Fairman Siblings in the UK

My three younger siblings Bert, Rachel, and Anna arrived in Newcastle on St. Paddy's Day last week.  I met them at Newcastle International Airport and I was so excited to see them as they came through the arrivals door.  They have now been in the UK almost a week and it has been non-stop fun since the moment they arrived.  I think I'm going to have to make a few posts on their week here because we have done soooo much and they haven't even left yet!

I thought they might be exhausted Thursday night after almost 24 hours of traveling, but they were ready to hit the UK ground running.  We ate dinner and headed to Osbourne Road with our friends Julie and Kevin for a little St. Patrick's Day drinking at one of our favorite bars, Blanc.  We weren't out too late, but we had a good time drinking and talking about their day of traveling.

Sissys

Yes..the hubby got to go too.

On Friday morning, the sibs and I got up bright and early, 5:30 AM to be exact, which is about 5+ hours earlier than I normally get up these days.  We made our way to Central Station where we took the train to Edinburgh, Scotland.  The train ride to Edinburgh is only about an hour and a half, and we arrived in Scotland by about 9:30AM. 

At Central Station getting ready to board the train.

We made our way up to the Royal Mile which is the area of the city that is most known for tourism.  At the very top of the street is Edinburgh Castle, but the rest of the mile is filled with shops, St. Giles Cathedral, pubs, and much more.

The first stop on the Royal Mile was St. Giles Cathedral.  It is a stunning cathedral both on the inside and out, but unfortunately it was under construction on the inside.  They still allowed us to go in and look around, but it took away from the natural beauty by having ladders, crains, and workers inside.  Oh well, we still got some great pictures.

St. Giles Cathedral

As we walked out of the cathedral, we decided our next stop would be Edinburgh Castle.  However, as we began to walk up the Royal Mile, we were confronted by a couple.  I almost brushed them aside thinking to myself,  Oh man, what are these two trying to sell us now.  The woman first asked us if we were in the tourist group, to which we replied no.  She then asked if we had 15-20 minutes of our time to spare because what they were going to ask us to do could be "rather significant."  At this point, I was really thinking, get on with what you want to ask us, because I'm anxious to tell you NO and get on with my day!  To our surprise, the woman said, "We are wanting to get married today, and we don't have any witnesses.  Would two of you please come be the witnesses to our wedding?"  I have to say I think our mouths dropped to the floor.  We were not expecting that to be the question, but we quickly decided...sure...why not?!  So the six of us rounded the corner to the registrars office where Bert, Rachel, Anna, and I witnessed the marriage of Sisi and Andrew.  We signed the marriage papers and everything.  What a way to spend our first hour in Scotland!!!

Us at the Registrar's Office after the wedding ceremony.

After that slight deviation of the plan, it was time to make our way up to Edinburgh Castle. 

Side Note:  Can I just say that the weather in the UK has been absolutely spectacular since the arrival of my sibs and they are beginning to think that I have been lying all these months about how rainy and dreary it usually is.... not that I'm complaining that the sun was shining.

Edinburgh Castle is huge.  I mean seriously, you could spend the entire day at the castle if you wanted to.  We didn't, as we had lots to see and only a day to see it.  But we did have a great time in the couple hours that we did spend there.  Highlights of the castle included panoramic views of the city of Edinburgh, going through the museums, playing royal guard, and having a little too much fun with a red telephone booth.

Edinburgh Castle

View From The Top

And as I mentioned before...the Red Telephone Booth.

And here's a few more from the castle...just cause.

Have I mentioned before that my brother is kind of a ham?

On our way out of the castle, we met William Wallace....aka Brave Heart.....aka....Rachel's new boyfriend. Notice the hand holding.

Next up on the list of things to do in Edinburgh was the Scottish Whiskey Experience.  I am not a big drinker, and especially not a whiskey drinker, but the girls and I decided to humor our brother and sign up for the tour which included a whiskey tasting at the end.  The tour was actually quite interesting.  It started with a disneyland like ride that showed you how whiskey is made, and then they told us about the four main areas in Scotland where whiskey comes from.  Certain areas are known for whiskies with specific qualities, tastes, smells, etc.  They even had a scratch-and-sniff card for each area so that you could decide what kind of whiskey you would like to taste.  I choose to taste the whiskey from "Speyside."  It's known for "fruiter" whiskeys, and the scratch-and-sniff card smelled like a banana.  Can I just say, that whiskey tasted and smelled NOTHING like bananas. Yuck!  Bert got to have most of mine, and Rachel's, and Anna's.  Four for the price of one. Lucky. Him.

