Edinburgh

Hello my faithful readers!

Well I know it has been a while but I have been out of town before, during, and after Christmas. Our first trip was to Edinburgh, Scotland. We took the train to make sure I got to see plenty of English countryside. I still cannot get over the beauty of it, even in winter. This time we went up through the Lakes District, the largest national park in England, and that in itself was amazing. It reminded me very much of Montana at this time of year, staggering mountains, valleys of grass, craggy cliffs. It definitely looked very much like it did in A and E's Pride and Prejudice, if you have seen that.

Once we got to Edinburgh it was already night. It is completely dark by 4pm everyday in England, and I am positive it was more like 3:45 in Scotland. I have learned to be nocturnal, as John puts it. Anywho, we went and walked around the German Christmas Market. The stalls and crafts were amazing. I also had a German pork steak roll and a hot dog. It was fun and we were starving from the train trip. We also went on the carousel and ferris wheel, but John refused to let me go on the Helter Skelter slide. Hmmm, there is one down here in Hyde Park! ;-) Then we went and had a beer at a pub called the Theater Royal. The beer was called Edinburgh Gold, and let me tell you, it was dangerously too easy to drink. I only had a couple but then I changed to something else because I knew it could spell trouble.

The next day we walked around Edinburgh, which was built on a hill by the way, lots of walking up hill, and made it up to the old city. The old city is built around a plateau, upon which sits Edinburgh castle. It is built into the cliffs of the plateau, and as we discovered later, the cracks of the plateau were used as dungeons. It was the most imposing castle I have seen so far. I know, I know, the Tower and all, but it isn't built into a mountain people! I thought I was looking at Dracula's lair instead of where Mary, Queen of Scots lived! After another long walk up the side of the plateau we made it to the castle. It was very impressive and had a tiny chapel about 1000 years old on top. While we were walking around the fog was rolling in, making the whole thing atmospheric. We also got to witness the 1 o'clock gun. The soldiers of the castle fire off a cannon at 1 o'clock everyday. John got a video clip of it, I will see if he can upload it to my blog.

For me the highlight of the castle was not seeing the paintings of Scottish kings and queens. Nor was it seeing the room that King James I of England was born in. For me, it was to see the Stone of Destiny. There are many rumours about this stone, that it came from Israel and was Jacob's pillow when he had his ladder dream. Part of it was supposedly given away to the Irish and used as the Blarney Stone, which I have already seen. The most important tradition with the stone was its importance in coronations. Scottish kings sat on it when they were crowned. When Edward I invaded Scotland, in 1296, he took the stone down to England and had a coronation chair built that would fit the stone underneath it. This is the same coronation chair that all monarchs have sat in since then, and the stone was only returned in 1996. It must return to England though, when Charles becomes king, but only for the coronation itself.

After that we walked down to a tour called Mary Kings Close. Basically, remember what I said about Edinburgh being built on a hill, well houses were built going up this hill until they reached the top. These rows of houses were all of six feet across from each other and the small streets that they formed were called closes. In the 1700's, in order to build a much larger building at the top of the hill, the town builders sheared off the tops of the houses, reinforced them, and used them as the foundation of the Royal Exchange building. The houses were left, covered over, underneath for hundreds of years. Now they actually take you down into these streets and tell you about the plague, the people that lived there, and of course, the ghost stories. It was very interesting to walk through these old houses and to hear about the sanitation, into the streets people, of the period. Here is a webpage with some pictures . . .

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_King's_Close

After that we went and had dinner. I was determined to try haggis and so was John. It was overpoweringly spicy and filling but it was very tasty. It wasn't sausage looking or, well, stomach looking in anyway, I think they just served us the filling and not the casing. After dinner we were going to go on a literary tour but the cold was getting to both of us. It was freezing at night and near freezing during the day, with or without the fog. I was trying to make the best of it but I could tell that the cold was getting to John. We finally went and saw a movie in the evening instead of going on the tour.

The next morning I woke up with a cold. I am pretty positive I got it from riding on the ferris wheel in the fog and cold. I coughed and coughed, had a fever for about three days, and am still coughing a week and a half later. I haven't had a cold like this in years! Fortunately we were able to get earlier tickets home on the train and go down the Eastern coast of Scotland and England. I got to see Berwick-upon-Tweed, the northernmost English city. I also saw the North Sea and the Yorkshire moors mentioned in the book The Secret Garden. It was definitely a trip of a lifetime, a few more dreams coming true to check off my list.

Next . . . Christmas in England!

Ulysses by Tennyson

I "discovered" this poem by Tennyson today. I really enjoyed it and found it inspiring. I hope you enjoy it and become inspired too.

