Our first P-Day and what led up to it.

Today, Saturday, was our first day “off” since January 1^st. 

We worked insanely hard in the office this week, especially the first few days, as Elder and Sister Winter, the missionaries we have now replaced, would be leaving early Thursday morning, and wanted to get us trained. They are both well-organized and have left us folders of instructions which will come in handy. 

The last hurrah of the Winters and the Markers (senior couples) leaving was a dinner at Papilio, a nice Italian restaurant about 5 minutes from the office. Most of the local senior missionaries were there, including the two missionary couples who were flying out next morning. Here's a picture:

L-R Elder/Sister Miller, Pres/Sis Thompson, Elder/Sis Walker, Sis Gifford, Sis Call (red hair), Elder winter (Sis Winter blond behind him), us

Thursday very early they flew out leaving us to run the office together with the two senior missionary sisters. 

Life actually calmed down a little after they left, (that is on Thursday and Friday) partially because Elder and Sister Winter were not only trying to keep everything up to date, they also were training us on stuff that would come up in the next month, and the next transfer, and Louise had to complete and send in the mission history for 2017, which is due sometime in March, but now she won’t have to worry about it; and also partially because the church lds-mail system got a severe case of hiccups last Monday and the ramifications of this caused a near nervous breakdown in our office; also the financial system that allows us to see who we pay money to ('vendors') crashed on Monday, which, being an American holiday not only could we not fix, but we couldn't even raise anyone on the phone to tell them about it. That was a bear of a sentence. Sorry

Anyway, our week was busy-ish, and today, Saturday was p-day. We started off by sleeping in. Richard went for a glorious but frosty walk/run alongside the golf course and in a nature conservancy that he found, then we enjoyed a leisurely breakfast. Think full English without the beans. Then, dressed in slacks and sneakers (ah, the comfort of casual clothing) we went off shopping for such essentials as shoe-laces, a step-stool, and a SIM card for Louise’s phone. We also dropped off two of Richard’s suits, which needed dry-cleaning. The state of one of them was his own responsibility and the state of the other was a direct result of an argument between Louise and a breakfast-tray on the flight over here, which involved said suit, though an innocent bystander, getting splattered with ketchup and yogurt, and Richard showing quite remarkable restraint in the recrimination department. We also shopped for groceries and decided that this last activity, much though we enjoyed discovering new shops, is a waste of a perfectly good p-day and will in the future be done on our way home from the office. But did you know that Walmart is called ASDA in the UK?

Some time in the midst of all this, the mission cell phone rang and I (Louise) succeeded in answering it. I am getting quite good at carrying the cell phone – I am supposed to have it with me at all times as calls get forwarded from the office phone to the cell phone, but have not yet mastered the art of answering it. It is a Samsung and my hauling it out of my pocket seems to either turn on the flashlight or power the phone off. I have not yet worked out how or why but will keep trying and hope to improve. Anyway, I managed to answer the phone for a change; it was an elder who had just had his debit card eaten by a greedy atm. The bank had told him the card would be destroyed, not returned so he was feeling cashless, cardless and generally mistreated. So! Off we went to the mission office for Richard to sort this lot out. I had plenty to do, and we had not been there more than ten minutes when the other office missionaries arrived. They also had some stuff they needed to do. Then the mission president popped in to find out why we weren’t taking a p-day, and then some sister missionaries arrived. And then the sun came out; we hadn’t seen the sun for several days.

As soon as we were able, we headed for the beach. We both felt we needed an 'ocean fix'. Sunset happens at about 4:30 p.m. at present, so we were eager to get there as soon as we could. We had a lovely time, just walking along the promenade. The were lots of people and dozens of dogs, mostly big, well-groomed, happy dogs. Quite a few were off-leash and exuberantly running along the beach; a few even went into the water. . By the way, notice how people are dressed for a sunny day at the beach--in January. 

Portobello Beach

Richard went down to the beach itself and went to check out the ocean temperature. It was freezing cold, like melted ice. When we first got out of the car we had to be careful not to slip on the icy roadway and sidewalk, but within a few yards we reached areas where the sun could penetrate and the snow and ice had melted. 

We will be moving next week and our new flat, which is right next-door to Holyrood Park and Holyrood Palace, will be about ten minutes drive from the beach, and thirty minutes drive from the mission office. Right now we are thirty minutes drive from the beach and five minutes from the mission office. So is our situation improving or getting worse? Our current flat is lovely and in a nicer area, but we think the new one has a dishwasher!

The weather has been cold and snowy. The snow in Edinburgh has mostly melted off but the sidewalks are icy and quite scary. We were walking super-carefully between the Edinburgh chapel and the mission office the other day, a distance of less than 100 yards, when I let go of Richard’s arm for just one second, and managed to slip on the ice and fall flat on my face. My forehead managed to connect with the sidewalk with a mighty thunk and I have a lovely bump/bruise/graze on said forehead, fortunately covered by my hair. And then I couldn’t get any traction on the sidewalk (stupid Sunday shoes) so I couldn’t get up. Fortunately a lady wearing sensible shoes helped Richard to haul me upright, and we carried on inching along to the mission office. Edinburgh is not accustomed to snow and ice and the ward where we are assigned to attend (Dalkeith) has a steep driveway, and a steepish path down from the parking lot to the chapel, so the bishop has cancelled church for tomorrow. We shall probably attend the Edinburgh Ward, and I will wear sneakers until I get inside the building.

A note on grocery shopping. We had some discussions before we came here about the availability of fresh fruits and vegetables in Scotland. Were we in for a surprise! The fresh produce is wonderful. There is a greater variety than we get in Provo, the quality is great and it is - believe it or not – cheaper than in Provo. I remember my concern when we first arrived in the US about the ridiculously high prices of fresh stuff. Well, I got used to it over the years and it is great to go in the other direction. 

Well, that's the end of a relaxing day. We did a bunch of indirect missionary work by starting conversations with strangers and identifying our affiliation with the church, but nothing specific. Heigh-ho, off to bed and ready for the sabbath.