They also have the largest whiskey collection in the world.  We were able to see bottles upon bottles of whiskey.  Surprisingly, these bottles come in all shapes and sizes.  Some are worth thousands of dollars.

After getting a little whiskey courage running through our blood (I guess we had a little, Bert had a lot), we decided we felt brave enough to go on the famous Edinburgh Underground Vault Tours.  The vaults underground were used centuries ago for merchants and then after that as shelter for people who were too poor to live "above ground."  Supposedly, there was lots of murder, rape, disease, etc. that went on underground and over time, the vaults have been believed to be haunted and filled with paranormal activity.  I don't exactly know why we thought that this would be fun, if you have problems with claustrophobia, panic attacks, anexity, or heart problems I would highly suggest staying away from this tour if you ever make your way to Edinburgh.  If you like a good fright, being underground, complete darkness, and paying for an anxiety attack..then perhaps this is the pefect tour for you! 

However, we did pay to go on this tour and so we knew we needed to follow through.  It was 45 minutes of fear.  I think that every person on the tour could not wait to get out of those vaults.  The stories sound real, and though I'm not a big believer in witchcraft, ghosts, and the paranormal, I AM a believer in the fact that the mind is a very powerful thing and that people could definitely work themselves up enough to faint, vomit, scream, and even hear or feel things down there.  All of us, Bert included, thought at one point we might pass out.  Our prize for making it to the end of the tour, MORE WHISKEY, at the Banshee Labrinyth, Scotland's Most Haunted PUB.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

If any of my sibs were feeling jet-lagged prior to this tour, they were definitely wide awake from an adrenaline rush after.  We all said we were glad we did the tour, because it will be a story we always remember, but none of us would EVER do it again!

At this point in the day, the sun was beginning to set, and our bellies were beginning to rumble.  It was time to find some food and a place to rest our feet.  We headed to Greyfriar's Bobby's Bar.  Greyfriar's Bobby is somewhat of a hero in Edinburgh.  He was a Skye Terrier who when his master died, layed by the gravestone protecting it for 14 years until the dog's death in 1872.  The dog is a symbol of loyalty and love and a statue was erected of Bobby soon after it's death.  Now there is also a pub you can visit in Edinburgh in honor of Mr. Bobby.  As an avid dog lover myself, I decided going to that pub would be extra special.

By 9:00PM it was time to head back to the train station and call it a day.  It was a long and exciting day in Edinburgh and a great way to start off the Fairman sibling tour of the UK.  We got home late, and we were exhausted, but we have lots of memories and this was only day 1!

Ding ding ding...Round #3

I'm pretty sure that in a previous post, I mentioned my knee injury.  Well I guess it's only fitting that I tell the whole whopping story. 

Round #1: Once upon a time, in a faraway land of Bakersfield, CA, while I was a senior in high school, I tore my ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) while at a gymnastics practice.  I was a Level 9 competitive gymnast through most of my young life.  I had a custom brace made and continued to tumble on a torn ACL until a few months later, I tore my meniscus (cartilage) too.  At that point, the orthopedic doctor and my parents agreed that no more gymnastics could occur until reconstructive surgery was done.  So the summer after I graduated, I had an ACL reconstruction and meniscus repair.  The surgery of course was not the most fun thing to go through, but I figured after 6 months of physical therapy I would be much better off.  I even began coaching gymnastics as a part-time job in college about 12 months after surgery.  Things were good.

Round #2: Unfortunately, 18 months after the surgery I started feeling unstableness in my knee, and while coaching a gymnastics class, it went out on me.  A drive home and an MRI later, my surgeon confirmed the worst case scenario.  The ACL along with the meniscus were torn AGAIN.  I had a second opinion done and sure enough he said the same thing.  So, in December 2006, I had my second ACL reconstruction and meniscus repair on my left knee. Aside from knowing what to expect from surgery, the second surgery and recovery were no easier than the first. But I prayed that I wouldn't have any more problems and that this was the last knee surgery for a long time. 

