Oot'n'aboot

Yesterday we ventured to Urquart Castle which sits overlooking Loch Ness. 

Beforehand, we had to hand out some leaflets for Cathy and Alex in the surrounding town of Drumnadrochit, where we discovered that Twenty is plenty.

We also learned that no one in Scotland owns a letter box. So we had to enter every yard, go right up to the front door and slip the leaflets into the letter slot thing. Scary stuff. Especially when the family watches you walk up to their front door and then walk away with our knocking... Also most of the letter door slot things had some sort of toothbrush bristle system which made sliding a single sheet of paper inside very difficult so a lot of them were poking out a bit..  

Jessica thought for a while about our situation. "What would Hamish and Andy do?" Then it came to her! We would make a point system. 

+2 pts for a smooth delivery (no complications)

+1 pt for a rough delivery (presence of toothbrush bristle system, finger stuck etc.) 

-10 pts if the dog barks at you

+20 pts if the person/family in house acknowledges you positively (gift of cookies, high fives, waves, smiles, invite you in for dinner etc.)

-20 pts if you are acknowledged negatively (Yelled at, have poop flung at you, boogers wiped on you, disapproving looks, leaflet rejected etc.) 

+50 pts for being positively acknowledged by the people in the other persons target house.

After 3 hours of walking around trying to smile and wave at the people/sneaking in and out undetected we came to the end of one neighbourhood and had long lost count of our points. Although Jess had definitely smashed me. (She totally planted me with all the houses with dogs... The cheat)

So with sore, freezing, cold bodies we sat down for lunch (lovingly packaged by our host mum, Cathy) in front of a stream. 

Aww very nice. 

Once our bellies were full we found a sign that told us to walk "1 mile" to Urquart Castle.. Pfft 1 mile my butt! maybe more like 3.

No matter!! We made it! 

We still can't get over how big Loch Ness is!! 

Urquart Castle is more of a ruin now. It was filled with explosives, blown up and abandoned in the 17th century.. 

I can't remember why but there was probably a good reason for it.

This is Jessica giving me the bird. I said 'wave' but I guess that's close enough. 

"Stuff the police"

Well I hope no one is surprised by this act of rebellion. Look at that face, so seemingly innocent! 

Look at this poor sod. He must be pretty bored. 

It was a super cool place to visit and had a brilliant view of Loch Ness! 

Sorry that one is a bit blurry..

This one is a bit better.. Hey! Is that who I think it is? 

The cheeky bugger kept sneaking into the shot haha... Definitely the real thing.

It was a fantastic day! And as we left through the gift shop we were even enlightened to the weather forecasting ways of the Scottish. 

A very intuitive idea if you ask me! 

We walked back to town and delivered a few more leaflets before Cathy came and took us home. 

Our Sunday was a little more relaxing. Jess face timed her family and was able to watch some tv with her mum. Sadly Jess's dog knocked the phone over so she was staring at cushions for a little while. 

I went to church in Inverness and was amazed by the fact that the only difference between church here and church at home was the accent of the people there! Everything else was pretty much the same which made me feel very welcome. 

Cathy cooked a super yummy pork belly roast for dinner/ lunch and we spent the rest of the day relaxing and digesting our food! 

We're having an awesome time here! Absolutely loving it (Yes this photo is very convincing of the fact haha). We shall touch base with you all again in a few days :D xx