Christmas in Edinburgh

Merry Christmas everyone! We had a lovely day and (surprisingly) a white Christmas! It snowed for a week straight, and as a result we were able to spend Christmas Eve building snowmen in the Meadows, and Derek rolled a couple snowballs down the hills around the Castle. The weather reports here revolved around snow, and how it was Britain's first white Christmas in 5 years.

We had quite the week leading up to Christmas. Derek and I had been ill since Friday, and my cough was so bad that I went to the drop-in clinic (aka open-access surgery) on Monday morning and was given a week of antibiotics to use in case the illness got worse. It did, so I'm now halfway through the week-long course of pills and am feeling much better. My energy levels bounced back so fast that I went from spending every day lying on the pull-out couch in front of the tv/laptop to spending Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon in the library reading Parliamentary Debates from 1810-1814. Derek kept me company on Wednesday afternoon, which was very nice. It was a productive two days that alerted me to an impending deadline that I wasn't aware of. New posters were up letting everyone know that due to the continuing redevelopment of the library the second floor is about to be cleared out, and according to the nice librarian I spoke to, the books probably won't return until 2012. Of course I need them much sooner then that, and the Parliamentary Debates are considered reference books so I can't take them out of the library, so when the library re-opens on the 28th I'll be in there reading those volumes as fast as I can!

Anyway, back to our Christmas. On Christmas Eve the day started with wrapping presents and the arrival of the laundry machine repair man, who discovered that the reason our dryer had never heated up was because the previous tenant had made it overheat and the emergency shut-off had engaged. Not a big surprise, seeing as when we moved in the handle had been broken right off the machine by the guy. Life is so much better with a dryer that dries, even if it only mostly dries and it takes over an hour to just about dry a small load of 1.5 kg of clothes. In the afternoon we went on a long walk and made a bunch of snowmen and snow animals in the Meadows. When we got back Derek put together a lovely selection of nibbles, and we snacked and skyped with family and even opened a couple presents from his siblings.

Christmas morning was great. We had an excellent breakfast -- Derek had an omelette with fried mushrooms, and I had french toast with blueberries, yogurt and honey. We opened our present from one another, which included classic wii controllers, a movie, and a CD-Rom to learn Latin, something Derek's been working on. We got into the Latin, which it turns out is really just a scanned version of the Latin textbook, but it does have a narrator reading the text and interactive exercises. I think it'll be fun -- a good refresher for me, and a challenge for both of us.

In the afternoon we went for a walk through the Princes Street Gardens. Our intention was to see Santa's reindeer, who have been staying in a pen there for a few weeks. It didn't occur to us that Santa would have needed them the night before, and so they were gone. But it was a beautiful walk, and we got to enjoy the almost silent downtown. Some of the touristy Scottish shops were open on the Royal Mile, and tourists were going from one to another along the street.

We did a lot of skyping with family in the afternoon (which was still Christmas morning back home), and then had a great turkey dinner with The Santa Clause on (the Tim Allen one from the mid-90s. Derek didn't think he'd seen it before, and I hadn't seen it since Dad took me when it first came out in the theatres.) In the evening we watched Blackadder's Christmas Carol and played our new Wii game, the New Super Mario Brothers Wii, which is an excellent, old-school style Nintendo game with great graphics and a co-operative mode in which we can work and play together to get more points. I die an awful lot more than Derek does, so he's quite nice about sharing his 1-Ups with me :) It was really fun playing an old-fashioned style but new game. The controls and goals come completely naturally to us, having grown up with NES's Super Mario Bros.

So that's the story of our first Christmas in Edinburgh. It was a beautiful day and we had a very nice day together, and although I got a little sad and homesick at times, Derek kept my spirits up with extra hugs. With more games to play and dvds to watch it'll be a good weekend! Then, back to the bookstacks!

