Welcome aboard

We have our first visitor staying with us – Graham has arrived from Canada! He got here on Thursday and Brandon went to London to meet him. They spent the day on a rather whirlwind tour of the city and then caught a train to Edinburgh that evening. We’ve had a good first few days and I think Graham has started to enjoy the city. He’s starting to get the lay of the land and has even gotten tattooed already! He and Brandon went to the castle yesterday and today we went to the Royal Yacht, to the chippy on the Royal Mile for dinner, and then to the Christmas fair. It was a busy and rather chilly day.

We’re getting ready for Christmas here in Edinburgh. Graham brought along so many gifts from so many people that we’re so grateful for even though we’ve not opened them. I’m finding it hard to feel “in the spirit” this year. Without snow and the usual parties and family stuff to look forward to, it just doesn’t quite feel the same. Although, last year didn’t feel the same either considering all the packing I was doing to move out of my apartment and, well, there was that whole Mexico thing. But we both have the 24^th and 25^th off so Brandon, Graham and I are going to try to find something especially festive to do. And I’m really looking forward to going to the midnight service on the 24^th at St. Giles Cathedral.

I know I haven’t written much lately (again) but I’ve been working a lot of hours. For an eight hour per week contract, I’ve been very lucky to have picked up a lot of shifts. Last week I worked 32 hours and the week before I did 35. By the time I get home I kind of just want to sit and be quiet and turn off my brain for a while. The scary thing is that this job is ending for me in the first week of January and I have to go back to the job search. That’s another stressor that is keeping me from feeling festive I think.

Now to end off this post, here’s another installment of the Scottish life posts. Hope everyone has a great week before Christmas!

What’s For Dinner? Cooking here at home is not all that different except that we have far fewer kitchen gadgets and tools. And, if you watched our video tour, you’ll agree that there is a distinct lack of space. We’ve been able to cook together just a few times so far because when we attempt it, we always get in each other’s way.

Because our flat is rented as furnished, the kitchen was fitted out rather well. But quite a bit of the stuff was more than a little sketchy. We put the burned pots and set of serrated knives away and bought our own set of pots and a frying pan from Ikea, along with some essentials like a cheese grater and cutlery. We also picked up a spatula and some serving tools, a set of wine glasses, a strainer and a big mixing bowl from the Poundsaver store. When Brandon started working and needed to take his good knives with him every day, we bought two knives for home and just recently we added some glasses to the cupboard as well since we were drinking everything out of coffee mugs. We currently only have one oven safe dish though and eventually I’d like to add to that arsenal before we attempt our Christmas dinner plans. Especially since we’ve both nearly set the microwave on fire by putting metal items in there are turning it on, thinking it was set to convection. Oops!

Cooking a large meal is a little like camping. I’m learning from Brandon how to get everything done efficiently with just one frying pan. Take for example making a big weekend breakfast. Potatoes go in first and when they’re done they go into the medium sized pot to keep warm. The bacon goes in the pan next and then into the small pot with paper towel to soak up the grease. Then we do my scrambled eggs because they have to be cooked until no longer wiggly, and finally Brandon’s fried eggs go into the pan while the toast is toasting. It works alright, but the potatoes do get a little soggy by the time we’re ready to dish up. We did French toast last weekend which obviously added one more stage to the process. Glad Brandon was in charge that day!