Tuesday, April 7, 2015

Operation Free Tom

My grandmother died when I was 17. A few months later, I moved in with my grandfather while I interned at his church. About a year later, he met a woman online (I use the term "woman", however, there are far more accurate and far less appropriate terms that could be applied). He moved her in with me and he stayed with friends for a few weeks until their wedding.

During this time, I packed my things in preparation to move back home, and I packed as many of my grandmothers things as I could possibly save from the trash as this "woman" systematically began destroying anything my grandmother had ever touched and alienating his children and grandchildren so that she could isolate and control him.

The details are unimportant at this point. The main thrust is that we had almost no contact with my grandfather for ten years, and always feared that we would never know if or when he died (and whether she had hastened his demise). Then, a month or so ago, we got a panicked phone call from the "woman" telling us that Papa had cancer and would be gone in a matter of weeks (all false, he hadn't even had tests yet, and all the tests he then had came back negative for cancer, praise God!). Well, whatever the "woman's" intentions may have been in calling us, she got the very thing she surely didn't want and the family was fighting to get back in his life. Frankly, we had had enough and we wanted him back.

Two weeks ago, my parents and my aunts met him and the "woman" for lunch, and my dad (Papa's oldest son) managed to get him alone long enough to tell him that if he wanted out, we had a bedroom for him and he was welcome to come for a visit or to come forever if he wanted.

My aunts monitor the "woman's" social media, because we figured a long time ago that the only way we'd ever know if something happened to him would be if she posted about it online. After a particularly nasty and (we knew for certain) untrue status accusing him of hurting her, it was really the final straw for the family. My aunt called him, told him about the status, and he finally decided that he'd had enough too. He asked if we could come and get him.

Good Friday, we piled into our largest vehicles and drove up to get him. Brad even offered to don his Storm Trooper armor and assist (we decided that he should leave it home, but he came to help anyway). Operation Free Tom was fully underway, the family adopting a do-or-die attitude about rescuing our Papa. Jerry Springer-style screaming hissy fit from the "woman" and the welcome presence of the county Sheriff aside, we took what few things from the house that he wanted and got him out in under an hour.

He's home, he's happy, he's getting back to health, and most importantly, he is in the arms of the family that loves him (and he will never be beaten with a rolling pin again!). He already looks less like an emaciated cancer patient (he's still far too skinny, but we'll work on that) and more like the man I grew up with. He laugh, smiles, makes jokes, and you can see day-by-day the stress melting off of him and the jovial man of faith returning to himself.


Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Valentine's Day

 
I should start this by explaining that every relationship I've had since high school has started before his birthday and ended before mine. My high school boyfriend was with me over Valentine's day, and the poor guy was so confused by all the things my girlfriends were telling him to get for me that he went to Barnes and Noble and got me a book. Smart guy. Since him though, I've bought very thoughtful (and expensive) gifts for my boyfriends for their birthdays only to break up with them before my birthday rolls around (which means no Christmas either, since I'm an autumn birthday).

This made my relationship with Brad immediately stand apart from any other, since we started dating after his birthday and had to get through my birthday and Christmas before his came around again. We also made it to Valentine's Day, so for the first time in over a decade, I had to adjust my attitude about the most famous and celebrated of the Hallmark holidays (and not spend the day watching the Wedding Singer and gladly joining every chorus of "Love Stinks!").

I suppose that because I was never with anyone when the day rolled around, it just sort of became unimportant. I have no quarrel with the idea of setting aside a day to celebrate love, but let's be honest, there is a lot of societal and media pressure surrounding Valentine's Day; the expectation of gifts and candy and flowers and jewelry, the push for engagements, the guilt of not living up to the fantasy drummed into us by countless advertisements and sappy movies... It's for the birds. I much prefer random flowers, random engagements, and no guilt at all (no sappy movies either).


Brad was excited for Valentine's Day, so I decided to ride the wave and let him be excited. He arrived at my house with a bouquet of orange roses (my favorite!), and we were off to a good start.

We (my parents, Brad, and myself) were supposed to go to Toledo on Saturday to see my dad's side of the family for lunch, but that fell through at the last minute, so we relaxed at my parents house for a while before dressing up and heading out for dinner (and it was cold and I was afterwards extremely thankful that I had decided not to wear a dress).

