The Universe Listens In Strange Ways

Well hello! Here I am again. I’d been wondering what I’d write about next & had been thinking on it & the the universe decided to give the answer but not one I was ever expecting. I knew that you have to be careful & be very specific because the universe listens in strange ways & then answers in like. 

I’ve been having some new health problems over the past year or so & had been being sent for tests of all kinds. Had a colonoscopy & endoscopy & those tests came back fine for the most part. So I thinking Geeze, there’s a butt load(no pun intended) of money wasted. Blood tests all came back good(well except for cholesterol & that’s always been high) so more money down the drain. Ok, side note here, I don’t have health insurance so I have to pay out of pocket for everything. Anyhow, I went to see my neurologist for my 3 month check in about spinal problems & mentioned that I’d been having a problems with vertigo, well he does all these other tests & then tells me he wants me to go have MRI of my brain. Ooooookay then. Well make appointment for that & why not? Just more more being pissed away, they never find anything on these damn test anyway. So managed to get an appointment for within days of neurologist wanting it. Really should mention here that I am somewhat claustrophobic & if you’ve ever had an MRI you might be able to understand this. I timed it out so that the 7.5mg of Valium I took kicked in just before I had to get in machine. That stuff works great! I was able to tune out all the really loud noises & the rhythm that made it through put the Ramones I Wanna Be Sedated in my head. Not a bad way to spend 20 minutes.

So anyway, a week later I get call from neurologist office telling me that there’s a lesion on my pituitary gland & Doctor wanted me to get another MRI, this time of pituitary itself. So first thing I did was Google lesions on pituitary, all news on that front was good, very rarely cancerous or malignant & easily treatable. So get the from the imaging place & got another quick appointment. So different day, same song, Valium on board again & more Ramones(Blitzkrieg Bop this time) running through head. So second MRI done & back to waiting to hear from neuro doctor telling me I need to see endocrinologist to take care of this. Great, another doctor to add to my list! Well, 3 days later get call from neuro doctor’s office, “Mrs. Melcher it’s not what we thought it was. It’s a tumor/lesion that is surrounding your pituitary gland & is pressing on your optic nerve. We need you to go to eye doctor & get visual field test & you’ll be getting call from Dr.—–, a neurosurgeon to set up appointment.” Wait a minute! Huh?! What?! Did you just say BRAIN TUMOR & NEUROSURGEON? As in someone’s going to cut into my brain! Wait! Wait! Wait! Something’s actually growing in my brain that doesn’t belong there?!!! WHOA! Did you say optic nerve?! Those are my eyes you’re talking about here! Okay, okay, don’t freak out yet! You have to get eye appointment on short notice! FUCK!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay, so managed to get appointment for that afternoon. What fun that was.(Please take note of very heavy sarcasm there) Turns out I do have field of vision loss & one of my pupils dilates instead of contracting with light. Well that’s not good!

Now been waiting almost 2 weeks to hear from neurosurgeon’s office to set up appointment! Do these people not realize how stressful this is?! So I put in a call to the P.A. at neurologist office & first thing she says to me is”Never saw this coming”, that is understatement of all time. Then tells me it is normal for it to take this long to hear from the surgeon, they have this whole routine they have. Well isn’t that just ducky. So been trying my best not to freak out, not that easy when you start getting the weird headaches you’ve been trying to ignore but now know they’re being caused by brain tumor, but while I’ve been waiting it dawned on me that the universe was saying “Here ya go, I’ve given you something to write about” Gee, thanks. 

So my point, yes I’m finally there!, is looks like I’ll be here a bit more often writing about what’s going on with this whole brain tumor business. I’ve been trying to find humor in it all, my friend Linda suggested we name it & call it George, so it’s name is now George. 

Well that’s it for now, I’m going back to trying not to & not get to stress out over not hearing from surgeon.Thanks for stopping by & apparently I’ll be back soon.

I’m Back

Hello again! Yes, I know I’ve been gone a while but here I am, so sit back have a cup of tea or beverage of your choice and settle in because it does take me a while to get where I’m going. What got me back here is I have a friend and neighbor who every spring has these beautiful irises growing in her yard. Her aunt who lives just up the road is known world wide for her irises, she has this huge garden of irises, with bulbs that date back to 1800s in it, it’s called Bolton Gardens, I’ve just always called her The Iris Lady, so anyway, Megan(friend) has some of these flowers in her yard and this year I wanted to take some pictures of them & post them.Well, I took pictures yesterday and was going to post them on tumblr but when I went to do that several things ran thru my head, firstly but not the most import of these things was that the you post photos on tumblr wasn’t going to work for me because we all know I rather ramble on and I didn’t think that what I was going to writing wouldn’t be read by the young ones that follow me there, not that alot follow me but if I’m writing would like for it to be read. The other reason, the most important one, is that the other day Regina, one of my friends on twitter, said that I should write something because she like the blogs I wrote about my travels in London and Edinburgh last year, so here I am again. I should probably post on of the pictures I took if for no other reason than to give your ears a break.

So this is named Greatful Red, the photos really don’t do any of them justice, but you you can see why they get my attention. The Iris Lady & her family are one of the original families in Tucker where I live. Tucker is a small town about 15 miles north east of Atlanta, Georgia. I have lived here most of life as has my dad. We have a downtown Tucker with a real Main Street. Main Street has always been important to Tucker, that is where the railroad tracks are and we are a city that grew up around the railroad. Now one of the cool facts here is that Tucker sits on the Eastern Continental divide and the railroad was built on. Now the cool thing here is that all water west tracks heads into the Chattahoochee River and then into the Gulf of Mexico, all water on other side heads out to the Atlantic Ocean. Just one of those cool odd facts.

Ok, about the river name, it is thought to be a Creek word for rocks- marked, the area around the river is known to have been inhabited since 1000 BC and was the dividing line between the Creek and the Cherokee nations before the Trail of Tears happened. I would explain the Trail of Tears but that is just to sad and horrific for me to go into, a very terrible part of American history, manifest destiny, what utter shit!

Alright, now that I’ve rambled on and on I’ll leave you with a few other photos and be on my way. I’d like to thank you for stopping by and two big thank you’s in no particular order, thank you Regina for saying what I needed to hear to get me back here! And thank you to Laura who got me to remember to take phone w/camera with me on

 

my dog walks! 

This one is Starring.

This one is Hello Darkness.

This one is CanCan Red.

Thank guys, see ya soon.

Grandparents Love

Well I’m back. Took me this long to decide what I wanted to write about. It’s my maternal grandparents. It’s kind of funny the amount of family history on that side of my family that none of us(mom & her brothers) have ever known, some of the things that we did find out had more to do with the fact that my grandma’s sister forgot there were things that weren’t talked about, not that anything was being kept secret, they just weren’t talked about. But this is about what I do know, two of the biggest facts, one I loved them both & miss them everyday, secondly, they loved each other very much & they loved all of us with no judgement. So here goes.

