Of fish and chips and food in general, and racing chairs, roads and the promise of haggis.

So! We have been eating quite a lot lately. We have breakfast quite early, before we leave for the office. Mostly during the week we eat Weetabix or an excellent whole-wheat generic equivalent thereof, which is incredibly cheap (75p or about $1 per box). Some times we have it with milk, sometimes we spread it with butter, and sometimes we ring the changes by eating oats or french toast. So far so almost American. We usually pack lunch and eat in Richard’s office, which has a little more privacy (and room) than Louise’s, which is not so much an office as a nexus. Louise is not complaining, however, as she has the most comfortable chair in the history of the universe. When we first arrived and President Donaldson showed us the office, he suggested that she try out Sister Winter’s chair for ease and comfort. Louise sat down and bounced right back up again with a cry of “Nooooo” which would have done credit to a discontented buffalo. The chair was truly horrible. Pres D then got Louise to sit in Elder Winter’s chair, which was just right, sort of like baby bear’s chair only Louise managed not to break it. This was on Saturday at midday and Pres D asked Elder W to please buy Sister Helps a chair just like his, and could we have it delivered by Monday before Sister Helps started work. Sister Winters suggested after Pres D left that if we bought Sister Helps a chair like one of the other office sisters instead of like Elder Winter’s we could order it online and should be delivered pretty soon. We ended up going to an office supply store, where Louise tried several chairs, including one just like Elder Winter’s, and then spotted a zooty, blue and black “racing” chair apparently designed for gamers, who might remain seated for 48 hours or more at a time. And in this chair they would be comfortable for the entire 48 hours, provided that they dashed over to a loo from time to time. The shop assembled it for us and we picked it up later, and delivered it to the office in time to start work on Monday. Louise loves it. 

We were talking about lunch: We had/have ideas about eating out or eating at a park but we are too busy at the moment trying to cover all the bases, so we have been eating at the office. We will see what the future holds. Lunch currently is usually sandwiches and/or salad and/or fruit and/or crackers and cheese. The sandwiches so far have mostly involved Bovril, which we both love, and three-fruit marmalade. We are running the gamut so far as cheese is concerned. Thus far we have tried a mature cheddar, brie, Camembert, and Red Leicester. If we buy a different cheese every time we stock up, we may run out of varieties and have to repeat ourselves before the end of our mission. Or maybe not. Either way, we are in cheese heaven. For dinner we have quite frequently been eating fish. So far we have enjoyed smoked haddock, plain (as in unsmoked) haddock, and haddock from a fish and chip shop. (It was delicious but next time we buy fish and chips for dinner we will buy one serving and share, and then we will probably still have left overs. We have also discovered sea bass, a firm white fish reminiscent of halibut, and had some mackerel fillets – the latter we are unlikely to do again. It was the first time we had eaten fresh mackerel; it is very oily and intensely fishy-tasting. We will not give you a vegetable by vegetable account of the side dishes. Suffice it to say the potatoes are marvelous, the carrots ambrosial, and we will not try fresh chicory again in a hurry.

Haggis we have not tried yet, but tomorrow (Friday) we will attend a Robbie Burns birthday celebration at a local ward and so we will have more to report later. It's good to do this at an LDS ward since traditional Burns celebrations involve lots and lots of whiskey. This one is much more refined, it even will include vegetarian haggis, which Louise signed up for.

A fun feature of many cars here is that when you turn off the ignition, your wing mirrors fold in to lie flat against the car. In Utah this would be cute, in Edinburgh it is necessary as roads are often narrow enough that you need, or at least welcome, those extra few inches to get past cars. Cars traveling in opposite directions on two-lane roads at 20 miles an hour may be missing each other by a foot or so. One road that is part of our commute is narrow enough and has cars parked on both sides such that traffic has to wait and take turns to go in each direction between the parked cars. They all do this cheerfully and patiently.

Driving is emotionally draining. Richard is doing well IE he hasn’t hit anyone or anything yet and no-one has hooted or sworn at him yet. Mind you, no-one hoots here, and they are very kind about leaving gaps for people to enter from narrow side roads into the main flow of the traffic if it backs up, which is pretty much all of the time. We continue to drive through the rain and snow cheerfully, convinced that after we have been here a few weeks they will widen all the roads—just like last time we drove here,

Life is good, we are loving being here. The adventure continues.