Menongling; Mingling Moments

As mentioned last week, the reason for the trip to Edinburgh at the end of September was to have a meet-up—actually, two. (Well, three, if you count Mac1...) 

First, I spent an afternoon in Princes Street Gardens with Aitch and her friend Cee. I met Cee several years ago when visiting Aitch in Suffolk, so she is not a stranger to me. The main purpose of their getting on the train from Northumberland up to Auld Reekie was to gather some geocaches and connect with a bunch of other geocachers for a geek gathering in the early evening. I got the bus down from where The Grey was parked, and we connected a little bit before lunch. We wandered along the top level of the gardens from east to west, stopping briefly for a drink at a kiosk.

I always enjoy joining in on the geocaching - not just the detective work involved in the finds themselves, but quite often the views and history/information gathered along the way. I particularly like this memorial to the life of Wojtek the Soldier Bear, who became a corporal in the Polish army.

Another lovely bronze sculpture on the lower level is this elephant. It is in memory of all the children who suffered from SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) and to encourage donating to research on the disorder.

At the west end of the gardens stands the Ross Fountain, though sadly, the water was not flowing on the day of our visit. We sat and had lunch from the cafe kiosk there - but I must admit it was far from fantastic, given the prices. Still, it kept us from fading away. 

Anyway, we worked our way back to the east end, and I parted company with my pals at the National Gallery, where I caught a bus back to the van. It was a lovely outing, just meandering in the autumnal light.

The next day, I drove The Grey across the city (yay for having an EV and not needing to worry about low-emission zoning!) to park in Fettes Row. This is one of the prestigious streets in the 'new town', the extension of the city to the north of the castle mound. Parking costs are reasonable, and it is one of the places within the city that officially permits motorhomes and campervans to park overnight... if not stealthing, like I do. Why did I go there?

To meet two vloggers in the flesh that I've been following for nearly five years now. I introduced you to them four years ago, when they were still in the South America part of their grand world tour. Snow and Curt (aka Chilldaze) have been in Europe for a year now and finally made it to Scotland! Like me, their vlogs are about a month behind real-time, so if you click that link, you will find that the most recent videos are from Ireland. Anyway, when I knew that they were going to be arriving here, I reached out to them via DM on the instything, offering them the chance to meet if they felt they wanted to. I didn't want to press the matter - they have a HUGE following and are rightly careful for safety's sake. However, I was over the moon when Snow wrote back that they were keen to meet me, too. Their time for this first visit to the Bonny Land was very limited, and they were fitting me in with the scheduled arrival of friends from the USA who were hiring a camper to spend a week with S&C. It transpired that those friends were delayed by a day due to hurricane Helene, so what was to be little more than an hour together, we ended up having quite a bit of the day. I first visited their van and met the cats, G Money and Vanna, and we got all our introductory talk out of the way. Then we let the cats rest, and S&C came into The Grey for a cuppa and a sandwich. Curt had to attend some other business for an hour or so early arvo, which left Snow and myself to have a properly good gals yarnfest!!! She is doing remarkably well after having had both knee surgery (in Colombia) and major heart surgery (in Argentina). One of the reasons they were pressed for time on this visit was that she had to back way down by London to get her six-monthly check up.

I treasure the memory of that time shared with two of my favourite online pals, to have found them as genuine and down to earth as they come across in their videos, and to have had two wonderful, deep, warm hugs with a farewell, not a goodbye! I was so excited, and in the moment, there was only one photograph to share from the meeting. Slacko, Yamini!

That was that. They promised to be back later in their trip, and we'll meet again. I am so in awe of this couple and what they have achieved thus far in their van.

This was a little out of order, for the day after this, Mac1 and I took the trip to Penicuik that I shared with you last week. After that, I turned Grey's wheels back towards Dunoon. The intention had been to spend at least a week at The Hutch, but I never made it up the stairs. News of Nobby's Gail landing in the hospital caused me to turn northwest once more. I didn't rush it, though - and tomorrow, you will see a little bit of that outward trip.