Tuesday, November 08, 2011

A week in review

Sorry I’ve been so quiet the last week. We’ve just kind of been getting on with life here in Edinburgh. But I do have a bit of good news to report and a few things to catch everyone up on.
Last Monday was Halloween and as I said in my last post, we went on a haunted tour below the South Bridge. It was actually a lot of fun. We had dinner on the Royal Mile first at a really great restaurant that we’ll definitely go back to. Our table was totally private – in a tiny room kind of above and beside the main dining room. We drank too much wine (or well, I did at least) but that made the tour even more exciting really! We met our guide just before 11 and he was great. He looked the part of a ghost story teller and he was rather dramatic in his tales which made them all so much more fun. We didn’t see any ghosts, but he did tell us of a few rather creepy beings that seem to inhabit the vaults. One sits in a corner watching people’s feet as they walk past him. They think he’s the ghost of a cobbler who worked down there and he’s inspecting all the shoes as they go by. Another was of a woman who can sometimes be seen covered in blood and she’s screaming and crying for a baby that she’s miscarried. And finally there’s a man they call Mr. Boots because his heavy footsteps can be heard stomping around through all the vaults. He doesn’t like people visiting though and on one tour, a woman standing with her back to a completely enclosed wall felt a draft on her neck which quickly became rather rhythmic and distinctly like someone breathing on her. It then started to take on the scent of pipe tobacco and it then suddenly there was a whisper in her ear saying “ggggggeeeetttttt ooooouuuuuuttttt!” Which of course she very promptly did, followed by a concerned guide and rather creeped out fellow tour group! There was one point where another guide crept into the room we were in and jumped and yelled at us to scare us, but other than that, the most scared I was wasn’t until we were climbing the stairs to get out. I couldn’t get out of there fast enough.
We didn’t really get up to anything much exciting for the rest of the week, except that Brandon had a couple of job interviews. Both sounded really promising and he was excited about both of them. More about that later. Brandon went to Glasgow for a piping lesson, I attempted to go to a band practice here in town to check out playing with a grade three band (this would’ve been my second time going, but they weren’t there when we arrived. Turns out they were practicing at a different hall that night), Brandon went to Kirkcaldy for practice with his new band, Fife Constabulary, we bought Simon Fish a new tank because we felt guilty for not doing our fish keeping homework, we went to a farmer’s market on Saturday morning, went to Jesse and Katie’s house for dinner Saturday evening, and yesterday we went to a bridal fair. It was a pretty good week.
Now on the job front, Brandon had two interviews for good positions in two restaurants. Both had him more excited about cooking than I’d seen him in quite some time. Both small kitchens producing real quality food from good ingredients and both seemed to have really good people. He went for a trial day at the first place on Wednesday and they offered him the job! He starts this Wednesday and I’m so proud of him. It’s called Heller’s Kitchen and they boast that everything but the croissants and made in house. Brandon will essentially be second in command and he’s very excited to start being creative in a kitchen again.
No luck for me yet, but I actually had an interview yesterday. It was at a stationery store called Paperchase, which is the kind of store I love to shop in so I’m hoping it’ll be fun to work in too. They’re only hiring for Christmas temporary positions at the moment, but at least it would be bringing in some funds. It went well and I think I answered all the questions the best I could. Now I wait again to hear something and I hope it happens soon.

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