That City on the Firth of Forth

The Quest for Good Nachos in Edinburgh (or at least edible ones)

2011-06-05T19:22:00.006+01:00

I really miss the almost ubiquitous availability of nachos in North American pubs. A few places over here offer something on their menus called "nachos" but for the most part these dishes bear little resemblance to the nachos of home. One of the biggest problems with nachos on this side of the Atlantic (and channel) is the lack of proper sour cream (sometimes called "soured cream" on Edinburgh menus). Here's a rundown of the places I've tried (with the nachos graded out of 5). Check back again for updates:

La Favorit. A recent documentary about JK Rowlings showed her writing productively at one of its tables. Since it's across the road from my office I decided to try it. Several types of "nachos" are listed on the menu. I tried the ones with tzatziki. Sadly the base chips they used were Doritos and the Dorito flavour overwhelmed everything else. Plus the chips got soggy under the weight of the generous dollop of tzatziki. Not worth trying again. 1

Espresso Mundo. A beautiful art deco building. Nachos arrived with cheese and brown sauce on them. I will say no more. 0

Buckstone Bistro. Passable nachos, made with restaurant grade plain nachos that do not get soggy. Sour cream surprisingly good for this part of the world. Salsa and guacamole, low end supermarket varieties. 3

Lupe Pintos. Mexican deli. Okay, so they don't actually serve nachos here but they sell all the ingredients to make a perfect plate of nachos at home. High food miles. Guilty pleasures. 5

British Television Line-up

2011-06-01T21:19:00.005+01:00

It has been brought to our attention that we have not blogged in over a year. This is partly a technical problem, our camera needs its battery connections fixed and Mike hasn't figured out how to download photos taken on his mobile, and partly that the shine of newness has worn off our lives here. It's less interesting to blog about routines.

But in the interest of keeping this blog alive, I thought I'd write up some of the good British (and other) television we've been watching here, in case people across the pond have some way of watching it (ahem!).

Doctor Who. Matt Smith, the 11th and youngest ever Doctor, has finally hit his stride this season, as have the writers (who had to recover from the retirement of Russell T. Davies, one of my favourite television writer-creators). The highlight of this second Smith season has been the episode written by Neil Gaiman, but then I'm generally a Gaiman fan. Across the pond viewers should be up-to-date with Doctor Who, as it is being broadcast simultaneously on BBC America.

The Misfits. Actually introduced to us by my sister who was living in Slovakia at the time, a very funny show about ASBO superheros. You might need to be living in Britain to really enjoy the humour, but I am assured that it has broadcast in Canada within living memory.

Spiral (Engrenages). A French crime show that's been shown with subtitles on BBC. What Law and Order could be if it took more than an episode to explore a case, was set in Paris and wasn't aiming at proving the law is always good and right.

Campus. Falls into the category of immature male humour, but if you're living through the higher learning cut-backs we're living through over here, it's good to have something to laugh about. Brits showing they can make fun in a compassionate way. Proves Canadians are the real evil empire.

The In-Betweeners. An explicitly teenage boy show. Very believable and oddly enough occasionally R-rated: apparently teenagers aren't allowed to listen to and watch the sorts of things teenagers actually say and do.

Vera. A typically well-done detective show set in rural Northumberland and featuring a middle-aged woman detective. Before moving over here I always thought the British crime imports were done by BBC, but they're actually almost all ITV, one of the private networks. Go figure.

The Crimson Petal and the White. A disturbing period piece set in Victorian London with a disturbing cameo by Gillian Anderson. I confess I couldn't watch the last episode because I was convinced it was going to go really badly for everyone.

Mike and I got mentioned in the Guardian

2010-05-25T19:18:00.003+01:00

Intrepid readers of our blog will recall that we went on a cycling trip in Fife last autumn, led by a storyteller and accompanied by a journalist. Well, the story of our weekend has made it to the Guardian:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2010/may/22/fife-scotland-storytelling-cycle-family?page=all

Walking the Speyside Way

2010-05-09T17:36:00.012+01:00

Speyside Way Walk

We absolutely loved The Speyside Way long distance route, particularly the bit from Craigellachie to Aviemore and would recommend it to anyone. We definitely plan to return to this part of Scotland, which is a relatively inexpensive and has a huge number of walks and lovely, diverse scenery--particularly if you're partial to trees. (To see more photos, click on the photo above).

