Auld Reekie

I started writing this post in bed last night, as Ali was out on the lash in rain-swept Wantage and there was only so much ironing I could take. I wasn't watching the football, of course (but I did take the opportunity to have an early 90s self indulgent wallow on the Squeezebox. It's been ages since I listened to the Gene album Olympian - some of the tracks have not aged particularly well, but others such Sleep Well Tonight and the title track are still quite thrilling). I did feel slightly Carrie Bradshaw-ish as I lay propped up on pillows, laptop balanced on the duvet; but I'm sure the effect was ruined by the big cardie I was wearing over my pyjamas. More Miss Marple than Sex and the City...

It's been a funny old few weeks really. We had a great time up in Edinburgh a couple of weeks ago for my Dad's 60th. Mum and I had arranged the whole weekend to be a surprise for him, so though he knew Mum and he were booked in for the weekend, he didn't know that Ali and I would turn up (to meet them at the bus stop on Waverley Bridge at 8.30am on Saturday morning, brrrrr...); that my brother and his girlfriend would also be there; that we were treating him and Mum to a slap up meal at the Witchery in the evening; and that on the Sunday 2 sets of their closest friends were also arriving in town to take him and Mum out in the evening. I think all the surprises and emotion of the weekend got to him a bit in the end (or maybe that was the champagne and copious amounts of ale Ali was determined to get him to 'experience' in various Edinburgh pubs). It was a fantastic weekend though - I love Edinburgh and would quite happily move up there for good if there were any jobs available that we could do and that paid us well enough to afford more than a grimy bedsit. Despite the good old BBC online weather forecast predicting heavy rain all weekend, it was actually glorious - biting cold, but bright and crisp with a vivid blue sky and great views from up at the Castle down onto the city.

Since then we've done our Christmas shopping (braving the twin horrors of Oxford city centre on a pre-yule Saturday & John Lewis Home and Leisure store in High Wycombe on the same day. Yikes), put up some pictures (finally) and generally gone about our day to day business much as usual. Up to Hawick this weekend to see the family. It feels a bit like pre-Christmas limbo before the frantic hurdy-gurdy of December. Quite pleasant, really, though a sort of uneasy anticipation about the whole thing. At least we can get the Christmas tree soon and put up the fairy lights! Yay!

(Dictionary.com word of the day today is "deipnosophist": one skilled in table talk. Nice!)