amberoverseas's Xanga

Sunday, January 27, 2008

Sun, 27 Jan 2008 15:14:51 GMT

End of an Era

So this is it - our last day in Edinburgh! We're in an internet cafe as our access has been shut off at home, and first thing tomorrow we're on the train with our stuff to Liverpool. Very exciting!!

We had our leaving night on Thursday, which was lots of fun - a lot of people came out, which was really nice. I also received an extremely generous gift voucher for John Lewis (a nice department store) as a going away gift, which was really nice of everyone. The landlords came today to check out the flat, and everything is fine, so we're just hanging around (and doing a bit more cleaning.)

After careful consideration, I've decided to set up a travel blog. I appreciate that this looks a bit self indulgent (even moreso than just merely having a blog!) but there is method to my madness. I've often used my Xanga to whine about work and various other issues that might be seen as somewhat less than professional if viewed by some of my colleagues, ha. But a lot of friends from work and nice acquantainces have asked if I was going to set up a travel blog, so I've gone for it. The blog can be found here and I'll update it from the road, though I may post on my Xanga now and again too. I'll not retire it entirely, but I thought this would be a good way to keep in touch with people who probably shouldn't see my personal blog!

Alrighty, that's it from Edinburgh... I'm sure I'll be on once or twice again before we leave the UK.

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Wed, 23 Jan 2008 21:09:30 GMT

2 Days Left! (Of Work)

Yay! I've only got two days left at work, which pleases me greatly. This will probably be my last blog entry from Edinburgh, as we're very busy the next two nights (our leaving party is tomorrow night, and we're out with Gill and Kevin on Friday night) and our internet access is cut off on Saturday. I'll be sure to post loads of updates from the road, though.

We've been quite stressed out with the move, and packing what ended up being more than we anticipated (and therefore more expensive)... although not by too much, so I guess it's okay. Our washing machine is also being highly, highly tempermental, which is annoying, as well as our DVD player, which we sold to our landlords but suddently no longer works (!!) As well, a big storm knocked out all TV reception in the entire building, so we've had no television for the past week or so. And all of our books and DVDs are packed away. I have no idea what we will do on the weekend once our internet goes. Actually, we'll probably clean the flat so we can get our 900GPB deposit back!! Ha.

I'm completely over my job, so I'm glad that the end is near. I think I'm going to be forced to do an exit interview so have been conferring with Paul about how to be professional and not hypocritical (i.e. claiming that I've had a fabulous time, which I've not) at the same time. Hopefully my manager will forget and I can just leave unnoticed.

I'm quite mixed about leaving, as it's obviously really sad to say goodbye to people, but we're also off on this wonderful trip which makes it so much easier at the same time. We've also got quite an exciting year ahead of us, what with buying a house and getting married, so we've got a lot to look forward to. We've really had a great time over here but I think it is probably a good time to call it a day and move into Stage 2: Being A Grownup. Or something.

Unrelated to the above: if you've not seen Arrested Development, please go rent the first season as soon as you are able to.

We've still not had a letter or anything confirming receipt of Paul's immigration application to Canada, which is also stressing me out a bit. I'm sure our application is in good order as we submitted a lot of documentation (plus I was granted the exact same visa over here a year ago on the basis of our relationship) so I'm confident it will be fine in the long run... I just wish they would confirm that the application is in the system and that we have an official file number. I think it was received just over a month ago, and I suppose it was Christmas and all, but it will be nice once the "Thank you for your application" letter reaches my parents.

Well, that's it from Edinburgh, I suppose... I shall write again soon, likely from Liverpool/Oxford/London or some combination thereof, and then from India!

Oh, and on a sad note - Heath Ledger... how awful is that?

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Tue, 15 Jan 2008 17:39:49 GMT

Woo! A Post.

So clearly I've been very lazy at blogging as of late, but here we are. Our internet access is cut off on the 25th of January, so my blogs will continue to be somewhat sparse, but I'll definitely post while we're on the road on our trip. For those interested, our itinerary is as follows:

Move out of Edinburgh on Monday 28 January, head to Liverpool for one night, Oxford for one, and London for five.

