England Musings #5

Note originally sent late on 22 May 2005
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Do hope that this note finds you well. Summer hasn’t quite arrived here – at least not consistently – however, I hope that wherever you may be located geographically summer is well on its way.

Welcome to the fifth installment of what is going on here at Eastern edge of the Atlantic ocean. BE AWARE that this email is now the lengthiest composed to date (epic is how my bro described the last one…) – I am not bragging here or intending to do so, just stating what may be obvious as the reading of this note may cause severe boredom if taken all in one sitting – don’t say I didn’t warn you! If by some miracle you make it through this note I can promise you that there won’t be too many more notes to come (at least by mass emailing) as it is now less than three weeks before I return to the States.

You may wonder why I haven’t attached any pictures to this note – good question – this note is now posted along with pictures on a new blog site that I created based on some good advice from a fellow blogger. Now if you don’t know what a blog site is… well, don’t worry, it’s nothing fancy and is easy to navigate.

Here is a link to the main page of the blog site upon which this email note should be the most recent posting: www.mattsdomain.blogspot.com

Here is a link directly to the photos (w/captions) chosen to display along with this note (this is a different website than the blog!): click here!

If you wonder what a blog site is and how it is different from the rest of Cyberspace, check out this link: click here!

Why, may you ask did I switch to using a blog site – another fine question. Well, it is an idea that I had toyed with for some time and, based on a fellow blogger’s recent advice, it seemed like a good idea to try it, and so, you are my test subjects. The other big advantage is that I can easily post these notes to it and easily post pictures – more pictures then I am sending now. So, you won’t have to put up with any more artery clogging sized emails from me. That said, I don’t plan on the blog site taking place of good ‘ole email, and so don’t think that I won’t respond to any email you generously send my way. Okay, one last thing, I will hopefully be updating the blog site with further pictures and a back log of the former email notes and so, if you feel so inclined, check back to the blog site every now and then as in among the old England emails you may find more recent postings from me.

Sorry for the dissertation on the blog. I am a bit excited about it and am looking forward to using it – so in addition to this self gratifying email I am sending your way you also get to read about a shameless plug for a blog site - my sincere apologies. If you haven’t yet deleted this email keeping reading as it may get a tad more interesting (though I can’t guarantee anything)!

Okay, back to the business at hand. Thanks for reading this note. I look forward to composing the notes to you folks and find myself pressing to compose one if I feel it is time to do so (today’s note would be a good example – I had hoped to do it last Monday, but, uh, that didn’t happen obviously).

Some of you may know that this string of notes originated as just an informative way of keeping in touch with many folks and letting you know what I was up to here in England as many of you expressed an interest in knowing (though maybe that was just a polite remark and you really don’t care – ah, sweet revenge in sending you these mass emails to read!). That is probably the first and foremost objective for the note – this seems to be an effective way of saying “hey, this is what I am up to over here” as it will be terribly difficult to summarize what I was up to in a short conversation. In addition, this note provides a record for me of what I was up to at this point in life.

However, those aren’t the only communicative points that this string of notes has evolved into. Someone recently mentioned to me that they had received one of my “prayer” letters (in reference to receiving a forward of one of my previous notes). That isn’t something that I set out to consciously do – that is, to compose a letter based on where prayer support was needed for this organization, others here, or myself. Yet, I see now that there is in fact such a theme being communicated through the notes and I do appreciate those of you who have been praying for the organization’s mission here and my time here as well – please continue if you feel so led. I don’t have any specific items at this time as I haven’t put the necessary thought into such, but, maybe in the future I can/will make a blog post on such a topic as prayer requests.

I mention this now to simply say that I realize such an aspect of these notes and to say that the time here has been spent in what I think to be very much a pseudo-missionary role. I use the term pseudo-missionary so that I won’t infer anything close to what one may consider a missionary in comparison with my own time here, however, I don’t want to diminish the work that is being done here either. I have come to think of the people involved with the Africa Mercy (I am not including myself here) as “technical missionaries” and what I mean by that is simply folks gifted with technical aptitudes/skills (be it pipefitting, welding, executives, public affairs, etc.) that have come to conglomerate on the completion of the Africa Mercy and prepare her for sailing. They all share this vision of completing this ship and while they may not go out and preach to the masses or translate local languages of the Bible (as this is maybe the more typical idea of a missionary) these people do work for nothing and do so with a joy that you won’t find any other place. These folks put in some hard hours, some of them very long hours, and yet still are joyful to be around (okay, not all the time…). I contrast this attitude with that of some of the local construction crews onboard, who are paid and yet appear to me to be little motivated to do the work, much less joyful about anything in what they are doing here. I don’t mean to diminish the local construction crews any or say that I pretend to know each person’s circumstances – just attempting to paint a picture of what the term “technical missionaries” means to me in a physical sense. These folks I work with in the organization are certainly full of joy in serving the Lord and completing the vision of the Africa Mercy – they contrast in many aspects with the world around them.

