Exploring Edinburgh, Day 1, Part 1

Thankfully we had a gorgeous sunny Friday to explore Edinburgh. We happened to get there in time for several Christmas festivals, including the German Christmas market. It smelled like sausages and elephant ears (a.k.a. funnel cakes) and all kinds of yummy carnival food.

This is the Scottish National Gallery. Mrs. Qualls, I got your present in here. I forgot to take a picture of it, but I'll post one soon. I got a matching gift for myself too. :)

These guys amazed me. They made enormous quantities of different foods in these huge vats (I think there were six in all), and it all looked and smelled fantastic. Unfortunately, we didn't sample anything.

This is us on the street with the huge vats of food. That's the castle in the background. I won't tell you how many attempts we had at getting this picture right.

Classic. I'm sure he was cold.

This is one of the shops at the German Christmas market. We got apple strudel there one night and a hot waffle with Nutella on it the next night. And a hot chocolate. With cream. It was tasty.

Our first treat, though, was a deluxe Aberdeen Angus Beef burger. It had carmelized onions, French mustard, amazing meat, and a fluffy bap (bun). We split it, but I could have eaten a whole one for a snack (if it hadn't been £7).

Thanksgiving Feast

I don't think I can ever really complain about my small kitchen ever again. Mrs. Kelly made the most amazing Thanksgiving feast for 11 in a kitchen my size. She must have been slaving for days. We had turkey, gravy, cranberry sauce, greens, sweet potato casserole, broccoli casserole, brown rice casserole, green salad, fruit salad, apple pie, chess pie... I was full until yesterday. The Kellys live in the gatehouse just inside the wall of what used to be a huge mansion and what now is the Banner of Truth Trust headquarters. The gatehouse is quite small so we enjoyed our meal in the boardroom.

This is the drinks and dessert table. Notice I just tucked the boardroom speaker phone under the the table. :)

 

Several local American students studying in Edinburgh came along. These two girls had Mrs. Kelly for their Latin teacher in high school. Look at all of that tasty grub!

 

A serindipitous highlight for us was to spend the holiday with Iain Murray and his bride, Jean. Mr. Murray, along with Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones, helped found the Banner of Truth Trust, a publishing company that prints Christian books as well as re-prints a lot of Reformation and Puritan literature. Nathan was salivating over the company as much as the food, and they had a good time chatting about all things John Flavel (Nathan's PhD topic).

Much more ahead...

Back from Edinburgh

Nathan and I are back to the grind after a wonderfully restful Thanksgiving weekend. We got home last night to much more snow and a very cold barn. When we got in bed we could still see wisps of our breath curling in the air. Brrr! I'll leave you with this gorgeous view of Edinburgh, Scotland, while I get receipts entered into our Excel spreadsheet. Boring! I'm rewarding myself with more posting opportunities, so stay tuned!

I'm Dreaming of a White... Thanksgiving

Thanks for playing everyone! Congratulations to our big winner... Here is the video announcing the winner, along with an ASL translation at the end in order to comply with the ADA. I was literally and figuratively cold, so I'm sorry for the terrible interpreting job. Never mind Nathan was in the background voicing his own interpretation that included falling off of cliffs and football. Distraction!


Here are some pictures from this morning.

I looked out the door and saw this!

Look who caved at the first sign of snow.

You can kind of see my new wellies too.

The North Barn

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. We feel weird not being with family and friends on this very special holiday. We love and miss you!

Wellies V. Hat and Cane

This is the Parker family supreme court case of the wellies v. the hat and cane.

Ok, so I've been eyeing some wellies for quite a while. I think they're quite practical in terms of keeping one's feet dry around here, and they're not too ugly to boot (no pun intended... at first).  On Saturday, I bought some at the behest of a co-worker, who told me that after the first snow they would be sold out everywhere for the year. 

Nathan and I found them at Yorkshire Trading Company, which is kind of a combination of a dollar store and an Ace Hardware and... something else I can't put my finger on.  They have paint and baby socks and Christmas decorations and beer pitchers and pillows and gum and anything else you may fancy. I'm suddenly regretting the fact that I didn't take a picture of them, but that's beside the point.  The point was, I told Nathan that he should get some as well. He said, "They look lame."  What else is new? First the glasses, which he now rarely wears, and now the wellies. 

