Christmas Snow

We welcomed Christmas snow to Edinburgh this year (not to be confused with Christmas Snow), making for a more festive, somewhat brighter, and more slippery holiday period. Faithful readers of our blog will no doubt recall that Edinburgh does indeed receive some of the white stuff, but it last arrived in February, and was nowhere to be seen last Christmas.

This year involved the traditional Christmas and Hogmanay traditions, including the Christmas Dr Who Special, and the Edinburgh Torchlight Procession. With the additional company of Alette's family, we also enjoyed a Christmas goose, spent Christmas day at the Edinburgh Zoo, and spent an afternoon in Glasgow. We also plan to attend Edinburgh's "Light Night" event, taking place over a couple of nights, though the first night seemed a little treacherous.

Click on the photo above to see our pictures.

Early Solstice Present

Unexpectedly (at least the Met Office didn't expect it), we got snow today! An early Winter Solstice Present. Edinburgh is a beautiful city on an off day. Snow just makes it look magical!

Taiko Connections

The other evening, Alette and I went to Queen's Hall to watch the Mugenkyo Taiko Drummers. It was a great performance, but also presented a number of interesting connections for me. As a performance, it was quite similar to Stomp, which we went to see in New York City a few years ago. Not that surprising I suppose, since both are percussion performances. Taiko drumming relies solely on, well, taiko drums (which, if you read the link, is redundant since 'taiko' actually means a Japanese drum). And if I remember correctly, Stomp relies on pretty much anything that makes noise (including a lot of garbage cans).

But there were other connections for me as well. Complementing the drumming was also some very good dance performance by Lale Sayoko. And Lale strongly reminded me of Inara, the "companion" from the tv series Firefly and movie Serenity. It might have been her variety of dresses, or perhaps a link with the oriental back-story in Firefly.

One of the taiko drummers, Teresa Brookes, strongly reminded me of Uma Thurman in her role as Beatrix Kiddo in Kill Bill. If you've seen the movie, don't worry, there was no sword play at the performance, only drumming. I think it was Teresa's stature and strength, and the way she carried herself on the stage. The blonde hair helped too.
On a final note, Queen's Hall serves up some good local beer from Williams Brothers Brewing. They serve from kegs, rather than casks, but I found it to be quite tasty. There's no real connection here. I just liked the beer.

Edinburgh, Where Christianity and Science are on Speaking Terms

Before I moved to Edinburgh, I heard the previous bishop of Edinburgh, Richard Holloway, interviewed on CBC's Tapestry about reconciling science and Christianity, so I already had reason to suspect that organized religion might be organized a little differently over here. In October, Mike and I got a first hand glimpse at the warm relationship that appears to exist between at least some sectors of Christianity here and at least some sectors of science through the Gifford Lectures.

In 1885, Lord Gifford bequeathed money to Scotland's four original universities (Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Glasgow and St. Andrews) so that they could invite important, ground-breaking scientists and philosophers to come and talk about their work to the schools of divinity and to the public in general. I am paraphrasing and putting my own slant here. What Gifford actually left the money for was "natural theology", that is the idea that the work of God can as easily be seen in the findings of scientists as it can in "revealed religion". I'm not a theologian by any stretch of the imagination, so if you want to know more about natural theology you'll have to look elsewhere. In practice, the last will and testament of Lord Gifford appears to be interpreted in such a way as to lead to some of the most prominent scientists and philosophers in the world coming to talk in Edinburgh to interested listeners of all walks of life, who do not have to pay a penny to attend.

Some of the prominent figures who have been Gifford Lecturers include: Hannah Arendt, John Dewey (ditto), Paul Ricoeur, Noam Chomsky, Richard Dawkins, Werner Carl Heisenberg, Michael Polanyi and the list goes on. This year Michael Gazzaniga, a neuroscientist from California who made his name studying people with split brains was invited to give six talks in Edinburgh. I managed to get to all of them, Mike just missed one.

Gazzaniga gave a fascinating overview of what brain research tells us about who we are. He only had six hours to cram in a lot of interesting research, so it was just a taster, but a tantalizing one. A few tidbits I got out of it:

• The left-brain, right-brain thingee is a lot more complicated than pop culture allows for
• We are wired from birth to be ethical beings
• Brains fire differently in different cultures
• We can be trained at the neuron-firing level to stop recognizing some people as humans. That is to say, we can be trained out of Levinas' response-ability
• There is a part of the brain whose sole purpose is to tell stories about our experiences and our decisions, this part is associated with out sense of self and this part comes into play after decisions have been made

If I've said enough to intrigue you, you can watch all 6 lectures on the University of Edinburgh's YouTube channel.

Gazzaniga did not talk directly about religion, though he did touch on implications of this research on our ideas of free will and on the legal system. However, our neighbour (literally) the current bishop of Edinburgh, Brian Smith, attended all of the lectures (we even sat with him for one of them) and he led a discussion on the lectures after the last one was finished. Unfortunately, Mike and I had other engagements that evening.

Samhuinn in Edinburgh

Mike and I celebrated Samhuinn (pronounced Savane over here), the Celtic New Year's Eve, or Hallowe'en to modern folk, by going on a guided walk of Celtic Holyrood Park, followed by lunch at Scotland's oldest continually operating pub, The Sheep's Heid Inn, and then ghost stories at the Scottish Storytelling Centre in the evening. A good time was had by all.

Holyrood Park is a scheduled ancient monument and is managed by Historic Scotland. One of their rangers led a dozen of us on a walking tour of the park as a Celtic site. On the walk, we learned that there were several hill forts on the Holyrood hills during the Celtic era, the ditch and mounded wall of the enclosure are still clearly visible when you know where to look, as are cultivation terrarces. Apparently the local Celts spoke a variation on Welsh, rather than Irish and cultivated the land as well as raised cattle.

From the hilltops we walked down into the village of Duddingston, now fully absorbed into Edinburgh like Dean Village is. However, they still have their local pub, unlike Dean Village, which has good food and beer: The Sheep Heid Inn.

In the evening we went to the second last night of this year's Scottish International Storytelling Festival, which featured tellers from Canada, the US, Jamaica, New Zealand and Australia. Anne E. Stewart told a true to her mom's life ghost story from Australia. We heard an Iroquois story told by a Cherokee woman, Gayle Ross, about a vampire skeleton--surprisingly similar to European vampire lore. Amina Blackwood Meeks, the woman from Jamaica, told us the story of why donkeys sit down when there is a spirit nearby--it involved donkeys in bowties. We also got the tale of how fire came to the people from a Maori teller, Rangimoana Taylor. A Scottish teller, Grace Banks, told a witch tale, but I find I don't have the stomach to hear stories of burning witches, even when they are fairytales. Earlier in the week we had some classic Quebec stories about the devil from Isabelle Chartrand-Delorme and Melanie Cloutier which would have fit well with the Samhuinn mood as well.

