dear all,

bravenet (which hosts this online journal) recently decided to drastically reduce the amount of storage space it is offering within its free service, so much so that even after i deleted the photos from all my posts over a year old i still remained 5x over the limit.  so basically i can't post any more pictures here without deleting pretty much all my old posts. 

therefore, after much "shopping" for a new provider, i have started up a new online journal at:


i have copied my first barcelona entry there and have now added a second barcelona entry.  so please continue to read of my adventures at my new address!  see you there...

love,

wendy

as i write, school has started again (sigh) and i have been back for a few weeks, and looking at ben’s constantly updated blog i felt convicted to at last start informing the world of what went on in barcelona.  i shall do it in bits so that i actually get something posted...

 

on june 28^th i parted company with my honey at edinburgh airport and, after an uneventful journey, arrived in barcelona for a 6 week intensive spanish course.  my goals:

·         to complete the required hours of a language course and family homestay so that the general teaching council of scotland would grant me a double amount of “residency time” (the time they require you to live in a country before they let you teach its language).  thus they should accredit me 12 weeks for this sojourn.

·         to encourage and support the little mission team of my church in barcelona

·         to do some research on gaudí and the modernisme architectural movement for a paper for my spanish diploma

·         to soak up enough warmth and sun to last me until next summer

 

the school had set up a host “family,” which consisted of one very friendly and chatty widow named ana, whose two sons are grown and have moved away but visit frequently.  she is not alone, though – her big dog darcoff is her dear very spoilt child, who barks enviously and ear-piercingly whenever ana has a more than 15 second conversation with her guests.  there was another girl staying for just 2 weeks, taking spanish at another school: katy, from germany.  we only occasionally slipped into german!  ana has a lovely terrace just outside my bedroom window where we had all our meals.

  

i found this lovely park nearby to pray in, parc turo:

monday, june 29^th: to my great encouragement i was placed in the most advanced spanish class at the don quijote language school.  my class consisted of mainly chinese girls, so i felt like i was back in california.  that evening i went to the university zone to meet up with the local disciples and go out sharing our faith.  it was challenging to do so after being rather out of practice, and yet the language tied my tongue more than that.  it would take me one or two more evenings to feel fairly comfortable about how to talk about God in spanish.  but it was a relief meeting up with my spiritual brothers and sisters and immediately having friends and like-minded people in my midst.

 

tuesday, june 30^th: after class i joined a tour to freixenet winery.  freixenet is the world’s biggest producer of cava, the spanish answer to champagne.  though i’m not a huge bubbly fan, i love the process.  they had funny bottle-shaped cars out front...

 

this tour was interesting because after showing us the romantic original way of making cava, and the different grapes and adding the yeast etc, they showed us the modern, very un-romantic machinery:

  

but i found a nice wee bottle of wine to take home, so i was satisfied:

wednesday, july 1^st: after class i visited the mighty corte ingles, the massive department store which dominates spain.  i indulged in a couple of bright and colourful gifts by a spanish designer named agatha ruiz de la prada.  later i discovered that el corte ingles – meaning “the english cut” – was originally a tailor shop, and the entrepreneurial tailor who at first specialized in this particular cut of men’s suits managed to branch out into, well, everything known to man!

 

friday, july 5^th: this afternoon i took the opportunity to wander the famous passeig de gracia and look at the beautiful modernist architecture.  i took lots of pictures and went into the heavily scaffold-covered casa amatller.  this delightful house was built by the third generation of successful chocolatiers, importing their cocoa beans from spain’s colonies and producing chocolate right in barcelona.  what i love about modernist (modernisme) architecture is the attention to detail.  a parallel movement to arts & crafts, jugendstil and art deco, they believed that things should be both practical and beautiful, neither aspect being sacrificed.  modernisme is also very colourful, which i love!

 

saturday, july 4^th: after many recommendations i took a day tour to montserrat, thus named because this geologically random spontaneous mountain 1½ hours from barcelona is shaped like a serraded knife:

 

the locale is of great importance to the region of catalunya.  legend has it that a statue of the virgin was discovered there in a cave, and when the local priests attempted to have it carted down from the mountain the animals refused to move.  thus a monastery was built which now houses the world’s largest collection of manuscripts in the catalan language.  during franco’s reign speaking catalan was forbidden, but because of his religiosity he allowed the monks minding this collection to speak it, so it became a stronghold for part of the local identity.

 

we took a funicular to the top of the mountain for some impressive views and then walked back down to the monastery.

 

afterwards we went to sitges, the sweet little beach town where the barcelonans go to escape the beach crowds in barcelona.  from what i could tell, they weren’t escaping the crowds at all!  i had my one and only swim in the mediterranean here, with fellow tour-goers to watch my stuff.  and i got a mild sunburn which vanished in a couple of days.

