of Edinburgh's art and Yokshire's puddings...

This weeks exploring day took Matt and I to the Dean gallery collections quite close to our flat in the West End. We had seen the grounds a bit from a Sunday walk last week and the sculpture garden (as well as the free entry) intrigued us. We had to take a visit.

I was impressed with the exterior curiosities which included this magnificent piece. It was such a marvel as it swayed different directions, offering a different experience from various angles and distances to it. Just approaching it was rather poetic.

I also enjoyed the Henry Moore reclining figure (as I always do)

One of my favorites though was a landform that is open for walking about on not damp days (which has yet to happen of the 2 times I have walked through).

Of course there were other oddities and intrigues along the way that added interest.

The kitschy, neon sign running across the Georgian architecture of the museum: Everything Is Going to Be Alright.

Highlights of the permanent collection were Glawsgian Alastair Gray's drawings, some unnerving German expressionist wooden scultpures, Robert Therien's Table and Chairs (very Alice in Wonderlandy) and of course, Duane Hansen's Tourists. Fittingly with the Tourists piece I entered the gallery room thinking that there were two other people viewing the art than Matt and I. On second look, I realized that the Tourists were the only other presence in the room. That seemed just the way to experience the piece.

In the culinary news, Matt and I got the chance to try some haggis at a friend's place. It was savory oaty good. Something that we both agreed may tempt us to order off of a menu in the future. I also tried my hand at some British cooking tonight. I give to you, Yorkshire pudding pizza (pre-cooked):

The concept of a German pancake with a basil, tomatoes, peppered salami and fresh mozarella. Matt deemed it a hit and one to keep on future dinner schedules for us Sweeneys. Success in this wee, Celcius oriented kitchen is not as common as one would hope. So I am feeling triumphant in this simple recipe.

I love Halloween.

Even if you are too old to trick-or-treat, have nowhere to wear a costume, or don't have a DVD player that can play UK region scary films, there is still much to love about this most wonderful time of the year. I give you...Greggs gingerbread bat biscuits. It will cure all the homesick, missing American-style of celebrating Halloween, or whatever else that ails you.

They are delightfully festive and remarkably tasty. Just the right crunch to chewy ratio in texture and the perfect sweet, spicey ginger flavor. Of course, the chocolate is a great touch too. I just hope they morph this recipe into a Christmas variety after this month.

An Idiot Abroad

I refer to the latest and greatest Ricky Gervais contribution to British television. Of course, perhaps the reason I like this show so much is because I indeed know well what it means to be an idiot abroad. The premise of series is that Stephen Merchant and Ricky Gervais (masterminds behind The Office and Extras) send this fellow named Karl Pilkington to the 7 wonders of the world. It is a slightly cynical, very British yet very honest representation of what it is like to travel to somewhere new, bizarre and foreign. It's a bit of a farce at times but so so spot on about the lost in translation frustration that comes with anything that is out of your experience.

Here's a recap of the show:


So far, Karl has visited China (to see the Great Wall), Jordan (Petra), India (Taj Mahal) and now Mexico to see Chichen Itza. Part of me totally sympathizes with Karl's honest assessment that alot of the experiences you have in a new cultures is just weird and rather inconvenient. At the same time, I can't help but think - you are so so British Karl and there are moments where you are the one I don't quite understand entirely.

That said, here are some highlights from China:


Do you like what you see? Look for it at a library near you once it comes out on DVD!

Got Work?

So it isn't the sweetest gig I've ever landed but I am pretty happy to be bringing in some income working as a room attendant here. There's several nice features about the job.

