Hogmanay - Torchlight Procession

In Edinburgh, New Year (or Hogmanay) celebrations seem to last several days rather than the one night of festivities to which we're accustomed. On Monday evening, we took part in the Torchlight Procession.

Basically, it's a large march through town, with each of the several thousand participants carrying a 2 foot long, flaming torch. It reflects some of the Norse connections with Scotland and Hogmanay with, you guessed it, a large bonfire. The kindling for the fire comes from a Viking warship that is carried along the route by numerous Scots clad in Viking garb.

We've uploaded several photos (that you see by clicking on the photo above) that show our flame carrying brethren along the road to our ultimate destination, Calton Hill. This is an area of town that we had previously seen, but not visited. It's quite pretty, and obviously historic (it's Edinburgh afterall), though we weren't able to get the full effect in the evening. Plus we were more interested in trying to avoid the flames of careless torch holders.

All-in-all, it was a fun evening. The one casualty that we saw was a few tree branches, though they were quickly doused by the ever-present march stewards toting fire extinguishers.

Local Ales at our Local Pubs

Over the holidays, Alette and I decided to explore our neighbourhood pubs more closely. While we'd previously patronized Bert's Bar, it was primarily for their Internet access. While they have a decent selection of cask ales, they just didn't have the most welcoming atmosphere. From some reading online, it appears that a recent remodelling was the culprit.

A few days ago, we visited the Melville Bar. Nicer environment, but they only had two cask ales, once of which is Deuchar's. And while it's a fine ale, you can get it at every pub in Edinburgh. More interesting are the pubs that offer different local (meaning Scottish) beers. St. Vincent's pub does this (which we first visited in September), but it's not really that close to us.

After a short walk on Saturday, we finally checked out Teuchter's. They had four real ales available; I had a great little Ossian Ale. A great environment, with some nice comfy sofas. There's also a nice restaurant downstairs that's supposed to be good, and is on Alette's gluten-free list: A Room in the West End. We'll try it for lunch one day and report back.

Incidentally, if you're interested in another beer posting, I'd like to direct you to one of our other blogs, Green Living Edinburgh, where I recently posted a guest blog entry (it's really Alette's blog afterall) on beer and the environment.

Doctor Who At Christmas

Watching the Doctor Who special is a Christmas tradition in this part of the world, where Tardis is a word in common usage. As we might have already mentioned, Mike and I asked our landlord to remove the telly from our flat before we moved in, so we'd thought that we would have to forgo good television as well as the omni-present bad over here.

Happily, on that most boring of days, Christmas Day, Mike, Gen and I discovered that with a simple laptop and a basic high-speed internet package, we can stream BBC TV legally. So we indulged in the Doctor Who special. In fact Mike and I enjoyed it so much that we watched the previous three episodes Friday night, whilst Gen was off for a weekend of fun in Dublin. Mike and I had stopped watching Doctor Who after a particularly preachy episode called the Doctor's Daughter. But David convinced us to give the program another go and we're glad we did. The writing really is superb, as is the acting.

On Saturday when we picked up our weekly organic chicken from the farmer's market we were able to chat about the Christmas Special with Sascha from Hugh Grierson Organics. Like I said, Doctor Who is a cultural mainstay over here.

The rules about BBC's on-line television interface, the iplayer, are that television programs are available to watch for 7 days after they have been played on air. This time can be extended if the shows are repeated. So now we can watch British TV and we've had to fall back on our own self-control to prevent us from wasting too much time in front of the virtual boob-tube.

Two Edinburgh Nativities

Nativity scenes are often kitsch, sometimes folk arty, but rarely powerful pieces of art. On Princes Street, the main beat of commercial Edinburgh, two nativity scenes have been installed that are also provocative pieces of art. Pieces of art that convey some of the awe, that the birth of Christ story is meant to carry. (For more on awe and nativity scenes, please consult David Weale's The True Meaning of Crumbfest).




Edinburgh's main nativity scene (above) was carved by Tim Chalk in 2003. Yes, that is the baby Jesus' naked bum you can see.

Further West down Princes Street, is my second favourite nativity scene of all time, outside of St. John's Episcopal Church. This one is abstract and woven out of willow:

Carolling at the University

On Sunday evening, I attended the University Carol Service, held in the beautiful McEwan Hall (interior, exterior). Unfortunately, Alette was still nursing a cold so wasn't able to attend. Overall, I'd say it was a lot of fun, despite being slightly reserved and a little too "churchy."

