Grandma and Auntie Joanne Visit Edinburgh!

On Saturday my Grandma and Auntie Joanne flew up from England to visit me. We met up for dinner at Ristorante Gennaro in the Grassmarket, across the road from their hotel. I had a delicious Spinach Cannelloni for my main and Panna Cotta for dessert. We had a good chat over dinner and went back to their hotel for a cup of tea and more chat afterwards. They gave me a pile of birthday presents and kindly called me a taxi to take me home when it got late.

Sunday morning was an adventure as my flat had the task of defrosting the freezer. It was all built up with blocks of ice and the lady who inspected the flat earlier in the week said we needed to deal with it before Monday. What I thought was going to be a major hassle actually ended up being quite fun. We cleaned and organized the fridge at the same time and used a hairdryer and saucepans of boiling water to melt the ice in the freezer. It's all beautifully organized and clean now. Satisfaction of a job well done!

In the afternoon I met up with Grandma and Auntie Joanne again to have afternoon tea at the Calton Hotel. There was tea, sandwiches of three varieties, crisps, scones with jam and cream and lots of little cakes. It was absolutely lovely. Going out for afternoon tea was on my Edinburgh bucket list so I really enjoyed it. I can now cross it off the list... though I might have to take my sister out for gluten free one when she comes to visit! Afterwards Grandma and Auntie Joanne came back to see my house. We went our separate ways to have a snooze (necessary after consuming lots of yummy things) and met up later for dinner at their hotel.

It was so wonderful to have them visit me. I am very lucky to have such nice family like them and Auntie Valerie and Uncle Adrian who are willing to travel all this way to see me and thoroughly spoil me the whole time they're here! I am looking forward to seeing them all again over the Christmas break.

Not sure if I've mentioned my Christmas plans yet but my parents are coming here to Edinburgh after my exams are over and are staying for a few days. I am hoping we'll get to do some of the tourist-y things like the castle. I also want to show them my house and campus so they can imagine me going about my life here. We're then renting a car and driving down to see my family in England where we'll meet up with my sister who will be flying from Canada. Catherine and I are going to go to London or Oxford together after New Year and then she's going to come back up with me to Edinburgh. I am really excited!