It's been a busy couple of weeks at the parliament.
First, we spent four days stuffing envelopes. Then we spent half an hour shredding them after encountering a mishap. I don't care to relive the details. It was a lot of time wasted. But that happened. I also got to write some things.
I should mention that I had just finished writing the above paragraph when my computer screen went all blue with black lines and wouldn't go beyond the white starting up screen when I tried to restart it. I ended up having to take it to the only Apple Store in Edinburgh, which conveniently just opened about a week ago, Saturday morning to have the logic board replaced. Not exactly something I had planned on spending money on.
So it's been one of THOSE weeks. Apparently they even happen in the magical world of Scotland. It's been pretty stressful. Hopefully it's over now.
Parliamentary recess is now over and things will be resuming as usual on Monday. Everyone will be back. My security ID pass has finally been activated so I don't have to go through security check to get in anymore. I got patted down last week. That won't be happening again.
We've been focusing on exploring more of Edinburgh lately. Last weekend one of my friends and I wandered around and ended up going to the Royal Botanical Centre. It was a beautiful day out and we just walked around the paths and saw all of the flowers, including a peat garden, climbed some trees, and found our first thistle. It was even spikier than I thought it would be. Pretty much every plant in Scotland is sharper than it seems like it needs to be. I'm somewhat surprised the grass isn't more knife-like.
After that, we continued wandering and ended up in Inverleith Park where we watched several dogs run around, stalked some swans, and marveled at how odd rugby is. We spent the whole day just generally walking around and seeing more corners of Edinburgh, since we usually stay within a mile or two radius of where we live. I wouldn't want to leave without seeing most of the city I actually live in.
The next day we did more exploring; I still don't really know where we were. We walked pretty far and ended up in a residential area. I really like the doors and hedges there, then found an odd channel-type thing with boats floating in it. A little further on we found an abandoned warehouse with neat murals on all of the closed windows and a broken roller chair on the side of the street. It was really neat though and it even lightly rained on and off (what people here might refer to as a 'dreich,' although a real dreich would be more overcast and misty).
On our way back, we passed by a small flower shop and stopped and bought a potted heather plant. It's now our sixth roommate and lives on the kitchen windowsill. It never forgets to do the dishes and doesn't come home drunk and wake everyone up, so I think we'll all get along just fine.
This weekend (today, actually), we went to Cramond. Cramond is a small village on the outskirts of Edinburgh and is situated on the North Sea. The weather was lovely, but windy. We rode a city bus, which happens to be a double decker (top deck, both ways) for about half an hour or so to get there. It was a really cute place. There is an island there, so cleverly named Cramond Island, which you can only access when the tides are low, otherwise the sea rises up over the path. Hundreds of people get stranded there and have to be rescued every year, and I'm sure even more people decide to just wait out the eight or so hours.
Unfortunately, we got there just after the end of the safe crossing time, so we only went halfway and scurried back when we witnessed how quickly the tides were rising. After that, we just walked around the beach, which was chilly and rocky, (no sunbathing there) picking up shells and rocks, taking pictures, climbing boulders, mimicking seagulls, and squelching through muddy sand.
Before leaving, we stopped at a little coffee shop. Shocklingly, I had brought my knitting. Sarcasm. I pulled out my knitting while waiting for our coffee. After a few rows, a pair of elderly ladies walked over and starting feeling it and examining the pattern. They then complimented me on it and and we had a nice little conversation about knitting. One of them loves to knit kilt stockings with cable patterns and thistles and had even already knit three baby shawls for her great-grandchildren. Unfortunately she has no great-grandchildren as of yet. But she is prepared. She bade me to "Keep knitting!" and left. As if I'd stop. I actually think it might be an addiction.
There were some kids on the bus on the way back bragging about how many Instagram likes they each had and how long it took them to get them. They all had more than me. I guess I'm just not as cool as 14-year-old Scottish boys; although they kept reassuring each other that they looked older than they were, that one of them could even pass for 25. I thought they all looked 11. But they all ga ve great reviews for a place called Ben's Cookies on Princes Street. I'll probably go there at some point.
I am currently working on my fifth scarf here. I promised all of my friends that, if they bought the yarn, I would knit them something. Right now, I'm about a third done with a Gryffindor scarf that I started last night.
All of the freshmen we live in the building with keep setting off the fire alarms at ridiculous hours. We're talking anywhere between midnight and six in the morning. There hadn't been any fire alarms set off until a week ago. There have been six this week. Crazy youths.
That pretty much gets us updated to this very minute. A bit more mundane these past couple of weeks, but that's alright.
1 Comment
...but there can be multiple visits.
I love it all. So much happened this week. |