Christmas

Merry Christmas to all!!

I'm having a lovely Chelmsford Christmas with the in-laws. At last a traditional British Christmas. Turkey and gravy and veg and potatoes, mince pies with cream, Christmas crackers complete with horrible jokes and defective paper crowns...very fun. Now I am feeling quite, quite stuffed.

Now if only I could laze about on Boxing Day like we should do, but it's my own foolishness (and American forgetfulness about the extra British holiday) that's led us to all have to get up early tomorrow morning, so oh well.

Immigration Update

We had the immigration visa interview today. Everything we worried about went fine...instead we were blindsided by the unexpected. Our co-sponsor was deemed not rich enough. They said if we can find a new co-sponsor who is above the poverty line for their household size plus Ron, then everything else is approved...

If we can't find someone willing and who qualifies, then we will have to immigrate to Britain instead after all.

So now we're back full circle to where we were two years ago, looking for a co-sponsor. Sigh.

Big Problem

Woops, nothing to see here. Posted on the wrong blog.

But I'll just say...travel on Boxing Day is a bad plan in Britain!

Early Winter

HI!

Well, I've scarcely been online at all this month. Many reasons which I won't go into here except for the two most general and pervasive: business and bad internet reception.

I missed Thanksgiving. It was sad. I'd even gotten stuff to make pumpkin pie. But I was busy and then it was Thanksgiving and there was no time left and we just grabbed some quick food before Ron headed to Akido practice and I headed to choir rehearsal. I couldn't even call people and say "happy Thanksgiving" because while I can receive international calls on my mobile, I can't place them. And using a calling card using anything but a land line...well I would have gotten as far as saying "hi" and maybe saying "Happy Thanksgiving" before the card was used up! And the only person left who I know with a land line lives on the opposite side of Glasgow. So that was that. Well, the turkeys were safe from me this year.

Immigration
Ron's interview is this coming Thursday. The medical exam is Monday. So he'll going to London tomorrow and staying with his mom in Essex for the first half of the week till Wednesday night when I'll join him down there. We'll spend the night in London since traveling from Chelmsford to London for an 8am appointment is impractical to say the least. So, be thinking good thoughts our way on Thursday. I'll let y'all know the result when we have an answer.

It does look like I am unlikely to use the return section of that ticket of mine, so when I come to California around New Year it may well be to stay. I'll still be quite busy those first two months regardless, but hopefully Ron will join me there before too long and then we can both see about permanent jobs in the same place--novel concept!

Music
So, I have at least one more Madrigirls concert, our Christmas concert/service on my birthday. For anyone in Glasgow--come see the Madrigirls on Dec 7 in the Glasgow University Chapel, 7:30. It's free! There will be free mulled wine afterwards!

We've been busking this year. I missed today's busking, but I've made the other busking sessions and we've raised a fair chunk of change so far. While our concert donation proceeds always go to charity, our busking proceeds are to fund a performance tour this summer. Last year we went to Northumbria and the borders. This year they want to go to Italy! Rather ambitious, don't you think? But as long as the various hopper flights to Europe stay so low, it's not all that far fetched. And singing in Italy! How cool would that be? Of course, it's unlikely I'd be able to go. But who knows? They've already said that Madri-alums are welcome to join in the tours, so if I do happen to have both time and money by then, that would be truly amazing. Madrigirls has been, without a doubt, one of the best things about my time in Glasgow. I don't know how I'm going to get over leaving behind such an awesome choir. I will have to hunt long and hard in the Bay Area and see if I can find something vaguely approaching being as nifty.

Research and Theology
I've been using the library again. More precariously this time, having to petition for every day I go in. The first day I did this I stayed reading till they shut at 2am!!

Out of time!! I'll try not to go weeks without popping on again.

Politics

It's strange how a topic that I usually find repellent and terrifying--politics, not arachnids--has sucked me in so much over the past weeks culminating in the last few days of fevered attention. Considering the record voter turnout, I imagine I am not alone in this.

CNN and BBC were clearly good websites to hang out on, in the absence of TV...in fact I think they were better than TV, though I wish I'd seen the speeches, both McCain's and Obama's. BBC radio at least obliged me with most of Obama's victory speech this morning.

BBC's website was nice in that it gave running updates, both from BBC reporters and analysts leavened by some comments from the general public. I never did figure out how they selected those comments--I've had gripes with BBCs forums in the past--but it did add a certain flavor to things as sentiment shifted through the night.

*warning* My political views become glaringly obvious beyond this point, so if you don't want to know, read no further.

CNN on the other hand was thick with tools and statistics, and was far more wary of announcing results such that I felt more confidence in them once they were announced. It was interesting to play with their electoral votes calculator, running scenarios if this state or that voted this way or that. I could also feed in the predictions from the BBC site and see how things were progressing. So it was that as soon as BBC announced Ohio had gone Blue, a quick run through the calculator adding California, Oregon, Washington and Hawaii to the Blue section showed 271 votes. I hadn't dared believe till that moment. It was at least another hour till even more quick jumping BBC said that Obama had to have it.

CNN also let me customize things to easily follow a large number of other races. The Propositions most caught my interest. It was sad to see so many states--including California--choose to specifically ban homosexuals from marriage. I hear the gay pride flag in the Castro flies at half mast today. It was a tight thing, and there is some hope that the state supreme court may overturn it. Homosexuals are often portrayed as and scorned for being promiscuous. And yet they are not to be permitted, let alone encouraged, to engage in a committed lifelong relationship to one other person?

I found myself digging into the data CNN put at my fingertips: break downs on votes by gender and age, by county lines. Strange to see counties side by side voting so radically opposite. My own county back in Georgia was no longer an island of Blue and nor was it faintly Blue like in 2004. Of the less than 1000 registered voters, 643 voted for Obama! And that is in the rural South! Of course Georgia as a whole went Red, but only by a 5% margin. And it was amazing to see how many states that were Red last time turned Blue this time.

I still think the electoral votes system is strange and ungainly. I mean, Obama clearly won the popular as well as the electoral vote. But actually not by as big a margin. At present, with two states still too close to call for sure (there's only about 6000 votes difference between McCain and Obama in Missouri right now) the electoral votes stand at 349 to 163, a huge difference. And yet the popular vote gives it as 53% to 46%, significant, but not landslide. An odd system.

Anyway, I am actually proud of my country today. The huge voter turnout, the classy speeches from both McCain and Obama this morning (ok, I've only seen quotes from McCain's. There are *some* disadvantages to not having video coverage). Today, I actually feel like there is hope to make a difference, to change things for the better.

It has been very strange going through all this abroad. There are fireworks going off in the background as I write. They are not the impromptu fireworks of celebration like in San Fransisco and elsewhere today in the US. They are, rather, long-planned celebrations of bonfire night. Remember, remember the fifth of November... Well, I have to say that in the after effects of the 4th of November this year, I completely forgot about the 5th.

Immigration: An Interview Date at Last

Today the news came (in response to an email I sent a week and a half ago about a form I'd resubmitted a few weeks before that...). Yes, that's right, Ron finally has a date scheduled for his immigration interview. It's scheduled for 8am sharp on a Thursday, Dec 4, in London.

The good news: yay! a date!

The bad news: since it's midweek, getting time off may be tricky, and if they're annoying about it and he ends up having to quit his job in order to go, then that will put a lot of pressure on this all going right so we can immigrate promptly after that. Logistics all the way around will be tricky, but it's time to start researching them.

But...YAY! A Date!!

Now, the theory I'm working under is that this interview will lead pretty much immediately to a green card. If I'm wrong on the immediately part, there could be more delays. If I'm wrong on the green card part then there might be some disconnect between the permission to come to the US and when the work visa part comes through.

I will be doing more immigration research in the days ahead to figure out what we can expect and what all we need to do to prepare. Yes, I had done some such research a year an a half ago when we began this process, but it's been a while and I need to refresh myself.

But...YAY! Progress!!

Now I'll go back to tensely awaiting news of whose administration we'll be coming to. And yes, I tracked my absentee ballot to delivery, so my vote had counted!

Books and Church

There is some tendency within many of us to put off things we know will be good for us. It's like the way, when I get the first stirrings of a headache I put off taking painkillers, knowing they would nip the problem in the bud, not because I actually believe the excuse I give about not wanting to become too dependent or resistant to them, but really because I simply hate swallowing pills. And perhaps, if I'm really being cynical, there is some part of us that wants to be able to sit around moaning to ourselves about our affliction with the blasted headache.

