The Goodenough Blog

Ack so just as Eric lines up the camera for a breathtaking nighttime view of Albert Dock in Liverpool, with the lights on the water and the sky still slightly lit with purple and grey clouds. . . . the battery dies.  Blast!  We have pictures of our day in Liverpool but alas they will not be online until we are reunited with our luggage that we left in London.

In the meantime, I can tell you my impressions of Liverpool.  Well. . . not Liverpool exactly but Albert Dock.  The dock is a recently refurbished area of the city that has undergone a major transformation.  It is lined with a few shops, cafes and restaurants.  There is also a TATE art gallery where we saw an exhibit on Art in the 20th century.  I was very excited to see the Jackson Pollocks but everything else was. . . umm. . . .strange and unimpressive.  But maybe I don’t get art.  This area of Liverpool is great if you just have an afternoon to spend down here.  Which is exactly what we had.  We are leaving in the morning for Bath, but thank GOD for the Holiday Inn which is right on the docks.  After the last hotel this is a very welcome change, we have Wifi in our room, a decent bed and elevators.  Yes!  Elevators are good.

Yummm I love ale’s especially local ones, you can taste the region and they are made in small batches so that they are very flavorful etc.  I am writing this from a cute little cafe in Lake Windermere in Cumbria.  This apparently is the only spot in town where I can get online which is why there was no post from yesterday.  I am about to enjoy a steak and Guiness pie and if that wasn’t enough alcohol, I am drinking my Black Sheep Ale as well.  I like drinking at lunch, my afternoons are much more relaxed and I don’t have to wake up with a hangover, not that I drink that much anyway.

Today we went for a walk along the lake, it was so beauiful.  Just so different from what we are used to.  There are these amazing stone walls everywhere that are hand built and have lovely moss growing on them which makes the stones look green.  We found a little waterfall and had a great time wandering around in the country.  I definitely want to come back here when its warm and when we have a car so that we can cruise around to all the little towns around this area.  Or maybe to live for a while, who knows.

Today we landed in Windermere, or Boness-on-Windermere which is the little town on Lake Windermere. This is a tiny little town about the size of Carpinteria maybe that has adorable little shops and restaurants and B&B’s everywhere.  This is where the English come on holiday and so everything is kinda touristy but still has a lot of charm.  This is where Eric lived for a few months in the summer of 1996 while working at the Belsfield Hotel by the lake.  In the scheme of things here in Boness, it is by far the biggest and most domineering hotel in this area.  The staffs quarters where Eric lived were so drab and depressing and yet he has such great memories of this place.

It was sooooo much fun to come here since I have heard the stories for years about his time here with Chris.  In fact I think that is part of the reason I fell in love with him is because he was so brave to come live here all alone at 19 and his enthusiasm for traveling and adventure.  I saw the place pub where they used to hang out with the other staff from the hotel.  I saw the hills where they used to go hiking and get into trouble.  I saw where the stoddy shop used to be, a sandwich that I have heard tales about for probably 10 years.  It was so much fun to be here with him and watch him relive his time here.  He grew up here, meaning that he became who he is today.  He found a love for the british culture, a love for travel and a deep empathy for others and people away from home.  I have often said that I wouldn’t have married him if he never came to Europe, he was a completely different person before he came here (so he says).  I don’t know if that’s true or not but I can say that I love him more for showing me this place that is so special to him.

Yes, I, Amber Nicole Goodenough have mastered the English washer/dryer thingy.  I have spent the last 2 days trying to do a wash and dry load in the same unit only to have my clothes take 4 hours to finish a cycle and then they are still so damp that I would need 2 days for them to dry on a clothesline.  Ugh!  But today it worked!  My clothes were completely dry when I took them out, yes!

So as you may have guessed I did laundry today.  We decided to take it easy today and just hang out and watch a movie.  We did some laundry and got some yummy Iranian food.  The end.

Not much to say today.

Edinburgh = cold and bad internet with cool buildings and churches.

We went to a pub this afternoon and finally got on the internet with a fast connection for about 3 hours.   And Amber finally got her beer, yum!  Then we decided to go sightseeing as it is forcasted to snow tomorrow and tomorrow is our last day here.  We walked up to the castle and wandered around outside and took in the view.  My favorite part was all the daffodils that are everywhere here, up and down the hill sides.  From the castle you can walk the “Royal Mile” which leads to Holyrood Palace which is the Queens residence when she is in town.  It is very touristy but the buildings are incredible so you have to put up with a bit of the touristy crap to see this beautiful old city.

Then I decided to bake chicken for dinner but am unfamiliar with Scottish ovens and soon the smoke alarms were going off and the chicken was inedible.  Blast!  We had toast for dinner instead since it was too cold to go out.  And now that tired feeling I was just talking about is coming over me in waves again.  I fell asleep in the tub and then fell asleep trying to put my pj’s on afterward, I think I had better just start drinking coffee again.

Our new phones, not quite an iPhone

This post is going to be called untitled. Today was an untitled day. Woke up early to head off to Scotland on Rails being held out at the university. Had no idea where I was going or where to get a taxi. But, I found a taxi and got there with relative ease. I got dropped off at the reception area of Pollock Hall, found out where the conference was being held and headed across campus. It was raining with a cold gusty wind. Found the room, thawed out and settled in. Then it began. There was talk of bindings and procs and blocks and closures. I felt like I was in a sea of pudding. No clue what these crazy people were on about. Turns out this is a conference for programmers wanting to switch to Ruby. Oops. I am not a programmer yet. LOL. So I was a very lost. Then came the whole “pick a team and work on this exercise”. Oh and “just think of this like a simple config model passing the method a block with a secret. Go ahead and use port 8800 and setup a something simple like a outer accessor.” Oh. Wait, what? WTF does that mean. So I did what any smart person in a pudding sea would do. Got the hell out of there.