"I'm not saying you should get blue ones with white polka dots and hot pink trim like mine. Look, here are some nice, manly army green ones. They'll keep your pants (ahem... trousers) and socks and feet dry when we get slushy, muddy, snow for the next few months. Besides, the brown shoes you wear all the time already have a hole in the bottom and get your feet wet from the bottom up." 

"Those have got a lot of life left in them," he argued. "I taped 'em up." 

I rolled me eyes. He humored me and tried the wellies on.

"I don't like them. They're too small. And they look lame."

I sighed as he turned his attention toward something more interesting [to him].

Next thing I knew he had pulled a hat and cane off the wall and was doing a little Lloyd Christmas dance. 

"Now this is more like it!"

 

We actually left the store with that hat, but I'm sure the cane is soon to follow.

After shopping there we went to Tesco to get some groceries. I pointed out a handsome looking college student with some green wellies on in the store.

"Look," I pointed out. "He's got some green wellies on like you should get."

Nathan glanced toward him. "He looks lame."

Today is supposed to dump the first snow of the year. We'll soon see who regrets Saturday's purchase...

This is your last chance to enter the contest for the prize from Scotland. Leave a comment. It's now or never.

Rainy Day Treats

Saturday we took yet another unsuccessful trip to the bank to get a working debit card for me. Thankfully Nathan now has one, so whenever I want to buy groceries, I have to call and ask him to meet me at Tesco to pay for (and carry) them. Despite the fact that I still don't have a PIN number for my card, the upside is that the banker took pity on us and refunded us three months' worth of fees to bank there - or not bank there, however you want to look at it.

Afterward, we took a little trip to Leonard's Cafe, a highly recommended eatery off the beaten tourist path. It doesn't look like much from the outside, but it was just amazing! Thanks Amberly (my Georgia-native-Durham-ex-resident-with-mutual-friends-from-Christ-Church-Atlanta new bloggy friend) for recommending it!

Nathan and I split this chicken BLT sandwich and warm home made crisps (chips). So delish.

I would have been happy with this drink just because the mug was so cool, but the hot chocolate was amazing too!

This smile reminds me of my sister in our Christmas picture circa 1986. "I smile now, Daddy." Sampleys, you know what I'm talking about. 

It's Cookie Time Y'all

How awesome is my mother-in-law?  Soon after I put out the Ghirardelli SOS, she bought me some and mailed them to England.  A week and $12 worth of postage later, I made some cookies.

Nathan took my picture in my "quite patriotic" apron, also known as the cheapest apron from Tesco.

My dear, dear friend and college roommate Kristi gave me her famous chocolate chip cookie recipe when I got married. Even though I think I have the recipe memorized, I still take out the card just to see her handwriting and feel her love. I made cookies for our for company this weekend (neighbors Friday, friends on Saturday, church family on Sunday) and got rave reviews from everyone. 

This is Sam and Nathan finishing off the last few bites of tortilla soup straight out of the pot on Saturday night. I love, love, love to feed people lovely food, especially if it's something they've never tasted before and they end up LOVING it. Who doesn't love tortilla soup and chocolate chip cookies? 

Sam had never had cookies - like real cookies, not biscuits or digestives - hot out of the oven before. Shocked at this, I insisted he had a cold glass of milk with them and then sat attentively to watch him take his first bite. His exact words? "It's like an volcanic explosion of chocolatey goodness! This is revolutionary! My life has been changed!" Not since Nathan have I met more complimentary eater for whom I'm more eager to cook. The descriptive and frequent compliments feed my insatiable need for praise of men. 

This particular meal made me miss Bev and Natalie, dear friends and neighbors with whom we've shared that very meal many times. Love you girls...

Leave a comment. Win a prize. Do it.

Tea Towels and Such

I've been a little too excited about all things Cath Kidston lately. They're currently only in England and Japan, but they would be so huge in the US! Check out the website. Here are some of my favorite items from the catalogue I requested be mailed to The North Barn, even though I had absolutely no intentions of buying anything. Everything is too expensive for me, even if the £ sign was changed to the $ sign.