That said I not going to beat you into a pulp until you share the same beliefs as I do – that is not the intent here. Part of the freedom we are allowed in this life (okay, notably in a democracy such as the US) is to believe what we wish. However, the purpose of these email notes is to share with you what is going on in my life here in England, if you so choose to be interested, and I couldn’t be completely honest with what was going on in my life if I didn’t speak to all points of life including the physical, emotional, and spiritual.

I will mention that while I have been here something has been reaffirmed to me – that is finding satisfaction in life. I once thought that satisfaction in life may be found at work – it wasn’t for me. I tried for a couple years to work hard and to feel like I had accomplished something. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed work (well, not all aspects of it) and did participate in accomplishing something, however, work never seemed to satisfy – there was always more to do and little satisfaction to be found in a job that never seemed to end and the stresses that came with it.

As I departed my job a number of months ago on a leave of absence (yes I am still on the books for now…) people said I was going out to “find myself” (with regards to this Mercy Ships venture and the bit of traveling I had hoped to do at that time) and while I tried to deny such, in truth, that is what I was hoping for – to “find myself” – whatever such a subjective term means for a person. I had really hoped that this Mercy Ships venture would lead me to finding a satisfaction in life (a life purpose if you will) – to finding myself in a vocational (work) sense of the word – you know finding a passion in a job that one is good at and striving to do the best you can in a particular field.

Well, it is clear to me now that such a satisfaction in life is not going to be found through a particular vocation or job, even if a passion is involved. (Now this doesn’t mean that working hard in a job will not occur, quite the opposite I would think, as with a clear perspective on life the time at work would be efficiently and purposely spent with an advantage to accomplish what is necessary and not get burned out attempting to do too much – at least that is how I think about it.) I do believe that I may have found satisfaction in life, or, as others may put it, a life’s purpose – or at least the path to such a purpose. In all truth, I think it is more a reaffirmation in my life through this Mercy Ships experience to something that I have heard spoken many a time before, and even shared some knowledge of at one time. So, if you should ever so wish to know why I believe that there is satisfaction to found in life, or a purpose of life, just ask me and I will be happy to share it with you…

If you have made it this far in the note without deleting it, becoming extremely bored, pondering why you actually read these notes, or just considering where your time can be better spent for the day (look, it shouldn’t take you all day to read through this, maybe an hour though, eh?), well, than, thanks and all I can offer you is some details about Edinburgh and maybe some interesting tidbits on what not to with a large diesel engine.

It is hard to believe that it has been nearly three weeks since my last dissertation. It is hard to keep track of where the time goes. As the weeks lessen with the time remaining here in England it is hard not to believe that the days have quickened their pace in just how quickly they pass. I am excited to return back to the States, however, I will probably come to miss some aspects of life here and working with the Africa Mercy and her crew.

The previous note ended on a Sunday evening of a three-day weekend. The next day, Monday, I traveled south to Durham (~15 miles south) with John & Eileen (from England) to visit the town and, most notably, the cathedral. The Durham Cathedral is an amazing place – very beautiful craftsmanship everywhere – from the stained glass windows to the stone work and wood work used for some of the decorative features. There is so much history here as well. The Cathedral dates back to the early 1000’s and has been around ever since and apparently well cared for. There is a granite plaque that records the bishops (I think they were bishops or priests – never been good with denominations) ever since the 1000’s. The Cathedral is filled with a number of smaller chapels and resting places of numerous people and saints. I can’t begin to remember every memorial or burial place viewed there – suffice to say that it is an awe-inspiring, and in the same breath, humbling, place.

