Hiking in the Pentlands

Edinburgh has been experiencing some beautiful weather, so on Monday we decided to escape from the city and head to the hills. The Pentland Hills are a long range of hills that run along south of the city. Derek found a route to the hills via Balerno and Havelaw, and we were off. We took a city bus to Balerno, a village on the western edge of Edinburgh, and then walked half an hour to Havelaw's visitor centre where we picked up a couple maps and guides. A few minutes away we settled down on a bench overlooking the reservoir for a picnic lunch and looked at our trail options.

Derek's original idea was for us to walk the 2.5 mile trek around the reservoir, but almost immediately upon seeing the reservoir we also the large trucks and construction around half of the shrunken body of water (according to BBC Scotland, the beautiful weather has had the unfortunate effect of lowering water levels in reservoirs across Scotland to a worrying amount). Not terribly appealing, and impossible to make an entire circle, so we decided to walk straight to the Black Hill, which does look much darker than the surrounding hills due to its vegetation.

Upon reaching the base of the hill we saw a map showing the construction sites and found that we could either double back, walk around on the main path behind the far side of the hill, or take a path on the near side that was shorter and would take us over to meet the main path. We took the third option, the supposedly straight path that led from where we were along the base of the hill to the main path that would take us a different route back to Balerno, where we'd catch the bus home again.

The path was not what it looked like on the map. It was a nice trek, slowly making its way higher and higher along the side of the hill as it followed an ancient looking stone wall between pastures with sheep and the hill's vegetation. At some points the wall had crumbled (it looked like it had been made of piles of stone with nothing to hold it together), and near these spots we could usually find a couple sheep wandering high up on the hill. Two little lambs gave Derek quite start as the suddenly bolted down the hill straight for him, then stopped and stared. Derek was standing in front of one such hole in the fence, which was their way back home. It was really cute :)

Then came the scary part of the trek: the descent. The path suddenly narrowed dramatically and the wall had gone a different way, so we were on our own on the side of the hill (I say 'hill' -- it's over 500m high, although we were only probably about 250m or less up the side). It wasn't steep, but the view down and the loose rocky trail didn't inspire confidence. Luckily Derek's great at instilling confidence, and we made it down to the main trail below just fine.

And so we followed the trail which led to the road, and the road took us to the edge of Balerno and the end of the line for the bus we needed to take home, which happily was sitting there waiting and left within a few minutes of us getting on. It was a great way to spend an afternoon, and the beautiful sunshine and mild winds had led to some beautiful views. Plus Derek had brought a fully-stocked backpack with the picnic lunch, three bottles of water, fruit, and trail mix.

As an epilogue I'd like to mention that there's different rules here in the Scotland for using land that belongs to others. All the details are found in the Scottish Outdoor Access Code. Basically, anyone has the right access almost anywhere in Scotland including parks, hills, beaches, forests, rivers and lochs -- there's just rules about how you can use that land. You can even walk though farmland if you stay to edges and don't disturb any livestock. The rules include that you must respect the environment, close gates behind you, not feed the animals, and avoid damaging fences, walls and crops. But you can go just about anywhere except building and their immediate surroundings, and houses and their gardens. Now that we know we've got great access rights we may have to get out of the city a little more often!

Why I Love Our New Flat

Everything's been moved and we're all settled into our new place! We were assisted in the move by a good friend of mine and her boyfriend, who also lent us his driving skills and his car for an hour on the Friday night and the next morning to transfer just about all of our possessions from the old place to the new one. This time it was a little too far to walk/roll everything over, and we're so thankful for his help. It took another two days to clean the old place, get the last few bits of stuff moved over (Derek brought home an amazing amount of stuff on his back and in each hand one afternoon after a long day of cleaning), and get organised here at the new place. Moving the cable, internet and phone over was no trouble -- they disconnected our service at the old place on Friday night and had the technician in here first thing Saturday morning (apparently we'd normally have to pay extra for that, but I think it was a gift to us as an apology for not being able to supply us with reliable telephone service for the prior two weeks). But now the keys have been handed back, I've learned the necessary bus routes for when I need to get a long way from here on my own, and with all our stuff put away it feels like home!

So why do I love the new flat so much? Here's a few big reasons:

Warm and Bright

We're up on the third floor (what would be called the fourth floor back home), which is also the top floor of the building. The buildings around are all about this height and we see a ton of sky when we look out the window. This is in direct contrast to the old first floor flat, with a bedroom window that looked at a grey cement-block wall three feet away, and a living room window that looked out at the tall office building across the street. We used to get half an hour of direct sunlight at most through each window in June and July, but always on a sharp angle. We'd get indirect sunlight bouncing off the office building's windows into the living room which was quite nice. But spending my first few days here constantly thinking I was leaving lights on in all the rooms has made me realise just how dark that flat must have been.

The sunlight is having a lovely effect on the new flat's temperature. It's so warm! A little too warm in the morning and at suppertime, to be honest. One reason for the hot morning is a southeast-facing window and the sun rising before 4:30am. I'm thinking blackout curtains may be in order. Between the cement wall and the original wooden shudders, our old bedroom was cool and pitch black at night until we decided to get up. Now my body wakes me up at 5, thinking it's time to start the day! The other thing is that here in the UK, duvets are what's available to sleep under. Ours wasn't nearly warm enough for the old place, and now we're too warm in the new one. And yet I can't find a simple blanket the size of a bedspread anywhere, other than fancy-ish quilts and blankets that cost over £100 at the department stores downtown. So I'm still working on this. It's warm in the evenings because our living room is on the opposite side of the flat, and with a big bay window. The table is in the bay window area, and the sun starts shining in around 4pm and sticks around for 3 or 4 hours, making eating a hot activity that necessitates the closing of curtains. But I'd sure rather be warm than cold in my home!