Well, for over a year now I have been having a steadily increasing "headache" with the church. This didn't really come as a big surprise; I haven't had a church I really felt at home at since Brentwood Presbyterian back in High School. But I had rather liked Sandyford when I went sporadically as an undergrad and so it has been painful to become steadily more disaffected, frustrated, and outright angry with the church as time goes by as a "regular" attender. And I've known, all along, that there were books out there that might shed some light on my predicament. And then I did some research and didn't find quite what I was looking for. Instead I came across Phillip Yancey an author I had first heard about way back at Brentwood Presbysterian where the minister, Charles Shields, had read out some passages now and again. At that point I had thought those snippets seemed quite good--enough so that I miraculously remembered the name--but I was a busy teen and largely happy with my faith and practically allergic to non-fiction reading that wasn't assigned homework or astrophysics-related, and so I let it go. The name came up again back in my first visit to Glasgow which had likewise been marked by a sustained crisis of faith...or rather a crisis of doctrine. But I was a again a busy student and I didn't pursue it. Now Yancey came up again, and I no longer had the convenient excuse of a busy schedule. Sure, I fill my days and even manage to feel downright frantic at times, but 90% of it can be juggled around to fit in something else if it matters enough. Well, I got down to looking some up, even ordered the books through the library's interlibrary loan system and borrowed another from the church bookshelf.

And so then I had a stack of four of five Phillip Yancey books sitting around the house. And then came the reluctance to swallow the pill. I mean, it's not like it's even guaranteed to work. They're just books, by some guy, and they're on church and faith and whatnot not on the theological, doctrinal issues I'd intended to research. I read a chapter from one, a chapter from another. But it was the skinniest one that my eye kept coming back to...I was a little afraid of what it might say...what challenge it might hold. Because if it held answers I could actually swallow, then, well, then I would have to actually do something.

Well, I've just read half of Church: Why Bother? in one sitting. It's definitely the best case for the Christian Church, the actually church, showing up on a Sunday, reasonably organized church as well as the amorphous community of believers "church" that I've encountered in a long long time. Certainly my current church has made the case for church in sermons with far far less impact on me. Now, the book does discuss finding the right kind of church...but I don't get off the hook that easy. Yes, now I might have to actually do something.

I Voted!

Well, my first absentee ballot is off in the mail. I have to say that, price tag aside, I quite liked absentee voting. It took me two and a half hours...but I count that as a pro not a con. Usually, unorganized person that I am, I show up at the ballot box knowing how I'll vote on 2 or 3 things...and then I chew my lip as I stare at the list of two dozen things for me to vote on. And it's too late at that point to do any last minute research! Voting from the comfort of my living room meant that I could do at least some basic web hunting on different politicians, judges, and proposed amendments. I may not have been utterly and completely informed on every issue, but I was a lot more informed having managed to find pros and cons on the amendments, run downs on the politicians and judges (the judges thing was weird actually. Not one of the 7 candidates for Georgia's court of appeals has actually served as a judge before. A little scary in my opinion. But I managed to form a short list of those who seemed reasonable.)

So then it was another 40 min and £5.40 for international post (the "probably 4-5 days" non-guaranteed but faster-than-normal and trackable rate. I couldn't really swing the £40 for guaranteed delivery!) to mail it off. Hopefully it will indeed get where it's going in time to count.

Winds Blow

Glagow
Well, winter has set in it seems, and a bit early too. Storms have been blowing off and on all week. I thought I would be blown off my feet on Thursday. And Tuesday was bitterly cold--with a sweat shirt and my winter coat over it I was still cold! And this is only October! Nevertheless I can't help but find the multicolored leaves and the sky streaked in different shades of gray anything but beautiful. Perhaps an ominous stark beauty at times, but beautiful nonetheless. Watching the storm go by on Thursday was particularly breathtaking, dark gray clouds streaked with the orangy-red of sunset flying past at a brisk pace. And then the clouds opened briefly, allowing a peak at the blue above fading towards twilight before the angry dark clouds closed in again.

International Travel Kitten
So I keep thinking that I'll have to ask for thermals for birthday/Christmas this year. And then I remember: by the time those come around I'll be about ready to head to California. Now if you didn't know about this ahead of time, don't get too excited. I've been hired, after a fashion, so I won't be free to jaunt all over the place visiting. But I'll be in the Bay Area so surely I can arrange a quick visit or two! Or better yet, you can visit me. I'm very exited to be going, but I'm going to miss Ron horribly...though I won't miss the Scottish weather!

The Mysteries of Blood Sugar
I have to say one thing for Scottish winter weather though--I think it may be inadvertently helping with my blood sugar issues. I noticed from the very first winter here that I fell prey to the tendency to pack on a bit extra weight as the cold season closed in and then lost it again when summer finally arrived. Well, it had occurred to me today that I'd only had one real "crash" in weeks...and when I thought about it, I realized that I'd started snacking and grazing more with the onset of cold weather...and thus had a far more steady supply of calories. Now if only I can learn to make a habit of the frequency of eating while keeping the healthfulness and quantities down to something that won't make me balloon out, I'll be all set.

Gaming
Well, I'm GMing (running a role playing game for the non-geeks in the audience) again for the first time since...well, ages. Undergrad...2003 maybe? Anyway, I've run 2 sessions now for my group of 6 players, and I think it's going well. I hadn't intended to have so many players. In fact I hadn't really intended to do this at all, though looking back I think I came prepared to be persuaded. At the start of the school year GUGS holds a couple weeks of "one-offs" for people to try out, and then there comes the day when all the long campaigns start. It wasn't like this in my day, but I think it's a good idea overall...except for the poor souls who can't come that day. Anyway, I made sure Ron and I got there good and early. Then we got word there weren't really enough GMs this year and would we please consider running games? I had brought the Serenity RPG rule book with me which I think shows how much I was secretly considering doing this anyway. So I signed up as a GM telling myself if I got few to no players I could still just cancel it and cheerfully play in another game. Well, I put down I wanted 4-6 players and not only did I have 6 sign up, but 3 more people, including other GMs, said they wished they could play in my game. Now, to be fair, I think this is as much about the system I picked as for me and my wonderful pitch. After all, Serenity and Firefly are awesome.

So yes, now I have an intrepid crew. And they're already in so much trouble. Oh, how easily they fell into my clutches. Muahaha! Plots aside, I am struck once again by the parallels between GMing and teaching, especially a discussion section. I am certainly a more confident GM than I was 6 years ago. And, more impressively, I've kept my energy up for the whole sessions both times, even though I showed up tired and kind of down the second time. I thought my energy would flag far more. I mean, 3+ hours of near-constant talking, and constant thinking and interaction for an introvert?! But so far so good.

High School Reunion
I thought when this day came it would make me feel old. But it doesn't. Maybe I'm numbed by the shock of three pairs of my friends all having babies at about the same time. Reunions just can't stand up to that. Yes, I got the email yesterday that it's time for my 10 year reunion. Unfortunately it's taking place two weeks after I head back to Scotland!! I really had intended to go. I've been looking forward to catching up with a few people in particular. Oh, I know, I know, they might not come either, but chances are at least one of them would!

Edinburgh, the Regency, Steampunk and Immigration Update

Edinburgh
I went to see Stephanie in Edinburgh this last weekend which was lots of fun. It is funny how some people I knew for years and quite liked I have entirely fallen out of touch with. And so it is amazing how enduring a friendship I've had with someone I knew at first only for my extra half-year in Scotland after my official year abroad, and lived a city away from at that! We went to the SCA dance practice in Edinburgh and I realized I hadn't been to that house for seven years! (Before I even met Stephanie for that matter.) It was still filled with an amazing collection of medieval instruments, just as I remembered (it's funny how much I've thought about their amazing house and instrument collection over the years, having only seen it once, and now twice). Ron even got them to tune the hurdygurdy, one of his favorite instruments thanks to it's features in Madrigirls concerts. Speaking of which, one of them saw my madri-hoody and asked if I was actually in the Madrigirls and we got into a discussion of where all we'd performed and when we were performing next. We were thinking of going to the couple's medieval concert the next day, but we'd worn ourselves out sight-seeing by then so, unfortunately, we missed it.

They had an "Open Doors" day where lots of buildings that are usually closed or private or cost money to enter are open to the public for the day. We went to see Duddingston House, this old 18th century manor house on the far side of Arthur's seat from the main part of Edinburgh. It was very pretty. From the outside you'd expect someone old and stuffy in a smoking jacket to greet you at the door and ask you to please wipe your feet, but inside the foyer it is now decorated with modern pictures of naked women! It was startling and very funny. The furniture was all quite mod as well. But for once it rather worked. I mean I would rather have seen matching 19th century furniture, but they did quite a decent job with getting the 21st century decorating to compliment and blend well with the 19th century decorating. And it was nice to see that the spaces are still being used.

Then we went and saw a 12th century (well, parts of it) church and around the corner from that stopped for a drink in the Ram's Head, "the oldest pub in Scotland" and mused over how many oldest pubs in Scotland there must be. They did claim to have records of existing in 1370-something which is admittedly impressively old (if accurate) and had anecdotes about Mary Queen of Scots and James the IV/I stopping for drinks there on their ways between Edinburgh and the next palace over (Craigmillar Castle?).

