The Southern Sky

When we were looking at flats last year, one phrase was used more than just about any other: 'South-facing'. Be it a South-facing window to a living room or bedroom, a South-facing garden, or a South-facing conservatory, the phrase was used a lot, and in real estate in this town, not only is it about location, location, location, but also direction, direction, direction.

I was in a conversation with someone who lives in the US Pacific Northwest and mentioned how I had survived another dark winter. The response I got was 'Have you ever spent winter in Seattle?' I'm guessing they were thinking that a winter in Seattle is darker than one in Edinburgh - that would be a very incorrect assumption, if that was what they were thinking.

As I've written before, Edinburgh is significantly further north than any of the lower 48 states of the US. To get an idea of just how far north we are, look at the map below. Point B is Grand Prairie, Canada  - we (Point A) are slightly further north than Grand Prairie.

In my time living here, I've become fascinated by how our latitude affects things. The amount of light in the summer, and the lack of it in the winter are the most obvious, but there is more that one doesn't necessarily notice, if they visit here for just a week or two, on their summer vacation.

Last Summer, the Lews were visiting us. They had just come from South-East Asia. Lauren's dad mentioned how the satellite dishes were pointed here, as compared to where they had just been a few weeks earlier. Near the equator, satellite dishes are pointed straight up. In Edinburgh, they are all just a bit above being horizontal, and all pointing South, of course. I never even thought of that, until he pointed it out.

During the winters, the sun creeps up and down, in the southern sky. I've spent winters in Maryland, Michigan, and Illinois, and I never noticed that the sun was particularly in the South. You can't help but notice it where we live now, as Arthur's Seat casts a very long shadow over it's north (where we live) that's there for the entire day.

I took this picture back in November, or early December, at 1 pm in the afternoon. I was walking home, heading North, as Arthur's Seat cast its shadow over the northern base of Holyrood Park:

I've heard people talk about (but haven't personally experienced) driving in the 'winter sun' because, when it's actually up, it's at the worst possible level for glare, and is blinding if you're headed south. For this reason, and that's it's pitch dark by 4 pm, I put off taking driving lessons all winter, and will start in the next few weeks.

During the summers, the sun creeps slowly across the sky (not the Northern-sky, but just sort of the centre of the sky). In June, when the sun rises at about 4:30 am and sets at about 10 pm, it feels like it's never dark. I remember waking up in the middle of 'night' one summer, at about 2 am, looking outside and it looked like I could get around without needing extra light.

No one seems to care too much about the Southern-sky in the summer. It's light so much, you don't really care where the sun is.

Because of where we live, just north of Arthur's Seat, the way the sun creates light and shadows has really fascinated me over the past year. So much so, that I wanted to document it somehow. On the 7th of February, I started taking an almost-daily picture, at about the same time (I take it on my walk to work, so there are some Saturdays and Sundays missing, and once I forgot my camera). 

I chose to take a picture of the Scottish Parliament. I need to pass by it on my walk to work on my way to work every day so that made it an easy target. Also, there is more to see in the Parliament building than something like a hill or something in nature - I just think there is a lot going on with this building - sunlight and weather can really change the look of the building.

I started this because I wanted to see how the sun would change over the months, but didn't think of two things when I started this 'project'.

First, unlike Philadelphia, it's not always sunny in Edinburgh. Although this has affected my sun project, it does give an idea of how much the constant changes in weather changes the look, and feel, of the city.

The second thing, which my father reminded me of, is that we are going to be changing our clocks at the end of March. By setting our clocks forward, we are, in a way, 'setting' the sun back by an hour. The sun's angle when I take the picture on 1st April will look like it was taken about hour earlier than the picture I take on 29th March.

Between this time change thing, the weather, and possible travel plans that will cause breaks in my daily photos, my pictures might not show the best illustration of how the sun changes as it moves from the Southern sky to the centre of the sky, but I still think it's an interesting project, and I plan to keep it going.

Because I plan on continuing this, if you come back to this blog post in a month or two, there should be more pictures (if I embedded the slide show correctly).

the keys to getting to know your neighbours

My keys

When we were looking at flats last year, and eventually buying the one we're in, the thought of asking if there would be a key to the front of the building seemed ridiculous. Why wouldn't someone have a key to the front door of the building they lived in? We should have asked, I guess.

When we got the keys from our solicitor, there was a note attached from the previous owners. 

It talked about the champagne they have left for us in the fridge (which we still haven't opened, for some reason), the sensitivity of the smoke detector in the kitchen, their forwarding address, and that they didn't have a key to the bike shed or the front door to the building. 

What?!? The note went onto say that they had never received keys to the bike shed or the front door - they had lived here for 6 years! They had just grown used to always using the back door. Now, I should say, that cars and bikes are parked in the back so it's quite possible to not need a front door key. Also, the stairs that lead up to our flat are closer to the back door than the front door, so, again, you can see how one could live without a front door key.