The event is quite well attended, so much so that they often have to turn people away. I made sure to get there early, which meant 6:10pm for a 7:00pm start. And as is our usual experience in Scotland, it started right at 7:00pm. It was a good mixture of participatory singing and choir singing, with both the Edinburgh University Singers and Edinburgh University Renaissance Singers in attendance. There were seven participatory carols, and four sung only by the choirs. There were a few carols with which I was not familiar, and a couple that had slightly different melodies and lyrics. However, it was quite easy to follow a few people around me who seemed to know what they were doing/singing (and everyone received at hand-out of the lyrics, in case you thought it might be pure lyrical anarchy).

Like most Scottish holiday celebrations, it ended with some mulled wine at the University's Chaplaincy Centre.

Forced Bollywood Hiatus

Tonight is the first Wednesday in three months that I'm not Bollywood dancing. So sad. To cheer myself up I registered at Dance Base to take it again next semester. But that doesn't start for another four weeks. I was going to register for bellydance instead, but I went to Dance Base's end of term recital, Christmas Crackered, and the bellydancers just looked way to serious. If I'm going to pay to take a dance class, I want it to be frivolous. And Bollywood is a hotbed of frivolity.

The YouTube video linked to above is of my teacher, Venuri Perera, demonstrating the first quarter of the dance she taught us.

Dark Days

The days really are short here in the Winter. As I start to type this post at 7:55am, the sun has yet to rise. And according to this site, it'll be 8:32am before it does rise today. Setting at 3:39pm, we'll get just over 7 hours of daylight today.

However, it's not so bad as we're in the final stretch of the darkest 30 days of the year. Relative to today, once we reach January 3rd, things will start to be a little brighter. And perhaps I'll even be complaining about the sunlight keeping us awake around June.

Rudsambee

While Mike was off at one of his full-day Scottish songs workshops, Japhur and I headed down the the Farmer's Market. Not only did we get meat for the week, but we also got a Christmas card from Anghele, the Big Issue vendor we buy from regularly, and a leaflet about a choir concert in Canongate kirk by a group named Rudsambee.

Mike was game for a Christmas concert when he got home so the two us trekked over to Canongate and took our seats in the pew. It was a well put together concert, made up of disparate pieces that were brought together by the style of the choir. They sang everything from a 10th century hymn to a choral piece written last year by a Minnesotan named Abbie Betinis as a singing christmas card to her family. In case anyone wants some choral recommendations (and so that I can remember which pieces I liked), out of the 24 songs performed my favourites were:

• Jul, Jul, Stralande Jul -- Swedish
• Immanuel os i natt -- a very unusual, to anglo ears, Icelandic carol
• Lux Aurumque -- an Eric Whitacre piece
• In the Bleak Midwinter -- the Christina Rossetti poem put to song by Rudsambee's founder
• Amuworo ayi otu nwa -- a Nigerian carol
• O Morgenstern -- German
• Soorb -- By Armenian Komitas Vardapet
• Nata Lux -- from Morten Lauridson's Lux Aeterna

Frosty Morning

There's nothing quite like snuggling up to a radiator on a frosty morning in an uninsulated flat.

Mike and I went for our first outdoor skate of the season last night. Edinburgh's Winter Wonderland started on Friday. For the next month and a half they'll have an outdoor rink open in the Princes Street gardens, that's right downtown. We rented skates (unisex figure skates, Mike had to get used to picks), and skated for about an hour to the tunes of bad Europop. The ice was good though, real outdoor ice, not the soft arena stuff.

Saint Nicholas Fayre in York a Huge Disapointment

I've always wanted to go to Toronto's craft extravaganza, the One-of-a-Kind Show, so when I saw advertisements for the "traditional" St. Nicholas Fayre in York, with "some of the finest crafts in England" I bought the hype and bought the train tickets. Mike and I took the day off, got up early and spent 2 1/2 hours getting down there only to find a lovely old town completely over-run by chain stores, English bargain hunters, and stalls full of crap. There were maybe 3 stalls in the whole town that actually sold products that had been hand-crafted in the U.K. As Mike said, it was like the dollar store had over run the entire town. So don't believe the hype. The St. Nicholas Fayre is not worth the trip.

The Barley Hall, a lovely restored medieval building, had a few interesting medieval stalls inside. I had some recreation viking mead there, and learned about Norwegian nalbinding. Abbeyhorn, a company that's been going since the 18th century, had a stall selling various goods they'd manufactured out of Highland cow horns. There were also some genuine medieval Lord of the Rings Action Figures, not to mention a few reproduction fairies.

Since we quickly tired of the whole shopping thing, we decided to check out the viking exhibit, Jorvik, and the archeaology exhibit, The Dig. The city of York takes its name from the Viking settlement that was there during the dark ages. Because York is peaty, artifacts have been well preserved in its soil. The Jorvik visitor centre is set up at the site where some 40,000 human artifacts from the Viking age were discovered. I found the exhibit a little too amusement parkish (you get into a wee car thingee with surround sound and are shuttled through a recreation of the village), but at least it has some educational value and did get the mind working, more than can be said for the shopping.