Then we went to the Regency era bit, "New Town" Edinburgh and I got to see the Assembly Rooms and a couple Regency townhouses. Very fun. I wanted to go to the Georgian House which is actually all decorated up in proper style, but they still charged money so we skipped them. Still we saw in the next town house over which was very nice. Apparently some of the restoration work was a bit misguided, the ceilings overly ornately painted and that sort of thing. But we were told the doors and handles and such (which I loved) were quite accurate, and of course we got to see the layout of the house with recieving rooms below and bedrooms a floor up. Sadly the kitchen and servant areas below stairs and the highest floors were not open, but it still gave me a better feel for a smallish upperclass town house. These were certainly not of a size to be holding balls or even very large tea parties! But if dancing was what you wanted it was only a few streets over to the Assembly Rooms which also had a large performance room and some smaller side rooms and a decorated room with columns downstairs. There you could see distinctly the main parts of the building from the serving corridors and servant stairs. I still wonder how they managed to light those huge chandeliers so high up! And wouldn't you get wax dripped on your fine clothes below?

The next day we went to the Queen's Gallery and looked at Renaissance paintings and drawings. Very nifty. Stephanie and I were taking garb notes and Ron quite enjoyed it as well, though more from a "how did they achieve that trick of perspective" aspect than our "how did they make that neckline" perspective.

Role Playing
The Glasgow Uni gaming society is back in full swing. The first two Tuesdays they hold "one-off" games while people come and find us and try out this crazy role playing thing. This time I played a crazy game in Steampunk alternate Victorian England. I've never been in any role playing game with so much player vs player fighting! I was involved in very little of it...just one fight. Well two if you count the one were I was ready to step into a knife vs pistol fight if I'd been needed. *Rolls eyes.* It was very silly, but I enjoyed my character thoroughly even if I think he had more of a Regency feel to him than Victorian. Who can blame me after all that Regency-era sight seeing over the weekend. He was "an officer and a gentleman" if ever there was one. Hehehe. He was also one of the sanest people in the group. Rather than breaking and entering or accosting members of the constabulary, he achieved his aims by going to have a brandy at the gentleman's club and hob-nobbing with the right people. Next week full length campaigns start up and I hope I can find a good game.

Immigration Update
Also on Tuesday we received yet another request for more documentation. Fairly pointless documentation. I've already started gathering up what they need. This time they want me to entirely resubmit the last form with this supplemental stuff added in. Can't they add a few sheets of paper to an existing file? It truly is pointless too. I'm not claiming to be rich enough to qualify on my own, but they want additional proof of what meager funds I have to my name which they're just going to pronounce not enough and then go, "oh look, but she has a co-sponsor". If I was going to lie, surely I would have claimed to have plenty of money! But it's just another hoop to jump through. Bureaucrats! The emails we exchanged with them before the letter came about what the hold up was were opaque and downright misleading!

So, at this rate, although I know this will upset a number of you out there, I think it is increasingly unlikely that we will be back in the US for Christmas, let alone Thanksgiving. Believe me, while there are some bright sides to this, it is not what we wanted either. But every back and forth with the NVC takes about 2-3 months and it seems we'll have at least two more rounds to go (settling this revised form and documentation, and then the medical and visa interview).

I can hardly believe it's been about a year and half since we turned in the first forms, and well over two years since we married, and we're still stuck in limbo. Hey, write your senators and congressmen! Although I fear they have bigger fish to fry right now.

Politics
Those of you who know how phobic I am of paperwork and how I've been using up most of my tolerance for forms on immigration stuff should be impressed to hear that I've actually managed to register for an absentee ballot! A big thanks to the couple people who reminded me a couple weeks ago to look into that!

Craignethan, Chatelhault, & Cadzow

So, yesterday Janet and I went adventuring again! We didn't go all that far from Glasgow this time, actually. We've finally gotten organized enough to make a list of which ones might be paired on the far expeditions, and which ones are close enough for a relatively quick jaunt. So, off we went to Craignethan Castle with several options of where to head next.

The countryside was lovely--hilly and full of woodlands and meadows (the latter mostly grazing land of course). The road up to the castle is a bit tricky and narrow so be warned! The lady who worked the desk/office/shop (caretaker? what's the title for someone with the job of looking after the castle?) was very nice and had an adorable black and white kitty. She actually gets to live there! Well, in the 18th century house built into the corner of the outer courtyard, but still. How awesome! That would be an amazing job.

Every castle we've visited has been unique in some way. The official info on this castle could probably articulate it better than me. There was a deep ditch (two stories?) which then had places for people to come down from the castle and fire on anyone trying to approach along the ditch. What Janet and I found more interesting though, was the nice orange stone that covered many of the outdoor sections. We speculated that it probably once covered the whole inner courtyard. In the picture you can see the orange stone flooring the passage between the castle and the outer wall. The green ahead is the inner courtyard (with the outer courtyard just visible after the ditch) and you can see the green is higher than the stone work, so the grass has probably simply taken over.

As a note, the kitchens as they are now are highly inconvenient. There is a serving hatch on the right level, but to get in and out (barring crawling through the serving hatch) you have to go down to the cellars, through them to the far side and then come up the stairs into the entry hall. But we were told there used to be other doors that have since been filled in, so the original architect was not as cruel to servants as we feared!

Next we headed to Chatelhault. This is the hunting lodge that is nearly all that remains of the grand Hamilton estate. Or rather, the grounds and avenue of trees still exist. But the grand stately mansion (18th? 19th? century) that once stood at the far side of the avenue was torn down early in the 20th century. Subsidence from the coal mining had badly damaged both buildings, but while the main house was demolished the hunting lodge was later restored. It is very grand for a kennels and stables and hunting lodge, and also boasts a banqueting room! All decorated in the same light elegant but ornate style that the main house was likely to have been in. A wedding meant we could not actually go into the main rooms, but we saw the exhibit about the restoration and we wandered briskly and briefly through the drizzle to look at the gardens and outside. I loved the curly-cues of the hedges!

The ruins of Cadzow castle are also on the estate and we wandered over to have a look even though Janet warned me there was not much to look at. Crossing the Avon gorge was pretty at least. But on the far side, the ruins of Cadzow castle are indeed unimpressive, made less so by the fencing and scaffolding keeping people out and walls up.

Sleepless in Göteborg

One last oddity to note before bed. You remember I mentioned the frequent 7-11s? Well, it is bizarre having a hot sit-in meal in a small corner 7-11, I can tell you! I tried to remember the name for what I had, but I´ve forgotten already. It was like a cross between a calzone and a panini--chicken, pesto and mozzarella on pizza-ish bread folded over and grilled. It was quite yummy and (mums as the Swedish say) came with sparkling water--I chose the tasty strawberry-lime since I might as well enjoy it while I can. But I admit to continuing curiosity about the cactus water. I noticed they had cactus-licorice candies (like mints only not mint) too.

More Göteborg

Wow, am I tired. Yet I find myself sad that this trip is winding down.

Last night I was invited around to a home cooked meal. My hostess said she wasn´t sure how traditionally Swedish the fare was, but it was what she cooked. It was certainly nothing I´d had before so I´m inclined to think it quite Swedish. It was also incredibly tasty. We had fish in a tangy yet brothy yet cheesy sauce, with potatoes and a salad (again quite tangy with greens and sprouts). All very yummy, especially the fish. Göteborg is a port town after all, so the fish should not come as a surprise.

By the way, I am enjoying making easy use of the "ö" key on the local keyboard, although the awkwardness of apostrophes and "@" signs still wear at me--at least I know how to make them now! (For reference, you press Alt Gr + 2 for @).

Today I did more wandering. The very first day I was here I noticed a small octagon-shaped fortress -looking building at the crown of a hill. I was far too tired to even walk the extra half-block to the base of the hill to read the sign about it. I would have been disappointed had I done so at that point; the sign was in Swedish (though I was able to pick out a few things, not least the dates, but the phrase "defensive battery" is cognate enough in Swedish to be recognizable. Today I decided to explore it. My legs barely wanted to move and my feet hate my guts, but it´s my last day in Göteborg, so if I was going to satisfy my curiosity about the odd structure, it had to be today. So up I went...or tried to anyway. My hostel is on the opposite side of the hill from where I first saw it. The distinctive stone building with it´s golden crown on top is a good landmark, visible from all sides. So I just walked over to the hill and saw two paths leading up. I picked one and began ascending...the path was old and overgrown, the steps--sometimes wooden sometimes stone--were rickety or crumbling, and it opened onto a glass-strewn clearing with a metal drum cut in half lengthways probably for a firepit. Further exploration showed a smaller even more overgrown path leading off into the trees and bushes...I retraced my steps part way and joined with the other path I had seen...that one got me higher before ending at a rockface. I could see the fort just above me. I had no idea how to reach it. This time I went all the way down the hill and walked around it till I reached the original sign (thus discovering it was in Swedish). I pondered the wider paved but steep path switchbacking up through the overgrowth...I was very tired by now and this was just the start of the day. One more try, I thought. Well this time it worked; I got right to the top and found the fort, Skansen Kronan. First built in the late 17th century, the present octagon (or square with cut-off corners) fort was built in the 18th century. There were even old canons showing where the defensive battery I had successfully translated would have been. There was also an English version of the sign below. It is apparently now a military museum but I was not fortunate enough to have stumbled onto during one of the four hours per week it is open! (Through some irony, I believe it was open when I first saw it. But no matter. I sat in the shade on the grassy hard won summit and read for a while.