Day 1. We travelled by train and local bus from Edinburgh to Buckie, a fishing town on the North Sea coast. This is a real working town rather than a tourist destination, but the architecture was much nicer than the "gray" description our guide book gave it. We stayed at the Rosemount Guest House, which is cycling and walking oriented. Our hostess told us upon arriving that the water is very good and that we shouldn't buy bottled water, as it is a waste. She showed us the extra high tap she'd installed in the bathroom so that reusable bottles could be easily refilled. Drizzle.

Day 2--Buckie to Fochabers (16km). Woke up to blue skies with fast moving, low clouds. Set out from Buckie, walking along the coast into the wind! The trail took us right through the middle of a Traveller's camp, ponies and children staring at us as we went by. We lunched at the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society Wildlife Centre in Tugnet at the mouth of the Spey River. I should pause here and mention that the Spey is the only wild river left in Scotland--a phrase that repeated often to us on our journey. It is a meandering river and is allowed to meander at will. Spey Bay itself changes regularly. We didn't see any dolphins, though there had been sighting from shore the morning before. We left the WDCS Centre resolving to come back north for dolphin watching sometime soon. We stopped off at Baxters Highland Village--Baxters is the Scottish soup empire equivalent of Campbells. In Fochabers we saw our first Scottish red squirrel. North American grey squirrels are much despised here for killing off the local reds. We stayed at the Gordon Arms Hotel which was overrun by recreational fisherfolk.

Day 3--Fochabers to Craigellachie (21 km). Picked up a slice of cheesecake from The Quaich, a diner across the street from the hotel that advertised gluten-free cakes, gf mac and cheese, and gf bacon rolls. One of the best cheesecakes I've eaten, nice and light. Walking on pavement is always the hardest, and on this day we had 10kms of it. Lots of woodland, though, most of it plantation. The nicest bit was the beech woods of the Arndilly Estate which went on for many kilometers ending in Craigellachie, where we spent the night at The Speybank B&B. Highlights of Craigellachie included the Fiddichside Inn, run by an octogenarian, and the Highlander Inn, where we had a fabulous dinner and Mike got his first Real Ales of the trip. In Craigellachie we discovered that the Spirit of Speyside Whisky Festival was on--Speyside is one of the main whiskey distilling parts of Scotland. Unfortunately for us this meant that all the distillery tours and the Speyside Cooperage Centre were fully booked up, so limited our tourist options.

Day 4--Craigellachie to Ballindalloch (19km). A nice easy walk, mostly on old railway track, with beautiful, mostly wooded scenery pretty much the whole way. We even passed a man in an electric wheelchair trundling down the Speyside Way on this section. Since we knew the day was going to be short and easy we poked around Aberlour for a little bit before hitting our stride and found a pretty fabulous deli there. This part of the trail took us past several distilleries including Aberlour, Knockando, Tamdhu. Most of these distilleries seem to be owned by the French company Chivas. Many of the Speyside distilleries had their roofs damaged by the huge--by Scottish standards--amounts of snow this past winter and so were closed pending repairs. We also passed an environmentally-friendly waste treatment plant for Dailuaine Distillery. Ballindalloch was little more than a collection of houses. It was our higher-end accommodation night and it lived up to expectations. We stayed at Cragganmore House, right next to the distillery of the same name. Cragganmore House is owned by the former chef of the Craigellachie Hotel. He grows a lot of his own vegetables (though not in this season) and keeps chickens and ducks--though he doesn't get many eggs as they lay them haphazardly all over the lawn and crows get to them first. We had a fabulous 3-course supper at the Cragganmore House, which was entirely gluten-free, just for me.