My grandmother was Hester Rose Johnston Banda, she born 0n April 1, 1907 & died May 16, 2004. She was born in a small town here in Georgia called Snellville, fact is she was born there before it was even named. She had four brothers & one sister. Two of her brothers died when young & none of us don’t even know their names. Her two brothers that lived were Oscar & Pleaman(no idea) & her younger sister was named Lawrence, my granddad called her Flossy so that’s what we all called her, Aunt Flossy, she was a hoot!

Grandma always considered herself a country girl, well she was from the country, but they had a home they lived in during the summer & a city house for the winter. I know she worked as a milliner(hat maker) & that she was married & divorced before she married my grandfather, this bit is only known because Aunt Flossy let it slip to my mom once but that’s all we’ve ever known. One other thing that we all knew but my grandfather never did, she hated the color red.

My grandfather we knew a bit more about, but not much. My grandfather was Juan Abel Banda & he was born in Puebla, Puebla, Mexico on May 12, 1903 & died August 6, 1981. He was born in Mexico but was Spanish by blood, both sets of his grandparents immigrated to Mexico from Spain, I think they were teachers. But anyway, his mother died when he a baby & his father remarried & they started having kids, boy did they have kids. His step mother wanted to name the children in alphabetical order so she decided that she would change the order of his names so that she had her A, then came Breatrice, Celia, David, Edith, Felicia, Guido, Hugo, Inugo, Julietta, & Leonelia. For whatever reason there was no K name, I have a feeling there was a baby who had the K name & it didn’t live. A whole lot about that family we never found out because when my grandfather was about 19 he left his family, left the church & left his country & came to the United States to become a citizen & start his life. Somehow he wound up & in Georgia & married & divorced then married my grandmother. He worked for Fulton Paper Co. in exporting. He traveled to Cuba & South America as part of his job, my husband likes to tease & say that granddaddy really worked for the CIA & the other was just a cover. He was a Mason & a Shriner(I now have his fez, fez are cool). In 1967/68 he went into the hospital to have some sort of bowel surgery & after the surgery he had a major stroke that mostly paralyzed his left side. the older of my two uncles had gone home to change clothes & head back to the hospital & while he was at home the phone rang & the person on the other end said his name was John Banda & he was looking for Juan Banda, his father! Well this was never mentioned to either grandparent then or at any time later. This is something that we’ve all wondered about but sometimes that just the way things happen.

For me this is when things changed in my world. I was 7 or 8 when all this happen & I remember being taken into his hospital room to visit but no one prepared me for what I would be seeing, there were tubes & machines & bags with things in them(I now know that he had a temporary colostomy) & I freaked out! I remember screaming in fear, here was the man I loved most in the world & he had been changed, I so hope he was drugged up & never realized that, I know I was a child & that he would have understood but I still feel very guilty about that to this day & that was over 43 years ago.

But anyway, after that he retired. The working with stroke patients back then was not like it is today, neither is the medications & testing. Over the years he had mini strokes & at one point they removed part or all of the artery in his neck because of a blood clot. Now through all of this he never lost any of his mental functions. He was still all there.

Through all of this my grandmother continued to work & to take care of him. For some of the time my two uncles lived at home & helped when they could. Then in 1970 grandma was in a bad car wreck & fractured her pelvis so she was laid up & I had had plastic surgery on my leg & stayed with them while I healed. What a trio we were. Well grandma healed & went back to work, that woman lied about her age for years & continued working until she was 86 or 87.

I don’t remember Christmas’s before the stroke but I do remember the ones after & every year granddaddy gave grandma an article of clothing that was red, his favorite color & one he thought she would look good in & every year she would open the gift & tell him how much she loved it & then she would put it up but never once told him she hated red because she didn’t want to hurt him. And here we come to the point of all of this. He tried to never complain to her & wanted to give her gifts that he thought suited her because he knew how hard she worked & she never complained about any of it, he loved her til the day he died & I’m sure beyond.  And she took his gifts & told him she liked them because she loved him.

It doesn’t matter how much you know or don’t know about your family so long as you know one thing, they loved each other & that’s really all that really needs knowing.

Twenty three years after his death, 4 days after what would have been his 101st birthday grandma died. Before they lowered the coffin into the ground I laid 2 perfect red roses on her coffin so that she had something red with her when she saw him again.

Thank you for sticking with this rather rambling story, sorry for any mistakes but I can’t proofread, I’ll wind up deleting the whole thing if I did so I’ll just let be. And if you take anything at all away from this let it be that These two people loved each other & they loved me & I loved them.

Pictures! And Just Random Thoughts & Such

Okay, let’s see if I really did figure out how to post pictures!

Cool! So far so good. These are the flowers that were outside the 1st hotel I stayed at. I took this picture for my Mom, just loved the duel colored flowers. Have no idea what they are but they are pretty.

These are just 2 of the trays of sweets at the pastry counter in Herrods! Thank god I lost my taste for sweets! Looked so tempting anyway! The cost was a bit much! The cheapest one was 6 pounds which is $9.57 US.

This is the doorman at Herrods, the only employee who you are allowed to photograph. Don’t know why. But this man was very nice, I guess you’d have to be when you have hundreds of people taking your picture every day.

Westminster Bridge, people working to take dumb tourist money. I’m sorry, but paying to have your picture taken with someone in a ugly Queen of England mask(if I was the Queen I’d put a stop to that real quick, those mask are just ugly) or a fake Jack Sparrow(ya know he was never in England) is just a stupid waste of money. Even stupider waste of money was the people who were throwing it away playing the equivalent of 3 Card Monte but with match boxes. I would walk by saying loudly “You are playing a rigged game!”

That’s the London Eye in the background.

Better view of the Eye. It takes an hour to an hour & a half for it to make full circuit! Now I wouldn’t do it! Do Not like heights!

This is one of many war memorials that are all over Westminster. I got very irritated at this one, there were children crawling all over it & their nannies just standing there chatting. I just found it just so disrespectful. It is such a wonderful piece of sculpture.

This is a monument in honor of the pilots who lost their lives in WWII, all I could think when I saw it was “Don’t blink!”

I loved this monument! I know it’s hard to make out but the sculpture is womens military dresses, it’s honoring the women who fought in WWII. Loved that they were remembered!

 

This is the front of the Supreme Court, the ladies on either side are the equivalent of our Lady Justice. Remarkable sculptures.

This is Westminster Abbey, absolutely beautiful! It was one of those places that I didn’t want to pay almost $20.00US to go in to look around with scads of other people getting in my way!

Now we’re in Trafalgar Square & that’s Nelson’s Column with Admiral Nelson atop of it. At the base there are 4 bronze relief casts that were made from captured French guns. Nelson himself stands 11 feet tall & according to i_am_rachel the way that he situated know matter where you stand & look at him he looks your height.

Now we’re on the train heading for Edinburgh, this was my first look at the Scottish coast. That is the North Sea out there. Sorry best I could do from a moving train.

This is the view from my window at The Old Waverly Hotel. That’s the base of the Scott Monument in the Princes Gardens.