Alas, no pictures were allowed inside the Cathedral but we did snap some outside and in the courtyard. However, my batteries died and I have failed to request the digital pictures from John – so no pictures of the exterior of Durham Cathedral right now. John and Eileen are a wonderful couple and very interesting to converse with. John had served with the British Navy for many years and now an electrician for the Africa Mercy and Eileen helps out with the human resources in the office.

Oh, and we also spent some time in the Monk’s dormitory – a structure that is nearly 600 years old constructed with large spanning wooden roof beams that again show beautiful craftsmanship (yes, the wood beams are that old). The dormitory could house up to 100 monks in its day, however, now it serves as a library and display room for many stones (i.e. Gaelic crosses – or rather pieces thereof) collected by a past affiliate of the Cathedral. The library contains many old books on any various subjects and is still maintained as a working library. A number of the books on display were dated from the mid 1800’s and were wonderful to view (books recording the first explorations of continents and the like).

Following the venture at the Cathedral we strolled through the very pretty downtown/city center area (Durham is not very big and is primarily a college town). The city center was a bustling place by this point in the day and rather crowded I would say.

On the way from the cathedral John and Eileen gave me an experience of an old time pub and I had a half glass of Guinness (on tap Guinness mind you). The pub was more interesting then I thought it might be – a very small front pub area was used for the working class. Behind the bar area there was a small room called a “snug” that was used for the ladies and in the very rear of the pub was a larger room (of which I forgot the term) utilized by only the mid & upper classes. We sat in this back room and enjoyed the ambiance of such a place. Another interesting aspect of such a dated pub is that the doorways are short – I had to considerably duck going through them. The doorways were built appropriately though for the people of the era and it is a bit shocking to think just how small in stature they were. John mentioned this may have had to do with the diet and even today there are British folks around that are very small in stature, in fact, I haven’t seen too many people around that are much taller than me (6’-2” or so).

After strolling through the downtown area we fetched the picnic lunch out of the car and found a nice spot along the riverside path for a very enjoyable picnic lunch on a beautiful sunny day. Following this picnic lunch we rented a small rowboat for just a bit and had a row up and down a short stretch of the river. A great way to enjoy the day and experience some of England.

The week following this Monday holiday I was on night shift. This was the second time while here that I have served night shift and I would say that I enjoy it for its solitude and peace and quiet. However, it does get a bit tiring after four days. So, Tuesday through Friday nights I was on the ship around 3 pm and taking a rest period from 3 – 1130 pm or so and then serving out my time from 1130 pm to 7 am completing four rounds as night duty watchman. The work itself was pretty uneventful and by Saturday morning I was a bit tired from the funny schedule all week.

However, I was able to get out a couple mornings during the nightshift days where I didn’t feel like sleeping away the morning. One morning I ventured out to a sizable mall west of here primarily interested in checking out the place (it’s pretty darn big) and also looking for some items on a shopping list. Well, about the only success on this trip was finding an inexpensive travel guide on Edinburgh, Scotland. Now, I did find some other things that I thought I was looking for, but after reading the prices and recalling what those prices would be in American dollars I couldn’t bring myself to spend any money.

I once remarked in a previous note that some items here in England were cheaper then similar items in America – and I think I even said that the prices weren’t too far off Alaska prices (generally a bit more then the Lower 48). Well, I have decided I was wrong. England is expensive, especially when the exchange rate is poor for the US dollar (something like $2 = £1). I don’t know what I was thinking. Now, if one thinks in terms of British pounds, well, things aren’t so bad, but the minute that you make that calculation for what things cost in terms of US dollars, well, it’s then too late, and everything begins to seem expensive. In addition, everything is on a smaller scale – cars (think four-wheeler with enclosed seating – a bit of drastic imagery but its not too far off the truth), refrigerators, milk cartons, houses, etc. I don’t know if this is a bad thing, just more of an observation. If you ever travel to England bring plenty of money as funds seem to dissipate here rather quickly…

