Happy Hogmanay

Well, it's the biggest holiday in Scotland today, and tomorrow and the next day... To start off our first Hogmanay in Scotland, we went to a Ceilidh at the National Museum of Scotland. There were lots of kids, so that made it especially entertaining. Not many people were super proficient, although there was a pair (the guy with the long hair, white T-shirt and kilt) of excellent dancers in the group. We went upstairs to get a better view of the festivities. I loved it, and am hoping to go to a "real" ceilidh soon where I can learn some of the dances.

The last song of the afternoon was Auld Lang Syne. It's a good old traditional Scottish song. The dance is an easy one, so I'll have that dance down pat on my next ceilidh! If you feel like singing along to the little clip below, here are the lyrics:

Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind?
Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and auld lang syne?

CHORUS:
For auld lang syne, my dear,
for auld lang syne,
we'll take a cup o’ kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

And surely you’ll buy your pint cup!
And surely I’ll buy mine!
And we'll take a cup o’ kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

CHORUS

We two have run about the slopes,
and picked the daisies fine;
But we’ve wandered many a weary foot,
since auld lang syne.

CHORUS

We two have paddled in the stream,
from morning sun till dine†;
But seas between us broad have roared
since auld lang syne.

CHORUS

And there’s a hand my trusty friend!
And give us a hand o’ thine!
And we’ll take a right good-will draught,
for auld lang syne.

Hair Today Gone Tomorrow

Well, after 2-3 years of growing my hair out, I finally gave it the old heave ho today. I have a foot + ponytail to give away to Locks of Love. It's my second time donating hair, and I think I may do it again. But we'll see how gray my hair goes in the next few years. My hair stylist was so nice. When I told him it was being donated, he only charged me for a blow dry. So instead of $80, it was only $50 - everything here is twice as expensive as in the states.... I gave him a fat tip, so in the end I didn't get much of a discount.

I had a baby-free morning to go get my hair done and then do some shopping on Princes Street . I finally purchased some jeans that fit me, and I didn't end up spending too much money. I also tried to find some cute hair things since I now need little clippies and headbands. But I didn't find too much that I liked for the price. I found some really nice headbands in Harvey Nichols.... But I refused to pay £40 ($80) for a resin hairband! Gees, I can't believe people actually have that kind of money to blow on a hairband!
Well, my hair cut is the big event of the weekend here. Monday we're going to go to the museum for a Hogmanay family ceilidh. Hogmanay is what people here call New Year's Eve and the next few drunken days. Check out the wikepedia link to find out all about the holiday. If there's one thing the Scotish can do, it's drink, well and burn things, so I guess there's 2 things we can really do! Oh, and a Ceilidh (pronounced Kaye - Lee) is a big dance party, sort of like square dancing except everyone does it and the men wear kilts! I can't wait until Monday!!!! We should have some good pictures/videos of that.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas! Guess what? I managed to photograph the elusive Santa Claus! He materialized in front of our electric fireplace and here's what he looks like. He's a bit smaller than I had imagined though....

I hope you are all having a happy and yummy Christmas dinner tonight. We had our big dinner last night and warmed up the duck for leftovers tonight. It was great both times. But then again duck is pretty hard to go wrong with.
Marius got his fair share of the duck and our veggies. It turns out he really likes asparagus. We kept on giving him bites from our plates, and he did a pretty good job of stuffing them in his face. He's getting more and more finicky about eating from a spoon held by mommy or daddy, so we may need to make the very messy transition to finger food. I guess I'll start making loads more food so it can be spattered on the floor and eventually thrown in the trash.... sigh... So when can these babies start feeding themselves well anyhow?

Crazy happy laughing baby and parents

Marius is getting a lot more fun to play with. Our new game is to play with him when he's standing in his crib. He loves watching us bop up and down like lunatics! And we love making him squeal with glee. Here are some videos of the craziness if you care to watch us making fools out of ourselves.

We're getting ready for Christmas a little late. We bought a little Christmas bush today. Perhaps one day we'll have a bit of garden to plant it in, but it'll fit nicely in a pot for quite a while yet. We're picking up a duck at our butcher tomorrow morning, and then we'll bake a Christmas brandy cake, roast the duck along with potatoes and some asparagus. It should be a yummy meal with lots of leftovers! That's the best. Although I am super jealous of Paula who is making tamales by hand - masa and all - this year! Oh man.... Perhaps next year I'll be that adventurous if I can get some hojas mailed to me and can find a few helpers.

Wee Tadpole

Marius got his official Tadpole badge on Wednesday during his swimming class. Here are some pictures of my little baby frog.

Fun with the Fam

Faith and Ian came out this week. It was so amazingly wonderful to have them both out here. I had forgotten what a great feeling I get from having family around. We only had three days with them so we tried to make the most of it. We did quite a good walking tour on Monday, seeing Edinburgh Castle, the royal mile, princes street, and the meadows. Tuesday we decided to get out of town and drove to East Lothian. There we saw Tantallon Castle, walked around North Berwick, and Dirlton Castle. Wednesday I took Simon to the airport, then we all went to Marius's swimming class, where he got his first tadpole swimming badge! Then we did a walking tour all around New Town and stopped off at Dean Gallery for lunch before heading back home. I dropped them off at the airport last night and am really feeling sad now. Simon flew out to San Fransisco for his annual geo meeting and he won't get back until Tuesday. It's just me and the boy for a while. I'm trying not to get too depressed about it. But I get pretty lonely when he's gone. I think it has something to do with me being the youngest of 4 kids, so I'm used to lots of people always being around. Oh well, I've got some things that will keep me busy while he's gone.

Anyhow, here are some amazing photos that Ian/Faith took while here. I need to get the ones of yesterday at the pool, but for now you'll have to settle with these professional ones from Monday and Tuesday. It's nice to have two professional photographers in the family! I told Faith that she needs to fly out and cover my delivery for the next kid, whenever that may be!

Messy Eating

It appears my thought that Marius might be ready for more self feeding was pretty unfounded. He'd rather wear his food than put it in his mouth. So, for now we'll stick to the spoon in mamma's hand and just let him eat biscuits and banana pieces by himself.