My 'Retro Birthday'

On December 17th (last Thursday) I turned 27, and to celebrate Derek and I made a bunch of plans for a busy, fun day with friends. Of course, almost everyone we know here had already gone home for Christmas, but a few close friends were still in town, which made for nice, small party, and left more food and cheesecake to around :) In the morning we watched from the front windows as the dark clouds above the castle released a ton of hail on the streets, and then it started to snow. First there was just tiny snowflakes, but then it turned into massive puffy white snowflakes. This was the first real snowfall this winter, and I swear it was just for my birthday, to make things feel like home.

The first item on my day's agenda was lunch out with Derek. We rarely go out to eat, so this is a big treat for me. We chose the Red Fort, with its great Indian buffet and an equally great student discount. Our Norwegian friends introduced us to the restaurant at the end of August and its become our new favourite place to eat out. (We've also recently started making vegetarian curries at home once a week, which have been turning out great.) Anyway, we lucked out getting a seat within 10 minutes of arriving because a table for 2 opened up. The place was pretty busy with office Christmas parties, and a group of 3 waiting ahead of us gave up and left. The group of 4 students ahead of us eventually had to seat themselves after waiting half an hour and watching other groups who came in later get seated. The food was excellent as usual -- the chicken korma is probably my favourite, the pakoras were great and I love the naan bread. So a very good lunch overall.

Two of my friends were coming over at 2:30, but before that Derek gave me a lovely pair of furry mauve slippers which make me feel like I have muppet feet (a great feeling!). My friends came over, and we were able to time it so that I could introduce them to my mum over Skype using our webcams, which was very neat. Then we were off to the bowling alley, where we settled on two games. There was a large group of me taking up a ton of space next to our lane and restricting access to the range of bowling balls, so our guys had to use what they could find until the group left and they could raid their stash. I was pretty rusty and did get off to a great start, but some of Derek's tips came back to me. Around 8 frames into the first game the lights suddenly went out, blue lights and some crazy rotating and flashing lights came on and it became much harder to concentrate and even aim.

Derek, who grew up bowling in leagues, found that he had some competition from my friend from Japan. It turns out bowling in Japan is probably as popular for teens as going to the movies, so he'd had a lot of experience as well. Then there was my other friend who had next to no experience bowling. She told me that in Germany they play a similar game, but its not the same. However, beginner's luck had her right up there with the boys in points for the entire first game, and she finished only a few points short of Derek, who'd come in second. And me, I came in last in both games, which is my usually place when bowling. I never mind. And I got a strike each game, so I was very proud of that!

After bowling we all came back to ours for pizza and cake. The day before I had made my mum's blackforest cheesecake for the first time and it looked great. It tasted great too, and won rave reviews from my friends. I always find shopping here using a recipe from back home a bit frustrating, because we just don't have access to the same selection, or even the same kind of items sometimes. For example, I always have to make my own cookie crumbs for my crusts, when back home I'd just buy a box of crumbs. The big challenge this time was trying to find the cherry topping. Normally the topping is just spoonfuls of cherry pie filling from a can. I hadn't realised that fruit pies are very much an American thing, and so it'd be rare to find such an item pre-made. Luckily, in Somerfield, one of the larger grocery stores around, Derek spotted some dzem wisniowy (cherry jam) in the Polish food section, so we decided to give that a try. Well, it was perfect! A slightly different texture, but exactly the flavour I was going for.

All in all it was an excellent birthday. With bowling and my usual cheesecake it was very much like the birthday parties I had when I was young. However, one other thing happened that was also common to my childhood birthdays that I wasn't planning on -- I got sick. By Friday night my typical deep chest cough had returned, and this morning I was given a prescription for antibiotics to use in case things get worse over Christmas and I develop my usual case of bronchitis for Christmas. Now I really do feel like I'm a kid again!

Christmas is Coming!

Christmas is in the air here in Edinburgh. Friends are flying home left and right, the shops are decorated and all lit up (one blares carols over an outdoor speaker on the weekends), and I even came across a Salvation Army's brass band playing Christmas carols ala Mr. Bean! Last night a couple of us had a Girl's Night Out at the German Christmas Market that has sprung up around the art galleries at the centre of town. It was a chilly, foggy evening -- perfect for a hot mug of mulled wine and some goodies. The castle was completely hidden from view, regardless of all the lights they shine on it at night and the trail of lit trees leading up to it along the side of the hill.

