Spring has sprung
28 Mar 2011 Leave a Comment
Goodness, it’s been a while! I’ve been busy and my laptop is tempermental at the best of times! Never the less, here I am, 2 months on from my 25th and with lots going round in my head, where to start.
Lets go with the biggest change, I’m blonde, not just a little bit blonder than I was but BLONDE! It’s not exactly what I was hoping for when I asked the hairdresser to do a whole head of colour rather than the highlights, but I’m getting used to it now. Not sure how long I’ll keep it like this for, it’s quite a drastic change and the roots are going to be a nightmare!
before
after
As you can see from the before and after, it is a considerable difference! It is also making me make much more of an effort with my makeup, now I need mascara and eyeliner on everyday, otherwise I end up completely washed out! Have you ever had a hair cut/colour not quite go as expected? What did you do?
Excuse the rubbishness of the after photo – it’s the only one I have with my new hair on show properly. It was taken last Tuesday at the NUS Scotland Reclaim Your Voice march in Edinburgh. I was stewarding at it (hence the beautiful orange jacket!) it was a really good day, but I ended up with the flu after it and spent the next two days in my bed 
Shouldn’t complain really, it was nice to spend a day in the sunshine!
Today was another lovely sunshiney day in Edinburgh, definitely the first day of Summer. I dressed for the Spring, non of this winter warm-ness anymore! It was a dress, leggings and ballet pumps today for a walk to asda in the sunshine. It was lovely!
Reflections on my 25 year old self
30 Jan 2011 1 Comment
in All about me Tags: birthday
I turned 25 last Friday, I think it was one of the best birthdays I’ve had in years.
A busy, busy day at work, but all my wonderful work friends made it lovely! Bacon Roll breakfast, happy birthday sung to me, beautiful tea pot and cake stand and card from all my colleagues. Home to the flatmates cooking me steak pie and apple pie for dinner. Just perfect! Then a drink or two in the pub with friends who were visiting from London for the weekend.
My 24th, a nice day in work with a birthday lunch and cake from my two colleagues and lots of pretty wee presents. Followed by a Burns Supper and ceilidh in the evening at work. I was a school dinner lady for the night, and spent a lot of time explaining to International Students what Neeps were.
My 23rd, out for dinner and cocktails with a friend in the Social, but spent the whole night trying to figure out why the boy in my life at the time was so rubbish.
My 22nd, up North for a quiet day with the family. Out for lunch in the Morangie and then home for a nice home made cake.
My 21st, a big party with all my friends and family there. It was such a good night, and I was totally overwhelmed by all the presents I got. People were far too good to me.
My 20th, friends came down from up North and we took one of them to get a tattoo. Dinner in China Buffet King, drinks in Driftwood and dancing in the Garage. A good proper studenty birthday!
My 19th, spent being so ill I ended up in hospital (Gastroenteritis for those who may be interested). The rest of the day was spent trying to sleep on the sofabed in the livingroom while workmen fixed our smashed bedroom window.
My 18th, a birthday party up North with my family and friends, and some of my new Uni friends travelled up for it too.
My 17th, out for dinner in the Eagle, and then sneaking into some of the pubs for a few underage drinks!
My 16th, dinner and a sleepover with my school friends.
And that’s as far back as I can go.
All in all though, this year was definitely a high, nice and low key. Not finished yet though, got a long-weekend in North Berwick next weekend to look forward to!
365days
20 Jan 2011 Leave a Comment
in All about me
I’ve been a bit rubbish on here of late, but I hate saying that. It annoys me on other people’s blogs when they apologise for not writing, seriously, it’s not like everyone is sitting poised at their computers for days/weeks waiting for you to post!
That said, it had been my intention to get better at posting, instead I got sucked back into the world of 365days. 365days is a photo project, where you take a self portrait every day for a year.
I first successfully completed 365days in 2008/2009 not missing a single day. Since then I’ve tried a few times and never managed, I did get to about 200 days another time, but gave up. This time I’m trying to get my motivation back, and hopefully by starting on the 1st January it’ll be easier to keep with it.