Finally, we have those two coveted items that are all too rare in Edinburgh flats: double-glazing and gas central heating. The boiler got fixed on Monday, and we got to experience how fast and efficient the central heating really is. There's a heater in every room, including in the washroom (which was one of the coldest places in the old flat). Double-glazed windows keeps the heat in and the cold Edinburgh wind out, so the sun is able to heat up the right half of the flat in the morning, the left half in the afternoon and evening, and the heat stays inside for us to enjoy. Amazing.

New-Built

Our building and the surrounding identical buildings have been built within the past ten years. Our old building was built in the 1860s and renovated in the 1980s. This place has insulation in the walls and roof, working windows with that all-important double-glazing, lower ceilings which keep the rooms warmer, clean carpets and linoleum flooring, many electrical sockets in convenient locations (including on both sides of the bed so that we can each have a bed-side lamp), and waterproof tiles and fixtures in the bathroom and kitchen. Electrical wires and cables were in place when the walls were put up, so there are only a few wires running down from the ceiling or along the skirting boards, rather then coming in through a hole cut into the window sill which is the common way to wire traditional tenements here. Our old bathroom was done all in wood, and consequently had rotting areas along the base of the bathtub and mould stains on the paint work. I also feel as though not only was the place very clean when we moved in (which our old place definitely was not), but that I'll be able to easily keep it clean and feel good about the level of cleanliness of my home. With the original wood floors with their large cracks between them and old, unclean furniture and rugs, the old place never felt comfortably clean to me as a whole.

Near the Train Tracks

I'm learning that many people wouldn't agree with me on this one, but being so close to train tracks is something that I love. Being close to the train station was very important to us when we were looking for a new place. Derek will be commuting to Glasgow everyday for school, and that's about a 45 minute train ride, so we wanted to make the rest of the commute as short and simple as possible. Happily there was a large new-built community with numerous flats regularly becoming available, and I was able to spot a good one at a better price than most. Now Derek will have about a 6 minute walk to the station with no streets to cross, rather than over 15 minutes fighting past numerous pedestrians on their way to work, countless tourists and fellow commuters on narrow footpaths and getting stuck at several intersections.

What I am really enjoying is hearing the rumbling of the trains going to and from the station. I love it. It makes me think of my grandma's place back home which is located on the far side of a field from train tracks. I find the rumbling very peaceful and almost reassuring, as it takes my mind right back to her place, and so I feel very lucky to get to hear them in my home here. And I just heard another one :)

Well that's some of my initial thoughts and feelings about our new home. I have absolutely no second thoughts about moving, as I'm so much happier here already. The summer's off to a great start.

Exciting News

Big changes are happening here. The biggest would have to be Derek's news and plans for the future. He's been accepted into a PhD programme in Electrical Engineering at Glasgow!!! We're really excited about it and about the future. He'll be one of two PhD students building a better version of an existing laser (just his type of thing!) for a professor who happens to be the partner of a fellow British History One Tutor. The tutor, a postdoc and fellow Canadian, and I had bonded over our similar backgrounds and having partners in physics, and she kindly remembered to mention Derek's continuing job hunt to her boyfriend, who then mentioned the PhD positions he had going on one of his funded projects (because as a scientist his research has commercial applications worth investment by the private sector as well as the government). It's a funded position with a research stipend, so thankfully he won't be hit by an annual tuition bill of £12 950 (about $20 000 CAD)! But there's a lot to do before he can start in July.

First, he has to get his ATAS clearance. This has something to do with giving the UK government confidence that he won't use his acquired knowledge and skills for bad purposes. It takes about 20 business days to get clearance, so we're stuck waiting on that. Next are the UK Visa issues. The Border Agency has changed the rules for acquiring a UK student visa since we got ours less than two years ago, so no information on changing Derek's specific class of visa exists online anymore. But then again there might not be an issue with his visa -- we're still figuring that out.

Next comes the logistics of starting school in another city. We don't have a car, nor are we going to get one (do you know how much petrol costs here?!), and we're agreed that we don't want to leave Edinburgh -- our friends are here, I'm still studying here, it's so much more beautiful and peaceful... So we're doing the next best thing to make Derek's commute easier -- we're moving near a train station in town. In the past three weeks we toured five flats, found the perfect one (and some some awful ones), put in an application, arranged to get out of our current lease early, found a new tenant to move into here (a fellow history PhD from Canada, one who doesn't mind the cold), and got what I think is the perfect flat. It's located about 7 minutes away from the train station and is a top floor flat in a new-built complex. There's a grocery store around the corner, and the building is back in a quiet family-friendly area with dead-end streets and pedestrian paths. Two of the flat's four windows face the South (therefore natural light and heat!), the ceilings are a normal height, we have a separate fridge and freezer (a necessity for us) and we'll have two of the most coveted items that one can find in an Edinburgh flat: double-glazing and gas central heating. Any heat we use won't be flying out of drafty windows anymore. In other words, I'm going to be warm!!!

Everything has been happening so fast! We're picking up the keys and signing the lease in two days, and a week from today we'll be fully moved out of this place with the help of a friend who has a car (it's too far to walk everything this time around!). So if I don't write again for a week or so, you'll know why. Wish us luck for a smooth move!