S&P

So what is this wedding we keep talking about? Well, my brother and Pleuntje will be getting married on Sept. 1st in Iona, Scotland. They met there two years ago and have returned to tie the knot!

Stephen and Pleun will arrive in Leeds tomorrow to stay with us for a couple of days. We will then begin the marathon trip to Iona. This will involve a train trip to Glasgow, then another train, a ferry, a bus and another ferry. Brent has pleaded for a helicopter, but his request has fallen on deaf ears. We will be stopping along the way to Iona to meet up with my parents. It will have been almost exactly 51 weeks since I last saw them when we said good-bye at Pearson airport.

The wedding will be a great opportunity to catch up with friends and family. It will also be nice to get to know more of Pleun’s family and friends. We are looking forward to hanging out, drinking scotch, walking with the sheep, making fun of Stephen and celebrating! It will be quite the wedding! We are also looking forward to being part of the small number of people who are not jet-lagged over the weekend. Finally, living in the UK has paid off. That means just one thing….more scotch!

After the wedding festivities, my parents will be staying with us for a couple of weeks. We will spend some time in Leeds and a week in the Scottish highlands visiting some of the Murray homeland! That will be a nice treat before getting back down to work in September.

I know, I know, it seems like one never ending holiday over here. And frankly, this summer has been all about holiday. (Believe it or not, I have five days of holiday that will go unused and will need to be rolled over until the following year because I didn’t take them. I’ve already been scolded by my co-workers never to let that happen again!). It has been a great way to spend the summer. We are very lucky. It has been nice to have some breaks from work/phd things and to visit with family and friends. The wedding will be the icing on the cake!

Miller Time!

The first wedding guests arrived at the B&B Inn on Sunday, August 19th. The Millers are Beth’s “Aunt and Uncle” generally and her Godparents specifically. A little background on the Millers – Pauline Miller and Beth’s Mom have been friends since grade 3. David and Beth’s Dad became friends one summer at University when they worked at, what they used to refer to as, “retarded” kids camp. (Please don’t take offence, it was the politically incorrect 70’s.) Pauline and Beth’s Dad were taking a course together at University and that’s how Pauline and David met. One weekend, when Beth’s Mom was visiting Windsor from University of Toronto and Pauline and David wanted some “alone” time, Pauline introduced Beth’s Mom to Beth’s Dad. And the rest, as they say, is history. The four have been friends ever since and have been together through it all (“all” meaning drunken bridge sessions leading to heroic hangovers the next day).

Back to the present day. The Millers arrived Sunday lunchtime and we fed them and put them to bed since they’d flown through the night and driven to Leeds from Manchester. Upon waking, Beth had made us all a wonderful dinner of Chicken Parm. Afterwards, we introduced the Millers to the local pub. Some members of our party were bad influences on others or, alternatively, the willpower of some members of our party left much to be desired. Suffice it to say, Brent was feeling like he did Thursday mornings in law school. While Brent was suffering at work Monday morning, Beth accompanied the Millers to York and had fun in the pubs, along the walls and in the Minster (you know the drill). Brent, upon returning home Monday evening, was horrified to see that the Millers had returned from York with a bottle of Pimms. An interesting cultural moment took place as we pondered exactly the best way to drink this classic English beverage. The Millers, in true Miller fashion, preferred theirs “on the rocks”. No mixer. The Murray-Davis’s followed the directions on the bottle (in true Murray-Davis fashion) and had theirs with Lemonade (Sprite to you colonials). (Note: follow-ups with genuine English persons the next day confirmed that only the hugest of heathens would ever drink Pimms without a mixer of Lemonade. Perhaps Brent and Beth are true Brits after all?). The Millers then took us out for dinner at our favourite place. It was a nice treat. The feeling the next day was not as nice however, as dinner consisted of three bottles of wine, glasses of scotch and then retiring to our flat for yet more scotch, wine and beer. It got ugly and Brent ended up feeling like he used to feel on Sunday mornings at law school. Unfortunately for him, it was Tuesday morning and he was expected to work. Despite the fuzzy heads, which seem to accompany every morning after an evening spent with the Millers, a good time was had by all. There was much laughter, story telling and fun. Another nice taste of home and friends who at one time felt rather far away.

JULIE! The Return of the Sister.