We then walked around the market, watched the skaters trying to skate through the slushy ice of the outdoor skating rink that's been set up down in Princes Street Gardens, and checked out the carnival rides. People were going on the ferris wheel next to the Walter Scott Monument even though between the dark sky and the dense fog you wouldn't have been able to see anything. Two of my friends went on the swings, which flew so high and so fast around that they were a bit worried that their feet were flying too close to the monument! After that we needed to warm up in an indoor setting, so we walked down George Street, which has gorgeous starry Christmas lights strung up all along it, and found our way into Wetherspoons, a chain of pubs known for using gorgeous buildings with lovely interiors and selling uber cheap drinks. £1.50 'luxury' hot chocolate with whipped cream and marshmallows was the perfect cap to the evening.

In the upcoming week pretty much all of our friends who are still around are flying home for Christmas. It looks like my birthday party will be pretty small, but excellent none-the-less. Bowling, pizza and cheesecake are the plan, so it can't fail to good evening! This will be our first Christmas in Edinburgh, or indeed away from home. We're looking forward to walking around this beautiful city on Christmas Day, which apparently shuts down completely for the day. But we're going to be missing family and friends back home, so there's already plans in the works for Skype video-chatting for my birthday, on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Derek's working on his Christmas Eve evening menu of snacks and nibbles, and I am almost completely done my Christmas shopping and card sending. We decided to not have a tree, as there'd be no place to store it through the year and we don't know where we'll be next Christmas. Plus it seems the big trend here in artificial trees is black ones, which to me look dead rather than festive.

After Christmas we'll be going to the massive street party for Hogmanay (the big New Year's Eve celebration) again this year, and this time we'll have family coming to share it with! Yes, my cousin is touring around Europe for a couple weeks for a variety of functions and family stuff, and will be stopping by to use our sofa bed in time for New Years Eve, so that's perfect. I'm really looking forward to seeing a familiar face, in person, here in Edinburgh. And if you're thinking about heading this way, we've got a pull-out couch that has been tested and approved by friends, so we're all set :)

Time Flies When You're Having Fun

We had a great, busy, tiring, and at times rediculously fun week last week, and its going to be quite the feat to try to write up our adventures, but I shall tackle this challenge head on so as to not let the moments disappear into the Scottish mists.

The story begins on Sunday afternoon with a phone call from a familiar number that hadn't called me in months. My friend and his girlfriend had arrived in Edinburgh from Oslo, Norway, had gotten his parents settled into their hotel, and were now on their way to drop off their luggage before showing the parents around town so that they'd be able to navigate their own way around for the next few days. It was great to see them! They rolled their massive suitcases into our living room, we chatted with his parents for a few minutes, and then they all headed out to make use of the last hour of sunlight for their tour. That evening we had dinner together. Derek made toad-in-the-hole, which was excellent as usual. We watched tv (we had taped The Simpsons episode with the Norwegian descendants in Ogdenville, so that was a laugh finding out how much research they'd really done) and talked, and left them to settle in after opening up the sofa bed.

The next morning we got up fairly early like usual, and tiptoed into the dark living room. They got up fairly early as well, as my friend had to return to the airport. It turns out that at midnight when he'd opened his suitcase he'd discovered that it wasn't his. Luckily the woman who had taken his case before he'd made it to the carousel had texted him and already returned the case to the airport. So that was a pretty crazy start to the week. I had to take off and teach a couple tutorials, and they had planned to do some shopping (we found out that manufactured goods, clothes and other products are a lot cheaper here than in Norway, even though we find stuff here to much more expensive than back home in Canada) so we didn't see them for much of the day. Monday was also Derek's and my eighth anniversary, so we spent the afternoon at Edinburgh Castle, before getting a nice Indian takeaway-style dinner from M&S (and an apple pie for dessert). My friend was off to the university's Scandinavian Society's Christmas dinner, so he got all dressed up (and borrowed Derek's belt, having forgotten to bring one), and his girlfriend's good friend was playing music at a nearby pub so she went off to hear him play.