Monday 4 February: London to Delhi

Tuesday 4 March: Delhi to Bangkok

Friday 28 March: Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) to Singapore

Friday 4 April: Singapore to Sydney

Tuesday 8 April: Sydney to Christchurch

Friday 16 May: Auckland to Cape Town (via Sydney and Jo'burg, which will be our longest flight and therefore PAINFUL)

Some undetermined date in early July: Nairobi to London

Monday 14 July: London to Winnipeg

Re Nairobi: I emailed our safari company asking what the deal is with trips that go into Kenya, and they said that they rerouted a handful of trucks around the new year, but that the areas they travel to have been unaffected by some of the problems that recently erupted in Kenya. The Nairobi office is also receiving hourly updates on the situation and are prepared to relay notices to reroute trucks as needed, but from the sounds of it the issues are affecting only certain slums in the outskirks of Nairobi and areas we're not even going to. Still, we're not going to be there for months, but it's good to know that they have contingency plans and that safety is a priority.

New Year's Eve was good -we just went to a nice bar on George Street and saw the fireworks, which were quite nice. Nothing much to report but I must be getting old as I'm kind of over celebrating NYE!!

We've been quite busy with packing/sorting/selling and generally working out the logistics of getting our lives overseas. Jeff was in town for a few days and stayed with us for a couple of nights over the weekend, so it was good to see him. He's embarking on a few months of travel as well so it all sounds quite exciting.

Wooo... 8 days of work left!!

And congratulations (a few days late) to Leighton and Julie on the birth of wee baby Riley, a brother for Kaleigh, and a nephew-in-common-law for me! (And a nephew for Paul, of course.) Also congratulations to Dylan and Catherine on their very very new baby, Frankton Lennox!

Sunday, December 30, 2007

Sun, 30 Dec 2007 20:22:02 GMT

Happy (Almost) New Year!

So we returned to Edinburgh on Boxing Day after a nice couple of days in Liverpool. On Christmas Eve Paul and I took the rental car through the Welsh countryside and had a nice lunch a few hours away in Wales. The weather was a bit grim - very cloudy, rainy and foggy, but what can you expect from winter in the UK!

Christmas itself was good. We opened gifts with Paul's family in the morning (they gave us lots of stuff - I was surprised!!) and we all had the traditional lunch together. Paul and I keep collecting bottles of champagne that people give us but we don't drink, so we took that opportunity to bring them and open them on Christmas Day. Food was pretty good and Paul's aunt served a traditional Christmas pudding, which I love, so it was very tasty. In the evening a lot of their extended family turned up (no one we knew, as it was on their other side of the family) so we cowered with Paul's cousins by the buffet table. It was nice to see the Carters though, and we'll see them for a night before we leave next month since we're stopping over in Liverpool for an evening.

Last week I did two half days at work and I've got to go in tomorrow morning, which I'm dreading since our network, for a variety of reasons, will not be working, which means that I cannot access ANYTHING to do my work. It's also a bad time of year because a lot of things are due, and the girl replacing me is away so I'm all alone in the office tomorrow and I'm sure a lot of stressful things will be happening. I'm so glad I've only got eighteen and a half days left!!

Which is a bit terrifying - in four weeks' time we'll be in Liverpool, all moved out and ready to hit the road. I'm really sad to leave behind our flat, but onwards and upwards, I suppose (and the fact that I am NOT sad to leave my job behind makes up for it!) We've gotten rid of a lot of stuff we're not taking and a lot of stuff is already cleared away, so it shouldn't be too difficult to get everything else shipped back to Canada. Time flies!

I bought Paul the first series of Arrested Development on DVD for Christmas; it is very, very funny and original.

Monday, December 24, 2007

Mon, 24 Dec 2007 10:20:50 GMT

And Tomorrow is Christmas!

So we're in Liverpool at the moment, staying with Paul's aunt, uncle and cousins. We drove down Saturday afternoon and it was relatively uneventful, although we did need to drive through a lot of fog near the Lake District, which was a bit frightening, but we made it unscathed. (And got to eat at a tea room on the way.)