Day 5--Ballindalloch to Grantown-on-Spey (21km). This was the most challenging day of walking, not because of hills but because of bog. Fortunately we were sent us off with packed lunches (mine GF again, thank you Helen). The landscape on the first part of the day was exactly what I pictured the boggy, peaty, Northern Scottish distillery area would be like. A number of sections in the early part of the day had large stepping stones for us to walk across. Unfortunately, many of the stones had sunk into the wet ground. Mike nearly lost a foot to a hungry bit of ground and spent most of the day walking with a soaker. Our guide-book had warned us that we might have to wade through a burn, but fortunately a bridge has recently been installed over it. We also walked through a diverse range of forest from mono-cropped plantation to mixed-plantation to open birch woods draped in lichen and grazed by cattle. The last 4 kms were through the community-owned Anagach Pine Woods outside of Grantown. The woods are a sanctuary for the endangered capercaillie. We were exhausted by the time we reached Grantown, but we managed to have a look around town and even found an excellent wee bookshop: The Bookmark. The owner told us about a folk music concert happening at the local high school as part of the Strathspey in May festival, so we grabbed a quick supper at the Seafield Inn and then followed the locals down to the auditorium where we were treated to an Edinburgh band fronted by a local boy who is now studying at Stevenson College, Gallus, and then to the really fabulous and somewhat famous Ewan Robertson and Gary Innes Band (which was actually a four-man band). We spent the night at the quiet Kinross House B&B. Grantown was probably my favourite town, it had a tourist side to it, but not overwhelmingly so and it was surrounded by forest.

Day 6--Grantown to Boat of Garten (17 km). After my favourite breakfast of the trip (GF toast and an assortment of fresh berries, Mike had a full Scottish as usual) we headed out of town. Again we were mostly in woodlands, the landscape theme of the trip. It was cold and we got snowed on a couple of times (light snowball type snow, almost hail). We'd planned on visiting the Spey Valley Smokehouse on our way but they had a huge "No Nuts" sign outside and since were packing a pretty big bag of trail mix we had to pass them by. Next point of interest was Balliefurth Farm, which is a LEAF demonstration farm (Linking Environment and Farming). A number of placards were posted along this section of the trail that explained how their practices encourage local biodiversity. We had planned to eat lunch at Nethy Bridge. However, they weren't yet serving food when we got to the hotel and the menu looked pretty mediocre. So we bought snacks at the local Spar and ate them on a picnic table. By the time we'd finished eating we were both freezing so we hung out in the Explore Abernethy Centre and chatted to the ranger until we could feel our fingers again. Unfortunately, the toilets at the centre were not heated and a sign on the door read "Please keep the door shut in order to prevent frost from entering". The stretch of the trail after Nethy Bridge was probably the highlight of the whole trip for me traveling through the RSPB Abernethy Forest Nature Reserve, home of the famous Osprey Centre (where we both saw an osprey and a capercaillie). Ospreys were driven out of Britain early in the 20th century. The first confirmed returned Ospreys made a nest in this forest in the 1950s. There has been an RSPB Osprey Centre in the forest ever since. More than 2 million people have visited since it opened. While the ospreys were wonderful to see, it was Loch Garten itself that I fell in love with. (BTW, we had to take a small detour off of the trail to see the loch and osprey centre). We stayed in Boat of Garten ("The Osprey Village") at the Boat B&B, which was basic but met our needs. We had a fabulous dinner at the Boat Hotel in their bistro/bar. The woman at the next table asked the waiter in an indignant tone of voice "is there no place better than this to eat?". He led her off somewhere, so I suppose there was a place with table cloths, but we were quite happy with the food and the selection of Real Ales.