We've been getting reports from Ottawa about numbers of children coming to doors for candy. We weren't home to find out if anyone came along our block here in Edinburgh, but we suspect not.

Happy Celtic New Year everyone.

Mel Bells is Closing

Those of you who came to visit over the summer will be as sad as we are over the news that our friendly, local organic grocery store is closing down next week. It looked exactly like a grocery store ought to look with lovely wooden shelves and a table in the middle covered in baskets of fresh produce. Unlike too many organic stores, this one was not vegetarian and we could nip in on our way home to buy chicken or lamb, or lovely merguese sausages.

Mel Bell's departure will leave a hole in our neighbourhood that will be difficult to fill.

Mel herself is off on another adventure: catering. So we wish her well.

Redecorating Glencairn

On October 1st, our original lease expired. In the lead-up to that date, Mike and I seriously considered moving out to North Berwick, a perfect little seaside village with a 30 minute commute to downtown Edinburgh. We looked at a number of holiday flats that owners let out cheaply over the winter months, but none of them had a landline let alone an internet connection, so we had to rule them out. We did find one place that was a regular rental, right across from the train station too, so it would have been convenient for commuting. It was in a relatively new building and had a landline already installed. We got all excited about the view of Bass Rock out the living room window and the huge kitchen with all the mod cons. Unfortunately, the landlord didn't return our calls for over a week and when she did she went back on the "fully-furnished" condition, so we had to turn it down. Fortunately, during that week long wait our current landlord offered us a new lease with a reduced rent, so we took it.

One of the things that I (AJW) got excited about with the North Berwick place, was that it wasn't decorated. You see our Glencairn flat came fully furnished including artworks. And while it was nice to have things on walls, the art is not what we would have chosen ourselves. So to compensate for the lack of a seaview, I made a few purchases of local art. Nothing fancy, nothing expensive, but something that we chose.

During the Festival Season in August there was a big craft fair in one of the old central graveyards. Unfortunately, I only managed to make it to the fair on the last day, but on that day I spied some funky, reasonably priced print-on-canvas art by local crafter and graphic designer, BoxArt. So I ordered a set of 5 8X8 canvases to go over our bed (pictured above). BTW, according to lease agreement we are not allowed to put any holes in the wall, so all the art purchased had to fit our landlord's previous hanging arrangements. The second purchase I made was a poster for an exhibition of bird prints by Alice Melvin at an Etsyesque shop called the Red Door Gallery on Victoria Street in the Old Town.

So now we have two rooms that look a little more like places where Alette and Mike dwell.

Storybikes Across Fife

This past summer, long-time storyteller and Edinburgh resident Andy Hunter started up an environmentally-friendly, narratively-informed, tourism business: Storybikes. His goal, to get people to slow down, get out in the fresh-air and re-learn how to see the world through stories.

At the moment, Andy runs tours in Fife and along Hadrian's Wall. Mike and I were busy all summer with visitors from Canada, so it wasn't until this past weekend that we were able to fit in some storied-cycling, joining Andy on a weekend trip around Fife. (He offers both week-long and weekend tours). The only other two people on this particular journey were a travel-journalist from the Guardian, Kevin Rushby, and his 6 and a half-year old daughter Maddy. Maddy rode behind her dad on a tag-a-long.

Public transit is fabulous over here and very accommodating of cyclists. On the local train routes, every second car seems to have a bicycle rack, so it was simple enough for Mike and I to get ourselves and our rented and borrowed bikes out to Kirkcaldy Saturday morning, where we met up with the rest of the group.

From the Kirkcaldy train station, Andy took us down to the banks of the Firth of Forth, to Ravenscraig Castle, where we had our first story, this one about the fair Rosabelle St. Clair. We followed the coastline for a wee while to Dysart, where monks used to retreat to their equivalent of the "desert". We had tea at a lovely little tearoom/info centre/community centre called the Harbour Master's House. From there we turned inland heading through Thornton and Glenrothes and then over to Vane Farm, one of the Royal Society for the Protection of Bird's nature reserves. We had lunch in the Vane Farm cafe, which overlooks Loch Leven and its marshes and meadows. There were several thousand pink-footed geese in temporary residence in the nature reserve. Every once in a while something would set them off and they would all take off squawking and wheel in a circle before settling down again.

After lunch we took a leisurely cycle around the Loch, stopping for stories about St. Serf and to watch the pirouettes of the local gliders. Not only is Loch Leven a destination for birds, it is also a destination for tourists, having two major historical sites: St. Serf's Inch, or Island, where he founded a priory; and Loch Leven Castle, one of the many places that Mary Queen of Scots was held prisoner, and one of the various places that she escaped from. As you can probably gather by now, this is a very storied landscape.

We spent the night in Kinross, which is a town that has definitely seen better days. You know you've hit on bad times when your beautiful old town hall is boarded up and on the market. We stayed in the Salutation Hotel right in downtown Kinross. The food was good and was served in a separate dining room, which was good since it was Karaoke night in the bar. We shared a few stories before taking our sore muscles to bed. The room was also fine, but the rowdy drunk and singing locals kept us up a bit later than we'd have liked. And the guy climbing the chain link fence onto the neighbouring roof, also kept us from falling asleep.

After a huge Scottish breakfast we set out away from Loch Leven up the Cleish Hills and then down to Dunfermline. At the top of the hills we had a small break to hear a traditional tale about a farmer outsmarting a highwayman and in Dunfermline there were tales of Saint Margaret. From Dunfermline, Mike and I caught the train back to Edinburgh. And that was our introduction to storybiking. I have to say that biking 40 miles in two days after not setting one's butt on a bike seat for at least 13 months, is not necessarily to be recommended : )

mtnoise do Scotland

For a whole other perspective on our Edinburgh life, we invite you to check out the travel blog of our friends Wayne and Trish, who made a stopover here in between London and Berlin on their great journey east to the Far East. We envy them the adventure they are on and we are grateful that Scotland made it onto their final itinerary and we had the chance to show them around.