Another morning prior to going on night shift I visited a local museum of sorts called “Bede’s World”. The museum of Bede’s World turned out to be better then I thought – it is a well done presentation of the life and times of Bede, a seventh-century monk that spent his life right here in the Jarrow (River Tyne) area. Bede was a prolific author and scholar and was also a respected monk of the most honest intentions of serving Christ. His more than 40 books (or was it 50 or was it 70 – a large number anyway!) truly seemed to be used by many folks, some for centuries later (however, not until after his death), and the man appears to have held an integrity and life respected by many in his time (and centuries later). He was born in 673 AD and entered the monastery at age 7. He passed away around age 60. The history of the area prior to 700 A.D. that is known today is mostly gathered from Bede’s work 1300 years ago from what I understand. The museum focused on these aspects and also those more general aspects of the establishment of Christianity in this part of the world. It would seem that for this part of England (northeast England or central UK) the two monasteries’ (one at St. Paul’s and the other not too terribly far away – forgot where…) provided the first local establishment of Christianity. In any case I was impressed with Bede’s life presented at this museum and only wish I could remember the many details read that day in the museum as there were many. Check out this web site.

Well, the Saturday after coming off of night shift I partook of a long nap and a day checking out a few stops along the Metro route while watching the weather change from hail to sunshine outside. Nothing too exciting really, nor was I looking for it to be an exciting day as readjusting to a “normal” schedule was exciting enough.

Sunday I ventured back to Heworth Christian Fellowship. Church was excellent in spite of being crowded into a bit smaller location this time (Heworth uses a school building to meet in). Following church I was invited to the Chief Engineer’s home for a lunch of some very tasty leftovers. His wife is from the French speaking portion of Switzerland and both are interesting people. They have a son who is 9 years old so and was raised speaking French in Switzerland for a time. Alphonze (the Chief Engineer – he is from Singapore) is able to trace his ancestors back to near Bagdad some time previous to 300 AD! Amazing I think to be able to trace ancestors back such a long time. I had a very enjoyable time chatting with this family and learning a bit about their backgrounds.

Following lunch and a Metro trip up to Central station (the train station) to pick up my Edinburgh ticket I ventured over to the home of Andy and Brenda. Andy is the 2nd Engineer and Brenda works in human resources. There I was treated to a fine Sunday evening meal of buffet style, big-family, help-yourself type dinner and also enjoyed watching a live soccer (football here in England) of Liverpool vs. Arsenal. Unfortunately Liverpool ended up losing 3-1 – a good second half effort was displayed by Liverpool though. (Yes Hogg I was cheering for Liverpool!!!)

Work during last week went great. The majority of the week I was able to help prepare and install pistons into Harbor Generator #2 (formally a main engine). There were sixteen to install within the engine and I think on one of our better days we were able to drop four or five into the engine. In addition to the fascination with such a first experience I think that some of the joy in the work came from the others that I was able to work alongside.

Oebele D. (pronounced u-ba-la – hails from the Netherlands) is a gifted diesel mechanic and “jack of all trades” and very enjoyable to work with. Randy, my housemate, is a hardworking, quiet fellow who is willing to do just about anything work related (well, I say this because he is one of folks around who can fit more readily into the crankcase/oil sump of the engines – and was willing to do so – not an easy or fun job getting inside the engines). Jeffery recently came to the Africa Mercy having spent some time on the Anastasis and hails from Ghana – quiet and hardworking with a sense of humor hidden away.

In any case the work week flew by and before long we had all sixteen pistons installed and were ready to move onto setting the cylinder heads (pistons are lightweights compared to the cylinder heads!). Some where in the pictures you will find a shot of me dropping a piston into one of the cylinders – see how large the pistons are – actually, the pistons are not large at all by marine standards, certainly they are larger then anything I am accustomed to.

Unfortunately, the work week didn’t go by without a problem. While we were installing the third to last piston for the engine Oebele noted that the crankshaft had some deposits where the connecting arm had to attach – deposits that were from previous work done on the engine. Similar deposits had been noted on one other crankshaft location and such had to be removed as it effectively prevented the connecting arm from proper attachment and clearances at the crankshaft. Oebele was going about cleaning these deposits from the crankshaft and I was standing by with the controls for the shaft turning gear. At this point we had the piston sitting in the cylinder liner (using the overhead crane) and the connecting arm was freely hanging beneath the piston. Now the bottom of the connecting arm is constructed such that the connecting portion of the arm is essentially two half circles that clamp around the crankshaft with the use of large diameter bolts.