Day 7--Boat of Garten to Aviemore (9.5 km). The walk to Aviemore was short and very easy. Walking out of Boat of Garten in the morning we saw why the tiny village is able to support two gourmet restaurants and has no normal ones. Boat of Garten appears to be where the rich keep their huge summer homes in this part of Scotland. Between Boat of Garten and Aviemore we passed through moorland with spectacular views of the still-snowy Cairngorm Mountains. The Strathspey Steam Train passed us on the way. We beat our bags to the Ravenscraig Guest House, had a decent pub lunch at The Winking Owl, walked the main drag several times since we had nothing better to do until we eventually found our way to the Cairngorms Brewery for a tour and free tasting. Too late we discovered that the Mountain Cafe had an extensive GF menu for breakfast and lunch (closed at 5:30), so we returned to the Winking Owl. Our evening entertainment, as on a number of previous nights, was watching the snooker championships on BBC2.

We took an early train back to Edinburgh the next day only to find ourselves transported from winter to spring. Whereas it was still ski season in Aviemore, the leaves in Edinburgh had finally unfurled and the cherry blossoms had bloomed.

Favourite pub with real ale: The Winking Owl (Sheepshaggers Gold was particularly good)
Favourite suppers: Highlander Inn, Cragganmore House
Favourite B&B accommodation: The Speybank B&B, Cragganmore House
Favourite breakfasts: Kinross House, Ravenscraig B&B
Favourite bookstore: The Bookmark, Grantown

Voting in the UK

2010-05-08T16:21:00.002+01:00

This past week, I voted in my first UK election. Despite not being a UK citizen (like my beautiful wife), the rules of the UK Electoral Commission allow resident Commonwealth citizens to vote in UK elections. Similar rules would also allow me to vote in Scottish Parliamentary elections, as well as European Parliamentary elections, but not in elections of The City of Edinburgh Council (in which case I would need to be an EU National).

I was surprisingly excited to vote. In some sense, the election involved similar players and issues compared to Canada. Though I still feel like a bit of an outsider which, in some strange way, made it a little easier for me to make my voting decision. As the results indicate, more than 65% of eligible voters cast their vote (which is similar to Canadian participation levels from 2006, but more than those of 2008).

In our riding (Edinburgh West), we elected a Liberal Democrat (see local results), as has been the case since 1997 (though with three different representatives).

Return to Cairndinnis

2010-01-09T19:32:00.004Z

(Click on photo for more pictures.)

Faithful readers may recall that for my birthday this year Mike took me alpaca trekking in East Lothian with Cairndinnis Farm. As part of the outing, I got a skein of alpaca wool (from Belhaven) to play with. I made a headband out of it and enjoyed the feel of working with this yarn so much that I decided my next major knitting project would be made out of Cairndinnis alpaca yarn. A week ago I got an email from Carole to say that their latest stash of yarn had arrived and would be available on a first come first serve basis.

I started plotting immediately. The roads have been icy of late (worst winter in 50 years here in Britain), so Mike was not keen on getting a City Car Club car and driving out there. Fortunately, a search on Traveline Scotland showed that it was easy to get to East Linton by public transit and a further search of walking routes revealed an off road path from East Linton along the River Tyne to Hailes Castle and from there up to Traprain Law, which is right beside the farm.

Today we made the trek, catching a bus two blocks from our flat that took us to the heart of East Linton in under an hour. From there we followed the well marked trail along the Tyne to the Castle and then up to the base of Traprain Law. The walk also took just under an hour. When we arrived, Carole and John insisted on serving us hot bowls of soup, bread and cold cuts. Through the kitchen window we could see the alpacas peeking out of their barn every once in a while to see if the snow had gone away yet.

I bought enough of Pride of Place's yarn to make a genuinely 25-mile jumper. It's DK weight, so the project should take me most of the year (I'm a slow knitter). It knits to the same gauge as Berrocco's Ultra Alpaca Light, so I'm going to use one of their patterns.

It was an absolutely beautiful day out and it was truly enjoyable doing business with such generous, hospitable people. Having already spent some quality time with the beast whose fur I'll be working with is an added bonus.

Doctor Who Nation

2010-01-04T21:23:00.004Z

Sci Fi has a bit more cred over here in the UK. It is a well-respected Christmas tradition to sit around and watch the good doctor save the planet (or at least London). Coffee-vending police boxes make coy references to Torchwood and the Tardis. In fact, Tardis is a word in common usage amongst the general public. And paraphernalia from the show is considered worth appearing in special exhibitions at publicly-owned museums (which we went to see in Glasgow before Christmas, Mike forgot to mention that in his previous post).

