man-flu and the muckle brig

man flu sucks. woke up yesterday and mrs hope mentioned i'd been keeping her awake with my sniffing during the night. as my nose ran freely into my first handerchief of the day i had to admit i might well be coming down with a cold.

work was fine, such as it was. i even managed to hook up with a good friend in the afternoon for a chat over a coffee (i have to say i am yet to find a coffee to rival a small fair-trade latte from 'the one on the corner' on baldwin street. even mrs hope's new place of employment, '232' on gloucester road, doesn't come close).

last night we flew up to edinburgh, thence to st. andrews, to see mrs hope's spiritual parents and surrogate family, the fosters. they have recently planted the kingdom vineyard, which makes it slightly harder to visit them, but all the more precious when we do. last night they collected us from edinburgh and we drove up on a beautifully clear, moonlight night. the forth bridge was resplendent in its scaffolding and striking red paint. we hope to take the train back to edinburgh tomorrow, and i think it will be the first time i will have crossed the firth of forth on the forth bridge, as opposed to the forth road bridge.

the journey was only marred by the incessant flow of snot from my nose, as well as the occassional sneeze. thankfully the fosters have a well-stocked 'drug-drawer' and i took full advantage of chewable vitamin c tablets and night-nurse before crashing. this morning the drugs are keeping me from eroding my nose any further (oh how i crave some kleenex balsaam) but my head is stuffed with cotton-wool. as usual when we stay with the fosters, our tummies are equally stuffed with a fried breakfast.

the scenery in the kingdom is stunning, and i hope mrs hope will take advantage of this with our camera.