AA saves the day

I met the AA guy at our car this morning, and I have to say I am totally impressed with the AA. AAA guys know how to tow a car, fix a flat tire, and jump a car and that's really all they can do. If they know how to fill out a form or figure out street directions you've gotten the best AAA has to offer. But the AA guys (or gals if there are any) are superb! I walked up to my car and popped the hood so he could look at the car. I was thinking to myself "right this guy will just jump the car like I've already done and then tow it to the garage." But no, he immediately saw that our little clunker was missing her fan belt! How embarrassing! At first I thought someone had stolen it while it was parked on the street, but then he said that was probably the reason the car died. Again I thought to myself "right, he's going to have to tow the car to the garage now.... why is he still looking at my engine and fiddling?" Then he tells me he'll be right back with a fan belt replacement. I'm thinking "there's no way he has a spare belt just sitting in his van for my 1998 Vauxhall Corsa!" But sure enough, he comes back with a belt, actually three of them and one eventually works with quite a bit of fiddling and crow barring. He pulls out a crowbar and hammer, telling me they are his "precision and calibrating machinery." Hey whatever works! Then I'm thinking to myself, great how much is this work going to cost me? But, in the end it was all free! He didn't charge me because he said the belt he used was the wrong size, and while it would work just fine for me, he'll officially label it as a "temporary fix" making it free!!! Yippie! I was worried about having to shell out £100 pounds on the little death mobile for some repair in a garage. What a lovely beginning to my day.
Marius had his first birthday party to attend today - here‘s a picture of him in front of the ball pit/car at their house. Man, this kid has tons of toys! Am I a bad parent because Marius only has one little shelf full of toys, and most of them are either wooden blocks or soft alphabet shapes? He only has two plastic toys that light up and make noise, two large and two small stuffed animals, a wire bead toy, a push cart, and some other random small soft/stuffed type of things…. He has no plastic car to ride in with a horn, no blow up car full of balls, no big music/instrument centre with flashing lights and music, and no huge crate full of plastic toys. I’m really trying to resist the competitive mother urge in me to go out and buy a bunch of things for the boy for Christmas…. My rational is that he doesn't need a bunch of fancy toys, because he has mamma around all day and I play with him, read to him, and take him around town to see stuff, as opposed to throwing him in a corner with a pile of plastic. He'll get enough of that when I go back to work and he's in day care. Anyhow, I was thinking about getting him a scooter bug thing that he could ride around on though - they’re pricey, but totally cute and not plastic and made in China! Oh and I (errr I mean "Santa") aready bought him some books for his stocking, but those don't count... One can never have too many books.
Anyhow, getting to this party was a bit interesting, as it required me to drive through areas that I had never driven through before. I had figured I wouldn't have my car and would have to navigate several buses to get to the house. So, I hadn’t psyched myself up to take a drive in the city. I was a bit nervous about driving to a new place in the city, but it really wasn't bad at all. I'm actually getting quite used to the whole driving on the right side of the road thing.
In fact, both Simon and I are to used to being on the right hand side, that when we were watching Heroes (we downloaded the entire first season and are rationing ourselves to one or two a week because we're TOTALLY addicted!) last night, we had to do a double take when there was a scene of Niki driving down a desert road on the left side. At first we were like, wait she's on the wrong side. It was a little weird. Simon thinks that when he goes back to Cali for his conference in 2 weeks, he's going to get all disoriented with the directions. The driving isn't nearly as bad as walking and crossing the street though. I've caught myself in the middle of the street and walking because I see no cars, only to realize that I was VERY lucky because I was looking the wrong way when I first put my foot off the curb. Don't worry about Marius though people, that's only when I jaywalk and I only jaywalk when I'm alone. Intersections are actually a lot safer here than in the states, because everyone has a red light when pedestrians have the green, and you can't turn on a red here like you can in the US. So, when you get the little green walking sign, you have no fear about someone turning in front of you, actually you can walk diagonally in the intersection since all the cars are stopped. I love it! I feel like I'm in Vegas every time I do that here! Except without the neon lights and casinos and stuff.

I joined AA

The flat we put a bid on seems like it will be really hard to sell when that time comes, and the owners want more than the market value for it, so unless they take our second low offer today, we'll pull out and formally keep looking for new places. So, in anticipation of this, last night Simon, Marius and I went to check out two flats. One was fairly nearby, and I loved it, the second was by the beach, and I was not totally in love with it. The first one was a ground floor (meaning first floor in the US) flat and it has a bit of private garden in the front and a huge shared drying green in the back that is dying for some tender loving care. The bedrooms are miniscule, but manageable. The living room is nice and roomy with high ceilings and original crown moulding. The kitchen is a huge dining kitchen with brand new counters and cabinets, and a huge walk in cupboard. The bathroom is a shower room, which will make bathing the kid for the next few years interesting..... But new and lovely. The building is an old red sandstone tenement and in a nice neighbourhood close to Simon's work and walking distance to a great park and duck pond.
The second flat we looked at is by the beach, which I love. But it's in a newer (probably 1930's as opposed to the 1880‘s/Victorian buildings we have been looking at) building with no real character on the outside. It needs some modernization and upgrading, is on the first floor (that's really the second floor in the US), has NO parking nearby. But is has ocean views and overlooks the elementary school's playground and field giving it a really open feeling, and it's a lot cheaper than the other places we've looked at - meaning we could afford to buy a used car if we get it(this becomes important further down). So, we have a lot to think about in the next few weeks. We'll still keep our eyes open though to see what new comes on the market that we'd be interested in.
Right, well, so we were driving back home from looking at this beach flat and about a quarter mile away from our flat in one of the busiest intersections in town when all of a sudden the car died. It just stopped completely in the middle of a turn. Cars were honking like we were idiots and zooming around us giving us dirty looks. I just held my hands up, like "what am I supposed to do..." So, Simon got out and pushed us onto the main street in the bus lane. Thank goodness a car with two young men stopped and asked us if we needed a jump. We had no clue if that was what the little car needed, but tried it anyhow. And it worked! For 20 seconds that is. Then the car died again. They jumped it a second time and it died a second time. So, then we (Simon and the two young lads) just pushed the car onto a side street and it is still sitting there as I type.
I was reluctant to have these two kids give Marius a ride without his car seat, so we told them that we could walk home just fine. Marius was in his orange snow suit, so I wasn't worried about the cold. We got all of half a block, when we walked past a house of one of the professor's in Simon's department. This is the guy who let Simon stay with him for the first 2 weeks while he was setting up everything for Marius and me, so he knows them pretty well. And I thought, I could walk home in the cold, or we could knock on their door and get a lift in their new Jag... Needless to say, we had a very short ride home in a super nice car!
Oh, and the AA part, no, I wasn't drinking and driving. The AAA equivalent here is call the UK Automotive Association, or AA. Since we'll need a tow, I figured joining now would just about make up for the cost since the price of a tow will likely be about the year membership with AA. So, Tuesday I will call AA and get my first tow to the garage. I hope it won't cost too much to fix, as the car is a heap of junk and we don't want to spend anything on it. But since it was given to us for free we can't complain too much. We just want a "real" car with 4 doors. But first a flat, then we'll have an idea of our budget and can buy a car or not afterwards.

Running and Talking

Marius is feeling much better now. Unfortunately his parents aren't though. Simon and I are still battling the pink eye and a cold.
On a more pleasant front.... Marius just did this above today!!! I was totally expecting him to slowly walk down the hall, or stand there and make me coax him. But when I pressed the record button he just came flying at me. I had to film it about 3 times before I actually had time to set him up, run back down the hall and hit record while he still had some hall to run down. He had a 3 hour nap this afternoon, so perhaps we was just resting up for his big development spurt. At any rate, I'm pretty excited! Although, it was a lot easier to take care of him before he was so mobile.... Where does the time go? I swear it was just yesterday we came over here and he was starting on solid foods. Now he bites chunks out of cookies with his top and bottom teeth! While I have not heard any identifiable or repeating words yet (sure he can say mama and baba, but he hasn't a clue what they mean yet) he is making lots of sounds these days. The video below has some of his chatter and funny hand gestures. When he gets really happy he does the hand moves. Every time he gets a cookie he stretches his arm up in the air like he's He-Man.
Well, I hope you enjoy the baby videos!

poor little sicky poo

So imagine waking up to this face in the morning and saying to yourself.... oh good he looks better! Well, the little booger has been having a terrible week. First he caught a cold on Friday and it's been running it's course on him. He's still has a snotty nose and started coughing yesterday - although no fever thank goodness. Then he got conjunctivitis and has been getting progressively more eye goo since Saturday. But the worst of it seemed to be Sunday and Monday because our normally active and wiggly little baby was just laying down all day and didn't want to play or crawl or turn over while getting his diapers changed. We're happy to report that he was actually smiling this morning and more active - despite the horrible state of his eyes and nose. He's still not back to his normal self, but he does seem to slowly be getting better or at least running through the symptoms.
We went to the Dr. on Monday but she said it was likely viral and so antibiotics wouldn't help. But everyone else I know gets drops for the eyes with the conjunctivitis so I might try for a second opinion. I caught the pink eye from Marius and am using an old tube of antibiotic gel in my eye and it is nowhere near as bad as Marius's. I told myself I'd go back into the Dr. today if the eye didn't clear up, but since his temperament seems better, I think I may give it another day.
Simon and I also caught his cold and are going through it with him, the poor kid. So far I just have a sore throat, but I'm sure the snot and cough are only a day away. Simon's loading himself full of cold medicine, but I'm not supposed to take that stuff while still breastfeeding. Although perhaps since Marius is sick too, he'll get the right baby proportion through me? Yeah, I'd still better not and just tough it out sans medication with him.
On another front, our house search may have to begin anew. We're getting a little scared off about the flat's structural issues (not that we feel unsafe but the resale will be a nightmare) and may fully back out of our offer unless the sellers come down a lot on the price. We're going to look at a few other places in another part of town tomorrow evening and then another place by the beach on Sunday. Hopefully something works out soon so we can finally start getting settled. We're really both sick and tired of renting.