The boyfriend got us a reservation at La Scala in Dublin for Valentine's Day (full review on Yelp! http://www.yelp.com/biz/la-scala-dublin-2?hrid=kxBcWvbeQE32RXjArtjjtQ), and I really enjoyed the dinner. The Eggplant Parmesan was very tasty and the vanilla cheesecake was delicious!


For the gift exchange portion of the holiday, I got him a very cool bottle of mead from the B. Nektar Meadery in Michigan, and I got it specifically because the art on the label was a Star Wars themed. He got me a book. An amazing book. An Easton Press limited edition signed by the artist copy of my favorite book of all time, Dracula. I did the things I do when I get an incredible book in my hands; I stared at it, I turned it every direction to stare at it some more, I stroked it, I hugged it while grinning like an idiot, I sniffed it... It's fortunate for me that he understands my relationship with books.


In spite of the disappointment of not getting to see my family in Toledo, and in spite of the really unpleasant temperatures (in which I had to shoot scenes for a film on Sunday), we had a really nice weekend and a very Happy Valentine's Day.

Wednesday, December 31, 2014

2014 in Review

2014 brought some interesting things, some painful things, and some wonderful things.

Three months working at an Irish pub was more than enough to remind me that I quit holding down a regular job to pursue acting for a reason, and landing a job on a month-long film production in Columbus gave me a way out.



That film in Columbus led to jobs on other films with some of the same crew (see my last post about Cleveland). I landed a job shooting a series of internal videos for Proctor & Gamble, which is really the only reason I have any money in my savings account, and it's got to last until the next big job because I don't want to wait tables again!

Then June happened. A friend had, months before, texted me about trying to fix me up with a friend of her husband, and we just weren't able to sync our schedules until June. To say that he's the best thing that ever happened to me is probably the understatement of the year. He came into my life at just the right time, and I think I'll keep him around for as long as he'll stay.

 
Skip ahead two months, and I spent almost three weeks in England and Scotland, exploring and eating and enjoying a different slice of life, my Awfully Big Adventure.

 
I set out to overhaul several rooms in the house, starting with my bathroom and the laundry room. Sadly, the bathroom won't be done before the New Year, but should be soon after, and the laundry room soon after that.

October was a spectacular month full of inventive dates and days out, and one instance of me being brave and cooking for Brad. It might have actually been good, but then again, he has told me numerous times that he will eat almost anything.

 
He took me to see the Lion King at the Ohio Theater for my birthday, spent Thanksgiving with my family, and went with me to the interview that landed me a job in Cleveland that lasted until two days before Christmas. Shopping was a bit of a scramble, let me tell you!

We lost some friends along the way, and there have been some tears shed over loved ones no longer with us. 

It's been a full year, and traveling oversees and finding Brad have been the biggest highlights, but that's not to downplay the little things, the wonderful friends, and the new kitten that have rounded out what has, overall, been a fabulous year!


So, farewell 2014. May 2015 be pleasant and prosperous, full of friends, family, and fun, laden with love and laughter, better than the year before, and full of the knowledge that the best is yet to come. Be blessed in all your endeavors, and be a blessing to others at every opportunity. Make it a great year!

Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Absent December

I had an interview for a job as a stand-in on a film shooting in Cleveland. I met the director on November 26th, got hired the 28th, and started the 1st of December. That wasn't a lot of prep time. I scrambled to find a place to stay in Cleveland, and thankfully, a friend came through with a roof to sleep under and a mattress to sleep on. I am eternally grateful for the assist.

Then filming started. I knew many of the crew, and I made some new friends during the production, but this is easily the least fun film set I've ever worked on. We shot an entire week outside in 30 degree weather (and it rained a lot too, oh joy), and then two weeks in a cramped house set, and during these weeks, nearly everyone was sick with what we'll just call "The Cleveland Plague".




 I drove home every weekend to do laundry and pack, cuddle with my new kitten (poor thing came home just before I left and doesn't really know who I am), spend time with my family and my boyfriend, and try to recoup some sanity. Oh, and let's not forget Christmas shopping.

So we finally finished filming, to the great relief of all involved, the day before Christmas Eve. I left a gift for my friend for so kindly putting me up (or putting up with me, as the case may have been), and headed for home to wrap last minute gifts and simultaneously decompress from filming and enjoy my Christmas... For two days.


Not that the following weekend was not enjoyable, it was just once again away from my home (and my own bed). Brad and I left the day after Christmas (which we had spent with my family) and drove to Indiana to spend a belated Christmas with his mother (who I was meeting for the first time).

