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.