Recalled toy in Marius's crib!

Oh my God! I am so furious I can barely contain it right now. I was just surfing the web and happened upon CNN's list of recently recalled toys from MATTEL.... And to my horror, one of them happens to be attached to Marius's crib right now. It's been there for the past several months too! Thankfully Marius is safe and asleep at the moment, but you can bet your bottom dollar that I'll have that thing ripped off first thing tomorrow. It's a little Ernie toy that makes music and lights up when you press a button. Mars loves the thing. But the paint on it has a high lead content. Lead! Great, my son's toy is laden with a chemical that can cause sever damage to his nervous system!!!! It's a good thing that Marius has never taken to putting this thing in his mouth, as it's stuck to his crib and not laying around where we can sit there and gnaw on it.
Well, I had toyed (no pun intended) with the idea of banning all Chinese made toys from the house. But that is not an easy thing to do these days. Well, "ease" really isn't my main concern anymore, so the Chinese ban is now in effect. So, if any Christmas presents of questionable origin are headed over here, you can kindly donate them to charity (right, poison all of those underprivileged kids...) or return them. To be perfectly honest, Marius prefers half filled water bottles and empty cereal boxes to most of his other toys anyhow, so save your money. I tell you, it won't be easy though, as it is very hard to find toys that are NOT made in China, and if you do find them they're quite expensive. Luckily Simon's mom still has tons of his old toys, which predate China's rise to export king of the world, so we have plenty of wooden toys made 30 years ago in Sweden which will make it over here in good time.

What's a little subsidence...... right?

Well, our offer on the flat was accepted (our solicitor wanted us to bid less than the asking price but we didn't want to risk it), and the survey on the flat has already happened. Most of it has happened I should say... Our solicitor called back and said that the tenement (that's what they call the older stone 3-5 story apartment buildings here) has had lots of underpinnings and a steel plate put underneath it. She said all this as if I should be freaked out, but I was like "thank goodness because it needs it in this area." We know someone next door and had heard all about the subsidence problems in this block due to an underground stream - how at one time the whole block was scheduled for demolition - but that a lot of the buildings had sunk several pretty pennies into reinforcing the buildings - yada yada yada. Our concern was not that it had structural issues, because we already knew that, we just wanted to make sure that the work had already been done so that we wouldn't need to worry about paying for it. But like I said, the solicitor was all cautious about the fact that the work had needed to be done and said that lots of customers back out of the deal as soon as they hear that any structural work has been done on a property. Maybe it's just because we're from California and structural work on buildings seems like a standard thing? Maybe it's just because we already knew about it and so were expecting to hear it? But I'm really not worried about the walls falling off or anything crazy like that. I am a bit worried about the resale of the flat when the time comes.... If our solicitor tried to flag us away, will the next lot of potential customers be shooed away too?
Oh well, we won't worry about it just yet. Once we get the full report from our survey I guess we can decide if we want to bail on this flat (and loose about $1K on the survey - ugh!) and continue looking or if we are happy with it as is and will continue with the sale. I'm thinking that we'll end up taking it. It's really nice! The kitchen is HUGE and living room is likewise quite large. There's a separate study with lots of built-in shelves for our books and CDs and it's only one flight of stairs. No private garden (there was not chance we could afford a private garden in this posh of a neighborhood).... but there's a shared garden, well they call it a "drying green" (aka grassy lawn) since most people hang their clothes to dry, even in the summer when it's raining! It's a snap in the winter because you just lay them on the radiators and they dry quicker than in the dryer and for no extra energy - but I digress!
So, to make a long story slightly less long... We get the full survey result on Monday, once the guy has had time to review the engineering reports that were obtained for the building. I'll let ya know how it all plays out!

Happy Haggis Hunting

Well, it's that time of the year. You know, Haggis season! I can't wait to hunt me a nice little haggis for Thanksgiving dinner! You can hunt your own haggis too at http://haggishunt.scotsman.com/ I think the streets of Edinburgh have the best haggis, so that's where I'd look personally. But I am an American, so perhaps I'm not the most qualified to hunt them.
I've been a busy little house hunter lately too. We just went to see three flats this evening and one of them looks perfect!!!!! I'm going to call our solicitor tomorrow to see what she says. I'm not sure we have our finances quite ready to put in a bid, but we'll see. The one we like was just put on the market this week and I'm sure it will go VERY quickly! Keep your fingers crossed for us, or if you're religious say a prayer to God, Buddha, Mohamed, Krishna and Lobstroro!!!

Soliciting in the dark

OK, so the title is a bit misleading. I saw a solicitor (a lawyer in American) this afternoon to talk about buying a flat. The UK doesn't have real estate agents or title companies. They have special property lawyers who handle the whole thing. Scotland in particular makes you use them to put in a bid on a house, so there's no "for sale by owner" here. Basically she told me pretty much what I had already read up on, but it was reassuring to have our thoughts confirmed by a pro. Basically, we want to buy in the city and in an old building, as the more modern buildings (which we just think are ugly for the most part) don't appreciate in prices over time.
As of today all of our US $ are being transferred over here and into UK £. So now I just need to talk to a bank and see about the loan portion. Loans are also totally different here. There are no "fixed rate" loans here. They all fluctuate with the Bank of England (similar to the Fed in the US) rates. There are also a lot of things we need to be wary of, like penalties for paying the loan off sooner than the time period. So, hopefully the whole process won't be too confusing. But we bought a book on the subject, called "Buying a home in Scotland," and we have grilled just about everyone we have ever met about the subject. So, I feel fairly comfortable with the process. It's not quite as stressful as our first home buying adventure in Tallahassee.... Oh, I still miss our old garden there! We sure as heck won't have anywhere the size that we had in that little house. We won't have a house for one thing.... Oh well, it's exciting European living! That's what I'm trying to tell myself!
Perhaps you're still wondering about the whole dark thing. Well today at 5:30 the power went off on our whole block, perhaps more, but I looked out the window and didn't see any lights anywhere on our block at least (although Simon had power at the university so it wasn't a huge outage or anything). Since it's already totally dark here by then, I had to make it to my bedroom where thankfully I had just placed a flash light this weekend. What luck! I would never have found the matches without it. The power was out for an hour, and Marius was starting to freak out a bit without the lights. He didn't even settle down much when I lit a bunch of candles. (Thanks for the X-mas present Paula! Thankfully I opened it early and could use it easily.) You know, perhaps it's because I now have a little one, or perhaps it's because I am still not 100% comfortable here yet, but I had a little nervousness during the whole outage that I never used to get when the power would go out in the states. My first reaction, was "Oh no, I have no clue what's going on, and no clue how to find out what's going on." I guess I could have walked downstairs and turned on our car radio if I had really thought about it, but that didn't occur to me and my nerves were calmed once I called Simon and heard that he was all light up and working at the university just fine. In the states I just figure that the power will be up and running soon enough and never worry. But things here never run as smoothly as I think they ought to, and I half expected to find out that if the power goes off after hours, then they don't fix it until the morning. I don't know, how am I supposed to know how things operate here? The light bulbs don't even freaking screw in, so you never know. Luckily that's not the case, which would have been terrible since we have an electric water heater and our radiators wouldn't have worked.

Like Mother Like Son... first word recognition!

Well, today I really noticed that Marius knows the meaning of at least one word. You might think it would be Marius, momma, daddy, or milk wouldn't you.... Yes, one would think that. But my son, doesn't truly seem to know the meaning of those words yet. However, today, when I put Marius in his highchair and asked him if we wanted a "biscuit" he started smiling and bouncing up and down in his seat. He had previously only done this after I asked him if he wanted a biscuit as I signed it and then pulled out the crinkly biscuit wrapper. But now it appears that now he knows the word before I sign it and before I even go to the cupboard to pull out the biscuits. Oh, and in case you're wondering why he would get excited about biscuits and gravy... in the UK biscuits are the same thing as cookies. And since we learned the sign and words for "biscuit" in our sing and sign class, I say that instead of cookie. But before you go and think that I give my son tons of junk food....just know that I call rice crackers biscuits, and he gets equally excited about them as he does the more sweet organic baby biscotti that I also call biscuits.
I bet biscuit will be his first proper word too. As long as he says momma before daddy, I'll be OK with that!