Well, as we rotated the shaft to verify the cleanliness of deposit removal we failed to think how the freely hanging connecting arm may (or may not) interfere with the rotating shaft (as we were on the other side of the engine we did not have a good visual even looking through the crankcase). Understand that ideally the free hanging arm would catch the shaft in the exposed half circle and they both would simply rotate together as they are intended to do. Anyway, the free swinging connecting arm caught in some strange fashion at a location on the crankshaft (I don’t think anyone ever did figure out where the arm could hang up on the shaft other then the exposed half circle) and caused the middle of the connecting arm to put some leveraging force on the bottom edge of the cylinder liner snapping out a nearly brick-size piece of the liner (liner thickness of around 1” – cast iron with machined surface). Thankfully nobody was hurt (the chunk of cylinder liner did make some noise as it attempted to exit the engine crankcase in a quick fashion) in this rather large “oops”. Needless to say, we had to take the piston back out and then reinstall another cylinder liner – this work took place the Monday of this past week after Oebele spent much of the previous Saturday preparing the new cylinder liner. So, a bit of a stupid mistake and a lesson learned – use your head!

This past weeks work was spent setting the cylinder heads on Harbor Generator #2 (starboard side generator engine) following the replacement of the cylinder liner and piston of our incident on Monday. Following the setting of the cylinder heads and torqueing of the cylinder head nuts we focused on cleaning of the engine to include general vacuuming of the exterior, cleaning of the interior of the cylinder heads and camshaft areas, and cleaning of the crankcase and oil sump. This is where Randy crawled into the oil sump and spent plenty of time vacuuming and scrubbing. Friday we completed the cleaning of the engine and we hope to move on to Harbor Generator #1 next week (which is already partially completed). The cleaning of the engine is not terribly difficult (well, easy for me to say since I didn’t have to crawl inside the engine!) but does take time and following cleaning still isn’t spotless – think oil deposits, chipped paint, general industrial environment. In any case, we were thankful to have completed the reassembly and cleaning of Harbor Generator #2. There is a slim (very slim) chance that I will have an opportunity to experience the operation of this engine prior to leaving a couple weeks, but that does not appear too likely right now.

The past two weeks the workdays have not been terribly exciting outside of the day’s work. Much of the time in the evening passes without any hesitation at all and I am left wondering what happened that such time has passed. It seems as though there are two nights a week spoken for with community meeting and a Bible study where as at least one other night of the week is trying to catch up with the homework from the Bible study. And, as it so happens I have put in a couple days with a bit of extra work and end up using one of the evenings to get caught up on sleep – be it from the bit of extra work or from lack of sleep. Don’t ask how the lack of sleep bit comes about without anything exciting occurring in the evenings – I haven’t quite figured it all out either. Of course there are some nights that are spent chatting and such as well – which is certainly a good way to spend time with some folks and enjoy an evening by the way. The point is I am just constantly amazed at how time passes – I guess though that such is a fact of life.

I suppose the big news as far as travels go here in England over the past three weeks (well, aside from Durham Cathedral – terribly interesting in my mind) was the excursion to Edinburgh, Scotland last weekend (14 & 15 May). Edinburgh was wonderful! I thought it was a great place to visit and would highly recommend it. I would hope that if you do visit your experience would be similar. Though, take someone with you – such would enhance the adventure and experience in my humble opinion. Check out the pics – here.

Leaving here on the train Saturday morning at around 7:50 am put the train in Edinburgh at around 9:30 am. (By the way a beautiful train ride through coastal country marked with fields/farms and smaller towns). It is always a disorienting thing for me to arrive in a new place and try and get some bearings, in spite of having studied up a bit using my “tourist” book on Edinburgh. Based on some advice from my aunt about visiting London I ventured over and shelled out some bucks to take an hour tour of the city on one of any various tours by double-decker bus. The advice was very good as the tour turned out to be an excellent way to get partially oriented with the city and pick and choose the areas to which one would like to visit. It was also possible to disembark from the bus at one of many stops along the way and then join another tour later in the day (the ticket was good for 24 hours). I chose to just take the hour tour and walk to the appealing areas of the city. Check out this map of Edinburgh (pronounced eh-din-bur-UH not eh-din-bur-O – reminded of this often by the Brits here on crew).