 

in the evening i went ‘round to the flat where three of the brothers from church stay for their housewarming party.  i ended up chatting to a lovely lady named chus for most of the evening.  chus and i would end up having lots of bonding times in the ensuing weeks as she studied the bible, gave me lifts and showed me the best spots (and ice cream) in her native barcelona.

 

sunday, july 5^th:  we had church in the brothers’ flat.  i always like house-churches best.  they are so cozy, informal and personal.  it was as much a discussion as a service.  afterwards we had a bite to eat together – the leftovers from the party – all sitting around a table, like a big family.  then antonio, sergio and i went to help michaela move house.  she was moving from one beautiful neighbourhood – the barrio gotico, and a block from the fabulous palace of catalan music – to another beautiful neighbourhood – gracia, once a village (to which passeig de gracia lead), now a village within the city, full of cafes and artsy shops.

 

tuesday, july 7^th: i received the joyful news that my friends luce and craig had become parents for the first time!  it was also the day of san fermin, the first day of the running of the bulls.  so for a few days i looked around for some related gift to give newborn taya when i returned.  however, as the days passed and the gorings and bloodshed mounted, i decided that perhaps sweet little taya would not appreciate being linked to this particular festival and abandoned the search.

 

wednesday, july 8^th: on a whim, i decided to take bus 41 to see where it went.  it took me to diagonal mar, where the great avenida diagonal hits the sea.  pretty ugly, really.  it’s a big construction site with very modern buildings and blank spaces on the edge of an industrial area.  but i’m glad i saw it.  i passed diagonal mar park, which was designed by the same nutter, erm, architect who designed the scottish parliament.  i could see parallels instantly, just whizzing past in a bus, and they made me laugh.  i visited the diagonal mar shopping center, sent off a postcard to my parents, and bought a shirt from desigual, a very catalan and very original fashion design company, to wear to my birthday party...

 

that evening we went to evangelize in hospitalet, considered the “bad part” of barcelona, i.e. the neighbourhood full of immigrants.  glad to have seen the “other side” of barcelona.

 

thursday, july 9^th: so, i come all the way to spain to escape the rain and what do i get?  a wet birthday!  the one day of the whole 6 weeks when it truly pours has to be today. 

 

however, it was a good day.  i had been very verbal about my impending birthday and got lots of congratulations.  javier, who leads the mission team, kindly recommended and reserved a table at a seafood restaurant he knew called “la mariscada.”  the way it works: there is a display of the fresh catch of the day on ice, and you point and say how much you want of each critter, from squid and octopus to oysters to various fish.

they weigh it and put it in a bucket (carried here by my fellow student matt):

 

and you bring it (carefully!) downstairs to the chef, who cooks it. 

 

and the waiters bring you out a fabulous meal!

 

and then my dear friends surprised me with a cake.

friday, july 10^th: i had the surprising pleasure of seeing my estonian friend heldin in barcelona, where she was visiting with her friend.  we all went out for a sangria and tapas in gracia

 

saturday, july 11^th: i was going to go to the pedrera, the gaudi building which was most recommended to me, and on the way passed a fabulous bakery called mauri specializing in chocolate and sponge hedgehogs:

 

but on arriving at the pedrera the queue was so long that i decided to ditch it and go to the waterfront.  it was a perfect day to do so because, being overcast, the beach was fairly vacant.  i meandered over the port, had a ben & jerry’s ice cream at port vell and made my way to barceloneta.  at a waterfront restaurant i had calamaris in squid ink, then went to make a reservation for the following weekend at a restaurant called “barceloneta,” right on the water.  i then followed the beach, admiring the beach art and sat on the pier texting ally and photographing frank gehry’s giant fish...

 

i then wandered into the barrio gotico (gothic quarter) and, turning a corner, heard a great cheer go up.  i had arrived at the beautiful santa maria del mar cathedral just in time to see a bride enter and walk down the aisle.  there were plenty of tourists watching her, but i guess that’s the price you pay to get married at the city’s most fashionable venue.  i sat and listened briefly to the bible verses being read out in catalan (i think i could recognize 1 corinthians 13 in just about any language by now) and missed my honey very much! 

 

wandering some more i found this lovely courtyard which i was determined to visit again:

 

tuesday, july 14^th: one building i had been desperate to see the inside of was the palau de la musica catalana, the palace of catalan music, designed by lluis domenech i montaner, the great architect and professor of architecture, beloved of barcelona.  after discovering i could get a concert ticket for only €3 more than a tour ticket i decided to experience the place as it was designed to be experienced.  so i bought a ticket for july 31^st, appropriately while on my way to a tour of modernist barcelona.  i took many pictures and saw ever so much beauty!  for example, the paving stones of passeig de gracia were designed by gaudí and are meant to represent the sea and its creatures, so that you feel you are walking on water as you betraipse it:

 

wednesday, july 15^th: i had a lovely coffee with javier at, you guessed it, starbucks.  we shared all about both our lives and exchanged thoughts and advice.  thereafter i went home to skype with ally and eagerly await his arrival the next day...of which more hereafter...

it is with horror that i realize that i have not written a blog entry for over two months!  what cause can i plead?  i somehow don’t think i’ve been that busy, and yet perhaps i have.  i have certainly been very tired. 