This was, to some extent, to form the pattern of my day: pick a place on the map that looked like it might be interesting, walk there and whenever I found myself tiring, plonk down on one of the blessedly frequent park benches and read for a while. Quite enjoyable. So, I have pretty much done with exploring and I did not go to a single museum. (I went to what I thought would be a museum but disappointingly turned out to be a sports arena instead. There wasn´t even a park, forcing me to backtrack. Most vexing. ;) But no matter. I am beginning to think that the measure of a city is its green spaces, and in that department Göteborg rates highly. It also gets high marks for cobbled streets, lovely architecture (one or two breathtakingly beautiful ones; if only my camera were working, but I´m not sure a picture would capture it well anyway). They do very nice brickwork--that doesn´t really do justice to it. And of course the bike lanes and ease of walking paths continues to impress me. I also successfully negotiated the trams yesterday, though the payment method is not convenient to outsiders, they are indeed quite frequent and well connected.

There is so much more I could say. How weird it is that there are Seven-Elevens everywhere, but few other US chains. The tastiness of strawberry-lime which they seem fond of. The fact they sell cactus (kaktus) flavored water (in the 7-11s of course!). The way the university is scattered all over town. How some of the architecture looks like it would be right at home in the US but which I´ve never seen in the UK (influence of Swedish immigrants perhaps?). The disgust and bemusement at Hollywood depictions of Swedes (blond with braids? I´ve never known anyone named "Inga", etc.). But now I am tired, and the end of my book beckons. I shall be left with only non-fiction for my flight home, but I don´t really care.

Götenborg

So here I am in Götenborg (Gothenburg) in Sweden. I have only a few past experiences of being in countries where English was not the norm, but I have to say this has been one of the most easy and pleasant thus far. Everyone converses in Swedish of course and all the signs are in Swedish only except in the airport and main train station, but there are plenty of people around who know English and they all seem quite friendly.

The first thing I noticed on reaching the city was all the bikes. They have the best system of bike lanes I have ever seen. By far. I think every street of any decent size has a dedicated bike path--either together on one side or down the middle of a green way parkland that splits the left and right hand sides of the cars or to each side of the street paralleling the main traffic. There are also dedicated tram and bus lanes on the big streets and public transit seems regular & frequent, though I have not tried it out yet. I will be doing so in about an hour though!

I have walked all over the place. I think I walked about 12-14km yesterday. I have yet to translate that to miles. Today must have been about 6-8km so far. I have gotten lost repeatedly, but I am learning my way around better and better now.

Breakfast at the hostel (Slottsskogens Vandrarhem in case you were thinking of visiting Sweden) was strange but good. Apparently they find it strange here to have sweet things for breakfast. There was meat and cheese and breads, pate, cereal (but all very "grain" like, no very sweet ones), plain yoghurt, fish, etc. I noticed other people eating cereal in their yoghurt so I tried that (I think it was a muesli type of thing with vanilla yoghurt, the only flavour that was not entirely plain) and it was quite good. And I had sandwich type food as well. It certainly kept me going well!

The highlight of the trip has been meeting up with a couple of young ladies I do online role playing with. It is so fun and funny to finally put faces and voices to people you have conversed online with and read the characters & stories of for months. They are both fellow geeks, fellow voracious readers and great fun. It is a pity it is a busy time of year for them with school starting back up and other stuff going on, but we have all had a great time meeting and hanging out (though serially--they did not have any free time in common!).

Well, I still get a bit more time in Götenborg for which I am glad. My camera is sadly having a nervous breakdown (I took one picture and then it decided the memory was full...) so it seems I will not have much in the way to show, but oh well, I shall just have to concentrate on the memories.

Dr Horrible's Sing-Along Blog

More fun madness from the mind of Joss Whedon!!

I thought I had missed this--just a week too late. But then I went to show Ron the site and see how we might get the itunes version, and low and behold, there was a "watch it now" button...and we did. With a headphone in one ear each we watched it in the internet cafe though I think we bothered people anyway what with the hysterical laughter and everything....

Academia sans Ivory Tower

Well, I am editing, editing, edition. After so many long years of academia in which
a) I had many resources at my fingertips for working on papers and
b) I was usually working to find enough to say to meet length requirements
it is now proving very strange and challenging to attempt to cut a nearly 19,000 word thesis down to a 9000-10,000 word article with no resources but my laptop and whatever is available online (mostly relevant in the form of Webster's Dictionary which my publisher uses as their standard for spelling). I also need to adapt to Chicago Style rather than my more accustomed MLA (Chicago Manual of Style offers some quick and dirty guides to their system, but I could really use the handbook). I don't even have the original texts of the works I'm analyzing. Oh, sure, I could find a version of them online, but it wouldn't be the edition I'd used for the rest. Thankfully that hasn't yet become an issue given that I am frantically cutting things, not looking to add any extra quotes.

Well, I've got things down to 15,000 words, cutting about 4000 so far (I remember writing essays that were only 4000 words long!) but the next 4000 will be far harder cut and that last 1000 will, I imagine, be hardest yet.

I've had more discipline than I might have guessed after such a long break at actually working on this paper in a sustained manner. Nevertheless, editing has to be one of my least favorite parts of paper writing--researching being the most fun, followed by analyzing the research.

Immigration Update

So today Ron and I both mailed off the latest sets of forms needed for the process of getting Ron to the States. Fingers crossed that these will have fast turn around. With luck, all that is left should be the interview in London and the medical requirements, but it is hard to be certain of that.

In the mean time, my own latest visitor visa runs out in early September and with July fast running out, we will need to decide soon whether I am returning for another visitor visa or acting as the advance force in moving to California. Either tactic has drawbacks, but I'll need to look for plane tickets soon--either a round-trip to Europe to re-set the visitor visa, or a one-way to the States.


This week, however, will largely be given over to academic pursuits: revising my thesis into a book article. It is certainly strange to be going through all this again--a subject so very familiar but one I haven't touched in a year. I have a contract at last, and now have only to make good on it. I need to cut the length nearly in half, and it would be nice if the half cut away could resolve itself into a second publishable work, but we shall have to see. Much the word count may go simply in tightening up individual paragraphs and sentences to be more succinct.

Bat in the Tea Shop

After several castle-less weeks, Janet and I made up for it yesterday. On thursday we had one of those moments where, having let a couple weeks slide by without talking, we both decided at the same time it was time to plan a castle trip--I called Janet just as she was planning to call me as soon as she got home. She delegated me to plan a trip (a dangerous move, but it worked out fine!). Since I was out in internet cafe land I didn't have my member's handbook with me, so I decided to simply use the webpage...and it was fortunate I did since I stumbled on to the fact that Rowallan castle is only open 10 days a year (plus three additional Saturdays) and Friday was to be day #10. So, of several possible routes, the decision had been made. I scouted out the presence of a few other Historic Scotland sites in the same direction and reported to Janet with my progress. And for once, everything went to plan!!

We were both a bit sleep deprived. I had a fiction-related allnighter just two nights previous and then only managed four hours of sleep the night before our Friday expedition. Janet too was tired, but excitement carried us through and off we set Southeast for Ayrshire.

Rowallan Old Castle (apparently as opposed to Rowallan New Castle which we did not see) is well worth a visit if you can manage it. The property appears to be maintained by Historic Scotland but owned by a landlord who holds the larger estate the castle is situated on, and the landlord does not seem best pleased with people coming around to see the castle. It seems he's agreed only to the minimum number of open days to still have HS maintain the castle, and provides no parking at all and is, reportedly, consistently cranky about the whole thing (this from some gossip from someone at one of the other castles later in the day). We did have our own brief encounter with someone who certainly fit his description, but escaped unscathed.

But as I said, Rowallan Castle is certainly worth a visit. It is apparently possible to arrange a viewing at other times, though given the above, I don't know how difficult that might prove to be. The castle was built and remodeled and added to over the 13th-18th centuries on a site that has archaeological evidence back to the bronze age (they showed us a nice pot decorated with nicely done typically-bronze age zig-zags and dots that was found on site). It is built on a hill, though not the highest hill in the region. The majority of the surviving castle is 16th-17th century. A bit more than a third--oddly the oldest and the youngest parts of the castle, though both on the same side--is ruined, the side that when facing the entrance is off to your right (east). Front right was the original towerhouse which would have been three or four stories high. You can still see parts of the second floor and bits of a fireplace, but mostly only the "ground" floor remains. Because of the way the hill is situated the ground floor of the towerhouse is nearly as high up as the second floor of the building across the way (which in turn has one of those basements that is completely underground on the courtyard side but has gunloop windows on the far side.