As mentioned in a previous post, we have been blessed with plenty of snow this year. We returned home Saturday night to discover our neighbours had been busy building a Snow Ood (photographed above). As someone who did an "interest talk" in grade 5 on set and costume design for Doctor Who, I have to say I'm enjoying living in a country where such interests are not seen as a sign of incurably nerdiness.

(I'm sure Mike will want me to make it perfectly clear that it is me, AJW, writing this and not him.)

Having just watched all five episodes of Torchwood: Children of Earth, I have to say that the Doctor Who spin-off series has finally found it's legs. The previous two seasons suffered from silliness, but in Children of Earth Russell T. Davies treats his characters brutally and creates a gripping story-arc that provides an at-times painful portrayal of what people are capable of when their backs are to the wall. Well worth watching if it makes it across the pond.

Christmas Snow

2009-12-31T17:07:00.005Z

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

2009-12-17T22:18:00.001Z

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

2009-11-20T08:31:00.015Z

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

2009-11-08T19:41:00.003Z

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

2009-11-03T22:16:00.005Z

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

2009-10-30T12:45:00.003Z

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

2009-10-24T20:57:00.000+01:00

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

2009-10-17T19:27:00.006+01:00

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

2009-09-23T18:58:00.002+01:00

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

2009-09-13T20:21:00.003+01:00

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

2009-08-20T20:46:00.001+01:00

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

2009-08-16T09:31:00.001+01:00

(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

2009-08-15T09:29:00.001+01:00

(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

2009-08-03T20:42:00.000+01:00

(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

2009-07-20T22:02:00.002+01:00

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

2009-07-17T11:45:00.004+01:00

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

2009-07-03T20:41:00.002+01:00

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

2009-06-21T15:19:00.004+01:00

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

2009-06-14T20:13:00.003+01:00

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

2009-06-07T18:37:00.013+01:00

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

2009-05-23T15:32:00.002+01:00

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

2009-05-20T21:12:00.006+01:00

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

2009-05-13T11:23:00.005+01:00

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

2009-05-11T08:36:00.005+01:00

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

2009-04-15T14:51:00.009+01:00

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)

2009-04-13T14:24:00.005+01:00

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

2009-04-13T13:08:00.004+01:00

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

2009-04-10T17:14:00.004+01:00

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

2009-04-09T11:15:00.005+01:00

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

2009-04-05T15:32:00.002+01:00

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

2009-04-03T22:32:00.002+01:00

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

2009-03-30T00:01:00.003+01:00

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

2009-03-29T16:52:00.003+01:00

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

2009-03-20T21:56:00.002Z

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

2009-03-15T16:52:00.004Z

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

2009-03-14T16:30:00.006Z

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

2009-02-27T23:58:00.003Z

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.

Winter in Edinburgh

2009-02-11T14:19:00.004Z

Ok, it appears that my bold predictions of Spring were a little premature. It was a beautiful snowy day on Monday, and the snow has actually stayed; long enough for us to take some pictures (click on the snowman photo to see our album).

It's sunny today, though still dropping below zero overnight (would be great for maple syrup if they had the right trees here!)

Spring Walk to Calton Hill

2009-02-09T22:33:00.006Z

On Saturday, the three of us took a walk around Calton Hill in downtown Edinburgh. Faithful readers will recall our previous visit to this hill for the Torchlight Procession. This time though, we were able to take advantage of a beautiful (dare I say Spring?) day to get outside, and to see some great views of the city.

The picture above is of some snowdrops; a sure sign of Spring in the city. Clicking on the photo will take you to other photos from our day out and about.

Bring on the Pipes!

