UK Nov' 11

The first weekend in November was fairly low key and I didn't do anything to write home about. I had started packing for my trip, originally I thought that I would take my suitcase and computer and leave them in left luggage office at Birmingham office when I went to Scotland. Darren persuaded me not to do this and just to bring one piece of hand luggage, so I was stressing about weight. I knew he was right and it would be a much easier trip this way, but.... Monday and Tuesday were super hectic at work, I was trying to finish my exam marking and get all my lesson plans ready for the coming week. On top of all of this the school had had a visit from the labour dept., they of course were wondering why Anna and I didn't have work permits. Funny that, I was wondering the same thing. Although of course I could have told them why. Ms. My had foolishly left the job to our HR dept. and they had done jack shit, now the labour dept. had told the school that we would have to stop working on the 30th November and we couldn't be in Vietnam after that. Needless to say, I was a little bit worried about this, especially since I don't know what the authorities would do if I was still in Vietnam after the 30th. I know what the Japanese authorities would do in this situation and I don't want to experience that in any country as it includes incarceration. Wednesday finally arrived and apart from not having been paid, something that seriously pissed Anna off, I was all set to go. Anna hasn't been happy at APC in a while, she doesn't get on with "Dr. Jason" and he doesn't like her. This is not a good position to be in as he has hiring and firing power over us. On top of a whole load of other issues as well as not being paid, we had to worry about the labour dept. and Anna was trying to get her visa renewed at the Phan Thiet immigration office and it wasn't looking good. In the midst of this I was heading back to the UK for Kate's wedding. At least I wouldn't have to worry about getting my visa renewed as I was going to get a new one. However I don't want to have to leave Vietnam every three months because my school can't get there act together as regards my work permit. I got the bus to Saigon and had several hours to kill so I went into District 1, got a foot scrub and lunch before heading out to the airport. There is nothing at Saigon airport, and what there is for sale is way overpriced and priced in Dollars, I really hate this. I checked in, my luggage was only about 7kgs, so that was a relief, I shouldn't have a problem on the flight to Glasgow. The flight to Istanbul went smoothly, the flight to Birmingham was also fine, the whole process was really uneventful. When I arrived in the UK I didn't even have to speak to an immigration office, they have automated gates now for UK biometric passport holders, nice! I tried to change my flight to an earlier one, but it was going to cost me over £100 to do so, I declined and went into Birmingham city centre for lunch and some shopping. The flight to Glasgow was quick and smooth, I picked up my hire car and headed out of Glasgow. I had some problems getting the headlights to work, the switch wasn't immediately obvious and where it was wasn't included in the car information the rental company had given me. It took me half an hour before I got it sorted. My route took me past Loch Lomond, I had a full moon and the drive was beautiful. By the time I had been driving just over a couple of hours I'd reached Fort William and I was knackered and just wanted to go to sleep. If the wedding hadn't been the following morning I would have pulled over and gone to sleep in the car, as I couldn't I got a coffee and slapped myself around a little! I was so happy to finally see Eilean Donan castle, the hotel was just over the bridge from there so my journey was done. Everyone was in the bar, Kate was so pleased to see me. She and Darrell immediately enveloped me in hugs and told me that they had been waiting for two things, the wedding cake and me. I had a beer and then hit the sack, my room was small and didn't have a view of the castle but it did have a four poster bed and it's own bathroom with hot running water. It was also a little cold, which was awesome and generally the kind of conditions I like to sleep in, cool room temperature but I'm covered by a nice warm duvet. Unsurprisingly I woke early so when breakfast rolled around I was ready to eat. I sat with Darrell's parents and enjoyed a cooked breakfast. It was awesome. I'd brought one of my Ao Dai's with me to wear to the wedding, most everyone else had complied with Kate's wish for them to wear Viking inspired dress,everyone looked great. We walked as a group to the castle and were shown inside to a small baronial hall, which was amazing. At 11am we observed a minute's silence as it was Remembrance day before the ceremony got underway. The ceremony was officiated by an American woman called Judy and she did an amazing job. It was a personal, intimate and moving ceremony. Kate and Darrell aren't religious, so a church wedding wouldn't have been appropriate for them. I have to say that everything totally came together, I think it's one of the most amazing wedding ceremonies that I have been too. I felt as if I was a part of the ceremony and I think a lot of the other guests did too. After the ceremony a Quaich cup was passed around with some good whisky in it, I took a sip. Then it was outside to have some photos taken. It was a lot colder than inside, which was a surprise as I though the castle would be cold, although we had gotten really lucky with the weather, we had sunshine. Hell, you can come to Scotland in July and get worse weather than we had that day. When I got back to the hotel I had a beer with Mark, Kate's brother. I haven't seen him in years and it was great to catch up. At 3pm we sat down to a roast beef lunch, I was so excited and the people I was sat with were very kind and let me have extra roast potatoes! It was a happy, fun, beautiful, relaxed day. The dining room was small, so we were a bit squashed together but that just added to the atmosphere of informality, a totally awesome wedding. I was so glad to be there and it was totally worth the hassle of getting there. I am so glad that I went. After lunch we repaired to the bar and I continued to drink. I ran out of steam about 7.30pm and went to bed, I think most everyone else continued! I woke up about 10pm and got a knock on my door, Kayleigh, Kate's daughter had been sent by Mark to wake me up. I went back downstairs and had another couple of beers before going back to bed just after midnight. It had been a great day and I can honestly say that there was nowhere else that I would rather have been. I woke up at 5am and it was still dark, I figured that I would wait until 6am and then shower and get my stuff together, hopefully by then it would be getting light and I could go for a walk. That's what I did, but Mother Nature wasn't playing ball, it was still totally black at 7am, I decided to go out anyway. I walked down towards the castle, the morning was in complete contrast to the previous one. It was cold, wet and miserable, this was the Scottish weather I had been expecting. Despite this, it still wasn't as cold as I had been expecting and certainly nowhere near as cold as it had been when I went back to Japan the previous winter. I bumped into John, one of Kate's friends and we chatted on the bridge before I turned around and went back to the hotel, the rain was closing in. I joined everyone for breakfast and then left at 08.30 for my drive back to Glasgow. The journey was smooth and uneventful, I arrived perfectly on time and was straight onto the plane after grabbing a sandwich for lunch. Having hand luggage I was straight off the other end and onto a train into Birmingham city centre. Darren was waiting for me and I couldn't wait to see him.