Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2010

Edinburgh alone would have been enough. It is high on the list of favorite places visited in the UK, it made me want to be a wee Scottish too. Next time I am back I will have to remember to purchase one of those kilt towels, the classic souvenir for the real cultural enthusiast!

In addition to being in the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, I had the good fortune to visit the Fringe festival 2010. One of the most incredible collection of ideas, performances, art, music, dance, theatre and comedy in UK. The energy was tangible and a city that is already beautiful buzzes with the art infusion. As you can see from the photo of the Royal Mile above, the Fringe is not short of followers.

In order to prep for being inundated by tourists (and being part of the crowd!) I took a walk up Aurthur's Seat; a nice hill in the middle of the city with allegedly great views if it is not overcast, though I thought that the cloudy views were pretty lovely as well. It seems that there are over 100 different ways to get to the top of Aurthur's Seat; I chose to climb the steep stairs that end in a rock face and scramble my way up. I wouldn't not recommend it, but there are more comfortable routes that stick to main paths that might be slightly less strenuous. :)

Above is a picture out of the window of Chocolate Soup, a cozy coffee shop off the high street. I recommend their mocha if you are in the mood for a hit of real chocolate with a splash of coffee.

Harry Potter! Yes, I have read the books, but I did not eat at this cafe. Seemed a bit overpriced and was certainly over crowded. Instead my friend, Amy, and I snagged a couple of jacket potatoes from a cafe up the street. My first jacket potato on the go!

A cool thing about the Fringe Festival is that there is much free entertainment to absorb just by walking down the street. These guys were an a capella group promoting their later performance. The program for the Fringe rivals many university text books, so I advise to leave plenty of time to map out your visit. One could literally be at a performance or show from 9AM until 5AM the next day. The venues can be pretty spaced out so plan carefully and you can see a ton! Or do what I did and plan hardly at all and still see a ton!
This is Black Friar's Bobby. The dog statue commemorates a pet that apparently guarded his owner's grave for over 14 years... I mostly am noticing in the photo how much work I need to do on my "can I have a treat? begging puppy" face.
I had a wander through Princess Gardens and stumbled upon (metaphorically) these lovely roses. Though roses in a bouquet fail to impress me much, roses on a bush rarely disappoint.

I thought this scene was interesting as there are two families picnicking and playing amongst this circle of willows and in the center of the scene is a grave; life continues.
This is Jill. Jill is from Glasgow and is a friend from church in Chester. She is all shades of lovely, generous and kind. We had the good fortune of ending up in Edinburgh at the same time and took advantage of the opportunity to explore the city together and see some shows. For Jill, visiting Edinburgh was a kind of homecoming, and it was nice to be shown the city by someone who knows it so well and loves it so much. For dinner one night, Jill and I went to have a curry at the Edinburgh Central Mosque. The Mosque developed a food ministry that I think would be great to put into practice at more places of worship. They have cheap, delicious food and created a covered area in the back of their property where people from the community can come and eat and have fellowship. It is a pretty effective program of building relationships in the community and I think it is a model that would be great to put into place in more churches.

This is Jill and I about to watch Hamlet the Musical. A six person cast, an on-stage band and an hour and a half well spent! The humorous adaptation of the Shakespeare classic went down a storm and had the audience rolling. Highly recommend this particular show and the Fringe Festival.

London Town

One last hurrah! Fiona and I traveled down to London last weekend to visit Maddy and Matt in their new flat. Before I go on about what a great time we all had together, or at least I had with them! I will say that elephant and castle is the worst tube stop in the London Underground. First of all there is no way to get out of the tube stop save by lift/elevator. When Fiona and I arrived, not being privy to this information, we walked around in circles looking for the stairs of the escalator so commonly found in most tube stations. Once we did finally emerge victorious from our underground prison there was a maze of subway tunnels to navigate to actually reach out friend that was waiting on the other side of the roundabout. It starting to feel like we were gophers popping up and looking for Maddy and then back underground, Maddy would appear at yet another place and Fiona and I would be where she was just previous, etc. Eventually we did manage to connect, but man... if you can avoid elephant and castle I think it is the way forward.

