JADM Day Eleven - London to Edinburgh

I took a train to Edinburgh today, and it was very lovely. As we
progressed north, the weather cooled and clouds descended, until we
arrived in Edinburgh four and a half hours later in a dense grey
shroud. But the countryside we passed through was gorgeous...the
amount of rape/canola, creating carpets of bright yellow across the
fields, reminded me of our trip to Ukraine around the same time last
year, and I saw lots of sheep and lambs in the pastures. It made me
all the more eager to see the highlands over the next few days.

I did not do any sightseeing; I came for a weekend two years ago while
I was living in Dublin, and there was little left that I wanted to
see. Instead, I made a quick trip to Waterstone's, the British
equivalent of Border's, and bought a book, which I spent the rest of
the day reading (with a break for a nap brought on by the wine I had
with my late lunch/early dinner). I haven't quite finished it, but I
highly, highly recommend it. It's called 'A History of the World in 10
1/2 Chapters,' by Julian Barnes, and it's perfect for reading when you
have to stop and start...it's told like a series of short stories,
although the stories are all brought together by some unifying themes
(Noah's Ark, termites, shipwrecks, love, survival, belief, death,
etc.). My favorites this far included a chapter told as a series of
unanswered letters from an actor on location in the Amazon to his
girlfriend in London, the story of Noah as told from some termite
stowaways, and the 'half-chapter,' narrated by Barnes as himself, in
which he muses on love. This book is definitely a keeper, one that
I'll read again, and if I didn't know that I should sleep so that I
can make it to the start of my tour on time, I would finish it
tonight...but alas, the last two chapters will have to wait.

I'm blogging from my crackberry, since internet in this hotel is an
extortionate ten dollars per hour. So to save my thumbs in
anticipation of future nights of crackberry-blogging, it's time for
bed!

But last (but obviously not least), happy mother's day to all you
mothers out there! I already did the needful (as they say in India)
and called my mother, so you should call yours too!