2 Million Dollar Bills

Growing up in Aberdeen I have been aware of who William Wallace was from a very young age, a huge impressive statute of the legend stands just outside His Majesty’s Theater and overlooks Union Terrace Gardens in Aberdeen. The statue is a magnificent monument which was erected in 1888, it commemorates the life and sacrifice which William Wallace gave to his country Scotland.

Every single time I have passed the huge statue of William Wallace I have felt a great sense of pride and honor, whenever I passed by it on foot, I couldn’t but help read one of the inscriptions, which was told to William Wallace by his uncle and guardian, “I tell you a truth, liberty is the best of all things, my son, never live under any slavish bond’. Wise words indeed. It was these words that made me determined to escape a job which I hated and to start achieving what I wanted out of life.

I’m not going to give you a history lesson about William Wallace in this article, if that’s what your looking for, I recommend that you read all about the great man on Wikipedia.

Sir William Wallace the Scottish Warrior received the world wide recognition that his sacrifice, determination, and status as Guardian of Scotland deserved when the Mel Gibson movie Braveheart was released in 1995, it become a worldwide hit and  made the world aware of the Scottish hero and how his own huge personal contribution at the forefront of the first Scottish War of Independence.

A few weeks ago whilst I was living in London, I decided to pay homage to my hero William Wallace, I wanted to follow in his footsteps as a mark of respect for the sacrifices and his determination to free Scotland from the slavish bonds of the English and there desire to destroy his country.

William Wallace was betrayed for a few pieces of silver and made to walk to London, where he was tried for treason by the English on the 23rd of August 1305 at Westminster Hall. The King’s justice, Sir Peter Mallorie, then impeached him as a traitor to Edward, to which Wallace answered,

“I can not be a traitor, for I owe him no allegiance. He is not my Sovereign; he never received my homage; and whilst life is in this persecuted body, he never shall receive it. To the other points whereof I am accused, I freely confess them all. As Governor of my country I have been an enemy to its enemies; I have slain the English; I have mortally opposed the English King; I have stormed and taken the towns and castles which he unjustly claimed as his own. If I or my soldiers have plundered or done injury to the houses or ministers of religion, I repent me of my sin; but it is not of Edward of England I shall ask pardon.”

I felt a immense sense of pride as I followed the route that the freedom fighter William Wallace was forced to endure as he was dragged through the streets of London from Westminster Hall to the place of his execution, at the gallows which were erected in Elms in Smithfield. There is a fine plague which stands outside St Barts Hospital, it is about 1 minute walk from Smithfield market. It marks near the spot where on the 23rd of August 1305 William Wallace was tortured and murdered in the most brutal manner possible, by the English for his efforts to free Scotland from the tyranny and oppression that the English were subjecting upon the Scottish people.

I laid a single thistle which I had cut from the garden of the house I was staying in and recited the inspirational words told to William Wallace by his uncle, ” ‘I tell you a truth, liberty is the best of all things, my son, never live under any slavish bond’. I then headed to the beautiful and one of the oldest churches in London called St. Bartholomew the Great to say a prayer for the Legendary William Wallace and his unselfish fight to free Scotland.

Even to this day William Wallace is providing inspiration and motivation for people who are seeking freedom from a whatever personal oppressions that they are faced with! Go pay your own personal homage to the great man the next time your in London. FREEDOM!

Further Reading:

1. 10 Must Visit Places In Scotland That Everyone Should Visit

2. 5 Not Quite so Well known, Scottish Places, You Must Visit!

3. 5 Amazing Scottish Beaches That You Must Visit!

4. Dream the Dream, Then All You Have To Do Is Believe, Achieve, Succeed

5. Exercise, Motivation, Relaxation and Work, All In One Journey!

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

View from the biggest tit

As part of my quest to become a successful entrepreneur I plan on making sure I stay fit and healthy as well as becoming wealthy! I don’t see any point in building up a business empire and at some point in the future my body or mind packs in.

It doesn’t take a lot of effort to exercise your mind on a daily basis, I wrote 2 articles which will help to make sure your mind gets a decent work out every day, 5 More Games to Improve Your Brain Power &  5 More Games to Improve Your Brain Power I also exercise physically ever day, again you don’t have to spend hours of time working out, to keep yourself in shape.

It was Sunday the 22nd of June and it was a reasonable nice day in London, and I knew that on the Monday I had to enjoy a 7 hour flight to Barbados. So I thought I a good long walk was the answer. Living in London, Northolt to be precise there wasn’t exactly a lot of places that you could go for a nice long walk in tranquil surroundings. I use to love going to Aberdeen beach or Balmedie Beach and walking along the sands, breathing in the healthy fresh sea air, it was such a fantastic way to exercise, Exercise, Motivation, Relaxation and Work, All In One Journey!