After our return from Amsterdam, Julie stayed with us for 10 days. Brent and Beth returned to work for a few days and let Julie have the flat to herself so she could sleep late, stay in her pyjamas all day, eat junk food and recover from her marathon trip. On the Wednesday, Beth and Julie hit the Leeds shopping areas and bought some nice things to take home to Canada, in Julie’s case, an on to the wedding on Iona, in Beth’s case. Brent and Julie went to York on Thursday and enjoyed a nice day at Betty’s Tea Room, wandering the streets and walls of the cittie and touring the York Minster. On Friday, Brent and Julie enjoyed a viewing of the Simpson’s Movie. Once Beth returned from work, we enjoyed a boozy night in. On Saturday, we rented a car and drove down to Chatsworth House, outside of Sheffield. We enjoyed a brilliant day of sun and fun and then stopped at an old pub on the way home for tea. Or dinner. Or supper. Depending on what class you’re from. (Julie and I being from the highest class, of course … Beth, too, now by marriage.) On Sunday, we stayed in and enjoyed The Times, cookies fresh out of the oven and dinner made by Julie, and stupid ManU drawing against Sunderland (Roy Keane, you magnificent and devious bastard). Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday saw the three of us just hanging out in Leeds and Harrogate enjoying each other’s company and the shopping, sun, patios, gourmet hamburgers and dinner at Nick’s (thanks Julie!). It was really great having Julie here to visit. She, and the rest of the family, did seem very far away before they started visiting. It was very relaxed and fun to have everyone here. However, it did make us think about all the fun we could have with them whenever we do eventually make it home. Oh well, all in good time. Julie flew home easy-peasy on Thursday morning and, hopefully, is over her jet lag.

I Amsterdam Continued

Julie, Brent and I hit Amsterdam pretty hard on Saturday. We had an excellent letter from Pleun with a list of her favourite spots in the city as our guide. The guide did not lead us astray. We saw all of the major tourist haunts and many lovely places that are not known to too many tourists. Amsterdam seems like a bit of a dream really. It is relaxing and beautiful, yet it has a unique quality that gives it some zing (and I’m not talking about the odour from the coffee shops)! The sun shone the whole time we were there and, even though those of us who live in the UK did not think it was possible, the temperature reached 28 degrees. It was a little taste of summer for Brent and I who have grown accustom to grey and rain. Perhaps all the vitamin D clouded our judgement of the city, but we loved every minute of Amsterdam. Some of our highlights included the Van Gogh Museum, the Museumplein, strolling along the canals, the Anne Frank Museum, and Vondelpark. We didn’t get to take a canal boat ride because of the Pride Day festivities taking over the canal, and we didn’t get to visit the Rijksmuseum as it was closed for renovations, but this just gives us reason to go back again. In the waning hours of Sunday, before we had to travel to the airport to return to Leeds, we did some wandering around the shops. It was during this wander that I stumbled upon my dress for Stephen & Pleun’s wedding. It seemed quite fitting that I should find it in Amsterdam during a trip inspired by Pleun’s list of places to see. It was easy to find the right dress in a city where we felt that Pleun was all around. The trip was a great way to get to know more about her - through her friends and through the city she called home. Time well spent.

P.S. Brent and I almost didn’t make it home from Amsterdam. Our flight had been over booked and when we checked in they did not have seats for us. Julie was flying home at the same time, but on a different airline (since ours was full at the time of booking her flight). We had given her our only house key in case we got in at different times. It’s a good thing we did considering we almost ended up spending another night in the Netherlands and taking a flight the next day. In the end, it all worked out. There were empty seats in business class so we got bumped up and arrived in the Leeds airport at the same time as Julie.

Billie Jean is Not My Lover...

Brent: Why are so many people of the same sex holding hands?
Beth: It must be a European thing.
Brent: Possibly. Although, there do seem to be an inordinately high number of, er, what Wodehouse referred to as ‘confirmed bachelors’ marching about today.
Beth: Hmm, true.
Brent: Now there seem to be a lot of people wearing pink. And holding balloons.

[the unmistakeable, base-heavy sounds of Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean played on an extremely large and expensive sound kit on a canal boat starts just behind us…]

Brent: Strange. The music seems to be played at a very high volume for just cruising around.
Beth: They seem to be dancing on the boat. Now they’re throwing soothers at us.

[the boat playing Billie Jean moves off to be replaced by another sound … growing slowly … on a boat approaching … …]

Brent: Is that…?

[a very large canal boat approaches to the sounds of Relax by Frankie Goes to Hollywood …]

Brent: Where am I?
Beth: It’s the Gay Pride Parade!!!

I Amsterdam

Julie’s tour of Europe finished in Amsterdam and we thought it a good idea to meet her there and explore the city. There were two outstanding reasons why this trip to Amsterdam was a good idea. The first being that before leaving Canada, I read a brilliant biography of John Adams which had many details of his time in Amsterdam as the American envoy to France, in particular, and Europe in general. As the anxiety of the impending trip to England began to take hold last summer, it was the Adams biography which served as a moderating influence. Instead of a 6 hour plane ride over, Adams faced a ship’s journey measured in weeks with no guarantee of safe arrival. So, I was very curious to walk the same streets he did. Perhaps re-reading the book when we get home may give new insight.