Cory


Ulysses"

Complete Text

It little profits that an idle king, 
By this still hearth, among these barren crags, 
Match'd with an aged wife, I mete and dole 
Unequal laws unto a savage race, 
That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me. 
I cannot rest from travel: I will drink 
Life to the lees: All times I have enjoy'd 
Greatly, have suffer'd greatly, both with those 
That loved me, and alone, on shore, and when 
Thro' scudding drifts the rainy Hyades 
Vext the dim sea: I am become a name; 
For always roaming with a hungry heart 
Much have I seen and known; cities of men 
And manners, climates, councils, governments, 
Myself not least, but honour'd of them all;   
I am a part of all that I have met; 
Yet all experience is an arch wherethro' 
Gleams that untravell'd world whose margin fades 
For ever and forever when I move. 
How dull it is to pause, to make an end, 
To rust unburnish'd, not to shine in use! 
As tho' to breathe were life! Life piled on life 
Were all too little, and of one to me 
Little remains: but every hour is saved 
From that eternal silence, something more, 
A bringer of new things; and vile it were 
For some three suns to store and hoard myself, 
And this gray spirit yearning in desire 
To follow knowledge like a sinking star, 
Beyond the utmost bound of human thought.
There lies the port; the vessel puffs her sail: 
There gloom the dark, broad seas. 
Old age hath yet his honour and his toil; 
Death closes all: but something ere the end, 
Some work of noble note, may yet be done, 
Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods. 
The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks: 
The long day wanes: the slow moon climbs: the deep 
Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends, 
'T is not too late to seek a newer world. 
Push off, and sitting well in order smite 
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds 
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths 
Of all the western stars, until I die. 
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down: 
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,  
Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho' 
We are not now that strength which in old days 
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are; 
One equal temper of heroic hearts, 
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will 
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

Our First Party

Hello All,

Oh, and a special hello to Parnell, I miss my friend and am glad I heard from you. :-)

Happy Christmas as they say over here!

Last night John and I threw our first party. It was a Christmas/Thanksgiving/Housewarming party. I know that sounds odd, but all of our friends wanted a traditional Thanksgiving dinner and a housewarming. Unfortunately, Thanksgiving isn't a national holiday over here, nor were all of his friends available last weekend and I was already in the Christmas spirit so it ended up being a combination of a bunch of different ideas held on December 1st.

Luckily, I have been trained well by my mother, being her assistant for several Christmas' and Thanksgivings. I knew to buy my ingredients ahead of time, especially the turkey, since it takes forever to thaw out. Now this became a little complicated because all my recipes are in standard measurement, not metric. Fortunately, I have a measurement conversion website saved on my PC as a favourite place. So I sat here, with my recipes, typing in measurements, and then looking for the closest possible package available on Sainsbury's Online. I love that they deliver!

I decided to make the turkey, the stuffing, and the yams. Then I proceeded to delegate who had what. Once my invite e-mail came out I had a surprising couple of questions to answer. A: What are yams? B: What is a White Elephant gift exchange? I tried explaining the gift exchange to people as we saw them out, it didn't work. I tried to explain what yams were, it didn't work. I finally wrote an e-mail explaining as best I could about both, but finally just said bring a wrapped present, £5 limit.

Next I had to come up with games. John had a pub quiz game that we decided to try. I'll explain more about that later. I found the Guess the Christmas Carol picture game online, that is always fun. For example, one picture has a knight putting his finger to his lips and going, "Shhhh!" Anyone? Anyone? . . . . Silent Night! How fun is that?

At the same time, we still hadn't gotten all of the furniture that I wanted for the living room, will put pictures up soon, so John and I had to make a mad dash to Argos to get the last big piece of furniture for the lounge/living room. John then proceeded to put it together, not a good idea to be in the same room, he gets frustrated easily and swears like a sailor. I think next time I'LL go to the pub and read for a bit. ;-)

Finally the morning dawned and I was up early cleaning house. My mom always cleaned house before guests came and that has stuck with me for a long time. I tidied up, moved stuff where people wouldn't see it, and put up some last minute decorations. Then I started to cook.

I made the Everyday Italian Turkey with Citrus and Herbs de Provence and also her infamous Ciabatta, Pancetta, and Chestnut Stuffing. For the yams I looked in my Joy of Cooking cookbook. I hold on to this cookbook because it was given to my parents when they were married . . . years ago. Mom told me once she missed it and knew dad had it. I bought her a new one but somehow ended up with Dad's copy years later. Some of the recipes are pretty complicated but everytime I try one, I have to tell you, it is delicious. So I pulled out the candied yam recipe, seemed very similar to the recipe my mom and stepmom follow. The only thing different was to add some lemon juice and lemon zest. I did that and I have to tell you, it was REALLY good! But I am getting ahead of myself. Since I had ordered a 20 pound turkey I had to time everyting, along with what everyone else was bringing as well. John also had to help me lift the damn turkey in and out of the oven, but all the while I was thinking, turkey sandwiches, turkey sandwiches! Come on, you all know that left over turkey is the best!

