Eating, Drinking, and Being Merry

This shall constitute the second of my posts about my travels, and I'm not entirely certain of where to begin. First, I suppose I shall note that I love the euphemism for having had a wee bit too much to drink that is "merry" as it is much nicer than the americanisms that we have for the same state. I mean, who wouldn't want to be merry? That said, I'm not entirely certain that I was only merry the night that G. declared that I was - I think I was a bit on the other side of merry, if you get what I'm saying. At any rate, I digress.

So I ate a great deal during my trip, including traditional fare, such as beans with breakfast (which I remember from the last time I was in the UK and still find bizarre), haggis, cullen skink, black pudding.... so yes, I did not shy away from trying things, and I was pleasantly surprised by the last three on the list - and most particularly by the cullen skink, I must say.

On the first night that we got to G's parents' we ordered Chinese food, which was just like American Chinese food with two exceptions: 1) one of the dishes ordered was a curry; 2) there were also chips (i.e., french fries). I have no problem with these items in theory, but in practice it was slightly odd to have them with chinese food. Yummy nonetheless. G's friends in Kirkcaldy made a delicious chicken stew for us on our first night there after driving up from Wales (and on this night a great deal of wine and beer was also consumed, which led to wicked awful hangovers the next day, but I actually didn't feel as poorly as I might have as I was the most sensible of our lot and insisted that it was bedtime when the sun rose, which admittedly is early in Scotland, but still, when the sun comes up it is time for people to be sleeping I'm thinking, even if this was not the only sunrise I saw on the wrong end during my stay....) and then the next day we had breakfast (eggs, beans, bacon, black pudding) and went out to a lovely dinner (which was where I tried both the haggis and the cullen skink). The next day, G. and I wended our way to St. Andrews, we had pasta for dinner, and then went to a cocktail party at his friends' T. and S.'s place. (This would be the night on which he declared me "merry" when I was pathetically apologizing for my state.) The following day we spent hours walking along this beach, and then Ghengis and his housemate Romeo organized a lovely Moroccan feast for dinner. The next day was the trip to the highlands (about which I will say more in another post) and I feel like I had soup and a sandwich for lunch? And then we went to a neighbor's cook-out for dinner? And then we went out that evening. The following day we returned to Wales (and I know we ate before and I feel like I had shepherd's pie or something). Back in wales, G's mom made a lasagna for dinner the first night and a curry the second night. I also think that I perfected the art of negotiating for a non-heart-attack inducing breakfast, and I learned the art of distracting her from the desire to feed me by requesting ever more cups of tea. (I LOVE G's mom. His dad, too, really. And the brothers are quite lovely. Actually, I met many of his cousins and some aunts and uncles as well as talked to his sister on the phone a few years ago in Dublin, and I loved them, too. Perhaps I just want to adopt G's family - or to have them adopt me?)

So yes, that's the food portion of the trip.

As for the drinking and being merry? Well, suffice it to say that I drank every single day from July 6 through July 16. As you might imagine, I am in the process of detoxing and have been since my return (with the exception of Friday and Saturday nights, as friends from Hometown needed me to be merry with them as well - and speaking of which, send A. big hugs and support as her stupid boyfriend (whom I dubbed the Accidental Husband) broke up with her in a horrifying display of cowardliness and self-pity). What did I drink?

Wine (white and red - many, many varieties)
Pints (again, of various stripes)
Martinis
Champagne
Gin
Vodka
(The last two being separately from the martinis)

I do believe that is all.

Ok, must download pics so that I can show you all some sights from the trip!