So far all my photos have been taken with my trusty iPhone, as my wee point and shoot camera has pretty much died – think it got wet and now all my photos have a fuzzy look to them. However, by the end of the month I’m going to have a shiny new camera* and the photos will get better again!
If you happen to be interested, here is the link to my flickr account and my current 365days project. Flickr
*If anyone has any recommendations of a good point and shoot camera then send them my way! There’s so many out there I don’t know what I want. Actually, that’s not true, I want a good camera that can take pictures at night too as my old one was useless for that!
Winter is Blue (part three)
02 Jan 2011 Leave a Comment
in All about me, Winter is blue
Yo Sushi
The first day that snow closed my work, I was in town for a meeting, so I stayed in town and started my Christmas shopping. I met up with my friend, and she took me for sushi. It was a first for me and I loved it!
Line Up
We laughed a lot when we created this Line-Up for my flatmate to find when she came home – snow days definitely leave you with too much time on your hands!
Snow!
More snow than I have ever seen! My work was absolutely crazy, soon after this we got sent home! As much as I’ve moaned about the snow, I do find it quite exciting.
A room with a view
Having a view like this from your office window is incredible! Sometimes I wonder how I ever get any work done, it’s so beautiful. Though less beautiful when full of students and not snow covered admittedly…
Winter is blue (part two)
01 Jan 2011 Leave a Comment
in All about me, Winter is blue
And after a longer gap than intended, my favourite moments of Winter 2010 continue.
Christmas night out with work. Now most people who know me know that me and Christmas nights don’t mix. I have a bad track record, and this year was no better. The night always starts out nice and dignified, and ends up a drunken mess – as the photos above indicate. I had a wonderful time though despite the snow, and happily don’t remember parts of the evening!
The long walk home. I’ll never forget the day that the snow brought Edinburgh to a halt. The trains stopped, the buses stopped, everything stopped. Not knowing if/when the buses would restart, we decided to just walk home from work. 5 miles and 2.5 hours later we made it, after battling traffic, walking on busy roads and snow as deep as my elbows! Maybe not something I enjoyed at the time, but defintiely a story for the grandchildren!
Seeing the Gaslight Anthem (excuse the truely awful picture). The Gaslight Anthem have definitely been the soundtrack to my 2010. When things were terrible I’d sit in my room listening to them through my headphones and block the rest of the world out.
No not the ice-cream, the whereabouts of the ice-cream. Winter 2010 was when I started volunteering with the Brownies, this was taken at the Gang Show. I can honestly say I’ve loved every moment of volunteering with them, long may it continue!
I know my love of coffee has already been mentioned, but this was a special moment. Sitting in the window of Starbucks on Princes Street, with the snow falling outside, the snow stopping and the light being just right to catch this shot of Edinburgh Castle.
Winter is blue (part one)
21 Dec 2010 Leave a Comment
in All about me, Winter is blue Tags: coffee, Poker, Starbucks
So I’m trying to be positive and make the most of it.
Here are some of my favourite moments of Winter 2010 – Apologies for those you have already seen/read about, but it’s my list so tough. (Not in any order, just as I find/remember them)
Starbucks
I spend pretty much every Sunday afternoon in Starbucks on Princes Street. Either reading a book, or catching up with friends. It makes me happy and it’s now firmly part of my weekend routine.
Deserted Rose Street at 7am
Queueing for hours outside TicketScotland for Take That tickets. We had a lot of laughs, but by 9:15 we had our tickets and everyone who hadn’t queued was frantically stuck in the whole ticketmaster website fiasco. I’d definitely do it again – with the right company ofcourse!
Awesome Birthday Cake
Bonfire night in the rain. It also happened to be my friend’s birthday, so we stood in her garden, under umbrellas as her flatmates set off fireworks. In lieu of any photos of the fireworks, you get to see the amazing birthday cake she had!
#demo2010
The NUS/UCU Anti-Cuts Demo. I wasn’t at the main demo in London, but through my work I was involved. It’s something I’m proud to have been involved in, I may not be a student any more, but I don’t want to see the cuts come in… “You say cut-back, we say fight-back”.
