A typical day

So JB says she ain't been up to much which is why she ain't posted for a bit so we thought we would hi-jack her blog and show you what we get up to while she is at work, the blog has my name on it now so we ain't being naughty or anything. 

This is where we sleep, and when JB has gone to work we like trying on whichever pair of glasses she has left behind

Sometimes we make up stories about JBs life before we all met, I like being the storyteller most so Russ and Harry usually let me :)

I am also good at getting Russ ready for when we go home, Harry says he is a Scottish bear so will be staying here and will find a new family when we go but Russ is keen to come see NZ 

If it's sunny we sunbathe for a bit, this does not happen all that often being Scotland though

We chat to other bears using JBs computer to fill in time and also cos it's fun as

In the afternoon we usually watch a movie or two cos we get sleepy and need to rest, it's hard work being this active

Then JB comes home and says hi to us all and fills us in on her day which is sometimes a rant but we don't mind, we let her rant then offer her hugs cos we are good like that :)

And that is a day in the life of us :) 

Love from Missie, Russ and Harry xx

Bada-Bing

So a couple weeks ago I went to Bada-Bing for dinner for my 1 year in the UK anniversary.  They have changed their menu a few times in the past 6 months and in the latest one they now have gluten free burgers, which I was totally stoked about as it means they can now take part in The Great Edinburgh Gluten Free Burger Hunt :) and as they are one of my fav places to go drink this is a good thing.

However as with most times I have eaten there it has not been as good as I was hoping, generally the food is all good and the service is pretty good too but there is something that lets it down, and its not even a consistent something either.  It has taken me a couple weeks to rate and rank Bada-Bing as I wasn't quite sure what to give it or where to put it but I think I have it all sorted now.

So first off I couldn't have a beef patty in my burger as they are not gluten free which was disappointing but not the end of the world, I had wanted a bacon cheese burger but that had a beef patty, instead I had a chicken and pulled pork burger.  The burger itself was very yum, way more food than would fit in the bun but that just made me laugh, however what let it down was that their chips weren't gluten free (they used to be so not sure what they have done there) so I got a side of salad which to be honest I am not a fan of, I like my burger and chips.  Overall I've decided that they deserve a 2.5, its the chips that let them down.

Current Rankings:
1. Bread Meats Bread
2. The Southern
3. Handmade Burger Co.
4. Holyrood 9A
5. Bada-Bing
6. Burger.
7. Burger Meats Bun

My dislike of Amsterdam continues...

All you people that receive your blog updates via email might not realise this but my dislike of Amsterdam has followed me home, the mission it has been to get that post up and readable has been a nightmare and has lasted most the evening.  From this section (which you can't see but is where I type what I wanna say) it looked ok, but when I went to view it in the blog world which you all see when you go to the page it had some of the writing tiny as and some black and some white and the pictures all over the place.  I managed to get all the writing the same size after some effort but the colouring was another story.  I have no idea why but highlighting and changing the colour would work here but not be replicated in the viewable blog so half of what I wrote was white on a white background, cos yes I have renamed my blog and changed the layout again.  Finally I figured I had to retype all the stuff that was white which by this stage luckily was just the photo captions, took a few goes as it turns out if I just typed it under what was there even if I changed the colour to black before starting typing again this was not replicated in the viewable blog.  Ended up having to delete the original text before entering it all again.
And I'm still not sure why the pics are not spaced as they should be, on this version of the blog they are one enter between each and none between the pic and their caption.

So yeah Amsterdam and I are not friends and I don't see us making up anytime soon.

Also I am aware I am sounding rather calm in this post but in reality I have had to walk away from my laptop a few times else it would be a broken mess by now.

Hope your evenings have been more enjoyable :)

Amsterdam

On Monday on our way back from Luxembourg we had a few hours in Amsterdam to explore. The reason for this was that with flights we either got a 1 hour gap between flights or a 9 hour one, so obviously went with the longer one as 1 hour is pushing it for getting off one flight, through security and to the next one. Due to stupid adverse weather conditions the flight out was delayed so our 9 hours was down to less by the time we finally got there.  Still we managed to get out to explore for a few hours.  

Must admit we did not really like Amsterdam, can't really say why just didn't really like it and it had a bad vibe.  The canals were quite cool though and there were some cool old buildings.  Did love that while we were trying to find one such cool old building (a church that we could see in the distance) we managed to find ourselves in the middle of the red light district with the ladies standing in front of windows wearing not much while advertising themselves.  I found this rather weird and a little disturbing, like putting people on sale which I spose in a way they actually were.  Best part was that when we did found the church there was a chocolate shop in the church and they sold gluten free nougat which I bought 2 of even though it was overpriced (in my opinion) and then proceeded to inhale it as it was pretty good and I was very hungry.

We then did a canal boat tour which was rather cold but also quite nice, and my ankle definitely appreciated the rest.  It was nice to have a bit of the history of the city as well as seeing some of the cool old buildings from a different angle.  After the canal tour we went back to the airport as I was hungry and figured that atlst at the airport, being an international place and all, they would have gluten free food for me (the rest of Amsterdam, where I asked anyhow, didn't do gluten free), and they kinda did.  I ended up eating at Starbucks after asking around everywhere and being told 'no we don't, try over there', figured I could atlst fill up on a massive cup of coffee.  They managed to do something for me which was nice, it wasn't a big meal but it was food :)

We then checked out the shops and found the Johnny Walker House and they have an exclusive collection which had bottles with the willow pattern on it, thought of buying a bottle for mum to go with her cups and saucer set but then realised I could not afford it and knowing me I would break it before it got to her so wasn't worth the risk hehe. They did look cool though :)

We then decided to check the departures board to see where our departure gate was in case we had a long walk, and it turns out it didn't matter how far we had to walk as the flight had been delayed.  I was not impressed, we were meant to fly out at 9.10pm and the flight was delayed till 11pm, then it was delayed again, and then again.  Again due to adverse weather conditions though it didn't seem adverse or even bad when I was out.  Turns out they were down to one runway as the other one had to be closed for some reason due to bad weather the other day or something like that.  We ended up leaving just before midnight.

I am beginning to think I need a new travel buddy as Missie is not always the best person to travel with.  She sleeps through security, ever since she figured out she wasn't required to do anything, only sit there and go through the scanner once I finally made it to the front of the line.  She is also useless company when flights are delayed as she naps most of the time.  I just get really bored, as you might notice from the photos below.  We ended up making it back to the flat just after 1.30am and were so hungry that we had warm bread (waiting for it to turn into toast was taking too long lol).  Have also decided that my next holiday is going to be somewhere that is gluten free friendly, so will be researching that instead of just what there is to see. 

Amsterdam train station

Just chilling

Lots of canals and bikes everywhere

The choc shop we found

The statue of Belle - to respect sex workers all over the world

The church we was looking for when we found ourselves in the red light district

Random square we found

Cool street we found

And a cool statue

Tiniest car ever, Missie agrees its more her size than normal people size

Cool fence

Me keeping warm on the canal tour

Missie keeping warm lol

Random pics from canal tour

Johnnie Walker House at the airport

Bored at the airport

Happy to finally be on the bus home