The Dig was the highlight of the day for me. If anyone's been to Science North in Sudbury--one of my favourite places--imagine a similar approach to archaeology. For 5 pounds per adult, you get a one hour tour of the exhibit with an archaeologist. You get to dig for artifacts, sort bits of bone from bits of pottery and handle real fossilized viking poo. Now that was fun.

Highland Ho!

This past weekend Alette and I ventured to the Highlands care of Timberbush Tours. Originally we had planned a trip to London to visit Cordelia and family, but due to not booking far enough in advance, our train tickets on National Express jumped from £80 to £250. Already having a dog sitter lined up, we went to Plan B.

Our Highland tour was of Eilean Donan, Loch Ness & The North West Highlands and was from Saturday morning till Sunday evening. We spent Friday evening in Glasgow where we had dinner at the Grassroots Cafe with friends Rona and Phil, and stayed at The Belgrave Hotel. Unfortunately, the location was a little noisy, and our room had a wonky toilet that decided to malfunction at 2:30am. But who needs sleep when you're on vacation, right?

The tour was a great opportunity for us to get a taste of other parts of Scotland. On Saturday we drove the scenic route from Glasgow to Fort William, passing through the conservation village of Luss on the shores of Loch Lomond, the incredibly desolate Rannoch Moor, and the tragic Glen Coe, site of a massacre on February 13th 1692. We drove past the site where Hagrid's cottage was built for filming the last two Harry Potter movies. Sadly it's since been demolished. We also saw the memorial to James Stewart who was infamously hung; an event that inspired Robert Louis Stevenson's Kidnapped.

Fort William felt a bit like Mont Laurier in Quebec, with that uneasy mix of upscale outdoor tourism and resource extraction industries. We had a lovely supper at a nearly empty restaurant on the pedestrian mall downtown: No 4. Timberbush booked our accommodations for us and they were first rate. The comfy beds, thick duvets and profound quiet of the Myrtle Bank Hotel made up for the disapointments of the night before.

On Sunday we went to Eilean Donan and Loch Ness. Eilean Donan Castle is quite nice and looks surprisingly old despite being rebuilt in the early 20th Century. It was one of several occasions of English-bashing on the tour, given that the English blew up the castle a few centuries earlier. For movie buffs, the castle was also used for filming part of The Highlander. For those that haven't heard of Loch Ness, it's apparently the home of a large sea Sasquatch. As is often the case with boat tours, the one we took on the Loch was dull and uneventful. No Nessy sitings.

On the way back to Edinburgh we drove through Cairngorms National Park and past a few distilleries. We made a stop in the too quaint town of Pitlochery. All the shops had closed by this point and there really was very little to do in town. The Indians on our tour took the opportunity to build a wee snow man and engage in a wee snow ball fight. There was snow in the Highlands, did we mention that?

Check out our Picasa photo album of our Highlands trip.

Old(er) Man Out on the Town

On Saturday, Alette, Japhur and I celebrated my birthday. One year away from that nebulous period of life, the 40s. I've always had an idea of what the 30s and the 50s would be like, but the 40s have always seemed mysterious. If I'm going to have a mid-life crisis, I only have a year to prepare! But I digress ...

It was a beautiful Fall day yesterday, so like most Saturdays we went to the Edinburgh Farmers' Market. It's always a lot of fun, and a good walk for Japhur. Unfortunately, I felt a little under-the-weather after the Market, but that was quickly remedied with an afternoon nap. We then spent the latter half of the afternoon walking to Stockbridge and back along the Water of Leith (faithful readers will remember our previous experiences with the Water of Leith).

On our previous outings, we've discoverd the abundance of charity shops in Edinburgh. Given that we'll be returning home after two years, they're a great source of second-hand merchandise. The Bethany Shops are particularly good. It was at the Bethany Shop in Stockbridge where we discovered a nice birthday surprise: a Casio keyboard for only £35! I had been thinking of getting a keyboard while in Scotland, but didn't want to spend a lot of money. So this little treasure from 1988 was a nice surprise. It's simple, easy-to-use, and really all that I need.

Later, we went for dinner at The New Bell Restaurant. The food was extremely good, and provided several gluten-free options (as do many restaurants in Edinburgh). We finished off the evening by going to the 50th Anniversary Celebration of the Edinburgh University Folk (Song) Society. It was some good fun as well, and demonstrated to us again how Scottish celebrations are very inclusive.