It's still odd though. 

We don't drive or use bikes much, and the front door is the closer door to being inside when coming home from work. Lauren always leaves through the front door (I tend to leave through the back), so it got a little annoying to not have a front door key. Add on that when visitors were with us, we had to show them how to get to the back door, should they be coming home on their own. 

I didn't like this not having a front door key thing.

I contacted the company that manages the building we live in, asking if they had a key we could copy. They said that they had lost theirs, and were trying to get one themselves. They suggested that I get a copy from one of our neighbours, and when I did, could I get a copy for management company. Seriously?!?! I'm supposed to get something for you, that I should be able to get from you? 

If our neighbours were friendly people, who we would even call acquaintances, we could easily have gotten a key. But the group of people that live around us are the most keep-to-yourself group of people I've ever shared a building with. I can count the number 'Hi's' I've gotten since living here on my fingers - we've lived here for 10 months!

A few months after we moved in, the contact person at the property management changed and the new person welcomed people to ask him questions. 

I immediately asked him about getting a key to the front door. He gave me the same answer, again saying that if I got a key, could I let him know, so he could get a copy from me. Why they can't contact other people who live in the building, and ask them for a key, was beyond me. He said if we wanted a bike shed key, it would cost us £20. £20 for a key! I passed on that opportunity.

Then Monday night happened.

I was sitting in the living room when I heard what sounded like running water, and it sounded like it was in the ceiling of the bathroom. In a place where we lived a couple of years ago, our upstairs neighbour had a bad leak one time that led to a lot of water ending up in our bathroom. I feared the same. 

I ran into the bathroom, could hear the water above, and saw a seam in the ceiling getting wet. Then, I saw water trickling out of a shaver socket that we have above our sink. It was weird to see water coming out of an electrical socket. The 'on' light of the socket came on by itself, and it started to make a crackling noise.

I ran upstairs and pounded on our neighbour's door.

I'd never seen this guy before. 

He was younger than me, Middle Eastern, and when I said we had water coming through our ceiling, I could see him get very nervous - he was physically shaking. He said he wasn't paying attention and his sink had overflowed, but didn't realise the water would go down to our flat. I wonder where he thought the water would go? He showed me the bathroom, that had a pool of water in it that he has mostly sopped up at this point.  Because he was clearly nervous, I calmed him down, said not to worry about it, and before I left, I said 'you don't happen to have a key to front of the building, do you?'

Five days later, the water damage is not even visible, an electrician came out and said the socket just needed to dry out (we had turned it off from the fuse box on Monday night). And most importantly, we now have 4 front door keys - one for each of our sets of keys. Total price £12, plus my getting to know one of our neighbours.

I'm considering emailing the property manager and saying I can get him a copy of the front door key - for £20.

The Oscars

It's been a while since I last did a thorough write-up on all the Best Picture Oscar nominees. In the years since I did this last, I did see all the nominees, but not with enough time to write about all of them (last year, I saw one of the nominees a few hours before the ceremony started).

The most impressive scene I saw on film in 2012 (from Flight)

With that not-so-great introduction, here is how I rank this year's contenders, from best to worst:

Zero Dark Thirty - It was difficult for me to decide on my favorite movie of the year. It was really a 1A and 1B for me, but I decided to give the edge to this film. It's not the most entertaining film of the year, not by a long-shot, so I could see how people would not like it. It's methodical though, the steps involved in going through the process of tracking down Usama Bin Laden. The missteps on the way, the close calls, the whole idea of the characters not knowing if what they are doing is of much use. Like The Hurt Locker, it has a realistic feel to it that not everyone likes to get when they go see a movie. I, however, like that kind of thing.

Argo - Argo is like Zero Dark Thirty on a sugar rush. They are in the same ballpark, but they are very different. They are both based on true events, both involve trying to get people in the Middle East, but while Zero Dark Thirty tells of a long, methodical process, trying to keep level heads while surrounded by madness, Argo is a manic, frantic movie, trying to get things done very quickly, involving Holywood, a fake movie, and a guy who many said was crazy to try what he did. It's great entertainment, and while I thought the end was a little too Hollywood, I walked out of the theater thinking it was a fun ride, and almost too bizarre to be true. If you see this movie, you must stay for the end credits.

Lincoln - The first 5 minutes of Lincoln worried me. Black soldiers reciting the Gettysburg Address to Lincoln has a tone of over-the-topness to it that Speilberg can sometimes get into and that concerned me. Thankfully the rest of the film wasn't like the first 5 minutes. Were there some moments that seemed Spielbergian? Of course; he likes to tug on the heartstrings from time to time. What made the film though, was Daniel-Day Lewis. After seeing Malcolm X, my image of what Malcolm X looked like, is what Denzel Washington looked like in that movie. After seeing Lincoln, my image of what Lincoln looks like, is Daniel-Day Lewis. I don't think I've seen a person become a well-known person so well as he did in this film. Mind you, there is no good record of what Lincoln sounded like, but I thought his performance was mind-blowing. That alone was enough for me to put the film in my top five of the year.

