Off yet again . . . . .

So in about 4.5 hours I'll get into Verena's car and head to the airport for my next crazy trip. This time it's a 6:30am flight to Rome, wait around Rome all day (with baggage) until Gisela arrives, catch the next train north to Assisi and spend a very relaxed Saturday and Sunday chilling (or sweating!) in Assisi. I am so excited about that part!! Then it's back down to Rome to meet up with Paul and Amber and Ruby in our flat in Rome where we'll be living for the week while we pretend to attend International SBL. There are a number of museums, gelato and pizza places and churches I intend to visit - as well as cafes to sit in front of for hours! I am so excited to be able to wear T-shirts and tank tops and skirts... I hope it doesn't suddenly go chill there, because I don't really have warm clothes at all with me... A few layers, that's it... Seriously, it'll be fine! Then from Rome I fly on the following Monday to Cambridge to attend the Tyndale Fellowship meeting. After giving my second paper in 4 days (Saturday, Tuesday), and enjoying the rest of that conference, Thursday I will then catch an Easy Jet flight back to Scotland, where I will promptly return to work in the shop. =) I'm excited about the whole intinerary.

But the last week has been lovely, too, and I wanted to catch a bit of it up before I left! Saturday we were heading into the longest day of the year, so I 'convinced' Verena to head down to Pittenweem to spend some time outside -- particularly as the weather has been nice! We arrived down in Pittenweem around 9:30pm with plenty of light with which to make our way down the coastal path.

Pittenweem harbour

Pittenweem harbour looking out toward the Isle of May

Arriving in St Monans around 10pm, marked by the windmill

Forgive the slated photo - the fence post I was using wasn't as level as I'd thought - but I liked how I caught the lighthouse lit up on the Isle of May (next to it are the lights from a ship)

We lay in the grass in a little park by St Monans for a good hour and a half, chatting and watching the clouds change shape, and sometime around 11:30 finally headed back to Pittenweem and the car.

Night had pretty well fallen by the time we arrived back, even though we never needed the headlamps we brought with us on the path. I don't know if this photo makes it look slightly darker than it was out, since we weren't using our lamps, but I thought it was a cool shot of the Pittenweem harbour late at night!

Monday was a gloriously warm day (I think it reached all of 75F!), but when Verena came home from the nursery, I made the mistake of commenting to her that I was surprised she wasn't off swimming in the sea. Well, that got the idea in her mind, and some 30 surprised minutes later, I was off heading toward the East Sands in my swimsuit, watching clouds gather and wondering why I'd opened my big mouth. We painfully waded into the frigid water - a process that took probably a good 30 minutes alone, and even after I was fully immersed my various extremities (and even the skin on the tops of my shoulders) kept aching... It was an experience in whinging for an hour straight. Still, uniquely fun. It took most of the rest of the evening for me to warm back up, hot shower and all!

Wednesday we were inspired to host a bbq in our carpark, an idea we'd been tossing around for a while but waiting for warm enough weather. We ended up with a clearing in the haar, so we went for it with Paul and Amber (and Ruby!)'s help. Paul grilled, Verena invited 3 other friends, and the seven of us sat around for a good 4 hours or so in the carpark, drinking gin and tonic, eating good grilled food - kebabs, burgers, and weird "authentic frankfurter flavoured" vegie franks. It's one of the first time in ages that I felt relaxed! I think that had to do with deciding my papers were done and I was ready to head into vacation.

So that's me off, then. May blog during trip, but not taking the camera cord so photos will only be on my return. But really, I'm kind of anticipating being pretty internet-free during these two weeks! Yay! (leaving my computer behind too!) YAY! bye...