I know it’s a little dark but this is the top of the Scott Monument.

That’s the Edinburgh Castle up on that big hill. Never made it UP there, was way too much up hill walking.

The roof in the foreground is the glass roof of the train station, that’s how close we were to it. The building in the back ground are office buildings.

Office buildings straight ahead, train station on the left(it has it’s own shopping mall), on the right is The Princes Gardens & all thoses cars are taxis waiting on people lugging their own bags.

Edinburgh Castle from another angle

End of Festival fireworks from hotel restaurant. The whole thing was beautiful!

This is the bagpiper who’s playing I woke up to. Loved it!

Normally I won’t let my picture be taken because I hate the way I look, but it’s a piper & it’s Scotland, soooooo. Still think I look terrible though!

This is the Cannongate Church Cemetery in foreground, headstones that date back to the 12th century! Up on the hill is an office building! Doesn’t look like any office building we have here!

This is the view up Cannongate Road, all these wonderfully old(14th, 15th & 16th century) buildings!

This is the side of the Scottish Parliament building that great majority of Scots hate. Way too modern. I took the picture to get the Salsbury Crags in the distant.

Now directly across the road from the parliament building is The Palace of Holyrood. This is one of the doors at the entrance, yes that’s real gold. Love unicorns.

This is the other door. I wish I could have gotten a picture of the doors closed.

Okay, this is the the flower that’s inlaid all up Rose Street where all these pubs are. Only took me getting to the third one & looking at this picture that it dawned on me that it’s a rose & I was on Rose St.! Damn I quick.

This is Dirty Dick’s Pub where I ate on aborted pub crawl. Like I said in last blog, giggley name, sad story.

Back in London. This is this great news stand that dog came to work with owner to just hangout & people watch. Just up from Earl’s Court tube station.

The back garden that my balcony at The Amsterdam Hotel looked down at.

Back home & these are the dogs that wouldn’t let me out of their sight!

Okay, now just a few thoughts. If you go to Great Britain keep in mind the money conversion. Everything seems like it’s priced here, so your brain doesn’t think about the exchange rate. Example, you’re looking at a menu & the meal you want is 8.95, now similar meal on menu here is also 8.95. The difference here is $8.95 is 8 dollars & 95 cents; in Great Britain 8.95 is 13 dollars & 87 cents.  Everything there is like that. Just something to keep in mind.

If you go also remember take at least 2 pair of very comfortable walking shoes. This one is very important. You will be doing lots & lots of walking, especially in Edinburgh, the Scots are some walking folk! Also, London is relatively flat, Edinburgh not so much, it’s very hilly.

Also, it doesn’t matter what time of year you go make sure you have a all weather jacket that you can easily carry with you.

And lastly, I know this sounds sexist but I don’t care, travel with a man & let him do all the lugging of suitcase.

Okay guys, this finishes up my Great Britain travels & I would like to thank you all for stopping in. Now I need to figure out what I should write about in this place next. If any of you have any suggestions let me know. Well, until I figure it out thank you all.

Oxford( Or How A Striped Mouse Saved My Ass )

Okay, just to let you know this part will be heavily edited in the telling because even though I was upset & rather pissed off I do still like my traveling companion & do consider her my friend, & telling about Oxford would be a little hard without telling this so here we go.

Last I left off we were on the train heading to London to head to Oxford. Damn, what a sentence that is. But anyway, as on the way to Edinburgh the scenery was beautiful, but by this time the pain from my back & the fact that for the past few days I really hadn’t felt well was crashing down on me. I tried taking pain meds but pain had hit the point that they weren’t working & at one point I was just sitting there crying(truthfully more like sobbing) & just wishing I was at home so I could just curl & sleep until pain & fever went away. And to top it all off I knew I had to tell companion she wasn’t welcome back at house to just camp out on sofa & that she’d have to make other plans. But while I’m sitting there crying she never said a word to me, she just stared at me.Well that didn’t help any. We finally got to London & discovered that the train we needed to take to Oxford left out of Paddington Station & not the one we had been given tickets for! So now it’s more lugging of luggage & getting another taxi! Not helping my mood. That & companion was wigging out about pay toilets, had never heard of such a thing & how could they do that. Tried to tell her they’ve been around for decades & not that big a deal, but she’d never heard of them & they didn’t have in New Mexico & so forth & so on. Get the fuck over it already!!!! Anyway, got a cab to the other station & more freaking lugging & finding the right track & then figuring out it’s rush hour! As you may have noticed none of this is helping me. And then find out we have to take luggage on to car with us since we’ll be getting off after 4 stops. I didn’t want to upgrade this time since it was only 4 stops & seats were supposed to have plenty of leg room. Well finally get on to train with luggage & train was so packed there were no seats so I had to stand. All of us that were standing were where the cars connect to each other which I’m sure is not safe. I was mashed up against the door to the toilet which didn’t shut good & kept swinging open & then when train went around one of those bumpy curves my head got slammed into corner of the toilet! So not happy! Finally after 2nd stop there were some seats to be had & I grabbed myself one. The girl who was sitting next to me kept scratching at her head with a pulled open bobby pin, like she had bugs or something! I could not wait to get off that train! Finally got to station & a young man was nice enough to lift my suitcase down for me. More lugging & getting a cab to next B&B(couldn’t wait to see this one since last 2 sucked big time), well we got there & I told her she could pay for this cab. Got myself & my bags out & was waiting on sidewalk since cabdriver didn’t pull into driveway & up to the door. Well I look up & I’m being waved over to cab, she didn’t have the cash to pay for cab. Well this was the last straw for me, I had paid for most everything so far to this point & had no intention of paying for anyone besides me anymore, so I paid for the cab & managed to get bags up to the door. When we rang the doorbell It was answered by someone who didn’t speak or understand very much English & this really irritated me. Well I got her to understand I wanted to leave my bag down at desk & went up to room with companion. Room wasn’t bad, wasn’t great but by this time I was just going to tell her what I needed to tell her & get a cab & find me my own room for the night & head back to London a day early & get a room there. I needed to be by myself, I just couldn’t do another 2 days with her without having my head explode. So I told her about back home & only reaction I got was “I figured”. This really irked me. Then I told her that I wasn’t going to be staying & as nicely as I could manage I told her why & just had to ask why when she had to have known I hadn’t been well & why she did say anything when I was crying on the train & just stared? Her response was “There wasn’t anything I could do”. Arrrrrggggggg! She had no reaction to any of this. I could have said it raining & gotten the same reaction. I told her I would see her at the airport on Friday & went downstairs & asked the girl to please call me a cab. Okay let me say here that ther was other things that went into this whole thing, I know I sound like a terrible person & felt like one, but I said everything as nicely as I could, but I knew that this was by far better than if I stayed, I know I would have blown & when I blow it usually involves very loud yelling & me throwing things(not at anyone, just the need to break something)so this was far kinder.

