Quick notes

I knew I should have written as I went along...but I didn't...so there it is....

I am uber tired today and also needing to catch up at work, so this is gonna be a quickie.


Learned a couple of travel lessons:

1.  If I use a city as a "layover spot" I need to stay at least a full 24 in the middle of the travel days.  We shorted ourselves on both Glasgow and Edinburgh...which we sorta knew would happen, but we were too fried post games to hit the Kelpies on the way back and simply ran out of time.

2. I love trains.

3. I had a hell of a time understanding the Scots....I did not, however struggle with Irish speakers...I realized the second day in Scotland, I was asking people to repeat CONSTANTLY...I had a thought about language that day...my brain was able to "fill in" what I thought was coming next while listening to the Irish, but my ears/brain got ahead of me with the Scots...the next day I actually thought to myself..."slow down your listening"  it worked...weird.

4. We ate at the same place in Dublin 3 days...hahahaha....it was tasty.

5. I love trains.

6. Learned how much better informed the average person on the street is in Ireland and Scotland than I am....Sitting in a cab, more than once talking not only detailed history, but trade and economic impacts on both Scotland and Ireland of the vote today, was eye opening.

7. The Scots were, on average, larger...I didn't feel like such a freak.

8. Scottish judges in the games? They rock beyond words...dancing on the field...teasing us....the love of sport and life in general was palpable.

9. Did I mention trains?

10. Ok beef....yes, beef, the "it's whats for dinner" stuff.  I thought I knew beef...I am, after all a carnivorous American....and I am next to Texas and well, NM has some kick ass grass fed producers.  So, I had not thought much about eating beef in this trip.  I noticed though, that in Dublin, lots of restaurants put right on their menus, "our beef is from Ireland." Yeah yeah whatever I thought...that is until we had some steak.  Now we never really ate anywhere but pubs...well once in Scotland we ate a little fancier...but this was "pub" meat.....I have to tell you....the Irish know how to raise some damn cows.  Holy Moly....I know...right, but I am dead serious...

11. I am gonna miss black pudding and haggis too, not as much as the beef...but yes....that stuff rocks. Any one who says "British" food sucks...I have no idea where they ate, cause...um, no.

12. Coffee? mmmmmmm so good.

13.  Learned more than I expected about whiskey...we only got to one distillery (which messed up awards for the games! sorry~more on that later), but I learned so much from bartenders, that it will change my drinking habits forever.

Ok....back to the 500+ emails at work...I'll write about the games soon....

mmmmm   beef......