Maddy and I were protected from the rain in polka dot bliss. <3>
This is a great stop next time you are in London. I had been to Borough Market once before, and it was just as good this time as the last. One aspect of London I really enjoy is that there are myriad markets around the city, fruit stands, local wine shops, etc. It makes it possible for people to buy locally more easily. The market is great because whilst it is not the cheapest place to purchase items, if you look carefully it is possible to get good deals on fruit and veg... and oh the cakes are delicious. :)

Wondering down the left bank with the obligatory stop in front of Shakespeare's Globe... we did not end up going to the Globe to see a play this weekend. However, I think we did quite well procuring tickets to see As You Like It at the Old Vic. The performance was a joint effort by both American and British actors. The best part was that our ten pound limit leg room seats were upgraded to 5 row orchestra! Yes please! Great view, great price, great evening :)

In addition to trying on my first fashionable playsuit. (blog entry regarding this issue to follow) on Portobello Road we came across a cheese with my name. :)

we had a great weekend with theatre, pubs, late night scrabble, delicious food (Maddy made the most lovely marinade for a halloumi vegetable kebabs!) and lots of laughter. I will miss my friends and look forward to visiting soon. :)

It is hard to believe that I will be leaving England soon, it doesn't really feel like I am moving, but just leaving for a little while. Perhaps that is because I do travel quite a bit that going to the states is nothing new for me. I had had a few discussions with people about the fact that even though I am moving back to the states, it still feels like I am "going away to university"... because though a mere 14 hour drive from my childhood home, Berekeley, CA is going to be a new place entirely for me. Going away to university, I just can't seem to sort from where I am leaving?

temporary glitch

I think for the next month my blog postings might become a bit scarce. In the school where I currently live and am employed I am not able to gain access to wireless Internet for my computer. Even if I did have wireless I can't access blogger as it is firewalled from the school system. That's right people- I went to check my own blog and received the message that it had been blocked for possible pornographic content. (!!!!) That's news to me, but perhaps I aught to take a look back through some older posts? hmmm....

At the moment I am visiting friends in London on my day off, and it has been so lovely!! The weather is hot hot here at the moment, which is GREAT. I am not ordinarily one for the heat, but because we didn't really get a summer last year in Leeds I am totally ready for it!

London is such a strange place. We went to go see this avaunt guard jazz performance where everyone was tragically hip, with the exception of me, and it was great. There is a great deal of goodness that can come from relaxing with your friends. I even turned off my phone for the night so I could be fully present with the people that I do not see often enough.

In other news I have been having a crazy craving for Rilke poetry and am FINALLY into The God of Small Things... I think I have tried to start this book at least 4 times. I am finally into it and on a role with it, will write a little review when is all finished. :)

Alright... off for some sleep... much needed and very lacking!

Bawdsey Manor

So two weeks ago I decided to apply for a new job. I did a quick search, found a job as a social coordinator for Alexander International School and 36 hours after submitting my application I had a background check, reference check, phone interview and a job offer asking me if I could start as soon as possible. YES! I had been praying for God to either open doors or close doors because I had an incredible feeling of hitting walls all the time. This door swung wide open and less than a week later, I resigned from both my jobs in Chester, went on one last bike ride (very sad to have left Fetish behind) and was on the train to Ipswich.

This is Bawdsey Manor, my home for the past week and some change. Sometimes I can't really believe my life. Not only do I have an amazing job organizing the social activities for an international summer school, working with a great staff, with a lovely boss for a good wage-- I get to stay in what is basically a mansion. Also... bit a trivia... the place where radar was invented. cool.

Above is the view from my room. yup. awesome.

This is the ferryman. You pick up this white stick that waves down the ferry, and he comes across the bay and takes you to the other side!! amazing!!!

On the way to Felixstowe I walked by many of these little beach houses. I quite like them. I think in my next life I want to own one of these and come on the three weekends a year it is sunny to enjoy it. Also the children in this area sound just like in English movies. Oh, the south.

This is the North Sea. It is beautiful. okay! more later... off to pack and make things all tidy before heading over to my new school and work environment tomorrow. :)

Oh the little things...

I think it is entirely possible that the thoughtfulness level of my friends and family rivals that of anyone else in the world... Possibly even surpasses (I think so!!)

