January

We continued to live in Edinburgh, where we’d been living for almost 4 months at that point.

January was cold and windy and dark. A windstorm lead to the cancellation of the main part of the Hogmanay celebrations which Ali, our first visitor, had flown out to enjoy with us.

Instead, he joined us in Glasgow for a football match on the 2nd, and then on a 3-day tour of the Highlands and the Isle of Skye. It was the best Isle in the world, world, world …

At the end of the month, Ian and I went to Portugal. We flew into Faro and spent 10 days touring the southern coast and then Lisbon. My favourite was Albufeira.

The sunshine and warm weather were fantastic, and we loved the food & drink, especially all the seafood and the delicious Port.

February

Back in Vancouver, the family of Jason and Cariad and Nathan was enlarged when baby Arlen was born. We loved seeing the photos of his at-home birth and couldn’t wait to meet him in person.

We found out that Carolle and Rob were expecting a baby in the summer as well – so exciting!

We went to a ceilidh organized by the Hill Walking Club and had a fantastic time getting all sweaty and speaking with Scottish accents all night.

I had a week’s break from school, so we flew via Dublin to Croatia. We enjoyed some delicious food at Wagamama, then some Guinness, and some great sightseeing and shopping all around Dublin – and then spent the night sleeping at the airport, hobo style, before our flight to Pula.

We traveled to Zagreb and then south down the coast to Dubrovnik. I ate cheese borek daily, but we found traveling in Croatia during the off-season to be quite difficult and not much fun. The scenery was beautiful so I can definitely see how it would be a great place to be in the height of summer. Perhaps we will return someday.

March

I had three term papers due at the beginning of March so things were a bit hectic! We went to a fun Purim party on the same night as the lunar eclipse (March 3rd). We played Settlers of Catan with Sam and Josh and Jackie and enjoyed the slightly warmer Edinburgh weather. I baked up a storm, including the most delicious baklava ever.

I kept in touch with classmates from UBC who were also on exchange and traveling the world – Karin sent dispatches from South Africa, Matt from Singapore, and Keith from Australia.

We found out that more babies were on the way – Jolene and Carl were expecting in September, Cristi in August, and my classmate and future co-worker Hilary in September.

April

After celebrating Ian’s birthday, we flew to Brindisi and then took a ferry to Greece. We spent just over two weeks traveling around Greece together, and I flew back to Edinburgh on Easter Sunday, so I could cram for my exams, which were scheduled very early in the exam session. Ian stayed on and traveled through Greece some more by himself. We were very fortunate to be able to stay with very nice and hospitable family (my dad’s cousins, whom I’d never met before) in Athens and in Santorini (we were there when that cruise ship sank), and we loved Crete.

Cryssie and Colin got engaged, and more babies were on the way – Prof. Brooks’ first, and Ryan and Tracy’s second! We also found out that Ian’s brother Alex got into a Ph.D. program in Cambridge – yay!

As I often do at times of stress, I started running a bit more regularly, around the nearby Meadows park. The smell of gorse bushes started permeating the air everywhere in town, and it finally got a bit warmer.

May

I wrote three closed-book exams in one week. It was insanity, but I was done! My law school friend Jeff arrived shortly after my last exam and we spent a few days sightseeing in Edinburgh before flying to Barcelona. We had an epic first day in Barcelona, pub-crawling our way around the city and finishing with a delicious dinner at Origens 99%.

Ian and I left Jeff in Barcelona for two days while we drove up to Roses to have dinner at the best restaurant in the world, el Bulli. We returned to Barcelona and then flew (almost without Jeff, but he made it!) to Sardinia. We had a fantastic time traveling around and were sad to go back to Edinburgh.

My parents then arrived in Edinburgh for a few days’ visit. We walked everywhere and enjoyed lots of yummy food and booze.

June and July

We flew to Romania where we joined my parents in visiting relatives, eating more food and drinking even more booze. We were flabbergasted at the three hour, 60 km drive from the airport to my relatives’ hometown – such is traffic in Bucharest, especially leaving the airport on a Friday afternoon.

We then took a bus to Istanbul and traveled around Turkey for two weeks.

Other than the horrendous bus ride, we had a surprisingly good time, way beyond our expectations. We met up with Ali and Deniz in Istanbul, ate lots of good food and had an awesome hammam experience. The gullet cruise on the Mediterranean was a highlight, as was the balloon ride in Cappadoccia.

Baby Bruce was born in July and we couldn’t wait to meet him!

We flew back to Edinburgh just in time to welcome Ian’s parents and their friends, with whom we traveled around the Highlands, the Isle of Skye, England and London for the next three weeks. We returned to Edinburgh just in time to pack our bags and clean out our flat before moving back to Vancouver at the end of July.

