Romeo and Juliet went for Tex-Mex
11 Oct 2010 Leave a Comment
Sometimes you just have the perfect evening, and for me, Friday was pretty much that.
I left work at 5, knowing I was out for the weekend after working 12 days, so it was a great feeling already to be able to walk out and know I wouldn’t even be checking my work e-mails over the weekend.
Got the bus to Shandwick Place and took a stroll up Lothian Road, at this point I was way too early to meet L for dinner, so I walked and walked, and called my mum and had a good chat with her – I’d been so busy all week I hadn’t had a chance to speak to her properly – planning what to do for my sister’s 10th birthday this weekend.
Decided it was time to head to illegal jacks and find out what all the fuss was about. I was certainly not disappointed, a huge burrito and wine for £10, excellent! The girl who served us was brilliant too, “do you know how to eat this?” “um, no?”, “you open, unwrap a bit, and om nom nom”! She was awesome and totally made our night! So much filling in the burritos that we both had to admit defeat, we’ll be back though!
From illegal jacks we wandered to the Lyceum, I’d managed to get free tickets to see Romeo and Juliet so we thought we would have a cultured night and go. Before we went, I wasn’t too sure about Shakespeare, I mean yes, of course I’d studied it in school and seen the Leonardo Di Caprio film many many times. But to see Shakespeare in the theatre, I was a little bit apprehensive, Shakespearean acting was a bit above me and I wasn’t sure what to expect.
I’d read excellent reviews, so decided to go with an open mind. I’d also never been to the Lyceum, and it is beautiful, the ceiling is simply breathtaking with the most amaxing chandelier. (Apologies for the poor iPhone photo!).
Anyway, back to Romeo and Juliet. It was incredible. Out of everything I’d thought, I never imagined it would be funny, but it was proper laugh out loud funny. The acting was brilliant, I knew everything that was going on, I felt their emotions, and yes, I cried when they died. I’m so so glad I went to see it and gave it a chance. I wish it was still on so that I could recommend it to you all, but if it ever comes back, I really do urge you to go.
We left the theatre both a bit teary and emotional (no, that’s not code for drunk) and decided to ‘man up’ and go join the boys in the pub where they had been watching the football. So onto Footlights we went, and we were pretty much the only women in there, it was a bit much in our current mindset.
The boys were watching the Darts (and we were told not to ask about the football). Darts is not a sport I’ve ever given any thought to, but they were getting so into it I felt I had to ask for an explanation. Turns out, it’s much more sensible and straightforward that football and I understood it straight away and was soon cheering along with the rest of them!
Some of the boys left to go to another pub, it was on the other side of town, and that would mean walking there, and walking back, so we declined and walked home via the petrol station for milk (rock and roll or what?!), and once got home, got into our pyjamas, made cups of tea and watched Fawlty Towers. It was a perfect evening and I had a fantastic night.
A weekend in my life
20 Sep 2010 Leave a Comment
A long weekend at home, I really do enjoy it. Anytime I have more than my usual two days at the weekend off I’m straight on the train and heading North. Four hours from leaving Edinburgh and I’m at home, sitting by the fire with a cat on my knee.
Here’s how my weekend goes:
Thursday 4pm – Leave work early (sometimes there are perks to having no staff or managers, I make my own hours) and get the bus home. Once back in the flat I go back through everything I packed the night before and pack all my make up and things like that that I couldn’t pack the night before.
Thursday 5:15pm – Leave the flat laden down with bags, hope that a bus will be going past that I can jump on for the two or three stops to Haymarket. This time I’m in luck, and as lazy as it makes me feel, it’s easier than walking through people with all my bags! (I say all my bags, I have a handbag, a laptop backpack and my overnight bag).
Thursday 5:25pm – Go into Starbucks to get some coffee to sustain me through my trip. This time it’s a Soy Caramel Latte.
Thursday 5:30pm – Go into Haymatket and wait for ages for the train to appear on the announcement board. I’m always too wary to just go to the platform, just incase it’s changed for some reason – like the papal visit!
Thursday 5:45pm – A rickety old SPT train pulls up to the platform. The sort of train that usually goes from Glasgow to Paisley. I’m completely confused, this is definitely not what I was expecting. However after discussion with other confused passengers, I get on the train and hope for the best. No seat reservations, but thankfully plenty of seats available – I would not have been amused otherwise!! Turns out all the good trains were being used to get people between Edinburgh – Glasgow for the papal visit, so we were left with the rubbish train.
Unusually, and a little disappointingly, the train journey goes without incident and I don’t have any strange travelling companions! My book of choice for this journey is The Book of Tomorrow by Cecelia Aherne.
