So Long & Thanks for All the Healthy Wishes . . .

Long time no blog, I know. We've been alternately crazily busy and excitingly ill. Alas, the "exciting weekend" I anticipated in my last blog post did not quite materialise as I'd hoped, but Isaac and I did manage to take a nice hike along the Fife Coastal Walk to a rock formation known as the Rock and Spindle on that Saturday.

Last Tuesday, I came down with an exciting stomach flu, which began around midnight and kept me up all morning. By the time Isaac left for work, I felt slightly less queasy, but decided to stay home and rest (a decision facilitated by my super-100. Friday? Isaac woke up in the wee hours with the same ailment. I was a bad wife and left the house after lunch to finish my research overview, which my supervisor is reading this week :). This week (and last week as well, come to think of it), Isaac's been overwhelmed with work and I've been diligently reading and attending numerous evening lectures for general enjoyment. Last night I attended a wonderful lecture given by a local professor of history who argued that the rise of the print book briefly hampered the existence and growth of libraries during the Renaissance; tonight I enjoyed a wonderful lecture on T.S. Eliot's poem "Marina" and the importance of biography (context) to studies of this author.

Outside the classroom and the cafe, we've enjoyed some short hikes, including the coastal one mentioned above, as well as a day trip to the city of Dundee, located perhaps fifteen miles north of St. Andrews.

Isaac here. In Dundee, we enjoyed a pub lunch that stuffed us to the gills--perhaps because our recently-ill stomachs weren't quite up to the task of finishing so much food. We went to an Asian grocery after lunch to buy rice and miso soup mix. I have no idea how much paste to use to make decent miso soup, but at least I've got the first step in the process done. After the grocery, we had it in our heads that walking around for a bit would make us feel less full. We had designs on some sticky toffee pudding back at the pub. Apparently, we were so full that after an hour or so of walking, we couldn't handle the mere thought of more food. So what do you do when you can't eat anymore? You go to Borders, obviously. We spent around an hour or so browsing their selection, and even bought a book!

Our trip back to St. Andrews was uneventful. The important bit is that we stayed mostly dry despite the persistent rain.

On Sunday, we went to the traditional service at Holy Trinity which, though the pews are mighty uncomfortable and I don't know any of the tunes, has the distinct advantage over the other service in that it finishes before noon. Their more modern service (dubbed "Trinity") starts around 12:00, features chairs instead of pews, and has songs I actually know. The afternoon found us napping before a friend's evening birthday party.

Monday brought another cafe opening. I was supposed to work only 6 hours over 2 days this week, but due to illnesses, I've worked around 18 hours over 3 days.

That's about all the news from the edge of the North Sea. Bed beckons, and the promise of a long lie-in in the morning makes the call even sweeter. Goodnight.

Running to Catch Up / Stand Still

Oh, how busy and exhausted and almost-ill and really ill we have been!

Almost immediately after Isaac landed his chef job, he came down with a vibrant and nasty cold, which began with a sore throat and expanded, as colds often do, into headaches and a runny nose and a cough and . . . well, my readers will get the idea. So on his first actual morning of work, my unfortunate but lovely husband, bound by a strong sense of duty, dragged himself from bed at 6 a.m. (if some of you will recall, incidentally, Isaac is not a morning person) and walked to work with his favourite wife, in order that the good patrons of his cafe might have scones and fruit crumble and soup to eat. This early-morning schedule kept up for the first week, and then grew even more daunting; during the second week of work, he was asked to cover the closing shift as well, thus requiring him to be up by six and in town till at least six (sometimes seven) with a long lunch break in between. This, of course, has precluded any substantial healing and also ensured (as I typically walk with him and work a similarly long day) that we've not really seen or cleaned the inside of our beautiful flat. I've so far managed to stave off all but the sore throat, which I consider a fair accomplishment on my part, but studying has occasionally been difficult, as, after numerous exhausting days, my mind sometimes forgets to focus.

