I guess now is as good a time as any to let everyone know what has been going on since my friend arrived in town.

I went out to the airport on Sunday 19 December to pick him up. We had frantically spent the last couple of days cleaning up the flat so that it looked presentable. I took the airport bus out to the airport. When I got there, I realized that I forgot all of the information on his flights. I remembered that he was flying on BMI, he was due in at 4 pm, and he was leaving from Heathrow Airport. Armed with this information, I went to the information desk at the airport and asked them. They said that his plane was an hour late and was due in at 5 pm. So I went over to the coffee stand to buy a coffee and wait for him. He arrived at 5 pm in one piece.

We took the airport bus back home while he described the situation at home in Washington. It was not very good news. Once we got off the airport bus, we got into a taxi to take us the rest of the way. We went up stairs and we unpacked (mostly stuff sent by my mother) then we went off to Sandy Bell's. After that, we ate.

The next day was the first trudge up Arthur's Seat. I had done this once before at the beginning of last year but I had not really since. I decided to take the easy way up rather than the hard way, which I took the first time. Well, I was more out of shape than I thought that I was. I figured that the stairs up to my flat would keep me from being too out of shape but there I was huffing and puffing away.

We did finally make it to the top. Once there, we took a bunch of pictures then made our way down the backside. We stopped to take some more pictures (Duddingston Kirk and Loch and a Meadow). We then went down the the path to Duddingston and on to the Sheep Heid pub. After having a pint, we took the bus back home. It was an exhausting day.

The next day we went down to see Rockstar North where they made the Grand Theft Auto series of games. From there, we went up to Calton Hill to take more photographs. After that, we went down to the German Christmas Market to have Glühwine. After that we went home for some food then off to Sandy Bell's for a few pints.

The next day we decided to go up the Salabury Crags. It was another huffing and puffing adventure for me. It was very windy up there but fortunately the wind was blowing in from the edge so we did not have to worry about being blown off. We took some more pictures then headed back down when we encountered a lone rose growing near the path down from the crags. It was quite unexpected.

Well, I am not sure if we went this day or not but we went to a professional pantomime at King's Theatre. It was very amusing. I think the best part was when the fairy godmother came out on a Segway to do the first dance number. It was very cool to see professional actors doing the panto. The only problem that I had with the show was that they did not throw out candy at the end of the show.

The next day we went with my roommate down to Stockbridge. We then walked along the Waters of Leith. We saw a Great Blue Heron in the water on the way up stream. We also stopped in Dean Village for a while. We had to take the bus back into downtown from the Museum of Modern Art (read Modern Crap). We tried to get my friend the next book in a series that he is reading but they only had the hard-back edition.

Christmas eve thankfully was quiet. We did a bunch of cooking and stuffed ourselves silly. I was able to keep from having to do another walking tour with my friend who wanted to go back up the crags (this, of course, would not last for long).

On Christmas day, the Golden Haggis came to give us presents (remember Father Christmas/Santa Claus is only a front for the Golden Haggis). We opened them and had a good time. We did not do much again that day but we did a bunch of cooking and stuffed ourselves silly again. We were also able to have our special Danish drink which was very good. Then we went off to the Christmas party, which was much fun. My fellow blogger was there (go over there to see more pictures from the party). We then went home.

Today is Boxing Day and my friend and I went up Arthur's Seat again since he had been asking to do it again. So this time I took the hard way. There was even more huffing and puffing and resting on the way up but we made it (more to the point, I made it). We then came back down to have a few drinks at Doctor's. After that we had some dinner and we are going to leave for Oban tomorrow morning at 7:15 am.

Anyway, that is what I have been up to for the last while.

posted by Chris  #7:09 PM | 0 comments |