Everything was set up and ready to go. Chris and Dee were the first to arrive. They are just wonderful people but live out in the country so I don't get to see them often. They have dated for a long time but got married this year; John was best man. John and Chris are both from Winscombe and have known each other since school. When John's mom showed me pictures of him as a child there was Chris, the two teenagers with smug looks on their faces. They brought the Broccoli Casserole and the rolls. Two items down, ready to go, now we were just waiting for the rest.

Next came Nicola and Gid with Gid's infamous mashed potatoes. He finished them up by hand, without an electric mixer and they were still smooth and beautiful. I have to say I was impressed. A lot of Americans need mixers to make SMOOTH potatoes.

After that came Natalie, who has been in India for about three weeks for a wedding and to hang with friends. I missed her, she was my first girl friend in London and has been so good to me.

Finally, Steve, Natalie's boyfriend, Helen, and Dan showed up. This completed my guest list. Steve and Helen are also old friends of John's. He has known them since secondary school. Dan was someone Steve met a while ago, as a roommate, but he is becoming a close knit member of the group too.

Dan was in charge of the cheese and crackers or biscuits as they say over here. He brought them in and I asked him to put them in the center of the room so people could eat them. One of the girls said, "Oh are we eating them now, we usually eat cheese and biscuits after the meal." I never thought of that before, but it is true, cheese and biscuits are served before the meal in the US and after in the UK. But oh the cheeses Dan brought. OH, how I love England and their cheeses! We had brie, stilton, feta, another type of brie, a cheddar with chives . . . loads of cheeses.

People started to settle down, have their drinks, watch football. A typical Thanksgiving if you ask me, even if the football was a different kind over here. All the while I was fixing things, getting everything set up, finalizing the food set up. A lot of the people commented on how calm I was. I just said I have had lots of practice with my mom, she has trained me well. Haven't you mom? ;-)

Finally it was time to eat. Everyone served themselves in buffet style and sat around in the lounge. The turkey was perfect, the gravy was thick, the stuffing fantastic, the broccoli casserole cheesy, the potatoes amazing, and my yams were a big hit. What can I say, everyone was excited about the yams.

I started to put away the food but was told by all to leave it out, they would be coming back in for round two/three soon.

Soon after that we had our gift exchange. I had everyone pick a number and we chose gifts in that order. It was a riot how quickly they picked up on the idea of stealing. Gid, who was number 10, was funny in that he picked his own gift, a lottery scratcher. Steve, who was next stole it from him. Gid, cussing and complaining with good humour, worked out with me that if he stole his girlfriend Nicola's bottle of cider she had unwrapped, she could steal back the ticket from Steve. So he took her bottle and said, "Nicola darling, you know what to do!" Everyone was laughing hysterically as she received Steve's scratcher and poor Steve had to get another gift.

Then we played the Guess the Christmas Carol game. John didn't think they would be into it, but his friends were. The winning couple were Chris and Dee, and they received a beautiful bottle of bubbly for it. I started to clean up while everyone socialized but Gid came over, kicked me out of my kitchen, and finished washing up the dishes for me. What a sweetheart!

After that we played the pub quiz. I broke the group into three teams of three and John was quiz master. We had a white board to write our answers on for the different rounds/categories. I was surprised, despite a lot of the questions being English based questions, how well I was able to help. But, it was really funny when I cleaned house on the British Monarchs category. I think I only missed one out of eight. I put George I was from Hapsburg, not Hanover. Either way, our team still won and at the end of the night, Nicola borrowed my book on the Queens and Kings of England.

Next we had dessert. Treacle Tart, Mince Pies, and a Pecan Tart with ice cream and whipped cream. Trading Places with Dan Akroyd and Eddie Murphy was on and we sat around and watched that for a little bit. Then everyone went home, full, tired, and happy, especially Gid who had three turkey sandwiches after the whole meal!

I am pretty positive my party was a success. There isn't much of that turkey left, I KNOW, 20 POUNDS, nor any other item on the menu. We didn't run out, but had just enough. Now comes the clean up . . . . sweeping the floors, putting out the rest of the rubbish, etc. But, it was still all worth it and loads of fun.