Our Chritmas party was lots of fun in London. We left on the train last Monday at around 9am, and of course the Scots started drinking on the train by 10am. A lot of them were very messy once we arrived at the hotel around 2pm, but it suppose it is one of those memories that I'll be able to remember once we leave! The hotel was nice enough, not quite as posh as the one last year, but it did the trick. I also got my hair done, and it was slightly terrifying before - it resembled Amy Winehouse somewhat, at least in height. I managed to tone it down though, and it looked fine in the end.

Dinner was alright, and the awards ceremony was well paced, so no one was falling asleep into their salad plates. The dance was amusing as well, although the music was far, far louder in the dining area than on the dance floor, for some reason, which was a bit bizarre. I finally hit the hay at about 1am, and beat a number of my coworkers to bed by (literally) six hours. There were a lot of complaints on the train back the next day!

And now we're in Liverpool... yesterday we went into the downtown to do a bit of last minute shopping. I got my haircut and the ordeal ended in tears. Has anyone seen the movie About a Boy? You know that kid, Marcus? I feel like my hair looks like his. Paul assures me that it looks fine, but it is awful. At least I can wear something on my head once we go travelling.

So that's it for the moment from here. Happy holidays to everyone!

Sunday, December 16, 2007

Sun, 16 Dec 2007 17:48:43 GMT

Finally: A Post!

So I've been away for awhile yet again, but here I am, yet again. We've actually been really busy since I last wrote, and with Christmas quickly approaching we've got a lot going on in the next few weeks.

Dublin was lovely - it's one of my favourite cities and it was all decorated for Christmas. It was a really special trip overall though, as Paul and I got engaged the day before we went (which will come as no surprise to any of you 3 readers by this point, I'm sure.) It was a surprise to me though - on Paul's birthday, as well!

We're looking at having the wedding in October 2009, which seems ages away, but I'm not sure if we can do it any earlier. We'll start planning in the summer when we get back to Canada, but taking into account 1) friends and family travelling from overseas 2) Paul's immigration application still in prpgress 3) us travelling for the next few months and 4) us not having a place to live, or jobs, when we get back to Canada, we thought we'd give ourselves a bit of breathing room. We'd have been able to get things together as February 2009 (which was a consideration), but we've decided that we really want an autumn wedding. (And we wanted to avoid the possiblity of a blizzard in the middle of winter derailing everything. ) We also wanted to give Paul's parents a bit more notice, so 2009 it shall be. But that's okay - it gives us something to look forward to. We've decided to host the big day in the Canadian Rockies, so I'll be posting all the minute details as they come.

I'm off to London tomorrow for our black tie Christmas party - I have a lovely red dress (and a red headpiece!) and I am looking forward to the affair. And this year we're taking the train, so we won't be delayed for hours at the airport like last year.

Friday, December 07, 2007

Fri, 07 Dec 2007 17:16:49 GMT

Top O' The Mornin' To You

Tonight Paul and I are off to Dublin for the weekend - hopefully it won't pour rain the whole time as predicted! I'll post when we get back and will give an update on all of our news.

Sunday, December 02, 2007

Sun, 02 Dec 2007 17:23:34 GMT

SURPRISE!

So after months of meticulous planning, covert emails and phone calls, and a lengthy international conspiracy, we pulled of Paul's surprise 31st birthday party without a hitch!

Naturally I've made no mention of this here on Xanga, but I started planning this around July. I wanted to invite a lot of people living down in London or elsewhere in England up for the weekend, and we needed plenty of time to get cheap flights, etc. sorted out. In the end, we had 8 people come up from England (Simon, Kat, Denise - Cheyne was in Stockholm so couldn't make it - Mari, Jacob, Darren, and Michelle. And Andrew was invited to come up, and had booked flights and a hotel... and he overslept and missed the flight!!!) And Gill and Kevin were there, along with Dylan, Catherine and Jackson (and baby number 2, due in January!) as well as Paul's old friend Glyn and his wife Rachel, who Paul hadn't seen in four years.

The plan was that everyone would arrive on Saturday morning, check into a hotel on our road - advertised as "luxury with economy" - and meet at a restaurant on the Leith waterfront for lunch. I lured Paul into the plan by telling him that I'd been given free vouchers for a lunch there that were only good for one day, as they were launching their Christmas menu, and sure enough, he had no idea. I must admit I ws a bit disappointed that Paul didn't look shocked when he walked in, although he genuinely had no clue and I think didn't know how to react! When we walked in I actually didn't even realize what table everyone was at, since it was a bit dark and the only people I could clearly see were Glyn and Rachel, who I'd never actually met before. But it was a great surprise and it was really nice that everyone turned up.