Amour - If you knew nothing about this film going in, you would guess that it's about love. It is; but not the kind of love typically seen in movies. This is not some lovey-dovey, romantic movie. This film is about the love of an elderly couple, as they approach the end of their lives. I liked this movie a lot, but I can't watch it again. There were scenes that hit too close to home, that reminded me of the last few days of my mother's life. Like Daniel-Day Lewis in Lincoln, the performance of Emanuelle Riva was amazing. I hope she wins the Oscar. She wasn't inhabiting a 'known' person like Daniel-Day was, but she was inhabiting someone we have all known. This is not the fastest-paced movie you'll ever see, and there were some scenes that seemed to be put in for no real reason. This is one of the rare times that I felt unnecessary scenes were needed. Without them, the movie would have been just too difficult to get through. I would have rated this higher than Lincoln, except for the ending (which I won't spoil here). It was a bit abrupt and I was a bit thrown when it faded to black.

Django Unchained - I liked this movie, but Quentin Tarantino has done better. Of the Best Picture nominees, this was the one I was most looking forward to. I'm one of those Tarantino people, who, as soon as I saw a Django trailer for the first time, pulled a Liz Lemon - I want to go to there. The 'there' in this case being any theater that was showing this film. I didn't love it. I liked it, but didn't love it. I don't have the same issues other people have had with this film's violence, or use the N-word. I had a problem with it's length. A good 30-45 minutes could have been cut and it would have been a better film. I wanted to love this movie going in. I did love this movie for the first 90 minutes. I loved it when I thought it had reached it's climax; but then it went on, and my love of the movie turned more and more into a like of it, as I thought to myself, why didn't he just end it there? I wish he would have. It might have made my top three.

Beasts of the Southern Wild - I didn't like this as much as everyone else seemed to. I saw this at a free screening (like I did with Argo), and the audience applauded at the end. I don't know if I'd go that far. Yes, it was very good for what it was - a low-budget movie with untrained actors. But what if it wasn't low-budget? What if it starred trained actors? Would it be considered to be just as good? I just kept thinking that if this exact same movie was made to look exactly as it did, but it was made by a major studio, cost significantly more money to make, and had someone like, I don't know, Will Smith, cast as the father, if it would have gotten the same applause from the crowd I saw it with, or from critics overall. I don't think a movie should be judged by its budget, or its cast, but by the end product. In my mind, this was a good movie, but if the Oscars had 5 nominations instead of 9, I don't think it would have made the cut. It's like when Up got a best picture nomination; it's the movie that people want to give a nod to, even though they all know it has no chance at winning.

Life of Pi - In my view, Life of Pi was this year's Avatar. It was a visual spectacle which could have used a bit more substance. The story, in and of itself was good, but a bit drawn out, and a good 30 minutes could have been cut from the film without losing much of the narrative. That being said, I wished I had seen this in 3D. I am not a fan of 3D so I saw this in 2D, but I kind of wish I had risked the headaches 3D films often give me and seen it in that format. The visuals were stunning, even in 2D, and I can't imagine how good they would have looked in 3D. I'm sure this will win some technical awards, but a Best Picture, it is not. Not by a long-shot, in my opinion.

Silver Linings Playbook - I don't get why this movie was so loved. I went into this knowing nothing about what the film was about. The only thing I knew is that critics seemed to love it, people seemed to love it, and so I thought it would be awesome. It wasn't. Again, it was good for what it was - a romantic comedy/drama. Was it edgier than your typical romantic comedy? Yes, but it still had the quirky side characters many romantic comedies have, it has a major plot point that has romantic shlockyness written all over it, and (spoiler alert) it ended just like every romantic comedy does; everyone ends up happy. It had an edge I would have liked David O. Russell to go with a little more; one of the leads suffering from a serious psychological disorder, the other also coming from a dark place. I liked that aspect of it, but as it got going it just kind of fell into typical rom-com fare, and that lost points for me. Was it good for what it was? Sure. Was it deserving of a best picture nomination? Not in my opinion.