#1 It's just about a half a mile walk along Queensferry road to get there. Not too bad.
#2 Free lunch from the restaurant chefs downstairs. Not fancy ordering off a menu or anything but today included some perfectly poached eggs.
#3 I get paid. That means less stress and more traveling. Hoorah!
#4 My hours. I work 8am-3pm and I only work Tues-Thurs. Sweet schedule really. No weekends or evenings.
#5 I think, after several months of eating lunch with my Polish co-workers, I will soon learn the art of kolache and the like cooking. They seemed keen on teaching me their secrets - well I think that is what they meant. Maybe I should learn a few Polish words while I'm at it as communication includes lots of wild hand gestures to relate information at this point. It is surprisingly entertaining. We "have a laugh".
#6 Themed rooms, including "The Endurance" and "The Nimrod", make for a bit more fun of cleaning than the regular fare. There is something about mopping a floor with a gigantic backdrop of Ernest Shakleton and his ship that is a more escapist than you might expect.
#7 I believe there will be some noteworthy anecdotes along the way. For example, Evanna, the Polish lady training me today, was making it hard for me to not laugh out loud everytime she approached a room to see if there was anyone in it. She's a wirey but mighty one and about as zip quick a worker as they come. First she would knock knock knock, and put her ear to the door trying to hear if anyone was in the room. Knock knock...twist of the key and with door slightly ajar..."jhalo! jhoousekeeping..." then a momentary pause to see if there was any response and bam! She would bust the door open like it was some kind of swat team raid with her hoover in hand. There was something profoundly amusing about it each time.

So seven good things about a job is pretty...well...good. Now onto fun things. What places will we go with 25% of the earnings we set aside for travel? Where should I volunteer now that I have my paying work here in place? I am thinking something along the lines of a "book specialist" at the charity shop, I've seen several postings. Onward and forward with the year of living Scottishly!

Melancholy, Beautiful, Scottish, Autumn.

Matt and I decided to go explore the coast this week. There are a handful of oceanside town to visit, with many things to see. We decided on Cramond since it promised some Roman ruins along with some good footpaths. It was only about 3-4 miles to get to the sea but when you travel on foot, it might as well be an hour drive. So for the first time, we invested in a bus ride. Well worth the 4 pounds as we were able to spend our pre-sore walking feet time seeing the sites rather than simply getting to them.

Even the ride over on top of the double decker was an event.

First stop was Cramond Kirkyard. There were some spooky cool gravestones, which help satisfy my Halloween spirit in the beautiful autumn weather.

We checked out the Roman ruin foundations on site.

After consulting the map, we were off the to the sea to take in some gloomy beauty.

Off the coast was an island that tides preventing us from getting too close to. Still, it was spiral jetty beautiful.

Very rugged

and melancholy kind of beautiful.

After sitting on a bench and throwing an entire slice of bread for the ducks to fight over, we were off to take in some more sites. After, Matt found a trail along "the River Almond" for us to trod around. It offered lots of lovely fall vignettes.

Once we made our way over to the other side of the river, we found some country roads to take a look at.

It was so surreal walking past this misty part as we could hear faint bagpipe music from the direction of these trees.

What was cool about the trip was that we didn't really have any itinerary or even idea of what to go see for the most part. There was no page in a tourbook for us to follow the recommendations. It was just Matt and Cate walking about in a place that seemed interesting. I think that would fall into the category of an adventure. No doubt this whole year is one of those but it is always nice when amid the can't understand how your boiler works/your cakes fall because your conventional oven runs on Celcius/aren't able to find that internet cafe that is listed on the map adventures, you get the pastoral/lovely adventures. Friday was one of those adventures and it was something to feel grateful for.

The Illusionist

No no no...I do not refer to that one. I wouldn't waste your time with a post about Edward Nortan's fantasy that he some kind of magician attracting people of the poor-man's Scarlett Johansen caliber. Enough said about that.

With that out of the way - Did you like Triplets of Belleville? I'm pretty sure that everyone that has seen it does but for good measure Sylvain Chomet has made another delightful animation that I can whole heartedly recommend. I still have yet to see Triplets... but I can guarantee that my motivation to see it has tripled (ha!:) after seeing The Illusionist. I'll give you a hint as to why Matt and I were obliged to shell out 10 pounds (that's 16 American-mind you) on discount Monday to see this while it was still in the theaters:

Not only does the story take place in Edinburgh but there was even a couple of scenes that included The Cameo theatre, where we saw the movie.