Rowans Steal the Autumn Show

We miss the sugar maples back home. However, the local rowan trees (that's mountain ashes to you Canadians) do put on a pretty good show. I'm lucky to have a rowan tree just outside the window where I have my desk set up. It is an all you can eat buffet for the local birds. I've seen magpies, black birds, coal tits and bullfinches stuff themselves on its branches. The black birds are particularly amusing to watch because they are almost too heavy to perch on the ends of the branches where the berries are so they sort of do this tightrope walker wing-flapping to keep their balance. Sometimes they fall off. But then they have wings so it's no big tragedy.

Glencairn Garden Cleanup

Today, Alette and I participated in the annual garden clean-up for our block. It mostly involved random pruning and much raking of leaves. In the picture, I'm hauling a large bag of leaves with our neighbour Martin helping out.

The whole event included some soup and sandwiches at the start, and ended with a few bottles of wine by the bonfire built in the composting area for the garden. You might be able to make out the wafting smoke from the fire in the left part of the photo.

It was rather interesting to have a large bonfire in the middle of the city. It was very well controlled, and was built in a rather secluded part of the garden, but Alette and I were a little concerned about the wind-blown embers igniting some other trees. But it seems that the wetter climate provides some natural protection so that the locals weren't too concerned. It's a general rule to make the local fire hall aware when you're building such a big fire, but I think that's mostly so they can deal with others that might phone after seeing the smoke.

Fawkes, Fireworks and the Neurotic Dog

I'm not sure whether I would have expected it to take less or more time, but on our 63rd day in the UK, the fireworks began. For those of you lucky enough to have a dog, you'll know that they don't like fireworks. So much so, that they won't even eat. At this moment, Japhur is shaking on his bed, not having touched his kibble.

The reason for the fireworks you ask? Why, it's Guy Fawkes Night. Given that it's also known as Fireworks Night, and the explicit use of night as opposed to day, I'm guessing it might be a rough night for us old kurmudgens as well. Guy Fawkes Night is a celebration of the foiling of an attempt to blow up Westminster in London back in 1605, though I'm a little suspicious that some might treat it as an attempted re-enactment.

Nordic Storytelling Marathon

Last night was the grand finale of this year's Scottish International Storytelling Festival: 10 days of stories, workshops and networking. I enjoyed every minute of it, but it's been a bit of a marathon. I'm taking this morning off to catch up on the rest of my life.

The theme of this year's festival was Northlands and Sagalands, and the featured tellers came from Scotland (of course), Noway, Sweden, Iceland, Finland and Alaska. All the tellers were well known professionals who could hold an audience's attention with a mere whisper. However, some performances have stuck in my head more than others; this says more about my own taste than the skills of those who told. I highly recommend seeing the following tellers if you get a chance:

Jerker Fahstrom and Mats Rehman from Sweden brought the old Norse Myths to life for a contemporary audience without sacrificing their authenticity. They had me laughing and shuddering in turns. Jerker's telling of the Ragnarok chilled me to the bones.

Nina Nasheim from Norway is a gifted teller whose characters seem to occupy her very body. A funny and profound teller for both adults and children. I've never heard a better seagull cry or seen someone imitate a camel quite so well. A very funny lady.

Tom Muir from Orkney has a gift for telling difficult stories--those stories that society needs to hear--in a truly compassionate and sometimes funny way. A less theatrical teller than some others, this is a man who can make a theatre feel like a snug warm kitchen.

Last night's performance was a combination of storytelling and traditional music, put on by the Traditional Music and Song Association of Scotland. Jerker and Tom told stories along with a couple of other tellers and then in the second half three young musicians played a perfect mixture of contemporary and traditional songs. Jeana and Siobhan (with their friend on guitar) even played Saints and Sinners by Ottawa musician Dave Francey. Jeana herself is an "Orkanadian" (an Orkney lass of Canadian descent). Incidentally, you can vote for Jeana and Siobhan as "up and coming artist of the year" in the MG ALBA Scots Music Awards at this link: www.handsupfortrad.co.uk.

All in all it's been a fabulous ten days, but I am looking forward to sitting at home this evening.

Nifty Shoogles

On Saturday, Alette and I went to see the Scottish group Shooglenifty in concert at The Queens Hall. Those familiar with the sound of the of these shooglin' Scots will know that it was a great concert, with about 2 hours of music. It also introduced us to some cultural nuances.