Poker Night
I’ve enjoyed embracing my natural hairstyle and being curly for a change. I also enjoyed a poker night, where I lose miserably, but had great fun using a magnifying glass to read the hands from the back of the packet.
Snow bother
20 Dec 2010 Leave a Comment
in All about me, Edinburgh, Travel, Uncategorized Tags: Edinburgh, scotrail, snow
Was it just a month ago that I was bemoaning the lack of snow and dreaming of it’s fluffy whiteness? I take it all back, I’m over it now. After falling flat on my back on Princes Street on day two of the snow I was fed up. Not just fed up, but fed up and cold, wet, bruised and sore. My feelings towards the snow haven’t really improved since then.
However, look at some of our playing in the snow photos, I must admit that this was a lovely day in the snow. Old disused cemetarys take on a beautiful quality in the snow.
The snow was up over the top of my wellies, but since the cemetary is across the street from my flat wet feet were nothing to worry about and we went for a good explore.
That day in the snow was fun. What wasn’t fun was the day Lothian Buses stopped all bus services (completely understandable, I’m not complaining about them) and I got stuck at work and had to walk 5 miles home through the snow which in parts was elbow deep! I tell you, walking on the road on the A71 is a terrifying experience, but it’s one for the grandkids!
Despite all of this, my absolute worse snow moment of the year was trying to get the train from Edinburgh to Inverness yesterday. The train was half an hour late, which meant I had to stand in the snow on the platform at Haymarket for 45 minutes losing all feeling in my feet.
The train was then so ridiculously cold I can’t even describe it. I kept all my layers on and wrapped myself in a blanket too – thanking my foresight of packing one. It just didn’t get warm. Then they put the air-conditioning on and it was so cold you could see your breath. The only thing I can compare it to is when the dementors come onto the train in Harry Potter. Add all that to a nasty hangover and it really was the journey from hell. On the plus side, I’ve now made it home and wont be stranded in Edinburgh for Christmas.
The Happy List
25 Nov 2010 Leave a Comment
in Uncategorized Tags: favourite things, happy
Things that are making me happy just now:
The met office forecasting snow. Though I’m a bit impatient now, everywhere other than Edinburgh seems to have snow. The sooner we get it the better. I’m like a child when it comes to snow, it makes me so excited and happy! In fact, I’ve put on my snowflake pyjamas to try and help it snow!
I dream of it being like this again.
Listening to Take That again. I’ve not got the new album yet, but I’ve spent a enjoyable few hours at work listening to the greatest hits. – The rule I’ve decided upon for the office is ‘first in gets to chose the music’, so far this is working out very well for me. That said, I’ve not quite told my boss this, so he seems to be happily putting up with my music choice for now!
Ridiculously excited to see all 5 of them together again!
Shopping. I’ve done a lot of shopping over the last few days. I’d like to say that it’s been Christmas presents, but it really hasn’t. It’s all been for me! And here are my two new favourites.
Could this H&M top be any cuter?
30% off in Gap, go on then...
Coffee. I’m a sefl confessed coffee addict, and a Starbucks addict at that. Nothing makes me happier than the yearly return of the red cups and the Christmas coffees. Now that the wee Starbucks in my work has started doing Gingerbread Lattes I’m on a definite caffeine high all day, every day.
Not my favourite red cup design, but it'll do!
Live music. I went to see Gaslight Anthem last week and they were great. I’d forgotten how happy seeing good live music makes me, the singing and dancing along and getting caught up in the moment. It always helps when a gig is in the Picturehouse as it has a long narrow stage which means I can always see!
Actually love this band.
Reading. I’ve managed to get back to reading and am rarely without a book in my handbag these days. I’ve just finished ‘One Day’ by David Nicholls. It’s incredible, really makes you think.
Go read this book.
It’s nearly the Christmas holidays. We finish up on the 20th December and don’t start back again until the 7th January. I can’t wait, I feel like I need a proper break and 3 weeks is definitely a proper break!
The countdown is on!
That’s my wee list. What’s making you happy just now?