2009-01-26T10:25:00.007Z

On Saturday, I went to Celtic Connections in Glasgow to see The Annual Piping Concert with the Strathclyde Police Pipe Band and Bagad Cap Caval. Celtic Connections is an annual Scottish festival (held in Glasgow) celebrating Scottish Celtic music. All Scottish festivals will be a little grander this year due to celebrations for the 250th anniversary of the birth of Rabbie Burns, and as well Scottish Homecoming.

It was a good concert, though while I admit being a fan of the pipes, two hours of traditional bagpipe music can be a little tiring, and loud (especially with 20 pipers on stage). This was specifically the case with the Strathclyde Police Pipe Band - they were very good performers, though it was a little like watching a high school marching band. However, I was impressed by Bagad Cap Caval (some info in English). Hailing from Breton in France, they brought a younger, hipper performance to the stage. Yes, you heard right, younger, hipper bag piping. The music seemed to have a Persian influence as well which made it more interesting.

As for Celtic Connections, I hope to make it back to Glasgow (only a 45-minute train ride), but only if Alette and I can find room in our calendars!

Choir Practice

2009-01-26T09:51:00.002Z

Last week I joined a choir: The Practice Choir. It's something I've wanted to do since I started taking singing lessons (for the second time) last year when we were still in Ottawa. It's an amateur choir, and there was no audition (whew!). The first practice was a lot of fun, and relatively quick-paced. And while it's referred to as 'The Practice Choir', and an amateur choir, I discovered from one of the members that he's been in the choir since 1974.

There are probably close to 100 people in the choir, including 8 men who sing bass (what they refer to as '2nd bass') and baritone (referred to as '1st bass'). They have no tenors, and while I can sing in the tenor range, I think I'll wait to get a bit more practice before I volunteer to sing the tenor parts on my own.

Our first performance is on April 4th, where we'll be performing Messe Solennelle, St Cecilia's Mass by Gounod, and Te Deum, for the Empress Marie Therese, by Haydn.

London Calling

2009-01-19T21:06:00.004Z

Now that I've recovered from my first Edinburgh cold, it looks as though we have some catching up to do on the ol' bloggin' front. But don't worry, I won't blog about my cold!

A couple of weekends ago, we finally made it down to London to visit Cordelia, Liam, Brad and Em. (Faithful readers will remember our first attempt, which was substituted by a trip to the Highlands.) A great time was had by all. I'd even dare say that some formerly negative opinions of London were brightened.

On Friday, we hopped on a National Express train from Edinburgh to King's Cross in London. On the suggestion of Cordelia, we stayed at the Mad Hatter, a great (and relatively cheap) place close to their house and central to London sites and scenery. We had actually got our wires crossed a little, and originally thought we were staying above a little pub we had visited several years earlier. As it turns out, this other pub has turned a little too seedy for us - so the Mad Hatter was a good choice.

On Friday evening, we had some great Thai food at Marie's Cafe. On young Brad's recommendation, I had the Pad Thai. Alette had a suitably gluten-free green curry, while Cordelia had a red curry. Brad and Liam joined me in having Pad Thai. After dropping Brad off with Em at home we headed out to a local pub (Duke of Sussex) for a traditional London evening of drinks and karaoke. Suffice to say that Liam was the only one brave enough to sing. Twice. Good on him!

On Saturday, while Brad and Liam were birthday shopping, we visited the Borough Market with Cordelia, as highlighted in Alette's e-blog. We then went to the Museum of London and saw an exhibit, Homeless in the Capital, that was coordinated by Cordelia's workplace: Connection at St. Martins. It was a great exhibit that emphasized the personalities impacted by homelessness, including small personal items and accompanying stories. We also saw exhibits about the Great Fire of London and others covering the history for the past few centuries. Oddly, they don't seem to emphasize their invasions of Scotland as much as the Scottish. We also went to the Tate Museum and had some lunch at the refectory at the Southward Cathedral, both of which offered some refuge from the surprisingly cold and damp London winter.

On Saturday evening, we had a nice dinner together, listening to Raffi and other Canadian music (once Brad went to bed). On Sunday, after brunch, we returned on the train to Edinburgh. You can see some photos from our trip by clicking on the above photo.