Walking Adventures

One of Simon's coworkers just gave us her children's old push cart with blocks yesterday. I am so excited because they are not cheap and I was really wanting one for Marius anyhow! It is taking Marius some getting used to though.... At first he didn't want to touch it because it kept moving and dragging him forward. Then after lots and lots of positive reinforcement from Mommy and Daddy, he warmed up to it.

St. Andrews

Yesterday we went to St. Andrews, which is about 1.5 hours north of Edinburgh. The drive up was gorgeous, and Marius slept the whole way which was an added bonus! The town is pretty small, about 18,000 people and half of them are students at the University. As you drive up to the town, you first drive by the famous golf courses located right on the coast. The town itself is adjacent to the course and lays slightly higher up on a coastal bluff giving it great views out to sea. The university is one of the oldest in the UK (third to be exact) so it has a prime old town location in the heart of the town and along the bluff. In typical UK university style, the buildings are mostly stone with slate roofs and many of them are super old. Gorgeous! Our friend is lucky enough to be renting a HUGE flat that is literally across the street from the university. The place is 3 stories and has 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms!! And he lives by himself, can you believe that? So, needless to say, I think we'll end up visiting him often! If only Simon liked and played golf, he'd be all set, right?

Oh, and the street that our friend lives on is called Butts Wynd! Too funny huh? I'm sure they pronounce it "wind" is in to wind up a toy and not "wind" as in to fart. But I took a photo anyhow!!! I love how the old street "sign" or rather stone block is still visible next to the modern one. I hope that detail comes through in the photo.
So, anyhow, we spent the day just walking around the golf course and town. It was a lot more cold than I had expected, and I didn't have Marius's blanket in the car... So I had to do some quick shopping to get him some warm coverings. The little kids shop I popped into was on the shi-shi-foo-foo side (like most of the shops in St. Andrews as it's sort of like a Santa Barbara in that there is a lot of money floating around the place), but luckily they were having a sale on snow suits!!! So, I got Marius the ridiculous orange outfit you see in the photos! Simon loved the thing and insists that I come visit him at work with Marius in it. He looks like a giant carrot in it!

Happy Guy Fawkes Night!

It's the 5th of November everyone! Tonight the fireworks are going off all over town, in such a display. It's way more than any 4th of July celebration I've ever seen. The Scots certainly know how to light things on fire and shoot off fireworks.
The 5th of November is called Bonfire Night or Guy Fawkes Night. It commemorates the failed attempt, (or attempt for us northern rebel-type Catholics!!!) to blow up the English Parliament 400 years ago. Fireworks have been going off all week, but it's been non-stop tonight for the past 3 hours or so. Crazy! And I'm not talking about the little Piccolo Pete's, these are the full blown sky exploding cannons that just random people are lighting all around the city! I can see fireworks in the sky as I type in fact.

Tomorrow we're all driving up to St. Andrews to check out the town and pick up our friend who just got a job there at the University. For your info... St. Andrews University is where William, Prince of Wales, graduated. Interestingly, the department our friend will work in is the same one (Geography) that the Prince majored in. Apparently he received no favoritism, and in fact they had all of his classes graded blindly so that no one would ever suggest he was given preferential grades.
But the city itself is supposed to be quite pretty and comparable to an Aspen, CO, in that it's a vacation town for the super wealthy. All of you avid golfers out there will be jealous, as St. Andrews is the home to "The Old Course," which is the most famous course in the world. Not that I'd know, but that's what I hear. I don't think we'll be going to visit the course, but I may pick up a postcard for Mr. McMorrow!

Nearly New Madness

I had heard lots of mothers talk about these "nearly new" sales that the Nation Childbirth Trust (a nonprofit mother and babies group) puts on. All the talk was that one should get there early and that people literally ran to get to the items they wanted. I imagined the old Mervyn's commercial where the woman was tapping on the doors, saying "open, open, open." So, today there was one for the NCT group in East Lothian (the county just east to Midlotion, where Edinbourgh is) and I decided that we should check it out. The sale started at 2:00 pm, which meant that we needed to leave the house at 1:30 if we wanted to get there at opening.
We ended up getting there at 2:05 or so, and there was a HUGE line (or as we say here a queue) of people around the block, literally waiting to get into this auditorium type place. I decided to hop out of the car, while Simon found parking and brought the boy in. It was such a zoo in there! Women running around with huge bags, shoving items in them and running on to the next. Mothers and fathers rummaging through tables of clothing and toys and grabbing anything and everything. The feeling in there was so frantic, I had totally forgotten what I was thinking about getting. I felt the urge to grab up tons of stuff and punch people out of my way! It's amazing how the power of mass hysteria works! And that's not too far from how this place was!!!
I had originally gone there to look for this sleeping bag type thing that people put on the strollers to keep babies warm while pushing them around. Well, if there were any of these footmuffs as they call them, I would never have known. I walked over to the stroller section, but there were only a few actual strollers and some mothers frantically looking them over to see if they wanted them. I couldn't have exactly gone over and looked at the item in another mom's hands, and I didn't see any muffs just laying around. So, I though to myself.... Well, Marius does need some more long sleeve clothing and perhaps a jacket. He's got plenty of clothing right now, thanks to lots of friends and family who have given him stuff. But, his current jacket may not fit in another month, so I thought I'd better just look to see. Since clothes is so expensive here, I was shocked at how cheap everything was. I ended up getting a thick warm jacket, 4 sweaters, and a long sleeve flannel shirt. I'm kicking myself for not getting any pants, but it was just so loud and crazy, I couldn't hear myself think in there.
On a whim I picked up a toy with lights and buttons for Marius too. In the end I only spent £9.50 (about $20) for the lot of things. Amazing! I'm never going to buy Marius anything brand new again! Except for the odd diaper (Oh, did I mention that I've made the switch to cloth diapers??? I'll save that story for another blog) and wooden (not "made in China" with toxic lead paint) toy.
Once all three of us got out of that place, Simon made us all sit down to gather our whits about ourselves! He was way more stressed out than I was, and he just walked in late, found me, and told me to get out of there. I was the one doing the looking and trying to think of what me may need in the next few months, while trying to look out for "the good stuff." Well, luckily there's another sale in Edinburgh next month. I'll totally be prepared then! Plus, my local NCT chapter is looking for a volunteer to organize their nearly new sale in April. One of the perks is that you get the pick of the lot before the mad rush.... That's incentive alone to put in the hours of work needed. I'm going to email the chapter president and volunteer my services!
Once we caught our breaths, we decided to head over to Tantallon Castle, which we have been intending to see for months. The place was spectacular! I swear, there are castles every 5 miles or so in Scotland, and they are all SO cool! This one has perhaps the best setting though. It's right on the coastline on a bluff. The views of the Forth were spectacular! And the castle itself was super cool! This one was complete with a moat (although not filled), pit prison, and spiral staircases. The stairs always freak me out a bit, since they're SO narrow and in the shape of wedges, so the step goes down to nothing in the inside of the spiral, if that makes any sense...
Well, even though I will still need to use blankets with the stroller to keep Marius warm for now, it was quite a nice day. Tomorrow we'll probably try to check out some more flats/houses for sale. Thursdays and Sundays are the open house days to do this. Who knows where we'll look tomorrow. We're still waiting for the freaking dollar to go up before we transfer our down payment dollars into pounds, but since the Federal Reserve just lowered interest rates again in the US.... The dollar has plummeted in value much more sharply than it had been going before. So, we're hoping that things will bounce back up a bit in the next week. NOT BLOODY LIKELY if you ask me.... Thank you George W. Bush, for putting the US into a huge debt of a black hole and making the US dollar worth slightly more than toilet paper!!!!!! But really, I'm not upset about my life savings disappearing before my very eyes..... I'm just waiting for the US to issue new dollars like Mexico had to do with the peso once it got to be too worthless.... OK the US dollar won't get THAT bad, but it is super crappy at the moment.

