Slowing down

It has been a wacky, chaotic, busy couple of weeks.

- December 17th my parents arrived in Glasgow from Vancouver

- Dec 19 packed up my flat then hopped the train to Edinburgh to sign the lease and collect the keys to my new flat

- Dec 20 loaded up a large van and moved the majority of my stuff to Edinburgh

- Dec 21 head back to Glasgow to crash at a friends flat as I'm still working until the 31st (Mom and Dad stay at the Edinburgh flat)

- Dec 23 my parents joining me in Glasgow for the Christmas break

- Dec 27 Mom and Dad head back to Edinburgh

- Dec 30 drinks with a few friends from the office

- Dec 31 my last day at work, pack up what I can carry and hop the train to Edinburgh where once I arrive I shut the door to my bedroom and I have a good cry. It was an emotional day.

- Dec 31/Jan 1st, view the fireworks on Calton Hill and the Castle from the warmth of my lounge window. Pretty good views :)

- Jan 2 try to unpack/organise as much as I can in the flat

- Jan 3 pack my suitcase as we (Mom & Dad and I) go on a one week holiday to Lagos Portugal

- Jan 3, 4 & 5, suffer from a horrible cold that I caught during the last hour of the flight

- Jan 5 - 10th enjoy all Lagos has to offer

-Jan 10th, proceed to miss our return flight to Edinburgh thanks to our prebooked private shuttle to Faro Airport failing to arrive in a timely fashion. We were able to book flights departing the next day (for full fare of course) and find accommodation close by the airport.

- Jan 11th spend 10 hours in transit (Faro to Prestwick, miss the train by minutes, so sit at the Yale Pub in the airport for an hour enjoying a Pint and onion rings, catch the next train to Glasgow Central, discover the Glasgow Central trains to Edinburgh are not running that evening due to track maintenance, walk to Queen Street station, catch the 7PM service to Edinburgh, catch a taxi from Waverly Station to my flat).

- Jan 12th start my new job

- Jan 13th, discover bedroom radiator is leaking and boiler is dodgy

- Jan 14th boiler not working, no heat :(

- Jan 15th boiler & radiator get fixed

- Jan 16th hook up with the Edinburgh Flickr group and meet my fellow camera geeks, then discover how to get to Ikea by bus

- Jan 17th accompany my parents back to Glasgow to enjoy one last dinner at the Lansdowne Pub before sending them on their way to the Holiday Inn at the airport

- Jan 18th Mom and Dad fly home, it snows in Edinburgh and in the evening I enjoy the last of the risotto from the fridge and a glass of Rioja

No wonder I'm tired!

And Now, The Answers

Simon:
- Sort of, but it looks like I missed you.

Graham:
- it depends on what year, Calah was the earliest but Nineveh was the last.

Dezene:
- I didn't have to sign anything to get into the country saying I would eat a specific quota of Haggis, but it is the traditional dinner on January 25th (Robbie Burns Day). I didn't see any frozen dinners (it's usually vacuum packed) but it is a regular staple on the grocery store shelves. The below shot was taken today as proof, it's on the middle shelf.



Staccato:
- the square root of pi

Ginger:
- By hanging on to outdated imperialist dogma which perpetuates the economic and social differences in our society.

Isabel:
- The architecture & the fabulous selection of single malts in the pubs
- Biblio Cafe
- Stravaigin
- I don't know if it counts as bizarre, but having a conversation over a pint (at the Stravaigin of course) with an American Comedian. But it might have been more than a fortnight ago.
- Learning to speak a foreign language fluently
- I have a dream of creating my own business giving one on one cooking lessons in peoples homes
- A pair that fit properly and don't make my feet look smaller than what they already are. But really I'm more a sucker for boots
- Nope

John:
- 42

Kathy:
- I don't have children so at this point and time I'm not qualified to answer that question

Anonymous:
- I'm not allowed to talk to strangers

Katie:
- Long term yes, but not necessarily in Scotland as I'd be happy pretty much anywhere in the UK.

Ya ya I know

I realize it's been a while since I've posted. But I just can't believe any of you out there want to hear me go on and on about my work. And that is pretty much been the focus of the last 10 days.

I've been really good about not putting in the marathon hours but the days have been quite stressful so when I come home I usually grab a nice afternoon nap, then when I get up it's time to cook dinner and when that's done it's bed time (such an exciting life I lead I know).

