Catherine, Sara & I left Thursday, Sept. 17th after lunch. I packed two suitcases—one with Ben & Catherine’s stuff (books, baby blankets, winter coats, etc.) I had only had two medium suitcases—Jared had my big one (I meant to bring it home with me, but forgot!) We had to pay taxes & airport fees for Sara to fly with us, but that also allowed us to check in one piece of luggage for her so we had FIVE pieces of checked luggage, two carry ons each for me and Catherine, and Sara’s car seat and stroller. Grandma helped us take all the suitcases to the check in counter and we were glad to be rid of them until we picked them up in Edinburgh. The flights were uneventful—pleasant even. Of course we were spoiled in first class. Even baby Sara cooperated. She stayed with Catherine in their little cubicle the whole time. Catherine had reclined her chair and put Sara to sleep on a pillow in her lap. I didn’t hear a peep out of her the entire transatlantic flight! We arrived in London, caught the correct shuttle to the correct terminal where we caught our plane to Edinburgh.
We arrived, claimed our luggage and caught a taxi to their new apartment. Edinburgh is beautiful! The ride into town took us through a pretty modern area, but the closer we got to the apartment, the older the buildings. Ben met us outside the building (he’d been anxiously watching for us) and we climbed the three flights of stairs with all our stuff to their apartment.
Their apartment is great! You walk into a hallway which has a utility closet and bathroom on the left side and the two bedrooms on the right side. You come out of the hallway into the living room to the right and the kitchen to the left.
It’s great that it is arranged that way because that puts the living room in the corner of the building so it has two long windows making the corner with the view to the North incredible! You see all the way across the ‘Royal Mile’ to Calton Hill and it’s historical monuments and toward the east you can see the ‘Firth of Fourth’ which is the channel leading to the ocean. You can see ships from their window! Further to the east is ‘Arthur’s Seat’ a green hill where Orson Pratt (or Orson Hyde???) dedicated Scotland for... hmmmm???. Can't remember. We’ll have to ask Ben. Either for a temple or for the coming of the gospel.
These are pictures of the streets in front of Ben's apartment complex. Looking up the hill just past the yellow apartments, you turn left into a parking lot. You'd then be able to see Ben's apartment building as the last one on the right.
In the ceiling just inside the front door is access to an attic that extends the full length of the apartment although the walls are sloped up to a peak in the middle. There is a desk at the end and a clothesline that extend the length to hang up the clothes after washing them in the washing machine that is under the counter in the kitchen.—right where a dishwasher should be! There is no dishwasher, but there is a built-in drain board for the dish drainer which is kinda cool. The window in the kitchen is big and allows a bunch of light in. The fridge is rather small, but the most unusual thing about it, is that it has an upper door to the refrigerator and a lower door to the freezer and the freezer is a third size bigger than the refrigerator. I guess fresh foods doesn’t last very long, so people store more food in the freezer than in the fridge.
What’s really hard to get used to, is, each plug in each outlet has an on/off switch. So after you plug something in you have to remember to turn on the outlet when you want to use it. So each time you want to use the microwave or stove or lamp or heater or even the shower, you need to remember to turn the outlet on. It’s probably o.k. to leave the switch on if you’re going to use whatever is plugged into it often. But there were times when we couldn’t figure out why something wouldn’t work, and then remembered or reminded each other to turn on the outlet switch.
At some point while setting up housekeeping, we realized that we were missing two suitcases. Turns out we just didn’t claim them from the baggage claim. After trying unsuccessfully to call the airport (using one of those cute telephone booths by the old campus) Catherine suggested we just take a taxi to go get them. So I did. I got to the British Airways desk and told the two gentlemen behind the counter that I did not claim two bags earlier that morning. They pointed behind me and exclaimed (imagine a Scottish Brogue) “Are those yours?” “Yes!” I replied. Again the brogue “Well take them, then!” So I did. What a relief. We didn’t want a re-play of Ben and his suitcase nightmare. I had taken a change of clothes in my carry-on just in case. It was awfully embarrassing to have it be our own fault. I think with all the carry on stuff we were allowed because of Sara—and having the suitcases be the first ones off the plane, I just filled my little push trolley (cart to us Americans) and we went on our way. The suitcase with MY clothes was one of the ones I had left!
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