Monthly Update

Well, it appears I'm now down to just about one entry a month, so here's my April report.
Easter was fun. You'll see in the video below that we were visited by the Easter Bunny. You won't see in the video below that Simon and I ended up eating 50% of Marius's candy and cookies. I suspect we may have one more year to do this before he starts hiding his basket and keeping excellent records of which ones and when he has eaten them. I remember counting my Milky Ways and Snickers at Halloween time to make sure the "gremlins" (aka Mom and Dad) didn't steal any.

That day we went to the beach to play in the sand. It was a lovely day, by Scottish standards, meaning that it was about 65 degrees and only moderately windy. We were bundled up rather appropriately for southern Californians, but there were tons of natives barefoot and jumping into the water with bathing suits. Marius absolutely loves throwing sand around and making splashes in the water. I think he's gearing up for a career in mechanical engineering, but we'll just have to see about that one I suppose. In the mean time, Simon has started teaching Marius all about navier-stokes equations, which we seems to be absorbing at a phenomenal rate!

And, just because it is too hilarious not to post, here's my son running around the flat with a plastic Lego box on his head. Oh, he makes me so proud!!!!

Updates

We have a fireplace!!!!! Finally, that hole in the wall is filled with a lovely fireplace. The mantle is a fine limestone and the hearth is a lovely "granite," although it's really an aphanitic gabbro, but everyone in the world calls all igneous intrusive rocks granite. It's like calling all tumors cancer, when there are plenty of non-cancerous tumors. But that's just the anal retentive geologist in me I suppose. The fire insert is all cast iron. It's a traditional style, with the rounded design. We can eventually put a real wood (or as is more common here coal) fire in it, but I'm not sure we'll do that until Marius is old enough not to get into it.

Today we went to Dobbies Garden Centre with a friend. It was sensory overload for me, since this place was HUGE!!!! It was like putting a Home Depot and a Super-Wal-Mart together in one place. It made me long for our huge garden in Tallahassee... Hmmm, one day I might actually have a real detached house and garden. One day! But for now, at least I've got some pea plants sprouting in a window sill tray. This month I'll start the pumpkins and tomatoes, although I don't think the tomatoes will really take off here. I should probably stick to root vegetables, but the Californian in me really wants a tomato plant!

Marius's Birthday

Once again I have grossly neglected this blog... But to make up for it. Here's super cute video of Marius's second birthday. I can't believe he's two years old! Time is flying by. This month hasn't been too exciting. We had insulation finally installed in the loft, and now we're getting the fireplace put in next week. I've been having a minor/major issue with my downstairs neighbor, the sign company.... But that's a whole other story.
Today we're going to drive out to East Lothian to see a steam engine that was just build in Simon's dad's home town. It's the last steam engine built in the UK for something like 80 years and it's on it's way to Edinburgh now. We we're going to hunt out a good spot to view it and have a picnic. Tomorrow I think we might take a trip to the pool with some friends.

Back to reality

Yeah, I know. I haven't updated this thing in ages. It's just that I was sort of reluctant to write about being back until I had thought about it some more. I'm still not entirely sure how I feel about it. After going "home" for Christmas, I felt all sorts of emotions that I wasn't prepared to feel... Like, happiness to go to the grocery store and know where everything was, and what all the different brands of things taste like or are used for. Relief at being able to understand everyone and know what people were saying to me, and also relief at being able to make a phone call or talk to a stranger and not instantly be "the American." I knew how all of the street signs worked and intuitively could follow them (it's amazing how different the street signage and directions are here), I knew what the TV programs were (but that's just because we don't own a TV now, otherwise I'm sure I'd have a better idea of pop culture here), and which stations had which types of programs. Basically, I think I'm feeling like I want to go back and that Scotland is not my home, at least not yet. But in talking to some fellow North American expats here, it sounds like I won't feel at home here until about year 5 or so, and after that I'll feel like a foreigner when I do go back to the US. God, that's a crazy thought. Anyhow, like I said, it's with rather mixed emotions that I find myself back here.
The jet lag has been ridiculously hard to shake. I've still not managed to get up any earlier than 8 am, and usually it's closer to 9 that Marius and I get up and eat breakfast. But I have my first day back at work on Monday, so I'd better get back into the swing of things ASAP. It'll be SO nice to go back to work. I hate being a full time nanny/housewife. I don't know how others manage to do it. I think I'd go nuts or drink myself to death. On my days "off work" and with Marius I end up so stressed out at the end of the day that I'm counting the minutes until Simon gets home and already drinking a gin and tonic, sherry, port, or glass of wine by 5:30. And once he crosses the threshold, all I can do is say "hi honey, here's your son, now please entertain him for the next hour while I wind down." But with working 3 days a week, I manage to relish my two days off with Marius by myself a lot more and actually plan events and outings if it's not too horrible outside, which it is about 40% of the time! So it will be great to be back into a routine again. I love being able to complete a conversation without having to run off in one direction or another mid-sentence!
Anyhow, I didn't mean to be depressing, I'm just in a bit of a transition state again after my long holiday. I'm sure I'll snap out of it in a month's time.