My only real option was to head to a place called Northala Fields, which is a park development that is currently being built by Ealing Council, I had passed it, in a car a few times, it was about a 30 minute walk from where I was living. I leashed up my Staffie and headed to walk around the park and to climb what I will call the Four Northala Tits, which are basically 4 small overlapping conical mounds. Ealing somehow manages to describe them as dramatic features?

From a distance they looked like they would provide a little bit of exercise, but as I got closer to them, they seemed to become smaller. I have climbed Ben Nevis which is Britain’s highest mountain at a height of 1344 meters above sea level. The highest Northala tit was 25 meters high, which I suppose isn’t very high, maybe for Londoner’s it is the equivalent of a Scottish Munroe.

At the present time it seems like Ealing Council has stopped working on the Four Northala Tits, I passed it over a year ago and it doesn’t seemed to have improved much since then! When the wee mounds are completed, or should I say if they are ever completed, the park should provide a nice place for West Londoner’s to come and relax from the maddening hustle, bustle and noise of London. At the present time the mounds almost look as ugly as Jordan’s ugly plastic tits. Come on Boris sort it out!

It took me about 15 minutes to climb the four Northala Tits, and the view was ok I suppose, apart from when I looked at the A40 which cheered me up as I knew I would soon be escaping the rate race. When I climbed The Ben it took to 7 hours to climb and the views were absolutely stunning and dramatic.

I then proceeded to walk around the Northala Fields I needed my exercise and my Staffie needed it even more, I suppose what I seen next is what I hate about what is happening to this country. From a distance I could see Mr Hooded top appear and survey his lair like the two bit criminal that he is. It was a nice warm day, I only had a t-shirt on and I was warm. 5 minutes later his customer appears to buy their fix, a painfully thin wrecked looking girl in her late teens appeared for her fix of crack cocaine.

As I eventually approached Drug Dealer he said, “nice dog, does it bite”, I said it only bites criminals, “what do you mean buy that” he responded.”GO FIGURE IT OUT!” I said! Hey Boris how come drug dealers can deal drugs openly in parks, which are obviously designed as family leisure and recreation areas. I have the answer Boris! drugs have become an every day and normal part of life in London.

I headed back home, I was feeling good after having had a long walk. I try to vary my daily work out routine which helps to keep me from getting too bored and the variation is good for my body. I will sometimes go for a swim, use weights, skip, or do some kickboxing moves at home. I will work out for between 30 minutes to 2 hours depending on what my mood or energy levels are. I intend on doing everything that I can to ensure I stay physically and mentally fit for the rest of my life.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Life in London is pure chaos for me; I find it so annoying, that it is almost impossible to find a quiet beauty spot, without throngs of people. It’s a mad, crazy, unforgiving, soulless city where good manners don’t seem to exist. I use to enjoy my periodic 4 or 5 short visits to London every year to visit family, but now that I have being living here for almost 4 weeks, it has made me see the other side of the city. All I can say is being a tourist in London is fun, but living here and knowing I cant go back to Scotland to escape is hell.

When I was back home in Aberdeen, if I ever needed to have a relaxing wee break, I would head down to the beach and walk along the promenade or go to Balmedie beach and walk along the miles of golden sands. What I would give to head down to either the River Don or the River Dee in Aberdeen and enjoy the natural beauty. All those great places were within a 5 - 20 minute walk or drive from my front door.

Being able to jump in my car or walk to my favourite chill out places was something that I took for granted, and now that I cant do it, I appreciate them even more. During my many trips to my local beaches and rivers, they helped me to spawn numerous business ideas and provided the spark for articles for my blogs. Looking back it was most certainly therapeutic, and helped to keep my mind calm.

If I want to go anywhere in London I have to spend for ever taking buses and tubes to reach my destination, all the happy smiling faces that you encounter on your travels is a joy to behold, meaning if you ever see any, it’s a miracle!

Also good manners are in short supply, I was at Heathrow the other day, meeting a business associate, we decided to take the bus to her hotel. We were about 3 rd from the front of the queue, and soon as the bus arrived it became like a rugby scrum, pure chaos. We almost had to beat people back; they were in such a panic to get on the bus.

The funniest thing about it was that everyone got on, and there were still some spare seats! Another thing that I couldn’t help but notice, was that 90% of the rugby scrum bus queue, were foreign, Indian, Eastern European, Middle Eastern, Russian, etc. I get the impression that these guys come from countries where good manners doesn’t exist.

London may be a wee bit warmer than I’m use to in Scotland, but it seems to be just as wet, does it ever stop raining here? The air sure as hell doesn’t smell as fresh as back home, I have never suffered from hay fever in my life, until I got here, and the tap water is the most disgusting water I have ever tasted in my life, it isn’t drinkable. Another thing which I find funny is all those kids hanging around on the streets, trying their best to look mean and menacing, and graffiti seems to be a huge art form in London, those guys are brainless fools, I meant to say really talented artists!

