Craft Fair

This past weekend I participated in a craft fair in Portobello to sell my cards. I made nearly 75 cards in prep for the event and was quite proud of my work.

Derek was sweet enough to come with and we had a really fun day selling cards and spending the day together.

Unfortunately there was not a whole lot of traffic through the craft fair so sales were not high but I was honoured that some of my friends came out to support me and even buy some cards for themselves!

Overall it was a nice day! To see a few more pictures click here

 

Picture of the week

This pic is a little late since we usually post them on Fridays, although technically it is still Friday back on the West Coast. The picture is of the Floral Clock at the East end of the Princes Street Gardens. Each year several workers set out to design and build a unique floral clock display. The process takes several weeks and it is very impressive to watch them put it together. Evidently it has been a feature of the Scottish capital since 1903. Check out our friend Rebecca’s blog post for more information and pictures.

 

Tofu Scramble

Yesterday morning we had a tofu scramble for breakfast. Yes, that’s right, tofu. Why, you ask? Well, our good friend Lisa Sarnowski recently finished a course at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition in New York and is now a certified Holistic Health Counselor. This past week Katie tried out one of the components to Lisa’s program: the breakfast experiment. Each day she had something different for breakfast and then recorded how full she was and how she felt a couple hours later. Yesterday’s dish was the tofu. She wasn’t very excited about trying it, but the recipe Lisa provided turned out to be great and I even enjoyed it too.

Tofu Breakfast Scramble for One
(You can double the recipe for two people)
200g block soft tofu, rinsed and drained for 10 minutes(I only used 200g for 2 ppl)
1tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
30 g red onion diced
1 clove garlic, peeled and finely chopped
2 sun-dried tomatoes, diced (use either oil-packed or reconstituted
dried tomatoes)
30 g fresh baby spinach leaves, washed and dried
1/4 tsp each chilli flakes and ground turmeric
2 tsp naturally brewed soy sauce, shoyu or tamari
1 tsp miso paste (I didn’t use any)
1 tbsp filtered water
corn or flour tortilla (optional)

1.  Line a sieve with kitchen paper and place the tofu inside.  Pull
up the corners of the paper to cover the tofu and weigh it, either
with a can laid on its side or two or three stacked bowls.  Allow the
tofu to drain for 10-15 minutes or until about 80 ml of the liquid has
drained out.
2.  Place a medium frying pan over a medium heat.  Add the oil and
saute the onions for 1 minute.
3.  Add the garlic, sun-dried tomatoes, spinach, chili flakes and
turmeric.  Stir well to combine.
4.  In a small bowl, combine the soy sauce, miso paste and water.
Whisk the ingredients together until well combined, then pour over the
vegetables.
5.  Crumble the tofu with your fingers into small, bite-sized bits.
Add the tofu to the frying pan and stir well to combine the tofu with
the vegetables.  Cook for 1 minute.  Serve warm with tortilla.

 

Picture of the week

This shot is down Princes St., one of Edinburgh’s busiest and most central streets. Presently it is under major construction as the tracks for the city’s new tram are being laid down. The street used to look something like this. The tram will run from the airport (7 miles west of the city centre) into the heart of Edinburgh and then up to the area of Leith along the Firth of Forth a few miles north. No one really wants the tram. The city is a mess because of it, construction has stalled several times because of funding issues, and the city’s Airlink Bus which runs to and from the airport takes only 25 mins each way, costs just £3.50, and is probably the most efficient airport transportation I’ve ever used. So why a tram? Apparently every major European city has one so Edinburgh is trying to grow up and have great appeal. Stupid Edinburgh and its vanity.

 

Productive week

It’s been quite a mellow week around the Brown household, fully taking advantage of having no plans and laying low. We’re quite rested!

Because we have been home in the evenings and a decent amount of hours over the weekend I have personally had a productive week making cards. I made 21 new cards this week and feel like I am well on my way to being ready for the craft fair which is just 1 month away!

I purchased some new glue about mid-way through the week and it actually turned out to be a mistake. It made my cards crusty and raise up on the edges a bit. I am trying to fix those ones (fingers crossed) and will not using that glue anymore! Any glue/adhesive tips from you crafty girls out there would be greatly welcome.

 

So what’s next?

