A Scottish Tale

    Here is a little story of how the birthdays (mine, Jennifer's, and Jesus') went this year. On my 24h birthday I woke up with a feeling that something was horribly wrong. Not 'there is a murderer in my house' wrong more like 'why the hell can't I breathe' wrong. As we got up I realized that this is the oldest I had ever been and felt. I was coughing like mad and was determined to not let a little sickness ruin my birthday! Jennifer and I went to the store to find some cold meds and supplies. Once back she made No-Bake cookies and we hungout. In ther afternoon I skyped with my family and told them they could open their Christmas gifts from me a little early. It was fun to see their reactions. About this time I decided that if my head was already going to be in the clouds I might as well start drinking and get the party started. Good thing Jennifer was thinking ahead and bought whiskey in the Paris airport. We met up with Arran at six when she was done with work in town and went out for another birthday drink before the dinner with her family. She ordered three drinks and the total was less than five quid. Mind blowing. You can't even get a pint for five euro in France. After drinks we went to The Village which is a delicious Indian restaurant. I share my birthday with Arran's father so we were able to partake in the family night out. After dinner the plan was to head out and party like most people do on their birthdays. But, I was feeling horribly ill by this point and opted for bed. I was passed out by 10:15. Thanks 24 for starting it off with a bang...Let's hope it was just a false start.
    The next day was Jennifer's birthday! Unfortunately I was still too sick to be any sort of fun fodder. We ended up running some errands, shopped a bit in the city, and then had a kick back at the apartment. Jo, Craig and Arran came over and we just hung out. Jennifer didn't even get to wear her birthday dress we searched so diligently for. As the night was coming to a close we packed up all of our things for Christmas and headed to Arrans for the night. As a secretly added gift, Jennifer received my illness for her birthday. Sorry.
     We woke up Christmas morning to a delicious breakfast of toasted croissants with smoked salmon and eggs. Arran's brothers did a fabulous job with breakfast! We then opened gifts which was still fun even without our families. Arran had gotten us both a gift so we were not just sitting there the entire time. After everything was opened we all got ready and then watched some Scottish stand up on DVD that someone had gotten that morning. The rest of the day was passed like most family holidays. We talked and laughed and hungout. Christmas dinner was great. We had all sorts of traditional Scottish foods. I even had vegetarian Haggis as the main course. We all ate so much. I felt like I was in a food coma for hours. We were able to talk to our families with the help of modern technologies (thanks Skype and cell phones!). It was a little strange not being with the family on Christmas but I am thankful I was with another family at least.
    The 26th was a total loss. Jennifer and I both felt like death warmed over. We didn't leave the apartment at all and just slept the entire day. The 27th wasn't much better. We did go out to the West End for lunch at a really cute cafe hidden away down an icy alley. But, that was about as much as we could manage. We again slept/rested the rest of the day away. The 28th Arran brought us supplies  (food, more meds.) and helped entertain  us for the day. On the 29th we decided we have got to suck it up and see something while we're here in Scotland.
    We woke up early and went to breakfast with Jo and Arran then caught the train to Edinburgh for the day. I'm very glad we did. We walked around the Christmas market, went to a fabulous bar called the Brass Monkey where we watched The Breakfast Club on giant bed-like couches, ate burritos at a cafe called The Forest (its super cool- everyone who works there is just a volunteer and everyone just hangouts and drinks coffee and plays music etc...together. Fabulous!), we walked up to the Castle which was very ominous at night in the fog. All in all a very good day out and about in Scotland which was topped off by watching Hook before bed.
    We're starting to feel better, so hopefully New Year's Eve will be a great adventure without hacking coughs and wheezing lungs (at one point my breathing sounded like the rattle of a Dementor's kiss in Harry Potter. Sexy.)