Notes From a Rainy City

Water bottles. Check.

Bubble bath. Check.

Thick towels. Check.

And then, the hot water was restored, and T. was never heard from again.

At the moment, there is silence. No grinding, banging, swearing, singing, whistling, or any of those ominous pauses interrupted by a loud crash. The insulated pipes are now replaced, all gas and boilers are working, and now it’s just a matter of hoping that property managers schedule someone to rebuild the wall according to the gas company’s specs. Honestly, we don’t really care at the moment — it’s just such a relief to have hot water and baths again that we can survive having exposed pipes and plaster dust sifting down for awhile longer.

Despite having sung the Christmas Oratorios at the end of last month, and having attended the Madrigirls Advent service in the frigid but lovely University chapel, we’ve realized we’ve not at all been particularly festive thus far this year.

It might seem there’s reason for it — along with the lights in George Square and the Christmas markets, all over are also reminders that much of the world’s economy is sliding off the road, as the news lists shops and businesses closing and students are warned of the difficulties of receiving loans to cover their education. The publishing sector is being hit just as hard — houses are freezing salaries, laying off editors, and even bookstores are going under. Though we — like most broke people — are largely untouched by the impending insanity, it’s human nature to keep on peering at our finances and wondering restlessly how this is going to affect us personally.

It’s amazing how narcissistic we can become during bad times. It’s too easy to become thoroughly morose and self-absorbed, so we’re taking a cue from the folks around us and getting out more! And yes — we’re going to the pub.

This week we’ve been invited to what can best be described as a Georgian jam session. Some of our musician friends have been bemoaning the “Disneyfication of the Christmas carol,” and are pulling a bunch of us together on Monday night to learn two hundred year old carols at the Heatherington Research Club, which is really mostly a campus pub with a fancy name. People are bringing instruments and dragging friends along to sing, and musical scores will be provided when everyone arrives. It’s not your everyday pub date, but it sounds like lots of fun, and one of D’s coworkers — who teased him about being posh because the choir sang Bach — may come along as well. So far there’s a harpist, a few woodwinds, and possibly some guy with a violin (*cough*) along with plenty of singers. We wish you could be there.

We’re looking forward to all the holiday happenings our first full day home, including singing with our old choir and attending the symphony in San Francisco. We’re still not sure exactly how well this is all going to go — but hope we can at least manage to stay awake long enough to applaud politely at the end!

Tuesday is D-Day — for D, anyway, as it’s the day of his first oral presentation to the University with regard to his PhD project. The heads of various departments, other PhD candidates and various graduate students gather for these required presentations in order to… basically critique and argue with the presenter about his or her topic. It’s something most people look forward to with dread and trepidation. Of course, D. is none too excited about it either, but he’s the unflappable sort, and tends to be very good at not allowing people to poke holes in his theories. Indeed, as his audience gathers in their usual meeting place, he’s serving homemade peanut butter cups and fruitcake to go with their coffee and tea.

That ought to sweeten everyone’s temperament!

Confidential to The Weather in California: What is UP with the 30° temperatures? If we wanted to freeze to death, we could have stayed in Scotland. Please rectify the situation by Friday, December 19th. Regards.

– D & T

(P.S. – The little purple thing in the tub is a floating LED mood-light, which cycles through various colors for no other reason than it’s pretty.)

This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.