Living la vida calor

Oh, I had almost forgotten how much I love California.... Ya know, it's kind of funny. When I was on my first date with Simon in Santa Barbara, I told him that I only ever wanted to live in this little swath of land between San Luis Obispo and Thousand Oaks along the beach. While that dream has really been chucked out the window, when I come back to this part of the world, I still think to myself that this is a wonderful place to live. I could come back here for sure. Even with the outrageous housing costs, it's still better than most places I've lived. And at this point in my life I think I've seen quite a few of them. Barcelona is the exception though, as I still have dreams of retiring there eventually! Living in warm Spain with all the pata negro, manchego and sangria I can consume is my sort of ultra dream paradise! But I digress... So Cal is so nice in the winter, especially on winter days when I can go barefoot outside and sweat in the sun! I'd be freezing back in Edinburgh and not wanting to go outside to go the grocery shopping. I think we may have to rethink our long term living plans, as I really do like to feel warm. The winters are fine, but it's the cold summers that have really gotten to me. It's only when I experience a nice California day in December here that rivals the best August day in Edinburgh, that I realize what I'm missing... :(
But, on the upside, there are no castles here, no public transportation, no old buildings, no tiny fuel efficient cars (just parking lot after parking lot of huge monster pick up trucks and SUVs driving around spotless and with owners going to white collar work or to the grocery store in them), no global news (although the UK isn't the best EU country when it comes to thinking about the rest of the world), no green grass that's not artificially watered, and no good tea or shortbread. I do miss the UK, or Scotland I should say. But I'm not sure I can make it my home for the long haul. But we'll see. I think that's just the Californian in California talking. I'm sure I'll perk back up once I get home and acclimate to the ice and rain.
Anyhow, on other fronts... Marius has chicken pox! The poor kiddo must have picked it up at nursery. There were a few cases in his room there, and the incubation period is about 10-21 days, so I'm sure he got it towards the end of November and it just manifested this week. The crappy thing is that I had already made an appointment with my mom's doctor to get Marius the chicken pox vaccine tomorrow! Oh well, that saves my $80 now! Marius doesn't seem to be really put out with the pox, even though he has one on his tongue, one on his lower eyelash, one on the roof of his mouth, one in his nostril, several on/in his ears and tons on his body. He's only gotten a few on his arms and legs so far, so hopefully they'll stop popping up now and just start going away at this point. He first got them on Sat night, so I think for the most part this is all he's going to get. They haven't yet started to crust up so we've been in quarantine this week. We were supposed to go to LA on Sun with a friend to see the children's science museum, but that got thrown out of the window when I suspected that his spots were chicken pox and not flea bites from my brother's dog! I had hoped to visit the Santa at the mall, complete with a woody and surfboards in fake snow - but that too is now chucked out the window. I will now have to wait for his 3rd Christmas to get a Santa photo....
Have a merry Christmas and happy Hanukkah next week! Sorry photos and videos will have to wait until I can use Simon's computer...

Builder nightmares!