Anyhow, owner finally showed up & called me a cab & gave the names of a couple of hotels that might have a room. Turns out this was the week when students & their parents showed up to get settled in for the start of school, well it is a college town. The cab came & got me & I told him that I was trying to find a place for the night & had the names of a couple of places, he asked why I wasn’t staying where he picked me up & everything came pouring out! This nice man, Seth, wound up taking me around to 6 different hotels & turned off the meter & insisted on only charging me a flat 10 pounds! Finally found a room at the Travel Lodge. By this time I am not in good shape at all, I was close to falling on my face, could hardly stay in an upright position, my back was bent into a C, couldn’t straighten it, had a fever & pain was just overwhelming, that & I felt really bad about whole situation. Now I started to get a little paranoid about the hotel, there was no 2nd lock on the door & no phone in the room & everytime someone walked down the hall it sound like door knob was being messed with. I went on twitter to try & calm myself down. I was scared & I don’t scare easy, but being by myself in a different country(yes, I know it was my choice), sick & in so much pain was just getting to me. I was tweeting, DMing, with two of my twitter friends, Mr_Bizza & striped_mouse, both helped me calm down & striped mouse went on line on found 4 or 5 different hotels in London(I was so out it the finding a room in London just never entered my mind) that had a room for the next night & sent me the links. I found a really nice room in Earl’s Court next to South Kennsington. Striped Mouse really saved my ass! She helped me more than I can ever say, knowing I had not only somewhere to stay the next night in London but somewhere nice was such a load off my mind that I didn’t even realize was there! And Mr Bizza helped me feel better about myself in the situation. I really don’t know how I would have made through the night with out these 2 people! Or the next 2 days for that matter.Well decided to try & get some sleep, I put my suitcase in front of the door & moved a chair in front of that, I figured anyone trying to get in room would at least make alot of noise. Well, I got up & went out front to have a cigarette & got to talking with a couple of businessmen & a older couple who were going to a wedding & were outside for the same reason & discovered that my over tired brain had just run away with itself, the Travel Lodge was just a cheap hotel that businessmen traveling & people wanting some place cheap & clean stayed at. Hey, if your brain has never gone into overdrive & ran away with itself under difficult circumstances then cheers to you. Well I went back to room & threw away anything that I didn’t need to try & lighten my suitcase, it just seemed to be getting heavier & got repacked, checked out & got front desk to get me a cab to head to the train station. I got lucky again with getting a cab nice cab driver, I needed to stop by an ATM before going the station & this cabbie turned off the meter & he was only charging me 10 pounds! The cab drivers in Oxford are great guys! Well, got to the train station & got on train & settled in on the train. It wasn’t a bad trip, took about 45 minutes to get to London & get the worst cab driver in Great Britain! This ass didn’t even get out to help with my bags! I told him the name of the hotel, The Amsterdam Hotel in Earl’s Court & off we went to the hotel. During this trip he did not say one word & then he pulls up in front of the Earls Court tube station, I said “This isn’t the hotel.| & he said he knew that & needed address. Why didn’t he mention this some where in the 30 freaking minute trip! Thankfully hotel was just around the corner a half a block behind us, so then he has to decide to make a U turn in that freaking traffic! He pulls up in front of hotel & doesn’t get out of cab to help me with my luggage! Prick! If a nice young who was just getting ready to check in hadn’t offered to take it up the steps I might still be there trying to do it myself! As the woman who own’s the hotel was checking me in I asked what times the front doors lock at night because I smoked & she told me the front doors were always open & told me she had a nice smaller room with it’s own balcony & that I could I could smoke out there. This was absolutely great news! Because… wait for it… there were more stairs! A curve staircase with those narrow steps! The thought of those stairs! But it was the stairs or the lift! My towel closet is bigger & I have a small towel closet! Seriously, there was room for just 1 person. But anyway, the room was small, but it was lovely & there was the French door that open outward onto a proper balcony! And it look out over the this very pleasant back English garden. First thing I had to do was email my sister to let her know I was at a nice place & okay. She was worried about me after everything that had gone on & with my back giving out, so had to let her know I was okay. then guess what time it was? That’s right! Time for a pint & small bite! Well as luck would have it there was a nice pub just around the corner. So I headed over there. I got myself a nice English ale & ordered the hummus, I figured it couldn’t be to bad, right? It was the best hummus I’ve ever had! It was served with 4 inch by half inch rectangles of chibata bread that was pan toasted the way real croutons are & the Hummus was wonderfully light in texture & tasted soooo good. I can’t remember the name of the pub But you can find it at the corner of Earl’s Court Rd. & Hogarth Rd.

The rest of the afternoon I spent taking in my surroundings, looking at the different shops & a few things I needed & then headed back to hotel & totally repacked everything. I couldn’t stop to rest, I knew that if I did I so just crash & I just couldn’t do that yet. I did go back out to get a bite  & then worked on this blog, not this one blog but as a whole. I’m just going to trust that sentence makes sense cause I’m not going to read it. Well I did finally crash. Then got up at 7:30am, I had to leave for the airport at 9:30. The other stuff was just checking out, cab ride to airport, more lugging, all that fun stuff. Notice the very heavy sarcasm. The only thing of note was the airport itself once you got past security. There’s a freaking Harrods at the freaking airport! I kid you not! If I could have afforded it I could have bought a pair of Jimmy Choo’s.  There was a really good looking raw bar. When I got to the gate my traveling companion was there & we talked some, she had had a nice time as far as she said. The flight boarded & we were in business economy, after they shut the doors of the plane the flight attendants told all of us that since flight was so undersold that we could have our own row if we wanted. Well I went & got me a seat next to window, had like 4 pillows & blankets put my seat belt on at it’s loosest, took a valium, turned on the little tv on the back of the seat in front of me, snuggled up & dozed for the better part of 4 hours, the last 4 1/2 hours spent watching tv. Finally landed, by this time I’m truly not in a good mood, it had been 14 hours since I had had a cigarette! And oh joy. then came customs. What fun that was was & stupid, get your bags & then you have to recheck them & go through baggage claim again! When I got to baggage claim I found me a sky cap, gave him money & he went to get luggage & lug it for me, out to the shuttle & put bags on to shuttle for me.(An aside, my traveling companion & I got off the plane & went through customs together & when we got to baggage claim I went out to have a cigarette before luggage. When I came back she had left to head to ticketing) When we got to my car the driver put my suitcase in trunk for me. And I headed home. When I got home my son was waiting outside for me & he brought in my luggage. No more lugging! And the I was attacked by dogs!

Okay, that basically ends our story, but there is one more chapter, an appendix if you will. I think I figured out how to post pictures & there are a few things that occurred to me, this one will be short I promise. Then I get to think about what I want to write about next.

