More dark and stormy :)

Well, Edinburgh is working harder to live up to its reputation. The weekend was relatively cold, windy, and wet, and today followed suit. I actually spent the entire day indoors (Monday is my writing day, anyway), and Lynn only left to get the kids to and from school.

The kids have been crankier. Kenna has become very recalcitrant, fighting about very small things like getting dressed, while also pestering her brother for attention. I would say she needed more attention, but she gets attention constantly and seems to have lots of friends at school. Lynn and I think it may be an environmental issue: the combination of the darkness outside and the cold air inside-- I think it's triggering hibernation-type effects where the kids at least, and perhaps Lynn and myself as well, are being prompted by our bodies to get more sleep and eat more calories. We've begun putting Kenna to bed earlier, and she's regularly sleeping 12+ hours each night now.

Taran is trickier. By last week we'd reached the point where we decided there was something in the food causing trouble, and so on Weds last we put him back on a diet without processed foods (I suspect the Cheerios, Lynn suspects the fluoride tablets), and he seemed to be doing better... and then we took the kids swimming on Friday. We'd gotten passes from British Gas for open swim, and the closest location was a hotel downtown. The pool itself and the facility were nice enough, but we've always seemed to have trouble with Taran and hotel pools. Perhaps the high chlorine level? Regardless, Saturday night Taran was coughing at bedtime, and we commented that it seems like everytime we take Taran to a public pool (other than the PAC which used an ultraviolet system to keep the chlorine amount down) he has coughing fits and behavior problems. Sunday the coughing was worse, and we gave Taran hydroxyzine, our standby for coughing/allergy/itching/sleeping problems, and he slept through the night soundly, but was coughing much worse this morning, and his behavior today was awful. We thought we'd seen behavior problems with the hydroxyzine, but he was just a wreck today. I think there is a sleep issue for him as well, and so today we moved their bedtimes forward 30 minutes. Kenna was asleep before 6.45pm, and Taran is now in bed and will hopefully be asleep by 7.30.

We had a nice visit with Eyal and Ionathan on Saturday, and Eyal's father brought us a basic Hanukkiah and kosher candles all the way from Israel. Taran's eyes lit up when he saw it, and he and Kenna spent the afternoon trying to get Ionathan (who is 2) to play with them, but he was just too shy, and of course they are loud and a bit crazy. Sunday we visited with Ashley's family (Ashely is one of my colleagues), and their three kids were just fantastic keeping our kids busy all afternoon while we ate and chatted. It was great.

Lynn is fully into the apartment hunt now. We're experimenting with the underfloor heating in the bathrooms, and my guess is that we're closing in on running the heat constantly while we're home (just in 1-2 rooms at a time) to keep warm. My appreciation for modern insulation methods now knows no bounds-- we could heat our entire house in Wisconsin in -20C weather for the cost of heating 2 rooms in this flat at 2C weather. I'm not sure how much better the heating situation will be in another flat, but it surely can't be worse, and if we're paying £200-300 less per month, that more than makes up the heating bill.

I can't seem to find enough writing time these days, but I'm really enjoying the networking within the University structure. I am trying to follow my supervisor's advice about sticking to my primary responsibilities, and have set boundaries where possible, but will need to do even better, as I'm just involved in too many projects right now. Soon I need to ramp up my research again, and I'll be even more busy once teaching really starts next term. The upshot is that I'm enjoying the desk research and writing so much I wish I could spend most of my time on it-- a strange conclusion from a person who expected to want to focus on teaching...

Cheers from mostly dark and a bit stormy Edinburgh!

Taran's knowledge treasure hunt 6

Studying the Universe: The Universe
Why are observatories built on mountains away from cities where the air is clear?

When Dinosaurs Lived: After the dinosaurs
Name three things that ice age hunters made from animals to survive.

Our Planet Earth: Air and Water
What does the Beaufort ("Bo-fort") scale measure?

Taran's knowledge treasure hunt 5

Our Planet Earth: People and the Earth
What used to be on the land where people create farms?

In the Factory: Machines
What kind of vehicle takes milk from farms to the dairy?

The Solar System: The Universe
Usually Pluto is the farthest planet. How often is it closer to the sun than Neptune?
Pluto has one moon named Charon. Who is the moon named after?

Taran's knowledge treasure hunt 4

When Dinosaurs lived: Evolution
How many years ago did the first fish move onto land?

People and Places: Europe
Fish are caught in floating nets. What are shellfish caught in?

Our Planet Earth: The Land
What is the difference between stalactites and stalagmites?

swimming in edinburgh

Here's a nice shot of the castle at night, mostly just to show the incredible variety of colors that only seem possible here.


We had a very different sort of day today-- we used "free swim vouchers" courtesy of Scottish (British) Gas to get access to the swimming pool at the Edinburgh Carlton (Barcelo) Hotel. A small pool, but a spa (hot tub), sauna, and steam room, and lots and lots of warm air and hot water, which were luxuries in themselves. The kids wore themselves out, had huge dinners and went promptly to sleep. There is a closer, public swimming pool, Glenogle Swim Center, but we've not made it there yet for open swim, and it was nice to get a free one in.

Lynn's big (follow-up) ladies night is tomorrow: I'll be doing a self-skills audit and mentoring plan for myself. And hopefully some paper writing as well.

The kids are consistently tired, but generally well-settled. Taran has made friends at Stockbridge and has finally gotten past all the opposition, apparently, as he's now earning credits for his House (Henderson) and getting "golden time" on Fridays where he can trade Pokemon with friends during school hours. I must admit, however, that I'm hard-pressed to pry out of him any kind of academic work at school...

liking scotland

One has to admire people who assess the encroaching darkness, wind, rain (and sometimes snow) and say, "I've got a great idea, let's have a carnival. Outside!" Indeed, the Ferris Wheel has been set up and lit up, along with the carousel, nicely bracketing the spiky dark broodiness of the Scott Monument. The photo below is not mine (as usual), but it is representative of what Princes Street will clearly look like in another week or two. The well-lit castle-like building in the background is the beautiful and elegant Balmoral Hotel where I enjoyed afternoon tea two months back. Very posh and Scottish, at the same time. If you look carefully you can just barely make out the shape of the Scott Monument Tower looming over the Ferris wheel.

Clearly, the winter holidays are taken quite seriously here, and by that I mean people plan to have a seriously good time, no doubt aided by a few warming beverages.

Who rides a Ferris wheel at night when the temperature is 2C and the wind blows 25kph...

weather, work, etc.

Just a quick note. Weather has been moderate-- upper 30s and 40s. The wind picked up today a bit. Over the next 10 days, the low temp is predicted at 36F and the high 45F. That includes days and nights.

Work's been really busy. Preparation finally underway for next term's classes-- I'll be co-teaching two. Research about to finally get re-started, and lots and lots of writing to do. Deadline for AoM submission is 11-Jan, and I'm hoping to have three full submissions.

Kids seem to be doing well, but Kenna's been very tired. I worry the cold in the flat is getting to them. Lynn went and looked at other flats in the catchment, but one was too small and the other wasn't advantageous enough to be willing to switch to, given that it's still quite expensive.

More soon :)