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.

Happy Halloween

Another year, another pumpkin outfit. Perhaps next year we'll spice it up a bit, but this day always seems to sneek up on my like an invisible ghost. Ghosts get my every time too...
We sadly had no trick or treaters this year. :( I heard lots in the houses behind us, but I think most people don't think of our building as residential, plus it's on a busy street. Oh well, more chocolate for me!!
Marius dressed up for nursery today. He was totally the cutest one there! They had party events all day so the kids had a particularly fun time.
This weekend is supposed to be fairly sunny. Cold, but sunny. I'm going to take Marius to meet some friends at the soft play by our old flat, then perhaps we'll try to get out of town for a little hike or something. Hopefully we'll have some good photos out and about.

Well, enjoy the pics!

Another cold, rainy and windy weekend

Oh boy I'm sick and tired of horrible weekends! I didn't want to leave the house yesterday because it was to rainy and windy all day. And today I can't leave the house because I'm prepping for my colonoscopy tomorrow. For anyone who has been through the process, you'll understand. For those unfamiliar with the process, trust me, you'd rather not know the details.
I wish the weather would perk up so we could spend more time outside. I think we're just going to have to get used to being wet outside. It's either that or we never go outside... Oh well, it's not all bad. I was going through my videos today and I did manage to get the family out in our garden for some yard work and playing. I planted tons of bulbs and some poppy seeds, so come springtime it should be pretty out there.



Keep your fingers crossed that tomorrow goes well for me. There are some ways that the medical system here is better than the states. But for major stuff, I think I'd still go back home... that is if I had insurance. (which I wouldn't unless I had a good job) I'm a bit scared about the whole process here and not getting enough drugs to knock me out. Ah well, I will survive.

I'm cold!

Yup, that's about all. I am really cold, but refuse to turn on the heater when it's right before bedtime... Perhaps I ought to just get in bed.

Who can blog when there's driving to be done?

Yes, that's right... I am now officially legal to drive forever in the UK!!!!! Well, I'm not sure about the forever part of it, but I did manage to pass my driving test the first time. Now, all of you Americans will think that's no major feat, but let me tell you the driving test here is rediculously stringent and the fail rate is like 60% in most places. Simon failed his first test, so I was nervous. But after hundreds of pounds worth of driving lessons, it paid off and I passes straight away. I totally could have been failed, but the guy was really nice and turned a blind eye to a few things and scored them as minor faults instad of major faults which mean you fail.
We haven't really been able to take full advantage of my new driving situation because I was sick two weeks ago and this past weekend we had a nursery fiasco.... The fiasco was that it was closed on Friday for staff training. Ordinarily this wouldn't have been a problem, but neither Simon nor I knew about it, so he went to drop Marius off - right before he was due at the train station to take a trian up to St. Andrews where his friend would pick him up and drive another hour and a half up into the woods to conduct a weekend field trip. Ugh, Simon called me and I had no clue why the nursery had its light off and doors locked. After many frantic calls to my nursery and their corporate office, I was finally informed of this training... I guess they had fliers up on the walls, but they also have about 10,000 other pieces of paper and crap all over the walls, so how was I supposed to know which ones I should read? Anyhow, they credited me with a day, so I saved about $100. But the end result was that I had to drive Simon up to this woodsy lodge after work on Friday. So we took a 2.5 hour drive in the dark and rain. If the motorways here were as well lit as in the US, it wouldn't have been any trouble, but it's really hard to see at night on the roads here so by the time we go up to the lodge, I didn't want to do any more driving. But, of course there were no extra rooms, so I shared a twin room with Simon, our friend Mike who works at St. Andrew's University, and Marius. It was a closet of a room, so needless to say it was quite cramped. Then I drove back home Sat and had the rest of the weekend to myself as Simon was still up in the woods. Oh well, perhaps this weekend we'll get out and take a hike somewhere. I'm dying to start roaming in the countryside again. Although the days are getting really short now and it's totally cold, but better that than staying inside for the rest of my life I suppose.
That's about all. There is no resolution on the roof... I think I will have to pay 50% of the cost with my downstairs neighbor, and he thinks the whole building will have to share the cost... How to resolve that, I'm not sure, but I've been ingnoring the issue. I need to invite him up here with his wife so we can site down with a glass of wine and look at the deeds to see what's what. But, the house is a mess so I've put it off. The house is always a mess though... so I should just go down and have a chat anyhow. Oh well, I'm tired of thinking about it. I just wish I could get it done myself and not organize some sort of communal payment. What a pain in the backside!