Scotland pix #3: Peter and Lynn and family

I have a little breathing room at the moment; it's just after lunch, and the boys have been rewarded for being good this morning with a little tv time.  Duncan has been designing his own board game, and Malcolm has been reading.  Maggie has her first day with students today, and tomorrow the boys go to school themselves, so I can really get down to work again...

Here are some more Scotland photos, taken on our last full day there.  Peter and Lynn, our witnesses at our wedding twelve years ago, were camping in Scotland with their two kids, and we managed to all meet up at Rob and Viki's place for a visit and a big roast dinner on Sunday night.  It was really wonderful, and everyone hit if off well; Rob was overjoyed to have so many Canadians in the house, Viki loved meeting new friends, and the kids played well together.  Malcolm and S., being the same age, were thick as thieves, and Duncan and G., who is twelve, had lots of fun together too.  Maggie and I hadn't spent any time with Peter and Lynn and family for at least four years, but it felt just as if no time at all had passed.

We braved the rain to play on the playground equipment...

...then went berry picking along the road.

 

Duncan found "Toby" the snail, and took great pains trying to feed him some leaves he had found.

 

After the berry picking we headed back to Rob and Viki's to warm up by the fire.  Before dinner we took in a pint and lots of good conversation at the Garvald pub:

... and had our picture taken together.

What a great time!

The next day Viki was kind enough to drive us into Edinburgh, and we caught our 10:30 train to London, and from there home to Brussels.  We were greeted with this sight when we got home:

*    *    *

The past weekend was busy from a social point of view... we had our friends Jean-Luc and Régine over for dinner, with their two kids who are close in age to Duncan.  We had a great time and enjoyed a North-American style dinner with sweet potatoes roasted on the barbeque, baked chicken wings and charcoal-grilled ribs.  We warned them ahead of time that this was a finger-food meal, and they loved it, Jean-Luc being especially interested in the composition of my homemade bourbon-maple-syrup barbeque sauce.

Then yesterday afternoon our friends Kim and Claudio dropped off their two boys for a visit, and headed back to finish the cleanup of their apartment.  Their family is moving to Singapore shortly, and we wanted to see them before they left.  They returned in the evening and we had a big potluck of Thai food, while the kids played together.

This morning Maggie headed off to work, and I began my researches into auditions, both for companies and agents.  While I have some performances lined up my objective for this fall is to find an agent, preferably a Parisian one, so this morning was spent building my list and sending out the first preparatory and follow-up emails to various companies and agencies.  After composing fourteen different ones in both English and French, I thought I'd take a break and do a blog post.

Now I think I'll drag these kids outside... the weather here is gorgeous, and so they should profit by it on their last day before school.

Happy August 31st!

Scotland pix #2: Dirleton Castle, Traprain Law, Glenkinchie and and Céilidh

 

A few more pictures from Scotland.  In the last post I showed some photos of our beach visit; prior to that Viki was kind enough to play tour guide with us, and took us to Dirleton Castle: here's Maggie in the beautifully maintained gardens. 

The castle itself was occupied by three successive families: De Vaux (12th century), Halyburton (14th and 15th cs.) and Ruthven (16th c.); each had a hand in constructing different parts of the castle.
Here's Maggie in the dovecote, used for keeping doves and pigeons as a source of meat, fertilizer and feathers for mattresses.

The next day we toured around with Rob, while Viki was involved in the Garvald Village show, having entered several floral arrangements and some photographs.  We went to the Glenkinchie distillery for a fascinating tour, degustation and a visit to their boutique to purchase some lovely single malts.

Then it was off to climb Traprain Law, which gave us a fabulous view of the East Lothian countryside... pictures don't really do it justice but we'll try.

Next we visited Hailes castle, and being a little fatigued from the climb of the Law, took a little rest on the green there before heading back home to see to the chickens, have some dinner and get ready for the Céilidh.  Viki had won several firsts and a couple of seconds for her flowers and they both won prizes for their photos, so all were in a celebratory mood for the dance.  Maggie and I had a great time doing country dances, much like we did at our wedding celebration twelve years ago... this time the kids were around to take part, and they had a great time too.

Scotland pictures

Today was Maggie's first day back at work after the summer break; she has three days to put in this week and a couple next in preparation for the arrival of her students. The boys and I did a little shopping this afternoon but for the most part were pretty quiet. Yesterday they took a trip to the local library to get a new crop of books; I know that soon enough (next Tuesday) they'll be in the thick of schoolwork so I'm not going to begrudge them a little down time after the very full five days we spent in Scotland.

This post is primarily photos, starting with our arrival in London's St. Pancras station:


...followed by a quick jaunt on foot to Covent Garden, where we saw big posters of Canadian baritone Gerald Finley next to Renée Fleming.


Then we called up our friend Ros and she and her daughter O. met us at the Tower of London. I heartily recommend the tour, given by a member of the Warders of the Tower, still a Royal residence.


We had a good look around despite our short timelines...


