While I wait for my appointment to get a CT Scan of my lungs, hopefully the last appointment before my surgery, I can finally post a non-medical (well, mostly) blog entry!
It's been a very busy couple of weeks. My parents were here for a two-week visit, which they planned to coincide with my original surgery date, before it was cancelled due to the complications of being diagnosed with Britt Hogg Dube Syndrome. So they ended up missing my surgery, but on the other hand we were able to have more fun because I wasn't bed-ridden! After their trip over they were understandably quite tired:
But they made an admirable recovery and were soon up and about. We visited the Botanical Gardens, walked about town enjoying amazing weather and Edinburgh in bloom, met with friends, watched lots of dvds, and ate a lot - including haggis, which is actually very tasty despite its reputation.
At the same time, our friends Alex and Tim, from New York, were also visiting, but only for a couple of days. Fortunately, they were staying in a hotel, while my parents were staying with us. Because Alex is an editor of travel guides, they were put up in the "J.K. Rowling Suite" of Edinburgh's ritziest hotel, the Balmoral.
Admit it; Alexia is dead sexy. I don't know what the hell Tim is doing with that book.
Despite very limited time in Edinburgh, Alex and Tim managed to have fun (I hope) and were impressed with our fair city. Especially the beer. I'm hoping they'll be able to come back for a longer stay sometime.
Meanwhile, the neighborhood pigeons are becoming more friendly, and have started entering the apartment for food. If I leave the room with the window open, I will generally return to my desk to find a pigeon on the nearby table, eating out of the birdseed bowl, and they regularly come inside to eat from the inner window ledge:
One of our favourite pigeons is called (by us, anyway) Cloud Pigeon, because her feathers are an amazing mottled grey and white that, I think, makes her look like a cloud. She recently had a baby who has the same pattern, and a lovely salt-and-pepper speckled head. The baby is, originally enough, named Baby Cloud Pigeon. Pretty clever, eh? Here they are:
We had a bit of a pigeon hubbub this morning when Baby Cloud Pigeon managed to get lost past me unnoticed and couldn't find her way back to the open window, so I had to catch her and let her go. Of course, first I took the opportunity to cuddle! Pigeons go very docile when picked up, and are amazingly soft and warm. They like being stroked on the heads and backs of the necks, like cats.
Also, I got a hold of another of our favourite pigeons, Scruffy - so named because, well, of obvious reasons. Both of Scruffy's feet are crippled to some degree and he doesn't walk well, although he flies fine, so he might have trouble feeding on the ground and he's a regular visitor to our flat. He's a bit disreputable looking, though, and I decided he needed a bath. Pigeons love to bathe and to groom themselves and each other and are normally very fastidious (they have their reputation for being dirty not because they are inherently dirty, but because they live in places we consider dirty - the city), so if a pigeon "lets itself go" it frequently means the pigeon is sick. I'd like to bring Scruffy to a vet, but had no time today because of my own vet appointment. So instead Scruffy just got a bath, and I scrubbed his grime-encrusted feathers with the beard comb and brush that came with my beard-trimmer. He left looking very slick, if a bit wet. But this is Edinburgh and I'm pretty sure the pigeons are used to being wet. On the other hand, they aren't used to being given baths - they may love to bathe, but pigeons don't like to do anything that isn't of their own initiative! So Scruffy was in quite a huff when we left and I can only hope he eventually gets over the indignity and returns to the buffet.
It's been a very busy couple of weeks. My parents were here for a two-week visit, which they planned to coincide with my original surgery date, before it was cancelled due to the complications of being diagnosed with Britt Hogg Dube Syndrome. So they ended up missing my surgery, but on the other hand we were able to have more fun because I wasn't bed-ridden! After their trip over they were understandably quite tired:
But they made an admirable recovery and were soon up and about. We visited the Botanical Gardens, walked about town enjoying amazing weather and Edinburgh in bloom, met with friends, watched lots of dvds, and ate a lot - including haggis, which is actually very tasty despite its reputation.
At the same time, our friends Alex and Tim, from New York, were also visiting, but only for a couple of days. Fortunately, they were staying in a hotel, while my parents were staying with us. Because Alex is an editor of travel guides, they were put up in the "J.K. Rowling Suite" of Edinburgh's ritziest hotel, the Balmoral.
Admit it; Alexia is dead sexy. I don't know what the hell Tim is doing with that book.
Despite very limited time in Edinburgh, Alex and Tim managed to have fun (I hope) and were impressed with our fair city. Especially the beer. I'm hoping they'll be able to come back for a longer stay sometime.
Meanwhile, the neighborhood pigeons are becoming more friendly, and have started entering the apartment for food. If I leave the room with the window open, I will generally return to my desk to find a pigeon on the nearby table, eating out of the birdseed bowl, and they regularly come inside to eat from the inner window ledge:
One of our favourite pigeons is called (by us, anyway) Cloud Pigeon, because her feathers are an amazing mottled grey and white that, I think, makes her look like a cloud. She recently had a baby who has the same pattern, and a lovely salt-and-pepper speckled head. The baby is, originally enough, named Baby Cloud Pigeon. Pretty clever, eh? Here they are:
We had a bit of a pigeon hubbub this morning when Baby Cloud Pigeon managed to get lost past me unnoticed and couldn't find her way back to the open window, so I had to catch her and let her go. Of course, first I took the opportunity to cuddle! Pigeons go very docile when picked up, and are amazingly soft and warm. They like being stroked on the heads and backs of the necks, like cats.
Also, I got a hold of another of our favourite pigeons, Scruffy - so named because, well, of obvious reasons. Both of Scruffy's feet are crippled to some degree and he doesn't walk well, although he flies fine, so he might have trouble feeding on the ground and he's a regular visitor to our flat. He's a bit disreputable looking, though, and I decided he needed a bath. Pigeons love to bathe and to groom themselves and each other and are normally very fastidious (they have their reputation for being dirty not because they are inherently dirty, but because they live in places we consider dirty - the city), so if a pigeon "lets itself go" it frequently means the pigeon is sick. I'd like to bring Scruffy to a vet, but had no time today because of my own vet appointment. So instead Scruffy just got a bath, and I scrubbed his grime-encrusted feathers with the beard comb and brush that came with my beard-trimmer. He left looking very slick, if a bit wet. But this is Edinburgh and I'm pretty sure the pigeons are used to being wet. On the other hand, they aren't used to being given baths - they may love to bathe, but pigeons don't like to do anything that isn't of their own initiative! So Scruffy was in quite a huff when we left and I can only hope he eventually gets over the indignity and returns to the buffet.
VIEW 3 of 3 COMMENTS
here's hoping all goes well with the ct scan.