Thursday 9pm – Get into Inverness, where it is absolutely freezing and I’m definitely not wearing the right clothes for it! Picked up at the train station by my mum and little sister, run through the rain to the car and start the 45 minute drive home.
Thursday 9:45pm – Arrive home, say hello to the dogs before they knock me over with their excitement, and then sit in front of the fire with a cup of tea and some slices of warm, home-made bread.
Thursday 10pm – Watch a re-run of Footballers Wives with my mum and find myself surprised by how many of the characters and storylines I remember from 10 years ago!
Thursday 11pm – Go to bed and wrap up warmly against the cold wind. It’s definitely wintery here!
Friday 8am – An early wake up call so I can fight for the bathroom with my little sister before she goes to school. Shower, tea and cereal and I feel more like a human being again. Then to raid my mum’s room to borrow her hair-dryer and straighteners and I’m good to face the day.
Friday 9:15am – Leave the house and walk to the bus stop to catch the bus to Tain. This is the bus stop I used to catch my school bus from and it hasn’t changed, all the graffiti from 10-15 years ago is still there, it’s very strange.
Friday 9:25am – Get on the bus, and I’m easily the youngest on it by about 40 years. I recognise all the faces though and try to avoid small talk.
Friday 9:35am – Arrive in Tain and make my way to the hairdressers, even with dawdling and going to the newsagent and bank I’m still really, really early.
Friday 9:50am – Sit in the hairdressers with a cup of tea, chatting to them while waiting for the client before me to arrive and get the dye on her hair before they can start on me.
Friday 10:10am – Decide what colour my hair is going, unsurprisingly, just the same as always, just want rid of my roots! Get my book out my bag and attempt to read, while filling my hairdresser in on the horrific-ness that was Dick n Dom during freshers week. I’m sure people think my job is glamorous, when really it’s anything but!
It’s my hairdressers 21st the next day, so we discuss fake tanning, venue decorations and dresses. I reminisce about my 21st and my beautiful dress that I know I’ll never fit in again. – Though not sure I’d want to be a size 6 again!!
Friday 12:00pm Hair is finished, no roots and sitting in a way I know I’ll never be able to recreate on my own!
My mum has finished work and comes to meet me for lunch. We go to the cafe via the papershop where we meet a busybody from the village. My little sister is on the front page of the paper, so my mum shows it off. The busybody then looks at it and tells me I look lovely in the picture. Thank you… My sister is 9!
Into the Sunflowers Cafe, also full of people I know, so lots of small talk. The owner of the cafe was the manager of the cafe in the supermarket I worked in in my school days. Had a chat with her and it seems she also thought I was my sister and was ‘looking awful grown up now’. Again thanks, but I’m not 9 years old! Seriously! I know I’m short, but really?!
Friday 1pm – Drive home via the new Tesco site, it’s due to open in 6 weeks time and it’s still just a metal frame. Think they’re maybe being a bit optimistic. The whole town is talking about it, no one really wants a Tesco, everyone wants Asda.
Friday 3pm – Drive up to the school to pick up my little sister. It’s the school I went to (and my mum) and it’s barely changed. It’s a tiny wee school, only 15 pupils.
Friday 3:15pm – The usual weekday afterschool routine. My mum and I go to visit my mum’s friend for a cup of tea and to get all the gossip. I tell you, for such a small village there’s always something going on!
Friday 4pm – Back home to start cooking the dinner. Spaghetti bolognaise, yummy!
My little sister takes this opportunity to practises her violin. She is getting better, but it’s still painful! I’m sure I was the same once though.
Friday 5:30pm – Mum’s partner gets home, and so it’s dinner time. Spaghetti bolognaise; garlic bread and lots of wine. Wine features every dinner time at home, a tradition which I fully approve of!
Friday 7:30pm – Settle down for the night to watch the soaps and other random tv shows.
Friday 9pm – Finally persuade my little sister to go to bed and have some more wine while watching rubbish tv.
Friday 11:30pm – Decide that the country life is too tiring for me, so go to bed and read more of my book.
Saturday 9am – My hopes of sleeping late are dashed, when I’m woken by my sister saying “Denise, wake up, what do you want for breakfast?” me “mrgle meh…” sister “you need to tell me now!” me “I’ll be through in a minute”. I go through to the kitchen expecting to find a cooked breakfast on the go, but no they’ve already eaten and my sister just wanted me to get up! Nevertheless they made me a sausage and egg sandwich, so I wasn’t really complaining.
Saturday 10:30am – My mum asks if I want to go to Dornoch to the butchers with them. I decide I might as well, so head to shower and dress.
Saturday 11:30am – Drive to Dornoch, after a fight with my sister over whether she still needs to use her booster seat.