Edinburgh Part 4

Okay, new day & time to change hotels day. This was my last day of waking up to bagpipes. So I get up & get ready for the day! First things first, COFFEE! So down for breakfast, remembered this time & no OJ. Then it was off to front desk to let them know we were ready to check out & bags were ready to be brought down. We were going to The Old Waverly’s sister hotel The Holyrood ApartHotel & since they set this up for us they were also paying for cab to take us there, which I thought was really nice. So off we go to new hotel. The ApartHotel was only about a mile away but almost different city. We were going to Cannongate which was a totally separate city from Edinburgh until 1856. The hotel was on a close between Holyrood & Cannongate(a close is like an alleyway that sometimes connect streets, sometimes just have old homes or businesses down them)& it’s pronounced Holly rude. We get there & get checked in but have a two hours before we can have room so we leave luggage(my new computer is in purse)& go check out new surroundings. When we came out of close we came out on Cannongate(always came out on Cannongate, Holyrood didn’t really have much of anything of interest except restaurants as far as I could tell) & right across the street from the close was Ye Olde Christmas Shoppe, now there was a landmark I could remember so I could find hotel again! Well I love Christmas & I needed some happy so of course I went in. I love Christmas stores, for just a few moments you can believe it is Christmas. Would have loved to have bought some ornaments there but a little pricey & also rather delicate & probably wouldn’t have survived the trip home. so back out to street & just a few steps up the street is the Cannongate Church & it’s cemetery. There were headstones there that dated back to the 13th century! I would have loved to have taken some pictures of them but they were so old that time & weather had made them almost unreadable. Companion said they should take of them & do them so they could be read. I think she missed the point. Now up on this big hill over looking church & cemetery was this very old, very impressive building, looks like it was either someone very important home or important government building. Now when I say old I mean looks like it dates back to at least the 12th century & today it’s a office building! Amazing! Well by this time I’d decided it was time for a cup of coffee & a pint! So we walked up to a pub called Canon’s Gait, this named for a horse. Was early enough that it was busy & it was a nice place. A couple came in & sat at the table next to us & I got to talking with them, turns out they were from Phoenix, Arizona where John, my husband, is from. That was really kind of neat, talking about things & places I knew.

Well by this time our room would be ready so we headed back to the hotel to get settled & shower & change. Now the hotel itself is this boxy looking building stuck back in the close so you don’t see it from either street, so I was expecting some boxy generic hotel room, boy was I wrong! There were 2 good sized bedrooms, one with it’s own bathroom(I got that one), a main bath in hall next to other bedroom, at the end of the hall where bedrooms were there was a common room with tv,DVD player stereo. There was a sofa, chairs & a dining room table & chairs. We’re talking a good size room & forming a L at the end of the room was a real kitchen with stove, oven, microwave, fridge, dishwasher, & washer/dryer combo. Even had juice, milk & yogurt in fridge. none of it was so what I expected! Hell in the bedroom there was even a desk that you could sit at & really use. And the shower, it was a electric shower, I really liked it. You turn it on, set water pressure & temperature & turn water on. I just liked it.

Okay, we both had plans for afternoon, she wanted to go tour the Queen’s Palace & do one of the night ghost tours. Neither of which appealed to me. I wanted to go have a good look see of where we were & wanted to do a proper pub crawl, so the plan was I would walk down to the palace with her & then go on my way & then meet up at hotel at 7:00PM & share cab back to Princes St. to go our respective ways. So off we went down to the palace, seeing the palace won’t have been bad but paying 20 pounds wasn’t something I wanted to do. So she went in & I started looking. Now the out side of palace I did check out. The real name of the place is The Palace Of Holyrood, it was built in the 16th century for Mary, Queen of Scots. The royal family still stays there on their annul summer visit. The doors to the place are something else! On one door there is a unicorn all in gold(the real thing), the other door has a lion on it. Now those are doors!

Across the road from the palace is the Scottish Parliment building, most Scots DO NOT like this building & I can understand why, it’s this very contemporary looking building sitting in with these wonderful old buildings. It sticks out like a sore thumb! It is ugly!

Now if you stand with the palace to your left & Parliment on your right your facing this big hill that’s called The Salsbury Crags, so beautiful, wish I was younger & before I had back issues, would have loved to have climbed it!

So I headed back up the street to look around. Just as you pass by Parliament heading up Cannongate is the QueenburyHouse, dates back to the 16th century, and check this out, 2nd duke was caught roasting his kitchen boy on a spit! He was one sick puppy!

Going back up the street there are several very nice kilt makers, kind of got the feeling the families that own the shops have owned them for hundreds of years. That’s really mind boggling to me. One family owning one business for that long. think about that for a minute. I’ll wait. Okay, how many family owned businesses can you think of? Even if you can can think of some how far do they go back? None of them can go back as far back as some of these families do, we as a country haven’t been around as long as they have.That put’s it into perspective. Also I just like the fact there are still real kilt makers. There are still also bagpipe makers. Sorry, I just really love the sound of bagpipes, just so mournful sounding. I love Amazing Grace on the pipes, makes me cry every time I hear it. You should see when I watch Star Trek: The Wrath Of Khan, when Scotty plays that on the pipes I just lose it! Crying!

Anyhow, all up & down the street there are these houses that date back to the 16th century, one has become a old folks home & a couple of them have become museums. But these are intermixed with alot of shops of different sorts, as I said kilt makers, bagpipe makers , cigar stores, there are also these whiskey stores, & you can in & do tastings. Made me wish I liked scotch. Anyway, but there are all these cafes & some pubs, no I didn’t decide it was time to have a pint. I decide it was time to have a proper pot of tea. I found this nice tea shop, I can’t for the life of me remember the name of it, I wish I could. It was cool & misty outside(I loved it) so I decided to have a bowl of soup, when I asked the waiter what the soup of the day was & he said it was cream of parsnip , I asked him what parsnip tasted like, he said he couldn’t describe it but he liked it, so I decided to give it a chance. I liked the soup, I can’t describe what it tasted like but I like it. Really, it didn’t taste like anything I’ve ever tasted before. So I have no reference point. Yeah I know, some of you are laughing at me, but that’s okay. Back to my proper pot of tea. I chose to have the owner’s own blend, one that he actually is well known for, it was really was good, but the most memorable thing about the shop was the owner, I was sitting with my back to the counter & all of a sudden I heard the owner talk. It was Scotty! I would have sworn that Star Treks Scotty was standing behind me! I whipped around to look & then discovered he looked just like the Brian the Kiwi who is one of the owner’s of Shorty’s, our favorite pizza place here at home. I turned back around, ate my soup & drank my tea & listened to this guy, he was a talker & he was funny. It was a great way to pass an hour on a chilly, misty day.

By this time my back was pretty bad & I had forgotten to put meds in my purse, so I decided to head back to the hotel, take meds & get some rest for my back so I’d be prepared for my pub crawl.