See: Haggis Today, Haggis Tomorrow, Haggis Everyday
and Scottish Delights
not to mention their fab photos on picasa

Alpacas for my Birthday

Alpaca Trekking

My favourite birthday present is an unusual experience, and over the last few years Mike has done a great job of picking interesting things for us to do. The first year we went to Upper Canada Village for a sleepover. The second year he took me to see Wicked. This year we went Alpaca Trekking in East Lothian.

Last Saturday, Mike and I drove out to Cairndinnis Farm, just past Haddington, where we were greeted by farmers John and Carole, and Carole's brother Bill. We had a chat inside while the clouds squeezed one last shower out and then went to meet the females and their crias. Alpacas living in Scotland have to be fed supplementary vitamin D, which they love. So all the moms and their babies came rushing over when we brought it for them.

Next visit was to the males' paddock. They have to be kept separate from the females or else they fight too much. We fed them and then corralled them and watched John and Carole put halters on them. Alpacas are not as docile as you might think. There was no way they were going to let Mike and I harness them up.

We then went for a walk with three of the males: Archie, Pod and Pod's son Deuchar. This was the "trekking" part of the adventure. We went around some of the farm fields, saw the stone that once marked the burial spot of King Loth (for whom this area is named). and then got onto some public walking paths that took us down to Castle Hailes.

It was a slow walk. Alpacas are incredibly timid--as Carole was fond of saying, they are prey animals and they know it. And an alpaca is heavy enough and stubborn enough that they can't be simply dragged forward if they've got their mind set on standing still. We often had to pause so the alpacas could stare down haystacks, plastic bags, waving branches etc. Retracing our steps didn't speed them up either.

I have now officially given up my dream of having an alpaca in our backyard. They are clearly herd animals as well as being prey. Carole assures me that an alpaca on its own would pine away and die. And we don't have enough room in our yard for more than one. But at least I got to spend half a day with a herd of the lovely animals. And come November I'm hoping to get a couple thousand yards of yarn from one of them so I can crochet myself and nice warm jumper.

Edinburgh: City of Literature but not Bookshops

The Edinburgh International Book Festival has set up shop in a shared garden a few blocks from us. Unfortunately, I didn't realise that tickets for anything in this festival season have to be booked well in advance so a lot of the authors I wanted to see were sold out by the time I got my act together. Fortunately, it's been mostly the adult events that have been sold out, so I've still been able to indulge my love of children's and Young Adult books. I've gone to two sessions with Chicken House authors Cornelia Funke and Gill Arbuthnott and both of them have been accompanied by their publisher, Barry Cunningham famous for not rejecting J.K. Rowling's novel when it came across his desk. Trivia fact, Cunningham got his start in the book industry by dressing up as a giant puffin.

The other great thing about the book fest is that they've put together an amazing bookstore on site, actually two, one for adults and the other for non-adults. Having access to a great independent bookshop even if it is only for 2 weeks has been a reminder of just how barren the bookshop scene is in Edinburgh, despite it being a UNESCO City of Literature. While there are loads of independent second-hand booksellers, not to mention the charity bookshops, I've only managed to find two independent booksellers who sell brand new books. Word Power Books is the Octopus Books equivalent here, only it takes itself way too seriously. The other independent is a speculative fiction bookstore here, Transreal Fiction, which is a plus for someone who is a speculative fiction fan and writer. However, I read more than SF.

Unfortunately, the bookshops that I've really bonded with have been ones I've met while away from home. I found an amazing bookstore on the Old Square of Prague that had a wall of English-language books. They stocked just about every book I'd ever read and loved as well as just about every book I've wanted to read. However, my very favourite bookshop so far has been Kew Bookshop, a wee place near the London Underground stop for Kew Gardens.

Closer to home but still not close enough, on our recent trip to the Borders area of Scotland, I kept stumbling across bookstores that I'd love to have access to on a weekly basis: The Forest Bookstore in Selkirk, Talisman Books in Melrose, The Main Street Trading Company in St Boswells, and Latimer Books in Kelso. I may be forced to take the two hour bus journey down to the Borders every month or so to soak in those new book vibes.

Borders Walking Vacation - The Beer

(This is the third of three blog entries on our recent walking trip to the Scottish Borders.)

In addition to great walking and scenery, our trip to the Scottish Borders was also a great opportunity to experience some good local ale. This meant good access to cask ales - as faithful readers of this blog will no doubt know.

Day 1 - The Fox and Hounds Inn (Denholm) - 4-5 cask ale taps, though only two active: Ossian Ale and Wylam Gold Tankard. Observant readers will recall my previous sampling of Ossian, hence I opted for a tasty pint of the Tankard.

Day 2 - The Crosskeys Inn (Selkirk) - 2 cask ale taps, serving Theakston's Old Peculier and Black Sheep Best Bitter. I'd previously tried (though not blogged about) Old Peculier, so opted for a pint of the Bitter. While it was a reasonable ale, I'm starting to learn that bitter beers are not my favourite.

Day 3 - The George and Abbottsford Hotel (Melrose) - 3 cask ale taps, though only two active: Houston Warlock Stout and Inveralmond's Thrappledouser. We'd previously visited the George and Abbottsford on our shorter Borders holiday, at which time we bought some local bottled beer. Knowing they were beer connaisseurs, we stopped here for lunch. Not only was 'on tap' ale excellent, but so too was the food. So, we went back for supper as well. Obviously, I tried both ales, having a strong personal preference for the stout.

Day 4 - Buccleuch Arms Hotel (St. Boswells) - 1 cask ale tap, serving Stewart's Edinburgh Gold. Anticipating that both the food and beer couldn't top our previous day's experience, I was pleasantly surprised by the Edinburgh Gold.

Day 5 - The Cobbles Inn (Kelso) - 2 cask ale taps, serving Stewart's Edinburgh No 3 and Newcastle Pioneer Bitter (not to be confused with Newcastle Brown Ale). The No 3 was similar to the Gold, and reasonably tasty. I tried only a sample of the bitter to remind me of my apparent dislike of bitters.

Here endeth our 3-part blog series on our Scottish Borders vacation.

Borders Walking Vacation - The Towns

(This is the second of three blog entries on our recent walking trip to the Scottish Borders.)

Our recent walking trip in the Scottish Borders gave us a good opportunity to see several Borders towns up close. We started in Jedburgh, which is only 10 miles from the English border. Since Jedburgh served as the start and end of our journey, we didn't end up spending much time there. From our photos, you can see the ruins of the Jedburgh Abbey.

