Turkey : Troy

Troy was our next destination,

and it was a major disappointment,

Even my over-active imagination had trouble conjuring up

some images other than the pile of rubble that we walked around.

I did try and picture Brad Pitt in his little mini kilt,

all buff and battling....

that helped a bit,

but Captain Tim was not best pleased when

i mentioned that was what i was doing.

In fact,

we spent most of our time there watching an ant colony hard at work,

those insects are amazing.

Oh yes....

i went to an ancient wonder of the world

and the best thing i can blog about it is their ant colony.

Turkey : Virus

my plan had been to stick up some pictures from my holiday all for this week.

But instead i've spent the past three days in bed or on route to the bathroom.

All thanks to the lovely souvenir of a Virus

that i'm pretty sure i picked up at the health spa i went to there.

Managed to hall my ass out of bed today to get to the doctors,

who prescribed me some nice drugs and

then proceeded to show me his ballroom dancing skills.

I was very polite and smiling away meanwhile thinking,

just give the damn pills so i can stop exploding all over the place...

then again it may have

been a feverish hallucination....

Turkey : Galipolli....

As mentioned,

the past week has been spent in Turkey.

Where i went to visit my Ex-ex-boyfriend

(yeah, if you can figure it out your about on

the same level of understanding as i am).

He had planned a 5 day trip driving

around Turkey to see some sights.

First Stop Galipolli.

Gallipoli is a place that i remember from my school history lessons,

we also watched the Mel Gibson movie in class as part of our learning,

watching-movie-learning was always my favourite.

A brief history on Gallipoli

is that it was the area where the Allies landed

(mainly Brits, Aussies and New Zealanders)

during WW1 on an attempt to control the Dardenelles,

an important piece of land that would have

opened up access to parts of Europe.

The plan was a disaster,

bad leadership alongside bad weather,

and dysentery in the trenches killed off most soldiers.

The only part of the plan that actual worked

was the Emergency Evacuation to get everyone out.

Now, its a mountainside filled with graveyards and war memorials.

Beaches with the occasional gun lookout still around.

And its also an incredibly beautiful place.

Especially at ANZAC cove,

this was the spot where the Australian/new zealanders landed

Its a beautiful piece of beach, over-looked by beautiful mountains.

Unfortunately not very tactical, and was landed on by mistake.

In fact, we stopped and admired the view for a

while not realising that this tranquil view we were looking

at was indeed ANZAC cove and the home

to so much pain and suffering.

Over the Rainbow.....

I've been on holiday in Turkey,

(sorry, lots of holiday photos will soon be coming....

whether you like it or not)

But i've also recently been reading a biography

of Judy Garland by David Shipman.

Its a sad story,

of a life of a woman who never felt good enough

and couldnt deal with the reality of herself

and the image she was supposed to portray in films.

She spent a life addicted to drugs

and full of insecurities mainly forced upon her

from the picture studio she was working for.

In fact reading it i see many similarities between

the biography of Marilyn Monroe who suffered

from nearly the exact same problems.....

and in fact today there are still movie and pop stars

who suffer and die from the same insecurities.

At any rate i wanted to share this video.

This is Judy in 1955,

the studios had stopped employing her for movies

because she was so erratic and she turned to stage shows,

and although she suffered from stage fright,

the instant gratification from the public pulled her through.

She is dressed in her tramp outfit from the previous song,

but for me this is Raw Judy,

not the Judy who i know from movies,

'the girl next door' who she never really was.....

Top ten things to do in Glasgow....

I went to Glasgow yesterday to attend an

Open Day at my old ballet teachers Gyrotonic Studio.

Deciding to make a day trip out of it with my sister Georgia i googled,

'Top ten things to do in Glasgow'.....

i normally find it gives me a good idea of what to do in a new place.

However,

there wasn't really anything i fancied on any of the lists,

so here is one of my own that i have composited....

1) Trash Cans/ Garbage Disposal Units / Rubbish Bins

No matter what you dialect calls these,

Glasgow is bountiful in its amounts of these.

Have fun spotting ones with added decor....

2) Chippy Shop's Galore

Ye Olde Chip is a must do in Glasgow for a fine feast,

look at this delightful assortment of toppings and added extras you can get....

pickled eggs,

pickled onions,

pickled gherkins,

mayonnaise,

ketchup,

brown sauce,

vinegar.

3) Dodgy Little Alleyways

Always an excitement and thrilling adventure

travelling down the nooks and crannies of Glasgow,

never knowing if you'll come out alive.