The surviving section of the castle are really more of a fortified manor house than a strategic castle, and there are really interesting indication of how the style of living shifted through the aras when it was lived in by a family and household. The really amazing thing about this castle are the relatively rare survivals in the better preserved section of the castle. There is still woodwork--not just doors but banisters and built-in cupboards and the like. There is is plaster and even paint in a number of places. There is an exceedingly rare kind of temporary wall--I've completely forgotten the name of it, but it basically consists of "bricks" made of straw and mud slotted into a thin wooden framework and then plastered over. Once plastered it wouldn't have looked any different from the plastered stone walls, but it would go up easy and go down just as easy. These two walls were put up to divide a larger room into two bedrooms. It has deteriorated just enough in one of the bedrooms that you can see the bricks and the wooden framework of most of it, plaster clinging only to a small section. Very suceptable to the damp, these walls don't often survive in Scottish castles, and our tour guide said she didn't know of another one in Scotland and has asked every tour group to go through if they've ever seen one--so far one man had seen one in England, and that's it. They're not quite sure when that particular wall was put up. Probably 17th or 18th century, so not medieval, but still very cool.

One of the things that very much sparked my interest was the "Woman's House." This section of the main building has it's own entrance and is the last part of the south side of the castle to be built, extending a little along the west as well. From that entrance there isn't access to the "ground" floor--that space was accessible through the main set of rooms though we didn't get to go in there. Instead you get faced with a stairway leading up and down. The upstairs room is one of the most light and airy in the whole place and in many ways it looks like it could exist in a tasteful modern house. Hard to tell exactly what is restored and what is original--I think the wood paneling is original, the plaster work was restored and the windows replaced entirely, but that's just my guess. There is a small room off to the side ("dressing room" according to our guide). But while this part was built for one of the owners' (laird?) wives, I really have to wonder if it was really her bedroom (as the presence of a dressing room would certainly indicate) or if it was a salon/sitting room type space or something. Because while it used to be common practice to have separate bedrooms for noble husbands and wives, having to go outside and cross the courtyard to get to the domain of the other is a bit much!

Well, there were some other cool things at Rowallan--the buckles on the stonework come to mind!--but we'll move on with the day. We headed into Kilmarnock for lunch and settled on the visitor center at the Dean Castle Park. In the tea shop/cafeteria we were dive-bombed by a bat!! The poor thing had somehow ended up inside in the middle of the day and was not at all happy about it. He kept swooping all over the place. Occasionally he would briefly land on a wall before streaking off again, but he seemed unable to either settle anywhere nor find his way outside. He was very cute though.

Off we went to peek briefly in Dean Castle. Unfortunately most is closed to tours only (Rowallan too was tours only) and we were a bit too nackered to face another 45 minute tour. It looked like a very cool castle though, of similar eras (mostly Renaissance I'd guess) built on a somewhat larger scale. I was impressed with the covered walkways running along the inside of the upper level around the courtyard. And they have a proper well rather than a hole in the ground like so many have been reduced to.

Then it was off to Dundonald Castle, "cradle of the Stewarts." This was far more ruined than the other two. 15th century. And it's history (inevitably I suppose, being so close) was twined with that of Rowallan. Elizabeth Mure came from the family at Rowallan. She was the first wife of Robert, then High Steward of Scotland and later King Robert II. She bore him quite a few children (ten?) including John who became King Robert III (the name John wasn't going over well, what with John Balliol's severe unpopularity so he changed his name to Robert). She died before Robert II became king, however, so she was never Queen. The Mures continued to make much of their royal connections, though, as is reflected on the imagery on the front of Rowallan Castle.

My New Virtual Bookshelf

Books!

Ok, I've added a new spiffy feature to my blog! In a blatant display of procrastination, I was doing one of my periodic web surfs through the web pages of my favorite authors. Most of the time I just do this to see if there are any new announcements of upcoming releases. But this time I noticed several of them had blogs or other pages to post writing advice, news, and random musings. Well, on Gail Dayton's blog I noticed she had a cool bookshelf thing. I had noticed something like it on someone else's--Jacqueline Carey's maybe?--page too; but Gail Dayton's stood out more because she uses the same exact blog site as me. And I thought--If she can stick this up on her blog, then so can I...somehow. Now in both cases, one of the fascinating things had been the fact that right up at the top of these bookshelves were books I knew and loved! So of course that (and the fact that these are authors I respect anyway) made me all the more interested in the books I didn't know.

Anyway, I soon tracked down the Shelfari site and got signed up and figured out how to put it on my blog. So here it is!! Well, adding things to it is also a bit of work and procrastination could only last so long. So some of my favorites are up, and anything that happened to turn up in the searches for my favorites that I've also read. So, as things occur to me, or as the need for procrastinatory activities strikes, I'll expand the collection.

Music!
My last performance with the Madrigirls was last week. It was great fun, as usual. We performed in the Kibble Palace in the Botanical Gardens as part of the West End Festival in Glasgow. We sold out! And the people running it said we had a record number of pre-sales (Ron being one of them). It was a very pretty venue, though I have to say most of the churches we've performed in had nicer acoustics; not bad though. Perhaps because of the venue, or the summery feel, or the fact we were all still recovering from all the excitement a week and a half back, this concert had a somewhat informal feel to it, at least to me. This was definitely increased by the fact that the serious readings from the Life of St Kentigern from the tour were replaced by our director's very funny summaries of the same ("And next St Mungo went to Wales...I don't remember why. Oh he wanted to see St David. Or was it St David that wanted to see him? *looks back at choir for guidance* Anyway, he went to Wales and....was there anything else? *hint from our ranks* Oh yes, he met St Columba too. That might have been after Wales. But we have this lovely piece of chant about St Columba." ...ok, so that's not a direct quote, and hopefully it won't get me killed if someone from choir reads this blog, but I think that was a fair impression. ;)

Anyway, the last concert was fun. Though I'm very sad it's all over now. They've promised to send me CDs or a DVD of the movie when it comes out if I can't see the movie in the States. I'm very very glad I decided to join. Amazing where volunteering to help out with the role playing table at Fresher's Fair led to eventually!! If I hadn't been promoting gaming, I wouldn't have seen the information about the choir tryouts on the table kinny-corner, and thus wouldn't have tried out, and thus wouldn't have had all this fun singing with an awesome choir this year.

Sing, Sing, and Sing Some More!

So, last weekend the Madrigirls (the chamber singing group I'm in) went on tour down to the Borders and Northumberland (you know, I always have to stop and think whether Northumberland or Northumbria is the modern term and which is medieval). We all got matching sweatshirts--Madri-hoodies--and headed down in a minibus rented from Glasgow Uni--the Madi-bus--and got down to Simonburn in Northumberland (vaguely near Hexham) for our concert for friday night. Naturally we sang most of the way down.

The reason we picked the tiny village of Simonburn for our first full-weekend tour ever (despite the fact that the West End Festival information persistently says we went on tour in Europe "last year"...they've said this for two years now, and it was true for neither, which we keep telling them, but that's all neither here nor there) is because their church is St Mungo's Church and as everyone knows, St Mungo is the patron saint of Glasgow (what do you mean everyone doesn't know that?). So, yes, we got to sing in a gorgeous 14th century church. We had a great turn out--the church was nearly full. We saw fliers all around on our way and they were clearly excited to have us and it was great fun. We had an incredible dinner at the local tea room before hand and then the proprietors bought one of our CDs after the concert and said we'd be heard in the tea room for a long time to come! They must have really liked us.

Well then we headed off in the trusty madri-bus for our first hostel which we had entirely to ourselves. It was incredibly picturesque, very cottage-like looking out over a lovely valley and complete with their own chickens in the yard. We sang more on the way there. And then we talked half the night. I introduced the game "How's Yours?" (any BREAK@8 readers in the audience groaning at that?) and we played all the way around till everyone had a go. Then we went to bed...which didn't mean going to sleep since I seem to have ended up in the rambunctious room both nights. Anyway, eventually sleep was had. The bunk beds were novelties to some and nostalgic to others. I suppose I fell in the latter category.

The next day we headed back north for Scotland. We had lunch in Jedburgh and then sang in fairly substantial ruins of Jedburgh Abbey. It was very pretty. I wish I'd had time to explore. In fact, if I'd realized we would have so little time afterwards, I would have ditched the choir members to go explore during lunch since my Historic Scotland card would have got me in. But hindsight and all that. It was very fun nonetheless. We went for all quite medieval songs, naturally, most of them Latin and drew a small crowd. Sadly there wern't many people around that day, but practically everyone in the abbey came to listen to us, and one bought a CD and two came to the concert that night.

Then it was off to Bowden Kirk for our final performance. We got another quite decent turn out. By this time our voices were a bit on the tired side. We went into it tired and not quite in the mood, but inside another lovely old kirk with all the nice people there to hear us, how could we resist? Once again, fun was had. And if various people, myself included, faded out here and there, well, at least we never all did it at once and the concert came off splendidly anyway. I got an adrenaline kick right before my solo that carried me through a few more songs besides. After the performance we all filed out and then while Katy and Catriona (our directors) greeted people as they came out, some of the Madrigirls invented new lyrics to one of our warm up rounds. The original words are "Mango, Mango, Mango...Kiwi, Kiwi, Kiwi...Pineapple, Banana, Pineapple, Mmm." And it became "Mingle, Mingle, Mingle....Mingle with the people...Talk to them, talk to them--nah." Unfortunately we were overheard, but luckily people seemed to think it was rather endearing....I hope so anyway. Once on the bus Evonne and I introduced the version we had invented weeks ago "Mungo, Mungo, Mungo...holy, holy, holy...Kentigern, Kentigern" which was well received.