OH... P.S. Happy Birthday Paula!!!!! Today my lovely sister has a grand total of 40 years under her belt! Let's just say that she's less than ecstatic about the monument.

Happy Halloween!!

Well, it's not nearly as big of a holiday over here as it is in the US. But I did manage to find a little pumpkin hat and mittens for Marius to wear today. We had our regular swimming class and then we went to our breastfeeding support group for the costume competition. Marius was way too underdressed to be a serious contender for the grand prize. That went to the spider outfit that was hand died, hand stitched with a web and extra stuffed black socks for legs! Too cute. I can't believe the mother had the time to make it. But, here are some pics of my boy. He had a little "my first halloween" onsie on earlier, but being a baby... he peed on it before I could get a photo of him in it. Ah well, next year I'll do better.

Pentland Hills and Property

Saturday we took a nice little walk through some farms in the Pentland Hills just south of Edinburgh. It's so nice here that private property in the American sense doesn't really exist. In Scotland, anybody has the right to walk through someone's land, and even camp! Can you imagine walking on some cattle rancher's farm and setting up a tent in the middle of Tennessee? You'd get shot or attacked by dogs. But here they build little fence gates and bridges to make it easier for people to walk through! So, we walked through some cow pasture and then a sheep pasture in these amazing rolling hills. Marius loves being in his backpack and was laughing the whole time. I tried to use our baby sign language to show him the cows and sheep, but I'm not sure he followed what I was doing. Simon is going to try to do some research out here, so he was scoping out the soil and erosion. It's not a bad place for research, since it's so pretty! I am still hoping he'll find some place in Spain or California for research, then Marius and I can go along and enjoy the trip too!!! We can help dig soil pits!
Sunday was mostly spent checking out different neighborhoods in Edinburgh. We're getting a lot closer to really looking for a place to buy. But since we really don't know the city too well, we still need to do a lot of walking around places to get a feel for whether we want to live there or not. There are so many nice options, it really makes things difficult. But our biggest decision is either to stay in town and have a smaller place that's within walking distance to everything we need, or move out of town a bit and have a larger house with a garden, but have to commute into town for work. Six of one half a dozen of the other right? Eventually we'll figure it out!

Swimming

Today was our first swimming class. My biggest worry was the logistic of getting us both changed, into and out of the pool. It will definitely take some getting used to, but it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. Thank goodness he's big enough to stand up and hang on to my leg. I couldn't have imagined doing it with a 3 month old!
Marius really likes being in the bath and splashing, so he was quite happy to have me plopping him in and out of the water (up to his neck only). There were also lots of toys in the pool for Marius to grab on to. At one point we put swimmy arm bands on the babies and give them a little more of a floating sensation. Second timers even had their mothers let go of them! Marius didn't particularly care for the arm floaties and tried to eat them. That didn't help with his "floating" practice and he screamed a little when he was on his back. A the end of the class, we were supposed to blow on their face and then dumk them in heads and all. I was a bit hesitant, but everyone else was doing it... So, Marius had his first big gulp of chlorine baby pee water today! He seemed a bit shocked by the whole experience, so I didn't go for a repeat even though lots of mothers did. I think Marius was old enough to let me know he didn't like it, but the poor little 3 month olds couldn't tell their mommies "NO, don't do that again!"
Afterward most of us mummies had some coffee at the cafe upstairs. That was nice, as it's always good to chat up with other mothers. Inevitably we ended up sharing our labor stories. I must say, after having gone through the whole process at one of the best medical centers in the US and with great MD's checking up on me..... I'm scared out of my mind to have to go through that here! I'll try not to rant on and on, but women here don't have medical doctors supervising their pregnancy or delivery - it's a midwife who does it! Now, I know women have given birth for centuries and it's not exactly brain surgery, but it's also not exactly as simple as donating blood (and let me tell you, I have some horror stories about that too). I've heard of so many women here going through really long and difficult labors, only to find out the the baby was in the wrong position so they have an emergency C-section. If these poor women had trained and licensed doctors using ultrasounds attending to them they would have known this! But is seems like the midwives always think that birth is routine and they can handle any situation without a doctor. That may be true for 4 out of 5 women... but I don't like those odds when it comes to MY baby! I can only imagine how horrible Marius's birth would have been over here. So, I may have to take a trip to the US right before I'm due with the next baby. Not that we're planning another one any time soon!

Two front teeth

Well, Marius's Christmas present came a bit early. He has his two front teeth - both the top ones now and the bottom. I saw the top two, well one and a half, coming in yesterday. Check them out!

Britishisms

So, despite living here for over three months, I am still learning lots of new words. I went on a walk to the Botanic Garden today with a friend and her son, and we started talking about cars. She had just bought an "estate" car and was trying to explain the type of car to me. I thought the estate was the make/model of the car, so I said, "no, I have no clue what kind of car that is." It wasn't until we saw one of these driving around the corner that she said, "look, it has a large boot that opens up," that I realized it just means a station wagon and not a particular model. She got quite a kick out of us calling them station wagons. If you think about it, I guess it's pretty strange that we call them that, I mean how many people use a big trunk to pick up people or things from stations in the US. Really, nobody even goes to stations in the US. And I guess people here who live in the county or on an estate would use the big trunk, or boot, to haul dogs, garden equipment or the like. Since pick up trucks are non existent here, an estate car would be the next best vehicle to have. That being said, I did just see a Mazda pick-up (about the size of Simon's old Ford Ranger) this week driving down the road and I though to myself "that's a HUGE and MONSTEROUS vehicle, what could they possible use it for?" Oh, how my ideas of car sizes have changed! That'll happen when you drive around in a golf cart for three months!
Oh, and get these other funny English to American translations...
to hoover = to vacuum
plasters = band-aids
gaffer tape = duct tape
gaffer = boss or manager
sello tape = scotch tape
cling wrap = plastic wrap or Saran wrap
buggy or push chair = stroller
courgette = zucchini
jab = shot (as in a vaccination)
skip = garbage dumpster
tea = tea the drink but also dinner
nappy = diaper
biscuit = cookie (I love this one! I don't feel guilty about eating a whole box of buscuits!!! tee hee hee)
dado level = I'm still trying to figure this one out, but from what I can tell it's approximately waist to chest height.... It's used in real estate when they say that a room has wood panelling or is tiled to that particular "dado" level on the wall.

The English Riviera

Simon gave a talk at the University of Exeter on Wednesday, so we took the opportunity to make it an extended stay until Saturday. As soon as we got off the plane, we could tell that we weren't in Scotland anymore.... It was at least 2 degrees C hotter than Edinburgh. It was down right sweltering! Marius behaved pretty well on the plane, but all of the traveling does throw him off of his napping schedule, so he had several crying spells every day of our trip. A screaming baby is not my favorite thing to hear, so I was a little stressed out at times. But it really was a great trip.

The weather was wonderful, the scenery quintessential UK - complete with lots of sheep and one lane roads with ten foot tall hedges, and the company was superb. On Friday we drove around Dartmouth and south Devon, which is also known as the English Riviera. The coastline did remind me a little of Santa Barbara, the California Riviera, with the cliffs and fog. The little towns in Devon were all really cute. But perhaps better than getting to wear a t-shirt without a jacket, was getting to have lots of adult conversation - such an under appreciated thing until you stop having it! It was really nice to meet and talk with Fiona and Katie, two women whose husbands work at the University. We stayed with Fiona, her husband and two lovely children. They have such a beautiful house and garden. It made me long for our yard in Tallahassee, and a bit depressed that we'll never be able to afford that much land in Edinburgh. Unless I win the lotto, which I keep meaning to start playing!!
Today was supposed to be our day to just walk around Exeter and see the cathedral before we headed back to Edinburgh. The plan was to go to Katie and her husband's place and use that as a home base while they were off with the kids on a fun field trip with Fiona and her family. We were supposed to just lock the door and put the key in her mail slot. Sounds easy enough right? Well..... Perhaps we were just dim and couldn't figure out how to use the key? But our front door has a crazy lock (you have to twist the key while pulling up on the lever handle at a 45 degree angle) and we figured that out by ourselves, so you'd think we could handle this one... We didn't have anyone's cell phone numbers, so I pulled a MacGyver and put two hairbands together to keep the door from swinging open. We still have not heard from Katie or her hubby, so we're hoping that their place is OK. Yikes! How hard is it to figure out a door lock? Perhaps it just broke? That's all we could figure out, because we both spent about an hour fiddling with the thing. So, needless to say we didn't go out and see Exeter. Oh well, next time right?

