The Month of June

In June I took a trip with my church to the Himalayas.  Not The Himalayas, of course.  If I go there, I don’t think I’ll ever come back.  No, the Himalayas of St Andrews Golf Club.  Here it’s the name for the ‘putting green’ where golfers can practice their putting skills.  Think ‘mini golf’ but without all the accoutrements and much more difficult with hills and sand traps.  Another Scottish event with about fifty people 2-3 times my age.  Great fun!

In June we also celebrated the Queens Diamond Jubilee.  Weeks before the day itself, store fronts were decorated in honor of the Queen, British flag banners were strung outside door frames, cakes and cookies were decorated in celebration of the Monarchy.  On the day itself, Holy Trinity Church hosted a ‘street party’ in honor of the Lady, and while England was receiving loads of rain, Scotland was basking in the golden sun.

The Olympic Torch also passed through this small town of St Andrews in June.  It arrived in the evening, making a stop at the Old Course and taking a run on West Sands Beach, where the classic run scene from Chariots of Fire was filmed.  The following morning, it left St. Salvators Quad after an ‘opening ceremony’ of sorts, made its way to the cathedral and then down the main street of town.  This took place at 7am.

I risked my life on the mountains of Skye in June. (Okay, not really, but for a few ‘leg shaking’ moments, it sure felt like it!)

 

And the summer solstice happened in June – the day we’ve all been waiting for for six long, dark months.  Too bad we’re having worse weather this summer than the locals can remember for years and years.  So far, the winter weather was definitely nicer than the summer weather!

Sorry… I wasn’t up at midnight to take a picture of the light in the sky for you.  Take my word for it… 3 hours of total darkness.  4 hours of some darkness.  20 hours of daylight.

My church held what we called ‘Messy Olympics’ in hopes of reaching out to some of the youth in town.   I think the older people in the church had more fun than the kids!

And finally, some friends and I went got cheap tickets to go paintballing, which also included a ride in a military tank. 

And for good measure, here’s my worst battle wound (ahem… thank you Garrick).  I don’t think I was very good at the game.  No, in fact, I know I wasn’t!

And lastly, for fun in June, I finished my Harry Potter Romance.  Let me reiterate – I love Harry Potter (the series, that is!)!! 

So, yes, there has been quite a bit going on here over these last two months, and my apologies again for not doing a very good job of allowing you to live in Scotland vicariously through this blog. 

In reality, however, the majority of my time these last couple months has been spent in my office reading for and writing my first chapter for my dissertation.  In mid-June I completed and submitted my first 12,000 words of the project, which will be one of four main body chapters of the total work.  I now have only 68,000 words to write!!!  But more on that another time…