Well after taking meds , resting a bit & catching up on some emails(also checking on work) talked to companion who had changed mind about going on ghost tour so asked if she wanted to go on pub crawl with me & get some dinner, didn’t seem right leaving her there when all shops & cafes closed between 5 & 6PM. So it was decided she go with me & I do an abbreviated crawl(yeah, I know), so got dressed & got taxi down to Rose St., he dropped us off at one end so that we could work our way down & see the whole street. I have truly never seen so many bars in one place before! But I did figure out why there are so many. Each one is so small that it would take about 20 of them to make a small bar here. But as we were walking down the street getting the lay of the street & what pubs there were I kept seeing these flowers done in in laid stones on the street, when I came to the 3rd one I decided I needed a picture of them, as I’m taking the picture it dawns on me that they are roses. And I’m on Rose St! Damn, sometimes I’m so quick I amaze even myself. Well this was after about a half a block & companion was rather dragging & didn’t see point of crawl soooo, decided we pick one pub & just go & have dinner & then head back to hotel. Not happy. So after walking down & back up street(could have hit 2 pubs in the time it took) we decided to go to Dirty Dick’s, yes the name is giggling inducing to some of us but the story behind the name is actually very sad. Back in 17th century there was this man named Richard who was seriously poor & homeless, the only way he could make any money was to follow around after the draft horses picking up their manure, the owner of this pub felt bad for the guy & would invite him in a few times a week & give him a couple of glasses of ale & listen to his stories of what was going on around the city, he came to be called Dirty Dick(for obvious reasons) & became rather well known; well turned out he had this uncle who heard about him & search for him to let him know that he was a very wealthy man due to a inheritance, well by the time he found him Dirty Dick had already died due to the life he had led. The owner of pub changed the name of his pub to honor him. That’s just sad!

So anyway, we went in & ordered at the & then found a table. I decided it was time to have fish & chips, after all I couldn’t very well leave Great Britain without having had some. It was pretty good but on my god, salt people, SALT! The inside of the pub was dimly lit & had scads of things up on the walls & hanging from the ceiling, kind of like Long Horn, Applebees & Cracker Barrel, but more so. Seriously, more so! So I had my last Scottish pint & my fish & chips & was it was time to head back. As we were walking out the door Skynards “Sweet Home Alabama” started playing! Well I decided to have a cigarette & listen to the song, just loved the fact I was standing in the doorway of a pub in Scotland listening to Skynard’s “Sweet Home Alabama”. After the song was over we headed up to Princes St. to get a cab back to hotel. When we got back to hotel we had decided to watch Keeping Mum on DVD we got from the hotel. I had seen it before but she hadn’t. It stars Rowan Atkinson & Kristen Scott Thomas, a great British comedy, if you haven’t seen put on your to watch list. She didn’t seem to find it funny, to busy rewriting & redirecting. I decided to get some sleep because I needed to get up early & hit Jenner’s to buy a travel bag, I shipped mine home not thinking about the fact that I would need it. Wasn’t thinking. But gave me a chance to go shopping shopping! Yea! So next morning I got up early & got a cab & headed up to Princes St. & Jenner’s, wanted to get there when it opened so I could some power shopping since we were leaving & taking train to Oxford in about 4 hours. Well got there about an hour before opening time & decided that since I was in serious need of coffee I hit the Costa Coffee shop & have a relaxing cup & see what was happening on twitter while I waited for 9Am to roll around. I ordered a large cup of cafe americano(what passes as American coffee) & went & got myself a nice comfy chair & settled in. Now this cup of coffee was so big that the cup had two handles on it & you needed them both to be able to lift the damn thing! But hey, I definitely got my caffeine fix! By the time I finished the behemoth of a cup it was time to head over to the store. Once inside store it was a matter of finding where I needed to be, it took asking 4 different people(my fault not theirs, the place is huge) but I finally made it to luggage. Then looking at everything at least twice & then remembering where the one I liked were I finally chose a really nice bag that was marked as 40 pounds & when I went to pay found it had been marked down 15 pounds! Cool for me! Headed back to hotel to finish up packing & head to the train station.

We get to the train station & it was time for lugging luggage around again. People of train stations in UK, I have one word for you, PORTERS! The stations are confusing enough without having to lug your own luggage! We already had our standard tickets but after all the lugging all over the place I decided I didn’t know about companion but I was going to upgrade to 1st class again. I wanted to be comfortable. So quite frankly didn’t care if I rode by myself. finally made it to the train & found the 1st class car & stopped to double check about being able to up grade on train & find out where the luggage car was, Tony, the nice young man who worked as one of the guys who direct you to correct car & whatever else they do, but he said he would take care of getting luggage checked on to the train & took my carry on  & my trench & put on train & reserved me a seat & kept an eye on things until I got on train. Took me like 5 minutes to accept tip. He was a such a nice young man. God I sound old!

Okay, this is where we’re finishing Edinburgh. Next it’s Oxford(yeah, right) & that’s where everything changes.

Edinburgh Part 3

Okay, so when I before I went to bed I opened the window next my bed so I could hear night sounds & enjoy the wonderful cool weather, made for a good nights sleep. The next morning I woke up to the sound of a bagpiper across the street! What a great way to wake up! Getting ready for the day & listening to bagpipes, loved it! So went down for breakfast buffett, well mainly coffee. On the buffett there was black(blood) sausage(sorry but yuck), that Scottish staple haggis(again yuck, if you know how they’re made I’m sure most agree with me), scrambled eggs, toast, other different sausages, cereals, grilled tomatoes, sauteed mushrooms caps & I really want someone to explain this one to me, it seems to be a very British breakfast thing, beans, like pork & beans here. Don’t understand that one, then again I’m sure there are plenty of things about our foods & eating habits that Brits find odd, so… I got some tomatoes & mushrooms(not really a breakfast person) & orange juice & coffee & took a table next to front window & watched the early goings on at the garden across the street. Really must remember(I had forgotten) not to drink OJ within a half hour of brushing teeth! Blech! I sat & nibbled & drank my coffee & watched, love people watching!(an aside, at a later time I’ll be talking about Brits & coffee) So after finished breakfast I went to the front desk to let them know that luggage was ready to be moved to new room. The room I had spent previous night was booked that night so had to get new room, next day would be moving to sister hotel. The new room was smaller but nice, just lucky that they had another room for us.

Well , once we got to new room I needed to go through luggage & pull out things that I could do without & dirty clothes( John had suggested that I ship home any unneeded stuff to help lighten load) so I could ship home. You have no idea how freaking heavy those bags were!

So first thing on days agenda was to get to Mailboxes Etc. for shipping & then on with day. The front desk got us a cab & told me where to find shipping place; could have walked but what I was shipping weighed 45 pounds! Not that I knew that at the time but knew it was heavy & not what I wanted to be lugging around! So got to the shipping place & got everything boxed up & weighed, this is when I found how much all that stuff weighed! I was shocked! Not as shocked when told the cost though! Won’t tell you how much but let’s just say stupidly expensive! But in the long run worth it! Bags were still heavy(seemed to get heavier by the day, it wasn’t, turned out just my body getting weaker) but not as bad as they were.Well I figured we could just walk back to Princes St so we could see more of the city. I had asked how far we were from Princes St & was told it was a 10 minute walk. Okay, when a Scot tells you somethings a 10 minute walk you might want to add another 20 minutes or so to your timetable. I think they must take huge steps & walk faster than us. This was the case everytime I asked how long a walk something was. Just be warned. So after walking about 3 miles decided it was time for water & more coffee. By this time it was lunch time & we chose a busy Italian restaurant that smelled wonderful! I got me my water & coffee & ordered what I thought was a Caprese salad but through misunderstanding on either my part or waitress’s what I was served was a pasta salad, so I just picked out what I wanted & left the pasta. Now don’t get me wrong, I LOVE pasta but I normally only eat once a day & had already had some grilled tomatoes & mushrooms for breakfast & just wanted a little something to keep me going for awhile. And it was the same price as what I thought I had ordered & with crazy lunch rush we would have been there even longer so I just let it go. The food was good though.