According to the web site and our tickets, the doors opened at 7pm with the concert starting at 8pm. Not sure whether it would actually start at 8pm, we thought we should show up at 7:30pm, just in case. When we arrived, there didn't seem to be many people outside, and when we peeked in the Hall it seemed quite sparse. So, we figured that instead of standing alone in an empty hall, we'd go for a drink and come back at around half-past eight. As we struggled to find a pub (once picking the right direction, it was only a block away) we thought it strange that the Scots wouldn't have a bar at a concert. In any case, we figured the show couldn't possibly start at 8pm, especially if the Hall was empty at 7:30pm.

After a drink at The Quarter Gill, we headed back to The Queens Hall at about 8:15pm. When we arrived, not only had the show actually begun at 8pm, but there was indeed a bar at the back of the Hall that was apparently hiding a few hundred people before the show. With a 1/2 hour break, the show finished at 10:30pm (after a couple of encores). The Hall is actually a former church, and is a great venue for a concert, with great sound and plenty of sitting and standing room. Oh yeah, and there was a coat-check, and it was free - what a novelty.

Fox Visit

We had a fox in our neighbour's backyard the other day so I thought I'd put some pictures up on Picasa. Click on the photo to see the rest of the album. (Apologies for the lack of focus, but I guess I'll never be a wildlife photographer.)

Finally. A Bank Account.

After 57 days in the UK I have finally been afforded the privilege of a bank account. Faithful readers will no doubt recall my earlier rant, and I have since found a sympathetic story in The Independent. Though despite the semi-positive trend noted in the article I still had to rely upon a little luck.

For clarification, the difficulty had to do with residency, not citizenship. So, even if I were a citizen of the UK, I would still have difficultly getting a bank account. Fortunately for me, I was able to find a bank that accepted the documentation I already had, namely our leasing agreement for our current flat as 'proof of address' (residency), as well as my job contract with the university. The university branch of the Halifax Bank of Scotland has a deal with the university to allow new staff to open bank accounts there. Till now, I'd been waiting for a utility bill to arrive at our house. The other day I discovered that our first electricity bill won't arrive till early December, so I was happy to discover another plan.

Now I'll be able to get paid, get a mobile phone plan, enroll with City Car Club, and possibly even get a library card, none of which were possible without a debit account. Though in visiting the mobile phone store today, it seems my options are limited until I establish a little more credit history here. But I'll leave that discussion to another day.

Some related articles for curious readers:

- How do you live without a bank account?

- Are high-street banks getting lax on security as they rush to sign up migrants?

Dalmeny and the Winds of Edinburgh

For our weekly walk, Alette and I ventured to the west end of Edinburgh, to South Queensferry, and walked about 11km back to Cramond. The trail is mostly paved though muddy in parts, and took us along the north shore with some nice views of the water. The walk begins at the Forth bridges, and then proceeds to Dalmeny House and the surrounding estate before reaching Cramond.

Unfortunately, Saturday was quite a cold and rainy day. We knew to expect such weather, even before we left Ottawa, so were relatively well prepared in general. What we weren't prepared for was the strength of the wind. Well, our friends Janet and David had told us to expect Fall to last about one day in Edinburgh with the leaves taking about that long to fall. It turns out to be a relatively accurate statement. Except that the wind has stayed around, perhaps to make sure the leaves stay down.

In trying to get a sense for how windy it actually was, and whether it was expected, I took a look at some of the previous weather forecasts. According to one forecast (cached by Google) from last Wednesday, we were to expect winds of about 43 mph on Saturday. For the young 'uns that grew up with metric, that's about 70 km/h. And yes, it felt that windy, especially near the water. Enough to stop us in our tracks several times. Needless to say, we were quite wet and tired by end. So much so, that we didn't even stop for a pint at the Cramond Brig at the end of our walk!

The View from Above

I was looking around for some interesting overhead pictures of our new neighbourhood and came up with the following. St. Mary's Cathedral is in the centre, and we're just off to the left. We have a large garden area in the centre of our block where we sometimes take Japhur for walks. Though mostly we walk around the ground of the cathedral.

You'll notice that the homes are all connected, and that some streets (like ours) have an oval shape rather than, well, a 'block.'

Photos of Our New Flat on Picasa

We're still waiting for a broadband connection at home, but Bert's Bar's WiFi zone has pulled through for us again and I've managed to upload a few photos of our new flat onto Picasa. So far just the outside of the place, some photos taken from the shared garden in the centre of the crescent.

We look forward to having faster, quieter broadband access sometime next week (Burt's Bar is loud at the moment).

In the Broadband Deadzone

Observant readers will have noted the recent, significant decrease in posts. Suffice to say that it has not been due to a lack of interesting Scottish adventures or ales. An unfortunate side-effect of our move to a new flat on October 1st has been our inability to get either a land-line or broadband hooked up. Today we discovered that our letting agent was only responsible for cancelling the previous tenant's phone service, but not starting ours (contrary to our reading of our letting agreement). In any case, we're keeping our fingers crossed for access at our flat within a week.