Hawick was a town that felt like it had a little rougher edge to it. I don't know what it was exactly, perhaps the abundance of ne'er-do-well's around town, or that a number of places looked to be permanently closed. Or maybe that the Scottish pronounciation of the town name sounds like one is 'horking a loogie.' It did seem to have a lot of woolen mills though. On the way to Hawick, we walked through Denholm, where patrons at the local watering hole seemed surprised to see tourists. They were friendly enough though and it seemed like a nice town.

Selkirk looked a lot like some of the other towns, except that there seemed to be less to do and see. It also seems to have a big wool reputation. It's a strange thing though: while we've seen lots of sheep, and wool clothing production here, there doesn't seem to be a lot of local wool for sale. Melrose was similar to Selkirk, except that there was more to see. The downside was that there were also more tourists. We had visited Melrose previously as part of an earlier Borders vacation.

To give ourselves a short day on our way from Melrose we slept over in the village of St Boswells, not much to say about it. Other than a great looking independent bookstore with a cafe (unfortunately we didn't see it until after hours), there's not really much to St. Boswell's.

The highlight of our trip was Kelso. A busy and bustling town with lots of tourists but with lots of locals as well. The people in Kelso were also by far the friendliest, and that's saying a lot 'cause Borders folk are friendly. For me (AJW), Kelso had just about everything a town needs to have in the way of services: an organic vegetarian cafe that sells organic cotton clothing, a health food store that sells gluten-free food that I haven't even seen in Edinburgh, a library with a quiet outdoor courtyard where you can go and read in the sunshine, and a great independent bookstore, for Mike there were also lots of pubs with cask ales. Unfortunately, Kelso is a two-hour bus ride from Edinburgh, the closest major place of employment, so not really the best location in that respect.

Highlights of our trip, from the town side:

• Most picturesque spot: Dryburgh Abbey
• Best meal: a tie between The George and Abbotsford Hotel in Melrose, and the Queen's Head Hotel Restaurant in Kelso
• Best historical site: Abbotsford House, which still houses the intact library of Sir Walter Scott, a collection that Giles would be proud to consult
• Best B and B: hands down the Edenbank House outside of Kelso, this was luxury accomodation in an old Victorian mansion.
• Best beer (and cider): also The George and Abbotsford Hotel

Borders Walking Vacation - The Walk

(This is the first of three blog entries on our recent walking trip to the Scottish Borders.)

Last week, Alette and I took a 6-day vacation to the Scottish Borders that consisted of a walk of just over 100 km along the Borders Abbeys Way. Our accommodation and baggage transfer were organized by Make Tracks (who subcontracted the baggage transfer to Walking Support). We've been on similar vacations in England before - the Ridgeway in 2003 and part of the South West Coast Path in 2004, both organized by Contours Walking - but this was our first time in Scotland. We really like these vacations since they offer wonderful scenery, great exercise, are very relaxing, and require very little decision making during the trip since the itinerary is set for you in advance.

Our trip took us through several Borders towns and was broken down as follows:

• Jedburgh to Hawick (23 km)
• Hawick to Selkirk (19 km)
• Selkirk to Melrose (16 km)
• Melrose to St Boswells (10 km)
• St Boswells to Kelso (19 km)
• Kelso to Jedburgh (22 km)
  

Since Jedburgh is only a 2-hour (local) bus ride from Edinburgh, we didn't need any accommodation on either the first or last legs. However, this meant that we had to carry all of our luggage on our own on these days - a good test for when we decide to forgo the baggage transfer option all together on a future walking trip. It was also nice to have shorter days in the middle of our route, allowing our muscles to adjust and recover, and allowing us to do a bit more sight-seeing.

To our surprise, despite the relatively short distances travelled, the landscape was quite varied on each day. We saw rolling hills, meandering rivers, farmer's fields, thick forests, and numerous animals including cows, bulls (only 2), horses, geese, rabbits, a stoat carrying the head of a rabbit, chickens, pigs, sheep, and several kinds of birds. On two occasions we encountered sheep that had strayed from their enclosure, including once when they felt trapped and went charging past us to get back to their point of escape. As for the weather, despite the forecasts we fared surprisingly well. A spot of rain on a few days, but when the heavy rains did come we were usually in our hotel or B&B. Having been in Scotland for almost a year, we've now learned that you don't get 'sunny days' or 'rainy days' but rather days that somehow cover multiple weather possibilities.

As per usual, click on the picture above to see our collection of photos. Up next is part two of three - a blog entry about the towns we visited along our route.

What's Worth Watching on British Telly

With Mike away across the pond and all our house guests gone, I decided to indulge in a bit of British tv watching. See, over here the lack of a telly or even a computer to play British-coded DVDs on does not stop one from watching tv. They have taken television on demand to a whole new level.

Via the internet we can get everything that has played on any of the BBCs for the last week. We can get anything that has shown on ITV in the last month and Channel 4, the most generous of them all, allows people with a British IP to stream both current content and classics. The only exceptions tend to be American films and tv shows which are usally "unavailable" (though Hill Street Blues is available from Channel 4 for some strange reason). BTW, I'm certain that no one in Canada will be able to go onto any of the on demand sites, so don't bother commenting that the links don't work.

Most of what passes for television here in Britain is crap, just like in North America. Finding something good to watch is a bit like trying to find a diamond in a murky puddle of pond scum. However, with a little research we have managed to find some series to recommend to our pals across the pond. Basically, my research strategy was to start with the new Doctor Who and work my way out. We enjoyed the Doctor Who Christmas Special for 2008 featuring David Tennant and David Morrissey. Having discovered that the two Davids had also played opposite each other in Blackpool, we rented it and were not disapointed. Blackpool is sort of a film noir musical, featuring a brilliant performance by Morrissey of an arcade owner with big dreams and little ethics finding his life spiraling out of control.

The Doctor Who revival has been led by Russell T. Davies, who has written most of the really memorable episodes. A search last week for other series that he has created and written brought up Queer as Folk (NOT to be confused with the American series with the same title, blech!). This is an older series from 1999 and 2000 (but still available for free on Channel 4 on Demand). The premise is simple enough, it follows the lives of three gay men in Manchester as they go drinking and clubbing and well you know the rest, however Russell T. Davies knows how to write for character and the actors deliver.