One notable item from the tour (there were many, including a history of sorts which I can’t begin to record here, much less remember it all!) was that the population of just the city of Edinburgh was somewhere around 450,000 people – this is strictly just the city and does not include the many (there are many!) outlying areas. In any case it was noted that this is one of the highest population densities of any city around and I could imagine that it very well may be (I haven’t verified though) as there were no lack of buildings (of which even those with dedicated businesses still maintained residences in the unused portions it would appear). There were people everywhere! And not only tourists (though there were many of these – Edinburgh seems to be quite a touristy place) – many must have been locals, especially in the evenings I think.

Maybe this density of people is a downside in some respects, however, I would have to think that if one is traveling to a city the one sure bet is that there are going to be plenty of people that inhabit a city. At dinner Saturday evening I sat near a couple from Montana of which the wife was glad to escape to a quite restaurant out of the hustling city to achieve some peace and quite – I could empathize with her feeling of a noisy, peopled place, although I thought that such a feature of this city was part of why it was such an interesting place to visit.

Now, don’t misunderstand that Edinburgh takes on a concrete facade of dwellings for masses of people. The architecture was beautiful in my opinion and there is any number of parks and open spaces to enjoy (though on such a nice weekend these open spaces were brimming with humanity). Notably there was a large park off of Princes Street (right in New Town) and then there was the open space available around Arthur’s Seat just a mile east of the city center and easily accessible. Hopefully you can get feel for the proximity and openness of the area around Arthur’s seat from some of the pictures that I captured on a glorious weekend.

In fact, much of my time in Edinburgh was spent enjoying the open spaces, notably the area at Arthur’s Seat. An examination of the pictures taken would heavily evidence this as I have way too many pictures of the Arthur’s Seat area (Holyrood Park). In fact, out of the hundreds (yeah, don’t ask…) of pictures taken with the digital camera there were only a handful that I was happy with – and out of this handful many were taken at or of Arthur’s Seat! Note that if you do travel to Edinburgh there are plenty of other photo opportunities other than Arthur’s Seat…

So, following the bus tour and a bit of a walk through New Town I ventured over to a small café (Cornerstone Café) that was recommended by the bus driver for it’s scones (aka something similar to biscuits, although the word biscuit here refers to a cookie of sorts – yeah, talk about a language barrier…). The scone and the pastry were excellent, thought the pasta was not too thrilling – however, the ambience of the place was great as it is situated below St. John’s Church (same building ~ basement?) in a quite corner of a graveyard just off of busy Princes Street. Now, St. John’s Church is a smaller cathedral-like building with beautiful stained glass inside and on a sunny day like Saturday the interior of the church was beautiful – sorry no pictures taken though!

That afternoon I chose to spend time at Edinburgh Castle, probably the most notable and physically prominent of the many historic places in Edinburgh. The name does not fully communicate the amazing position of the castle as it is literally located on a rock (yes, aptly named Castle Rock) that overlooks the city and provides not only a wonderful defensive position but also an awe-inspiring view on a nice day. Hopefully some of the pictures capture some of this ambience – though I can’t guarantee anything – you may have to visit there for yourself.

Edinburgh Castle has along and varied history with a number of famous (or infamous) inhabitants over the centuries. The history of the place appears to be more tied with the natural geography of the place as it would seem the geography came first followed by the sensibly placed castle. The Celtic tribes used the natural rock as a stronghold prior to the conquering by the Northumbrians in AD 638 who built on the rock and termed the modern name of Edinburgh from the Gododdin tribe (Celtic) name of Dunedin (hill fort). Around 1018 AD the MacAlpin kings took control of the rock and the area became Scottish. St. Margaret’s Chapel, now within the confines of Edinburgh Castle, dates from that period and is apparently the oldest building now in Edinburgh.

I could really continue upon the history of Edinburgh and easily double the length of this email note as it now stands – but I won’t do that right now. If you would like to read more on the history of Edinburgh check out this link. I think the history of Edinburgh, and of Scotland in general, is captivating. Edinburgh notably has been a hotbed of activity over the centuries – everything from witches and wynds (don’t know that word, eh? – better read up on the history a bit more…) to corrupt monarchies and citizen uprisings.