So tonight I ventured to Bert's bar for a pint and some blogging. Tonight I'm sampling Peter's Well from the Houston Brewing Company. (We actually came last night as well, where I had a pint of Landlord Ale from Timothy Taylor - and I'd have to say that I fancied the Landlord Ale.)

Hope to have some pics of the new flat, and have permanent Internet access, soon.

Edinburgh Doors Open

While Alette was away at a storytelling workshop this weekend I had the opportunity to explore a little more of Edinburgh, thanks to Edinburgh Doors Open.

St. Cecilia's Hall was of interest to me due to its large collection of keyboards and stringed instruments. It certainly was impressive, and I learned a little too. For example, I learned (possibly re-learned) that a harpsichord differs from a piano in that it plucks a string rather than striking it, even though both instruments look quite similar from the outside.

I also visited the Scottish Parliament, which is located directly across from Holyrood Park (of which we've previously blogged). It actually wasn't participating in Doors Open ('Parliament House' in the Doors Open Guide actually refers to another area of town - apparently the home of the pre-1707 Scottish Parliament) but I thought it was worth a visit. I was able to learn a lot about the inner workings of Parliament and its relation to the UK parliament. It's actually somewhat similar to the distribution of powers to provinces in Canada - interested readers can find out more here. Though perhaps one of the more interesting items I observed on the tour was a video from the opening of the parliament as I think that Sir Sean Connery might have garnered more camera time than the Queen.

Catch 22 - Creating an Identity in the UK

Living in Canada my whole life, perhaps I'd begun to take certain things for granted. Nothing too earth-shattering; just things like letting a flat ('renting an apartment') or having a bank account. Moving to a new country has introduced a few surprises in this regard. Some of which, I suspect, are a continued fall-out of 9/11. And as a professional from Canada, I suspect that I might still get off quite easy.

The things that I thought might be difficult - getting a Visa to allow me to work in the UK, for example - were thankfully easy given Alette's UK citizenship. The predicted turnaround time of 12 weeks for my Spousal Visa turned into just 5 days.

Getting a mobile ('cell phone') should be easy, and this is true if you're ok with getting a 'pay as you go' plan. But since we'll be here for a while and didn't want to get a landline, we wanted a longer-term arrangement. However, to get anything more, you have to be able to pay with your debit card from a UK bank.

Unfortunately, getting a bank account isn't as easy as you might think. An ability to work and live in the UK isn't sufficient. You'd think that a job offer letter might do it? Close, but no (and not really close either). You have to provide one item to prove your address (see p. 10 examples from RBS). The one that I'm closest to being able to provide is a utility bill. Unfortunately, at our current short-term flat we don't pay the utilities. So, in about another month I should be able to get an account. It seems I'd be out-of-luck if we were only going to let flats short-term.

Well, it turns out that letting a flat can likewise be difficult. Letting something short-term is relatively easy as you just pay up front. Long-term letting (6 months or more - which is more affordable) seems to require that you have a debit account in order to pay your monthly rent. Hmmmm, do you see the catch-22? I can't get a bank account without utility bills, and I can let a flat (in order to get utility bills) without a bank account. Sigh ...

Luckily, Alette already had a UK bank account that was still active. So we were able to get a longer-term flat. I'm just not sure what other people do in a similar situation ...

The Glasgow Borders Iliad

We went to Glasgow today on a quest for the Iliad, which was reputed to reside at the Borders Bookshop. While there we took in a City Sightseeing double-decker bus tour (just over an hour), ate some Indian food and went to the Glasgow Police Museum.

I'm glad we took the sightseeing bus because the sights of Glasgow are spread out, very few of them seem to be downtown. If we hadn't taken the bus we might have left Glasgow with the impression that there wasn't much to see but a bunch of pedestrian streets featuring your standard global fare of shops. For example, we would have missed the University of Glasgow in the west end of the city, which looks exactly how a university ought to look if it possibly can.

Between taking the tour, eating lunch and going to Borders (on one of those pedestrian streets I've already dismissed), we only had time to actually go in one of the tourist sights, the Glasgow Police Museum. Fortunately it turned out to be a good choice. The museum is comprised of 3 rooms, two following the history of the local police force since its initial (aborted) beginnings in the late eighteenth century through to today. The police force was permanently established in 1800, making it the first police force in the U.K. (This needs to be taken with a grain of salt as the Scots are liberal with their use of adjectives like first, best, biggest etc.) The third room showcased uniforms and badges from around the world, including of course the RCMP. Badges were also displayed from the Ottawa Police and Sudbury Police amongst other Canadian forces. The most impressive though were a uniform from the Palestinian Police and one from the new Iraq force. The museum is the passion of two men, one of whom told us many stories about the acquisition of artifacts and about crimes mentioned in the displays. He'd been at the scene of many of the 20th century crimes when he was in the force himself.