The third show worth mentioning is unrelated to Doctor Who (as far as I know): Ashes to Ashes. It is a spin-off of the tv series Life on Mars (again, not the American version), which was entertaining but not really worth owning. So far, Ashes to Ashes appears to be worth owning, though we're only halfway through the first season. In this series a female cop is sent into a coma by being shot. Trapped in her brain, she finds herself in the early 80s in London on a team led by the infamous sexist pig Gene Hunt (played by Philip Glenister). More fast-paced and funnier than its predecessor.

So, to re-cap, Alette's list of British television series worthy of being watched more than once:

Blackpool
Queer as Folk
Ashes to Ashes
(and Doctor Who)

Our Scottish Seaside Vacation

From North Berwick with the Coupland Moores

We spent last week at the seaside in North Berwick with Kristen, Dave and their two children James and Aidan. We'd fallen in love with North Berwick the first time we visited and since the Coupland-Moores had requested a beach vacation while they were in Scotland, we settled on North Berwick. It has everything one could want in a seaside vacation: miles of beach, several castles nearby, walking trails, pubs, cafes, play structures, an eco-education centre, a harbour, stormy weather, sunny weather, surf, tide pools, seabird nesting sites, ice cream and locally-caught fish. In other words, something for everyone, with the added bonus of being only 30 minutes by train from downtown Edinburgh.

The highlight for me (AJW) was the boat trip we took to Bass Rock to see the colony of 150,000 nesting gannets. I remember a family trip to Perce Rock when I was a child to see a gannet colony. The experience left quite an impression, but nothing compared to Bass Rock. Birds wheeling, birds diving, birds chattering away to the little bundles of fluff in their nests. I wish I'd brought my camera but I was afraid of getting it wet in the open boat we took out there: the Sula II. Incidentally, the colony of gannets on Bass Rock was number one on the BBC's Nature's Top 40 show.

We could see Bass Rock from the kitchen window of the cottage we rented. In the evening light, even from several miles away it actually glowed with life. I tried to capture this in photos, click on the photo above to get to my Picasa album.

On another day we walked about 8 km to Dirleton Castle, which was a lovely ruin in a beautiful wooded setting. James and Aidan (6 and 2) did very well on the trek, though James would have been just as happy to end the journey at the playground at Yellowcraigs. Incidentally, playgrounds in this part of the world are pretty fabulous. They are all relatively new, kept in good repair and feature innovative and even risky activities. My favourites elements are a climbing tower that has "banisters" instead of slides to go down and a rope cage that spins around.

The highlight of the trip for Aidan was probably the day we went to East Links Family Park, a large petting zoo with playgrounds and trampolines. Animals are pretty mush his favourite right now. After a couple of hours at the Family Park we took the bus into Dunbar where we went to John Muir's Birth Place Museum, which is a beautiful and inspiring display about his childhood in Dunbar and his environmental activism in the U.S. As someone who studies nature writing, John Muir is a bit of a hero of mine. We also stopped by the fishing harbour to check out the ruins of Dunbar Castle, which at one time actually straddled open water. The castle is now an important nesting site for the Kittiwake gulls. Aidan threw a temper tantrum on the way home when we did not stop again at the East Links Park to see the "Anmos". Like I said, I think that was the highlight for him.

James enjoyed the Scottish Seabird Centre, spending two days there playing in the puffin burrow. The rest of the time was wiled away sitting on the beach, poking around tide pools, watching surfers, cooking, eating and drinking. So a good time was had by all. Even Japhur seemed to like the beach, lots to sniff at and comfortable sand to lie on, not to mention other dogs to watch cavorting in the waves.

In fact the whole experience was lovely enough to give me a fantasy of living in North Berwick next year. I've always rather fancied living by the sea. There doesn't seem much in the way of long-term lets out there, however. So maybe I'll have to wait a bit longer for a seaside life.

Scottish Whisky Experience

Our friends Kristen, Dave, James and Aidan are visiting us for a few weeks. For Dave's birthday a few months ago, we sent him a gift certificate for The Scottish Whisky Experience in Edinburgh. On Saturday, he and I went for the whisky tour, which included some sampling. I must admit that I'd fallen a little behind in my exploration of Scottish culture, so this was a good opportunity for some catching up.

It was a reasonably fun tour in which we were driven around a set of tracks in a train car that was meant to resemble a whisky cask. I didn't learn much that I hadn't known already regarding the making of Scottish whisky, but the trip did help in my approach to acquiring a taste for whisky. In Scotland, we learned that there are generally four areas in which single malt whisky is made, each with a distinctive taste (this is most certainly an overgeneralization - this site refers to eight regions - but it gives me a place to start). From the sampling, I discovered a preference for whisky from the Lowlands. And afterwards, I purchased a small bottle of Glenkinchie whisky. In continuing to sample this evening, I'm still reasonably impressed by this choice. However, I think I'll have to continue practice to improve my technique. Stay tuned for further updates.

Puffin Cruise

On Sunday, Alette and I went on a Puffin Cruise. It was from 9am till noon, leaving from South Queensferry, and was put on by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB). Faithful blog readers will know doubt recall our previous adventures in South Queensferry, but despite packing for cold, damp weather, it was a beautiful, sunny day; perfect for a boat ride on the Firth of Forth.

Click on the picture above to see our photos. Our digital camera is reasonably good for taking scenic shots, but not necessarily for capturing the wildlife along the water. Suffice to say we saw herring gulls, lesser black-backed gulls, great black-backed gulls, fulmars, gannets, Arctic terns, guillemots, razorbills, cormorants, shags, eiders, oystercatchers, common scoter ducks, and of course, puffins (which are smaller, and cuter, than you might imagine). We also saw grey seals and common seals. (Don't worry, we didn't mention we were Canadian when conversations shifted to seals.)

The islands that we cruised past were interesting for historic as well as ecological reasons. As you can see in the photos, there are ruins perched on a number of the islands. While most of the structures date from the second world war, the Abbey on Inchcolm Island dates from the medieval period. The islands we visited were Inchgarvie (formerly tied to the Forth Rail Bridge), Inchcolm (with a history of religious inhabitation dating back to the 9th century), Inchkeith (which has been used for military purposes since at least the 14th century), and Inchmickery (which was made into a boat decoy during WWII).

Definition of "Linlithgow": Loch in a Damp Place

Daytrip to Linlithgow

Last weekend we took a daytrip out to Linlithgow, which is about halfway between Edinburgh and Glasgow and happens to have a palace. Most towns in Scotland seem to have palaces, castles or at least massive country homes, so the presence of a ruin did not set it apart. However, Linlithgow Palace is, in my estimate, the most impressive building we've seen thus far. It is very large, has very think walls and now has rooms open to the sky. It also happens to sit on a picturesque loch and is within walking distance of a pub that has won CAMRA pub of the year for the region pretty much every year for the last two decades: The Four Marys.

