Some other Castle and a wee house

On Wednesday we went and had a look around a castle called "The Castle of Mey" that Royal Family owns. The Queen Mum bought it a while ago and used to holiday there in the summer. The tour was pretty good and it was a pretty interesting insight into how crazy the royals are. So many ridiculous traditions and procedures. Like when you sit down to dinner you speak to the person on your left for the first 2 courses and then to the person on your right after that. Then the ladyfolk retire to the sitting room while the men drink and smoke. Apparently if the men are a long time drinking and smoking the women sing "why are we waiting" and then the men down their drinks and join them in the sitting room. There is also two adjoined bedrooms with separate beds, but only married couples are allowed to occupy the two bedrooms. What the hell is up with that shit? Wacky. The Queen Mum seemed quite down to earth though (as much as possible I guess) as (among other things) she used to pour tea for her guests herself. It was the only residence she was allowed to do so as it was the only one she owned herself.

After the castle we went to have a look at a Crofter (farmer) house. It was pretty bloody primitive, reminded me of some of the NZ bush huts! It was mostly original and had some very old stuff in it. It had a fireplace that was burning peat. Apparently peat is not only good for putting in beer (according to Becky), it is also good for burning in fires. There was a whole lot of info and tools on display about cutting and drying peat. I have never heard of any of this before. The house also had box beds which was basically a box with one side missing with a bed in it. Would have been hopeless for me as I would probably smash one of my feet through the end of the box in the night. They were kinda built into the house and often had stuff stacked on top. Weird, I can't see how anyone thought they were the way forward.

For dinner we went to George and Shonas (Garys parents) and had some more haggis. These Scots assure me they don't eat it every night but I suspect that they just can't get enough of the stuff. Its pretty good anyway.