Between all these wearying schedules and illnesses and near-illnesses, we've found time to have a little fun. We went in early October to hear a beautiful string quartet play music by Haydn, Mozart, and John Marsh and this past week were given tickets to hear the Scottish Chamber Orchestra play pieces by Borodin and Sibelius, as well as Beethoven's 5th. We've dined out on occasion (mostly when too tired to cook) and spent some enjoyable afternoons at the home of a fellow English student who's been confined to bed of late. We've also endured numerous run-ins with bank tellers, who--though so lovely on my last trip abroad--seem to have turned into incompetent ogres in the space of a year.

The days are already growing shorter: at the beginning of last week, we were able to catch several glorious sunrises as we walked along the beach towards town, but recently the sun has eluded us on our stroll, and we've been enjoying, instead, grey-glowing clouds.

We've finally arrived in the midst of a wonderful three-day weekend, and hope to do something fun with our time before Monday morning strikes again.

Our sunrise last Wednesday (already we had begun to miss the actual "sun" bit!

God bless!

Monday, Monday . . .

This morning, Isaac had his first early shift at the cafe in which he works. We were out the door of our flat by 6.45 and had a beautiful "commute" along the beach as the sun rose over the water, reflected in the wet sand. Sadly, I was carrying a great deal of soup and bypassed the camera this morning, but rest assured that we had the most glorious commute I've ever enjoyed . . . and I'll be taking the camera on another morning, I promise!

We had a lovely and exciting weekend as well. One of my friends here took us out driving with a ordnance map, which clearly marks a number of older and/or ruined buildings in the area. We first visited a lovely old castle . . .


. . . then found a beautiful roofless church nestled in amid a number of fields . . . [please note the cow on the hillside just past the church on the right].

. . . and discovered our last castle (not pictured) was half an archway standing straight up in the middle of a large field.

After a delicious lunch, a trip to the grocery store, and afternoon tea with a dear friend, I strolled home along the beach, dashed into the house, and dragged Isaac back outside with me to see the full moon rising over the North Sea. As you can see, it was gorgeous; the sand reflected just a tiny bit of sunset and the wet sand gleamed like silver in the moonlight. Our house (be jealous) is less than three minutes' walk from this glorious location.

We enjoyed lunch with some dear church friends on Sunday, and I spent my first Sunday morning in the college church (my favourite church building ever) while Isaac cooked away in the cafe. It has been a lovely week!

25

Tuesday was Isaac's 25th birthday, and it was (I thought) a marvellously delightful day. I took the day off from research and enjoyed the opportunity to sleep in and snuggle with my lovely husband. We enjoyed an almost traditional breakfast and spent most of the day relaxing, talking, and generally unwinding--even though life is a lot more gently paced in Scotland, it still feels busy sometimes! We'd been hoping o take a stroll along the Coastal Walk, but a light drizzle kept us inside, and we enjoyed some of the online BBC TV shows and did some sudoku puzzles. Isaac made a large quantity of American biscuits in the afternoon, and I followed that up by cooking dessert and supper while he enjoyed a chance to catch up with family and friends via Skype.

Supper was local lamb chops smothered in garlic, lime, and spices; peas; and rice. We supplemented this with some pear cider (a mutual favourite but a nice treat for Isaac in particular).


After supper Isaac opened most of his gifts, although we broke into the basket earlier in the morning to dig out the (local) fresh-roasted coffee. Most of them are comestibles, as it seemed imprudent to buy lots of large, exciting presents we'd later have to lug several thousand miles around the world.


Last but not least, we finished off the birthday dinner with more of the local coffee and my first attempt at a yellow cake--the cake wasn't bad, but the icing was too runny and thus was drizzled over the cake as a sauce.



Yesterday Isaac received probably his biggest and most exciting birthday present: a brand new job! He'll be working as a chef at one of the local coffee/tea shops, baking scones, making soups, and compiling sandwiches. His cafe is right down the street from the library and my research building, and I'll easily be able to structure my study hours around his work schedule.

That's all for today!