So after we finish eating it was back to walking & wandering. There are all these really great Scottish shops that sold nice souvenirs, lovely cashmires, real tartans, kilts & the accoutrements that go with them. You could even buy bagpipes! I wish I could have bought some of these things but due to unforeseen circumstances( story that will be covered in another blog), but I did by some very nice things for my family. I discovered Scots are know for their fudge & my dad love fudge so got some for him! Got some beautiful handmade silver earrings for my mom, a hand embroidered glasses case for my sister, & also got a CD of the Tattoo that had been done the year before. Mom loves bagpipe music. And no a Tattoo is not ink art on a body!  It’s The Edinburgh Military Tattoo, a drum & bagpipe corp. It was originally the way pub keepers were told to send soldiers home for the night during the 17th century & they were fighting the Low countries(Belgium & the Netherlands), the drummers were sent out to start drumming at 9:30 PM until curfew at 10PM. And that is our short lesson on Scots Military Tattoos.

After I had made my purchases & was waiting on traveling companion to finish up I went outside to have a cigarette & call John. There was a bus stop just outside with what passes for a bench(more on lack of benches later) in it. Now I say what passes for a bench these things are only 6 inches, maybe deep enough for a childs butt  but not for mine or most grown people! Anyway, as I was smoking a lovely little old woman sat down beside & as I was putting cigarette out she said she hoped she wasn’t the reason I had put it out. I told that I was done anyway & then we started this conversation about things that happen in life, she, I & my mom all being cancer survivors & things like that. Mostly I just loved listening to her talk! She was such a lovely old lady, I just wanted to bring her home with me. So by this time companion came out of shop & we then hit some of the more tourist type of shops to get t shirts & stuff like that. Well decided to take purchases back to hotel & then go check out the Gardens. First went & checked out the Scott Monument up close, it’s just amazing in it’s architecture! It’s of Gothic design & made from Binny stone, this is a oily stone that attracts dirt, they this was chosen because with all the soot from all the chimneys & from the Edinburgh Waverly train station right by the gardens that it would quickly get that pantina that old structures get. It was built between 1841 to 1845 so it’s old now. There are 287 steps that lead up to the top of the spire & you can get a full 360 degree view, which I imagine is just beautiful BUT I don’t do heights & by this time I wasn’t doing stairs either, legs just wouldn’t to them.  Then we wandered down to the National Gallery, they had just unloaded a new exhibit that was going to be put around the city, life sized tigers, alligators, orangutans &elephants, done in different colors & designs on them. One of the tigers was covered in pennies. They really were so neat looking & were brought in to put around in the gardens & I even saw a couple the day on the other side of the old city. Then we decided to wandering the gardens, by winding foot trail NOT by steps. So funny watching these seagulls wandering around & watching people themselves. The gardens were still lovely even though it was late in season for most flowering plants. There were also these trees that I was told are just called Plain trees(Yeah, I know) that the bark looked like taffeta. After the wandering in park we headed back to hotel, companion said she was tired & done for the day! It was only 4:30 PM! Well I went down to bar to relax & take care of getting some postcards written & ready to post. Also decided to have a cup of tea while I did another part of blog & did some thinking. This is all I’ll say of this until later, day before when talking to my husband John he told me that my companion was not welcome back at house when we came back due to some things she had done or not done as the case maybe(don’t judge on this until you know more). So I had some thinking to do about how to tell her, I didn’t want to tell her then & spoil(at least what I thought) the rest of Edinburgh stay so I decide to wait until Oxford to tell her. In the mean time I’ve got this roiling & eating at my stomach. So sat & thought & blogged. Then decided it was time to do some more wandering so gathered up my things, posted my postcards & set again. Headed out down Princes St. just basically window shopping & looking at buildings. Most of the building are just as they have been for hundreds of years, the streets look so wonderful. Not anything I’m used to. Most everything in Atlanta is new(new ish, less than 50 years old), there are some old building but not many & nothing like in Edinburgh!

Well after a couple of hours of just wandering & looking I decided to head back to hotel bar & grab a bite to eat. I chose soup & a Caesar salad, the soup I really don’t remember so that says something, but the salad was EXACTLY my favorite salad that I get here at home at Shorty’s! Down to the white anchovies! It was so good & I was so surprised! By the time I was finished I saw it was close to 8:30PM & decide to head up to room. Well when I got up there & saw companion already for bed & watching yet another episode of Top Gear(don’t get me wrong, I love Top Gear, but after the kajillionth episode in 5 days) & small room seemed to close in on me with what I had on my mind I decided bar & a pint or two was in order. So head back down to bar & sat at the bar & got to talking to this couple from Philadelphia, they were telling me about some of the sites they had seen & then started talking about Greyfriars Bobby’s statue, I had totally forgotten that this was where that was! I can not tell the story of Greyfriars Bobby, it will make me cry. It involves a very faithful dog & you should google to get the story. It is a wonderful story but just one those that makes me cry if I try to tell it. Sorry. Well then they were telling me about Rose St. that runs parallel to Princes where I was, Rose St. is known for all the pubs on it & I had been wanting to a proper pub crawl since I got to UK! So both of these went on my list of what to do the next day, our last full day in Edinburgh! by this time it was close to 11:30 PM & I decided it probably was time to get some sleep.

Well it looks like we’re going to have another part or so before we’re done with Edinburgh. Part 4 coming soon.

Edinburgh Part 2

Okay, we left off us going up to our room. Well, we got to room which was on the 6th floor, which happened to be the top floor, apparently it was once the garrett of the building, it had these 2 round windows that were about 3 feet in diameter & opened outward,very cool looking. Now on my short but long trip from the train station I wasn’t really paying attention to my surrounds so I was so surprised when I looked out the window & saw the view! Princes Street Gardens was across the street & just so beautiful! Directly across from my window was the Scott Monument, built in honor of Sir Walter Scott, it stands 200 feet & 6 inches tall & is the tallest monument built to honor a writier. It is a beautiful piece of architecture. On the corner was a bagpiper in full kilt playing the pipes, I woke up to him every morning I was at The Old Waverly. Then I looked right out the window & up the street up on the hill or overlook was Edinburgh Castle. I have never had such a lovely view out of any window at any time before!