 

over easter we went back to arran for a few days.  what a difference a month makes!  daisy was a different young lady, very friendly and full of smiles, wanting to play and basically being adorable.  it was good to get away from the bustle of the city again.

 

upon my return i started my new job, which has been basically good.  i have a wider mixture of classes, so i’m not just dealing with unmotivated, uninterested kids.  in fact, i have a lower ability class which is actually quite motivated.  the bus ride to school, although slightly longer, only involves getting on one bus outside my door and then spending an hour reading the bible, newspaper, etc – no need to change busses or catch a train.  i find this much more relaxing even though i am leaving the house a half hour earlier.  i also get a nice little prayer walk through a park if i get off 2 stops early, which i regularly do.

 

i still do find it disturbing, however, how many kids have no self-discipline and no respect for others.  at a recent outdoor sports event i asked a pupil, who was lying on the track about to be used, and although he did so he said to me “go away you f***ing little f***.”  he knew full well i was a teacher.  for that matter he shouldn’t be speaking that way to anyone.  i went and got another teacher to drag him off (spluttering and cursing) to the deputy head teacher, but i felt a sense of helplessness.  you can’t do anything.  he’ll have been made to write some lines, he’ll have gotten a talking to and maybe a call or note went home to a parent, who may or may not care.  on another occasion, a big kid i didn’t know was dangerously wrestling with a classmate in the hall.  i shouted at him to stop it (which he did) and then told him to come here, but he just walked past me, ignoring me.  we are not allowed to grab pupils to stop them, and i didn’t know his name.  was i meant to chase him down the hall?  i pointed him out to another passing pupil and asked his name, and the pupil told me a name which turned out to be false.  and so, unless i chose to chase that big pupil through the school until we passed a teacher who knew his name and could thus track him, there would be no disciplinary measure undertaken either for his behaviour in the corridor or for his disobedience and disrespect.  these kids – as ally has experienced working with them in kitchens – will not be able to hold down jobs because they won’t follow their boss’s instructions or respect him or her.  they are very aware that teachers are not allowed to touch them and that schools are under pressure not to expel any of them (because expelled children end up worse than those who hang on, theoretically, and the state and social workers are overburdened already).  so we teachers feel very powerless, constantly having to deal with attention-seeking, disruptive children who prevent us from teaching and from spending enough time with the average and able pupils.  this is very frustrating.

 

anyway.  off the soap-box now.

 

summer term is always very strange because half the school goes off on study leave for 5 weeks, and when they return some are not going to be continuing in your subject but still have to sit in your classroom (some schools manage to start up next year’s timetable in june to solve this, but my school is not one of them).  so i am showing a lot of dvds right now.  plus there are tons of events going on, so some days only half of your class will turn up, or none of them, and you have to keep track of all the things going on so that you don’t plan something important for when no-one is there.  generally i think i like this term, because the actual pressure to prepare lessons is lighter, but it does your head in because it is so confusing.  plus the kids are zero-motivated because they can feel summer coming.  

 

we now have 2 weeks left before the holidays...i am very much looking forward to it!

 

last weekend ally and i and a pile of friends did a charity walk for the HOPE worldwide primary school in bhuj, india, which we support.  we walked from callendar through the trossachs to strathayre and back again for a 20 mile journey – not nearly as painful as ben nevis last year, but still providing enough aches and lovely scenery.  here are some entertaining pictures from the day...

anne and i in strathayre - half way done!

ally gets fresh water

the well-earned pint at the lade inn!

well i guess i’d better get an entry in before march eludes us entirely.  there is certainly enough to tell (which is why i haven’t had time to write)!

 

in february, over the february mid-term break, ally and i went to arran to the family.  the visit was doubly pleasant because ally’s brother paul, his wife simone and their lovely and lively daughters amy and lara were there as well.  kirsty’s kids were at school, unfortunately, but we had a good amount of time with them on the weekend and in the evenings.  

 

archie had taken to kissing his pretty cousin amy.  when we told him certain things were illegal these days he had to hit the local bar...