Gardens and Grandma

Monika came for a nice little visit to see the boy. She left yesterday, but we had a bit of a whirlwind of a time going from one place to another. We took some nice drives down south to the Borders, up north to Perhshire, and east to East Lothian. My favorite trip was the one to Perthsire because it's the southern tip of the Scottish Highlands, a grand swath of mountain that have been beautifully carved out by glaciers. There are scenic rivers and lakes (lochs as they say here, yes as in Loch Ness!) and lots of cute sheep everywhere! You'd think that the whole country is eating lamb daily and wearing nothing but wool sweaters with all the sheep.
We also went to just about every botanic garden in a 40 mile radius of Edinburgh too! Monika in a garden is just like a kid in a candy shop! Plus she knows tons about plants, so it's nice to hear all about this plant and that. Let's see, we went to the Royal Botanic Garden of Edinburgh, its arboratum in Dawyck, Drummond Castle Garden (wow, what a grand one that is!), and Dirleton Castle Garden which happens to be home to the longest herbaceous border in the world!
Tomorrow we're off to Exeter, in the far southwest corner of the UK. Simon has to give a talk at the university there, so Marius and I are tagging along for the ride. We'll stay at one of the professor's houses. I hope Marius travels well..... He was brilliant coming over here and going to Spain, but these days he's quite the wiggle worm! At least daddy will be along and can absorb some of the energy.

Busy busy piggies

Yeah, I know I have neglected the blog.... Simon's mom is in town and I have had no time to upload photos or sit down to type.... Today Marius and I am feeling a bit under the weather with colds so we are staying home while Monika explores Edinburgh a bit. I've taken my "day off" to catch up on some cleaning and will promptly get back to work taking care of the little one now! I've got to read his favorite book, Busy Busy Piggies, another 20 or so more times today!!!
I'll upload photos early next week.

Biodiesel Boats and Ravishing Ruins

We had another adventurous weekend. We started it by going to the Edinburgh Farmers Market on Saturday morning. We were a little bummed about the market. There were only two stalls with veggies! The rest were basically all meat stalls, with the odd bakery. I guess that's your British stereotype playing out as the honest truth now isn't it. So, we bought a loaf of French bread from a French lady. Simon said that he could bake better bread though.... "so why doesn't he" is my response to that! Then we bought some smoked Scottish salmon.... yummy! And get this.... a half rabbit and some "mixed game" meaning rabbit, wild bore, pheasant, meadow dove and venison!!! So tonight we're making a mixed game pot pie. It should be yummy. But we just have to chew carefully as the package said "may contain shot!" Let's hope I don't need to run to the dentist tomorrow. I fear British dentists... for any of you who have seen that Simpson's episode with the Great Book of English Teeth!!!

After our market trip, we drove out to the north of town to check out Earthrace, the biodiesel racing boat. I had seen the posters of this boat from working with alternative fuels in Tennessee, so when I found out that it would be docked in Edinburgh this weekend, we had to check it out. Marius seemed to enjoy his first boat trip. We were talking to the captain about their biodiesel supply across the globe and apparently the UK was one of the worst places. They could only bet B5 (5% biodiesel and 95% petroleum diesel) so they didn't even bother filling up with it. So, unfortunately they had to use regular old diesel fuel. When I eventually go back to work, I'm going to have to try and see if I can help that out... B5 only! I had my heart set on buying a diesel car so that I could use B100 or at least B20 in the wintertime.
Sunday we took a trip out to see Melrose Abbey and also took a little hike along the way in the Valley Tweed (yes as in the place that the fabric came from). The valley was absolutely stunning, but I was driving so I couldn't do a whole lot of looking from the car. I'm getting quite proficient at driving in the UK now. Simon only had a few moments where he had to scream because he thought I was too far over on the left side of the road!!! Melrose Abbey was yet another spectacular trip. The beauty of these old ruins is so amazing. This place is where Robert the Bruce's heart is buried. Remember his body is in Dunfermline, where we went last weekend... both places are pretty darn pretty if you ask me. I guess he wouldn't mind being dissected and buried in different places as long as they're nice looking abbeys! The weather wasn't too great and it started raining at one point. Afterwards we had some ice cream and I gave Marius his first lick of the cold treat. He hasn't got the whole licking thing down though. He kept opening his mouth and just pushing his face into my cone!
Oh and here's a tooth shot! A bit blurry, but you try getting a close up of a wiggly baby, it's not easy!!

Online Dating

So, I've had two dates this week with people I met online.... Errr that is two play dates with mommies! It was sort of like getting back in the whole dating thing again. You know worrying about how I would get along with the mothers and worrying about keeping up my end of the conversation, which I am terrible at anyhow. I joined this netmums.com thing where other UK moms (mums as they say here) can go online and get info or find out about things in their area. I've been pretty shy about meeting people, but the best advice I've gotten is to just be very proactive about seeking out new friends. So, I posted an "add" if you will on the "meet a mum" message board. I got 4 responses and have set up dates. Just like online dating. Don't worry mom, we meet in public places. I went for a walk yesterday with a mom and our baby boys and had lunch today with another mom and baby boy. I'm not sure if I met any bosom friends, but I felt pretty comfortable with one of the mothers, so I'll have to ask her out on another date next week. Or should I wait 2 weeks so I don't seem desperate? I feel like I'm in the movie Swingers! What's the protocol? Oh well, we'll see how this goes. I'll just try not to leave any long-winded voicemails!
On a different note, sorry about the disappearance of all of my slideshows.... It's a problem with my web photo company and they're working on the problem. Hopefully they'll get it back up and running soon. So here's a cute photo of the buddy in the interim.

Why can't the US do this?

I just love Europe!!!! The capital of Scotland is considering banning plastic bags from the city! Yes, that means when you go to the grocery store you'd better bring a backpack, or reusable bags to haul your stuff in. It may seem hard if you've never done it before. But it's not really rocket science now is it. You just need to be a little prepared when you walk into a store. If you can remember your wallet, you can remember a bag. "I just love Europe!!!! The capital of Scotland is considering banning plastic bags from the city! Yes, that means when you go to the grocery store you'd better bring a backpack, or reusable bags to haul your stuff in. It may seem hard if you've never done it before. But it's not really rocket science now is it. You just need to be a little prepared when you walk into a store. If you can remember your wallet, you can remember a bag.
That being said, I don't really foresee Edinburgh passing this. I mean, sure it's Europe, but the council is elected, so that means they'll forgo what's really best for the people to placate to the least common denominators.... which unfortunately Edinburgh still has a lot of.

We have teeth!!!!!

I saw two little flecks of white enamel yesterday peaking through Marius's gums. Yes, two little teeth are cutting through. The poor guy has been in a little discomfort though, but it hasn't been too bad for him (I think and hope!). After about 80 blurry photos and my camera lens smeared with baby drool, I gave up on trying to capture the moment to post for you all. But here are some photos anyhow!