August

We found out the most wonderful news – we will become uncle & auntie to Jaime and Erik’s baby boy sometime in March 2008!

Thanks to Cariad’s mad organizing skills, we went on an excellent four-day camping and wine tasting trip throughout the Okanagan. We fit lots of wine into the Jetta and enjoyed picnics, sunshine and Coloretto.

My parents and my sister and I rented a condo in Whistler and celebrated my mom’s birthday with lots of wine, yummy food, hot-tubbing, Bohnanza and Settlers of Catan. I hope it becomes an annual tradition!

We went for our first dentist’s appointments in a year (can’t trust those Scottish dentists!) – we were still cavity free, thank goodness. After two weeks of temporary accommodation, we moved into a different house, finally unpacking our suitcases and all the stuff we had left in storage for a year. It felt a bit like opening Christmas presents, especially when I opened my KitchenAid stand mixer! Ahh, how I missed him.

During the last week of August, Ian packed up his bags with newly-purchased items from MEC and flew to Bolivia. He had an anti-vacation (as far as I’m concerned!) – climbing mountains and volcanoes at night, dealing with altitude sickness and eating rice and beans! He claims to have a had a fun time nonetheless.

September

I started my new job, a one hour commute from home. I also joined the University Women’s Club, headquartered at the Hycroft mansion. We went to Martha and Tom’s wedding at Strathcona, and my godparents visited from Romania. Most excitingly, we picked out a puppy!

Jolene and Carl had their baby – a beautiful boy named Ryan Leif.

October

We picked up the puppy, whom Ian named Buffy, on the Thanksgiving weekend – an early birthday present for me! She spent the entire car ride over from Victoria shivering in the back seat, before throwing up in the grass on the side of the road at 70th and Hudson in Vancouver. She warmed up to us after that, however, and we had no potty training issues at all. She knew how to sit already, so teaching her more tricks was easy. We enrolled her in puppy kindergarten, and she went to daycare for a week while Ian was out of town.

November

We finally hosted a housewarming – our house was packed with friends and we were so happy to see them all! Our efforts to make the house more livable continued, and we had our first fire in the wood-burning fireplace.

Ian got a new car, and we had a fun road trip to Seattle, taking advantage of the historic high of the Canadian dollar. My sister was kind enough to house- and dog-sit. We also went to a very yummy cooking class with Vikram Vij, and a Vancouver Giants game with Jaime and her boyfriend Steve.

Ian’s family and most of mine joined us at my graduation at the Chan Centre. It was nice to finally be done, and to say goodbye to classes and exams and all that stuff (although I still have to do the Bar course next year).

December

Christmas 2007 was great! We got lots of fun presents and another board game to add to our growing collection: Puerto Rico. We ate way too many cookies at Jaime and Erik’s cookie party, and were enthralled by the 3D ultrasound video of their baby – he sucked his thumb!

Wedding planning continued, and updates on the process are here. Buffy has doubled in weight since we got her, and she is now spayed and up-to-date with all her various shots and meds. She’s a real charmer, other than to Ali!

Finally…
And while we just found out this today, I’m going to count it as a 2007 event – my aunt & uncle are pregnant and I will have a cousin mid-August 2008! It blows my mind that my maternal grandparents are going to have one grandchild getting married this year, and one getting born!

2007 was a very eventful year, and 2008 promises to be even more exciting. We look forward to what it has to bring!

In addition to a “Dram of the day” – ours was famous grouse – to start the tour we were each given a Glencairn Whisky glass. The glass design is supposed to be the result of years of consultation with Whisky experts and be the perfect glass to enjoy all the characteristics of a good dram of Whisky.

After the tour we enjoyed 4 Whisky tastings – a dram each from the lowlands, highlands, Speyside and finally the islands. There are two menus of 4 drams available – a regional menu and a casked menu. I went for the regional menu, which was as follows:

• Lowland – Genkinchie 10 yo
• Highland – Royal Lochnagar 12 yo
• Speyside – Glenlivet 12 yo
• Islands – Caol lla 12 yo

The casked menu was as follows:

• Speyside BenRiach Bourbon (American White Oak) casked
• Glenmorangie wine (American White followed by Cote D’Or European Oak) casked
• Balvenie Portwood 1993 (American bourbon, Portugal Port) casked
• Macallan 10yo Sherry Oak (European Red, Jerez, Spain) casked

After your tasting you get a membership to the Scotch Whisky Appreciation Society which allows you to do 2 for 1 tours in the future – though tastings are not 2 for 1. I should have checked out the Whisky Experience website as they have a few special offers including a discounted tour entry and a complementary dram – oh well there is always next time =).

It seems like a lot of the Scottish attractions have special offers on their website. I wish I had known that www.malts.com offers free memberships – entitling you to free tours of all the classic malt distilleries – before we did our road trip around Scotland.