Mike Rev's Up the Pithead at the Scottish Mining Museum

2009-01-03T19:41:00.002Z

To celebrate the end of things being closed for the holidays, and us being cooped up in the flat without access to a nearby video store, Mike, Gen and I took a day trip down to the Scottish Mining Museum in Newtongrange.

I was very impressed with the museum. There were two floors of artifacts and interpretation covering everything from the geological history of coal to the lives of coal miners and their families. As expected, Margaret Thatcher's systematic shafting of the Scots was highlighted in several places.

The museum encompasses the buildings of the Lady Victoria Colliery. After we'd exhausted the exhibit, we went on a tour of the other buildings. Part of the tour was done by recordings, pumped in through the "ear protectors" on the helmets we had to wear. But we were also accompanied by a live tour guide who had worked as a miner at the colliery before it was closed (by Maggie Thatcher) in 1981. Really, there is no substitute for a live guide.

One of the buildings has been remade into a simulation of a mine. They have one of the machines that they used from the 1960s onwards to cut through coal seams. The machine includes a cutting wheel, a conveyor belt and 300 meters of hydraulic posts to hold up the earth above. As the machine moves forward, the roof of the tunnel is allowed to collapse behind it!!! Our guide explained that most of the time seams were only 4 to 6 feet in depth, so the posts would only be kept at that height and the men would have to work 12 hour shifts on their hands and knees. These were the conditions right up until it was closed. Earlier working conditions were of course far worse and involved children and pit ponies.

I highly recommend a visit to the museum. Much of the site dates back to the 19th century. Much of it also still working, like the pithead that Mike is controlling pictured above. It isn't connected to anything anymore, but it originally brought the cages of men and coal up from the mines 500 metres below.

One warning. Much of the tour is in semi-ruined buildings, i.e. it is the same temperature as outside, without the sun. We were very cold on our tour. Mike and Gen are still thawing out.

Hogmanay - Torchlight Procession

2008-12-30T17:43:00.010Z

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

2008-12-29T00:01:00.001Z

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

2008-12-28T18:36:00.002Z

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

2008-12-20T17:35:00.004Z

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

2008-12-15T12:57:00.004Z

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

2008-12-10T18:00:00.004Z

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

2008-12-09T07:55:00.002Z

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

2008-12-08T18:30:00.005Z

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

2008-11-30T11:11:00.002Z

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

2008-11-29T21:59:00.002Z

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!

2008-11-25T19:49:00.012Z

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

2008-11-16T10:27:00.003Z

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

2008-11-13T20:33:00.004Z

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

2008-11-09T18:40:00.003Z

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

2008-11-05T18:56:00.003Z

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

2008-11-03T12:01:00.007Z

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

2008-11-03T11:59:00.003Z

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

2008-10-30T21:26:00.003Z

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.

2008-10-30T21:05:00.001Z

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

2008-10-26T12:45:00.003Z

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

2008-10-26T12:09:00.007Z

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

2008-10-18T21:20:00.005+01:00

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

2008-10-07T20:41:00.002+01:00

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

2008-09-28T22:21:00.004+01:00

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

2008-09-24T17:16:00.000+01:00

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

2008-09-23T19:59:00.006+01:00

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

2008-09-21T23:25:00.000+01:00

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

2008-09-20T17:56:00.001+01:00

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

2008-09-19T22:46:00.000+01:00

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

2008-09-16T19:12:00.000+01:00

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

2008-09-15T17:35:00.000+01:00

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

2008-09-14T20:34:00.000+01:00

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

2008-09-14T19:54:00.000+01:00

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

2008-09-13T19:40:00.001+01:00

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

2008-09-13T18:51:00.000+01:00

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

2008-09-12T19:52:00.000+01:00

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

2008-09-11T21:01:00.001+01:00

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

2008-09-10T14:44:00.000+01:00

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

2008-09-09T22:56:00.000+01:00

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

2008-09-09T22:48:00.000+01:00

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

2008-09-09T22:33:00.000+01:00

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...

2008-09-07T21:07:00.000+01:00

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