An overnight bag

 Some warm striped pajamas

Some bath towels just for me

 

 A darling Christmas tea towel

Speaking of tea towels... I saw some really, really cute Atlanta tea towels at two different friends' houses (Kay and Anne), and I've been thinking about them ever since.  I did a little research today, and I found that this company makes geographical tea towels (among other things like pillows and glasses and t-shirts and beach towels and and and...) for many cities, all 50 states, countries, national parks, everything...

 Here's the image from the Atlanta tea towel.

And here's the Georgia one. Cute, eh?

They'd make great gifts for so many friends all over the world. I can think of specific dear-to-my-heart faces that would be thrilled to have a tea towel with geographical art from Vancouver, New Mexico, Michigan, Indiana, Arizona, Illinois, Chicago, Florida, Washington D.C., Seattle, Canada, America, Paris, England, California, or Transylvania (no kidding) embroidered on the front. 

If I had the moolah, I would collect all 50 states as well as towels for Atlanta... and England... and Yosemite. However, they're $20 each though, and they don't ship to the UK. What would I do with them, you ask? Not sure... I definitely wouldn't use them on the dishes though. 

Which ones would you fall for? Leave a comment and qualify for a prize from Scotland!

A Little Pre-Prize Treat

Awesome.

Happy weekend kids!  Remember to leave a comment in order to qualify for the drawing for a prize from Scotland.  Just to clarify, you can TOTALLY enter again if you entered the last (meaning the first) contest.  You don't have to be a first-time commenter or contest enterer.  

If you don't know how to make a comment, I will now help you, so you are without excuse.

1) Click at the bottom of whatever post you want to comment on, where it likely says "0 Comments," or more hopefully "1,000 comments."
2) Type your comment in the box that says "Leave your comment." If you're not signing in with an identity (if you don't know what that means, you don't have one), be sure to type your name at the bottom, much like you would a letter. If you don't type your name, I won't know who you are.
3) If you don't already have a blog or are not logged in, under "Choose and identity," click the anonymous button.
4) Click "Publish your comment."


I'm off to eat some tortilla soup.  Yum!

Another Contest

Well, the commenting out there has been a little slow lately (only three comments about my fabulous Jackie O. jacket?!), and in order to boost my self-esteem yet again, I need to bribe my faithful non-commenting readers as well as continuous blogstalkers (South Carolina? Chicago? Maryland? AUSTRALIA?!) with a prize .

This time the mystery prize will be from Scotland!

Cue Braveheart music.

Nathan and I are going to Edinburgh for Thanksgiving next Thursday through Sunday, and we are so excited. Neither of us have ever been to Scotland, and we get to take a gorgeous two hour train journey to get there. We'd been invited to join Dr. Kelly and his wife, Caroline, for the holiday in February when he came to preach during missions emphasis week at Christ Church in Atlanta. Dr. Kelly is on writing leave from RTS Charlotte and is in Scotland for the year working on... something theologically important. I can't remember what the book is about right now, but Nathan would know.

Anyway, when the Kellys extended the invitation, we didn't even know we were moving to Durham for sure, but after we moved here, we tenuously checked to see if we could still come, and they were still ever so graciously open to the idea. Huzzah!

So, in order to qualify for a little prize from Scotland, all you have to do is leave a comment on any post I write between now and Thanksgiving morning before we leave. I'll choose a winner and then do a little shoppy-shoppy for him/her in Edinburgh.

Freeeedooooom!

Nothing Exciting to Report

1) I just discovered through the magic of Facebook that one of my former middle school students is married and has a one month old baby. Jaw. Dropped. I just can't be that old. I can't be. Lemme hea' ya say, "That ain't right!"


2) I can't tell you how pumped I am for the Harry Potter finale, the Olympics in London in 2012, and now, a royal wedding. I'm just giddy with excitement. I just could not have timed this move to England any better, not that I'll actually be attending any premiers, watching any events live, or actually attending the wedding...


3) Today's office chatter...

Co-worker: "Could I pinch the guillotine?"

Me with wide eyes: "Sorry?"

Co-worker: "Could I pinch the guillotine?"

(Insert visions of beheaded kings.)

Co-worker: "It cuts paper."

Me: "Oh, a paper cutter.  Sure.  It's right here."