 

kirsty, full of energy as always, was running the local badminton club, i.e. playing badminton solo against about 15 children.  and winning.  in the meantime paul was being overwhelmed by children and not winning...

when the innes clan was at school we had some really good bonding time with our essex family.  amy – current b&q posterchild and future star of stage and screen – entertained us with song and dance as always, as well as an artistic effort which is now framed and donning our bathroom wall.  lara has as much thunder as her big sister now and no inhibitions whatsoever.  the six of us toured the island, exploring the southern half (for the first time for most of us) and passing some four of the island’s 6 primary schools as well its snazzy new secondary school.

 

among our adventures was painting mugs at a local crafts centre:

 

and walking to the beautiful glenashdale falls.  amy and lara walked the whole 3 miles or so with great energy and elan:

 

daisy is full-on into the terrible twos.  you would never guess that less than a year ago she was a scrawny, tiny heart-patient undergoing life-threatening surgery.  she is unstoppable and has a roaring attitude – hmmm, a bit like some of the teenagers i teach, actually.  but she did occasionally give us a smile.

 

one evening as the grown-ups were playing pictionary in child-free peace, kirsty and john were losing badly until kirsty non-chalantly chucked a piece of paper onto the table.  it was a scan.  yes, she is pregnant with her 6^th child.  and as the rest of us reeled in shock, she and john swept past us effortlessly to win the game.  cheaters.

 

one of our repeated activities that week was playing the wii, an already well-loved and used christmas present to kirsty’s brood, on a game called wii-fit, which among other things establishes your “wii-age” based on your weight, hight, balance and agility.  the day we arrived my wii-age was 44.  however, the day we left i had gained 2 pounds but my wii-age was 23.  i figured, yeah, that’s what a holiday should be like: you put on some weight but become 21 years younger!

 

***

 

at the beginning of march i had an interview for a maternity cover position at a school i had applied to long ago unsuccessfully.  this time, clearly God wanted me there.  so from just after easter i will be taking a different bus again to a different town outside of edinburgh to teach german until christmas.  i am very grateful for it because the bus goes basically from our doorstep and is part of the company i have a year pass for, unlike my current school, where i am spending £15-20 a week extra just getting there and back.  plus, as the job spans the summer holidays, i will get paid my monthly wage in july and august as well!  very nice.

 

in the meantime, my current job has been alright, but the fact that i have almost entirely bottom sets has been getting to me a bit.  it is rather scary seeing how messed up an increasing number of children are: no concept of respecting any authority, no self-discipline, a high awareness of their rights and little if any of their own responsibilities and duties.  and they know exactly what teachers are not allowed to do, and they milk it.  teachers can be very helpless these days.  i usually send particularly bad cases to the head of department, but sometimes she is not around, or i’ve tried to call down to the guidance department or deputy heads and not reached anyone, and if that pupil refuses to leave the class or behave reasonably you are kinda stuck.  it is very frustrating. being temporary is also not helpful, because i am just now starting to get the hang of some of my more difficult kids, and in a week i am leaving.  i tell you, i really do long for the day when i have a permanent job and can just settle in, get to know the kids, the rules, and the system, set up my classroom as i like it and know where everything is and how things work. 

 

i did have another interview for a permanent job, but they wanted a very high level of french (in addition to a high level of german) and it was just beyond me.  however, they sent me the most encouraging rejection letter i have ever received, listing all the things they liked about me.  i’m keeping it.

 

my spanish course is going well and i am really enjoying getting back into the language again.  currently i am reading the house of spirits (in spanish, of course) and have been pleased to find that, although i certainly don’t understand every word, i understand everything i need to understand to read it fluently and enjoy it.

 

spring is, um, here, maybe.  well, it is certainly here, it’s just gone cold again.  the birds and flowers are at it anyway.  i think they’ve given up on warmth and are satisfying themselves with the increased light.  it certainly has been nice getting up in the light rather than in the darkness, does wonders for the mood.

 

in any case, i am looking forward to the easter holidays – especially to sleeping late in the mornings! 

in case your local papers haven't been smothered in the latest: the u.k. is smothered in snow.  and despite england being to the south, they have been hit harder than we have.  there have been accidents and deaths here in scotland, and schools closed, but in london i believe 3 airports (including the mighty heathrow) were closed last week at some point and the whole city came to a standstill.  makes me think of o'hare.  you'd wonder that a country at this latitude would be incapable of dealing with such conditions, but it is actually a pretty mild climate and has been increasingly so with global warming - last year ski slopes all over scotland were closing because of year after year of snowlessness. 

but the kids are having fun and the neighbourhood does look cool...

hi all,

thought i would do a quick, all-text update since uploading photos takes forever.

my short stint at the private school in december was very pleasant.  it was surrounded by much chaos, however.

just before i started i had a job interview at what is considered the best state school in edinburgh.  sadly i didn't get the job, but the fact that i was one of only 5 people interviewed (and i'm sure there were tons of applications) has been good for my confidence.