Personally, I find the history of Scotland a tad more interesting then England, but maybe that is just me. This may be a bit strange I know, but honestly, in terms of some adventure caught up in modern embellishments, would you rather watch the movie Braveheart (about Scotland) or some Shakespearean movie based somewhere in England? (Yes, I know the histories of Scotland and England are very intertwined and this isn’t a fair comparison, but I bet you I know which movie you would rather watch…)

After a number of hours at Edinburgh Castle I ventured out in an easterly direction down the Royal Mile along Lawnmarket, High Street, and Canongate roads. The stretch of the Royal Mile in itself is seemingly a major tourist attraction for it’s spattering of shops, historical buildings and architecture, street performers, and people watching. I probably spent a good hour or more making my way down from the Castle to Holyrood Palace (at the east end of the Royal Mile).

Actually, quite some time was spent walking around the city, not just on Saturday but also on Sunday. I could only handle so many attractions – you know reading history or trying to absorb some other fact about something – and so it was very enjoyable and awe-inspiring to walk through the many areas of the city and get a feel for the place. So, this later portion of Saturday afternoon was spent doing just that – walking. At some point I turned this walk through the city areas into a leisurely walk around Queen’s Drive, skirting the base of Arthur’s Seat, to the bed & breakfast for which I had reservations.

Now, if you want a recommendation on a great B&B in Edinburgh do try Kilmaur’s Guest House located along Kilmaur’s Road maybe just 3 kilometers from Old Town and in very close proximity to Arthur’s Seat. The proprietors were very friendly and eager to make the stay very welcome and accommodations were great for what I needed. The best part though was breakfast – superbly presented and tasted even better – do try a potato scone if you get a chance. The price was very reasonable, I thought, for Edinburgh accommodations, and while the rooms were not large it was just right for what I was looking for. Check out the web page. Okay, enough of a shameless plug for the B&B – and no I didn’t get prodded into a good report on their establishments – recall that just because I am writing excruciating long emails doesn’t mean I am a travel writer paid to review accommodations and eateries – although that sounds like a great job for a wee bit of time…

The culmination of a week of good, solid work, and a day full of learning and walking made for one tired tourist and so after a meal at a local Indian restaurant I retired to bed early and got some good sleep. Now, you may wonder why on a Saturday night in Edinburgh I would go to an Indian restaurant (you know, why not try some Scottish food at a pub or something…) – well, it was highly recommended by the B&B owner and I would have to say that the food was outstanding. The restaurant was tucked away in a small storefront along a semi-busy street with a humble exterior – but what a great interior atmosphere, excellent service, and wonderful food! Yeah, strange that you would think to find such in Edinburgh, Scotland, and if you should find yourself craving Indian food while in Edinburgh do look up Pataka in southeast Edinburgh. Now, it is worth mentioning that the U.K. does appear to have some strange (although not unhealthy) preoccupation with Indian food – it appears to be very popular here – did you know you can get curry flavored chicken sandwiches at McDonald’s here? Weird, eh?

After the previously mentioned outstanding breakfast I ventured over to Arthur’s Seat and took some time in exploring around it and climbing the peak of Arthur’s Seat as well as a peak to the south that is a good 40 feet less (or more!) in elevation. Of course everyone up there that day was clamoring up Arthur’s Seat and so I greatly enjoyed the relative peace and solitude offered by the smaller peak to the south. The view from either of the peaks provides a breathtaking 360-degree view of Edinburgh, Firth-of-Forth (inlet upon which Edinburgh is located) and the areas to the south of Edinburgh.

Now apparently the name for the peak is of somewhat unknown origin (not referring to King Arthur), however, it is apparent that the area has been used for centuries by the various inhabitants of Edinburgh. In this day and age it is clearly a playground of sorts for Edinburgh as well as a big tourist attraction – and certainly it deserves so as the portion surrounding Arthur’s Peak and the peak itself is a savannah of “wilderness” (uh, not a term used here as one would think of in applying to Alaskan or Canadian wilderness – maybe more an “urban wilderness” if there is such a thing) in an otherwise obvious city. Of course the natural persona of such a place was not diminished by the faint sounds of bagpipes playing across the open space as I descended from the Seat and walked a cliff ridge back towards Holyrood Palace. Such a place was a very pleasant way to spend a beautiful Sunday morning and I was able to find a good hour of solitude sitting on a comfortable rock on the peak to the south. All in all I think I was in the area of Arthur’s peak for a good three hours or more, not returning to “civilization” until around 1 pm or so – obviously a highly recommended location on those sunny days in Edinburgh.