But it's not all bad.

Went to a movie Friday night "The Walker" murder mystery set in Washington DC with a stellar cast. Then off to a pub to meet up with a few of the girls for dinner.

Saturday went to Edinburgh again to do some shopping and came away with a few fabulous vintage pieces. If I can get my act together I'll do a bit of a fashion show to post the results (but one piece needs to be altered so I'll wait until that's done as it's my fav).

Sunday was it's usual busy pace, rehearsal early as we were on team for the morning service. B's parents are in town so they came out and we all went for brunch afterwards. Sunday night was the going away party for a fellow St Silasite (one of my first connections at the church) as he's moving to Inverness.

Looking at the week ahead I've got some plans in the works already. A movie quiz night Tuesday with friends, Wednesday discussing Kitchen renovation plans and later in the week I need to tackle roasting a chicken that's been sitting in the freezer too long.

See nothing too exciting.

But - if you've got any burning questions for me out there, please drop a comment and I'll answer you here and then perhaps my postings will be a bit more regular.

Ta for now.

Catching Up

It's been another busy week. Sunday afternoon and Monday night I worked from home (finally figured out how to connect to the office with my work laptop). Tuesday afternoon I hopped another flight as I had meetings to attend Wed & Thursday in our Chichester office. Got home very late Thursday night and then Friday was another busy day at work. Went to the pub for a pint with a few of the guys at work and then after I took one of my staff out for dinner as she just needed to talk and vent in a safe environment (I'm such a good boss).

So now I find myself another Saturday curled up on the couch, sitting in a sunbeam with a coffee by my side and thinking about me and my life. Here are some updates.

Writing

I've now posted 2 entries on some blog writing contests. I posted a link the the first but I've been asked to actually post the stories here as I guess some people don't like to search for things. So what I will do is have 2 separate posts with those stories (see below this post). I've read about a 3rd contest that I'm thinking about taking a stab at, but this one has a 250 word limit and I find cutting things down to 500 words incredibly hard. I can't image containing it to 250. But I'll give it a try and will post my attempt after the fact.

Music

I've still been trolling YouTube to find videos to share of stuff that I like that is a bit on the obscure side. Like the writing, I'll dedicate a specific post for that (again see below). I also purchased a couple of CD's that have been on my list for a while: Kasabian, Arctic Monkeys, Interpol and U2. Now I just need some time to listen to them.

Stress

My trip to Chichester was one of the most stressful situations I've ever been in. I was there to 'represent' my office/team from Glasgow at a client meeting. I was given good feedback after the fact which helped. But as result of my calm cool exterior and stuffing all that nervous anxiety on the inside I have broken out in a huge patch of eczema on my chin (too much information I know). Now that I'm home it's slowly getting under control and healing thanks to some hydro cortisone cream but looking in the mirror, I'm not sure I want to go out in public just yet.

Photography

I haven't taken many pictures lately as I've not been in an overly creative mood and the weather has just been terrible. Too much cloud cover and the lighting conditions are terrible. Somehow I need to kick start that passion again, just not quite sure how. I need to look for something to inspire me I guess. Here's today's attempt.



New Toy

My parents bought me an iPod nano for my birthday and it just arrived. Now I've got to figure out how the darn thing works. It's so wee.



The Birthday Part 2

My flat mate was off gallivanting around Italy during my birthday. Tonight she's making up for it, should be fun.

It's All About Me Today

Yes, today is my birthday. Although if you want to get technical it's not REALLY my birthday until 7:30 PST or 15:30 GMT. Knowing how my day will progress at 15:30 I'll probably be stuck on a call with a screaming IFA or will be knee deep in a spreadsheet. So I thought best to start now and I've opened the few cards that I've received over the week but was just storing on the hall shelf until today. So thank-you to those well wishers, your thoughtfulness is appreciated and I'll drop each of you an email during my Saturday morning correspondence session on the couch.

It's going to be a bit of a weird day as my flat-mate is currently in Italy traveling with her brother & sister-in-law (tough gig I know) and at work there are a number of people off, any other friends I've made have either moved away or already have plans. Soooo, I may just end up treating myself to a CD or two if the shop is still open after work, then perhaps a French flick with plans to meet up after with a friend for a drink.

I will accept all wishes of sympathy for my sad situation in being alone and mourning once again my fleeting youth.

Money & expensive gifts would help though.