on the second wednesday i was working (that being the busiest day for me at school), two days before we left for christmas, during my one free period, i had to jump in a taxi to an examination centre to take the "life in the u.k." test.  this is the test to see if you know enough about the u.k. to be given permanent residency (or citizenship)...the one most born-citizens would fail.   it is only administered at very specific set times during the month, and this one was meant to start at 10:30.  i was told i would get 45 minutes for it but that many people finished it much earlier.  well, since i had a class to teach i booked my return taxi for 11:00.  however, after the slowest registration process i have ever seen, we weren't allowed to start the test until...10:55. 

i did the mandatory 4 question sample test and the 24 question real test in 6 minutes.  and i passed. 
the results were printed out immediately.  i grabbed them and ran for the taxi, having first heard the lady there say she had never seen anyone take the test that fast.

we were desperately trying to get our spare room renovated before we left for christmas, as tina and ximena were arriving from berlin to stay with us before we even landed back.  i was working up until the day we were to fly, so ally had to deal with most things himself.  the roofers and dry rot people we chose did the work the 9-10 of december, but the work getting the new walls and ceiling put in was delayed.  tuesday the 16th the plasterboard was delivered - 6 hours late and to the wrong address.  the delivery people dumped it in someone else's front garden without double checking that it was the right place and drove off.   ally and james were putting them in until after midnight with a malfunctioning nail gun and james suffering from the flu.  wednesday the plasterer came in and with commendable patience covered up all the resulting imperfections, working all day to get it done.  as it needed to dry for 4 days we couldn't paint the room, but on thursday we cleaned like crazy (soot is mind-bogglingly incorrigible), thumb-tacked up the curtains, moved the furniture back in and made the beds.  and on friday we flew...

...to california, for a lovely holiday at my parents' house.  it was slightly cooler than usual, meaning more between 10-15 C than 15-20 C.  and after two days i came down with the flu and spent a lot of the holiday horizontal.  but it was brilliant to see my brother and sister-in-law and my parents.  mom and evan were also under the weather, especially evan.  we visitied our favourite mexican restaurant, mijares, and after evan and anne left the four of us went to san diego for a night and showed ally the sights.  we had dinner in a fabulous little veggie place called spread, recommended to us by anne.  very personal, very slow-food, highly yummy.

we returned to edinburgh on the 29th.  i spent a lot of the 30th sleeping.  on the 31st we had tons to do.  ally and i had volunteered to organize a big charity hogmanay (i.e. new year's eve) party, and even after delegating the main tasks, i was in charge of decoration and ally in charge of food.  so we had an industrial kitchen going while i was out collecting various decorative items.  it was a blessing having tina, ximena and florian around to help out.  i was so fried from being ill i was seriously wondering how i was going to survive the evening, especially as ally and i were to help demonstrate all the ceilidh dances.  but God gave me strength, and it was a fantastic evening, a huge success, with people coming from as far as the u.s., croatia and portugal, and we raised £918!  one friend of ours used the occasion to propose to his girlfriend up at the castle before coming down to the party.  (she said yes.)

over the next three days i never got up before noon.  january 1st basically didn't exist: i got up at 4:30 pm and went to bed around 9:30 pm.

the international guests stayed with us until about january 5th, which made our first church service very lively and fun.  i hope we can do something similar again next year or on a similar occasion.

on monday january 5th ally and i went to the home office in glasgow to hand over a pile of documents and a large wad of money.  in exchange i got my permanent leave to remain in the u.k. - hooray!  i get to stay!!

on tuesday, before i could cash in on my new status by seeking out unemployment benefits, i got a phone call from an edinburgh secondary school asking me to come work for them for 5 weeks at least, possibly longer, starting the following week.  so since thursday of last week i have been working part time (25 hours per week) at this school, teaching mainly german and a bit of french. 

the kids are pretty nice, discipline isn't as bad as at some other schools i've seen (and i have mostly bottom sets) and the people in the department are very nice and impressively zen, and i have my own classroom with a smartboard, which is a definite blessing.

the school is way out far, so that my usual bus pass doesn't cover it.  i tested the route to school w few days previously, but unfortunately on my first day some major construction works began on the main route and traffic was insanely delayed - i was 20 minutes late to my first class!    they were all very understanding, however.  after trying an earlier bus which got me there on time but just took too long to be worth it, i have decided to take the train.  it is two train stops away, but the train ride is just over 10 minutes (the bus on friday was an hour and twenty), so the extra couple of pounds is worth it.

so i have this position until midterm break february 13th, after which everything will be shuffled around and i don't know what my position will be.  we shall see....

in the meantime, i am grateful that i have tuesdays off because it means that tomorrow i can sit back with a glass of wine and toast the new president into office.  for me it will be a great relief to see the incumbant leave office, as his reign has made it increasingly embarrassing to confess my nationality on this side of the pond.  i ceased to be patriotic many years ago, but our president-elect gives me some hope that my native land, of which i am admittedly very critical, may turn out a decent place after all.  in fact, i quite like mr. obama.  i am sure he will make many mistakes, as he is human, but i actuually think he will be a very good president.

