The Definite Article

Carol leaves today. It's Friday, February 27th and Ayyam'i'ha has begun.

I'm miserable.

Carol is travelling the world. She's spending a year visiting South America, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, and basically anywhere where it's warm and sunny and filled with tanned, buff men.

We're breaking up for the duration, with the intent of getting back together when she returns. I'm sad. And lonely. And she's right here next to me.

She says she'll be back in September, so it's not for a whole year. Oh, and I'm coming to visit! I had no idea...

Anyway, here's a picture of the two of us, happy. I'll surf to it and look at it when I'm feeling lonely.

View image

Also, it's Ayyam'i'ha! Happy Intercalary Days to Baha'is everywhere!

There's a great explanation of Ayyam'i'ha and the history of the celebration on my sisters excellent 'blog, here.

But a happy Ayyam'i'ha to my parents and Mara and Mendon, my Aunt Suellen and Uncle Gene and Baha'is everywhere!

It's a time of general happiness, similar in nature to Pancake Tuesday, or Shrove Tuesday, which was last Tuesday; they're very close to each other this year. Shrove Tuesday is still big in Scotland and folks get together and eat pancakes as part of the Lenten preparation.

-Nathan

Posted by Nate at 6:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Subtitle: Return of the Evil Overnight Flight in Cattle Class

Or

When I'm Rich, I'll Fly First Class

---

I spent last night packing. Carol was already packed so she spent the night finding new ways to make her feet as cold as ice. More below.

I brought four full bags of luggage over to Scotland, emptied three of them into my flat on Fettes Row and then put them, empty inside one another for the return trip.

Somehow, all of the things that were unimportant three weeks ago are vital now and I've packed a full extra bag of luggage as well as filling the previously empty bags.

Anyway, yesterday was a baking day: Carol baked bread and cookies, I baked a chocolate cake (frosted with a lovely cream frosting, so simple: put 8oz cream cheese, 1.25 cups powdered sugar, a lid of vanilla, a lid of orange extract, 1.5 cups heavy cream and whip until stiff - magnifique).

Unfortunately, due to poor planning, I baked a huge cake, three layers, and there was no one around to enjoy it: Chris was in Puerto Rico, Karl was in Florida with Danielle, Paul and Ange were out in Harrisonburg and it was too late to really call up Rachael and Eric.

Since we'd baked all day, there wasn't any real food to be had, so Carol and I had to eat cake. We ate about half of the cake. Carol and I became Jack Sprat and his wife - I ate the cake part, Carol ate the frosting; between the two of us, we licked the platter clean.

Then we tried to get some sleep. Carol succeeded. She also managed to get her feet warm and me cold - at the same time! I'll leave the manner and type of this thermodynamic exchange as an exercise for the reader. Sufficeth to say that I didn't sleep as readily and instead spent about an hour trying to get my Red Hat 9 laptop to recognize my Linksys WUSB11 2.5 wireless USB adapter, followed by about an hour killing Lich Lords off of Hebian-To to vent frustration at failing to configure my laptop. I swear, one day I will get Kismet to work!

Now we're all packed and will leave in about half an hour. I always feel like I've forgotten something. I'm usually right.

Cheers!
- Nathan

Posted by Nate at 3:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

Brown paper packages tied up with string...

You get the idea.

Today was mingin'. This obscure colloquialism, peculiar to the U.K., refers to something nasty, something I won't post in my blog because my mother reads it, but it suffices to say that the weather was lousy - cold, blowing rain.

Luckily, I was to be cheered and warmed by a happy surprise when I opened my email.

I don't have a car, so I walk everywhere. This is a vast improvement over my situation in America, where I do have a car and don't walk anywhere. In retrospect, it seems so strange that when I was seventeen, I wanted a car so badly, a car was freedom. Now, I have a car, and freedom is not having to use it, living within walking distance of work and grocery stores.

Right now, I'm staying at the home of my very, very generous friend Roddy Graham. He lives in a gorgeous, well appointed flat that's about twenty minutes driving from the center of town. There's a bus stop not to far from the house and buses come by on the half-hour on Sundays. Today is a Sunday.

Carol doesn't like buses as a general rule, so when it came time to buy groceries, we walked. It's only a few miles, half an hour or forty minutes. Sneaky Edinburgh made us think it was going to be a dry day, however, and then had the audacity to start raining while we were making our purchases.

The walk back was miserable and wet. I climbed the stairs with this enormous rucksack filled with groceries - and sat down to check my email.

What did I find?

An email from Mara, my sister. She lives in Israel and if you're reading my blog, then you may already have read her blog.

Well, it warmed me to the core. It's always nice to hear from folks and it made me really happy to hear from my sister.

Posted by Nate at 5:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)