Updated bathroom shots

But I need to take the latest photos after our painting and sealing of the slate. The floor looks a lot better and the painting has made a big difference too. I just haven't uploaded those photos yet.

New Bathroom and warmth

Well, here's my monthly blog. I know I know I'm rubbish! I completely blame facebook though. I've gotten so used to the instant gratification of that site, that my blog has severely suffered... Anyhow, enough of my Catholic self-flagellation.
The weather here has been downright glorious that past 4 days. Thursday through to today we've seen NO RAIN, and it's been HOT (not, that is not a typo, it's been 25 degrees C, AKA ~ 77 degrees F) and cloudless! I've actually busted out my very dusty sandals and linen trousers (I say trousers instead of pants, as pants are considered underwear here, so I've completely made the transition in words to avoid total ridicule). Friday, we went to the beach, Saturday we went to the safari park, and today we played outside in a friend's backyard. I actually managed to get my shoulders sunburned!!!! Oh happy days! I thought I would need to get off of this island for that to happen, but apparently not. I'm glad I put 50 SPF (they say factor 50 here) on the boy, but part of me was thinking "he's 25% Mexican, this paltry amount of sun can't hurt him." Little did I know. I'm not going to peel or anything, but I will have lovely brown shoulders in two days.... Oh I wish I wore a more low cut top. Oh well, perhaps when Simon gets back from his weekend in Oxford (Yes, he gave a talk there to those smarty pants people) with his mom and if the weather holds for another week, then I can get on my bathing suit and actually get a decent set of tan lines! I haven't had those in about 3 years.
Well, the bathroom is about 90% finished. All that remains is painting the walls, putting up the shower curtain rod, towel rack, and sealing the stone tiles. We've been lazy and have not done that in a week, but now with Simon finished marking papers and his Oxford talk out of the way, perhaps we can finally finish this darn thing. Here ares some picks so you can see the progression. It only took about 2 weeks in total, but I took daily pictures, so here they all are.

bathroom

Marius was playing with his friend Lauren (that's what he's saying at the beginning of the video) this weekend, and she was having a ball bathing him is sand. In the end I just put him in the kiddy pool to wash him off. I figured I'd just put him to bed when we got home this evening, but he had a massive poo right before heading out, so I had to change him on the grass, take off all of his clothes, and leave with Marius just in a nappy and sandals (I bought a pair today since it's been so warm. Hopefully we'll have nice enough weather to wear them again in the next month or so). And with poop all up his backside, we needed to bath once again at the flat before bed time. Thankfully the time out in the sun tuckered him out, so getting him to bed at a decent hour was manageable.

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...