Halloween-o-phobic
09 Nov 2010 Leave a Comment
in Edinburgh Tags: Halloween, scared
I hate halloween. It pretty much is a night full of everything I dislike. I have a ridiculous number of phobias, including (but not limited to):
- Costumes
- People dressed up at all
- People jumping out on me
- Pitch black darkness
- Ghostly things
- Mannequins
So as you can imagine, halloween is not a good time for me at all, pretty much all of those things appear on a regular basis.
This year my friends was going out for her brithday on halloween, and the only reason I agreed to go out was because we were going to the casino and she assured me that there wouldn’t be people in costume there (she was right). And so, for the first time in years I ventured out on the Saturday of the halloween weekend.
The casino was fine, my friend walked me home and all in all I survived, just a few people in costume on the street to frighten me, but nothing too bad at all. Result. I was happy and had survived my first halloween outing in a long time.
On the Sunday (actual halloween) me and my two colleagues were taking a large group of International students on one of the ghost walks in the city centre. Always going to be a bad idea, I’m not sure what posessed me to go for it in the first place.
I met the students on the bus, and they were all dressed up in costumes, wearing masks, faces painted, the full works. Already I didn’t like it, and could feel the fear rising in me, but I had to be professional and put the fear to one side, and that was difficult.
Got to St Giles to meet up with everyone else, and thankfully didn’t pass to many other dressed up people en-route. And so the tour began. We did the Haunted Graveyard tour and I was terrified. The history parts were really interesting, I think I’d enjoy just doing history tours, but obviously that’s not what it’s all about. By the time we got to Greyfriars Kirkyard I’d got myself pretty worked up and really wanted to be anywhere but there.
I was holding onto my colleague for dear life as we went into the Covenanters Prison and eventually into the Mausoleum. I’m not going to spoil it for anyone else who might go on it, but I was terrified, almost shaking with fear.
I survived though (just) and made the long walk back to Princes St by myself, trying to avoid people in costume and just wanting to get home as quickly as possible and away from anything scary that might be following me.
My flatemates found it quite amusing that I was still so scared by the time I got home. I hadn’t enjoyed it at all, and I certainly didn’t sleep well that night. Nighmare central indeed.
The lesson I learnt from it all? I’m scared of these things anyway, sometimes I should just be clever and say no I’m not doing it.
Poker Face
08 Nov 2010 Leave a Comment
The last two weekends I’ve been gambling, something I’ve never done before.
A few weeks ago on a drunken night out we ended up in the casino, my memories are very hazy, I know I was there, but that’s about it. My first trip to a casino and I don’t remember it. It’s a little bit disappointing. So when a friend suggested going to the casino last weekend for her birthday I was more than happy to go along, see what I’d missed the first time round.
I had a great time, a friend taught me to play roulette, I got quite into it, and by the end of the night I was only £5 down, so all in all I was happy with the situation. Oddly, when I went to cash my ‘winnings’ or ‘losings’ depending on how you look at it, I had to confirm my address when I handed in my card. I reeled off my address, to be told no that’s not it. Hmm… Maybe in my drunken signing up I’d put my old address in Leith (I’d only moved a month previously), but no that wasn’t it either. Finally the girl asked me if West Brae meant anything to me? Yes, yes it did. West Brae was my Paisley address. Absolutely no idea why I would have registered with that address, still totally confused by it.
Then this weekend we decided to have a quiet night in round at the boy’s*. A poker night to be precise. I’ve only ever played poker once in my life, but decided to go for it. Again it was a great night, I didn’t win, I didn’t even nearly win, I was the second person to go out, but it was fun.
I think I like the etiquette of gambling like that, I like rules and systems, so it appeals to me. Things need to be done properly and precisely. I could really get used to it, as long as I stay with £2 buy ins I don’t think it’s going to be a problem!
Funny picture time – As two of us were totally new to poker, we were using the back of the pack of cards that had all the hands printed on it. Unfortunately the pictures were so small we couldn’t see them, so a magnifying glass came to the rescue. – And yes, I’m wearing my hair ‘au naturale’ again.
*The boy being my flatmate’s boyfriend.
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