4) Dining Al Fresco

So you maybe the only one sitting out in the rain....

more space for me i like to think.

5) Dangerous Piles of Rubble

A fingernail biting thing to see

dotted around the city,

be careful but enjoy!

6) Shops with great Variety

In Glasgow anything goes.....

7)Statue with cone on his head

I'm not sure what the reason for this is,

i think its just the Glasgow sense of humour,

but in all my very sporadic trips to Glasgow over the years

i have never seen this dude without his orange hat.

8) Okay....

so maybe i dont have 10 top things so i'm going to buffer a bit

with this accidental picture i took of mine and Georgia's feet

when i tried to take a conspicuous picture

and realised that the flash was on just as i pressed the button.

9) Amazing Fashion Spottings-

My favourite spot of the day was the all in one

bright yellow addidas tracksuit.

Unpictured

(feared for my life if i would take it,

he may have been wearing hot yellow but he still looked well hard )

10) Primark!!!!!!

I'm not kidding Primark is my most favourite shop....

next to Poundland.

Primark made the whole trip worth while.

(disclaimer -

dear Glasweegies...

please take this in jest

and do not chib me or give me any Glasgow Kisses)

The flavour of Scotland ....

so i'm not normally one of these people who

take pictures of their dinner and blog about their food....

normally i like my food in my stomach.

But today i was so excited by my lunch

that it was indeed photographed....

and then devoured.

Todays lunch was a haggis and black pudding roll.

The double-layered combination was immense.

It was like the flavour of Scotland

captured in a white buttered roll.

The only thing to i should have done to complete

the meal should have to have washed it down with some irn-bru,

(there's always a re-try tomorrow.)

The last time i got this excited about food was

when i had Fried Pizza and chips from the local chippy....

oh, wait,

that was last night....

The wise words of Kevin Costner....

I have a little notebook that i occassionally write down quotes in.

I like to write them down on random pages

and yesterday i came across this one that i'd forgotten about,

a quote from the lovely Kevin Costner,

"Real heroes are men who fall and fail and are flawed,

but win out in the end because

they stayed true to their ideals and beliefs."

and this comes from a guy who has played Robin Hood,

so he must be in the know.

And now, just whilst Kevin Costner is on my mind,

i'm going to put it out their and say how much i love pretty

much all his movies that i've seen,

especially

The Postman,

which was such a box office failure.

i think i love it more because of that.

hmmmmm........

i'm thinking right now i might

watch me a bit of Waterworld....

More Museum Shenanigans...

We didnt just go swimming when we went to The National Museum of Scotland,

We did many other exciting things....

Jordan practised his kissing technique on

Mary Queen of Scots tomb,

Brodie re-enacted for us what it would feel like if we

used the thumb crushers on liars

There were some seriously cool people dressing up renaissance style....

There was a very serious catapult competition....

met the taxidermied Dolly the Sheep....

Did moose impressions,

I learned that there are/were Giant Sloths that are the size of a giraffe.

I learned that i am the same weight as a Penguin

Elliott was so happy that there was something that had a sign saying,

'please touch' next to it.

He used it to its full advantage.

We went to outer space

I gave Brodie and Elliott lessons on how to pose like a mummy,

learned from my year in Egypt

some sections made me feel old,

like the mobile phone section

which had phones more up to date than the one i use

The only surviving quadruple bike in the world.

I dont know why it never caught on.

I went on Safari.....

with Georgia and Nana....

Elliott showed his breakdancing move called 'the shrimp'

and i'm so glad that Elliott looks miserable in this photo,

cause it reflects completely my feelings on Harry Potter....

IT SUCKS!

all in all

a fun day out.

30 years and 10 children.....

Yesterday was my parents 30th Wedding Anniversary.

Here are some lovely pics from that day all those years ago.....

My mum is a huge Gone With The Wind fan.....

HUGE

So when buying her wedding dress she wanted

something that echoed Gone With The Wind

On her wedding day my dad,

knowing her love for G.W.T.W

looked at her lovingly and said,

'You look just like Melanie'.

UH OH!

My mother was mortifed,

who the heck wants to look like Melanie?

Everyone knows that Scarlett is the Southern Belle.

My dad you see had watched the film and disliked Scarlett

and thought that being called Melanie

who had a more beautiful character was more of a compliment.

At any rate,

it become an infamous story in our family,

and one of the few tid-bits that i actually know about their wedding day.

So i'm glad that it happened....

(and i'm totally with my mum on this one,

call me Scarlett over Melanie any day)