In Dornoch we go to the hardware shop and the pet shop for a look about before we make it to the Butchers. 3 steaks and one chicken fillet later we head home.
Saturday 1pm – Once home I get my laptop out and start to tackle my googlereader. Think I had about 200 unread items, so I happily sat by the fire, with a cup of tea and made my way through them.
Saturday 3pm – My little sister is getting her room redecorated, so I’d said I would help and come prepared with old clothes. Off I went to get changed and went upstairs to move furniture, strip walls and put more paper up. The paper she has is beautiful, to be honest I’m thoroughly jealous, it’s black and white and will be stunning when it’s finished.
Saturday 5pm – Dinners ready, so we sit down to steak with all the trimmings. including haggis! I love our Saturday night dinners. And obviously, lots of wine too. Then followed by some amazing Mackies ice-cream.
Saturday 7pm – Go through to the livingroom to watch x-factor and other related things.
Saturday 10:30pm – Everyone else has gone to bed, so I get control of the tv remote, I discover Cupcake Wars and that keeps me occupied for the next wee while. – It seems I watch a lot of tv. but I don’t have a tv in Edinburgh, so I guess it balances out.
Saturday 12pm – Time for bed.
Sunday 10:30am – I wake up, happy to finally have got a proper late morning, and not to be woken up by my sister, or the dogs, or the hoover…
Sunday 11:00am – Decide that we’re going to go up to the Falls of Shin for a while, so I need to go and shower, make myself presentable and decide what I should wear.
Sunday 12:00pm – Get in the car and head to Shin Falls as a family. I enjoy the drive up there with my mum pointing out which houses have been sold, who lives where and all the changes. Going to Shin Falls always makes me feel like I’m really in the countryside again.
Sunday 12:30pm – Arrive at Shin Falls and browse round the shop. The shop was owned by Harrods until very recently, so all the Harrods stock was in the sale.
Sunday 1pm – Tea time! The restaurant at the Shin Falls is lovely, and we all have tea and cake. I had a cream scone and it was amazing!
Sunday 2pm – We head out in the slight drizzle to go down to the waterfall. The waterfall is beautiful, but it’s also one of the best places in Scotland to see salmon leap up a waterfall. We stay there for about 10 minutes watching them, but unfortunately didn’t get any photos of them jumping.
Sunday 2:45pm – Get home and my little sister goes out to play. The rest of us take the opportunity to go up into the loft to clear it out, it’s so full of junk! We threw lots out, and found stuff belonging to my grandparents still up there. We found a handbag of my grans, I remember it from when I was a little girl, I always loved it. The result is now I own it. It’s a beautiful tan leather bag that she got on a trip to Yugoslavia in the 70s or 80s. I’m so happy to have it!
Sunday 5pm – Sunday dinner time! Roast pork with all the trimmings. I love Sunday roasts, but it’s not something I ever cook for myself. It was really really good!
Sunday 6:30pm – My little sister gets out her violin to practise, it’s a long performance but she is getting better.
Sunday 7pm – I fall asleep on the sofa for a few hours while the family watch x factor.
Sunday 10pm – I wake up all groggy and feeling a bit fluey, so head to my bed and watch True Blood on 4od.
Monday 9:30am – Get up when my mum goes to work, let the dogs out, the cats in, feed the cats, light the fire, make my breakfast, make my coffee, let the dogs in, and eventually sit back down to enjoy my coffee and watch some tv.
Monday 10:00am – I find a fabulous new tv channel called Blighty and spend the morning watching documentaries about Saville Row in London, they’re fascinating. I like documentaries about things like that, it’s the retail student in me…
Monday 12:30 – My mum gets home from work and I make cheese sandwiches for us for lunch, and several cups of tea too.
Monday 3pm – We drive up to the school to collect my sister, then head back home where I pack my bags and make sure I’ve got all my things – I’m terrible for leaving things behind.
Monday 3:30pm – We all head into Tain to take my sister to her orchestra practice. While she’s in the orchestra we go down the street and browse the local shops.
Monday 4:30pm – We pick my sister up from orchestra and head for Inverness.
Monday 5:30pm – Arrive in Inverness and faff about a bit swapping cars to put one in for a service and collecting the other one from the lorry yard where my mum’s partner works.
Monday 5:45pm – Lots of time to spare, so we go to B&Q to return some wallpaper. Then we browse the aisles, I do quite like DIY shops, even though I have no aptitude for DIY at all!
Monday 6:30pm – Go to the station and I get on the train, find my seat and get settled for the next few hours.
Monday 10:20pm – Arrive back in Edinburgh and walk home. My flatmates are baking, so there’s fresh chocolate brownies awaiting me on my return.
All in all, a lovely, very typical weekend at home for me.
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