Things I Did on my Day Off

It was really, really, really hard for me not to go into the office today. I actually had people Friday night trying to find my building security card in my purse so they could take it away so that I wouldn't be able to get into the building. But then they remembered that on the weekends there is a security guard that has to buzz you in anyway. So instead they made me promise I wouldn't go in. I thought about it off and on all weekend but I didn't. Instead, here's what I did on my day off...

I slept in, I mean I really slept in. I think it was after 10AM when I finally rolled out of bed.

Then I did the dishes. You see Sunday was a really busy day. In the morning was the Easter Service as St Silas, and the evening both my flatmate and I were involved on the worship team. So that meant an early dinner and us having to fly out of the door last night shortly after eating as we had to be at a rehearsal for 5:15 (which we were still late for) and then after the evening service we were invited to a friends place for drinks. Didn't get home until after 1AM so the dishes were still in the sink when I got up this morning.

I made a pot of coffee, plugged in my laptop in the lounge and opened the curtains and curled up in the chair pushed into the bay window to bask in the morning light.

I looked to see if I had any emails (so those of you out there that read this, I really like to get emails on Saturday morning, hint hint, it makes me feel connected and loved). I got caught up n all the blogs I follow and then it was time for the Saturday Guardian. I'd purchased it Saturday night, but never got around to reading it. There were no comics in the Guardian, I miss that from the Vancouver Sun, Saturday's paper always had the colour comics.

During this I listened to some music. You see I just found the volume knob on my laptop that I didn't realize was there. It's very small and black and it's just to the right of where I plug in my headphones. Up until now I've been very disappointed in the audio of my laptop as it wasn't very loud. But that's because I've only been adjusting the sound via the volume icon in the tool bar.

Things sound much better now. So while reading the paper I listened to Ray Lamontagne's Trouble. A friend had mentioned he was listening to it on Friday and I was thinking to myself I don't think I've played it since I moved here:



Saturday's paper is big (all those supplements) so next I had Amos Lee playing, it's his self titled debut album:




Then when I was finished the paper I worked on loading my pictures from my camera onto my flickr site and to accompany this task I put on John Mayer's debut EP Inside Wants Out. This album was one of those unexpected finds. Back when John started hitting the airwaves, I'd liked what I heard and went in search of his debut album. This was what I thought I was buying. However, when popping it into the CD player what I discovered I'd purchased was his lesser known independent release. Much of what was on the disc was solo acoustic tunes (just him and his guitar) that would later make it onto the full length album with a full band. I never did end up purchasing that first studio album as I knew it would lack the emotion that I loved with the EP. It's still one of my favorite albums:



So my lazy morning is now the afternoon and I need to get out of the flat. I decided to walk down to city centre and see what was playing at the movies. I picked something brainless that I knew my flatmate would have absolutely no desire watching, Mr Bean's Holiday


Much better than the first Bean movie as this one played out more like one of the TV episodes, i.e. minimal dialogue, mostly situational physical humour. It was also filmed in France so I was enjoying looking at the countryside as I'll be spending 5 days in Paris in May.

Walking back from the movie I stopped at the grocery store and picked up a chicken to roast for dinner. I haven't cooked much in the last few weeks. No, let me rephrase that, I haven't cooked from scratch very much in the last few weeks due to the long nights at the office. Cooking is a bit of therapy for me, but getting home at 9 or 10 at night means I've got zero energy so I've been relying quite a bit on prepared dishes that the stores here offer a plenty. I tell you, if you don't know how or don't like to cook, this is definitely the country for you.

So whilst preparing my Citrus Spiced Roast chicken I've been listening to Ryan Adams, Love Is Hell Volumes 1 & 2:

Ryan is doing a good job of reflecting the mood I've been in for the last week or so. I've been in a real blue funk and it's been a tough slog trying to get out of it. But I think being blue every now and then is good for the soul. I tend to take more pictures and get outside and go for long walks to be alone with my thoughts. Being so busy with work I tend to shove my emotions away and just fly on adrenaline. So when I do get a break everything floods in at once and it's hard to process and I can feel a bit overwhelmed. Having the 3 day migraine didn't help much either.

But it's now late, the chicken finished cooking and has already been carved and eaten (it was wonderful in case you were wondering). I'm more than happy to email you the recipe if you're interested.



The day is just about over and tomorrow it's back to the organized chaos of the office.