and on friday another significant day will be celebrated here in scotland: the 250th birthday of robert (rabbie) burns, scotland's shakespeare, known here as "the bard."  the whole country and scottish government is celebrating a year of "homecoming," trying to get those of scottish heritage from around the world to come and visit their country of origin in celebration of the national poet's anniversary. 

perhaps the new president will drop by, since he is of scottish ancestry.  i would love to see barack obama in a kilt...

happy december!  butt-freezing coldness has descended upon us in a timely fashion, but even that is nothing to waking up on december 1st to the first snow of the year.  to convince ally (who had not yet looked out the window) i gave him a snowball just below the neck - while he was taking a hot shower.  and what did he say?  "talk about giving me the cold shoulder!" 

he has clearly been speaking to my dad too much.  pun-itis has hit him full on.  ah well, if that is the only disease either of us contracts this winter we will be very fortunate.

the garbage bin was frozen shut yesterday.  ally had to take a screwdriver to it.

last night it was -3C (that's 23F).  i insisted on keeping the heating on until 4am.  my toes hurt because they had been so cold during the day.

how did a california girl like me end up in this country?

i have begun to get a bit of supply work here and there.  one private school is taking me in for about a week and a half.  i am very glad of it, but it will be very wierd suddenly getting up in the early morning again.  luckily none of the jobs have required multiple buses, in fact two are in walking distance.  long journeys in this kind of cold are not terribly appealing just now...

since i haven’t posted for so long, here is a second post in the same day.

so what has been happening since we returned from the canaries?

firstly, our attempt to redecorate the spare room revealed first water damage, then dry rot.  the whole ceiling and part of the wall has been removed (just the plasterboard), and the last few weeks have been spent chasing down roofers and dry rot specialists for quotes and telling the neighbours the bad news.  we are praying that it will be sorted and the room at least re-plastered and liveable before christmas!

secondly, we have both been on the job search.  this has not been particularly encouraging, and we are trying to keep each others’ spirits up with varied success.

thirdly, ally just graduated on thursday!  he now has a masters (MSc) in tourism and hospitality management from napier university.  his parents john and jeannie were there:

 

fourthly, last night i performed in a concert to raise money for two charities, the HOPE foundation school in bhuj, india, and circle, a scottish charity that works with disadvantaged children.  i sang “someone to watch over me” – during which i walked up to ally in the audience and began stroking his cheek, much to the glee of the rest of the audience (and ally turned bright red).  i also sang “on the street where you live” and 2 duets with my friend lisa: “the lark in the clear air” and “i know him so well.”  we raised almost £1000.

fifthly, i preached to the women at church on wednesday night about the book of hebrews, which i had been studying out in the canaries.

sixthly, i am now enrolled in a distance learning spanish course to get qualified to teach it, and it is going well.

seventhly, my christmas cards (which i finished making in the canaries) are selling well.  i think i may make some more.

that’s the news from lake woebegon...

what a naughty girl i am!  i haven’t written since august, and it’s already november!!!

we just returned a couple of weeks ago from our long awaited holiday in the canaries.  we had booked it right after returning from france, where the mediocre weather and particularly my nagging cold had made me determined to have a guaranteed-hot holiday.  two years without a summer is more than this california girl can bear.

and we were not disappointed.  the weather was perfect.

we stayed at hotel jardin tecina, a resort on the isle of la gomera, south west of teneriffe. 

this is a view over the hotel's rooftops to teneriffe and teide, the highest mountain in spain:

ally’s parents have been there 8 times and as “repitadores” get a discount on everything.  so they got us our room and the same discount.

it was only a “standard” room we had booked, overlooking the garden or the pool, but upon arrival we discovered that the boyds had wielded their mighty influence to get as a “superior” room.  our balcony overlooked the sea:

 

the hotel itself was beautiful.  the rooms are little bungalows surrounded by bountifully botanically bedecked paths.  they even gave us a botanic tour of the hotel which lasted 3 hours and didn’t cover everything.  :

   

the first saturday we were there was the 45^th wedding anniversary of ally’s parents, john and jeannie.  we got them a bouquet at breakfast and toasted in the day with champagne.  in the evening we went to one of the hotel’s nice restaurants for dinner:

 

on one day the four of us went whale watching.  it was brilliant.  there were dolphins and then pilot whales with babies surfing alongside the yacht:

 

after giving us plenty of photo-ops, our guides sailed us into a secluded bay with an abandoned tuna-canning factory, where those who wanted could go for a swim in the ocean.  i was the only one of our party who dared.  i swam to shore and back, to be greeted by the delicious scent of locally caught tuna being grilled on board for us.  it was gorgeous!