Les Misérables - I bashed Les Misérables a bit in my last blog post, and I will do much more of that here. Before I say more, I should note that the only movie musical I've liked in the last decade, was Dreamgirls. That out of the way, I can now say that I was completely disappointed in Les Misérables. I didn't care for the directing - the insane use of close ups, while showing almost no background. You're in Paris, for God's sake, show some of Paris! I don't want to get started on the singing, so I won't. I'll just say that the reason I liked Dreamgirls and no other recent musicals is that, in that film, real singers were cast. The leading characters in Les Misérables were not played by singers, but Hollywood stars. I'll bet if the guy who directed Beasts of the Southern Wild were asked to helm this, he would have got a bunch of unknown singers, who were probably good, and it would have been a better, albeit very low budget film. I don't know why this film got a Best Picture nomination. There are several films I would have put above it, that were denied a nomination. I expected much more from this film, and was disappointed by it.

So there it is. My thoughts on the Best Picture Nominee for the 2012 Oscars. I do want to point out a few performances that impressed me in films that didn't get Best Picture Nominations. I thought Denzel Washington (in Flight) and Joaquin Phoenix (in The Master) were phenomenal, but in a category with Daniel-Day Lewis, they stand no chance of winning. John Goodman, with small roles in Argo and Flight, was sneaky good too. His roles were probably not flashy enough to get a nomination, but he was great in both films. I was stunned Ben Affleck and Katherine Bigelow were denied Best Director Nominations. There is just something utterly wrong with that.

The funniest scene I saw on film in 2012 (from Django Unchained)

Who do I think will win? I'm leaning towards Argo. It has been winning a number of awards, and that bodes well for it. It would be a good choice, and you'd hear no complaints from me if that were to happen.

The Master

With the Oscars less than a month away, I'm in the midst of doing what I do every year at about this time; seeing every Best Picture nominee before the night of the Oscars. I've seen all but Amour so far, and I'm hoping to see it over the weekend.

The current Best Picture format is to have five to 10 films nominated. I like this. When it was five films (from 1944 to 2009), I felt that there was at least one major snub every year. When it was 10 films (from 2009-2011), I felt that there were films among the 10 that didn't really deserve to be there. In 2011, the decision was made to have 5 to 10 films, picking them by a format I won't get into here. I like this. In theory, good films shouldn't get snubbed, but films that are not so great wouldn't get a nomination.

That said, I was surprised when the nominations were announced earlier this year. Two movies that got nominated for Best Picture surprised me, for two very different reasons.

I hadn't seen Les Misérables when the nominees were announced, but I had heard and seen some reviews. It was not getting the best reviews, and has, by far, the lowest score from critics on Rotten Tomatoes (as of this posting, it has a 70%; the second lowest of the nominees has a score of 86%). The average person seems to like Les Misérables more than the average critic, but Oscars tend to side more with critics than people - look at the nominees for favorite movie from the most recent People's Choice Awards; none of them are up for the Best Picture Oscar. After seeing Les Misérables, I sided with the critics, which added to my surprise of the nomination.

Beasts of the Southern Wild is a low-budget movie. According to IMDB, it was made for $1.8 million. To put this into context, Silver Linings Playbook, which doesn't seem to have much in terms of special effects, had a budget of $21 million. Even Amour had a budget of just under $10 million. I was shocked to see such a small movie get a Best Picture nomination. Yes, critics liked it, but I was still surprised, pleasantly, mind you, to see it get a Best Picture nomination. This was a movie with a cast of amateurs, a first-time director, and it gets a Best Picture nomination. 

I was so sure that The Master would get a Best Picture nomination that I saw it in October, thinking it was the second Best Picture nomination I was going to see (I had seen Argo, assuming it would get nominated and Beasts of the Southern Wild, thinking it would not). The Master is directed by a guy critics love, the two lead actors in the film have had acting nominations in the past (and were both nominated this year), and it was a weird movie. That usually adds up to a Best Picture nomination - not this year, apparently.

As I walked out of The Master, I heard two older guys talking. I don't know if they had seen the film I had just seen, but the sentence I heard one of them say perfectly described how I felt about the movie, immediately after seeing it: "It was good, but I wouldn't want to see it again". I thought it was a well-acted film, a well-directed film, and I liked the cinematography. But it was weird, and I didn't really get it. It was a good film, technically, but I didn't think I'd want to see it again. 

Things have changed; I want to see it again.

Of all the films I've seen in the past year, this is the film that I can't seem to get out of my mind. I didn't really get it but as time has gone on, I want to see it again, thinking I may see things I didn't see before. I've heard critics say it was better with the second, or third, viewing. I can't get out of my mind Joaquin Phoenix's performance, the way he held his body in contorted ways, playing a really messed up guy, a guy who you wished you had a better idea what was going on in his head. A guy who I never really understood. 

It was not in the same class as other films I have loved, that didn't get a Best Picture nomination in the past (Blue Valentine is the first one that comes to mind). It was not the best film of the year, probably not even in my top five. But it was the film that stuck with me the most, and for that, I kind of wish it got a Best Picture nomination.