On Tuesday I had a couple meetings to go to, and spent the afternoon trying to finish marking my students' essays. That can be a rather depressing experience, especially as this batch was a lot worse in general than the set I marked in October. My friend had come home raving about an amazing slice of chocolate cake he'd had at a little Turkish cafe over on Nicholson, and promised to take me out for cake if I got my essays done. This proved to be an excellent incentive! I also started to put together plans for a Thursday Night Social for the new grads and current postgrads on Thursday night, which I got increasingly nervous about as the guest numbers rose. Eventually my nerves threatened to destroy my ability to enjoy the evening, so I ask a good friend to step in and host the party, which he did wonderfully. I still owe him a coffee :) That night we played a little Rock Band, rotating around the guitar, drums and microphone, but discovered our controllers were dying so MarioKart would have to wait.

Wednesday was the big day: MSc grad, the whole reason behind their visit. I was very happy that my friend's request for extra tickets had come through, so Derek and I were able to attend the ceremony at 3pm. I marked essays for the morning, and also had a student-staff liaison committee meeting at noon for the course I tutor, plus snuck in a quick chat with my supervisor before heading home for lunch. Unfortunately the weather was awful, cold and wet, but there was a break in the rain while I walked home and when we walked back to McEwan Hall for the ceremony. By the time I'd gotten home for lunch my friend was already suited up, complete with his white bow tie (Edinburgh Uni graduations are no boring black tie affairs!), so they left shortly after to pick up his parents and his robe. We dressed up and headed to the ceremony about half an hour later, where we were able to find them in the stands and watched with only a slightly obstructed view of the ceremony.

The university streams footage of the ceremony live on the web for family back home who can't attend. It was pretty exciting attending the ceremony, watching the 4 PhDs get tapped on the head (with a hat supposedly made from the material of John Knox's breeches) and thinking, 'that'll be me in 2 years!' And then one of the honorary doctorates went to a woman who had devoted her life to caring for donkeys, and it was quite amusing watching the entire population of the hall try not to giggle. I was able to watch many friends graduate. Derek captured it on video, and I took a few photos as I always do. My friend waved up in our direction after getting tapped on the head :) I had helped him out a bit in the last week of writing his dissertation back in August, mainly just trying to keep him feeling positive about it and being supportive, so I had a bit of an insight into how much he had put into that paper.

Afterwards the grads had been asked to head over to the history dept. for a wine reception with staff and for a big group photo of all the grads. This was the first chance I'd had to see some friends who'd left at the end of August, plus getting to see and meet friends' parents is always fun. Derek and I headed over to a pub to chat with a couple friends, then back to our place to relax for the evening while our house guests were out for a special dinner with his parents. After returning from dinner she and I had long chat, staying up until midnight while Derek was on the computer in the other room and 'the graduate' was out having a drink or two with friends.

This was the evening that we discovered the sofa bed was broken. Derek went to pull out the bed like normal, but the whole couch moved towards him. Us girls each took an end of the couch and braced ourselves against it, but Derek couldn't get the mattress to come out. It turns out that a spring had wedged itself somewhere it shouldn't be, but luckily it could be detached and removed with no permanent damage, and the bed still works fine with only one spring on one side. However, recalling this incident at the party on Thursday night led me to completely embarrass myself because I didn't think about my wording and didn't clarifying who I was with...

Thursday I was absolutely determined to get the essays marked. I was also determined not to let the impending party that night get me too stressed out, and when I admitted that it was already bothering me my friend made that wonderful suggestion of asking our mutual friend to host it. I spent the day marking, taught a tutorial at 2pm, then marked some more before figuring out the party details with my hosting friend. I was also a little stressed because at 5pm I had to attend a seminar paper given by a historian/Presbyterian minister who studies and has published on a similar topic to mine, and whom my supervisor wanted to introduce me to afterwards. This meant that I not only did I have to try to stay awake (by this time in the week I was seriously lacking sleep), but I'd also need to be able to discuss and explain my topic to an accomplished historian and let my supervisor show me off. I did make a good first impression I think. he seemed to think my topic was exciting, and he gave me his card and said we could meet for a chat sometime soon, which would be great. I made it home around 6:40 or so, in time for dinner and some Biggest Loser Australia and relaxing before grabbing our dozen bags of tortilla chips, bottle of Pepsi and heading off to the party.

