UK August-October 2013- The Drive to Edinburgh

Next to Loch Ness, Edinburgh was the place that I wanted to visit most in Scotland. I had even begun reading Alexander McCall Smith's 44 Scotland Street, set in Edinburgh,  as a way to theme my trip. I highly recommend picking your literature to theme around your vacation. It gave me a glimpse of the city before we arrived. 

Unfortunately, Edinburgh is expensive and we were not able to find a reasonably priced hotel. We booked our night-stop in Lockerbie, but planned on having dinner in Edinburgh and visiting the castle.

We left John O'Groats early in the morning, to give ourselves ample time for stops on the road. 

Our first stop was for a snack at ASDA.

ASDA, somewhere in Scotland.

ASDA is another UK supermarket chain that I can add to my list. ASDA has a little cafe that offers a cheap, quick and decent meal. We had a pot of tea and scones.

After a long stretch of driving, we encountered a pretty town that reminded me of our local mountain communities back home. There were camp grounds,hotels and a main street with boutique stores and restaurants. We saw a sign for a funicular and took a detour.

A ride on the Cairngorm Mountain Funicular is just over ten pounds and is Scotland's only funicular railway. We bought our tickets and waited in line.

Funicular Ticket.

The waiting area had many sculptures made out of wood.

Waiting area.

The waiting area

We waited thirty minutes and even saw a funicular go up empty. Since it was cutting into our time for Edinburgh, we ended up skipping the funicular ride and the staff kindly gave us a refund. It's a good thing too, because when we returned to the parking lot, clouds had rolled in and the visibility was low.

The view from the funicular parking lot.

It was lunch time. so we headed back to the cute village of Aviemore and picked an Italian restaurant. There is something about cold, rainy days that make me crave tomato sauce. 

La Traverna

La Traverna Ristorante was excellent. We shared a large pizza and left completely stuffed. If this restaurant was in my home town, I would be eating here frequently. It was a food highlight of our trip. Beyond the food, the restaurant was really warm and cozy, which was perfect as we sat by the window and watched the rain pour down outside.

We got back into our car and drove the last leg to Edinburgh.

You know that you're getting close when we start seeing signs.

We didn't stop there, but the award for "Best Palace Name" goes to the Scone Palace!

I challenge you to avoid craving a warm scone with clotted cream!

Near the city we drove by a Smart Car Center and took this picture for the members of our So. Cal Smarties car group!

We missed our Smarts while on vacation. They would have liked to have gone on a road trip.

And finally, we crossed a giant bridge and entered Edinburgh!

Movie Review- Frozen

I was pretty darn excited to see Disney's latest animated feature, Frozen. The trailer looked promising with a cute reindeer and a snowman battling over a carrot. I liked that the trailer introduced two of the characters, without giving away any of the plot. All trailers should follow this model. 

I wasn't able to see this on opening weekend and this made it impossible to escape hearing early reviews and reading about how much my friends (many big Disney fans) loved Frozen.

I went in with sky-high expectations.

The short shown before Frozen was bizarre. Get a Horse highlights the dangers of angering someone that has road rage! Visually, it's kind of neat, taking an old Disney short and making it modern. They characters jump in and out of the movie screen, switching from black and white to color with modern touches. It's a cool idea, but I didn't care for the overall story, too much slap-stick. 

Set in the fictional Scandinavian Kingdom of Arendelle, Frozen is the story of two sisters who are divided because of a family secret. Elsa, the older sister, has the power to freeze objects and must keep this a secret from her sister Anna, whom Elsa accidentally injured with her power when they were children. Elsa and Anna, once the best of friends, have grown into adults that are strangers as Elsa lives in fear of endangering her sister. She would rather distance herself, than risk causing harm. Elsa's secret is revealed to the whole kingdom during her coronation party and her power threatens all of the inhabitants of Arendelle. Anna must find a way to reconnect with her sister and save their kingdom. 

The story has some great themes. In particular, I liked that Elsa learns to be comfortable  in her own skin. There was a good moral lesson about the dangers of holding in secrets. Anna and Elsa love each other, but they must learn how to communicate. Elsa and Anna are both strong characters, which is in line with most of the recent Disney films, featuring female heroines. Although the story has a villain, the villain is a very minor character. Anna and Elsa's biggest battle is with their own issues and assumptions. 

This is easily the most beautiful Disney film. It's visually stunning. It even has two magestic castles! I loved all of the different ways that the ice is formed and utilized. I hope that this movie becomes a dark ride in a Disney park or maybe an ice themed coaster. 