10 days of Mexican

photo courtesy of yelp

I've never considered myself much of a foodie. Because of this, I was a bit surprised in early December, when I started looking forward to where and what I wanted to eat while I was in the US. Sadly, the places I was looking forward to are not any kind of cool, hip, or interesting places to eat to most Americans, but I really wanted to make sure I went to IHOP to get some pancakes (made it there in Flagstaff) and Dairy Queen to get a dipped cone (made it to one in Mesa, after multiple tries, and one in Flagstaff, after two failed attempts).

Mostly though, because I was going to be in Arizona for 10 days, I wanted to eat Mexican food.

My dad and I made it to Mesa shortly before 10 pm on the 23rd of December, and I hadn't eaten in about 9 hours - I had a migraine. I wanted to eat and I wanted to eat now. Sadly, the only thing near my dad's hotel that was open that late, was a Taco Bell. I really didn't like the way things were going in my Mexican food quest. My first Southwestern food was a 7-layer burrito, from Taco Bell. I'm sure there are people who like Taco Bell out there (I know some of you are in my family are TB fans), but it does nothing to satisfy any kind of craving I have for what I was looking for on this trip.

Lauren and I made up for it the next morning, Christmas Eve morning (that always seems odd to read). There is a little, somewhat unnoticeable, place called Salsitas on Country Club Drive, in Mesa, Arizona, that I can't recommend enough. I wish they had a website, but I can't find one. There are actually a chain of them in the Phoenix Area, and possibly beyond. It definitely has an authentic feel to eat. You are greeted with a 'Hola' as you walk in, and the assumption is that customers speak Spanish, at least customers that look like Lauren and I on that morning.

I had one of the best Breakfast Burritos I've had in my life that morning. This may be skewed by my not having Mexican food in quite a while, and the 7-layer burrito the night before being a disappointment. Still, it was pretty damn good. The tortilla was amazing. I decided I wanted to have a burrito at any chance I could, for the rest of my time in Arizona.

breakfast burrito (photo courtesy of vegas seven)

A couple of days later, we went to The Morning Glory Cafe. By looking at the picture on the site, you can guess tell that it's probably not the best place to get Mexican food. You would be right. I got a breakfast burrito there, and it would have been alright, if I hadn't been to Salsitas a couple of days before. But I had been to Salsitas a couple of days before, so it was a bit of a dip, when it came to quality breakfast burritos. I probably should have gone for the French Toast my dad and grandmother went for. That was probably more up the Morning Glory Cafe's alley.

That evening, my family went to Macayo's for dinner. Macayo's is very good for what it is - a sit-down restaurant that caters to a very different crowd than the Salsitas crowd. It's staffed by what looks like ASU students, has a bunch of large plastic animals and that make it seem like some sort of faux safari, and caters to people who are in the middle-class bracket, out for a nice dinner. I had a combo plate that included a veggie tamale and a chili relleno. The tamale was very good - I should have gotten two of those and skipped the relleno, which was not so great. This was the day I had two Mexican meals, but felt like I barely had one. Something about the ambiance in those places took away from the authenticity of the meals for me.

We headed for Flagstaff on the 27th, but not before another visit to Salsitas. This time, it was lunchtime, so I went for a Vegetarian Burrito. Not the best I've had, I have to say, so I was left with a bit of a sour taste, figuratively, and literally (from the onions) that afternoon. I was saddened that my last trip to Salsitas in years would not be the best tasting burrito one could ask for. It was, however, better than any veggie burrito I had had in years, so that was something.

Except for Mable's awesome guacamole, I didn't have anything Mexican-ish for a couple of days, until the 30th, when we went to Los Altenos. I had another breakfast burrito, and it was good; not Salsitas good, but still very good. What struck me about this place was the friendliness of the people there. A kid, who was a customer with his parents, came up to Lauren and said hi. The owner/runner of the restaurant gave a guy a free upgrade to his drink for no apparent reason, and came by to make sure we were doing okay, even though it's not the kind of place where people usually come up to you and ask if you're okay. It was good.

On New Year's Eve day (again, seems odd to read), we went to MartAnne's with the Lews. My big takeaway from this meal was the wait. Over an hour passed between when we were seated and when we got our food. This is after the 1/2 hour wait to be seated. Needless to say, it's a popular place, and one could see why. The food was very good, except that there was some sort of Italian-y sauce that was put on my food that seemed off. I went with Huevos Rancheros. Normally, that's not my meal of choice, and I gave serious thought to getting another Breakfast Burrito, but I thought that might be overkill. It was a good meal, a HUGE meal, so much so that I had leftovers for lunch the next day.