Then it was back to our mansion-like hostel in Melrose to change. Soon we were headed out to the pub--one of the two pubs in Melrose. The other one was showing sports of some kind, and in fact one of the two rooms of ours was too. After the first round or so of drinks we started singing...again. Actually, I have to admit, I instigated it this time. A pint of cider was enough to give me the courage to go teach "Battle is better when followed by beer" to Evonne who helped teach it to a half dozen others and soon we had nearly everyone singing it. We even tried it as a round--it more or less works. Well, once singing had started, we couldn't stop. For a while we sang non-concert stuff, searching for other fun things that we might know or could be learned quickly ("What would you do with a drunken sailor?"...) Soon after we'd started singing we seemed to have cleared the remaining locals out of the pub...but then one of the band of men who'd been drinking outside came in for a fresh round and dragged all his mates in to hear us and soon we had tons of men requesting more and more. At this point we fell back increasingly on our own repertoire, going through all the rowdiest, and most fun songs. Quite intoxicated by this time (well, I nursed two drinks through the whole night, but I'm a lightweight and most of the choir is undergrads after all), we *might* have shouted out the music a bit. But a grand time was had by all.

Despite being once more in the rowdy room, I was soon asleep. The next day I for one tried to refrain from idle singing since many of us we nearly hoarse from days of non-stop singing. We couldn't resist entirely though. It's so hard! Once you're around fellow-singers and let your hair down a bit, it's almost impossible not to sing and sing and sing some more.

Then it was back to Glasgow, but the singing wasn't over yet. We split up for lunch and then reconvened for a rehearsal because...wait for it...the next night we were scheduled to record for the BBC! So we rehearsed. One song was one we knew. The other was In the Bleak Midwinter, which of course, we all knew more or less, but I'd never sung the alto harmony for it. Nevertheless, one rehearsal really did suffice in this case. Then the next night we did the actual recording...from 7pm to 2:30am!!

In the movie this is for, Fiona's Story, the main character (named, surprisingly enough, Fiona; played by Gina McKee) is in a choir at the beginning of the movie then quits when her life falls apart. At the end (spoiler alert!) she comes back to the choir...presumably symbolizing how she's put her life back together. The choir director (Jimi Mistry) is a persistent character and probably urges her to come back--though I really know little about the middle of the movie. It was really funny watching the actor imitating our choir director and getting better at directing as things went on.

All the actors and directors and everyone were very nice and down to earth. I guess I always pictured more scowling and shouting and "no, that's not right" stuff going on. But it was all quite cheerful and they plied us with food between shoots and water bottles between takes and despite going into it all quite thoroughly exhausted it was still great fun. We finished up just after 2 in the morning and they paid for taxis to take us home. Since we were filming on campus, I was really only 5 minutes from home, but given the hour I was quite happy to accept the cab though given all the one-way streets it took the cab longer to collect us and drive me there than it would have taken to walk.

So, you'll have to watch for Fiona's Story to come out and watch for me in the choir scenes!

But the singing's not over yet. Tonight we rehearse for our final performance of the year. This coming Wednesday we perform in the Kibble Palace (Botanical Gardens) as part of the annual West End Festival.

Skateboarding!

May is widely recognized as the most beautiful time of year in Glasgow—in Scotland really. Later in the summer is subject to hotter weather, muggier weather and colder rainier weather as well, all intermixed. But May is almost inevitably characterized by warm sunny days with cool breezes, with myriad types of flowers in bloom.

This is precisely the sort of weather we’ve been having when I was lured out into the park and onto a longboard. A longboard, for those of you not in the know, is a skateboard but—you guessed it—longer. It’s actually wider as well, all around a bigger board, though typically fairly low to the ground. This makes it much more stable for simply coasting around as opposed to the smaller more traditional boards whose shape and firmness is necessary for all those cool flips and grinds and other tricks. So, on Sunday I spent very little time on the longboard. There were three boards and four of us and I was in slightly-too-big sandals which are not the best footwear for such a sport. I clocked only about ten minutes total, but managed not to fall off the thing—leap off, stumble off, sometimes with a yelp of surprise, but not fall off.

Yesterday I came prepared in tennis shoes. I coasted around for a while with much the same results, though further impeded by the larger crowds of people, dogs, children, bikes, balls, and radio-controled-trucks.

Then the other skateboarders decided it would be fun to all go up this very mild hill. Beginners could go just a little ways up, and the more advanced people would go further up. It is a very very mild hill, mind you. The bottom of the slope I’d hardly dignify by the name if I was walking. Unfortunately, right at the base there is a huge metal cover (two yards across or more) that you have to dodge to one side of or the other. Oh, and turning right (lean on the balls of your feet) is easier than turning left (lean back on your heels). So I decided to go for the narrow strip between the metal cover of doom and the fencing of peril, and waited for a gap in pedestrian traffic. Now understand, I was only about four yards up this mild incline, by far the person furthest down this “slope” and this did not seem the least bit foolhardy…until it was time for me to pick up my breaking foot and get going. Well, what I hadn’t really paid attention to—concentrating as I was on missing the metal cover and not hitting pedestrians—is that in addition to sloping down the path, the edge of the path slopes off into the gutter to the right…which is edged by that metal fence I mentioned…and remember how it’s easier to turn right than left? Well I got past the metal cover fine going at my fastest speed yet (it can’t have been impressive to an outside observer though, alas) but I was in a tight right turn and the slope into the gutter wouldn’t let me out of it. As best I can recall I made some sort of attempt to leap off the board hoping to land on my feet and catch myself on the fence. It didn’t work out that way. In leaping I seem to have pushed off the board such that my feet came out from under me all the faster. There was a brief terrifying moment of being airborn……and then I hit asphalt. Well, they did say if you don’t fall off, you’re not trying hard enough.

Hip, arm, shoulder, hand and head all hit together; at least it distributed the force. I think the injury I resent the most is the one to my right thumb and hand. I had borrowed quite good hand protection, you see, but the protective bits were over the palm and the fronts of the fingers—what you’d land on if you fell forward and tried to catch yourself. I, on the other hand, managed to land on the side of my thumb, and the whole ball of my thumb got rather swollen and tender which has certainly made typing more hazardous. And picking things up, leaning on things, etc. I’m hoping my neck settles out soon though. It’s odd how these things work. I hit the ground on my right side…so now the left side of my neck hurts. Hmph. The rest of me was a bit bruised and rattled, but seems to be none the worse for wear today. Nonetheless, despite fellow boarders attempts to use quotes about getting back on the horse to goad me back into action, I think I’ll take a break from the wonders of longboarding.

Now if we could go windsurfing on the other hand…

The Backs of Things

All right, here are a few more pictures, this time from the National Museum of Scotland. I've now been to this museum twice--and I'm giving you one picture from each trip actually--and I think I've figured out something very important about me and museums containing nifty medieval things: I'd be much better off going alone. I adore Janet and I love Ron but neither can match my enthusiasm and, more problematic, both are prone to be bored stiff as I slow down to snap pictures and scribble down notes about things no matter how fast I try to be. The result is that it's too slow a trip for them to really have fun and too rushed a trip for me to be happy with the results. So I really need to be completely antisocial, catch a bus or train over to Edinburgh first thing in the morning well equipped with batteries and a notepad and then take careful non-blurry photographs with sufficient notes to tell me afterwards what I took pictures of.

Ok, enough ranting, now for the fun stuff. Well, one of the fun things about going to large museums is seeing the little things that aren't famous or anything, but reveal a lot about the material culture of the past. But one of the other fun things is seeing the really famous things but from other angles that never quite make it in the text books. So, here are two selections from the latter category: the backs of a few of the Lewis chessmen and the back of the Orkney hood. In both cases it was still hard to maneuver to the side of the case to get the shot--but it was well worth it.

I did get a few more interesting fabric related shots, for those of you crazy fellow geeks of medieval Scottish fiber arts as well as a couple other angles on the hood (the others have fingers or flashes etc; see above on going way too fast).

Archaeologists generally call the Orkney hood a "recycled" garment--made in part from left over or reused bits from another garment. One of the clues to this is in the back where you can see things don't all line up and hang as perfectly as in the front and the fringe doesn't quite reach all the way across.

As for those that label this a "child's" hood, though, I have to completely disagree--and the curator who arranged the hood seems to as well. It's sitting on a model of a full grown man's head and it fits just fine; I think this could easily be an adult hood.

Well, once I'm organized enough to figure out where to put pictures, I'll get some more up. Hope that will tide you over for now.

Broch and Roman Fort and Museum

Much archaeological fun was had the last few days!