We were most happy to find this theatre too since it is less than a mile walk from our flat and shows much promise with the films it plays (for example-Back to the Future was playing on another screen for the Halloween season). It will be a just the right replacement for our Paramount in Ausitn and the Tower in the ol' SLC. To add to the grandeur of our Edinburgh gem, there is Texas-style leg room with cushy, comfy seats and armrests. Between the grand seating, the gold curtains and folksy instrumental fare that played before our the movie, it was no surprise that the animators were sure to include this in their work.

That is to say, The Illusionist is lovely. Go see it and you just may never need to come to Edinburgh to know all that there is to love here.

I love Scotland in the Autumn...

I think last week was the first time that I have started to actually feel pretty happy here in my Edinburgh life.

I am not sure what exactly it was. It could be a number of things:

- Getting into a routine of running in Holyrood Park. Seriously folks, this park can make you happy on the roughest/saddest of days. Check out how happy it came make you from the pic above.

-Finding a terrific Indian takeaway (Spice-tacular) place within a couple of blocks of our flat.

-Being asked to get more involved in the ward by teaching the 14-18 year old Sunday school class.

-Having our boiler work in making both hot water and central heating work in our flat - finally!

-Finding out there is some food here that I could happily eat for a year without feeling sick all the time (three cheers for houmus!)

-Having a 70 year old man in full Scotsman regalia (complete with cane, tartan hat and pom-pom, sash, kilt, otter purse and crossed laced shoes) yell: "Ten miles more to go" in a thick brogue when I ran past him on the Royal Mile this weekend.

I am sure the cold, dark months ahead and the fact that I haven't found a job will be making life...well life along the way. Still, it is great to start being able to enjoy the experience a bit rather than just trying to be a good sport about things.

Campus Life

So let me put in a few words on behalf of the uni that brought us here to Scotland. Although our first impressions of the University of Edinburgh were not particularly welcoming, starting back in the spring when we had the beginnings of our interactions with them to get set up here. I will spare you the details of the slow and unnecessarily complicated system that we navigated to get Matt a "matriculation card", fees and counsel taxes taken care of, library access granted (the gates keep everyone honest), etc etc.

That said, Matt began his studies a couple of weeks ago and praises to heaven - he likes school again! I still wouldn't say loves school (that may not be able to come at all when it comes to him studying law) but we have both agreed that there have been some drastic mood and attitude about life in general improvements since coming here. This can be observed in things like Matt has actually been doing his readings diligently (with wikipedia on standby for terminology or historical figures that are obscure to him) for the first time since '07. Hoorah! He has even started to stress a bit on whether he has found the right topic for his thesis this summer. This is huge for us Scotland Sweeneys, I tell you. Academic interest has been absent from our dear Matt since his BA days. It is great to see the spring in his step when he heads off to class (which is only 2 hours twice a week - another appealing feature of this program). Well, to be fair, his greatest interest is not at all in the "law" part of his "LLM of Legal History and Philosophy" but it is something great that he can find some parts of European history and philosophical tradition that get him intellecutally stimulated.

Maybe our walk up to campus raises the spirits too. Who wouldn't feel inspired to learn something about history when passing these sites everyday?

Even Matt's campus grounds at "the Old College" seem to have a story to tell. At the moment, they are kind of torn up because of a construction project that began last year and turned into an excavation when bones were found a few feet down.

As you can see, several areas are roped off and the project has obviously started to take much longer than anticipated - perhaps a brief insight into why an American like myself may get frustrated with thoughts like: "everything takes so long here to do, happen, get done...!" Well, it is less of a wonder after being here for a bit. Each time someone tries to get a project done, they run into a problem of needing to respect history to do it properly. This truly extends into a grand metaphor for this country; perhaps you follow but if not then you may be interested in taking some legal tradition courses with Matt that would enlighten you about how true this is. I am already coming to really respect their patience and sense of historical and cultural responsibilities here. I think there is much an American person, like myself, to learn from this approach to life and community.