Day 593: A spot of bother

Whenever I start something different — a trip, a job change, anything new at all — I often start out with some disappointment.

I’m not sure why I get bothered by change, that way. Maybe I’m …

• anxious,
• stressed out,
• cranky
• expecting too much,  or
• fearful that any change might be a mistake, making things worse.

These days, at least,  I know enough to EXPECT this  reaction from myself. So, I’m ready for a spot of bother, when I’m starting something new, and I recover from it, more quickly.

Today, my 16-year-old son and I flew from Boston USA to Edinburgh, Scotland (via Philadelphia PA) for a six-day stay at the Fringe Festival.

Sure enough, when we got to our hotel, I felt that old, familiar disappointment.  I think I was bothered, because it wasn’t the familiar place we stayed in, last year. Now, that change was deliberate; we WANTED something new.  I knew to expect difference, going in. Nevertheless, when we made our way to our new hotel, I felt a strong sense of nostalgia, for our experience last year.

Well, the hotel last year DID have an AMAZING view, of Edinburgh Castle.

You can’t beat that, can you?

Today, after my son and I  found out that our hotel room wasn’t ready, we walked around Edinburgh, trying to experience the old and the new, including lots of people attending the Fringe Festival.  I did take some photos but — I’ll warn you —  they’re not that great.  I was jet lagged and my son gets cranky, sometimes, when I stop to take pictures.

However, maybe some of these images are good enough, for now.

That’s a photo I took from the new tram system in Edinburgh, which brought us from the airport to our hotel.

Oooops! I just got a message, on my laptop, saying that I was about to exceed my data transfer limit for my internet access in the hotel

Yikes!  I’d better find out what I can do about that.

I may very well  be disappointed about internet access here, especially if I compare that data transfer limit to every other hotel I’ve blogged from, since January 1, 2013.

It’s a good thing I committed to posting only one photo a day here, from Edinburgh.

Here’s the photo I definitely wanted to show you, today:

 

 

Hmmm. I’m not sure if that image is even showing up here. If you can’t see it, it’s a photo I took on the plane, of the book I’m reading.

“A Spot of Bother,” by Mark Haddon.

So far, I LOVE it.

Thanks to Mark Haddon, to my son, to the good people of Edinburgh, to those who are on the fringe, to people who do their best to let go of disappointment and unhelpful comparisons, to friends old and new,  and to you — of course! — for taking the bother to be here, today.