I'll need to find a better forum for the bulk of the pictures but I'll give you a few highlights here...

Here we have an outside and inside view of a fairly well preserved midlands broch. These were round windowless fortresses built around 100BC - 100AD according to my handy book on ancient Scotland (it's a bit before my area of expertise!)

This particular broch is not owned by Historic Scotland and thus has no sign posts, no marked trail, no explanatory plaques. But Janet and I tracked it down and were very impressed. The walls of brochs are very thick--they're actually hollow for most of the broch with a stairway running inside and cells "hollowed" out of the parts where the spiral stair isn't. One story of the stair was left and on the opposite side one of the oval cells. And the entry lintal and the lintal leading to the stair were both still in place. Very cool!

Well, it turns out it's kicking out time in the cafe, so accounts of other adventures will have to wait! Stay tuned for more nifty archaeology!

Morning Travels and Trials

This morning I did something really impressive. I got up with my first alarm clock at 7am. Why? Because I wanted to go download drivers for my camera so I could pull the pictures off the memory stick so I would be able to take new pictures in Edinburgh today. So I got up at 7 all motivated, cooked breakfast (fed some to Ron who then went back to sleep for the half hour till he has to get up) and headed out to find an internet cafe...

First problem, Glasgow is *not* a city that never sleeps. And they don't seem to believe in having a cup a coffee to wake up before work either. I tried my closest regular haunts first which took me down to Great Western Rd, back across Bank St and then down Gibson St. Well, that took out five potential WiFi spots, but I had hope. I was sure iCafe and the Bay Tree Cafe both opened around 7 so back I went to trek further down Great Western. Neither Bay Tree nor iCafe were open. Most of these places don't actually post their hours but iCafe was nice enough to tell me I was a full hour early by this point since they open at 8:30. Well, since I was that far down Great Western I decided to slog onwards to check Bean Scene (the one by the M8 now being closer than the one on Ashton Ln I usually frequent. So, I hiked down Great Western to the M8...except Bean Scene, I recalled belatedly, isn't on Great Western, it's on Gibson St. Now for the non-Glasweigians in the audience, Great Western and Gibson St steadily diverge, so what was three blocks apart on my first zig and four apart on my next zag was now significantly more. And nor was there a single cross street leading from one to the other. So I cut down myriad little residential streets (discovering on the way the last remnents of what must have been a grand square in the 19th century...and one of the new buildings had some funny art I'd loved to have taken a picture of and posted here--if only I'd had a working camera!) until I finally rejoined Gibson St. At last I came to Bean Scene and--wow!--they were open.

So here I am...but, alas, Sony tells me my camera is incompatible with Vista.

That'll teach me to get up early!

April Snow?

If April showers bring May flowers than what does April snow and hail bring?

Yes, that's right, after a day and a half of glorious sunny spring weather, the tempature dropped suddenly on Satuday afternoon and that night it hailed and the next moring it snowed--enough to stick for a good while. Now today we're back to Glasgow's default weather--cold and overcast.

Ok, so for the more sober part of the blog. I had a bit of a self revelation on Sunday. I know I've stopped talking about it here, but some of you may remember me posting about my growing frustration at my church here in Glasgow. I had dropped out of the prayer group, but sunday sermons were still a weekly source of anger. It kept growing and growing till I'd be bracing myself before sermons or synically wondering what he would say to piss me off this time. Watching the all-male group of deacons distribute the bread and wine added a cynical edge even to communion (what? they really can't find even one woman worthy to be a deacon in the church? And people shrug it off as "a bit oldfashioned" but it's all of a piece!).

But I finally realized this Sunday that I'd fallen into the trap. I'd let my anger at the religious trappings interfear with my relationship with God. Where in the begining it had just driven me to prayer more--albeit often quiet rant-like prayers--I've hardly prayed at all recently. I haven't done any of the religious reading I meant to do. Spiritual contemplation doesn't even occur to me. So, it's time to take a deep breath and start repairing that relationship.

Blue Sky!!

Well, today was a much better day. A good day even.

Glasgow gave us a glorious sunny day. Warm enough not to wear a coat for the first time this spring. Beautiful blue sky with puffy white clouds and a bit of a cold breeze.

And Ron and I were even proactive. Went out--walked across town via the park (where the daffodils are blooming now) and got errands done.

And now our favorite cafe happens to have live music tonight. Wee!

Jobhunt Blues (Again)

Well, I began trying to jobhunt (again). I had spotted a job on craigslist that looked really cool. Fun, I was well qualified, it payed money, and best of all it was largely work at home except when they flew people in for meetings--and they're home base is in California. The problem? My resume was on the backup disks that went missing months and months ago and I found this while travelling anyway. So, I went back home and after a couple weeks of choas got around to digging through everything (again). I didn't turn up the disks. But I *did* find a hardcopy of a draft of an academic CV. Well, this made me feel better...like I wasn't starting from scratch, so I typed it back in. Now I had something to start from. I went back to the listing...not there. I checked the company's website...no listing. So, I was too slow (again).

So, I've downloaded some resume templates and have started trying to make a more work-oriented version of my resume so that when the *next* dream job comes my way, I'll be ready.

The Chip

Well, this is novel, I'm writing this sitting at a bar!

Last night, in frustration at early closing, I looked for a site listing cafes with WiFi in Glasgow. Even better, I found someone's review page of WiFi hotspots in the West End. They opened it up for people to comment at the end and list & review other places they knew of. Two people mentioned that the Chip on Ashton lane had free WiFi.

I knew that a few pubs were starting to offer WiFi but they're less overt about it than cafes, so I wasn't sure which ones or how to find out. The Chip is great and I love coming to Ashton Lane. The one disadvantage is that the only plug is behind the bar. Now, the barman was nice enough to plug me in, but I doubt they would be so patient if I tried to do this all the time. So I don't think this'll be a regular hangout. It does make a nice change though, and the soup and bread I had for lunch was fantastic and cheap.

Anyway, I'll have to explore a few of he other options here around the West End. I'm also looking into other forms of internet--either home internet or mobile broadband. Both are expensive, though, if you're not signing up for year long contracts...which wouldn't work out so well for us.

Flying Kitten

Well, I made my obligatory trip "home" to the US. You can only visit Britain for 6 months at a time before you have to prove you have a home to go to, by going to it. Then you can come right back for another visit, which is precisely what I did. So I'm back in the UK safe and sound.

Visiting my grandparents was great. I think it had been around three years since I'd gotten to see my grandma (on my mom's side), and I'd only seen my grandpa a couple times briefly. So ten days in Nevada with them was great. I got to see some other family and a few friends too in my whirlwind tour. Sadly I missed out my dad's side of the family in Sac...so close and yet so far. There just wasn't time, and I'd done it the other way around last time I was in that part of the world. The last few times actually. Well, fingers crossed, I'll be living in that part of the world full time in a matter of months and then I can visit you all!!

My grandma let me pillage her closet, and then I faced the challenge of seeing how many jeans and sweaters I could fit (including everything I'd brought in the first place) into one backpack, since my return trip didn't allow for any checked luggage (bit of a long story that; let's just say it saved me a lot of money). But I did well. Unpacking in Glasgow, the jeans were coming out like clowns from a clowncar and I'm no longer in danger of freezing to death as Glasgow's winter continues to drag on.

So, after using full use of a layover in San Fran to visit a few friends, off I went again back to Glasgow. And here I am! I got back just in time for another concert the next day. That went well enough, although we were all freezing cold. I was so jetlagged I was braced for discomfort and delirium and was thankful the cold kept me awake, but my choir mates were not so thrilled, and it took the edge of the fun of singing. Still, we were a great hit and sold about 25 CDs that night!

Between those sales and the fundraiser Pub Quiz (we sang while they marked scores!) it looks like we'll be able to take the Madrigirls on the road this summer. No major tour...I think we're just doing a weekend away to elsewhere in Scotland. Nevertheless, I once again find myself torn. On the one hand, I'd love to be settling into a flat in Bay Area, CA by summer. On the other hand, I'd love to go sing in the little medieval church they want us go to this summer. Well, I guess that means I'll have things to look forward to either way.

Conflagration

Well Conflagration, the annual Glasgow Gaming Convention, was great fun. Granted, it wasn't on much bigger a scale than the Gugathons and other periodic big gaming nights. Well, maybe three times as big as one of those. Great fun though. We took over most of the QM union. The card and board gamers took over the ground floor, RPGs and wargaming took the massive Food Factory that spans the whole of the second floor, and the LARPers used the various committee rooms up on the third floor. I meant to try LARPing at some point, but I pretty much lived on the second floor. I volunteered the first morning, helping to set up and then matching people to games (and prodding GMs into writing out their synopses for prospective players to read).

Then there was a great game in which I got to play an 18^th century French farm girl turned whore turned aristocrat who decides to steal this new invention: it's called a hot air balloon. And did I mention that I and everyone else who independently stowed away on the balloon could all do magic? Ah, the adventures you can get up to despite hooped skirts and a white beehive wig!