 
Let me begin the description of our trip to Indiana by saying that I think I put on at least five pounds in the three days we were there. We arrived and dropped our things off on Friday afternoon and headed into Goshen to have dinner at the South Side Soda Shop (which we'd recently seen on Guy Fieri's "Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives" - I'll post a link to my full TripAdvisor review once it's published). The short version is that I loved it and the clam chowder is stellar!

The next day, the sly and secretive boyfriend had another surprise for me, and it happened to be another place we'd seen on TV. My geeky heart skipped a beat when we pulled in to the Hall of Heroes. An incredibly large collection of rare comics, toys, and memorabilia, we easily spent a little over an hour trying not to drool over the beautiful things. (full photo set here - https://flic.kr/s/aHsk6CXQtb)



Fast forward to evening, after we'd drive past his old schools and through a few little towns, and we went out with his mother and two of her friends to a gigantic Amish restaurant called Das Dutchman Essenhaus. Four out of the five pounds gained were gained right there over the cheesy potatoes and the rolls with apple butter.

Sunday morning, we had our belated Christmas and opened stockings and presents, then waited until evening to head to South Bend for dinner (my first experience at Culver's, definitely not my last) and drove through neighborhoods looking at Christmas lights.

We had a nice weekend, and I think I passed the "meet the mom" test...



Last night, back in Ohio, I slept in my own bed. By New Years, I will have slept a total of six nights in my own bed in the month of December. More than enjoying my Christmas gifts, more than setting up my new stationary bike, more than spending New Years Eve with friends playing card games, and maybe even more than the Starbucks I'm going to drink in the morning, I'm looking forward to spending a few nights in my own bed.

I have some catching up to do, both in the house and on the internet, so be patient. I have photos to upload, stories to tell, messages to answer, and I haven't forgotten about my last post in which I attempted a sleep experiment and promised another experiment in the works. Those are both still happening, but my absent December put them slightly on hold.

In the meantime, be safe this New Years Eve, and I'll see you in 2015!

Monday, October 13, 2014

Since I got back...

Actually, we'll have to go back to April to tell this story in full.

Back in April, my good friend Carma texted me (rather out of the blue) and said "So Ty's got this friend. He has Storm Trooper armor, goes to Renaissance Fairs, and drives a Kitt car like Knight Rider. Want to meet him?" I'm just sad that I broke that phone and don't still have the original text, but I'll never forget it.

Apparently when Ty approached Brad about meeting me, it consisted of "She's an actress. Here's a picture. Want to meet her?"

They had my interest at "Storm Trooper", but I was waiting at that time to find out if I was going to be hired full time as the stand-in on "Carol" shooting in Cincinnati, and I didn't want to risk really liking this guy and then leave for a month. As it turned out, I only worked for two days on "Carol" but then got hired full time to be the stand-in on "The Tank" for the entire month of May, so I put off this meeting a little longer. Turned out that Ty was working on the same movie, so no one was really in the mood to try to cram a double date into May.

It got to be July, and I texted Carma and told her that my schedule was open. It was time to organize this meeting. It took a few weeks to get our schedules lined up, but we finally agreed that all four of us would have dinner at a Mexican place and I could tell them all about the movie, and about my upcoming trip the England & Scotland.

He was nice. I told Carma she had good taste.

A few days later, he asked me out, and two weeks later, we managed to find a night we were both free. After that first date, we went from dinner every other week, to dinner every week, to how many nights this week can I come over, to dinner with my parents, right up until the day before I left for London and he went with me to Michigan to meet my aunt (further than any other boyfriend has made it).

We set up Skype and talked several times while I was gone, and Brad picked me up from the airport when I landed back in Columbus. We've hardly gone three days since then without seeing each other.

Now, we haven't just been getting food and going to movies. This guy is creative.


 For our second date, he picked me up in Kitt and we went to 16-Bit Barcade and played Atari games all night. 


Paint Nite. He has the advantage of actually being an artist with degrees, but considering that I haven't painted anything since I was a kid with finger paints, I think mine turned out alright.


Then we chased the Supermoon across the city looking for the best photo ops. I still think I got the best one of the night.

We watched the meteor shower, tried new restaurants all over Columbus, and sometimes just curled up on the couch to watch a movie.