Even for all its bad points London still has a lot to offer visitors to the city, I think I may have to try and do some touristy things, during the 4 weeks that I still have left here, before I head off to start a wonderful new life in the Caribbean. Maybe that will help me to reignite the spark that has faded a wee bit since I got here.

I have downloaded some pictures of Crane Beach, Bottom Bay, Foul Point and Bath Beach in Barbados and pinned them to my wall, I can feel the inspiration oozing back. It wont be long until I’m heading to these beautiful, places when I’m in the need of some rest and relaxation in beautiful surroundings.

Here is a great article from the travelers stories blog which, prettty much sums up what I love about Barbados Barbados My Place in the Sun, The Best that the Caribbean Has to Offer

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

I moved to London a couple of weeks ago from Scotland as a stepping stone, before I head to the Caribbean to start up my Businesses. It has been a funny couple of weeks so far. As most people that live in London or who have visited London, will be very much aware that most of the people that work in shops are foreigners. Nothing wrong with that, I may add, most of them do a great job.

Before I came to London I sold off a few videos, records, and DVD collectables that I had being saving for a rainy day. I managed to make £1860, which was paid for in Clydesdale Bank Scottish £20 notes, you know the ones with the picture of Robert the Bruce on the front and him on horse back on the back of the note. I couldn’t be bothered to queue up for 3 hours to put it into my bank account.

I have had a few business related things to buy before I get to the Caribbean, and of course I like to look professional when working, which means sharp suits, shirts and ties. I also like to wear nice clothes, so I have been buying plenty of things to wear in the sun, polo shirts, t-shirts, shorts etc, so much more to choose from in London, compared to Scotland.

You can imagine, the fun I have being having with my Scottish £20 notes. Lets just say that it has confused a few shop assistants from, Poland, India, Iraqi, Bulgaria and countless other countries. Its kinda funny to see them studying it with great concern.  If  I could get £20 for every time I have had the heard the words, “its, Scottish yeah”. Or when it has being one of the big retailers and the assistant will go ask someone, and they then ask me if its Scottish, “yes it’s Scottish”. And they gladly accept it, upon my conformation that’s its a Scottish £20 note.

I feel glad that I have single handily educated about 50 foreign shop assistants as to what a Scottish £20 note looks like. I must admit it hasn’t been as bad as I first feared.

Unfortunately I haven’t had any real confrontations with anyone, who has refused to accept my British money. I was looking forward to having at least one confrontation, but no such luck. I have few left, so you never no, I may get the chance yet!  Wouldn’t it make a good story, because I will take it to the limit, if and when someone refuses my legal tender.

We are a wee bit more knowledgeable in Scotland about what so called British money looks like, we are aware of what English money looks like and its accepted without comment, it doesn’t confuse anybody, whether they are British or foreign.

Why not visit Aberdeen in Scotland, which is in my opinion an unfairly overlooked tourist destination, and you wont have problems spending your money whether its Scottish or English Aberdeen, Why Not Visit the Granite City?

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

I don’t know about you, but why did the British Government allow Paris Hilton to visit London this week; she is a convicted two bit felon, former Jail bird, that should still be languishing in her cell. Lets face it if she had been black and from a poor family, the wonderful, fair justice system in the good old USA would have had her banged up for years, instead of a few measly days.  

 It was interesting last week that the British boxer Bradley Pryce who was one of Joe Calzaghe’s main sparring partners ahead of his fight with Bernard Hopkins, and was also scheduled to fight Norberto Novo in the USA on the 19^th of April, had major problems trying to get a visa, because he has a police record of a few drink related incidents. The Americans quite rightly have a very strict entry system for people wishing to visit their great country. But it seems that in Britain it don’t really matter too much, we will let in any old riff raff.

 I’m sure London will have benefited from the visit of the hugely talented Miss Hilton! You’re right, probably not!  I wonder if she now knows that London is in the UK and that we don’t all speak French. Don’t ask me, ask her!

 Wikipedia has listed her pursuits as singing, modelling, acting, writing, and television. … I wondered what she did, Lets be honest I don’t think she can do any of them, have you been unlucky enough to hear her sing!

 I have to give Paris Hilton a huge amount of credit, she is very successful and has made a lot of money, with very limited abilities, and she has done this by being a lot smarter than she seems.  

 I can’t wait till I pay another visit to Paris, I mean, Paris the Beautiful French city.

For those of you that cant get enough of the hugely talented Paris Hilton!!! you will love the Paris Hilton Fan blog.Paris Hilton thinks Jessica Simpson’s boobs are ‘too big’

Bookmark It

Hide Sites