BTW, all museums in Glasgow are free.

But back to the quest. Unfortunately the demo Iliad at the Glasgow Borders was busted. The staff kept reassuring us that it was broken only because of the abuse it received at the hands of staff and customers, but in the end we returned to Edinburgh without one. We saw the busted one and it is a lightweight eReader with a nice big screen, but the price is still a little pricey. It remains the only ebook reader that lets you annotate what you read, however, so I may end up buying one in the end, but not today. Incidentally the Glasgow Borders has to be one of the most beautiful Borders in the world. It's housed in an old bank with sand stone columns and a large domed ceiling.

Happy Fall Equinox Everyone

In honour of the turning of the year towards the darker half, I've posted a photo essay of our nightly walks on Picasa (just click on the photo above). Given how far north we are here (further north than Happy Valley-Goose Bay Labrador), I'm sure there will be many more night photos posted over the coming months.

Local Walk - Pentland Hills

Today was our first visit to the Pentland Hills, just south of Edinburgh. The Hills are yet another wonderful space for walking that is only about a 20 minute bus ride from downtown Edinburgh. Today's walk was about 12km, hilly and slightly wet and muddy. Our guide book referred to it as 'Bonnie Bonaly and the Reservoirs' and it started, and ended, in the suburb of Bonaly, in addition to passing by several reservoirs. It was a great escape from the city with some wonderful views as shown in the photos below. And if you look closely at the pic with the dyke (wall) in the foreground, you'll notice the small white and black dots on the side of the hill - they are indeed some sheep and cows.

Local Beer Showdown - Trade Winds vs. Red Smiddy

In order to compensate for my immature palate and inadequate beer reviews, my purchase of two beer this evening inspired me to blog as to my preference for one beer over another. After dinner at home this evening we went for drinks at the Malt Shovel, where I had a pint of Cairngorm Trade Winds followed by a Kelburn's Red Smiddy, both real ales from independent Scottish breweries. I found the Trade Winds to be a better, fuller tasting beer, though appreciated the stronger flavours of the Smiddy. I'd have to give the nod to the Trade Winds.

Poodle Unimpressed with Quality of Service at Scottish Veterinary Surgery

Despite constant whining and other helpful hints, Japhur was unable to convince the vet visited this morning that his main role as healthcare provider was to give out multiple treats. The vet's assistant was a little more clued in but still stingy in this regard, giving Japhur only one small dry doggie biscuit. Japhur misses Dr. Mamdani and Kim.

We took Japhur to the local veterinary surgeon to sort out what vaccinations and preventitive medications he ought to be on. Turns out Heartguard is unnecessary here since they don't have heartworms, but that ticks are a problem and that it is standard practice to de-worm dogs every three months for intestinal parasites.

The vet gave Japhur a physical exam and pronounced him to be in good health. He was particularly impressed by Japhur's slim physique, which is ironic considering Japhur's views on what vets are for.

Local Beer - Bonkers Conkers

Monday was apparently a holiday here, despite most stores appearing open. The University was closed, making it a holiday for us, and during our trip to the letting agent to fill out some papers we stopped again at the St. Vincent. This time I sampled the real ale Bonkers Conkers from Greene King Brewery (that also brews other ales such as Old Speckled Hen, of particular interest to some of our readers). Understanding that I now believe real ales are far superior to other beers, this beer was good (so, better than most other beer), but nothing terribly special as far as real ales go.

Local Beer - Joseph Holt Pioneer

I was able to sample another fine real ale today, this time at the St Vincent Pub located in New Town in the northern part of Edinburgh. It was a pint of Pioneer brewed at the Joseph Holt Brewery in Manchester (the observant reader will note that I'm liberally using the term 'local' to include beer brewed in the UK). I'd say it was slightly bitter for my preference but still a tasty ale.

As a side note, the St Vincent had four real ales on tap and apparently bring in new ales weekly. Suffice to say that you can expect more upcoming posts from St Vincent.

I J Mellis Cheesemongers

Had we not already had the recommendation from David and Janet, I like to think we would have been drawn in by the wonderful odour of ripe and pungent cheeses of I J Mellis Cheesemongers.



Today was our first of many visits where we purchased some Smoked Lancashire and Brie de Meaux Donge cheeses. The Lancashire is smoked over chicory when still young so that the cheese ages with this additional flavour. The Brie was described as "old fashioned, rustic and pungent." It certainly made my tongue tingle, but other than that the taste wasn't too overwhelming.

