the dough down.  Knead it into submission once more on a lightly floured surface.  When it is completely kneaded, break it into two loaves. The Goddess does not have fancy loaf pans or even two loaf pans that are the same size so just approximate what the size of a loaf should be.  Roll out one loaf into a rectangle.  The Goddess doesn't cook with exact measurements of anything, so just eyeball it.  Starting at the shorter end, roll the dough from one end to the other like a cinnabun.  The Goddess smooshed the ends closed and when it came time to move it to the loaf pan (well oiled on all sides) realized it was too long.  So she just smooshed it some more until it fit.

As The Goddess has two size pans, she split her dough into one big blob and one little blob.  With the big blob rolled and in its loaf pan, she tackled the smaller loaf.  This one should be flattened out like the other and smothered in butter.  (The Goddess didn't have butter, so she used margarine... also in hindsight NOT a good idea as margarine has a higher water density and most likely is what made the insides even more doughy... still delicious)  Once the rectangle is covered in butter sprinkle on some cinnamon, sugar, brown sugar.  Again, don't measure, just sprinkle until you're satisfied.  Roll up as was done similarly above and get butter/cinnamon/sugar goop all over your hands.  Smoosh the ends and place in a well oiled loaf pan.

Throw this concoction back in its warm place and wait for the yeast to rise again. Back into the oven she put it to rise and then The Goddess continued reading for another 45 minutes or so.  When she remembered she was making bread, she ventured into the kitchen, saw the dough was about an inch out of the pans and turned on the oven to 300f (175c) and baked for 30-40 minutes.  

At this point the smell of baked bread will seep throughout the house making it impossible for you to forget the fact you're baking bread, but resist the urge to open the oven until the time is drawing near.  The Goddess waited and only peaked once (Ok.. twice) and when she pulled the loaves from the oven they were picture perfect!

Wait a minute or two to allow the bread to cool to the room before dumping them on a bread rack.  Resist the urge (a lot of this urge resisting going on) to cut the bread until it has completely cooled.  

Now, if you followed the directions correctly, you should end up with pretty bread that smells delicious, but is a bit doughy on the inside.  Why you would follow these instructions, The Goddess doesn't know, but in the end the imperfection of the bread just added to it's charm and for a first time, well, was not too bad at all.

Recipe butchered from: http://www.mommyskitchen.net/2009/01/amish-white-bread.html with the left out salt and oil part.. Because The Goddess doesn't read directions very well and somehow skipped that step.
9.4.12

Making Friends and Struggling To Do So


It hs been said about The Goddess that she is not particularly friendly, but she sure is nice.  It's not a bad combination, in truth, just means that she is loyal to a fault in her social awkwardness and unable to make fast friendships.  It could be much worse, let's say she could be very friendly but not very nice, for instance.  In the end, she doesn't think it's a raw deal.

Although, when it comes to making new friendships in a foreign land (of the kilted ones), you may be able to spot how this could be a problem.  The Goddess tried acquainting herself with the friends of The Kilted One, but in the end was unable to form any attachment.  Probably because they are all kilted blokes themselves, but who's to really say.

So she took other measures to allign herself with the foreigners and tod o her best to make friendly.  Such futile efforts included joining up with Weight Watchers, sweating it out in Zumba classes, and even such desperate forations into the pubs (underbelly of the land of the kilted ones) it all came to nought.  While The Goddess lost some weight and developed a fondness for Scottish ale and Zumba, no bonds of friendship was established.

The Goddess was perturbed at the results and racked her brain for a few days until the answer came to her quite literally at her fingertips.

THE INTERWEBZZZZZ!

After a quick smack upside her head she began networking with http://meetup.com and http://couchsurfing.com and VOILA! The Goddess set her lure into the great ocean that is social networking and waited for the fish to bite...

And waited...

Ate her weight in chocolate and weighted...er... waited still.

After all hope was lost (and all weight lost was regained) I lone email arrived.  A friendly Scottish Goddess was interested in making her acquaintance.  In the Scottish Goddess's entourage included an Irish Goddess and well... the rest is history.

The Bad Joke was formed!  The Bad Joke you ask? Well yes... surely every bad joke begins with an Irishman, Scottishman, and an American walk into a bar...

Lesson to be learned?  Friendships cannot be forced and character flaws (as nice as they may be) cannot prevent true friendship from taking root.  The Goddess doesn't know where she would be without her court of hilarity in this land of the kilted ones.

All she knows is that friendship is a great and powerful thing and she counts herself truly blessed to have found such amazing people in the ocean of life.

11.3.12

Greenan Castle

We woke up a bit late for our journey today. On the agenda a nice bike ride up the coast of South Ayrshire here in the land of the kilted ones.  There is a rather handy cycle path that goes from town to town and acts as a convenient route to explore all that Ayrshire has to offer.

As I mentioned before we had already tried the route going north where we had an unfortunate bike breakdown which led to an amazing brunch, but South was definitely on the agenda today.  There is something pretty amazing about cycling alongside the ocean.  The wind, the taste of salt in your mouth, and the occasional mist to cool you off.  Well that would be the case, except here in the land of the kilted ones it's incredibly windy, the occasional mist is more of a constant spittle, and there is no need to be cooled off as it is remarkably cold most of the time anyhow.  Not to be deterred the ride continued.

Over beach promenades, around railway lines, and navigating cobblestone streets we maneuvered our way through the sites and sounds of Ayrshire's largest town Ayr.  It was The Goddess's first time visiting Ayr by way of cycle and the view from behind the handlebars was quite lovely.  Over bridges that were arched in the most classical of ways, through narrow alleys, and beneath clock towers it was exquisitely Scottish in site, taste, and sound.  The sounds being the scottish brogue The Goddess has come to love so much.

Eventually we had wound our way through the town and back along its coast to venture further south along the beachfront.  As the day was unusually sunny, throngs of locals were flocking to soak up any meager amount of rays they could.  Children, Elderly, Fit and Abled alike, the throng of people was almost unbearable on the bikes, but it was still really great to see so many people out and about.

The farther along the bike path we journeyed, the fewer the crowds became until they thinned out into a more manageable trickle and allowed us free reign again.  The bike path came to a more modern bridge over a tributary that emptied into the ocean.  It smelled GOD AWFUL but the swans, ducks, and cranes that flocked to this small triangle were absolutely stunning and The Goddess did forgive the stench long enough to take a few photos.

Farther down the bike path it broke once more from the beach and angled slightly into a residential neighborhood.  All the beach front properties had wide windows, beautifully manicured front gardens with grass, flowers, shrubs, and beach themed accessories alike.  The Goddess had the pleasure of seeing a beautiful row-boat upcycled as a raised flower garden.  Genius!  When the path came before a hill at the end of the residential neighborhood, The Goddess must admit she was considering turning around.  The path had led us over 7 miles and it was nearly as long to get back.  The Kilted One had a surprise in store and assured The Goddess it was in her best interest to continue on.  So up the hill, cursing, she went until the ground leveled out beneath her and she found herself on a solid path surrounded by freshly cut hay fields.  The views from the top were amazing, but The Kilted One assured her the best view was yet to come.

The path continued to wind around trees and brush alike, but after a short while The Kilted One led her out into the fields and he began to make his own path for The Goddess to follow.  The ground was muddied and not easy traversing with the bikes so we left them abandoned for the time being.  A simple crossing of a deep ravine and over another hill and there before her was The Kilted One's surprise.

An old abandoned castle perched on a sea cliff's edge.  It was magnificent!  The smallest of keeps, weathered and beaten down to mere ruins, but The Goddess was in love.  It had stood for centuries keeping it's own sentry over the changing landscape given the name Greenan Castle it was all that remained of time's gone by.

Greenan Castle had a few secrets in store for us.  Luckily there are still adventurous youths among our generation that had handily smashed in the bricked up entrance to the main floor... without them, The Goddess might never have been able to get in at all.  Unfortunately those same youths had desecrated the remains of the castle with gravity, drinking, and even worse as a makeshift bathroom.  It smelled horribly of old urine and there was so much garbage littering the floor that every step was trodden on broken glass.  The ground floor was essentially one large room with what looked like a hearth in the far wall.  Not much else to it at all, except for a spiral staircase to the right of the entrance.

The staircase was made of stones and as most stone staircases go was bowed in the middle from years and years of use.  The first handful of stairs were still all intact, but the last stairs that led up to the second floor were so weathered they were all but crumbled away.  It would have been impossible to explore the remaining secrets of the castle... had it not been for those vandals mentioned above.  They had fashioned a rope swing of sorts that hung from the cross bars above the stairs.  It was with a great deal of effort (The Goddess's upper body strength has never been something to brag about) and courage but she made it to the second floor.

Whatever roof was once atop the castle had long since dissolved in time.  The top floor remained exposed to the elements of weather and nature alike.  Trees grew in bricked windows and the walls that stood so strong over the ages now housed life to plants and birds alone.  The views from the window slits cut into the stone were stunning.  It looked out to the sea from the western window, the city of Ayr from the northern window, and further along the coast from the eastern side.  If not for the graffiti on the walls, the clever rope swing, and the further bits of broken glass, it would have been possible for The Goddess to envision this as her secret treasure.


It still remains her favorite place in all of Scotland and The Goddess will forever cherish in her heart that sturdy bit of rubble for the rest of her days.

15.2.12

Illegal Alien

So The Goddess is here settled in Prestwick and she is going to share a story with you that she has not told another soul and will not tell anyone besides you and well the world.

The Goddess was detained and denied access to the UK for 6 hours on Tuesday. Hahaha.  Only she could get damn near deported from a country before I have even entered it.

The problem started because The Goddess doesn't have a flight booked for leaving the country and she didn't have any plans for immediate travel from the UK and she didn't have a letter from The Kilted One's family explicitly inviting me to spend the next 6 months with them... naturally Border Security here was incredibly suspicious of her intentions to stay in the UK for only the 6 months.  The Goddess got to the passport check at about 7 a.m. local time Tuesday morning (midnight Monday back-home time) and after giving "unsatisfactory" answers to the agent was put in a holding cell in one of the many backrooms.  She was fingerprinted, photographed, and interrogated (they called it an "interview" but it was definitely a mild interrogation).  They pulled her checked bag off the flight which she, of course, had missed and searched its contents in front of her asking her a lot of questions about everything she'd packed.  Even The Goddess's physical person was searched and it was overall a very intimidating experience.

To top it off the Border Security agents couldn't get a hold of The Kilted One.  They couldn't confirm what I was telling them was the truth as The Kilted One was in class and wouldn't answer his phone. His mom wasn't home so the phone just kept ringing on this end.  After a few hours of being in detention the agent told The Goddess if they couldn't get a hold of The Kilted One in a few hours they were going to have to fly her back to Chicago and she would have to have my passport stamped as being refused entry.

THANK GOD she was finally able to get The Kilted One on the phone and he was able to speak with the agents and sort everything out.  The Goddess hadn't slept much on her flights over so she ended up passing out on one of the benches in the holding cell and was woken up just after 1:00 by the agent to tell her that I was allowed entry, her passport had been stamped allowing her to stay the requested 6 months, and that she had exactly 20 minutes to get up, get through security, get a new boarding pass, and make the next flight to Glasgow.   Short story long, she made the flight.  At that point, The Goddess would have done ANYTHING to get out of Heathrow.
14.2.12

The Goddess and The Kilted One


I believe a bit of back-story is necessary to understand the undertaking that is this blog and, in short, my life.

I am The Goddess.  Not in the sense that I claim to be worshiped or a spiritual entity of any kind.  More along the lines of this is my Realm and surely I should rule it with what minimal grace I possess.  The Goddess has done many things in her life.  She has lived in a various countries all around the globe, has held down various jobs ranging from the menial data entry clerk to English teacher in the far-east and back again to pulling staples out of paper, and she has made friends with remarkable people that have shaped her life in the best ways.

She also speaks integrating third and first person perspectives for a mighty confusing narrative.  Just think of it as an endearing character flaw.

The Goddess dabbled in a bit of that schooling business and attended a University in the United States.  She did not finish because, well, she's often distracted, but in the course of "studying" she met The Kilted One.  To say it was Love At First Sight would be a bit of stretch, but there was definite attraction on both parts and after a whirlwind summer of cross-country, multinational travels the two were split by a small thing called the Atlantic Ocean.

The Goddess rarely backs down from a challenge and a long distance relationship was quite a challenge.  She would fly to him.  He would fly to her.  And finally in February of 2012, The Goddess grew fed up of being apart and moved to The Kilted One's home land to mingle among his people and enjoy all that The Kilted Land had to offer.

The Kilted One is most definitely more studious than The Goddess herself and will be graduating from his University in the summer of 2012.

And the Adventures of The Goddess and The Kilted One will truly begin...

So on the agenda for this summer we have a fantastic tour of South-East Asia (Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, etc.) before we relocate to Perth Australia.  We both have working holiday visas in hand so the move will be to not only experience Australian culture, but to some how manage to sustain life there.

Currently The Goddess lives with The Kilted One and his parents.  Not the temple of freedom one would hope for, but The Goddess is grateful for the loving home and place to live and flourish in.  However, when we relocate to Perth visions of Green living, sustainable gardening, homecooking, homemaking, all around home-ness will become reality.  The Goddess hopes you will stay along for the ride and enjoy a bit of paradise with her.