West Linton is a 6th century village that hasn't grown very much. After a brief stay at Castle Rock Hostel in Edinburgh, which I highly recommend, we ventured to our next host. There aren't many buses to West Linton and it does not use the Midlothian buses, which are cheap. When we arrived we walked into a culdesac with brick homes, chimneys smoking, and cats with black and white patterns intermixing. The backdrop of our new home had vibrant autumn trees and a stream that flowed throughout town. Lovely!
Our stay with this family of 4 was short. We completed our small list of to-do's and thanked them for letting us be a part of their home. Their family consisted of a single parent, child, grandmother, and their bull terrier named Zeus.
Connor, the parent, is nice and a devoted father. By trade, he is a baker and he did bake fresh bread and lovely cakes when we were there. Plenty of birthdays to provide an excuse for sugary treats. Plus, it's Halloween time! Connor was open to allow us to stay, especially being part of the LGBT community.
He isn't gay, but a transgendered man. Connor used to be Christine. He is the first transgendered man that I became acquainted with. The only pronoun screwups I've had were the moments when his 6 year-old daughter would call him Mommy and I would follow with an accidental "she".
The daughter looks about 8 but is really . She is a talker and a cheeky girl. Cheeky meaning that her cheeks were large for her face. She reminded me of a moon or a marshmallow. She constantly asked questions. She always wanted to help me, too. We'd steer her away or keep her busy with something to allow us to finish our jobs. We have played horse riding club, drawn ghosts and princesses, played theme songs from a certain pony show, and received (it seems like) thousands of stickers. We were stamped with stickers on our hands, on our door, and on many cards she made for us. Very sweet....but very loud child.
Granny used to be an artist, a painter. She was a walking ball that cleaned most of the home, garden, and scrapbooked with her extensive newspaper collection. She cleaned so often that we didn't have to clean much. I felt like it was a sin that I couldn't wash my own dish from dinner. At least she talked about plenty of things at the dinner table. She even explained some Scottish words that I found on a tea towel. I'll post those some time.
Zeus....is a "big brute" by Granny's words. He's sweet, quiet, and smelly. His barks are rare but LOUD. He would bark randomly at things like cats, new people, birds, or when I read my phone in the kitchen. Also, when he's hungry. Speaking of which, this dog was fed dog food, porridge, and fish. A strange diet for a dog and probably not the healthiest. The unusally red colored dog is built like a large barrel and walks like he has skinny kitchen table legs. One of our jobs was to walk him every day when weather permitted. We'd use his chain "lead" to walk him around the local park. Poor thing, people thought that he was going to attack their tiny dogs. He wouldn't....he just wanted to play. I'll admit that he is so heavy and strong that he might hurt them, but he doesn't mean to hurt them. He's just a big, smelly, kind, lonely brute. We kind of miss him, but not his awful fish breath.....Nah, we don't miss him.
The biggest thing that happened here was Miguel becoming ill with, what we didn't know, was tonsillitis. Like anyone else, you start feeling bad and you want to wait a few days to see if you can get better. He didn't. His throat was sore, his chest ached, head throbbed, chest hurt, and a fever that was dangerous! I was worried. That started on a Thursday night and was the worst by next Wednesday morning. Luckily, we were given temporary citizenship by the UK's wonderful NHS24 medical call system. They directed us to the nearest clinic and we were seen for free. I cried when I got his penicillan because I knew he was going to get better. We thought he needed to update his will. Luckily, he recovered with plenty of medication, love, and soup being forced down his throat. ;-) I'm a good husband.
A side story, we couldn't reach the doctor in the cold, wet weathered morning that Wednesday due to Miguel's fever. The cold was extremely painful to him! I had to call a taxi after asking some friends who couldn't come. I left Miguel to wait for the taxi at the clinic when I walked to the chemist (pharmacy). It was pure coincidence that one of those friends, Belle, came to pick up a package. When she opened the door, I threw my arms around her. It was so good to see a friendly face. She already saw my text and apologized that she didn't get it because of the dead zone at her work. Belle said she called me and talked with Miguel (he had my phone) and she was on her way to pick him up. Then she saw me at the chemist. All of it was pure luck!!! I was very thankful for Belle. I consider that woman to be a great friend to us. She drove us back to our hosts' home and said that if we ever needed anything to talk with her. I need to write about her...there's just so much to say.