MartAnne's Huevos Rancheros (photo courtesy of trover)

On the 2nd of January, the day we were leaving Arizona, we headed from Flagstaff to Phoenix, with one stop before we dropped Lauren off at the airport - a stop at a different Salsitas. Of all the places I ate on this trip, this had the most authentic feel to it. The restaurant was blasting music videos by Jenni Rivera (who had tragically died a few weeks before). The music was so loud, we could barely hear each other, or the woman who took our order. This, combined with a degree of a language barrier between us ad the order taker, left me worried I would not get what I wanted, but I did. Another awesome breakfast burrito from Salsitas. The tortilla was bordering on being charred in some spots, but that somehow made it all the better. I dare say, this breakfast burrito was better than the other Salsitas one I had. Even with the loud music, and the language barrier, or maybe because of it, it was a great way to end my 10 days of Mexican food.

I'm hoping to go to Arizona (and possibly California) next December, and so I have to live through 11 1/2 months of not having good Mexican food. Or I can look at it as having 11 1/2 months to anticipate about 10 days. I can't wait!

Back in Bawlmore

I’ve been back in Maryland for less than 4 days now and so many things have struck me, but I have limited computer access, and while I could write a substantial blogpost on each of these topics, I’m going to focus on 3, and be brief about each one of them.

Customs Agents

Every time I land at BWI, customs agents pull me aside, and ask to open my bags and look through them. This doesn’t happen to me at other US airports, and they don’t seem to ask many other people - I’ve never seen them ask to look through a white person’s stuff, but have seen them look through other brown people’s belongings. I know the TSA, or whoever is in charge of customs officials will say they don’t profile, but just admit that you do, at least at BWI. I’d rather be told I’m going to be checked because of what I look like than be lied to and feel like I’m being singled out ‘randomly’ whenever I arrive in Baltimore. Apparently, coming in from the UK and working at a university doesn’t trump that I have brown skin and dreadlocks. It’s such an unwelcome - and racist - way to welcome people to your city. I’m to the point of thinking about not flying through BWI anymore, and always going through D.C. because if this isn’t bordering on harassment, I don’t know what is.

Ravens

I first noticed it on Friday morning. I was at a grocery store and almost all the employees were wearing Ravens gear. It went to another level when I went to see a performance at Maya’s school and saw these parents, doting on their children, coming straight from work, with their work clothes on - and a Raven’s jersey on over their work clothes. I saw the jerseys everywhere on Saturday, the flags on houses and cars - I felt like I was back at Michigan State.
The Ravens were relocated from Cleveland after I left Baltimore, so I’ve never been a big Ravens fan - I actually was rooting more for Peyton Manning (having watched him from his college days) to put a spanking on the Ravens yesterday, which he did. I think the extreme Ravens support in a city that still feels like a baseball town in my 1990s eyes just feels odd. I’ve only been in Baltimore for Ravens games a few times, and it always just seems so odd to me, like I’m in a city I just don’t know anymore, which I don’t.

Walking

Americans always walk on the right side of the sidewalk. Because of that, I would guess that most Americans assume that people in the UK always walk on the left. This is not entirely true. I would guess that about ¼ - ⅓ of people in the UK walk on the right. As an American, I’ve found this frustrating over the past couple of years - I try to be militant about walking on the left in the UK, and so I’m constantly bumping into people because that’s just not how it is.
It’s now, of course, ingrained in me to walk on the left. Now, back in the US, I look like the idiot, who’s bumping into people, because my brain hasn’t re-adjusted to walking on the right. Driving, however, hasn’t had that effect on me yet - because I don’t (yet) drive in the UK.

To Pod and to Plod

Lauren and I were walking to work the other day. We walk together for about 10 minutes then we go our separate ways, so for the last 5 minutes of my walk, I walk alone. The other day, as we split, I noticed that I left my headphones behind. I seriously thought of walking back home to get them, but then remembered that I had ear buds at work. I rarely use my ear buds at work, but have them there for the occasional times I want to listen to something at work. I mainly have them there as a back-up, for just the situation that happened walking into work that day; so I can listen to podcasts at the end of the workday, since I couldn't before it started.

I listen to, at the very minimum, 15 hours of podcasts per week. I would actually guess that it's probably more in the neighbourhood of 20-25 hours most weeks.

I don't remember when I started listening to podcasts, but I feel like I can't live without them now. I'm like that teenage girl who can't get enough One Direction, except my One Direction is the podcasts I subscribe to. The few times I've walked around town by myself, without listening to podcasts, have felt like this other world, where I don't hear Dan Savage or Men in Blazers talking to me, telling me about their Movie Date, or tales of This American Life. I've reached the point where I am listening to podcasts while cooking, cleaning, and doing laundry. I even make a point of always using the self-checkout at stores that have them, mainly because I don't want a break in my podcast to interact with the cashier - I don't want to fall even further behind on my podcast listening than I already am. If that's not sad, I don't know what is.