I believe he spent the entire three weeks I was gone planning the month of October, because since I've been back, we've been to King's Island, the Renaissance Fair, and the Ohio Bird Sanctuary, and I got him to be an extra in a film with me, have dinner with my friends for a birthday in Cincinnati, and spend a few days helping me paint and fix up my bathroom.




October's only half over, so in the next two weeks we're going hiking, taking a lantern-lit ghost tour, going to Cedar Point for the haunts, watching a meteor shower, carving pumpkins, and searching for a Halloween party that doesn't conflict with our schedules so we can get into costume and eat lots of Reeses.

He makes jokes about my Starbucks addiction (but he drinks it almost as much as I do now), takes me to Chipotle because he knows it's my favorite, and keeps root beer in his fridge for me. We like a lot of the same music, we love Mel Brooks movies, and we don't have any trouble on long drives in the car, which is good because we both like to travel.

I must have a good feeling about this, because I already found his Christmas present.

In conclusion, it's all Carma's fault. Thanks, Carma :)


Monday, September 15, 2014

Highlands and Highlights

I know there are some of my friends who absolutely love Glasgow, but truly, other than being sick in Edinburgh (over which I had little control), my biggest regret of this trip is that I didn't skip Glasgow and go straight to the Highlands. Of course, we would have lost the delightful vignette of me getting stuck in a dress, and of course, I can't change what I've already done on this trip, I can just plan my next trip more to my specific taste now that I've tasted a variety.

I could tell immediately when I crossed the border from England to Scotland, and I knew in an instant when I crossed into the Highlands, and I felt a wash of calm. This region as a whole just seems to do that to you, force you to breathe a little easier, walk a little slower, linger a little longer. No one is in a hurry, and nothing is so important that it can't wait for you to finish your drink (or your food, or your paper, or your nap).


I mentioned to the landlord in Inverness that I was going to run into town and do some shopping before my bus, and he said "We don't run in the Highlands. Unless it's for sport, and I don't see a rugby pitch outside my door. You walk, you stroll, you take your time, and you enjoy your shopping. There's plenty of time before your bus." That seems to be the prevailing attitude, and I love it. Clearly, Tolkien's Ents were Highland trees.

I have come to the conclusion that next time I come to the UK (whether or not it's still "U" after this week's vote), I will suck it up and rent a car. There were so many places I saw from the bus (or signs for nearby places) that I wanted to stop and see, and of course I was on a bus, so I couldn't. I made notes though, I have ideas for next time.

Inverness was absolutely lovely. It was calm and tranquil (except at the big public sports field, where some competitive games were gearing up), everyone was friendly and helpful, the local food was great, and the trails through the park along the River Ness were my kind of quiet paradise. The boat cruise (Jacobite Tours, if you're interested) was pretty reasonably priced, very scenic, and since it was a guided tour, full of little historical tidbits and local folklore.


The food! I've eaten well in the Highlands. In Inverness, I ate dinner both nights at a pub called Hootananny's, where they serve authentic Scottish food, stock local craft beers, and play (and have in live to play) local bands and musicians. I had a dish called Cullen Skink, which sounds kinda dreadful if you don't know what it is, but it's basically a very hearty creamy potato soup with smoked haddock (which, when smoked, tastes like bacon if you don't know that it's fish), and I liked it so much the first night that I went in and had it again the second.

The food in Oban is just as good, just in quite a different way.

When I arrived in Oban, my very first thought was that it reminded me of Mackinac, Michigan. Sound of gulls everywhere, ships and ferries and sailboats in the bay, shops all along the street in front of the piers, restaurants right out on the piers, people wearing shorts and sweaters and walking their dogs... It was a bit nostalgic, actually. It's a beautiful town, with much the same laid back feel as the rest of the Highlands.

The son of the landlady who owns my guest house recommended a restaurant shortly after I got in and tossed my stuff in my room. It turned out to be one of the restaurants on the pier, a place called Ee-Usk, award-winning, famous for their fresh seafood (well, the whole city is famous for seafood, as fishing, logging, and tourism are the big three industries in the western Highlands). I managed to get a table at Ee-Usk only because I was willing to eat early and most of their reservations were for 7:30 or later. I ordered a glass of Oban Scotch (it's my favourite anyway, and I'm across the street from the distillery, what else was I going to order?) and ate light for dinner because their dessert menu was so very enticing. That lemon cheesecake is hands-down the very best thing I ate on this trip, and I've had some really wonderful food. Cheesecake. Mmm. I left a full restaurant review on TripAdvisor (as I have for most places I've eaten and stayed over here), but this one perhaps got the most rave review, and the cheesecake and the friendly staff were the biggest factors.