God Bless Andrew Carnegie

Today we went to Dunfermline, the birthplace of Andrew Carnegie. Good ole' AC. There are ruins of an abbey and palace here in addition to a lovely park and more modern abbey. More modern as in it was completed in 1821 as opposed to the old abbey whose ruins date back to the 1100's. Apparently workers found the body of Robert the Bruce during the new abbey’s construction. The architect was so excited about the find, he overzealously decided to put “King Robert the Bruce” up on the top of the abbey. It looked a little too Vegas for my taste. I half expected neon lights to flicker up there! But the rest of the abbey is spectacular. The old palace and abbey ruins next door is equally impressive with the old stone staircases and window frames. The whole place overlooks a nice river that runs through the town. Adjacent to abbeys is a huge park, Pittencrieff park. Andrew Carnegie bought the whole estate with a mansion on the property and made it open to the public. Apparently as a child he was not allowed on the property due to his grandfather leading a band of men to tear down a wall on the property in attempts to make the Lord of the estate allow the town dwellers access into the abbey and part of the grounds of the estate. What sweet revenge it must have been to buy the whole place and donate it to the town! It is truly a gorgeous park, with a nice greenhouse, winding wooded walkways, lavish lawns and gardens (check out our pictures of thistles, the official emblem of Scotland). As luck would have it, today was an enviro/flower show in the park, so there was a huge tent with lots of cool stuff inside. This was quite nice since it was raining and a little cold. But as many people say here.... There's no bad weather, only inadequate clothing! But anyhow, the park mansion is now a museum free to the public. We really loved this park and are considering looking at Dunfermline when we start our house hunting here. It only a 30 minute train ride to Edinburgh across one of the most famous bridges in the UK, the Forth Rail Bridge.

Yet another castle

Well, we finally went to Edinburgh castle. I have to say it was slightly less impressive than I had thought it would be. I mean, it is a spectacular setting and the size is quite impressive. But, I guess I just thought it would be more restored to it's original slender inside the place. The main thing I was interested in seeing up there were the crown jewels. The official crown, sceptre and sword of Scotland are housed there. Being the jewel nut I am, I was anxious to see and read about the crown and its stats. The tiny room where the jewels are housed doesn’t let you really get a close up view, and there is no plaque telling you the materials in the things nor is there any information about when they were made and where. I was looking for something telling me that the crown has 58 freshwater pearls, 29 carats of diamonds, 33 carats of rubies and so on…. The sceptre has a huge clear stone on the end of it, but nowhere did I find info telling me if it was glass, quartz, or an amazing 77 carat white sapphire! I looked online and found out it’s only quartz crystal…. But pretty cool nonetheless. But it should have been on the freaking display in the jewel room! Anyhow, it was a nice walk up there and the views of the city are truly spectacular. Simon and I got memberships to historic Scotland so we get into a lot of the castles and abbeys for free. So, we’ll probably be back when guests come into town.
I’m starting to feel better this week, but I had a little relapse on Thursday. Marius got his second vaccination for meningitis then too. He’s OK, but the injection site is still red and a little swollen. Not that he seems to mind at all.
We’re not sure what we’ll do tomorrow, but since there’s no construction on the Forth Road Bridge, we may head into county Fife for the day. I’ll try to remember the camera and post some photos.

Grocery Store Differences

Thank goodness we live a block away from a Tesco Express - it's a sort of mini super market, if you will. It has most of the basics and then some, but just no vast array of product selections like the big ones. This is great, because it means we can just walk there daily or every other day to restock on eggs, milk, TP, onions etc... But every now and then we need to do a major shopping trip, so we drive to the real super market down the road.
When Simon and I first went in there, we were a little taken aback, because everything was laid out way differently from what we were used to in the US. Presentation is certainly lacking in UK grocery stores. And no fancy produce rain showers either. It's just all laid out in crates on the floor and you pick through the stuff daily. At the end of the day, the store looks half picked over, and it really is. It's funny to see meat flying off the shelves and sold out in the evening. They put non sold out things on the ends in "priced to sell" sections. That's where we shop because, like just about everything here, food is twice as expensive as I think it ought to be in dollars. Although drugs are certainly way cheaper. I just bought the equivalent of Tylenol for about 2 cents per pill! A little box of 16 pills was just 16 pence (about 25 US cents).
Oh, but I really love how people here don't burn through plactic bags like they do in the states. Here, most people have reusable bags, and the teller will ask you if you need bags in sort of a guilt inducing manner. It's totally normal to see young people, old guys in suits, mothers with babies, and anyone else just walk to their local market with a backpack and load up their groceries, meat included, in the bag. There are certainly no huge plastic bag lazy susans like in Walmart where they practically put each item in it's own little plastic tomb which will sit in a landfill for all eternity.
On the whole I can't really complain too much (although I do!) on the selection of food. I just need to get a little more used to how people eat over here. I can't expect the great produce that I was used to in the US, and California in particular..... Oh, how I would love to see lots of yummy avocados reasonably priced and strawberries from Watsonville or Oxnard. A Mexican food aisle would make me a happy camper too. But, we do have come interesting food that you can't get in the US, so I'm trying to test it all out one by one. I bought Oxtail soup in a can yesterday and custard powder too. I decided to pass on the spotted dick though... Yikes, sounds like a VD waiting to happen! But I'll let you know how the soup and custard taste!
No other news on my front. I've been sick this week, so I didn't go to my baby yoga or mommies group, as being sick and going where there are little babies isn't a very nice thing to do. So, no social interactions for me this week - unless you count the grocery store check out person!

More Castles and Beaches

The family went to Stirling yesterday to check out the castle there. It's a mini-Edinburgh Castle, in that it is likewise built on a basalt outcrop in the middle of the city and an important location. I guess kings and queens lived in this one too. There are tons of other castles every 10 miles or so apart around here, but they mostly just housed lesser folk, you know Earls and Dukes, riffraff really. The old town of Sterling is really quaint and nicely preserved. It's only about 50 miles away, so we will definitely go back to check out the city a bit more. After walking around the castle, we thought about visiting the nearby Wallace Monument (a.k.a Braveheart) but we were getting tired. The last battle scene depicted in the movie took place on the hill just outside Sterling, hence the monument.

Today we decided to take a trip east to the beach. We went to John Muir Country Park outside of the city of Dunbar. John Muir was actually born in Dunbar, Scotland, so there are lots of parks and things named after him here. The beach was cold in my opinion. I had forgotten Marius's hat, shoes, and sweater so I was reluctant to even walk around. Simon game me his fleece to wrap around myself and the boy so then we walked to the beach. Along the way I saw a little girl walking barefoot in a dress coming back from the beach, then we saw two little boys going into the ocean in their undies! So, apparently my opinion of cold does not quite mean the same thing to the people here.... I tried to tell Simon that "my people" weren't supposed to live in cold places like this, but then he reminded me that half of "my people" came from northern Europe. I guess perhaps I just need some more practice with the cold so my blood will thicken up a bit. Anyhow, the beach was really nice to see, even if it was gray, cold and windy.
Oh, and did I mention that I DROVE!!! It was my first real outing behind the wheel (on the wrong side of the car) and we are still living to tell the tale. It really wasn't that bad. I think I am getting much more confident about it. The only parts that are hard are the roundabouts, which are everywhere. I drove through the Music Circle roundabout twice everyday in Nashville, so I am a bit more used to them than the average American, but here it's a little more crazy. Plus people actually know how to drive on them, so they double up and it's harder to get out of the inner lane. But I haven't yet pulled a Chevy Chase, Vacation move and kept circling endlessly! The other hard part about driving here, is just the fact that our little car doesn't have power steering. So, manoeuvring in tight curves or parking is hard if I'm not moving quickly. Thank God the clutch and gas are in the same position. Changing gears is surprisingly not as hard as I had thought it would be with my left hand. Although I always put the car in 1st gear when I'm trying to up shift into third... And the reverse was impossible to figure out until Simon told me the trick. We have to push up the gear shifter then move it into Reverse, which is located where first gear normally is. A little weird, but not too bad once you get the hang of it.
I really can't complain about the car, since it was free! A fellow professor here left for the year to go on sabbatical in Colorado, so he let us use the car while he's gone. It's been a godsend because cars here are twice as expensive as the US. That's right. If I wanted to buy a brand new Toyota Civic, it would cost me in pounds as much as a brand new Lexus would cost me in US dollars back home.... Crazy! And the funny thing is there are no beater cars on the roads here. You'd think that people would salvage super old clunkers and keep them running, but they don't. Our little 1998 Vauxhall Corsa is just about the oldest thing I've ever seen on the road here! Apparently it has something to do with strict air quality checks or something like that.