I decided to try to walk back home from the university. So I just headed in the direction I thought was the correct one. Walked through downtown Edinburgh, grabbed a cuppa tea and miraculously found my way home in less than 25 min. It was a nice walk and I got see a lot of the city.

One downfall is the lack of mobile reception. My mobile broadband is worse than dial-up and it is killing me. I can get anything done. The internet cafe was a dump and we walked for 25min to find a bar with free wifi and we got there and could not get on it. WTF Edinburgh, what do you have against the internet?

Had a decent dinner and watched Lost and Heros.

Tomorrow it is supposed to snow.

*Sigh*

I can’t really describe the wind and cold here.  Edinburgh is along the coast so it’s like wet cold and I think its probably cold enough to snow but somehow there are sprinkles instead.  We walked along this one road and went under a bridge, it created a wind tunnel where it actually slowed us down.  It was like all those cartoons where they grab onto something and they are lifted up and you see their legs flying behind them.  You had to close your eyes because of all the crap blowing through the air and slowly put one foot in front of the other until we made it through the tunnel.  And what kept running through my mind all day is “How do people here wear kilts?” I mean I have 14 layers on and I am still freezing and here comes this Scotsman strolling across the bridge with his kilt and knee socks looking like he enjoys the draft up his skirt.  Wha?

Edinburgh castle from our front door

So I sorta got my ass kicked in the UK today.  Not too bad, I can still walk but still I feel like I got hit by a bus a little bit.  Which is so annoying since yesterday I was feeling on top of the world.  It all started around 4am this morning.  I screwed up and was too lazy to go the bathroom right before bed last night, which experience has taught me will most definitely require me to awaken at some point during the night to take care of business.  So I wake up at 4am, do my thing and then lie there tossing and turning for an hour.  Now part of the blame also lies with Eric since he made me take one of his signature marathon naps.  And since we slept for 3-4 hrs in the afternoon I think that had something to do with me awakening at such an early hour.  By 5am I was so annoyed that I just put my headphones on and started listening to music thinking that might put me back to sleep, but no, I sat there being shoved off the edge of the bed by my husband who was so happily asleep that he was talking in his sleep and trying to take over the entire bed.  We finally got up at 6:30, needless to say I am so tired and have been trying not to fall asleep all day so that I can sleep through the whole night.

Then comes the train ride, I was so excited to ride the train.  But we get on the train and can’t seem to find our seats, when I finally find them someone is sitting in them and they are kinda like “just sit where ever”  which we do.  At the next stop someone comes along whose seats we have now occupied and they stand there scowling at us until we move.  So we spent the entire 4.5 hours sitting across the aisle from each other trying not to barf.  I have a tendency to get car sick in the back seat of a car and apparently this illness translates to trains as well.  I thought I was going to decorate the unfriendly Scottish women sitting next to me with the contents of my stomach for almost the entire trip.  Ick.

Sleepy Eric

Then we get to Edinburgh and this nice man is like “follow me, I’ll give you directions to where you’re going”.  Which is great but we soon realize that we should have found a taxi at the station but off we go on foot with no real map or anything.  Oh and did I mention that it is like 35 degrees and windy?  So we wandered around the city for about 25 minutes lugging our bags behind us until we finally find this door in a very scary alley, that, according to the number on the door is our apartment.  I am now saying every prayer I can think of that this alley is no reflection of the inside of the apartment.  And can I get an Amen?  This place is freaking awesome.  Hot-tub bath, full kitchen and we are in one of the cooler districts in Edinburgh and we can see the castle from the front door.

So a great ending to what started out as a not so good day, this country is trying to see what I’ll do when faced with adversity, but I am a new woman.   I am going to get a good nights sleep tonight, I am going to wander around the city tomorrow and have a marvelous time and I am going to show the UK that this little American is one tough cookie. . . or biscuit as they say over here.

Check out the jets in the tub!

Kitchen!

Today I had the most sublime “Bridget Jones” moment in London.  You know the scene where she is walking over a bridge in London, the sun is shining.  She is strolling along wind in her hair and she has the most satisfied look on her face as if all is right in the world.  If memory serves me right I think she had just finished a romp with her boyfriend, but that is besides the point.  I was walking along in London today, sun shining, slight wind picking up a few strands of my hair and I had a huge content grin on my face because I am so excited and happy about the road that lays ahead of us.

Tomorrow we leave for Scotland at 10am and take the Northern Express Train from Kings Cross Station in London and arrive in Edinburgh at 2:3opm.  I am so excited for this leg of our trip.  It will be my first trip to Scotland and my first train ride through the English countryside.

I can’t fully explain the anticipation of each day as I make sense of  living abroad, the currency is different (I have to start sorting through it while in line so that I don’t look like a complete dork at the counter) the electrical outlets are ridiculously enormous and what is with leaving me to sit at the table in a restaurant for 30 min after I pay the bill?  I am an American for God’s sake, we inhale our food without chewing and have a million things to get accomplished, I can’t be expected to just sit and enjoy the atmosphere, can I?

I feel like a local and like a fish out of water all at the same time, I am Bridget Jones, living an exciting life of foreign cities, colorful people and the promise of a happy ending.

London town

Eric in our little teeny tiny hotel room