Sunday afternoon I spent much time walking through different parts of the city, though mostly Old Town and going back over the Royal Mile, with a brief interlude to Calton Hill in the early evening. In addition to walking the city that afternoon I spent time at the Royal Museum and the Museum of Scotland – both very beautiful museums conjoined to form a full day or more of historical learning. I especially enjoyed the Museum of Scotland for its obvious bend towards providing details on the history of Scotland. In addition to some well thought out exhibits and great architecture (in my mind anyway, which is not saying much) both museums were free!

Late afternoon, following the closure of most everything (except tourist shops) at around 5 pm I stopped in at a few tourist shops along the way to New Town and a short walk up Calton Hill. Now, if any of you were hoping for a Scottish gift or memorabilia I am sorry to have to disappoint you, but my frugalness (okay, cheapness) shone through in dramatic colors on Sunday as I wretched with arguments over whether or not to shell out money for some memorabilia (for me) or gifts for others. Don’t get me wrong, I certainly appreciate the thought and actions of gift-giving, but I just couldn’t bring myself to pay so much as my brain centered on what the cost was going to be in US dollars. Pound-wise the prices were very reasonable – it’s always in that calculation from pounds to dollars that the reality hits home. So, my apologies ahead of time. All that I have walked away with in addition to a handful of postcards is a Scottish patch and coaster with the Wood coat of arms – the combination of which cost US $8! Ah! Okay, so enough whining from me (yet again) on exchange rates and prices here…

Sunday evening I caught an 8:20 pm train back to Newcastle, not arriving back to the flat until around nearly 11 pm. A late night but a great weekend in which to kick off the work week focusing on Harbor Generator #2 mentioned above.

This may be clearly evident, but I really enjoyed Edinburgh, Scotland, and would highly recommend the location to any of you thinking of visitng the UK. I would hope to some day check out more of Scotland as I hear the Highlands are beautiful as well as the northern coast of the country. For now though I will enjoy the thought of possibly returning some day. Oh, and did you know you can get sunburned in Scotland?! Take some sunscreen – and use it!

It is now Sunday afternoon and I hope to get this email/blog post out this evening – I have been working on the text of it since last Monday (uh, maybe that is obvious with regards to the length of the note…). Of course a good portion of time, too much in fact, has been spent attempting to get the blog site formatted to meet my tastes and getting it put together for use. You may wonder why I would come all the way to England and then a little too much time on putting together such a project – I wonder the same thing. Time management is an issue I am constantly dealing with – it seemed like I could do okay with time management in a work environment but I have struggled with it in my personal life apart from the work setting – not a good thing I know.

To be honest though, it was good to wake up Saturday morning and not have any pressing engagements or sights to run off and visit. Saturday afternoon I took a good long walk and late in the afternoon got a chance to view the last portion of the FA Cup Final between Manchester United and Arsenal (go Man U! – an excellent game by the way that went into penalty kicks with Arsenal winning in penalty kicks, though Arsenal was certainly outplayed during the match). Last night I was invited to dinner at couple’s house and had a wonderful evening (he is from Holland and she is from Dominican Republic – they met on the Caribbean Mercy).

Last night turned into a much later night then I would have liked as I focused rather insanely on trying to ready the blog site for viewing (to my standards – not always necessary things that I like to do) and well needless to say I was up to late and not early to rise this morning. And so this Sunday has turned into a day of getting over the mistakes of yesterday (reference time management comments above) and focusing on readying this note so that I can put this note and blog behind me.

Don’t get me wrong, I terribly enjoy writing these notes and feel it is an outlet of sorts for some dark literary side that I must have (dark in the sense that as an engineer-by-degree we are not supposed to be accomplished in writing anything other than technical manuals and so this seems a bit backwards to me). It’s just that I don’t want to have these things take too much away from the experiences and relationships that I could be building here and I feel that my preoccupation with a blog site this past week has taken away my focus from why I am here, and so I suppose that I am mad at myself for that reason and such is probably coming through in my composition. Anyway, I hope that the blog site turns out to be useful. I don’t know how often I will post to it, but I do hope to continue emailing you peoples and realize the importance of keeping up communication, although I won’t profess to be good (or even consistent) with communication through email, phone, or in person…

Okay, that’s it! Congrats on reading this far – someday you can personally thank me for taking up three hours of your day to read a silly email from me! God bless and enjoy the impending summer!

Cheers,
matt