It hardly seems real that in only 44 hours, Brian and I will be boarding a plane to make the first leg of our trip home to Scotland. We will hand over our one way tickets and be on our way to a new adventure awaiting us in Edinburgh.
While buying our tickets for the Old State House museum in Boston yesterday, the clerk asked us where we were from. Our reaction was to burst into laughter. You see, we're not quite sure where we're from at the moment. Grand Rapids? Scotland? Our friends' place in Hamilton MA? I can't wait to be able to answer that question with boldness - to look a person in the eye and say "We're from Leith - which is in Edinburgh, Scotland". For now, we'll settle for being in a kind of time warp, waiting for the next part of our adventure as a couple to begin. Who knows where we'll be two years from now, a year from now even. All I know is that in 44 hours, we will be one step closer to having a home again.
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Saturday, February 24, 2007
Tea, anyone?
As a certain famous Scottish poet once commented, "A The best-laid plans o' mice an' men Gang aft a-gley,..." For those of you not versed in Scottish prose or dialect, that would translate as "All the best-laid plans of mice and men go often astray...".
This is exactly our current situation. Having said a very fond farewell to Grand Rapids yesterday (Friday) we are currently in Boston staying with good friends of ours. The plan was to be here until Tuesday evening at which point we were scheduled to fly to Dublin, and from there to Edinburgh.
However, Fi received a phonecall yesterday from Aer Lingus informing us that there will be distrubances in Ireland from Wednesday (our day of arrival in dublin) and Friday. Disturbances?? With images of revolution in the streets of Dublin, and guiness-swigging revolters charging the ariports and local supermarkets, I asked breathlessly, and with a sense of wonder, "What KIND of disturbances?" to which the gentleman replied "Industrial". "Ooohh," thought I "an industrial revolution! How exciting! The workers of Ireland unite to fight against the evil corporations who pay them peanuts to do serve the people..etc.. etc..."
Not quite. Down, Overactive Imagination, down boy....
Basically, the airport workers in Ireland are planning a strike between Wednesday and Friday so there is a pretty good chance we'd be stuck in Dublin for three days if we stick with our original flight. This wouldn't be so bad if the exchange rate wasn't the pits and we could afford a hotel in Dublin for three nights, but that isn't the case. Alternatively we could leave a day earlier... except that the date of entry on Brian's UK visa is Feb 28, so he can't arrive in the UK any earlier than that. The lovely Aer LIngus rep also offered the fabulously unhelpful suggestion that we could take the train to Belfast and go from there to Scotland to which I asked "and would you be paying for that?" It won't take a genious to guess the answer to that one. Therefore, we've taken the airline's offer of moving our flight at no charge. We'll be in Boston until Friday and will arrive in Edinburgh on Saturday.
We are hoping that this will only bring us closer to arriving within days of our shipment of belongings. Although, I was told by North American movers today that these usually take 45 - 75 days. Originally we were told it would take 30 - 50 days. Needless to say we're hoping that the original information was accurate. There is only so much more living out of a suitcase we can take, not to mention the fact that I miss my pillow. And my duvet. And my favourite mug. You get the picture.
So here we are taking it one day at a time, with a whole week of Boston fun ahead of us. Anyone fancy a cuppa?
This is exactly our current situation. Having said a very fond farewell to Grand Rapids yesterday (Friday) we are currently in Boston staying with good friends of ours.
However, Fi received a phonecall yesterday from Aer Lingus informing us that there will be distrubances in Ireland from Wednesday (our day of arrival in dublin) and Friday. Disturbances?? With images of revolution in the streets of Dublin, and guiness-swigging revolters charging the ariports and local supermarkets, I asked breathlessly, and with a sense of wonder, "What KIND of disturbances?" to which the gentleman replied "Industrial". "Ooohh," thought I "an industrial revolution! How exciting! The workers of Ireland unite to fight against the evil corporations who pay them peanuts to do serve the people..etc.. etc..."
Not quite. Down, Overactive Imagination, down boy....
Basically, the airport workers in Ireland are planning a strike between Wednesday and Friday so there is a pretty good chance we'd be stuck in Dublin for three days if we stick with our original flight. This wouldn't be so bad if the exchange rate wasn't the pits and we could afford a hotel in Dublin for three nights, but that isn't the case. Alternatively we could leave a day earlier... except that the date of entry on Brian's UK visa is Feb 28, so he can't arrive in the UK any earlier than that. The lovely Aer LIngus rep also offered the fabulously unhelpful suggestion that we could take the train to Belfast and go from there to Scotland to which I asked "and would you be paying for that?" It won't take a genious to guess the answer to that one. Therefore, we've taken the airline's offer of moving our flight at no charge. We'll be in Boston until Friday and will arrive in Edinburgh on Saturday.
We are hoping that this will only bring us closer to arriving within days of our shipment of belongings. Although, I was told by North American movers today that these usually take 45 - 75 days. Originally we were told it would take 30 - 50 days. Needless to say we're hoping that the original information was accurate. There is only so much more living out of a suitcase we can take, not to mention the fact that I miss my pillow. And my duvet. And my favourite mug. You get the picture.
So here we are taking it one day at a time, with a whole week of Boston fun ahead of us. Anyone fancy a cuppa?
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Moving Day
Although moving day was almost one month ago, it only seems right to include it in this blog. Here are some pictures from the day our apartment was emptied. We found it quite hard to leave our apartment... our first place together. 326 Union was a wonderful home for us and we will miss it.
The truck had to do quite a bit of negotiating with various tree branches and badly parked cars to find a decent place to park on Union Ave!
Boxes...
More boxes...
It was a freezing cold day and we felt bad for the movers hauling stuff in and out in the frigid air. Meanwhile, Fi was bundled up in woolen sweaters and a scarf as it was on moving day that her cold exploded and she felt like death warmed up!!! We also spent that morning trying to figure out the calculations on our insurance forms. Nightmare.
Our stuff took up a tiny corner of that truck. Pretty funny really. And now our belongings are en route to Edinburgh. Hopefully.
The truck had to do quite a bit of negotiating with various tree branches and badly parked cars to find a decent place to park on Union Ave!
Boxes...
More boxes...
It was a freezing cold day and we felt bad for the movers hauling stuff in and out in the frigid air. Meanwhile, Fi was bundled up in woolen sweaters and a scarf as it was on moving day that her cold exploded and she felt like death warmed up!!! We also spent that morning trying to figure out the calculations on our insurance forms. Nightmare.
Our stuff took up a tiny corner of that truck. Pretty funny really. And now our belongings are en route to Edinburgh. Hopefully.
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Almost there
Welcome to our blog about one of the biggest adventures of our life... our move to Scotland. We hope to chronicle the move and our transition to living in Edinburgh in this blog. Watch this space!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)