On the desk was a note from hotel telling about the the 4 course meal at the restaurant where you could have dinner & watch the End Of Festival fireworks that were happening that night in front of the castle. Well, you know it sounded like a good idea so made reservations for it. Well I had a couple of hours until reservation time & I thought a trip to the bar with computer to have a pint(or 2) was in order. Calling the bar a bar doesn’t really do it justice, it’s bright & airy, good, comfortable chairs & very personable bartenders. The windows were large & view faced The Princes Gardens & The Scott Monument so that even if you sat on other side of the room you still had a great view. These things really count to someone like me who when not wandering likes to sit in bar watching & writing.

So anyway, got myself a seat & asked the bartender what good Scottish beers they had& he got me an ale called Edinburgh Gold, very nice taste, not to hoppy. Well I settled down with my ale, pain meds & computer. I needed to catch up on my emails, promised my sister I’d email her everyday so she’d know I hadn’t gotten pillaged, plundered, or killed while running around Great Britain without John. Yeah, that’s gonna happen. So I sat & managed to chill out, get pain to ease up & get a couple of emails done. Actually, part of one these blogs was done while sitting at that window. I personally love sitting & watching & listening to people, it’s so interesting. Well before I knew it it was time for my dinner reservation, thankfully bar was next to the restaurant so didn’t have to far to go, couple of pints & pain meds, ya know. Well I got seated & was facing the window that faced Edinburgh Castle where fireworks were going to be done from. I asked I don’t know how many people who built the castle & who had lived there, but NO ONE could answer this! Mention this to my sister, who could not believe it, so she googled & found out that apparently it’s not known who had the castle built(love it!) It’s built atop Castle Rock(Stephen King anyone) & habitation dates back to 9BC but no records of why or who had it built.

Back to dinner. First the waitress brought out a selection of rolls & butter, normally I’m not a big fan of bread, main reason for eating bread is so that you’re not eating butter by itself(wouldn’t do that but I am a fan of good butter), but I took one of the rolls & buttered it & took a bite. Ohhh, the roll was very tasty, but my oh my, the butter was so good! I know, I know, butter supposed to be a no no, but 1st off I only eat on roll with it & secondly I have a hard time not loosing weight right now so butter it is.

As my first course I chose the cream of mushroom soup, it was truly wonderful, smooth & so flavorful! Second course I chose the lamb rump with vegetables. It was so, so tasty & cooked perfectly medium rare.(Just an aside here, was supposed to be a 4 course meal, they were including wine as one of the courses & since I don’t drink wine I passed. The only reason I mention this is earlier I said 4 course meal & someone reading this will get to the end & notice the discrepancy, I would) My third course, dessert, I chose the fruit & cheese plate. I have to say it was just okay, the cheeses didn’t have a lot of flavor to me. So now coffee & fireworks! I truly did have the perfect seat for the fireworks display, the only thing that would have made it better was if I had been sitting in a recliner. it really was beautiful, & being able to see the castle lit up by them was an amazing sight! At one point there was all the low green light coming through smoke & I was waiting for the mark of the Death Eaters to appear! Fireworks went on for at least 45 minutes, they did a great job, was like the 4th of July here.

Well by the time the show was over it was time for me to go outside & have last cigarette of the day & call John & then try & get some sleep, it had been a very long day & next day would be long also with lots of walking planned.

So this is where we’ll end part 2. I am very wordy so there may be few more parts before we get to the end of Edinburgh, stick with me, we’ll get there. Part 3 coming soon.

Just A Quick Update On Computer Theft

I thought I’d give you a quick update on theft of my computer at The Paddington Best Western since I just got one myself from London police. Well it turns out the management & the staff at the hotel are being very uncooperative with police, not returning phone calls, refusing to give information about employees who were working at time, computer key card records & CCTV footage! The police inspector who’s case it is has tried ten times so far by phone & going in person to talk to these people & they won’t give her the time of day! You know it’s one thing to try & blow me off(any customer for that matter) but to do it to the police! Are they complete morons?

Well the inspector cc me on email she has just sent to the manager of the hotel stating everything I’ve just said, so now I have what I need to write my letter to Best Western Corporate!

Well that’s what’s happening with that. I’ll keep you updated as things happen.

 

Edinburgh Part 1, Getting There

Okay! Let’s remember Edinburgh! Getting there was nice, we took the train & up graded to first class. First class on a train is the way to go! Sitting on the train & watching the country side go by was just lovely. Beautiful scenery just going by. You’re going to love this bit. I live in North Georgia, in the US, & when driving south I’m used to seeing horses or cows in fields(I’ll roll down windows & moo at cows, silly I know but they have answered back), well as train got out of any London city I saw horses & cows, I’m thinking “Well cool, kind of like countryside at home”, then countryside did subtle change, it’s really hard to describe, it really had to do with the trees. There were less of them & they stood in copses. And there were these really cool tall trees that stood out in theses far off rows, I have this feeling that somehow nature did that way. then you’re going along & you see these fluffy little animals with black faces & legs, & your brain goes “SHEEP! Those are sheep!” Silly, I know but I’ve never seen sheep before & it was just neat! If you think that’s funny you should have seen my reaction when we past the first nuclear power plant! Another thing I’ve never seen before & I just never thought about I guess. Just kind of shocked me. But other than that countryside is so worth seeing!

And then we got to the train station! If you live in the States & you take the train here at the stations there are porters who help you with your luggage & getting it & you to whatever transportation you’ll be using, but apparently this job has not made it to UK. So be prepared to be lugging your luggage around, & I’m here to tell you it’s not fun! Anyway, we weren’t happy about what we read about B&B that Spring had booked(again) so when we got to station went to little office that would find you room for first night & we booked a room at The Old Waverly Hotel. We were told it’s was right around corner of train station so we wouldn’t need a taxi. Well this seemed like good new until I started walking with luggage up the hill out of station! I have severe disc problems in my back & trying to lug all my luggage up this hill just was not going to happen! Went & found a taxi & had to convince driver that yes I knew the hotel was just around corner & that I was very willing to give him money to take us there! Just do it already! Take my money! Fine! I’m nuts, but please I can’t walk with luggage any more! Finally managed to convince him, thank god because I was at point I’d camp out on side walk if necessary. Well got to hotel which really was in sight of the station & then discover stairs & no bellmen! Aaaarrrrgggggg! Was told to ring bell & someone would come & bring luggage in, well I did & they did. But then there were those stairs! It’s not that there were alot of them but I still was dragging myself up them, literally holding bannister & dragging myself up! I was a sight!  Well we got check in & even managed to book another night there in another room & a third night at their sister hotel, so cool stay in Edinburgh taken care of! As we were checking in were told it was the last night of festival & there was going to be fireworks in front of the castle that could be seen from dining room & could have special dinner & watch, yes there was a special cost too but the 4 course meal including wine was worth it. So then we were taken to our room.

Well guys, that’s part 1. I’ll be back tomorrow for part 2, Being in Edinburgh itself. Hope you come back & thank you coming back this time!