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Published: November 23rd 2008
Photo 1
Arthur's Seat with Mark. This was a cool moment, the bird (I'd like to believe it was a small raven) was perfectly framed on this tree. We later found out that week that Mark's clan crest has a raven on it. Ooooh spooky. The morning of Mark's arrival dawned. Well, rather, it tried to peep out from the fog and grey cloud that was hanging over the city. I had moved into the flat we'd rented the night before, and had luxuriated in the double bed, bathtub and self-catering kitchen. I had also stocked the fridge with the essentials: Pizza, veggies, Guinness and a bottle of champagne.
His flight was due in at 8:10, and I was at the airport by about quarter to, pacing the Arrivals lounge. Two months of not having seen each other, two months of missing each other. I was doing my very very best to channel any sort of "tranquil stream" energy while I waited. It did NOT help that there were 2 flights getting in from Heathrow at exactly the same time, and I wasn't sure which one was his. So I stood there at the gate, watching people come out, my heart having wee anticipatory attacks every time I saw a man over 6 feet tall. Do you have ANY idea how many men are over 6 feet in this world?!?!? Hundreds. And they all live at Edinburgh Airport. It felt like ages before I saw
him come through, and I could contain the excited-puppy-dog-energy. I vaguely remember doing some sort of hopping motion before pouncing him, unaware of the fact that he was carrying his luggage.
My poor boy had flown over the Atlantic, had a 9 HOUR LAYOVER in Heathrow, and then a 1-hour flight to Edinburgh. Add a time change to that, and you have an extreme case of Space Cadetitis. And it was 8:30 am. Insane. I knew I had to get him to our flat as soon as possible, cause we all know that nothing's better or more needed than dropping all your stuff and just relaxing after a journey. We had the flat for the four nights before our Skye tour departed, so it was great to have a place of our own to re-connect and just hang out. Both of us desperately missed just chilling with each other; drinking, talking, watching movies.
So we did just that: got some movies, visited one of the local pubs and just took it easy. I let him sleep. The first night we didn't have any hot water, so we had to boil some so he could take a bath...hilarious. Didn't
seem to matter to either of us, really.
We went out the next day, and I introduced Mark to the Royal Mile. We just mosey-ed around, no schedule. It was like that the whole time, actually. We just slept until we felt like getting up, ate well, drank well and just kind of wandered the city. I had to make myself remember what it was like to see all of it for the first time, what I felt like last May when I arrived in Edinburgh myself. He had a book of Edinburgh with some of the top tourist things to do and see, and we worked our way through a lot of them! Arthur's Seat, Royal Mile, Edinburgh Castle, National Museum, Grassmarket, St. Giles Cathedral, pubs pubs pubs, George St., etc. etc.
I can't describe fully what it was like to be with him again. We were both kind of shy with each other that first 24 hours, but even that was so lovely. Of course, we'd talked regularly since I'd left, but being in each other's space again was feeling brand new and unexplored.
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