Charity Shop Finds 2.0

Like I said yesterday, Nathan and I spent Saturday running errands and browsing through a couple of charity shops. We've had really good luck with charity shops here so far, and Saturday was no exception. Well... except we didn't find what we were looking for. :) 

Cute boots! The ones I wear all the time here were my mom's that were a little too small from Bass that she passed on to me. I nearly had a heart attack when they got soaked in the rain last week, so I went ahead and bought these, thinking that I could trash them if I needed to. However, when I wore them to church this morning, I realized that they're just a little too big. It looks like my mom may be getting a pair of boots herself when she comes to visit
.

Nathan wears the same sweater almost every day, and he's stretched out the sleeves from pushing them up his arms so much, so we picked up these three jumpers for him. He looks so handsome in them. It's still kind of odd not to see him in his Atlanta summer uniform (short sleeved polo shirt and cargo shorts) or winter uniform (short sleeved polo shirt and jeans).

I found these jumpers for me. When our English friends found out we were moving to England, they all said, "Make sure you have a lot of sweaters!" Now I know what they mean.

Nathan especially liked the minty green one because he said it matched my eyes. Forgive the lack of makeup. And my dark hair. My blonde-ness is quickly diminishing as the sun sets earlier and earlier. It was dark by 4:30 today. Tears!

Deep breath... and now... for the main event... this freakin' adorable Jackie O. jacket. I have absolutely nothing to wear it with or wear it to, but I don't care. It is amazing! I feel like I need some white opera gloves, a black shift dress, some pearls, some kitten heels, and a nice updo. I went back and forth about buying it, but I decided to go for it after Nathan encouraged me to get it. "You're not extravagant," he said. "If you think it's pretty and want it, you should get it."


"Really?" I smiled.


"It's your discretionary fund," he smirked back.

Nathan's Latest Obsession

Everyone who knows my husband knows that he is king of extremes. He is not known as a man of moderation. He loves Puritan paperbacks and Family Guy, two polar opposites in terms of culture, but he has no idea who's popular on the radio right now.  (Cue the "Who's this Bianca person I keep hearing about?" story. It turns out he was referring to Beyonce.)

His latest kick has been all about golf. Let me just start off by saying he plays once a year with my dad at the beach at Christmas, and he loves it because they get to smoke cigars and be outside in shorts in December. However, this latest obsession started shortly after one of our charity shopping sprees. He purchased a Jack Nicklaus "Golf My Way" VHS tape and has played it (I am not lying or even exaggerating) probably 20 times already. We have all of the cheesy music memorized, and it's now part of Nathan's and my whistling repertoire. 

Here's Nathan during viewing number 19 yesterday. Viewing 20 was when I caught him watching the video and doing push-ups simultaneously before his shower this morning.

The video itself reminds me of being at my godparents', Uncle Neal and Aunt Lena's, house when I was young. Uncle Neal used to hit golf balls with his sons into piles of tumbleweeds in the fields behind their house. Jack Nicklaus is dressed just the way I remember my Uncle Neal always being dressed - in golf gear from the 80s. They always had golf on TV on Sundays, and I usually fell asleep watching it. 

 Is it Uncle Neal? No... it's just Jack Nicklaus.

Last week Nathan put his feelers out on Gumtree again and found this really nice set of golf clubs for 50 pounds. It's, like, really nice. I'm not even a golfer and I can tell it's worth way more than 50 pounds.  He's taken to swinging the clubs now with Jack while watching the video. I'm already counting on losing our deposit when one swing goes wrong and a golf club goes through a glass panel on one of the doors. Forgive the blurriness of the image. "Someone" took some time off of watching Jack hit the long ball to pinch me in the bum while I was taking the picture.

Seeing as how it's November and we still hadn't gotten Nathan a scarf or gloves, we spent Saturday trolling the charity shops again. We didn't find any scarves or gloves there, but he did find this jacket, which he snapped up because he said, and I quote, "It looks like a golf jacket." 

And what else did he find in the book section? Why, it's Golf My Way with Jack Nicklaus, this time in print! Never mind that he has the entire video memorized, he just had to buy the book as well. 


It's a good thing that we decided early in our marriage to each have a discretionary fund each month so we couldn't nit-pick each other's every purchase. I don't get upset when he buys beer or Jack Nicklaus golf books or coffee, and he doesn't get upset when I buy bags or shoes or the darling jacket I'm going to show you tomorrow.


Nighty night pets!