After lunch we took a walk down the Union Canal, which starts near our house. On this particular segment the canal actually takes a bridge, the Avon Aqueduct, over a valley. Unfortunately the camera could not capture the surrealness of the experience of walking across the aqueduct (which is the second longest in Britain), but it was definitely worth the trek.

Czeching out the Continent

Last week, Alette and I spent some time in the Czech Republic. I gave talks at a security conference in Prague and at Masaryk University in Brno. The remainder of the time was for vacation, which we spent with our friend Václav and his family. Japhur stayed at home this time and was spoiled by his new sitter Joelle.

We arrived in Prague (via Frankfurt) on Tuesday evening. While I was at the conference on Wednesday and Thursday, Alette spent some time touring Prague. The highlights were a walking tour of historical, communist Prague, and a tour of the Jewish Quarter (see the following virtual tour).

On Thursday evening we drove from Prague to Brno, or more specifically, Bilovice. We had been to Brno before and saw much of the city, so this time we had some exciting trips to local castles and caves. On Friday, we went to Veveri Castle and had lunch in Veverska Bityska where I had the opportunity to sample a favourite Czech beer of mine: Starobrno. On Saturday morning, we went to the Punkva Caves, and had lunch in Krtiny where Václav tricked me into ordering a pork knee (and where they also had a carnival, which should explain the 'bumper car' pictures in our photos). In the afternoon, we went to Vypustek Cave, where Alette and I were able to practice our Czech listening skills on the tour - suffice to say that we need a little more practice.

You can see our photos by clicking on the above picture.

Long Days

Faithful readers will no doubt recall my Dark Days post in early December, when we received just over 7 hours of daylight. They were indeed dark days. As we approach the summer solstice, just over 4 weeks away, the days are noticably longer. According to this site, we'll receive about 16 3/4 hours of daylight today. In practical terms, that means that the sun is rising at around 4:45am, and setting after 9:30pm. I'll admit this is quite nice in the evening, but it is making it difficult to sleep in. Even for Japhur, who seems to think he'll get fed at 7am now instead of 8am; though he'll eventually adjust. In a month, the sun will be setting after 10pm, though the sky will remain relatively bright for the whole night. Looks like our summer visitors should expect some long days!

Edinburgh Castle

Edinburgh Castle

We finally made it to the Edinburgh Castle, the one we used to live beneath, the one we see practically everyday, the one we hadn't gotten around to visiting yet.

It was not what we expected. From the front gates it looks like you walk straight into a very large building from the parking lot (which used to be the "killing grounds"). But in fact it is just a large gate with a gate-house (should have been obvious) perched on top. (Apparently this is where you get married if you sign up to get married in the "castle".) What we found beyond the gate was a cobblestone road that winds spiral fashion up to the highest point of the extinct volcano that the "castle" is built on. There are several buildings with various functions (not all of them tourist functions) along this road. (Some of the buildings are still in active use by the military). I should also mention that for each of the four courtyards that the road leads you through there is a souvenir shop.

The views from the Castle are amazing--who needs a CN tower when you have a castle atop a volcano. If you click on the photo above you can see our album from the visit.

The Scottish war memorial is perched on the very top of the volcano at the heart of the spiral. It is a chapel with little cubby-holes for each of the Scottish battalions, each cubby hole has a book or two in which all their war dead are listed from World War I to the present. Strangely enough, there are also books of Canadian war dead from battalions that had some sort of Scottish association--either a formerly Scottish place name, like Renfrew and Lanark, or were "Highlanders" or "Scottish". I know nothing about military history ("battalion" is probably even the wrong word), but I found it strange to find Canadians listed at the Scottish memorial. But then there is a very strong connection between Scotland and Canada that we hadn't realised until we got here.

We had a guided tour (free with admission and about every 20 minutes) and he told us the Castle had always been handy in a fight but that the monarchy were not too fond of it because it is cold and blustery. And I can attest that it was much colder and windier up there on the hill than it was down below in the town.

Mike's Visit to Cambridge

I went to Cambridge on Tuesday and gave a talk at the University of Cambridge. It was another in a series of talks that I'm giving on my research. Without a doubt, Cambridge is a beautiful city. I planned my route to take the 45 minute walk from the train station to the University. It was a gorgeous day, making for a great walk through the city. The Computer Laboratory, where I gave my talk, is away from the older portions of the University in a more rural part of town and surrounded by open fields. They're close to the veterinary school hospital as well, so that there's a field with several horses directly across from the the computer lab.

Click on the above picture to see the rest of the photos I took.

Penguin Parade

Alette and I recently became members of the Edinburgh Zoo. It's about a 20-minute walk & bus from our house, making for quite a convenient visit. Unlike some other zoos I've been to, most of the animals seem to have quite spacious surroundings and seem relatively comfortable (at least as far as I can tell). But I'm not here to blog about the zoo; I'm here to tell you of the Penguin Parade.

At 2:15pm everyday, the gate to the penguin enclosure is opened, and eager penguins line up to participate in a 5-minute stroll amongst the humans. The ritual apparently started when the cage door was left open by accident, way back in 1951, and some curious penguins made a break for it. On Sunday, there were 15 penguins that formed the parade, all gentoo penguins, all originally from the Falkland Islands. The zoo has over 100 gentoo penguins (almost 200 penguins altogether), apparently they do well here because the weather here is quite similar to that in the Falkland Islands: i.e. cold, gray, and rainy.

Here's a link to a video of the parade (that we didn't take). And a video of the knighting of one of the king penguins.

Click on the photo above to see the rest of our penguin parade pictures. There are also photos of the beautiful views from the zoo, and of vicunas.

Our Borders Vacation

The weekend before last, Alette, Japhur and I took a short vacation to the Scottish Borders. The map below shows our route, and you can click on the above picture to see our photos.


View Larger Map

One of the highlights was the town of Peebles which is an attractive, historic town. We had lunch there, in what' s now becoming frequent pub visits for Japhur. On Saturday evening, we dipped down into Northumberland, England and stayed at the Coach House Hotel in Crookham. It was very quiet and relaxing with some great views of rolling hills just outside our window. Japhur much preferred this B and B to the less posh pub we stayed at Friday night.
We spent the early part of Sunday on windswept Holy Island (Lindisfarne), which offered some wonderful views of a hill-top castle, surrounded by the sea.

