My friends came to visit me…

Wednesday, August 31st, 2005 at 10:43 am

I think I should change the title of my blog from “Aum’s Diary” to “Aum’s Weekly” since I am too lazy lately to update it. I will try to keep it up-to-date again. Last week I called my best friend, Lha, she is now doing her PhD in Computer Science in Thailand. I felt very good talking to her on the phone because she is the only one person I can talk to using low-level language. She said she would not have a baby if she gets married. So, we had a deal that if in the future we were old and alone we will be in the nursing home together.

On Saturday I went to Waverley station in Edinburgh to get Heang and her friend. Heang used to work for me when I was in Thailand. They came from London to stay with us for a few days. They were sent to London to get some on-the-job-training for 2-3 months. We had Chinese buffet at Jimmy Chung. After lunch we took them to Arthur’s Seat. This was the first time I climbed up to the top. It was very windy. I was almost blown away. It was a very nice view up there but I had sore legs afterwards. After that we drove to North Berwick by the Coastal Trail. We did British style barbeque for dinner that day. They seemed to enjoy the food. Heang and her friend tried some whiskies but they could not finish it so HG had to finish it for them.

On Sunday we planned to go to Stirling and then back for a tour at Glenkinchie Distillery. I was ready at 8:30 am but I did not hear any movement in the girls’ room so I had to shout to wake them up because we planned to leave the house about 9:00 am. It was raining all the way from our house to Stirling but when we were at Stirling Castle the rain was almost off. I decided not to go into the castle because I was not interested. HG and I walked around the old town, the church of the Holy Rude, Lady’s rock, Star Pyramid and Mar’s Wark. Heang and her friend did not go into the castle either. They planned to save the money for Edinburgh Castle tomorrow.

After that we took them to have lunch at Gargunnock Inn. When we were on the way to Gargunnock we stopped for them to take photos of the William Wallace Monument. We decided not to climb up because it was raining. Heang had Blackened Cajan Chicken, the rest of us had traditional fish and chips. Actually Cajan Chicken was my favorite dish here but that day I was in a mood for fish and chips. After lunch we drove back to Glenkinchie Distillery. I had to keep pushing Heang and her friend to keep up with the tour group because they took lots of photos of each other inside the distillery. Finally, we were at the bar for whisky tasting. They had some whiskies as well as my HG. At the shop HG bought a bottle of whisky called Linkwood. Heang and her friend bought small bottles of Glenkinchie whisky. After that we went back home and since it was still too early to cook dinner I took them out for a walk in the wood and I went to get Taggie to join our W-A-L-K.

I cooked roasted chicken thighs with sour cherry sauce, sweet carrots (from our garden) and baby leeks wrapped with smoked ham in cheese sauce. They seemed to like my food. When I cooked I told them to help me so I almost did not have to do anything. Heang cut carrots, washed leeks and grated cheese and her friend wrapped leeks with the ham. HG came to the kitchen and saw they were working and he said I was bad. HG showed them how to make cheese sauce because Heang would like to make Spinach with cheese sauce sometime.

After dinner, I discovered that they could not agree on where to go on Monday. Heang did not want to go into the castle but her friend wanted to. I thought it would be better if I did not go so they could easily separate and do what they wanted. HG printed maps and explained where things are for them.

HG found out that he could understand more Thai this time when he listened to our conversations. He once answered a question when we talked about how long in Kilometers 3 miles is. I had to tell him that he was so nosy and that was girly talk to which he should not interfere.

After they left on Monday, I decided to prune our jaggy bushes in the front garden. Then I saw Charlotte take Taggie out for a walk and I decided to go with her to keep her company in the wood. When we came back I decided to borrow the hedge trimmer from Charlotte and asked her husband to demonstrate how to use it for me. Because it was so windy it took me about 4 hours to finish. I was exhausted and had sored arms. I could hardly lift anything even a glass of water. I had to stay awake until 10pm because I wanted to watch America’s next top model final episode. After that I went to bed and slept like hell.

Today I woke up because of one of the house alarms in our village had gone off constantly and my house phone was beeping like the battery ran out. I went downstairs to put it on to charge but there was a red light flashing on the base station as well. So I looked at the monitor it said “no network”. So I thought there was a problem with the telephone network. I came upstairs and tried to charge my mobile because the battery had almost ran out as well but it did not charge. So I checked the light and found out that we had no electricity. So I called HG and told him about it. He called the power company and called me back saying there was a known fault in this area but they did not know the cause and how long it would take to bring it back. I could not have a shower so I had a quick wash, brushed my teeth, washed my hair. I could have a bath but I think I should save the hot water. I switched off our cordless house telephone and plugged in the normal one instead. It was so difficult to live without electricity. I could not use the internet because the router needed electricity.

The power came back around 9:30 am and while I was replying HG’s email to let him know about the electricity, Charlotte and Taggie came to knock the door and asked me if I would like to go for a walk. I went out for a small walk with them. After I came back I tried to setup the date/time on the telephone handset. Once I finished the electricity went off again. It was only 10 minutes this time but it drove me up the wall.