The second outstanding reason to go to Amsterdam is that Beth’s new sister-to-be is from Amsterdam. Well, as I understand it, her family is from Friesland and she has spent time in Africa, Ireland and Amsterdam as well as other points far and wide. But as far as I can tell, Amsterdam has been her home, on and off, for the last little while before she moved to Canada to shack up with Stephen.

So we headed out on our KLM flight to Amsterdam which took all of 55 minutes from the Leeds airport. Nice. On arrival, Amsterdam immediately shunned us. Well, not us per se, but the train station wouldn’t accept payment for our tickets by debit or credit card. Cash only please. But from that point onwards, Amsterdam was a joy.

The trains which took us from the airport to the city centre were a joy to behold after enduring the smelly jalopies in England. On arrival in Amsterdam proper we made our way with our bags down the main drag towards our hotel. The first thing we noticed were the parking garages, not for cars, but for bikes. Thousands of bikes neatly parked outside. We made our way to an outdoor patio that featured Belgian Fries for Beth and a club sandwich for Brent. Living in England, we hadn’t had the opportunity to eat outside on a patio much. In fact, we had eaten outside exactly once in 357 days. Blimey.

After lunch, we leisurely headed in the general direction of our hotel seeing the canals for the first time, the flower market and other general points of interest along the way. Our hotel, the Hotel Fita, was in the Museum district exactly one block away from the Van Gogh Museum. We would strongly recommend this hotel to all and sundry. It was great and in a great location. Close enough to everything but quiet when you wanted it to be.

After exploring a little more of the city, we left to meet Pleuntje’s friends Ebisse and Bregje for what ended up being a wonderful dinner and gained many insights into both Amsterdam and Beth’s new sister. The dining spot was called Bazaar and was certainly off the normal tourist track and for that experience, plus all the translation help, we must heartily thank Ebisse and Bregje. We had a long leisurely dinner with them which led to gelato and a near picture of Beth riding on the back of Ebisse’s bike. Alas, it was not to be.
The next day I woke up early and met Julie. After settling in and getting our presents from Julie, we headed out on the town. [More later]

In the Interim

While Julie was away on her whirlwind trip we busied ourselves with the usual. Brent weathered the post-marking contract crunch and had a bit of a lull in July and set about putting the boots to his LLM thesis. Working both at home and at work he managed to get a sizeable portion of it done and all that is really left now is the data analysis and the writing up of the last part (some may think this is the entire thesis but, really, those who have done one will know that the long introduction and secondary source analysis/literature review is the really time consuming stuff – the data is the fun stuff).

Beth has been working away like never before. She’s been visiting her students on placement, co-ordinating a service user’s group, course planning for next year, marking papers, grading oral presentations, organizing interviews, meeting with her advisors, finishing her upgrade documents, co-ordinating ethical approval at still more sites, writing and editing articles for publication, writing an article review, writing an interprofessional education mini-course proposal for McMaster and planning for all our visitors and the trip for her brother’s upcoming wedding at Iona, Scotland. Where does she find the time? No one knows.

JULIE!

Brent’s sister Julie is in England. That is, as they say in Wakefield, ace. She was here for a few days to recover from jet lag before beginning her 20 day bus trip around Europe. We showed her all the sights of Leeds during her weekend here and then put her on the train to London. Once again, it is good for our perspective to get another person’s view of England in general and Leeds in particular because, after the bad weather, floods and everything else that can get anyone down about Leeds, sometimes we need help seeing the good stuff.

PhD progress

It’s official…..I am in the data collection phase!! Yippee! I have two interviews under my belt and a few more in the works. It feels good to be a little bit ahead of schedule with this aspect of the project. I had originally thought that I would start data collection in July or August, but my first interview was on June 27th. Not too shabby. The momentum is still building and hopefully it will continue to build. There is always something a little anxiety provoking at this stage in the game where you worry that you won’t get enough participants or that the whole stage will take much longer than anticipated. Only time will tell and sadly, I don’t really have any control over this, I will just have to wait and see.

The next big hurdle is my upgrade viva/oral comprehensive. In England, when you begin a PhD you are actually registered as a Masters student (MPhil). You have to upgrade to a PhD after the first year. My legendary presentation to all the other medical students, submission of a 70 page thesis and an oral comprehensive to two examiners are the steps required to upgrade. Sounds like a lot of work. Why did I think this was a good idea? All that is left to do for me is book the upgrade viva/oral comprehensive. Hopefully this will happen sometime in August. Then by September I will have achieved ABD status – All But Defended.

In professional circles, I’ll be known as:

RM, B.A., B.H.Sc., M.A. PhD(c)

How obnoxious.