Can I just say that I hate tradesmen???? I have had the WORST time trying to get this leak in the roof sorted. First of all, it's been like pulling teeth to even get roofers out here to look at it. Then the few who do come out don't even bother with mailing me a quote (people here only mail written quotes, they never tell you a price right there on the spot). I waited a month for one, and then after giving up and calling two more roofers I managed to get one more written quote, to have the magic three required so the rest of my building could decide. The unfortunate thing was that all three quotes were for wildly different things... So it's a bit hard to compare apples to oranges. Anyhow, long story short - there is no consensus in the building about what to do. So, I called the Council (that's just what we call city government here) to have them put a statutory notice on the building. That means they'll call in a city building specialist to look at the roof and determine what needs to be done. Then they'll hire a roofer and bill the other tenants separately. The extra cost of having the city manage the work is 15% and their contractors always seem to cost twice as much an anyone else, which is incentive for flat owners to work together and avoid this type of situation. But for me, I'm just tired of staying home on my days off to wait for roofers and trying to get a hold of my neighbors who are never home. It's been 6 months and we still have a stain on my bedroom ceiling! Hopefully the council can get this resolved soon, although I hear they have lots of work and may take a year.... Oh well, perhaps we'll just pay for a half-ass job to try for a quick fix instead of the full blown council work.
That's the roof story, then we also tried to get quotes for reopening up a skylight in our hallway. I called in a builder from what I thought was a reputable firm (http://www.brucecollie.co.uk/), only to have the dishonest idiot either drop something heavy or step on our plaster ceiling. I heard a big crack while he was up there and immediately got scared. But he took forever before coming down and then didn't say anything and I sort of forgot about it. Then after he left I noticed that there was a round caved in portion of our plaster ceiling next to the skylight opening(which is currently covered with plywood). Our ceiling is wall papered, so nothing actually fell down, which makes the repair all that much more expensive, as we'll now need to stripe wallpaper off of our entire 30 foot ceiling, patch the hole/crack and then repaper and paint the thing! I have no clue what the cost will be, but I image it'll be at least £1,000. I called the company and spoke to the secretary. She called the boss and the boss told her to call me back and tell me to talk directly to the kid that came out to do the work! Can you believe that? He didn't' even try to talk to me directly. Well, needless to say this kid said that he didn't step off of the loft joists and crack the plaster - DUH! If he didn't tell me right after he did it, do you think he'd fess up a day later? But he's coming out on Tuesday morning to have a second look at his damage after I told him to. Needless-to-say, I am not letting him up in our loft again. And will have to find out (or ask one of my many techno-genius friends!) how to google slam this builder's website with my poor reviews of his business if he doesn't at least pay my home insurance deductible. Hell hath no furry like a woman scorned!!! Oh, it's all just such a pain in the butt! I wish I had a list of great tradesmen without having to learn the hard way!
Well, enough about my flat bitching... Here's a great video of Marius having a blast with his friend Francis. And some photos of our wonderful day today at Campbell Castle.

A very beachy weekend

This weekend has been great!!! I'm not sure I have ever seen such a dry weekend in the year and some months I've lived here. So, we decided to go to the beach yesterday and today. Yesterday we went on a bit of a drive out to Gullane, where we enjoyed a beautiful sunset. Unfortunately it was at 3:30 in the afternoon.... But we get more than our fair share of sunshine in the summer, so it really does even out. Marius was a little scared of the ocean at first though, which made us feel bad for not going out there more often. He just started shaking and staring out at the water. I thought he was just cold, but after putting on his mittens, we realized it wasn't the cold wind, but the water that was scaring him. Perhaps watching a video of killer whales coming up to shore and eating baby seals the night before walking along the beach wasn't the best of ideas! But after a half hour or so, he got more excited about it and forgot his fear.
As we were walking along the beach I told him that we'd go to another beach in California, where Nana and Paka live next month. And, mom you will be VERY happy to know that for the first time he said "nana" and "paka." But I think my may think you are the ocean, because he kept saying it after I mentioned the word beach! Oh well, he'll get to spend about 3 weeks with you in December, so it'll sink in who you are then!
We went to another beach today too. But this one was much closer to the house and not quite as scenic. The tide was really far out, exposing lots of sand with little ripple ridges and pools of water. Marius really enjoys splashing in the puddles, so next time we'll have to make sure he's wearing his rain suit and has his wellington boots. That being said, he didn't seem to mind it being cold and his trousers (I have to remember to keep saying trousers as opposed to pants, because pants mean underwear here!) being wet.

Here are some pics from the weekend.