A few years ago, on a day when I took the bus to work at De Anza, I was walking across campus on my way to work with my headphones on. A student mentioned in class that he had seen me walking but didn't say hi, because it looked like I was into my music. 'What kind of music were you listening to, Mr. Shirley?', he asked. I said I was listening to a podcast. He gave me a look that I've seen quite a few times since. One of 'Oh, OK' looks, where he wasn't really sure what I meant by that. I've found that there is a relatively big group of people out there, who know that podcasts exist, but don't really know what they are; like how I am with Pinterest and Instagram, which seemed to have passed me by without me being the least bit pinterested. Like many things, there are podcast people and non-podcast people.

The thing about podcasts is that there is enough variety out there, that when you tell someone who is also a podcast listener that you are one yourself, there is the 'what podcasts do you listen to?' question that is likely to come up. In the few times I've had this conversation, I found that I had very little interest in what types of podcasts the other person listened to, and the feeling was probably mutual.

Even Lauren, who I would say I have a great deal in common with, has very different tastes in podcasts. We overlap on a few, but I know that she doesn't care what Dan Patrick has to say about the Heisman Trophy race, and probably isn't too interested in the Cobra Effect. Likewise, I don't particularly care what stuff my mom should have told me.

My tastes in podcasts are primarily in sports and films. Those two categories make up about 1/2 of the podcasts I subscribe to (3 of my sports podcasts come in every weekday, so much of my work week is spent listening to sports podcasts). I also have some popular science type pocasts, story telling, advice giving, news, talk, and politics.

Sadly, only two of my podcasts have some UK connection (one is actually two British guys who live in the US, so I'm not sure that even counts). I wish I subscribed to more UK podcasts, but who has the time? As it is, I'm a month behind my non-sports and non-news pods. There is only so much time I can spend walking the streets of Edinburgh, as I plod and pod my way from place to place.

Thinking of Thanksgiving

I've never been a big fan of Thanksgiving. Being vegetarian and not much of food person, makes it a holiday that's easy to care about. Living in the UK makes that much easier to forget, because almost no one here knows when it is and, just the other day, someone asked me what people 'do' for Thanksgiving; do people exchange gifts at all?

In late October, I went to Jenners because I was told that they are one of the few stores that sells canned pumpkin (I found a cheaper place to get it, but that's another story). I was surprised to see the beginnings of Christmas decorations already. It's late October, I thought, how come we have Christmas stuff already, what about Thanksgiving? Ah....no one cares about Thanksgiving, it hit me half a second later.

That's a minor bit of cultural difference that I have noticed this year, but oddly, not the past two years of my living in Edinburgh. I wonder if this means, I actually am missing Thanksgiving - that can't possibly be.

The Christmas advertisements start up in early November, people starting talking about shopping for Christmas gifts (something I hate doing - I'm using the word 'hate' here), Christmas parties start to be discussed, and the John Lewis annual Christmas TV ad is put out there.

The US has it's three monthly holidays to end the year - Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas (or whatever holiday you want to insert for late December), we don't have that late November holiday, so the Christmas starts right after Halloween, or before, in the case of Jenners.

Because there is no Thanksgiving, there is no Black Friday, or anti-Black Friday (as a person who hates shopping for gifts, every day is anti-Black Friday for me). The same person who asked me about Thanksgiving traditions, also asked about Black Friday; didn't someone get killed last year? I feel like someone gets killed every year.

Because of this lack of a holiday, and crazy day of shopping, Christmas preparation is spread out over two months. I'm not sure if I like this or not. Do I like the intense Holiday Cheer for one month, or the slow build over two. The Grinch that I am, I don't really care for either. I do like the John Lewis Christmas ads though, so here is the one from last year (the one from this year is just 'meh', for me at least)....

Careful and Carless

The other day, Lauren and I were looking up hotels in Mesa, for when we will be visiting in December. We found one that was 3.7 miles from where my Grandmother lives, and our first thought, when seeing was 'that's not too far'. Our California minds had kicked in - 3.7 miles was nothing when we lived in California. My 7-8 mile commute to work every day was considered very short by many standards.

On Sunday, Lauren and I went to visit her colleague who lives in Pencaitland. According to Google Maps, the village is about 14 miles from where we live. I didn't really look forward to the journey. My Edinburgh mind was working when I thought this - 14 miles, I thought; that's SO far.

My commute to work in Edinburgh is about 1/10th of what was in California -  0.7-0.8 miles. This change of scale changes the way you think about getting around.

A couple of weeks ago, we decided to use a Hotel coupon we had, for a hotel that was less than 15 miles from our flat. We said we would get away for the weekend; get out of the city. 15 miles is about the distance from where we lived in Mountain View to down town San Jose. I NEVER would have considered going to San Jose to 'get away' from home. I would have thought, why am I staying so close to home?