The view from my room is spectacular. I can see most of the city center and a good deal of the bay, and it's a west view, so I get gorgeous sunsets on top of it.

I did go out to two of the islands, Mull and Iona (though I wish I'd just paid the extra bit and made it three Islands and seen Staffa too). Mull would be worth revisiting just so I can get out and walk the hills and wander down to the water in various places (not to mention the distilleries on the north of the island). Again, the nice thing about guided tours, you get little tidbits of information. Mull is home to between 3000 and 3500 residents... and 7000 red deer. The deer outnumber the human population 2-1. All sorts of wildlife on Mull besides the deer, they have otters, golden eagles, and sometimes play host to seals who like to come in and laze in a few places on the west coast. I saw a huge flock of Cormorants from the ferry to Iona, and several cranes both standing still and flying across some of the rocky inlets on Mull.


Interesting tidbit - When the event called the Highland Clearances occurred, in which the landlords decided they could put the land to better use if there were no farmers and villagers trying to work the land, the people of Mull had their homes and villages burned and were driven from the island. From a port on the northern side of the island, they sailed to Nova Scotia, where they kept Scottish traditions alive and thriving to the point that today there is more Gaelic spoken in Nova Scotia than there is in Scotland.

Iona is so unbelievably calm and slow, the winds should feel guilty for moving too fast across it. In one of the little cemeteries on the island (right next to the abbey), the youngest person buried there was 75; everyone else was either far into their 80s or well into their 90s, a few even older. They don't allow any cars on Iona unless the car belongs to a resident, and there are only between 90 and 300 residents on the island (90 permanent, the rest mostly during the height of tourist season to work the hotels and restaurants). In the end, I think Iona walked on the side of being far too tranquil for me, but considering that it was the home of a large abbey and a nunnery, it's no surprise that the snails pace is still a way of life there.


Back to Oban for one final day, and that day included the Oban Distillery. Oh did I choose the day to go! The tour began with a short video detailing the malting of the barley, pretty much the only part of the process not done at the distillery, and then we got to see the rest of the stages actually working. Oban still uses very dated equipment, and they will continue to do so, because some of the steps in their process just wouldn't work with newfangled equipment and would change the whiskey, and that just wouldn't do! They still use wood tanks to ferment the mash, and the ones they are using are already forty years old and should last another 40 if they're properly cared for. Unlike many larger distilleries that have up to 20 copper stills, Oban still only has 2 stills, and they are perfectly happy with the size of their operation. Only 7 men work in the distillery, and they do it in shifts, so only two at a time are every really there.

The entire tour was fascinating (and unlike with beer-making, which I find smells dreadful) the entire place smelled quite pleasant, actually. The very best part came just before the end. We all knew in advance that we were getting a free drum of Oban at the end of the tour, but when our guide walked us into the room where they fill the casks (I'll get to those, the casks themselves are really cool), we got to try a very special batch of Oban. It was an 11-year cask that, because it was tapped early and corked and uncorked so frequently, aged rapidly to something closer to a 30-year flavor. We only got a very small taste of that one because they only have one and a half bottles left (and it was never actually bottled, but last week they had to flip the cask over the get the last bit out, and this was it). I got to taste a one-of-a-kind Scotch that was definitely the very best I've ever tasted (and I like the standard 14-year Oban very much).


OK, the casks - if this sort of thing bores you, skip to the next paragraph (though if you've made it this far, you obviously have a pretty high tolerance for the less-than-riveting). So, American bourbon has to be aged in new oak casks, or it can't be called bourbon, and this means that a cask can never be used twice for bourbon. The makers of Oban have found that they don't like the taste of their whiskey out of new barrels, so they take the once-used ones off of Kentucky's hands. Oban may use a cask once or twice, and then it will be passed along to other distilleries that like older barrels. Those distilleries will get a use or two out of the casks before passing them to the companies that do the blended whiskeys. When there is no more whiskey to be got out of one of these barrels (in 100 years or so), the still have one last use - the vast majority of Scottish salmon is smoked over the wood from whiskey barrels. Our tour guide believes that the Scots invented recycling, because the distilleries waste nothing. They even recycle the heat from cooking the barley, by running cold water over the pipes to cool the batch for the yeast stage, and they then route the newly heated water into a barrel to be filtered and used to process the next batch of barley. And once the water has been separated from the barley mash, the mash has no more use for the distillers, so they sell it to farmers for cow feed. It's a wonderfully efficient process.