It is official, we are actually done traveling for a while and have no trips planned until late November! I am sure a weekend trip might come up here or there but nothing official is set. We have had such a nice time traveling and enjoying our many adventures. We feel so lucky and blessed to have these opportunities and to see some amazing places on this beautiful earth.

I admit though that it is quite nice to know we will be home for a while with no plans to fly on an airplane anytime in the near future. I figured out that I have taken 9 individual flights in the past 5 weeks.  It’s time to enjoy some peace, quiet and routine here in Edinburgh. I am currently continuing my slow transition into my new job, working about half and half between the old and new jobs. Meanwhile, Derek is continuing on with his dissertation and preparing a paper for a conference in September.

Since we will be here for the next several months it would be the perfect time for visitors (wink, wink).

 

Weekend trip to Belfast

Still recovering from our Italy holiday, this past weekend we headed for a short trip to Belfast, Northern Ireland to see our good friends Tim and Jen (and Luke) Cairns. Tim, who is from Belfast, and Jen both attended Regent College while we were in Vancouver and we got to know them as they began dating and eventually tied the knot. Their wedding was one the best we’ve ever attended. Tim is also one of the main culprits in starting my obsession with football/soccer.

Given that we were rather tired of train rides and flights, the brief 35 minute flight to Belfast on Friday was most welcome. Tim picked us up from the airport and we headed over to his parents place where we got to see Jen and, for the first time, their boy Luke. For the rest of the day they took us around Belfast, showing us the sights and giving us a little history of the city. Here are a few pics from the day.

Tim and me at “The Oval,” the home pitch of Glentoran F.C. (Tim’s hometown footy club)

Jen and Katie at Queen’s University

Tim explaining the lay of the land

Northern Ireland Parliament Buildings, where Tim used to work

Katie playing with little Luke

Later that night we all went out for Chinese and then went to the cinema and saw Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince since we are all HP aficionados.

Highlights from the next day included: going out for brunch and having the traditional Northern Irish breakfast, the Ulster Fry (highly recommended); taking Luke to the sea park on the Belfast Loch, dining at an excellent French restaurant, and enjoying a drink at a pub with Tim’s brother and some of his best mates. Excellent day.

Luke enjoying the play structures

Luke bringing a flower to his dad

Belfast Loch (or Lough in Anglo-Irish)

On Sunday we enjoyed another Ulster Fry (!) and spent the rest of our time in Belfast visiting with Tim and Jen before our afternoon flight home. Overall it was a great, even if brief, trip. We enjoyed seeing Belfast and were grateful for the chance to see friends whom we haven’t seen since we left Vancouver. Thanks Tim and Jen!

Rest of the pics here.

 

Cinque Terre (Italy part IV)

Cinque Terre, our final stop, is simply an amazing place. Everywhere you turn it’s like you are looking at a postcard. Cinque Terre, which means “five lands,” is made up of five small towns along the northwest coast of Italy along the Italian Riviera. Each of the towns is accessible only by local train (no cars/vehicles allowed).

After a delayed arrival due to a cancelled train, we emerged from the darkened train tunnel with a stunning view of the sun-glistening Mediterranean. At the train station we called our hotel (a small two-room house in the town of Riomaggiore), and our host Lorenza, a lovely Italian woman who spoke little English, came to take us back to the hotel (maps are of little use in these labyrinthine towns). Since we had a suitcase and it is quite a hike, she called for a “taxi” (a golf cart sized vehicle with a flat bed) which Katie got to ride in. I walked up through the town to our place with Lorenza, who was hobbling around on a swollen and broken foot. After we checked into our fantastic room, we plopped down into the chairs in our private garden and she brought a couple of cold beers. The Italians set the bar when it comes to hospitality!

For the remainder of that night we grabbed dinner and then went and watched the sun set over the ocean. A real shame it was.

The following day we got to do something we had been looking forward to all trip: hike from the southernmost of the five towns, Riomaggiore, through each of the others until we reached the northern most town, Monterosso al Mare. The hike was about 9km/5.6 miles and was supposed to take 5 hours, though it only took us about 3 hr 45 mins (not counting stops of course). There really are no words to describe how enjoyable a hike this was, with the wonderful warm summer air, fresh breeze off the Mediterranean, and stunning vistas. If you want to get a sense of what it was like, you’ll just have to look at our pics (though here are a few).