The one disappointment of the trip was Berwick-upon-Tweed; a lovely sounding place, that was quite pretty, but only from far away. Once we arrived in the centre of town, not much was open and there didn't seem to be a decent pub or restaurant for lunch. It did have a nice grassy walk around town, atop the former walls of the city, but that was it. We wished that we'd stayed in Lindisfarne for lunch.

We took the scenic drive home along the coast, stopping in St. Abbs to snap the photo seen above. We think this might be the diving mecca that Tanya and Pat mentioned to us before we left. There was basically nothing in St. Abbs but divers and diver-related establishments.

Other highlights en-route included:
Kailzie Gardens
Traquair House, the "oldest inhabited castle in Scotland", sporting at still-functioning brewery
Priorwood Garden in Melrose
Too many ruined abbeys to name
Forest walks at Harestanes Countryside Visitor Centre
St. Aidan's winery

Showtime (Again)

On Sunday night, I had my second musical performance. This was a solo guitar and singing performance, as a followup to my recent class on Guitar Accompaniment and Interpretation through the Scots Music Group. I performed the song Edward, which Alette and I first heard performed by Jeana Leslie and Siobhan Miller back in November. It's apparently an Irish version of a Scots ballad (though there seem to be many songs for which the heritage - either Irish or Scottish - is a little unclear).

This performance was at the equivalent of an 'open mic night', known as The Big Seat by the Fire, and took place at St George's West (a mere 10 minute walk from our flat, and shown in the picture above). There were about 20 performers in a very supportive environment. I'd like to return, perhaps next month with some Canadian songs. I'm leaning towards some Neil Young, though Alette is suggesting a Gordon Lightfoot. Any suggestions?

Coast of Fife

On Saturday, Alette, Japhur and I went for a drive along the coast of Fife. This is an area on the east coast of Scotland, just north of Edinburgh. Our route took us from Edinburgh to St Andrew's and we tried to stay as close to the water as possible. Our goals were to take a nice drive, but also to explore areas of the country that might be nice for future, longer visits. Since we don't own a car, we made use of our City Car Club membership, and drove a Vauxhall Corsa Automatic (it also came with clutchless manual) from their East Market location.

It was a beautiful day here on Saturday (sunny and 13 degrees) that made for a great drive. And there were definitely some noticeable changes as we drove along. The first part of our trip, along the Northern coast of the Firth of Forth, just opposite Edinburgh, presented a number of former coal mining towns such as Aberdour, Burntisland, the aptly named Coaltown of Wemyss, and Leven, from which the above picture of Japhur on the beach was taken. While there exist some older structures and architecture, these towns appeared slightly more modern, perhaps from post-coal rebuilding.

We stopped for lunch in Elie, where Japhur had his second visit to a pub, the Ship Inn. This time he was allowed to stay inside with us (as opposed to be relegated to a garden area). Continuing up the coast, we stopped next in Crail. This was a very nice, little town. It didn't seem as crowded or as touristy as the others, perhaps since it did not have much sandy beach (though did have a nice grassy area for walking along the water).

Our final stop was in St Andrew's, a town known to most for either its golfing or its university. The University of St Andrew's is the oldest in Scotland, and third oldest in Britain (after Oxford and Cambridge). It's a very small town, has some nice areas for walking, especially through the University and old castle ruins.

We didn't make it as far as Dundee, but will try to reach it, and even further to Aberdeen on a future visit (likely by train). You can see pictures of our Fife tour by clicking the picture above.

Trampoline Kitties

I was sure that my first post concerning our neighbour's trampoline would relate to a major injury sustained by one of their children (in case you're wondering, it's already served up several bouts of whining and crying). Afterall, it has no side protectors, and has easily jumpable walls on two sides. But those pictures will have to wait. For now, it's in use by neighbourhood cats. Sorry - no pics of them actually using the trampoline.

Mike's Visit to Oxford

I visited Oxford for three days this week to attend, and present at, a conference. The conference was a lot of fun: I was able to get some good feedback on my research, saw some old friends, and met some new people. It took place at St Hugh's College, one of nearly 40 colleges that comprise the University of Oxford.

There was also some time for a tour of Oxford. Click on the picture of the Oxford canal to see my photos in Picasa.

Showtime

Saturday evening was my first performance as a member of The Practice Choir. Faithful blog readers will recall that I joined the choir in January. The performance was at Old St Paul's Church. It was a fun performance, and from the audience member that I asked (Alette), it was quite a good show. Despite only being an amateur choir, it's amazing how a strong sound can come together with a group after 3 months of practice. And as I noted previously, many members have been in the choir for several decades. I know that I regularly aligned my pitch to more experienced members around me.

What helped as well was the addition of an orchestra and soloists for the performance; our rehearsals were only with the choir, until the rehearsal the day of the performance As noted by Alette, having the orchestra and solists added some variety, as well as some professionalism to the performance.

Unfortunately, we've been terribly forgetful about bringing our camera when we go out, so no pictures this time. Too bad too since I had to buy a new, white dress shirt for the performance.

Zack and Miri make my homesick

Just to clarify before moving on, it's Alette writing this post. Mike takes no responsibility for the contents of this post.

What is it about the latest installment of Kevin Smith's oeuvre that has gotten me feeling homesick for North America?

The snow? That's definitely part of it.

The crappy rusting boat of a car they drive around in? Gotta say I miss those environmental disasters. Edinburgh is especially about the mercedes and the land rovers and all that money--for lack of a better word. People don't seem to drive buckets of bolts over here.

Seth Rogen? I admit I've had a soft spot for him since Freaks and Geeks. He seems to be all over everything these days.

The utter crudeness of the movie? They can be crude over here but not in the way North Americans are crude. North American crudeness (at least the stuff in the media) tends to be juvenile in a way that's actually kind of redeeming. There's a sort of sense of innocence beneath all that crudeness. Crudeness over here seems to be mostly edged with viciousness, an edge of violence, hate even.

The schmaltziness? Kevin Smith's movies are always a little bit sweet under all the crudity. It's that schmaltziness that gets the Brits all contemptuous of North American productions, of North Americans in general. But I miss it, at it's best the schmaltziness and innocence show a compassion that British cleverness has no interest in. See the difference between The Office UK and The Office US.