Anyways, We enjoyed our hosts' hospitality. We were thankful for a place to stay and for Miguel to heal, but we felt that we needed to move on once we finished our small to-do list. And so we did. Back to Castle Rock until November when we would leave for England.
Our stay with this family of 4 was short. We completed our small list of to-do's and thanked them for letting us be a part of their home. Their family consisted of a single parent, child, grandmother, and their bull terrier named Zeus.
Connor, the parent, is nice and a devoted father. By trade, he is a baker and he did bake fresh bread and lovely cakes when we were there. Plenty of birthdays to provide an excuse for sugary treats. Plus, it's Halloween time! Connor was open to allow us to stay, especially being part of the LGBT community.
He isn't gay, but a transgendered man. Connor used to be Christine. He is the first transgendered man that I became acquainted with. The only pronoun screwups I've had were the moments when his 6 year-old daughter would call him Mommy and I would follow with an accidental "she".
The daughter looks about 8 but is really . She is a talker and a cheeky girl. Cheeky meaning that her cheeks were large for her face. She reminded me of a moon or a marshmallow. She constantly asked questions. She always wanted to help me, too. We'd steer her away or keep her busy with something to allow us to finish our jobs. We have played horse riding club, drawn ghosts and princesses, played theme songs from a certain pony show, and received (it seems like) thousands of stickers. We were stamped with stickers on our hands, on our door, and on many cards she made for us. Very sweet....but very loud child.
Granny used to be an artist, a painter. She was a walking ball that cleaned most of the home, garden, and scrapbooked with her extensive newspaper collection. She cleaned so often that we didn't have to clean much. I felt like it was a sin that I couldn't wash my own dish from dinner. At least she talked about plenty of things at the dinner table. She even explained some Scottish words that I found on a tea towel. I'll post those some time.
Zeus....is a "big brute" by Granny's words. He's sweet, quiet, and smelly. His barks are rare but LOUD. He would bark randomly at things like cats, new people, birds, or when I read my phone in the kitchen. Also, when he's hungry. Speaking of which, this dog was fed dog food, porridge, and fish. A strange diet for a dog and probably not the healthiest. The unusally red colored dog is built like a large barrel and walks like he has skinny kitchen table legs. One of our jobs was to walk him every day when weather permitted. We'd use his chain "lead" to walk him around the local park. Poor thing, people thought that he was going to attack their tiny dogs. He wouldn't....he just wanted to play. I'll admit that he is so heavy and strong that he might hurt them, but he doesn't mean to hurt them. He's just a big, smelly, kind, lonely brute. We kind of miss him, but not his awful fish breath.....Nah, we don't miss him.
The biggest thing that happened here was Miguel becoming ill with, what we didn't know, was tonsillitis. Like anyone else, you start feeling bad and you want to wait a few days to see if you can get better. He didn't. His throat was sore, his chest ached, head throbbed, chest hurt, and a fever that was dangerous! I was worried. That started on a Thursday night and was the worst by next Wednesday morning. Luckily, we were given temporary citizenship by the UK's wonderful NHS24 medical call system. They directed us to the nearest clinic and we were seen for free. I cried when I got his penicillan because I knew he was going to get better. We thought he needed to update his will. Luckily, he recovered with plenty of medication, love, and soup being forced down his throat. ;-) I'm a good husband.
A side story, we couldn't reach the doctor in the cold, wet weathered morning that Wednesday due to Miguel's fever. The cold was extremely painful to him! I had to call a taxi after asking some friends who couldn't come. I left Miguel to wait for the taxi at the clinic when I walked to the chemist (pharmacy). It was pure coincidence that one of those friends, Belle, came to pick up a package. When she opened the door, I threw my arms around her. It was so good to see a friendly face. She already saw my text and apologized that she didn't get it because of the dead zone at her work. Belle said she called me and talked with Miguel (he had my phone) and she was on her way to pick him up. Then she saw me at the chemist. All of it was pure luck!!! I was very thankful for Belle. I consider that woman to be a great friend to us. She drove us back to our hosts' home and said that if we ever needed anything to talk with her. I need to write about her...there's just so much to say.
Anyways, We enjoyed our hosts' hospitality. We were thankful for a place to stay and for Miguel to heal, but we felt that we needed to move on once we finished our small to-do list. And so we did. Back to Castle Rock until November when we would leave for England.