In the summer of 2008, I started having severe left knee pain again.  I had been pretty active during the two years following surgery #2.  I had started running regularly, among other things.  I had a third MRI done and my second surgeon said that again my meniscus was torn.  He also said that there was a small cyst that had developed in my knee.  He suggested a possible arthroscopic surgery, but I was hesitant to go back under the knife unless it was really necessary.  We agreed that I would keep it in mind and continue to watch it for awhile.  If problems persisted, I would contact him.  Luckily, I had no real issues for quite some time.  I continued running regularly, running some 5K and 10K races, and was about 5 weeks into training for a half marathon when I reinjured that darn knee again.

Round #3:  In November 2010, while my parents and I were traveling in Scotland, we witnessed a woman being robbed of her purse.  In an effort to save the older woman's personal belongings, I ran after the guy and attacked him by jumping on him and trying to grab the purse.  He threw me off him and though I had the purse in hand, I landed funny wrenching my knee and causing extreme pain.   ACTUALLY, I was putting on my shoe in the hotel room one morning, my knee popped loudly, and I fell down in pain.  It is NOT an interesting story, and almost embarrassing to tell people.  The one I made up is way better.

My parents drove us back to Newcastle as fast as possible.  It was an agonizing car ride, one I don't want to do again any time in the near future.  Josh rented me crutches from the Red Cross here in Newcastle.  They were the strangest pair of crutches I've ever used (and I've used lots).  Apparently, this is all they have here in the UK.  Here's a picture of them.

I was on these things for almost 4 weeks!!

I decided not to go to the Doctor and to just wait until we went home for Christmas to see my surgeon.  It takes forever to see a specialist here in the UK due to socialized medicine, so I figured it wasn't even worth trying.  When I got off the crutches, I still had a major limp.  Since our main method of transportation in the UK is our feet, this made leaving the flat very difficult.  Needless to say, this princess was stuck in her English castle for weeks.  I think over the course of the six weeks before we went home to CA, I only left the flat about 5 times. 

Once home, I had my 4th MRI of my left knee and the doctor informed me that my small meniscus tear had turned into a rather large one.  On top of that, it had "flipped up" and jammed itself in my knee joint making it impossible to straighten out my leg and very difficult to walk.  Surgery #3 was a must. To say that I looked extremely pathetic for about 8 weeks until surgery would be an understatement.  I had surgery on Jan. 5, 2011 to trim off part of my medial meniscus.  Trimming your meniscus is not an ideal option at a young age as you can never get it back and it usually leads to arthritis, but it was my only option.  Needless to say, left knee surgeries are still in my future.  I think my ortho doc would rather not have to see me anymore.  My left knee looks like a canvas for doctors to do art on.  Here is a picture of it now.

I like to think it looks like a face. The two dark spots are eyes, the long one in the middle a nose, and the small thin one off to the side, a crooked mouth. Kinda like this :--/

Surprisingly, this surgery was by far the easiest recovery I have experienced so far.  I was walking within days and I had little to no pain.  I never even touched my pain killers.  Let's just hope this is the last one for awhile.  Because the score is currently, KNEE: 3  STEPHANIE: 0.

The End

Scotland Bound

During the second week of Mom and Dad's visit to the UK, we headed up to Scotland via car!  We rented a car in Newcastle and Dad drove it around Scotland for five days.  How he drove on the opposite side of the road using a stickshift without getting into any accidents is beyond me.  He drove so well, and we only entered a roundabout going the wrong direction once!  Josh was unable to accompany us because we were gone during the weekdays.  He was definitely missed.  Here are some of the highlights of the trip.

Made it to Scotland!



Jedburgh Abbey



Melrose Abbey

Edinburgh Castle

Overlooking Edinburgh

Loch Ness....We didn't see Nessie though :(



Isle of Skye





I definitely slipped in Skye mudd




Long haired cattle on the side of the road



Traditional Scottish Breakfast complete with Haggis
(sheep heart liver and lungs)