The party turned out to be a great event. The boys had 'decorated' the room (which was in amongst our offices) with streamers and had masks and crowns and whistles as party favours. There were cookies and brownies, some wine and a ton of chips. I chatted with friends I hadn't seen in ages, and there was music. I also took lots of photos, as did Derek, who managed to capture a series of rediculous moments which were the result of me suggesting it'd be great to get a photo of me sitting in between my newly-graduated friend, who began elbowing me in the ribs after giving the host rabbit ears, and my party hosting friend, who had a mouth full of brownie and thought the whole thing was silly. Fabulously rediculous photos. I was also feeling great because 2 minutes before having to leave for the 5pm seminar I had finished marking my last essay!! Woo hoo!!!

On Friday morning the four of us in our place trekked across the town to a little coffee shop for another friend's 'office hour,' a tradition she'd developed last year and invited us all to join here before flying home to Finland that afternoon. So this was a fun chance to sit and chat in a quieter environment than the party the night before. It was also crazy cold outside, so it was nice to be in a little place with warm drinks, surrounded by good friends who I'd missed. Derek and I walked back for lunch while our friends headed over to the Botanic Gardens. We strolled through St. James' Shopping Centre on our way, keeping an eye out for potential Christmas presents. After a quick-ish lunch I headed back to school to attend a 4th year seminar taught by my supervisor, who had asked me to join them for the day as a 'slavery expert,' as the day's topic was the abolition of the British slave trade. That was quite fun, actually :)

Friday night was great. Our guests took us out for dinner at a pizza place in Grassmarket with great pizza and a crazy range of toppings, with the standards (pepperoni, olives, mushrooms...) unusual ones (apples and bananas, baked beans, cactus) and even sweet ones (chocolate and marshmallows, anyone?). Going out to dinner is such a treat in itself, but to be taken out by good friends was really special and we truly appreciated it. After adding to the snack supply (she bought chocolate; we still had 9 bags of chips leftover from the night before), we settled in for an evening of MarioKart and Rock Band. I love singing, but only certain songs, and the drumming is just so hard and funny sometimes. I have a tendency to scream slightly when I get out of rhythm while drumming , and I think my friend was swearing in Norwegian while running into trouble during MarioKart (but I can't be sure...).

Saturday saw a lazy start to the day. So many late nights had led to our alarm going from its usual 7:30 am, to 8, to turned off temporarily, to turned off period. We maybe made it out of bed around 9:15. In the morning we all took off shopping, first stopping by the school's visitor's centre and store, then to a cashmere store on the Royal Mile before hitting the mall. Derek and I came home for lunch, and then my friend stopped by to drop off his shopping bags and take me out for the much-anticipated slice of cake. It was definitely good, a triple-layer chocolate cake with thick, rich chocolate icing and chocolate shavings on top. My slice was about twice as thick as his, which he ribbed the waitress about, but he refused to switch with me, saying that then he wouldn't be able to order a second piece. In the end I couldn't finish my piece, so I had some help. It was a good chance to talk and get all caught up before he'd fly home the next day. That evening our friends went out for dinner and drinks with their friends from here, so Derek and I spent evening relaxing in front of the telly.

Sunday morning went by pretty fast. Again we all slept in, and then our friends had to somehow find space in their luggage for the mountain of shopping that had accumulated around their suitcases. They had brought extra empty backpacks for just such an occasion. I'm impressed that the living remained as neat and usable as it did with all the stuff in here, including normal items like the table and chairs and kitchen and coffee table, plus a drying rack which had quickly become a necessity with all the rain and being a good place to hang towels. After a record-breaking packing session we broke out the Rock Band for a few final songs before they loaded up and headed off to the airport bus. Its a bit unreal that they're gone, really. The flat seems so quiet! And I miss the late night chats. But I am looking forward to visiting them in Oslo at some point :)