Or maybe it's just me and not the movie at all. That seven month slump. All the newness over here is past it's freshness date. Whatever the cause, watching Zack and Miri make a Porno has made me realise just how much I'm missing North America right now.

Back to Business

After a busy few months, Alette and I finally returned to exploring the city and beyond on Sunday afternoon. It was also a big day for Japhur, including his first-ever bus ride, and first visit to an Edinburgh pub.

Just before noon, the three of us hopped on the Number 36 bus and headed towards Holyrood Park. It was about a 20-minute ride to our destination, and Japhur whinged most of the way. Luckily, buses are relatively noisy (especially when driving over cobblestone), so we could basically ignore him. We're hoping that he'll associate the bus ride with a trip to a fun location, and at least whine with excitement only next time.

Faithful readers will no doubt remember our original trip to Arthur's Seat in Holyrood Park. On Sunday, we followed a different path from our trusty walking guide that took us through the park to Duddingston Village. Once in the village, we spied a sign for The Sheep Heid Inn indicating that dogs were welcome in the garden area. There was no food available, other than crisps, but we stayed for a drink. While Alette had a juice, I enjoyed a pint of Black Sheep Best Bitter. While the signage indicated the beer was a cask ale, they didn't serve it with a traditional handpump. Upon returning home, I re-read some material on real ale - either they were really serving keg beer (and not cask ale), or using a 'traditional air pressure fount' to serve the cask ale. I'll have to confirm on our next visit.

The walk back through the park was along Radical Road, just below Arthur's Seat. The steep descent offered some great views of the city, though was a tad nerve-wracking for those of us with a fear of heights (both Japhur and I appear to be immune).

A Tale of Two Pubs

On Saturday night, Alette and I went out in search of musical entertainment and drink. There's a lot of pubs in Edinburgh and we'd really only visited our neighbourhood pubs thus far. So, where does one start?

Having recently joined the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA), I looked up their recommended pubs. One of those noted by CAMRA are the Wetherspoon pubs that are located throughout the UK (as part of our CAMRA membership, we even have some real ale coupons for Wetherspoon pubs). The closest one to us, The Standing Order (or for a more informative link), was only about a 20 minute walk away. Admittedly, there were both good and bad signs from my research into this establishment. On the good side, they claim a large selection of ales, and had real cider. And they apparently have the best pub toilets in the UK (where I assumed that 'best' would include cleanliness). On the down side, the pub is in a very touristy area, and it is apparently quite busy. We discovered this first-hand on Saturday when we came upon a long line of very young clientele waiting to get in. And since they didn't appear to have live music anyway, we opted to avoid waiting in line and headed for our next pub.

I'd come across The Royal Oak previously when I was looking for things to do in Edinburgh. And since we were looking for live music, I investigated it further before we headed out on Saturday. The Royal Oak is a wee pub but has a lot of character, perhaps with a little bit of The Laff in it. The main floor of the bar, where we spent our time, only fits about 25 people. We were entertained by Alan Hunter and his guitar, which consisted of a number of traditional folk songs with random interludes of swearing at the audience, and quick smoke breaks outside. It was actually a lot of fun. The lower floor of the bar can serve about 20 people, and is more oriented towards traditional folk music performances. We peeked in on Saturday and saw a small group of people singing some traditional tunes. We'd likely return to visit this part of the bar in the future.

Google Street View - Edinburgh

It appears that Google Street View has completed its survey of Edinburgh. I'm not exactly sure when this happened, but I found out about it today. So, for those that would like an interactive, first-hand look at where we're living, I'm providing some links to get you started. It

View down the road from our flat.
Mike's home at the University.
View of entrance to our first flat.
Cathedral near our house.
Edinburgh Castle, and Edinburgh Castle.

If you haven't used Street View before, it's a lot of fun.

Innis & Gunn

Several faithful readers have recently voiced their displeasure at the lack of beer-related blog updates. Our prime purpose in Scotland is to report back on the diversity and quality of British beer, they say. While I won't enter a debate regarding such bold assertions, I would agree that we should be posting more on British beer. In a change from visiting local pubs, Alette, Japhur and I ventured to our local "Wine Store" on Saturday to peruse their barley wares.

Yesterday, I sampled a delightful beer from Innis & Gunn. They have a beer aged in oak barrels; somewhat of a marriage of beer brewing and whisky distilling. It had been recommended to me previously by my father-in-law but this was my first opportunity to sample it. It is indeed a fine, tasty beer and is apparently brewed in Edinburgh, though also available in Ottawa for the curious and thirsty reader.

However, it is not entirely clear where it is brewed in Edinburgh, or by whom. A Wikipedia search for Innis & Gunn redirects to Caledonian Brewery (which lists the Innis & Gunn Oak Aged Beer as one of its 'Active Beers'). But according to the Belhaven Brewery entry on Wikipedia, "Innis & Gunn [...] is brewed and bottled under contract by Belhaven for Innis and Gunn." After some further research, it turns out that this confusion is purposeful on behalf of the creators of Innis & Gunn; a father and son(s) team that interestingly helped to save the brewery that eventually became Caledonian. It is likely that Belhaven are the brewmasters of this fine beer though this intended secrecy does not bode well for my getting a tour that would include samples of Innis & Gunn. But I'll give it a go anyway. Stay tuned.

Disco Inferno

Last weekend, Alette and I took a 3-hour class on Disco dancing. Before you stop reading, it was actually quite fun, and definitely some good exercise. The class was at Dance Base, located mere minutes from our first flat (of which we blogged earlier), and about a 20-minute walk from our current residence. Alette has been taking several classes at Dance Base, including the previously mentioned Bollywood Dancing, and is currently taking a classed called Destination Jazz which covers the Disco era as well. So she was well prepared for our adventure.

The class was well attended (about 30 people, including almost 10 men) and well organized. We learned a number of smaller techniques which the instructor brought together in the end for a grand finale. Sorry Chris, no pictures (the attached photo is of our instructor in full Disco-mode). The last time we went on an official "Disco dancing adventure" was with our friends Rob, Paula and Chris at Barrymore's. Has this class prepared us for future adventures? We'll just have to wait and see.

Union Canal

Last weekend, Alette, Japhur and I went for a walk along part of the Union Canal. You can see all the pics by clicking on the picture to your left. As you can see, it was a beautiful, sunny day and everyone and their dogs were out (literally). There's actually a number of different canals that would allow us to boat from Edinburgh to Glasgow and back. We might explore this option further, or optionally, bike portions of the path.