the next day, ally and i went with a group to hike 12km through the island’s rainforest.  what a contrast!  it was only about 6°C and very foggy.  we encountered the canarian equivalent of the scottish thistle, red clay that is environmentally protected, and many other funky plants and fungi:

 

 another day we had a tour of the banana plantation next door.  previously the entire grounds of the hotel had been bananas, and before that tomatoes.  did you know that one banana plant requires 20 litres of water a day?  and the workers used to do all that by hand?  the bananas from the plantation are served at the restaurant and are totally different (although the same species) from what you get in the supermarket because they are allowed to ripen longer on the plant and in the sun, and they are full of seratonin, the “happy hormone.”  they are much sweeter and more flavourful than what we know.  at dinner they served bananas baked in a sort of syrup-liqueur, absolutely delicious, especially with a scoop of ice cream...

 during most days, our itinerary was:

·         breakfast around 9:30/10:00 

·         reading the Bible on our balcony, soaking up the sun

·         a prayer walk around the grounds or down to the village (and meeting cute kittens)  :

·         a siesta until about 3pm

·         lying out by the pool soaking up the sun, with the occasional dip in the pool, and with me making christmas cards to sell for charity  (a bit surreal under the circumstances)

·         dinner outdoors at 6pm

·         walking off dinner around the grounds, possibly followed by a cocktail:

 

the final evening we went to that restaurant again, and i had this impressive lobster salad:

 

it was a lovely, very relaxing holiday, and we both enjoyed getting some quality time with john & jeannie.  

goodness knows this overdue, and i have even more recent things to write about, so forgive me if the writing is not artistic!

school ended june 27^th, and i bawled on the last day.  i really really enjoyed teaching there!  perhaps some day i shall return.  and so i was miserable and moody all that evening and still recovering the next day.

but, you know, summer vacation isn’t that bad either, and after the first morning of no alarm clock, crawling out of bed around 10, i was in good spirits again.  besides, 6 days after school ended, we were off to visit friends in france and in switzerland.

all the preceding 2 weeks we had been watching the weather in lyon and geneva.  30°C.  32°C.  34°C.  (that’s hitting 93°F for you americans.)  just the kind of baking i was pining for.  i was ready to go.  i packed only one pair of long trousers and looked forward to the sun.

we landed in geneva in pouring rain.  the hot weather broke that day.  with a 3½  hour wait for our train to lyon, we schlepped our luggage (correction: ally schlepped our luggage.  good husband.) to a nearby cafe, where ally had his first swiss chocolate on swiss soil:

we then got on a train with the air conditioning blasting for 35°C weather.  unfortunately, it was now less than 20°C, and i was freezing.  it seems that the moment the train left swiss territory it abandoned swiss efficiency and punctuality.  it promptly stopped at the first french town and sat in the station for 25 minutes.  we had a 21 minute gap for our connecting train in lyon.  needless to say, we missed the connection.  and the next wasn’t for an hour.  so it was late, we were frustrated and stressed and i was cold.  not an auspicious beginning to our holiday!

thankfully, our friend and host grant macdonald is so laid back he’s basically horizontal.  his good kiwi response to our tardiness: “nae worries, mate!”  and so he brought us home to wife anne and daughter mairi at around 10pm, warmed us with whisky and local liqueurs and sent us off to bed.  (i should say, the whisky was brought by us to replenish his depleted supply.)

i developed a sore throat that evening which was still bugging me over three weeks later.

so the negative of our holiday was this: i had a sore throat the whole time, and it never got back up to the baking temperatures i had been looking forward to.  but it was in the 20’s most of the time.

the macdonalds had kindly given us their own room, and when we awoke friday morning this was our view:

anne took us around their beautiful villiage, saint maurice les chateauneuf, and the neighbouring villiage les chateauneuf for views of the local chateau and church, etc:

in the evening, anne’s uncle’s girlfriend was having a retirement party, which was celebrated in true french style at a long table with patés and homemade nibbles galore, as well as flowing wine and jokes:

 

it was here we tried the 2005 vin des fossils pinot noir for the first time.  its unusual warm, earthy flavour tasted lovely, and we decided to seek some to take home.

on saturday we chilled out in the garden

...and watched the macdonalds’ pets beat each other up.

the macdonalds have had a cat named martha for several years now, and she is very sedate and zen.  so they annoyed her by purchasing a frisky bunny named perky,

who tried to get martha to play with him.  well, perky has now gotten his come-up-ens, as they have acquired a kitten named whisky,

now 3 months old.  whisky jumps into perky’s outdoor pen, chases him around and wrestles him to the ground.  this is in fact the sight that greeted our eyes upon opening the window on our first morning.

