Emulating Claire To The (Curly) Enth Degree

As we run up to the May tour, I thought I'd share a wee email exchange that has been going around my tour guests (we're all very friendly pre-tour here).  You'll recall Ina last year bringing along a USA voltage hairdryer and wondering why it made her hair fuzzy.  After that I included electrical devices in the "NOT" to bring list.

QUESTION FROM CURLY TOP:  You mentioned that we should not bring hair dryers or straighteners because they would be confiscated until the end of the trip.  I must admit a small gasp of horror escaped my mouth at that point!  I completely understand the issue with appliances causing damage to the circuits.  I do, however, have very curly hair and while I usually love any opportunity to be compared to Claire, in this instance I'd rather not!  I have checked at amazon.uk and found that I could order a straightener/flat iron that would already be in european voltage.  I could have it shipped to my house here, or to your house so you could verify it's compatibility.  I wanted to check with you before ordering anything, to make sure it was ok.  (this was sent in good humor)

ANSWER FROM SAM:  I am bringing a brand new ( 3 months old and used once a week at most) Hair Straightener (which also curls) which anyone can use.  If you absolutely have to have your own, you may ship it to my address - no problem - OR - just buy one when you get here - believe me they're EVERYWHERE in Edinburgh Shops! 

VOLTAGE:  If you order one line - we are on U.K. OR BRITISH VOLTAGE.  Europe plugs will not fit into our sockets!

NOTE:  Remember, Hair Dryers are in every room accommodation - don't bring one.

Sorry to cause any fleeting moments of stress - our hair is important to us!  I think I would have done the same thing - gasped, that is.  Though I think we should all chose the same day on the trip and have a 'bad hair day' together.... I bet the style catches in Scotland....snicker :).

Cheers and thanks for that bit of humor in your follow up - I laugh because my hair turns into the 'post-wind storm' look when I wash it, so I can relate!  Though mine is more like Claire putting the wrong voltage in the socket rather than curly!

Sam

Comment from another Outlandish Spirit:

Ah the joy of a good “bad hair day” among friends will be a truly special picture for the blog.  My hair is bone straight so I believe a majority of my pictures will revert to my pony tail days. Thanks again Sam for letting us know.  My friend who is coming with me that has no idea where we are going…I already told her I would pack the hair dryer and such…so luckily I don’t even have to bridge the subject with her.

Scotland Winter Storm - Or Why We Lost Electricity For 2 Days

So what's the big deal about losing power in a winter storm.  Well, if you live out in the country and your nearest village is 2.5 miles away and the snow plows come up your road last, then you learn to go back to basics.

Left - our garden in May.  Notice the stone wall at the back.  Right - during the storm the wall is hidden - you can just make out the hedged across the road.

Below - Scot collecting snow to melt on the wood stove.  That's right, because

we get our water supply from nature -

not pipes, it goes through a filter which is powered by electricity.

Cooking on the wood stove, dinner by candlelight, no internet, no outside news and lots of reading before the sun went down!

Is it the Colorado Rockies?  Nope, it's our wee corner of Perthshire and me taking a walk.

Surprise!

Question: What's better than coming to Scotland?
Answer: Having it as a complete surprise! One of our Outlandish Spirit's is bringing their travel partner on one of our Jamie & Claire Tours this year as a surprise.... how great is that! I imagine that stepping off the plane will be like waking from a good dream, only to find that reality is even better! It will be like coming through the stones unexpectedly but without all that stone screeching noise! I'm absolutely thrilled, so I can't even begin to imagine how the surprised recipient will feel. Scot will be there of course to bring us all back in time through the portal of ancient tales.
From Edinburgh up to the Highlands an adventure to be had by each of our traveling groups with good camaraderie. The May tour date will close soon to new add-ons and the June/July adventure is revving up with some space left. Don't be left sitting at home as an Armchair Traveler! If you can't come along, get out into your own wee bit o' heaven and enjoy your local scenery. Whatever you do, enjoy the coming spring!

Highland Castles, Ghosts and Spirits

What have Highland Castles, Ghosts and Spirits got in common? Well, everything. Though the Spirits in this case will be our 'Outlandish Spirits' who will be Ghost hunting while staying in a Castle on our Jamie & Claire Tour in May. Or, perhaps the Ghost will be watching for them. This remains to be seen. We've got almost a full compliment and with just TWO BED CHAMBERS REMAINING at the Castle as of this writing, this special tour should be a crowd pleaser, or possibly a hair raiser?
This is no ordinary Ghost or castle, this is a 5 Star experience that promises to wine and dine and wrap each guest in a blanket of coziness that they may not want to come out of. Do you remember when you were a kid and you went to Disney? You felt it was so enchanting that you begged your parents to bring you back the next day. Well, prepare to be a kid again!

BE THANKFUL & SPREAD THE CHEER!

Hi Everyone! I've jumped on the bandwagon to cut my (negative) impact on this fantastically beautiful planet! So I'm asking each of you to do the same, since it is the season to BE THANKFUL & SPREAD THE CHEER. I will try to be creative and I will try to make it as easy as possible for each of you. So here is my first idea for you. Click on the 3/50 Project: www.the350project.net
(not to be confused with 350.org - which is great too!)
The premise of the 3/50 Project is this:
A. PURCHASE LOCALLY AT INDEPENDENTLY OWNED RETAIL SHOPS.
B. SPEND $50. A MONTH AMONG INDEPENDENTLY OWNED SHOPS.
Since it's the gift giving season, what better time to do this?
HAVE YOU PURCHASED YOUR GIFTS, DECORATIONS, TURKEY, ROAST, MATZA, OR SPECIAL RICE AND ALL THE FIXINGS LOCALLY AT AN INDEPENDENT RETAILER?

As the 3/50 site says:
3: What three INDEPENDENTLY OWNED BUSINESSES would you miss if they disappeared? Stop in. Say Hello. Pick up something that brings a smile (and is hopefully useful). Your purchases are what keeps these businesses around. And if you think about it, they're really very pleasant atmospheres to shop in!
50: If half the employed population spent $50 a month in locally independent businesses, it would generate $42.6 billion in revenue.
Note: For every $100. spent in locally owned independent stores (not chains and franchises), $68. returns to the community through taxes, payrolls and other expenditures. If you spend that in a national chain, $43. stays locally and if you spend it on line, ZERO stays locally.

BENEFITS TO THE PLANET: How does this help our beautiful planet?
1. Many stores are closer than malls - LESS FUEL.
2. Have you seen the lights that are on inside a huge shopping center? - LESS UNNECESSARY LIGHTING - LESS NUCLEAR, COLE, HYDRO POWER NEEDED.
3. Independent shop keepers/retailers usually live in the community where they have their shops. NO LONG FREEWAY DRIVES IF THEY HAVE TO WORK FOR SOMEONE ELSE IN A HUGE CHAIN - LESS FUEL AGAIN.

BENEFITS TO PEOPLE: Keep this in mind - if you've saved lots of money on an item, that means someone out there who put in their time to help create the item is losing out! This is especially true in big supermarkets and other state-wide and national chains! When you see a 2-for-1 at the supermarket, it is the producer of the product that has to foot the cost - not the big store who is 'insisting' on it or cutting the producer's contract......hmmph! This means someone who works for the producer is making minimum wage at best in this country or .50 cents an hour internationally, if they're lucky.
Happy Holidays from Sam and Scot

Happy Halloween & Celtic New Year Blessings

Thanks to Hamish Burgess of Maui Celtic for the following:
The Celtic New Year on the eve of November 1st, SAMHAIN (pronounced 'sha-ven' or 'sow-en' depending where you were), the Celtic Feast of the Dead, or the feast to the dying sun, marked the beginning of Winter, with the harvesting finished and the (photo of my three pumkins, sam)

start of stockpiling fuel and produce. Bonfires were lit, and household fires extinguished to be rekindled later from the ceremonial fires, to welcome returning souls of the dead. The ancient Druids believed the Lord of Death, Saman, gathered together evil souls, and so the Irish called this evening Oiche Samhna (The Vigil of Saman). The goddess Bride or Brigit, ended her ruling season, and her straw crosses were put up to proect family and livestock. In Scotland, Cailleach Bheur, goddess of winter, began her reign. (3 pumpkins gazing up at the moon)

For myself, Samantha, the celebration is extra special, because my mom and dad met at a dance on Halloween. It wasn't until I was a bit older that I realized why he liked the celebration so much, besides the fact that he loved entertaining, telling stories and making people laugh. So, in a sense, you might say that I exist because of this celebration...cool. So in honor of my father and mother, I carved three pumpkins and no....that is not me in the middle!

The Celts believed on that night between the passing of the old year, and the arrival of the new, that the veil between our world and the Otherworld (or spirit world) was thinnest, and that spirits and faerie folk could visit the human world, and vice versa, and that you could contact your passed ancestors. That belief has continued with today's Halloween traditions of witches and ghosts, etc.

The Christian church took a festival they moved from a different time of year to Samhain, which they called 'The Feast of all Saints', on 'All Saints' Eve' or 'All Hallows' Eve', hence the term "Hallowe'en".

The tradition of children 'trick or treating' possibly came from the ancient practise of 'soul caking', when children went round collecting cakes in return for saying prayers for the dead. In later times, children wore masks and carried turnip or pumpkin lanterns, going door to door asking for apples, nuts or money, the disguises originally to stop them being recognised and taken by spirits.

The tradition of a turnip lantern, or more popular today, the "Jack O' Lantern" carved pumpkin, actually comes from the ancient Celtic practice of placing skulls of the dead on poles around the encampment, to drive away evil spirits.

More info at http://mauiceltic.com/celtic-beliefs.htm

Hamish is starting the New Year how he means to continue, immersed in creating Celtic art - the results so far are on the Gallery page at http://mauiceltic.com/gallery.htm

Celts in the New World

Feasgar math and Aloha! If you followed the blog, you'll have seen bits about Hamish Burgess whom we met up with at Crainesmuir one day. Hamish is a Celt, living in Hawaii. He is a piper, an artist, an historian and basically a Renaissance Celtic Man - or would that be a Celtic Renaissance Man? Here's a bit of his work and his Maui Celtic web site:
http://mauiceltic.com/gallery.htm

He has everything from designed t-shirts to beautiful pieces like this:
You can also hear him every Sunday morning as a host for great Celtic music on Mana'o Radio at 8am Hawaii Time:

http://manaoradio.com/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1
This is public radio with no commercials - please do donate even just a couple of dollars to the station if you can - it really is supported by people and is so much nicer than stations playing 'corporate list pop music' and trying to sell things to teenagers!


So you can take the boy out of the motherland, but..........













Mahalo Hamish! We look forward to seeing you on your next trip back to Scotland.