Haggis Tour (part one)

Ok, only have fifteen minutes to descibe six days of Scotland... hmmm... will see how we go...

First of, for those who don't know, Glasgow and Edinburgh are in the central belt of Scotland (the lowlands) while everything north of the mountain range is called the Highlands (the majority of Scotland's land area but minority of population). Don't know why I think that's an important fact to know but meh. Now you've learnt something.

We left Glasgow and caught the train to Edinburgh (which leaves from Queen St, not Central as I assumed, resulting in an impromptu tour of Glasgows pubic transport system for my cousin Michelle) and wandered up to the line of big yellow buses denoting our touring company.

Jumping on the bus, we got a quick intro to Edinburgh (basically it's all world heritage listed, like most of Europe, and they use to drown and burn witches. A lot.) and then we went to the William Wallace memorial.

Now here is my dilemma. Do I drown this whole post with a pile of historical intrigue, drama and fact or just do dot points? Lets go for the compromise...
1. William Wallace memorial - has a god-awful statue of Mel Gibson as Wallace. Commemorates the Battle of Stirling Bridge where the Scots used the brilliant tactic of enticing the heavily armoured, horse-riding English across the old wooden Stirling bridge and then hacked the bridge apart, sending said English scum to their deaths. Wallace was made Defender of Scotland, a big deal for a commoner. Oh, and he was from the area around Glasgow (which means he never wore a kilt) and the blue paint from Braveheart was used about 600 years before the Wars of Independance. And the French queen he gets it on with in the movie was actually about 6 years old at the time. And Braveheart doesn't actually refer to Wallace, it's a reference to Robert D'Bruce (he'll pop up later).
2. Doune Castle. "Your mother was a hamster and your father smells like elderberries". I couldn't find the Grail, bloody lying French bastards.
3. Glencoe. Sight of the infamous slaughter of the McDonalds - the Campbells signed a treaty with the English so the king got them to kill all the McDonalds because they were late in following the kings orders... The Campbells pretended to be their friends, took advantage of their hospitality and then killed every man, woman and child in the village. To this day, the Glencoe pub doesn't allow anyone named Campbell to stay there. An American guy tried to sue them because they refused to let him stay... the pub won.
4. Oban - a seaside town on the East coast, saw Dunollie Castle. Not much else.

Ok - that took a wee bit longer than expected. Will write another post soon... with photos!!!

Mitchell Library Blues

I've joined the library, I'm known by face at the pub across the river from work and I have a bank card - I guess I'm now an official alien.

My birthday was pretty uneventful, except for calls from Saurabh n Mum, but the weeked should be great - am heading to London to have a BBQ with a few randoms and then we're going to see 'Wicked --the musical' at the theatre. Exciting! I'm looking forward to it anyway... and it's only costing me 35 punds return which is pretty damn good.

Apart from that, life has settled down although nowhere near what I'd call 'normal'. Then again, I don't seem to do 'normal' anyway so not sure why I'd expect anything different. Missing people, hope veryone is well.

Oh, and as you can tell, I was nowhere near Glasgow airport but a cool story - the guy who crash tackled the terrorist has become a bit of a national hero and a campaign was set up to donate money towards 1000 free pints at his local. It's already hit that and people are still donating, I don't think he'll ever have to pay for a drink again.

Love this country.

Life at the GSC

Ok, well I have found a place to live and it may be old and smell of strange people but it's now my home (sigh). Finally got my work uniform today so feel like an actual staff member now but they still don't have my bank account details or anything else so I'm not sure exactly how I'm going to get paid....

Workwise, it's pretty similar to Q except they've instigated a 'learning module' policy which means I have to prove I can do everything I've been doing for the past three years. It's a bit like being sent back to square one, which I guess is what happens when you're starting a new job anywhere. Hopefully I'll get to do a bit of Outreach work as well which would be really nice.

Umm, what else? I'm off to do a tour of the Highlands on Sunday which should be nice. And the IMAX theatre at work is showing Harry Potter in 3D so I'll get free tickets if anyone wants them (yes, I've resorted to bribing people to be friends with me :o)

I'm also on Facebook but there isn't much I can do with that until I get broadband connected in my place. It's a-coming.

Later peoples, the library shuts soon and I'll be kicked out :o( Love you long time

Crazy times...

Well, still havent found a place to live. Maybe I'm being too picky - all I really want is a place with internet, a front entrance that locks and is clean. Preferably with a window. Apparently, those places are few and far between... maybe I'll up my ante a little, which may involve getting a bar job as well.

As a result, I don't really have anything interesting to write. I've been too busy trying to find a bed - and haven't been sleeping very well lately. But at least I have a job. I start on Monday, which should be good - will be nice to meet some people.

Once I find a place, rest assured the whole world will know about it.

Classy Glasgow

Man, trying to think of titles for these things is hard.... normally I leave the subject heading blank so that the bulk of the email/post/thing is like a secret and then you read it and wham, your hit by the stunning simplicity and wittyness of my writing.

Can you tell I'm drinking at the moment?

Actually, just had my first Fosters. Apparently its ok to drink overseas - although I never really saw it in any bars back home so never had a chance to try it before. It's a girly beer, which is ok since I'm a girl.

Been wandering around Glasgow and it's an interesting place - one street looks gorgeous and then you turn a corner and there are gangs of 12 year old boys running madly down the road, down another street and there is a 5 minute parade of taxies decorated with balloons and then you hit the main shopping drag... actually, it's starting to grow on me, people seem much friendlier here than London and then there's the accent (the girls will know what I mean :o)
However, it is summer (apparently) and I dont think i'll ever be taking off a jumper...

I've been offered a contract at the science centre here doing gallery/outreach stuff - just waiting for an email so have been ringing people to look at flats... got a few to check tonight. Hopefuly I can find something before the weekend - then I'm planning to head off to Edinburgh to visit a friend I met while travelling. Back to London in a few weeks to celebrate my official disqualification from youth discounts (26 is apparently too old. 25 is still a youth in Europe... goodbye free museum entries and cheap transport) and then THE festival is on in August. YAY.

Missing everyone. Will have Skype up and running next week so I'll set up a lottery and ring people at random times, pretending I have no idea what the time is back home (he he he) - maybe I'll start with Ally who is probably up all night with Thomas anyway (hope it's all going well, send me photos!)

Choos.