After lunch most of us (minus Dylan and Catherine with Jackson, and Glyn and Rachel) went on a ghost tour in the Old Town, which was amusing enough. We then went to the pub, and afterwards I'd booked the group into a really nice Italian place in the Old Town. The food was great and the waiters are always really friendly, and we had a great time. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves a lot.

This morning I'd booked the group into a little cafe on our street for breakfast, and we spent the day looking at the Christmas markets (we went up on the Ferris wheel as well, which was terrifying) and generally pissing about. And now everyone has left on their flights back home! But we did have a great weekend, and I'm glad that Paul was really pleased.

Saturday, November 17, 2007

Sat, 17 Nov 2007 07:39:22 GMT

Yesterday

I found out that my grandmother passed away. She was 80 years old.

It was one of those things that you knew after a point was probably inevitable, but still a shock when it actually happens. She'd been very unwell over the last few weeks, and it's much better that it came to a peaceful and natural end, rather than having things drag on and have her suffer. As people always tend to say, it's the quality of life that really matters most, and I suppose there's not a lot of point in being very very sick and in pain at the end.

Oma was born in 1926 in a small town on the Baltic Sea, on the border between Germany and Poland. She immigrated to Canada - alone, no less! - in 1957, where she met my grandfather (also German), and where my father and his brothers were born. My grandparents spent the last +25 years living in their house in Brampton, Ontario, and Paul and I were lucky enough to stay with her when we returned to Canada last time. It was a really nice visit, and I'm glad that Paul was able to stay there and see the sort of holiday that we used to experience most summers while I was growing up.

I've got all sorts of memories of Oma and Opa as a kid. We'd usually travel out to see them in Ontario and would split the time staying between their house and my other grandparents. I remember going to Niagara Falls with some other relatives, and Oma and my other grandmother staying with me because I was too scared to go behind the falls (I also wranged an ice cream out of the deal from them.) I remember playing with my cousins at their house - they're a bit younger than me, so naturally I took full advantage and bossed them around as much as I could - and I also remember Oma chasing the older one at one point for poking her cat.

Oma seemed to have boundless energy. Paul discovered this firsthand when we visited in 2005 and decided to take her out for lunch. Naturally, we'd intended on paying for the meal, but when I took the bill to pay, the old lady jumped up, ran around the table and wrenched it out of my hand (she pinched my arm, actually; it kinda hurt.) And then, since she doesn't drive, we went to the bus stop - and when she spotted it in the distance, RAN for the bus. At nearly 80 years old. Which I think sums Oma up perfectly.

We're not going to be at the funeral as the time/cost/distance is too much, being overseas, and although it will be quite sad I know that everyone will have a lot of funny stories about her over the years (I can only hope they don't show any awful family pictures though; she has a "Wall of Shame" in her house featuring the most revolting pre-teen photos of us you can imagine, and I'm hoping they magically disappear somewhere.) As sad as it is, I think we need to keep in perspective that she did lead a very long and full life, and that she did not want to be ill and infirm. She was a very independent person who was extremely practical and I know wouldn't want us to feel sad. She's been without Opa for over ten years, and I'd like to think that they're hanging out there together somewhere. So I think we should do our best and remember all the good and funny things about her, and to accept that when it's time, it's time.

Easier said than done though, innit!

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Sun, 11 Nov 2007 12:20:17 GMT

Weekend!

Yay. I've been up for ages and have managed to do a whole lot of nothing. Hmm.

Last night we went to a coworker of Paul's housewarming party... and what a party. Jess and her boyfriend are contract project managers at the bank, which means they both earn rather handsome salaries, and the party definitely showed this. The house is massive - and it is an especially big deal in central Edinburgh, where property prices are exhorbitant - and the party was fully catered for all fifty people. They had crates (yes, crates) of champagne, all the normal bar drinks, and a giant Indian buffet, as well as two hired waitresses for the evening.

How the other half live... I'm not classy enough for that sort of thing, though. Champagne makes me want to gag.