240: The Crest Episode
One of the best things about doing this podcast over the last 4 years is getting to know our listeners that have now become friends. And one family that has become very special has provided us with this week’s Magic Word: CREST!
Thanks, Erin, Abigail & Amelia in Texas!
Anyone who knows Lulu knows that she LOVES to be cool! So, she’s now obsessed with the AC unit in her current housing.
Alison is a woman after my own heart with her obsession with color coded schedules on Google Sheets! Conditional formatting with assigned colors is one of my very favorite things to do with sheets! Well, next to using Tabs, that is! Oh, golly…I gotta go make a new Google Sheet now!
Alison wishes she had a clap activated lock for her bedroom door. Privacy isn’t easy to come by with her current door that doesn’t lock. This certainly stirred up a great conversation including Lulu’s opinion on open format for a primary bedroom/bathroom.
Lulu wants to lie in a hammock to relax in good weather. She may have to travel somewhere else for that since it’s been hot all over, but she can always dream, right?
This week’s word, CREST brought both Lulu and Alison to the British Isles. Lulu traveled to the Caledonian Forest in Scotland as that is home to the Scottish crested tit, that spends its time foraging on pine tree branches and trunks and spends its post breeding season in roving flocks.
She stayed at the Hotel Eagle Brae, a “self-catering” hotel. So, that meant she had to bring her own supplies. But, do yourself a favor and go to their site and watch the video…it looks like relaxation and exhilaration perfection! I’m adding this to my list of vacation wants! The cabins look sturdy, comfy and the views are breathtaking. It looks like a perfect family or friends vacation destination filled with natural wonder and adventure. They have canoeing, hiking, dog sledding, fishing, clay pigeon shooting and so much more. They are even a dog-friendly hotel! So, Lulu decided it was important for her to adopt one of the thousands of beagles that are up for adoption after being rescued from horrific lab testing. And what new beagle Mom would be caught without a Cool Beagle Mom hoodie?
While there, Lulu needed some wheels to jet around the beautiful mountains of Scotland, so she rented a Caterham 7 Sports Car. And since it’s a fancy sports car, she needed the proper attire. She got a Gucci Bobble Hat & Tod’s Gommino Driving Shoes so she would be styling in 10K style! Lunch & dinner came from her Taste of Provision Family Food Gift Box and since she’d be cooking all her food herself, she got a Primus Profile duo campground stove and a CampStove complete cook kit that:
— will store power
— burn sticks, wood scraps, or pellets
— stores inside the kettle pot
— boil 1L of water in 4.5 mins
— grill top fits up to four burgers
— flex light included to illuminate cooktop
Click here if you need some Biofuel pellets. Of course, she needed something to cook with, so she got the GSI Outdoors Pinnacle camper cook set, appropriately themed with some Vintage Scottish thistle topped sporks. Always thinking about sustainability and eco-responsibility, Lulu got the Ocean Bubble buddy to make her dishwashing soap, the SOL Flat pack collapsible sink, then hired our 10K favorite, VLAD to get her some water to wash all the dishes/pots and pans. And if you’ve ever hiked/camped in a preserve or perhaps the Grand Canyon, you know you are supposed to take out what you brought in, so she got a Kelty litter g’tter trash can to hold all her waste to be then taken out for proper disposal at the end of her trip!
And by that time she needed a good phone charge, so she got a Solar panel to charge her phone. Since she was adventuring in the Caledonian Forest, she needed to be ready for some good Scottish crested tit watching. She donned a Louis Vuitton monogram visor and Binoculars: Leica Trinovid Life Edition. Now, that all seems like a jam packed Scottish adventure, 10K style!
Alison ended up not too far from Lulu’s CREST location! She chose Cumbria, England as that is origin of the Burns Family Crest. She stayed at the Black Swan Manor. It’s said that it “offers an extensive and quirky space to relax - a snooker room (billiard room) a state-of-the-art cinema & craziest cave bar you have ever seen!” There she chose to enjoy both a hearty Full English breakfast: Black pudding (blood sausage), baked beans, bubble and squeak (potatoes and cabbage), and fried bread. Full Scottish breakfast: Potato scones (tattie scones), haggis, and oatcakes. Now, as haggis is widely described as ‘not so tasty’ to eat, I decided to look up the recipe. It was then that I found out that is traditionally served on Burns Night, a night to celebrate Robert Burns, the famous Scottish poet. And since she would need someone else to do the cooking, she hired a Private Chef to do the honors. Check out the recipe to see if you could ‘stomach’ haggis yourself! Don’t even start talking about the bird you eat whole, bones and all! Lulu had Alison signing off while she talked about that! I’m not sure I’m the same after hearing that!
Full from the double breakfast, it was off to do a little bit of Ghyll Scrambling Water Adventure in the Lake District. “Ghyll scrambling involves donning a wetsuit, helmet, and other equipment, and climbing, sliding down, and hopping from pool to pool in the Lake District’s ghylls, or mountain streams.”
Whilst looking up Cumbria, she found Epacium, A well-preserved 2nd century fort where moles are said to be the archaeologists. Now, I can’t believe Lulu and Alison didn’t realize moles were a nuisance in the US also, but I could take you on a tour of the ‘Epacium’ here in Cincinnati…AKA, my front YARD! I don’t have the heart to kill those little ‘eating 60-100% of their body weight per day, blind-ass rodents” but they cause major ground upheaval. I’ve even broken an ankle once as my high heel fell into a mole hole. Ugh! Why do they have to be so cute!? So, in order to save some of these little buggers, Alison hired a Mole Catcher and tasked them to transport and release them on the new plot of land she purchased (put a $5000 dep. on, actually) And that is how she began her new Burns Family Mole Farm. Yeah, sounds like a children’s book, doesn’t it? But, I imagine this is what the new crest would look like.
She closed out her 10K day in Cumbria with a lovely dinner at the Old Stamphouse, where head chef, Ryan Blackburn, and restaurant manager, Craig Blackburn, set out to offer a unique glimpse into the food and cultural heritage of Cumbria. And so as not to leave her new family members to go hungry, she picked up some worms for her new mole buddies.
CAN YOU SPOT THE DIFFERENCE IN THE NEW BURNS CREST?
After a long rehearsal period and a grueling preview run in Massachusetts, Lulu is excited to have a short respite at home in Orlando with family before she goes to NYC for her Broadway DEBUT in 1776!!! You could say we’re just a little bit proud of her. Click the link to get your tickets!
Alison is happy she was able to pay off her tolls that had built up without her knowing. I totally get that! When you’re used to your SunPass just working, sometimes you don’t realize it’s not being paid!
CHECK OUT THE CHARITIES WE FOUND IN THE CITIES WE VISITED:
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