Day 35, Tuesday, October 20 "Differences"

Good rainy day to you all. Since we are supposed to have rain off and on today, I thought I would get an early start to my work. David is off to the university.  It's 4:00 am give or take an hour or so for most of you. Last evening, we had dinner with our landlords. As you know by now, we are renting a basement flat. Our landlords live in the rest of the building above us. They occupy the remaining three stories of the townhouse. Jolyon, teaches ethics (in particular, media ethics) at the University of Edinburgh which, of course, is where David is doing his work. He is married to Clare, a quiet, fair skinned, red head. They have three children. Sebastian is 10, Jasmine is 8 and Zanthy (or Xanthi, we don't know how to spell it) is 4. In addition they have an au pair (nanny) named Karen (pronounced Car-en) who is 18 and here for 1 year from Switzerland. And presently, they have a young lady named Cathy from Taiwan, lodging with them. She is in Scotland for 3 months, in an intensive English program where students live with a family so they can be immersed in the language and culture.

So we all (9 of us) crowded around a average-sized, round kitchen table for dinner. The Mitchell family often have company. We regularly hear voices upstairs--Karen plays the piano well--and activity above us. So they are very comfortable with putting together a meal at the last minute...no pretenses...just whatever they have on hand. So last night we had 2 Americans, 5 Brits, 1 German-Swiss and 1 Taiwanese eating left-over pizza, baked potatoes, runner beans, red cabbage with caraway seed salad, carrot salad and a bit of broiled mackeral. I know it sounds "different" but it was delicious and we all enjoyed ourselves very much!

And speaking of different...I thought you might enjoy some of the differences we have noticed...

There is no parking on the street...unless you pay for it.You either pay by the month for a permit to park in front of your home or business or you put money in the meter and place the ticket on the dash. It's called "Pay and Display." Now this isn't just in the city but on every street, in neighborhoods far and wide. You see it too in the rural areas.  This sign is across from our flat and the police do check regularly. It's a good thing we don't have this in our Houston neighborhood, right kids?

These boxes are located up and down each street. They are filled with...well as it says, grit salt. Since it is so cold here, they have many freezes. Rather than trucks loading up and driving out to salt the roads whenever there is a freeze expected, they have these already positioned and filled along the way. Then the road and path-workers just shovel out some of it in the slipperiest spots.

License plates. They all look exactly like this. Really big and really yellow. No pretty pictures, no dates, no saying what county (shire) they are from. Just big and yellow! I seem to have a car theme going here.

Okay, this is only different for our Houston friends and family...but leaves change color in the fall (or autumn..as they say here) When David got here in August, there were green leaves only. When I got here mid-September, there was only a bit of yellow showing. And now, there is beautiful yellow, orange and reds everywhere you look.

Dogs. I've mentioned this before but people don't keep their dogs on leashes and they take them everywhere they go. We've seen dogs in a church service and dogs hanging out in lobbies of hotels.  This cute Westie (complete with tartan coat for a cold day) walked to the grocery store with its owner, who tied it outside, completely unattended, and went in to shop. Or this wir- haired dachshund who was slowly exploring the walking path on his own speed while his owner was barely visible down the way.

  Mail boxes... but of course it's called a post box here. Tall, skinny and very red. The Royal Mail is having a mail-strike here. People are very upset about it.  So if you are expecting a post from the UK, don't expect it any time soon.

Keys. This is my key to the flat.  I always called this kind of key a skeleton key and I didn't know they were still used. But here, that's what everyone's key looks like, You can see that the key hole has a pivoting cover over it both inside and out...I guess to keep out the rain and ice.

Many families don't have individual trash cans that they haul out to the street on trash day. Rather, these bins are positioned along the street and people walk across and place their trash bags into them. There is a bar at the bottom that you step on and it raises the lid so you don't have to touch it. A truck comes along twice a week, picks up the whole thing and dumps it into the truck.

Property Shoppes. These businesses are plentiful and this is how people search for a place to live. The companies post places to buy or rent in the windows and you can stroll by and see what's available in the neighborhood. Real Estate is sold by estate agents.  That isn't the only way but it is different and we have often stopped as we walk past to see what properties are going for. Shocking!  Edinburgh properties are about as expensive as Boston or New York homes. 

And finally, grass. The gardens have grass that is amazing. It is very similar to what we would find on our putting greens on golf courses. It is very fine and very tiny "blades' of grass that remind me of chives. Nothing like the thick bladed, running St Augustine grass or Bermuda that we grow in the States.

Well, that's all for today. Off to work for us and for many of you. We pray you are all doing well and we will talk more tomorrow.

Off you go!