Later that night we went out for drinks with friends who had moving away from Glasgow but had come back for the Con, mainly Cat and Graeme and a friend of theirs who I had met before but hadn't really had a chance to talk with at length. We had one drink in a pub, but Saturday nights in pubs are clearly designed for something other than conversation. Alas. We cast around for ideas of where to go where we could have another drink but actually talk (since they were visiting, and our tiny one room bedsit is a wreck right now, going “home” wasn't an option). The answer? Head back to the QM of course! There's often a cover charge that late at night, and indeed Bedlam was in full swing by then, having displaced the card games of the ground floor. But our Conflagration passes got us back in! So up we went to Jim's bar where we could actually hear ourselves think and, even better, hear each other talk. We finished off that night by going back up to the 2^nd floor to point and laugh at (and say goodnight to) the last die-hards still gaming upstairs.

And then the next day it all started again. For the morning game I got to try out the Cortex gaming system with Battlestar Galactica (and they only gave away one major spoiler; I still haven't gotten to see season 3). The Cortex system is the same system as the Serenity RPG uses, and I plan to run a Serenity game one of these days. BSG was great fun. This time I was playing a guy, a computer programmer working on the computer systems for a prototype ship that could replace the raptors. But the code was buggy. Luckily that guidance system networking I was supposed to install...well, there was just something strange about it, and I couldn't get it integrated with the other systems in time...which meant our ship *wasn't* crashed by the Cylons! We made it to the fleet after various adventures. I'd love to have continued that one into a campaign!

And then, in dramatic contrast, I finished off my weekend of gaming with a My Small Horsey game. Think about the title a moment. Well, using ponies that were little could be copywrite infringement. But playing Bounty, a pirate pony in the newly updated My Small Horsey land was great fun. I did fall into hysterical laughter (and I do mean hysterical; I couldn't stop at all) when a giant squid nearly attacked the sea-ponies we had called for help...and then I laughed even harder when the pluckiest sea pony solved the problem by giving the giant squid a hug!

Then I got online for a few updates to my online role playing. Then it was back down to Jim's Bar downstairs where I joined the joint IO-GUGS pub quiz team. There was flagrant answer sharing going on between our team and the pure-IO team. But nevertheless, the pure-IO team came in 3rd while our team came in 2nd. It just goes to show you that the Ponies were right--cooperation and team work does make all the difference!

Continued Glasgow Weather Reports

I have to say, coming out to the internet today has be a sign of either dedication or insanity. Or a bit of both. In addition to continuing winds--sometimes gale force, sometimes dying down to merely gusty--this morning we got hail. The pieces weren't that big--pea sized mostly, or a little bigger. But there were hundreds hitting my window all at once, on and on, with all the force of that wind. Crazy.

Well, the wind dyed down to gusty and the hail storm blew over (or took a break) a little after noon and I saw my chance. I stuck anything non-waterproof into plastic bags before packing it away in the laptop bag and made my dash to the QM...only to find that the union's WiFi is on the fritz again! So after a half hour of troubleshooting it was out into the wind again (by this time there was actual blue sky!) and now I'm in one of my favorite coffee shops right off Ashton Lane. I love their coffee, but their WiFi deal is not as good as others (coffee gets you a voucher for 58min and counting...) so I'll have to make yet another dash in a little while and hope I can get a good seat in the Hillhead library...but there's only one set of wallplugs so I'll likely be limited by battery power...

Umbrella Graveyard

Today, and to a lesser extent yesterday, have reminded me afresh why I rarely bother with umbrellas in chronically rainy Glasgow. The wind is gusting all over the place, shot through with cold rain. The wind was strong enough today that I took a longer route to the QM simply because it had less trees to walk under. I haven't actually seen fallen branches today, but a storm like this could easily and rapidly escalate and I wouldn't want to happen to be under a tree branch when it did!

I spent the first hour of internet time up on the top floor where all the heating rises to. I was glad that I was wearing a simple T-shirt for my bottom layer because I had to peal all the way down to it. But now, one floor lower, I'm back in a jacket. It's nice to have a decent source of internet again that doesn't require me to buy coffee every hour or so. I think I'm every bit as caffeine-addicted now as I was at the hight of writing my masters. But now that the union's WiFi is up and working again, I've come here the last two days—today makes three. I also had a headache the last two days...And since I'm feeling borderline today, I'd best get at least one coffee. It's best to ease these things back. Sigh. Well, I'm off to get a latte!

Valentine's Day

In honor of Valentine's Day, the Gugs' forum (usually a dark and gothy web page for gamer geeks). The gug (one of Lovecraft's inventions...you know, like Cthulu?) appeared with flowers and a box of chocolates and the whole page has become pink and frilly. Some of the geeks were horrified but I think it's great. The news report included that "The Gug has found true happiness with a ghoul called Tracy. The Gug has renovated his domain to reflect his mood." Good for the gug!

The Witchfire forum I play on is sadly half-down and has been for nearly a week. Parts of it are still limping along, but I hope it is fully operational soon.

Since I have choir practice tonight, Ron and I are postponing most of Valentines Day type activities till tomorrow.

Blue Skies and Music

Blue sky three days running way. We had fog last night though. It made everything look mysterious *waggles fingers and uses "mysterious" voice*. It also meant it was really cold. It's still cold today but at least it's clear and blue and cold.

The Madrigirls performed again this weekend. It was a somewhat bazaar performance as part of "LentFest". I think someone forgot to inform them about the whole fest = feast and feasting is what you're not supposed to do during Lent thing. The performance was "multimedia" with a slide show going on while people played and sang and there was even the obligatory liturgical dance. One of the best performers disappeared half way through. "Ah well, you know these tempermental concert pianists" was the announcer's comment. "Hopefully he'll show up again; we have his piano!" It turned out he had gone home ill, however. He was a Polish concert pianist who had been "discovered" as a cleaner working in the Glasgow University Chapel. And he was really good. One of those ones who doesn't even bring sheet music up and makes it look like he's just fiddling around a bit with the piano while producing amazing music. So it was really a shame he didn't do his second piece.

Our stuff went well. Not all medievaly this time. We had an American shapenote hymn (funny I had to come to the UK to find out about the American shapenote tradition). We also sang backup for "The Border Band" which was more fun than I thought it would be. When we first looked at the music I couldn't stop giggling, it was all so cheesy. But it was really rather fun to sing. I've got to say, for a professional concert in a real professional venue with a £10 a ticket entry price...that was one of the most low-key performances I've ever given. I couldn't manage to be the slightest bit nervous.

Our next concert sounds fantastic though, and I really hope I'll be in the UK to be in it! We're splitting the concert with some monks singing Gregorian chants etc. We're singing two songs with them and the rest of the concert is split between us. It sounds great. And we're learning some really cool medievaly music for it too. ("Erthe unto Erthe" for one, for anyone who listens to Medieval Babes). The director said it would be fine if I missed a couple rehearsals as long as I took away the music and learned it, so if I can just get back in the UK for the 9th than I can sing. Oh, it would be so awesome. (Goes away to continue plotting and scheming).

Latte!

I've become a latte drinker. How did that happen? And we're not talking froofy caramel lattes and cinnamon lattes cause I've drunk those for years. That's the thing, my "coffee" drinks are usually rather extravagant affairs with milk and espresso as just the beginning before adding all sorts of sugars and flavorings. But coffee is even more expensive in the UK than the US and while it is almost necessary for using the internet, it's been necessary to cut back on extravagance. So I've been learning the joys of a simple latte. I've even weaned my way down from two sugars to one.

Now to any of those of you with a practical streak down to the marrow who are tempted to point out that it would be cheaper still to get plain coffee, I will point out an odd fact about most Scottish cafes. They don't have drip coffee. Yes, you heard me. They don't have it. If you ask for a coffee, you're either going to get an Americano or a latte. So yes, I could order tea for about 20 pence less than my lattes; but I can't make lattes this good at home (warming milk in a pan and stirring in some instant coffee just doesn't come close) and I can make a good cup of tea for about 4 pence total; 8 pence if it's chai. And really; do you know how much tea they serve around here?

Mouse or Lion?

Medieval Mickey Mouse; amazing what you'll find while looking through archaeology sites for entirely different things. http://www.thelocal.se/7544/

To balance my past ranting about the difficulties of researching without the benefits of an institution backing you, I'd like to mention how glorious it is to research whatever I feel like. And talk about inter-disciplinary! I've been all over the map (including back to long-neglected astronomy; side note: Celestia is the coolest freeware ever).

I've added the main public library to my list of resources, though I've not mastered using their system yet. They only have a few things on the shelves; you have to find things in the (rather antiquated) catalog and then send a member of staff to go fetch it for you. I'd rather browse. And it seems a great waste of paper; I hope they at least recycle the request slips.

I spent a whole day in there and didn't answer any of the questions I'd come in with but learned lots about tangential matters. If I was working on a paper with a deadline this would a distressing lack of progress. As it is, the stuff I learned was cool and so it's only mildly annoying that I've made no progress on my main topic.