And got back on the train for the trip to Edinburgh just in time.


Rob met us at the station, and we headed off together by car to beautiful Garvald, and their lovely house. The boys were thrilled to see Rob and Viki again, and to collect some eggs from the chicken coop.


The next day I went to see Christopher Maltman perform the Mahler Songs of a Wayfarer with the Hebrides ensemble while Maggie and the boys saw some Fringe performances, including street theatre...


...and checked out the local cuisine, including pork-on-a-bun.


We toured a bit around the countryside, and took in the view of fields of reddish earth, green vegetables, and golden barley, wheat and oats...


and toured some castles and gardens, including some with trees planted a hundred years ago, to commemorate the coronation of kings like George V...


... and the boys loved the trees too!


We visited some beautiful beaches, and picnicked, but didn't brave the waters for a swim...


...and in the evenings went out for walks around the village of Garvald...


... to take in the sights of Scotland on a summer evening, and to pick blackberries for breakfast.


... to be continued...

Scotland!

We are currently staying with our friends Rob and Viki in Scotland... I've got to go set the table but thought I'd do a quick post. The trip from Brussels to London was quick yesterday, and then we met our London friends for a tour of the Tower of London (very cool!) before getting on the 14h train to Edinburgh... a great dinner last night with Rob and Viki, then a trip into town to see some of the festival. I sneaked away to see Christopher Maltman and the Hebrides ensemble de a concert retrospective of the second Viennese School, with a number of pieces arranged by Berg, including the Mahler Lieder eines fahrenden Geselle. Then I met up with Maggie and the boys to watch some street theatre.

More on our Edinburgh adventures with photos to follow. Here are some of Maggie's recent posts...

• Spa
• Col de Bavella
• Fish
• Corsican Flu
• Tour of the Royal Palace

La Grippe de la Corse

Duncan has completely recovered from his little illness, but man oh man did Malcolm and I get hit with it yesterday. By the evening we were both in rough shape; my temperature was around 103F and his was only half a degree lower. Despite the anti-fever meds we shivered and sweated pretty much all night; today I've been in bed pretty much the whole time, dozing on and off, without even enough energy to hold a book and try to read. He hasn't budged from his room and ipod, and neither of us has much appetite.

Still, Malcolm does seem better, and I don't seem to be feverish now, although I can hardly move for the ache of my muscles, particularly my back. Maggie kicked me out of bed a few minutes ago, citing visiting hours, so I thought I'd take a moment and foward her most recent blogs postings to you. With the rest of us out of action, she's had enough time to really post quite a few things, so here they are at her blog:

http://maggiesexcellentadventure.blogspot.com/2009/08/corsican-flu.html
http://maggiesexcellentadventure.blogspot.com/2009/08/another-diversionbelgian-life.html
http://maggiesexcellentadventure.blogspot.com/2009/08/pause-in-corsica-story-for-some-quilt.html

I did manage to chop up some ingredients this morning for a chicken stock, so it'll be chicken soup tonight, and I'm about to tuck into another glass of lukewarm ginger ale, with similar temperature of enthusiasm. This Canada dry stuff tastes terrible without rye in it!

Cheers,
Matthew

Back from La Corse

Maggie has already posted a preliminary blog here, but neither of us has written much since we got back on Wednesday night. A ten-day techno-holiday kind of takes the blogging juice out of you, and since we didn't have a computer, I sent exactly one email during our ten days in Corsica, letting my folks know we were having fun and asking them to pass the news on to Maggie's parents.

Those who have travelled with me may remember that since I first visited my parents in Europe in 2004, I have kept a journal of my experiences and reflections. These little notebooks come in very handy when I wish to be reminded of the exact date of an event, or my thoughts at the time, and their back pages are usually covered with important addresses, train schedules, packing lists and so on. At present I'm in the midst of filling the eighth volume, so of course this served as my analogue blog, or anablog, I suppose one could call it. No batteries, no internet connection required, just a steady supply of Moleskine pocket-size notebooks, and a steady flow of Conway Stewart brown ink.

I thought I would share a few excerpts from this anablog, dealing with our adventures since leaving Brussels by plane last Saturday, July 25th.

Sunday, July 26th.
9h10. Wow, what a stressful day yesterday. Lots went very well, but we did run into some trouble at one point, getting into a weird washed-out road, and then, after escaping from 9 km of that, getting a flat tire!


The campsite here is very nice: the mobile homes remind me a bit of holidaying with my Grandma when I was a kid. We're going to do a quick shopping and then I'll drive down to the airport to return the car, and take the bus back here.


14h. @*&%$! I made it to the rental place on time but this is a comedy of errors... the bus to Porto Vecchio was full, so I'm on the bus that goes first to Bonifacio... arrgh, this is a special, poetic kind of hell: stuck on a Corsican bus, going the opposite direction to where I want to go, with Celine Dion on the radio... yes, Celine, I know your @#$@ing heart will go on!!! Can this possibly get any worse?