Not having a car really changes how I do just about everything involving getting around. You have to think about how long it will take to walk the two miles to go to the kitchen store to look for a waffle maker. How you have to dress because you don't know if it's going to rain or not. How you don't really consider trying to wait out the rain when you're on the other side of town and have to walk for 30-45 minutes to get home. How you have to make sure that you head out early enough that you can walk back home before it gets dark (which is going to be an hour earlier next week). Over the weekend, when looking for said waffle maker, I told myself I had to leave home by 3, if I wanted to be home before dark. I also had to carry my umbrella and several layers of clothing that went on and off and on and off several times during the waffle maker excursion (which was fruitless by the way, but that's another blog). That sort of thought would have never occurred to me, living in the United States.

I make a point of only going to the grocery store after work, and not doing anything else - the weight of the groceries, plus the walk home, plus the darkness, leads to this kind of thinking. In Mountain View, I regularly made a trip to Costco, Safeway, Trader Joe's, and the Milk Pail; in one go (a total distance of 4.5 miles). I often walk 4.5 miles in a day in Edinburgh, but I wouldn't be able to carry very much. I would assume it would take a big part of the day to walk the 4.5 miles and to go to 4 different stores in the process would be crazy.

When we went to Pencaitland, we had to take a bus that comes once an hour. I burned my arm in the process of rushing to make Pumpkin Bread to take with us. The bread was still very hot as we ran out of the door to the bus stop. On the way back from Pencaitland, we again rushed to catch the hourly bus back home. The idea of a leisurely Sunday visiting people doesn't quite sound the same when you throw in rushing to catch a bus, with a burn on your arm.

The view on my walk to work

A car would have made the trip to Pencaitland easier, but I wouldn't want a car as a part of my life right now. I like my 0.7-0.8 mile commute. I like the beauty of the city one can only see while moving at a walker's pace. I like seeing the people of the city on my walks about town; it gives the city more of a sense of community, and more character. I like not having to spend the equivalent of 2-3 months of our mortgage on car costs per year.

I even like having to be careful about managing my time and the stuff I carry around with me, as I get around town carlessly.

It's alright to be little bitty

 Little Bitty

The song 'Little Bitty', by Alan Jackson, always reminds me of my mom. Not only because she was little bitty, but also because her life took her from a little home town to a big old city. This blog has very little bitty do with my mom, but I wanted to mention that before I talk about my little bitty city experience...

The population of Edinburgh is just under 500,000. This is not small by any means; the population of the city is larger than that of Oakland, California, for example.

People describe Edinburgh as a small city. Not because of the actual population, but because of how often you run into people you know, or kind of know, in places you don't expect to. This might be because the city is far more of a pedestrian city than any city of comparable size in the US and public transportation is also used far more frequently than most US cities. Even knowing this, I'm still thrown when I see someone in a place I don't expect to see them.

There are cons to this smallness, I'm sure - running into someone in a place where you probably don't want to be seen is probably not the best situation to be in. But, it is kind of cool to feel like you 'know' someone, because you see them in random places around town, and not just because they stand out in some way (like being the most pierced woman in the world, who lives in our fine city).

When I started working at the National eScience Centre, I met a guy; let's call him Iain (because that's his name), who left the Centre a few days after I started. I then saw Iain EVERYWHERE. I would see him crossing a street as the bus I was on waited at an intersection. I would see him driving by in a van as I was walking along a street. I told him how much I had seen him, the next time I was able to actually talk to him (several months after the last time I was close enough to talk to him). He said 'why didn't you say hi?'. I really couldn't in every scenario in which I saw him over the previous few months.

After I started my current job, a couple of months in, who should walk into our building but Iain. He came into our building a couple of times after that, and I ended up talking to him in those instances more than I had ever talked to him when we were actually working in the same place.

Yesterday, I was attempting to help a student who had run into a wall of bureaucracy in trying to solve several problems. I tried to help her as best I could, but all I could really do in the end, was offer her our office phone to use. She was grateful for that, said she might take me up on the offer, and left the office - she seemed happy that someone had listened to her, but without being able to be of much help, I can see how she would feel like she hadn't gotten very good support by coming to the student support office. She was the last student that came into the office before I closed up for the day.

I went home, started wheeling in our trash bin, when who do I see standing at the front door of the building right next to ours. Iain? No, I actually haven't seen him in a while. I saw the student. She was on the phone, probably telling someone of the woes she'd had during the day. I said 'you live here?!?', she nodded yes, we said our hi's and bye's, and I went home for the day.

It was odd, and I was again struck by the little bittyness of Edinburgh.

To contradict Alan Jackson, Edinburgh is  not a little hometown or a big old city; it's more of a little bitty city. There's something I really like about that. So we might as well share, might as well smile. Life goes on for a little bitty while.