For the last night of our Italian trip we picked up a pizza and a bottle of wine and relaxed in our little garden. A perfect ending to an amazing trip.

The next morning we headed to the station to catch our train to Genoa for our flights back to Edinburgh (via London).

Final set of pics: CLICK HERE.

 

Florence/Tuscany (Italy Part III)

After a great few days in Rome we hopped a train to Florence, our 3rd Italy stop. After 3 hours on the train we arrived in Florence in the early evening. We found our hotel easily and didn’t waste a minute before heading out to see the streets of Florence.

The streets were lined and lined with street vendors selling souvenirs, leather goods, art and more.  We wandered the lovely streets and then found a fantastic vegetarian restaurant to have dinner.  It was an unexpected treat of vegetarian goodness! After dinner we got dessert to go, a bottle of wine and headed back to the hotel to enjoy a peaceful evening on the balcony of the hotel. Nothing beats a warm, summer evening with a bottle of wine, dessert and your favourite guy.

Tuscan Wine Tour

The next day was a one of the days we were most excited about and it very much lived up to our expectations. It was time for our Tuscan Wine Tour! This was our big splurge of the trip and let me tell you, it was worth every Euro!  Our tour was called the ‘Taste of Tuscany’ tour and it lived up to it’s name. We began at 9am where we met our tour guide, Ilaria, and the other 5 people who would be joining us. The other group were also Americans and made for good company; we all had a great day together!  Ilaria drove us in a van from Florence through some of Tuscany and to the small town of San Gimignano. We spent about an hour just wondering the lovely medieval city and then tasting some of their award winning gelato!

From San Gimignano, it was back to the van for more driving through Tuscany (recommending some motion sickness pills on this) towards our next stop, Formaggi Fratelli Carai which is a cheese factory where all their cheeses are made from sheep’s milk. We began our cheese tasting thinking we would try 3 or 4 cheeses and be on our way. I cannot even tell you how many different types, ages and flavours of cheeses we tasted.  By the end we were each taking only a crumble because we were so stuffed with cheese! It was such a neat experience and fun to learn about the different cheeses and especially what aging does to the cheese. I learned that I personally like younger and softer cheeses the best!

After we stuffed ourselves with cheese and drove through more of Tuscany, passing numerous wineries and fields of sunflowers, we stopped in a town called Colle Val d’Elsa and went to a restaurant called L’Officina della Cucina Popolare (Officina is Italian for workshop). This just so happened to be our tour guides very own restaurant which made it extra special.  Ilaria first took us through a balsamic vinegar tasting where we were able to try 5, 10 and 25 year old balsamic. It was a neat experience and we got to learn what ‘real’ balsamic vinegar is and what to look for when buying it  (it must be from Modena and say so).  Next up was some white wine from San Gimignano called Vernaccia.  After we refreshed with some wine, the food began to arrive.  We started with some amazingly fresh bruschetta and some sort of eggplant and cheese on bread – we were sold already!  I wish I could remember the proper names for everything but we then had a kind of tomato soup followed by two different kinds of hand-rolled pastas. While we ate the pasta it was, of course, time to break out some Chianti which Ilaria had been telling us all about.  After our meal we all got a small shot glass of some type of liquor where we then proceeded to dip biscotti…and more biscotti. It was very tasty! The whole meal ended in traditional Italian fashion with a shot of espresso.

Back to the van we went and drove just down the road to a Chocolatiere. We tasted all different intensities of chocolate starting from the sweetest (white chocolate) all the way to the most bitter (99% dark chocolate).

Our last stop was to the Colombaia winery.  Their wine is all natural (part of the ‘biodynamic’ wine movement) and has no added chemicals or anything extra. It is purely wine! We got to meet the owner, who was wonderful, and she gave us the full tour and explained to us about the vineyard, the grapes, the wine making process and the wine itself. It’s a very small winery run completely by this woman and her husband. After she showed us the vineyard and where it is bottled and labeled we then finally we were able to sit down and try three of the wines. A 2003, a 2005 and a 2007.  It was amazing to sit with these people and share wine with them, commenting on the flavours and feeling more and more relaxed as the wine was consumed.

After a couple hours at the winery, it was time to head back into Florence and end the day. Just before 6.00pm we pulled into Florence and said our farewells to Ilaria and our new friends. It was a day to never forget.