14h20. Oh yes it can. "Do you believe in life after love? I really don't think I'm strong enough, nooooooooo".

14h55. The last bus to Ghisonacchia left at 14h; the driver says he'll take me a few kilometers up the road, but that I shouldn't have too much trouble hitch-hiking the 65 kilometers or so to the resort.


Monday, July 27th.
17h10. I've been here at the beach by myself for the last hour or so. Maggie is going to pick up the kids from their programmed activities, so I've had some decompression time this afternoon; I needed it after yesterday.
I made it home by 17h30. Three rides: one by the bus drive for perhaps 10 km, then another fifteen by a very nice Parisian couple who were going to Favona, and the last 40 km or so by a French hiker on his way to meet his son at a "refuge" or hostel up in the mountains. I stopped at the Spar store on for some groceries and walked the rest of the way.
This place is really quite lovely and I greatly appreciate the calm and quiet. The beach isn't too crowded, with beautiful views of the mountains to the south.


23h30. Well we had a very funny time tonight. Duncan got on very well with O., a little girl about his age whose parents are both teachers in London; Joe of English and Ros of French and German. They are really very nice, and O. had drawn a special picture of Duncan, whereupon he reciprocated with a drawing of his own. The kids played badminton in the little roadway this evening before Maggie and I took over a big wedge of Roquefort and a Boursin, and a bottle of rosé, and we worked through it and a bottle of theirs while we talked. What floored me was that first Ros had managed to pick out the Canadian, and in fact even the Toronto accent, and secondly, once our non-American citizenship had been established, that Joe asked me about The Kids in the Hall.
While visiting with these entertaining neighbors I realized that from a cinematic point of view we were providing a clear illustration of How the English Socialize: four people talking loudly and laughing uproariously, downing big tumblers of rosé, clustered around a candle and a big chunk of runny blue cheese, and at the "cabin" behind were four French campers, quietly sitting under their porch light to share in a hand of cards, four identical columns of smoke from four identical cigarettes rising above their whispered conversation. It struck me as quite funny!


Thursday July 30th
19h48. We had a very great day today and just finished a very enjoyable chat with Frederic and Agnes and their two daughters C. and J. They are from Toulouse and came here on the ferry. Frederic has offered to take us shopping in town tomorrow as we have no car at the moment. In a few moments we'll head over to Eric and Sylvie's; they are from Bordeaux, and have a son, A. who is fourteen and quite fond of card tricks.
I must say that any sense that the French are anything other than extremely helpful and sociable is completely unfounded; our neighbors are very eager to meet us and to share aperos, and so far Maggie isn't at all upset or embarassed at my tendency to make friends and socialize. Quite the contrary she is doing a lot of the talking! Her French is developing every day we spend here, as is mine, although we both have started to mimic the Provençale accent a little bit, adding an -eng sound to the end of words like bien and pain.


Saturday, August 1st
18h. In Solenzara. Duncan is asleep in the back seat, Malcolm listening to his iPod. We stopped to get some fever medication for D. who seems not to be himself. Today was spent getting the car, shopping, including a visit to the poissonerie to get four different fish (Dorade, Dentelle, Loup de Mer and Racie) which we will grill, followed by a trip up into the mountain pass of Bavella. The first stop there was a pool where we could jump off into the deep cool water; next we carried on to some pools and cataracts that were incredible to swim in. There was even a natural waterslide!




Monday, August 3rd
15h24. At "Le Royal" pizzeria in Bonifacio for our first and last lunch out as a family. This city is fantastic. The limestone/chalk cliffs are weathered in a beautiful way. We had to climb all the way to the top of the citadel, and the view was spectacular.
This morning we went on a tour of the whisky distillery (the only one in Corse) for a free degustation of three varieties, including a single malt; they also had good charcuterie and cheeses, and honey and confiture. We got samples of these to take back to Brussels, then hit the road to come here, a journey of perhaps an hour and a half.
The time in the car was well worth it; I wish we had more time to explore this wonderful city, which I understand has been inhabited for some thousands of years, and seems to greatly resemble one mentioned in Homer's Odyssey.


Afterwards we drove back north, and took a bad, twisty road that looked like it belonged in a roadrunner cartoon to La Rondinara, a circular bay with crystal-clear water and a white sand beach.


After a quick dip we came home to finish packing up for our departure tomorrow. Our very generous neighbors Frederic and Agnes are going to drive us the 75 km or so to the airport and then continue on to Bonifacio themselves.

So that's the skeleton of our trip to Corsica: no bandits, and only a few problems to deal with. Overall it was very restful, and we're still kind of in holiday mode here. Maybe Maggie will fill in a few more blanks in her next blog, after we've sorted through the approximately 500 photos we took. As for me, today was a day of internet banking, email sorting, and planning for the next couple of seasons, including some emails to agents and opera companies. And a gin and tonic, of course; after all, it is summer!

Bonnes Vacances!