Marius the Adventurer

It's hard to believe that yesterday was Marius's 7 month birthday. Wow, it seems like just yesterday I was going into Vanderbilt for his delivery.... To celebrate his big day, we went to go look at a day care that's near our house. It seemed really nice, I liked the day care manager, and they have openings for a baby now. The only thing was that my eyes welled up right as she asked me when I was thinking of enrolling Marius. I told the manager that I'm sure he'd do fine in the day care, but that I wasn't sure when exactly I'd be ready to find a job and enrol him. I said in the next 6 months. We'll see. It's not so easy to find a part time professional job though. If you can work it out with an existing employer, that's great. But it seems like people aren't stoked to hire a new person part time, unless they're just trying to fill in for another part timer who they already employee. So, for now my job is to take care of the boy and expose him to as much fun stuff as I can. Not that I expect him to remember any of this stuff, but it'll make me feel better.
So, Marius took a little trip after his Auntie Faith led the way. Too cute!!!

Culture Vulturing

Oh my gosh! I can't believe it took me so long to go to the Museum of Scotland. I went with Marius yesterday before Simon got home, then I went again today with the whole family. The building itself is worth going to see just by itself (kind of like the new Getty Museum is) and once inside it links up with the Royal Museum next door to make one really big mega museum. But unlike the Getty, where the art inside is not as cool as the art outside - my personal opinion, since I only really like Van Gogh's Irises and the Roman stuff. I had forgotten that the British stole all the Egyptian artefacts way back in the day.... So there is a rather nice collection of Egyptian stuff. In fact it's better than the travelling shows I saw at the LACMA and the Frist, both of which I paid about $15 for. Oh, and did I mention that this museum is free!!!! All of the museums here are! I love countries with free museums.... I think the US is the only one that really charged for every single museum for its citizens. At least in Mexico they let the students in for free and charged the tourists. Anyhow, I digress. The museum!
When I took Marius yesterday, we first had a look at the koi in a fountain/pond in the centre of the Royal Museum. But on the way we walked through the lower level of the Museum of Scotland and got to see Dolly. No, not Dolly Pardon, although she was the reason for Dolly's name - the cloned lamb! They've got it stuffed (she died a few years ago) and in a glass case with lots on interactive screens for kids to learn about DNA and gene/bio stuff. Scientists at the University of Edinburgh were the ones who cloned her, so that's why she's there. Well, after that we walked to the pond. I didn't think he was going to be conscious of them, but he was just staring at them and staring at them for the longest time. I liked them too, so I'm glad I found something we can both spend some time at.
There was a Picasso exhibit that we had to pay for, so I thought, what the heck. I've got to show Marius the great painters don't I? So, for £6 (about $12) we went in. It had about 3 really nice paintings, and then lots of pottery, which I never knew he was into. Apparently he wasn't much of a potter and mostly did the design and painting/glazing and let skilled potters do the throwing. Not particularly impressive. But since I would have easily paid for the rest of the museum, I didn't mind paying to see this stuff.
Then we went up to the Egyptian stuff. Marius was getting a little tired and fussy, so I had to keep walking. But I figured I'd be back, so we kept on. Along the way we walked around the natural history part of the place with lots of stuffed birds, foxes, and other animals. Marius found this part a little more interesting, and stopped fussing long enough for him to fall asleep. Then I walked through a lovely glass collection. I saw some Steuben (my favourite glass, since we got an antique bowl as a wedding present - thanks Brenda!!!) and Tiffany pieces that were really nice.
I started getting tired so I headed back home with the sleepy buddy. Simon came home pretty soon thereafter, so it was a pretty good day. Simon was sick the whole trip and is still kind of haggard from the whole thing. He's not the best sick person so I've been trying to baby him a bit, you know making him homemade soup and not nagging him like I always do!! Hopefully he'll be back to his normal self soon.
Today we went back and had a look at some amazing Middle Eastern tapestries. We ate lunch in a lovely café next to the fish, got to see this huge clock with lots of carved figurines and gears go off, toured around the early Scottish history part of the museum and saw lots of Andy Goldsworthy installation pieces which were mostly backdrops for the exhibit, but they were the main reason for us going through it. Great stuff.
Well, that was my weekend.

First sippy and sleep

Yesterday turned into quite a memorable day! I had been getting a little upset that Marius wouldn't take a bottle or sippy cup, since he's getting to the age where he will need to take in more water than Momma can provide. So, I've been letting him play with his sippy cup every time he's at his high chair for dinner. However, for the last month, he has just bit the sippy part, sucked out small amounts of water and spit it all out on himself. He has gotten quite good at this and I was about to just ditch the sippy cup. Thank goodness I didn't because last night after dinner I actually heard some swallowing and he wasn't biting down on it anymore. I guess I just need to be a bit more patient.
The best moment came last night when I put him down to sleep. He's always fought being put down in his crib for naps or bedtime without first falling asleep on the boob. But last night he wasn't falling asleep, even though I knew he was tired. So, I thought, what the heck.... I put him in his crib (eyes open), turned on his jungle mobile, patted him on the stomach, said "night night," and left the room. I waited by the door thinking I would hear him wailing, but he just made a few small moans and that's all I heard from him until this morning!!!!! SO exciting. I can't wait to try it again tonight! But I won't get my hopes up.
Simon has been calling from the field and is enjoying the area. It's apparently quite beautiful in Inchnadamph . Check it out. He did have to go the doctor though because he came down with an eye infection - not bad. Oh, and apparently the midges really are as horrible as everyone says here.... Yikes, I don't want to ever meet up with a cloud of them!.

Lots of laundry this week

Well, nothing too interesting has happened this week. Like I said before, Simon left on Saturday, and our friends Chase and Sarynna left on Sunday. I think my most exciting/scary moment this week was Sunday evening after I gave Marius some yogurt…. I should preface this by saying that I already knew Marius’s digestive system was a bit stressed by or intolerant of cows milk protein, as when we put him on formula in his third week he had an unpleasant diaper (I won’t go into more detail unless you really want it) that indicated as much. I have subsequently been off of dairy products since then because I guess the protein is not fully metabolized by me and is passed through my milk. I have taken to eating cheese though in recent months and have noticed no problems with the boy. This is where my confidence to give Marius yogurt came from, and also from the health visitor (paediatric nurse for you Americans) who told me to try it. So, I buy baby yogurt and give a serving to Marius in Sunday. He loved the stuff and ate it quite eagerly. This was about 2pm. Then he took a nice long nap from around 3 until 5. At 6 he started getting fussy, and didn’t seem to want the boob. So, I thought he may have some gas from the yogurt. I gave him some gas medicine, which I had given him before with no problems, and within 5 minutes he barfed all over my bed. Well, I thought maybe the gas medicine just made everything come up along with the irritating yogurt. I thought that would be the last of it, and then 20 minutes later my cashmere sweater and I got barfed on. I got a little worried about another barf, so I did what any new mother would do…I called MY mom. I knew that Mike and I both were allergic to milk as babies, so I figured my mom would have jewels of wisdom about the subject. But I guess we didn’t have such showy barfing displays back then. At this point I was a little worried about dehydration for Marius, since he didn’t want the boob, and he does not take the bottle or sippy cup just yet (not for lack of trying). So when I get a third barf an hour later, I start to freak out that this will go on all evening and night. I called the 24 hour national health service hotline and get told that a health visitor will call be back because they’re all busy with other patients. When she calls back, I can barely understand her (thick Scottish accent and colloquialisms and jargon that I don’t know) but get the gist that I should wait another hour or so and see if any more vomits occur before I call back. Luckily that was the end of it and Marius has been fine since then! But it’ll be quite a while before I try yogurt again! We’ll just stick to the butternut squash and bananas. I guess I’ll have to introduce broccoli to get in the calcium that he lacks from the dairy.