Today I embark on an adventure in Suffolk to explore the home counties of England and partake in my role as the Social Coordinator for n International Summer School for English Language Learners... hell yes! My train departs at 15:35 and I arrive in the south of England later this evening and remain there (more or less) until August :) But before I left I went to say goodbye to my manager at Fat Face and they had not only scraped together a card in the less than a week's notice time I gave them, but also chipped in to buy me the new white tank top I had wanted at the shop. I am blessed with thoughtful friends. This past weekend I spent with Maddy and Fiona and they are the cheese to my macaroni. I had a chance to have coffee with a good friend, Jim, who wrote my reference that helped get me my new job and he delivered a present of a card and two necklaces from our friend, Bara. I am so blessed. On top of all of that I had a lovely bike ride with my friend, Rob last night and THEN and THEN if that wasn't enough yesterday I had a chance to skype with my sister and beautiful niece and today I check the post to find this lovely necklace sent to me from my most fabulous cousin, Krissy. She had no way of knowing that I am going through a huge change in life at the moment and her gift, so thoughtful, so lovely, arrived at the perfect moment, with a great note and for no other reason other than she was thinking of me and misses me. That is the best gift of all.
So here is a picture of the necklace that Krissy sent. I haven't had a chance to take a photo of the other lovely ones, but they are also very "Rachel" and I am sure they will surface in future blog entries.

So thank you friends for being amazing. Thank you for the blessing you are in my life... alright... time to pack. A little bit of love goes a long way.

Whitby, UK

My first trip to a coastal town in the northeast of England! The experience made all that sea side marketing at Fat Face (store where I used to work) come to life! ahem. Maddy, Fiona and I embarked on a journey that was destined to leave us short of petrol, full of delicious fish and chips and pretty darn tired. It was a great day. :)

There are a ton of seagulls on the coast. They kept diving into all my photos... I think this one had a pretty good result... though the gull could have been more accommodating and appeared fully in the photo.

This is one of the signature sights and sounds of the coastal towns... the arcades. Very popular place to lose your money. For me, they are a touch too jam packed with flashing lights for me to find it appealing. Though I did enjoy the really old machines that look like something out of a scary movie... like they might come to life at night or something... this fact did not entice me to use them... but I can see how someone might write a really bad scary book about them. Dan Brown? Your next big hit??

Seaside

Rock candy is a another seaside tradition. Each town has its own version of rock and if you break it open it has the name of the town written really tiny inside. Tough to explain... even more difficult to eat.

Maddy and I always end up taking photos that make us look like a a happy couple (I think it is because we are.)

the Abbey! and Fiona! Fiona gets the credit for thinking of this outing. Whitby is the town that Dracula visits when he stops by in England. Yup. nerds we are, nerds we will remain.
I put this photo on because I actually climbed the abbey walls illegally to take it, there is no legal way to climb the walls as a matter of reference. But Maddy and Fiona did a fine job giving me a boost. :)

Hippie Nettle Tonic is Good for Your Hair.

One aspect of England that I really love is the ubiquitous presence of used book shops. My personal favorite is Oxfam books in Chester. I can walk by and have a quick look at the "just in" section every time I walk into town! :) On one such occasion I managed to snag a book called: "Grow Your Own Drugs" by James Wong. A book based on his series on the BBC.

Since summer is all around us and the world seems to be blooming here in England, I am inspired to do some foraging and using a friend's book entitled "Food for Free" have tried collecting ingredients to use to make meals. :) Kind of like dumpster diving except in nature and not in alleyways.

First on the trial was the great Stinging Nettle. I have wanted to try Nettle soup for ages. I've heard of its health benefits, but couldn't seem to work past the fact that I don't really care for creamy soups, and most recipes called for about a bucket of heavy cream to offset the taste of the nettles.

We went collecting anyway.

Here is Letty hard at work

The young nettle tips are the best for the jobI came home and dumped the lot into a pot of water and boiled it to heck to make a recipe for nettle hair tonic found in the James Wong book. Everybody wants stronger hair!

Hair Strengthener

1 large bunch of nettle leaves
500ml of water
500ml of white vinegar
1tbsp aromatic herbs or 10 drops of essential oil (like lavender or rosemary)

MAKE IT: Simmer nettles in the water and vinegar for 2 hours, then stir the aromatic herbs or essential oil and allow mixture to cool. Strain through sieve lined with fine-weaved muslin. Filter bottles.

USE: Apply to scalp every other night as a hair-strengthening tonic, or use as a leave-in, final rinse after shampooing.

STORAGE: keeps for one month.

Letty and I both use it now and it is GREAT! Smells lovely with the lavender oil in it. :) Here is proof that at least one of us has nice hair. Letty straightens her hair once every million years (her curls are so nice!!) but we were bored and a friend left her straightener at our house. in any case having nettle tonic in re-used water bottles makes our bathroom look hippie-tastic (except it is really clean) and I love it!