I can't give this movie a completely glowing review. It was good, but not great.

The songs were just average. Nothing was very memorable. The only song that really caught my attention was Do You Want to Build a Snowman?, which sets up the transition from childhood to adulthood for Anna and Elsa. It got to the heart of the problem between the two sisters and explained the severity of their estrangement. The songs are unevenly paced in the film. There are a lot of songs in the beginning and then they drop off to the point where I kept forgetting that the movie was a musical. It didn't need to be a musical.

The movie wasn't very funny.  It tried and there were plenty of opportunities. Only a few lines made me laugh out loud. Olaf, the magical snowman, absolutely drove me nuts. He was the Jar-Jar Binks of Frozen. The trolls were also fairly irritating and their musical number could have easily been eliminated. The male characters were very one-dimensional.  This is Anna and Elsa's story and everyone else really doesn't matter. 

Overall, I'm glad that I saw it and I felt that it was an enjoyable morning spent at the theatre. It was a better than average Disney film, but not one of my favorites. 

Book Review- E.L. James' Fifty Shades of Grey

I'm really not a book snob. I can usually find something in any genre of books that I would consider worth reading and my book selections tend to be quite eclectic. There are two genres of fiction that I generally steer clear of and admittedly would be embarrassed to be caught perusing the shelves in those sections of a bookstore, fantasy and romance.

E.L. James' romance/erotica novel, Fifty Shades of Grey was definitely not on my TBR list. It landed in my hands for two reasons.

First, it's a huge pop-culture phenomenon. I started feeling left out. It's a bit like Twilight or Harry Potter, you need to read it to be "in the know".

Second, my aunt gave me her copy. A friend convinced her to buy it and she couldn't get beyond the first couple of chapters. It's like when you eat something that you don't like and want someone else to share in your misery. "I hated it. Here, try it". Thanks. 

So I did. I contemplated skipping writing a review, so that I wouldn't have to admit to having read Fifty Shades of Grey. Instead, I'm swallowing my pride (theming intended) and confessing to having read it. 

The novel is told from the perspective of recent college graduate, Anastasia Steele, who in her final weeks of college is sent to interview an insanely rich buisness man, Christian Grey, for her college newspaper. In addition to being rich and attractive, Christian also has a mysterious dark side. He seduces Anastasia, who happens to be a virgin and offers her a position as his sexual submissive. Anastasia is both horrified and intrigued. The story unfolds as a power-play between the two characters as they negotiate both their needs and emotions.

I kind of don't know what to make of this story. It wasn't 100% horrible. Honestly, a fair bit of it was entertaining. It was not in the slightest bit sexy or erotic. This is probably just me, but I felt like the sex parts bogged down the pacing of the story. They were so graphic that they left nothing to the imagination. It was dull to read as it didn't engage my  imagination. Unfortunately, this was also a large chunk of the story. I have no idea how this is going to translate into a compelling movie.

I had a difficult time connecting with either main character. However, I did like the parts of the story that were told through an e-mail exchange. Anastasia and Christian spend a fair bit of the story exchanging flirty and sometimes angry emails that felt genuine. James did a great job at capturing that rush of excitement and toe-stepping that happens when you first begin a relationship. There are many great little moments in the email exchange.

There was one phrase that Anastasia uses repeatedly, seemingly on every page, that drove me nuts. Inner Goddess. What the hell does that even mean? It just sounded silly every time I read it. Her character is someone who is obsessed with classic novels and has unrealistic romantic expectations, so in some ways it fits. It still sounded ridiculous.

I knew nothing about the author before reading the book, but within the first couple of chapters, I knew that she was British. She uses phrasing that Americans don't use. I probably wouldn't have caught this, if I hadn't recently married a Brit. In fact, I wouldn't have picked up on it at all, as it was slight. I'm not knocking her writing, it just was something funny that I noticed.

The ending was very unsatisfying. It doesn't really even set you up for the next book. It just ends and it's depressing. I definitely don't feel compelled to find out what happens next.

I enjoyed the kitschiness of the dialogue.  James often reminded me of author Jacqueline Susann. The story rarely takes itself too seriously, which is why it works. Personally, I enjoyed reading about Christian's house/plane/helicopter. I wanted to read in detail about the clothes that he bought for Ana. Forget the erotic parts, I wanted to hear about the fabulous dates!

In the end, I'm glad that I read it and now know what the fuss is all about. I'm highly unlikely to read the other books or see the movie version, but I don't feel like reading Fifty Shades of Grey was a waste. It's decent escapist literature and if James decided to branch out into something less genre specific, I would read her.