 

as if that wasn’t enough entertainment, mairi offered to look after her friend’s kitten, praline (2 months), for the week.  whisky had a new victim, and one much more eager to play.  in full “cat fight” style, they chased each other around the house, bit, scratched, hissed and growled at one another, and rolled around on the floor headlocking each other.  and then they lay down next to each other, licked each other and went to sleep,

only to wake up later, take one look at each other and – ATTACK!!!

 

at one point mairi and i looked at each other and remarked, “they’re just like boys.”

besides watching the animal sado-masochism, anne and i were put to work picking french beans:

 

...while grant cut some of his significant coriander and he and ally prepared a delicious rabbit marinade (just to annoy perky):

 

on sunday we went to house church at the home of gerald and laurence, a family that lives about 40 minutes from the macdonalds.  they do house church together thrice a month, visiting the lyon church (which is a 2 hour drive away) only once a month.  that sunday we were joined by another couple, chris and lisa from calgary.  we started with their traditional massive pot of laurence’s special spaghetti carbonara, then grant lead a communion and discussion:

 

 

after the service the boys and girls instinctively split, and we chickies talked about dance and sport mostly, as laurence is a dance teacher and lisa an olympic bobsleigh pilot.

 

grant, meanwhile, disciplined the children:

 

on monday we went to a market, which included an animal market.  anne’s gran had lost two hens to foxes, so we were to get her two more.  grant kept chanting “think omelettes!” to them. 

we also got some lovely local produce – goat’s cheese, the local beef (for the barbie) and honey.  yum!:

 

in the late afternoon we visited the macdonalds’ friend hannah, a sweet south african lady who is trying to sell her b&b/self-catering, her lovely sister linda, and chris and caroline from england who helped the macdonalds sort out a school for mairi when they first arrived:

 

on tuesday we packed in all the activities we had not yet touched on.  we went to a roman church on a high hill overlooking the whole region and had a picnic.  the caretakers of the church were very chatty and knowledgeable and gave us a spontaneous tour, and grant decided mairi could get married there (mairi’s opinion she kept to herself):

 

then we drove through la clayette and tried presumably the best chocolate in france.  it was amazing.  you walk into the front door of this little shop and the scent hits you like warm blast.  the quality truly lived up to its reputation.

finally we headed to the vin des fossils vineyard to seek that 2005 pinot noir we had enjoyed.  seek was the word for it, too.  oh, grant was convinced he knew where he was going.  at every wrong turn.  it was very funny.  after asking several local grannies for directions, we did eventually find it:

 

unfortunately, they were out of the 2005 pinot.  the young proprietress suggested we take the 2006 and let it age for a year.  now, anyone who knows anything about wine knows that that isn’t enough to make 2 wines taste the same.  however, we did buy some 2006 and are letting it age to see what happens, as well as some cuvée jules which we can drink now.

in the evening we had another barbecue

and mairi kindly baked me a lovely chocolate cake in anticipation of my birthday.  and grant mucked about:

 

on wednesday i took mairi’s advice on some good french popular music, in case i am teaching french this year (as well as some german and spanish music she recommended, being a fellow linguist).  meanwhile, ally braved a french café on his own.  he managed to ask for a double espresso, but a glass of water went beyond his and the waiter’s communicative and linguistic skills.  ah well.  the macdonald’s then brought us to the train station and waved goodbye:

 

the train was delayed 30 minutes by cows on the tracks.  that is how far out in the styx we were.

 

we lunched in lyon, then boarded the train to geneva.  katrin met us in nyon (yes, we travelled from lyon to nyon, just to make life more confusing) and entertained us with cocktails and pictures in their lovely flat until her husband andreas arrived.  they then took us to a restaurant called la perle du lac (the pearl of the lake) right at the edge of lake geneva (or more properly lac leman):

 

 

we sat right beside the view and enjoyed lovely conversation and very good food.  live music and very professional waiters established the fine atmosphere.  then, just when our plates had been cleared away, the band struck up “happy birthday” and a specially made cake with flaming sparklers was presented to me:

 

and before we could lift a finger, andreas had sneakily slipped off and paid for the whole thing.  we felt utterly spoiled and grateful.  this was my personal “champagne moment” of the trip, and definitely and unforgettable birthday.

 

on thursday katrin brought us to the airport, where andreas works for easyjet.  with his superior knowledge of behind-the-scenes antics at airports, he had given us very concrete advice on how to pack our wine: in the original, well-padded boxes, these wrapped up in towels and clothes and packed so tightly into our bags that they would not move.  and do not write “fragile” on the bags, because the baggage handlers apparently feel insulted by the mere suggestion that they do not treat every bag with respect.  well, his advice worked, and every bottle arrived unscathed.  from the plane we had a view of mont blanc and the alps: