I don’t know who still reads this blog but sorry to all of you readers who do. We have been negligent in our posts.
The biggest news that we can share with all of you is that the Urminskys are leaving Edinburgh soon. We have a couple of months left here in bonnie Scotland and then we are off to finer pastures. A few weeks ago I accepted a job offer and we will be headed off to New York (state) where I will be pursuing a Research Position doing computational astrophysics. We are excited to be living closer to home, and I am particularly excited to be able to spend some time relaxing at the cottage this summer (as much as anyone can relax with a child under 2. I think there may be many boat rides and nature walks. If anyone wants to join us at the cottage please let us know and we can arrange something.
Although we haven’t decided yet, I think the Urminskys may either stop blogging or we may reinvent ourselves with a new domain soon. Stay tuned for any updates on that.
We are here in Toronto and Maxwell has had his first experience with snow. His Opa set up a swing for him in the backyard and Maxwell just loved it. Here is a video!
People who honk their horns to tell people that they arrived to pick them up!
It is just plain rude.
My first girlfriend (Marianna Tralli… lets hope she googles herself and finds this post) had a conversation with me when we first started going out that I had to go to the door and pick her up. I never thought I would do otherwise, but the conversation stuck with me ever since.
Today Neyir, Maxwell and I were walking home from church and Maxwell had fallen asleep on the way home. Just as we get in front of our flat some guy in a car start blaring his horn right beside us for someone to come down and meet him. Maxwell woke up with a start and wouldn’t go back to sleep. I was cheesed off.
It has been a while since the last Maxwell video. I took the following video a couple of days ago and though the family back home would enjoy this one.
No… this is not a post about the Montreal Hockey team called “the Canadians”.
This is a post about meeting Canadian people here in Scotland. When we first started this blog I used to post about the Canadian people I would meet out and about Scotland. I haven’t posted about the subject in quite a while but not because I haven’t been meeting other Canadians. Just because the Thesis took over my life.
Well today I was taking the number 8 bus to school when this guy sat across from me. I didn’t think much of it except for the fact that I had to forgo some leg room. As I was grooving to the tragically hip on my IPOD i noticed the guy had a Roots Canada bag. Excitement and intrigue gripped me and I turned to the guy and said…. “Are you Canadian?”. Sure enough he was, and hailed from my home Provence Ontario but from the town of Stratford. He was attending Medical school here. He wasn’t decked out in lumberjack plaid like myself, but his accent was distinctly Canadian!
Why am I sharing all this with YOUS? Well… I don’t really know. Probably cause we have been here so long and It was nice to talk to someone new about things back home.
By the way… does anyone want to fly us to Canada for Christmas?
I have been trying to find time to sit down and write a post that has been echoing around in my mind for the last wee while. Sadly the time does not seem to be forthcoming so here, rather, are a few thoughts.
A few weeks David looked up from what he was doing and said with authority ‘It has been 4 years today eh!’. As I was in the midst of doing something (don’t remember what) I tried to look moderately intelligent (as though I had some idea of what he was saying) and responded with some vague query. It had been, David informed me, 4 years since we landed in Glasgow, had our Visa’s stamped and began our Scottish adventure.
I had wanted to sit down and write about how ours lives have changed in that time. How we have been stretched and shaped, what we have learned, what we have observed. One thing that kept coming back (in the post I was writing in my head) was that we had only been married a year and a half when we moved here, that our flat on Halmyre was the longest (by far) we had ever lived anywhere together. There are so many things that I wanted to articulate, both to myself and to those who (for some odd reason) seem vaguely interested in these things.
There just never seems to be the time, wonder why that it ;-). I do have one time to say, this simple fact, Scotland has managed more than I think we ever imagined to capture our imagination and we will be oh so very, very sad when our time comes to move on.
4 years has gone so quickly. I do wonder what the next 4 four will bring.
While we were in Spain, the flat we rented had a huge hallway which Maxwell loved to practice his walking in. We captured Maxwell’s first game of Hide and Seek with Craig (and a cameo from Neyir).
We are returned from Spain, happy, healthy and, for the male Urminskys, tanned. Me, I am freckled - per usual. We had a wonderful time and I cannot say how thankful we are to have travelled with the Watsons. They are a fantastically generous and amusing couple (such a good combination) and I can say with complete confidence that come November they will be first-rate parents (not that the imminent baby Watson needs our endorsement!). Maxwell did really well with travelling though I can definitely see the value in a trip requiring a shorter than 3 hour plane ride or conversely a longer train ride (more room to run around). He is walking and running all over the place, greatly aided by playing hide and seek with Craig and took like a seal to the sand and water (except when it was too wavey).
We celebrated Maxwell’s first birthday by taking a boat along to the beautiful beach of Formentor (though David did say it wasn’t his ‘favourite’ beach - too many summers lifeguarding me thinks!) and then coming back to the flat and feasting on ice-cream cake. Amazingly we found a cake that was labelled Canada Cake and of course felt that was very appropriate. Maxer and I also had a lovely time early in the morning watching his first sunrise over the harbour from the balcony. Other activities for the week included early day strolls along the ‘pine walk’ in Port Pollenca where we were staying, followed up by trips to the bakery, visiting the market in both Port Pollensa and nearby Pollensa, lots of trips to the beach (across the street from our gorgeous flat), a few dinners out (one even just the adult Urminksys - thanks again to Craig and Judith), wonderful lunch and dinners on the balcony overlooking the beach and evenings spend in amazing company while drinking yummy beverages (0 percent for Judith!).
As David and I walked to church yesterday morning revelling in our memories of a wonderful vacation we talked about how life and therefore travelling with Maxwell is different. I have been thinking about this more and it strikes me that while I feel in so many ways the same person (definitely stretched in lots of way - metaphorically and physically!) I have clearly experienced a seismic shift. Here we go folks, ladies who know me well are you sitting down? I came home from this vacation with not a single new item of clothing! That is correct, I did not shop. Not only that but I walked by many shops and did not really feel the urge to go in….eeek! Even possibly more note-worthy I was in Spain and did not buy shoes! Now this could be because we frankly have no money and are anticipating lots of big changes over the next year and so shopping would not have been prudent but then has that really ever stopped me before? I have always had a budget, often of the minuscule variety, to buy one of two small ‘momentos’ of our trips. Somehow though it just did not seem to be in line with the kind of vacation we were having. David and I usually spend a good amount of time sampling every variety of food/restaurant/cafe we can find. Exploring everything of note tourist or not, climbing towers, visiting churches (did do one of these) and trying as much as possible to experience everything on offer. Added to this neither of us can remember the last time we went on vacation and stayed in one place for longer than 4 days. But life with the wee man is a bit different and frankly not any less fun and no doubt better for my waist line. We have started discussing where we might go next, could be there is a Gaul-ish trip in our future.
All is not lost though, I did manage to leave Mallorca with a spectacular silk scarf (that does not count as clothing David!)