We also purchased some James Grieve apples and assorted chutneys including Tracklements' Farmhouse Pickle (that went extremely well with our pasties, thank you very much).

Local Beer - McEwan's

Today I had the opportunity to sample another local beer: McEwan's. It's another in the line of beer produced at the Caledonian Brewery, though was previously brewed independently. While it was a good beer, I started to realize today that as important as the beer itself is the way in which the beer is delivered. On the way home from our walk to Holyrood Park, we decided to patronize one of our local pubs (before we move at the end of the month). Unfortunately, we're currently living in the touristy part of town. Perhaps it was that the beer was too cold, or maybe that they also sold Miller at this pub. Or perhaps I'm becoming a real ale zealot. In any case, to be fair I'll have to give McEwan's another chance someday soon.

Arthur's Seat

Because we had to run some errands today, we decided to take our weekly walk closer to home. Luckily, Edinburgh has a spectacular area for hiking right in the middle of the city: Holyrood Park. So, after our errands, which included a final look at two flats (aka apartments) we're trying to choose between, we walked to the park. The views leading up to the park are impressive, and from various points the hills in the park dominate the skyline. The highest point, to which we walked today, is Arthur's seat. Here's a photo looking up to Arthur's seat,



and two looking down at the area below, including one of Alette surveying the lands below.



The path we took involved a steep climb up, though a moderate climb down. There were quite a few people at the top, and dogs (though we didn't take Japhur today). And as we've come to notice often in the UK, seniors don't shy away from challenging walks or hikes.

Landscaping Edinburgh Style

Yes, this is the view from our current flat. If you look closely, you can see a couple of little yellow dots on the cliff. Those are the legs of one of the men doing "cliff scaling" under the castle. The other bloke is to the left of the first. They are up-rooting and removing all of the plants that have grown up on the rocks over the past few years. See how nice and black and lifeless the area to their right is. That's the part they've finished already. To their left you can see how messy the plants are. They definitely need weeding out.

As you can see, landscapers are pretty hard core over here.

Ban on Driving While Using a Mobile

As the letting agent was driving us to look at a flat (which was gorgeous, BTW), his cell phone rang (they call it a "mobile" here). He pulled over, parked and pulled his mobile out of his pocket. After he'd finished taking the call we asked him about local laws regarding driving and phones. He told us that he "could lose his license" if he was caught driving while talking on his phone. The moral of this little tale: it is possible to ban the use of cell phones by drivers and still have a thriving economy, a vibrant culture, and a community full of social capital.

Local Walk - Water of Leith Walkway

One of the reasons for wanting to come to Britain was the great walking trips we could take. In this vein, on Sunday Alette and I set out along the Water of Leith Walkway. It's a 12mi walk along a small river that runs right through Edinburgh. The walk was mostly tree covered and right next to the river. It also brought us through some potential neighbourhoods for renting over the next few years.

The pics are of the swan and signets (at least 6 of them I believe) and me enjoying my Deuchars.

Local Beer - Black Isle Organic Blonde

Black Isle Brewery is an "organic brewery in the heart of the Scottish Highlands" that makes a pretty darn good set of beer. I had the Organic Blonde when we ate out Tuesday evening at The Iglu. Especially good with Scottish lamb shank.

Local Beer - Deuchars

My first sampling of local beer was Deuchars (pronounced 'Jukars'), a real ale (was there really any other choice?) brewed right here in Edinburgh. I'll admit to not being an expert beer-taster, so forgive my lack of description (something I'll try to work on over two years). Suffice it to say that it was a very good beer and I will be drinking it again.

Our arrival

Our arrival was thankfully, and perhaps surprisingly, uneventful. Alette, Japhur and I have settled in quite nicely to our flat that is small (but bigger than anticipated) and actually does have a view of the castle.

We started in Ottawa on Wednesday, and dropped off Japhur at Air Canada Cargo 4 hours ahead of time.















David and Denice then brought us back to the airport where we checked in,















and met up with both Pat and Tanya (our friends who are living in Sydney, Australia for a year), and Mike and Jane (friends on their way for a two month European vacation). Mike and Jane were also on our flight.

After a flight filled with watching Ironman and Caddyshack, we arrived in London on Thursday. We spent the day in London and then undertook the long drive to Edinburgh the following day. Since obtaining the keys to our flat we've basically been settling in, buying a few necessities (including food) and looking for a long-term let starting October.

More updates to come.

They take food labelling and food localism seriously here...

We ate this pie, purchased at the farmer's market, for supper this evening. Yum.