That evening we were pretty shattered so had a low key evening and spent more time on the hotel balcony.

The next day we spent the first half  of the day exploring Florence and spending most of our time at the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore (the duomo). After spending sometime inside, we decided to hike all the way to the top of it. We had great views of the city and had a fun time hiking all the way and then all the way back down again.

After the duomo we were feeling pretty excited to get going to Cinque Terre so we caught an earlier train than expected and headed northwest!

For the rest of our Florence/Tuscany pictures, CLICK HERE.

 

Rome (Italy Part II)

DAY ONE

Our early flight from Venice put us in to Rome before 10.00am, checked in to our hotel and off for an early pizza lunch.

This whole trip came about because I had a paper accepted to the International SBL conference. The conference was in Rome and I was due to give my paper the day after we arrived. Once we were all checked in to our hotel we figured we would go and find the location of the conference and get me registered. Of course it helps to actually bring your registration materials and the name of the conference location! After wandering around for over an hour and getting vacant expressions when I attempted to ask for directions, we hit an internet cafe. Directions in hand we registered for the conference and then set out to begin our tourist stops in Rome.

First up was the mighty Colosseum. What a privilege it was to see such an ancient building. It is really quite remarkable how intact it is, even despite the obvious restoration work. For our trip we brought along an ipod and a headphone splitter so we could listen to Rick Steves’ audio tours at a few places. The Colosseum was the first attempt at this. The tour was going great until about twenty minutes into it dark rain clouds came rolling across the sky and began to dump buckets on everyone (for a brief video, click here). Every tourist in the place receded into the tunnels of the Colosseum to avoid getting wet and hit by the nearly golf ball sized hail. Then came a thunder and lightning storm the likes of which could have only been produced by the gods of Rome. About an hour later the rain let up and we were able to resume our tour, but only for them to close up the site for the day just a short while later! A major disappointment, but we were able to snap a good amount of pics before we left. An odd visit for sure, but memorable too.

DAY TWO

This was the day of my paper. Since my paper’s session was early in the morning, I had practiced reading it a couple of times the night before (with helpful feedback from my patient wife). After a brief stop for a quick shot of espresso we headed to the location of this year’s conference: the Pontificia Università Gregoriana. My paper was third in the session, so we sat through the first two papers during which I nervously awaited my time. In the end my paper went fine, though the noise outside the window (construction?) and my pace (too fast) left room for improvement. One positive was chatting with a PhD student from Australia about our research. He was convinced by my argument and showed a general interest in my overall project. Such reassurance is always nice. And it was sure nice to have the paper finished and behind so I could enjoy the rest of our holiday.

We celebrated the completion of my paper by taking in some of Rome’s best sites, including Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon, and the Forum. Then, later that night, we met up with Sean whom I study with at New College and his wife Megan. We enjoyed dinner with them near Piazza Navona. They introduced us to Tartufo and a great liquor store that gave out an absurd amount of samples. We ended the night by heading back to Trevi Fountain and sharing another drink. Of course, we also threw coins into the fountain to ensure our return to Rome.

DAY THREE

Having done so much in Rome already it is hard to believe that we still were yet to hit one of the main destination points of visitors of Rome: Vatican City. First we went to St. Peter’s square, which was unbelievably huge. We then entered St. Peter’s Basilica, the largest church in the world. Neither words nor pictures can describe the awe with which nearly all gape at the monstrous nave and sky high dome of St. Peter’s. Ingeniously, though, the design of the building appears radically smaller to the naked eye to give the church-goer the sense that it is more intimate than it actually is. Impressive on all fronts.

From there we headed to the Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel. I’m sure Michelangelo’s famous ceiling is equally impressive, but the hoards of chatty tourists sort of ruin the serenity probably necessary to soak it in. Nevertheless, seeing with your own eyes what took the famous sculptor almost ten years to complete (including the Last Judgment fresco) is well worth working through the labyrinthine trail through the museum.

Later that evening we enjoyed a great pasta dinner with a carafe of wine at a little joint located in a tiny Roman alleyway. From there we went back to the Colosseum to take in its nightly splendor. A great way to wrap up our time in Italy’s capital before we caught our train to Florence the next day.

For the rest of our pics from Rome (and there’s a lot of them!), CLICK HERE.