(view from the walk on the Cairngorm Mountains)

The Accommodation :

Four Bedrooms, three bathrooms, two living rooms (utility room, kitchen and dining area), perfect for five gals and four guys and no arguments over what to watch every night.  The house was pleasant, a little old fashioned and the family photos were a little freaky but each to their own.  It's was a great size for all of us to fit into.

Oh and it had plenty of books (which meant myself and Lau were very happy).  No matter that I'd went armed with 'North and South' and 'The Forgotten Garden' and bought five books whilst I was away.  I still managed to find myself a book to read from the shelves, though I didn't get it finished and now must make a trip to the library to get it and find out what happens to Moll and Alfie, but I digress.

Also, and this had us all rather bemused, the place was filled with packs of playing cards, at least seven or eight which we kept finding in drawers or on shelves.  As you can imagine, time was filled in by playing various cards games, from numerous amounts of patience games, to more fun stuff like 'Go Fish' and one which became a favourite, two or three pack snap (each person gets a pack of cards and the race is one to win all of them).   None of us ever seemed to be in the mood to play more serious games such as black jack, poker etc etc.  Though Lau and I were wanting to learn to rules of 'Whist'.  You see, being fans of the classics we figures because they were always playing games of 'Whist' whilst having a good gossip we should at least learn the rules and understand what's going on.  Unfortunately nobody else seemed interested in learning (and reading through the rules it all seemed a little confusing), the argument of telling people that everyone from 'Lizzie Bennet' to 'Hornblower' played Whist didn't really assuage them to our cause, so we have been left still wondering how Whist is played.

The Cairngorms:

(Me on the left, with little sis Jess)

The second day graced us with some delightful weather. Considering in the last few months we've seen little of the sunshine and more often than not drowned like rats by varying degrees of downpour, we were up for getting out and enjoying the weather, so up the mountains we went. Driving of course, none of us are of the 'Mountaineering' kind.  I love going up the 'Cairn', the scenery is beautiful up there and they have some nice walks to toddle around.  It was an extremely clear day and we could see for miles, down over Aviemore where we stayed just outside of as well as Loch Insch where you can go and do a lot of different watersports.  After a walk in beautiful sunshine, (we didn't even need our coats or scarves like we usually do) we had a quick cuppa in the cafe there.

(view from the Cairngorm Mountains)

Seeing as the weather seemed to be sticking around, we decided on Canoeing for the afternoon.

Canoeing:

The lads had done canoeing before, but for us gals, it was anew experience.  This was evident when we manned our boats and went where no twenty eight year old mature ladies have gone before, round and round in circles in the middle of the Loch in absolute hysterics.  I've not laughed so hard or so much in a loooong time. If I wasn't laughing then Rache was or vice versa so we couldn't get very far very quickly.  Jess and Liz seemed to be in the same predicament.  Eventually when we stopped going in circles, we end up in a zig zag motion. The lads sort of gave up on us and went on their merry way whilst we muddled about on a quiet part of the river leading off from the Loch.    I pondered on how the children of adventure stories from my childhood really did so well with such an activity.  If Julian, Dick, Anne and George could man a boat, then by golly so could we.  Such determination didn't make us go in a straight line but we did have a laugh about it.

It wasn't until the nearing of the end of the hour when we started back for the beach to moor the canoes that Rache and I got into a rhythm and started moving in a straight line.  Unfortunately it was whilst we rowed backwards, so not only were we dissolved into fits of giggles but we couldn't even see where we were going because we were rowing backwards and extremely tired from it.  Still, it was the greatest fun and I am sooo going canoeing again!  And at least we stayed dry and didn't topple the canoe over!

After watching the Wimbledon highlights last night (too see the King and the Matador go through to the final in straight sets...WHOOP) me and my ma were channel surfing for something else to watch.  I was about to go grab my DVD cases when 'Barefoot in the Park' came on Sky Classics.  I'd never seen it before but being a Robert Redford fan I was up for watching it and my ma wasn't bothered either.

It's a hilarious movie, one which I'm glad to have sat down to watch.  The kind of comedy classic that doesn't lose it's edge over the years, although we were both sitting going 'Wow...look how young they are' (and still both gorgeous as ever now).  I've not watched many Jane Fonda movies, but after watching this I could be spurred on to see others.

It's a basic story, two newlyweds settling into their first apartment together.

Which just happens to be on the sixth floor.

Consists of three basic rooms of very small size (they have to sleep on a 'large' single bed).

Has no heating.

Has tennants of questionable background and social lives.

Oh and their neighbour on occasion has to use their bedroom window to climb out onto the roof in order to get
 into his attic apartment if he happens to be locked out for failure to pay his rent.

The comedy fare this all throws at you has you laughing with tears running down your face.  Fonda and Redford both has some brilliant comedy scenes and lines but not only that, the support cast of Charles Boyer as Victor Valesco (the neighbour) and Mildred Natwick as Ethel Banks (Fonda's characters mother) lend so much to the running of the movie and the comedy antics.

Running gags ensue throughout the movie yet they don't become boring just flesh it out more.   And throughout we see the two newlyweds realising that married life isn't always going to be like the first six days in the Plaza Hotel room (of which they never exited throughout their stay).

If anyone hasn't seen this movie, I'd certainly recommend if you like your comedies.

For me I'm off to see where I can buy it, definitely one to be owned.