As I finish this post, I'm plotting a stop this evening at Ee-Usk to ask for cheesecake to-go. I'm telling you, nirvana with a graham cracker crust.

Tuesday, September 9, 2014

It's Not Edinburgh's Fault

After a 9-hour bus ride that cost me a fraction of what the train would have cost, I arrived in Edinburgh, miscalculated how far my guest house was from the bus station, and walked over an hour to get there. I dropped off my bags, ran out for fish & chips, and settled in for the night in my lovely and quaint little room.


Then Sunday happened. Trust me, it had nothing to do with the fish, or I'd have been feeling it much sooner. I wasn't feeling great when I woke up, but I figured it was just fatigue from the cumulative 29 hours of walking in London followed by 9 hours on a bus. I pressed on and walked the mile and a half back to the city center, picked a direction, and wandered.

Calton Hill turned out to be along my wandering path, where the Nelson Monument (which was closed and so I didn't get the view of the city from the top), the National Monument, and the Observatory are all situated in this nice little park.



I looked at a map and saw that the Palace of Holyroodhouse (the Queen's official residence in Edinburgh) wasn't far from the park, so I went that way, via a very old, sprawling, beautiful cemetery. I wasn't able to get a lot of closer shots of the more intricate stones because a preservation society was working on many of the stones and asked visitors to remain on the paths.






You may have noticed if you read my London entry that I didn't really do any tours or go into anyplace that I had to pay an entry fee (other than the zoo). Money's a bit tight, and much as I would have liked to see the insides of some of these incredible palaces, I just couldn't justify the entry fees. Holyroodhouse was no exception, so I contented myself with a few pictures through the gate and decided that since I was already at the starting point, I would walk the Royal Mile from Holyroodhouse to Edinburgh Castle.

I didn't get far along the Royal Mile before I started feeling just a tiny bit hungry on top of still not feeling particularly well. This lovely little tea house (and their incredibly reasonable prices) caught my eye, and as it was made clear to me that if I didn't have tea at least once while I was there, I needn't bother coming home, I ducked inside for tea and a scone. While I'm not much of a tea drinker, it did seem to settle my stomach a bit, and I ate the scone very very slowly because it was so delicious that I wanted to order two more!


Onward and upward! That was another difference I noticed immediately on arrival in Scotland, that there are hills up here. London was actually pretty flat, so my already tired legs just loved the sudden inclines.

Ducking in and out of shops along the Mile (looking for a gift for my mother - I found one, but she can't have it until Christmas) kept the walk from being too taxing, but just as I was nearing the castle, my stomach lurched and whatever I had been fighting off decided to fight back. I was almost glad that I didn't like the entry fee for Edinburgh Castle any more than I had the other one, because I couldn't have really enjoyed the tour at all at that point.

I lingered in the courtyard for a few minutes snapping pictures before deciding that retreat was my best option and bee-lining it for the bus stop, stopping at a sandwich shop for food I knew I would want later.


Sadly, I spent the rest of the night very near to the waste bin in my room, watching murder mysteries and trying to stay hydrated. I felt no better the second day, running out first thing in the morning to a pharmacy for something for my stomach (which helped, but not until it was really too late to try fitting in another activity. Besides, why push my luck when I was only just feeling better?) and taking a quick jaunt down the street to a pub for dinner. That pub, by the way, was where I stopped on my way to the guest house my first night when I was lost. They were very kind and looked it up on a map for me, and I told them I'd come back for dinner before I left. I was not disappointed in the food, they smoke their own meat on the premises and their prices were some of the most decent I've seen anywhere since I landed in London (Clerk's Bar in Edinburgh, just FYI).

With only six somewhat enjoyable hours walking about (out of two whole days), Edinburgh was something of a bust, but it's not Edinburgh's fault. Thankfully, I had my own room here. Feeling this under the weather would have been a disaster in that hostel in London! This B&B (The Alexander Guest House) and the tea room (Clarinda's Tea Room) are both getting my highest praise on TripAdvisor when I get around to review writing.