*ThInGs I lEaRnEd In ThE bUrGh*

I like my own company. I am very happy toddling around town on my lonesome and sitting in coffee shops for hours on end, writing and drinking some java. HOWEVER, I like having the OPTION to spend time with other people.

I really like my meat medium-rare! Why have I only just discovered this now??

I need to be surrounded by positive, creative people. This is not just a fancy or a preference. This is a bare essential for a happy, healthy Rach.

I kinda like living in tidy cleanness *Was that you gasping in shock all the way from Australia, Mom?* After staying with absolutely lovely but ridiculously messy friends, I love having my own place, my own space and for it to be not too crazy messy. Wow, never thought I would own up to that confession!

Scottish guys are no different from Australian guys. They just have nicer accents.

Kilts are cool! :-)

I do not like spending hard earned money on rent and bills!! No matter how cute my wee flat is or how cosy the central heating is. What a waste :-s

Snow does not taste half bad but it's not so great for falling on. It's not as soft as it looks!

The expression 'What's the craic' has nothing to do with drugs or bottoms.

Ah dinne ken, hen! <3

Off of the Terrace and into the Gardens...

This weekend, I moved out of my room in Glengyle Terrace into my friend Jackson's flat in Polwarth Gardens. My stay at the 'Hotel Glengyle' as my landlady liked to call it was not exactly pleasant so I was not too upset about leaving. I will miss my beautiful little room though with its views of the Meadows and comfy double bed.

Here are some pics of my old place...



My happy red front door



...up three sets of stairs to my second front door



Laundry :-) It made me laugh every time I had to hang up my clothes to dry. The washing lines were strapped up on the ceiling and whenever we needed them, we had to unhook these ropes on the wall like on a ship. I felt like a pirate :-)




I had a fireplace!



My measly wardrobe




Packing again :-p I should have a degree in packing!

A Bow-Tie???

Dear diary,

Today I had to wear a bow-tie....


Not one like this...





















....or this....























...but like this...




...so of course, I was like this...























...but hopefully on pay day, I'll be like this!
























...so it will all be worth it in the end

:-)

The Edinburgh List

It dawned on me recently that my time here in Edinburgh is not actually as boundless as I seem to think that it is. In fact, I have less than two measley months in this city that I have loved since the moment I set foot in it. I thought it might be prudent to write up a list of things I would like to do while I'm here so that I don't go home with regrets yet again. So here goes:

~Do the literary pub crawl
~Check out Why Not, Tigerlilies, Opal Lounge, Liquid Rooms and Medina (for old times sake)
~Eat at the Hard Rock cafe
~Go see Mary and Dougie
~Visit the church in Glasgow and East Kilbride
~Watch some Euro cinema at the Cameo
~Spend a day reading in the Meadows in the softest grass I have felt since South Africa
~Climb Arthur's Seat
~Go hiking in Glencoe
~Visit the castle
~Write at least one Scottish poem or short story
~See the snow in the highlands

Also very open to suggestions ;-)

The Blue Wallpaper

*Post written last week but forgot to publish. Silly billy*

In my second year of uni, I studied a short story for one of my lit classes called 'The Yellow Wallpaper' by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. The story is brilliantly disturbing, not only because of the content, but because the story emerged from the writer's own experience. The story is about a woman diagnosed with nervous depression and confined to a locked nursery in order to recuperate. She has no visitors and is forbidden from any form of mental stimulation. A series of journal entries documents her descent into madness and the last entry finds her creeping along the walls, completely obsessed with the wallpaper and the women she imagines are trapped behind it.

This sickness has turned me into the creeping lady.

Except the walls that I've been slinking about are not the buttercup-patterned walls of Gilman's story. They are instead the blue walls of facebook. By now, I know every picture, every photo comment and every updated status of all 254 of my facebook friends. I am going insane.

*List of Things Accomplished During my Confinement*

~Watched : The complete first season of The Tudors
Miss Potter
Marie Antoinette
Half of A Very Long Engagement
Amelie
Snippets of Virgin Suicides
Atonement
The Beginning of Thirteen (awful, awful!)

~Read: 'How I live Now' by Meg Rosoff
'Grace Notes' by Bernard McLaverty
All of Liesl Jobson's flash fiction again. Just because she's amazing.
Ron Jonson's columns for The Guardian
Annabel Crabb's columns for The Sydney Morning Herald
Various friend's blogs

~Talked extensively to my lovely mom
~Took far too many moody self-portraits with my camera which I then deleted in sheer embarassment
~Scrolled through all 150 text messages on my phone and whittled the list down to 63 of my favourite ones
~A variety of equally ridiculous leg exercises to prevent bed sores
~Updated my travel journal and blog
~Painted my nails and then smudged them so had to take the whole lot off and start again
~Counted the midge bites on my legs from walking through the Meadows
~Modelled my beret to see which poise was most becoming (I had it right the first time...silly billy)
~Straightened my hair
~Drew the tattoos that I pretend I will get someday...
~Composed an entire poem and then proceeded to fall asleep and forget the whole thing


And now I am back to creeping the walls...

*HaPpInEsS iS sPaRkLy RuBy SlIpPeRs*

Wednesday Night Fever

I think that we all knew that the whole ‘transferring eight weeks worth of notes’ thing was not going to work out. Sorry to disappoint, Alana. I just write way too much to be able to copy everything onto my blog.

Excuses over, I’m feeling slightly disillusioned with this travelling life right now. I’m sick with the flu, lying in a strange bed with wet towels over me to cool my skin. Every position that I lie in feels uncomfortable and my throat feels like it’s been walloped with a cricket bat. After lying in bed for two days in the same clothes and not being able to shower, I feel gross! And I have a lovely bruise on my thigh from attempting to stand up, losing my balance and cracking into my night stand. Basically, I just need someone to come look after me.

These are the details that you don’t think about when planning an overseas escapade. Planned on making a trip to London, for sure! Thought about fitting in France somewhere along the lines. Didn’t scribble down ‘sickness’ on my list of things to do though. Actually, there are quite a few things that I didn’t think would bother me while travelling. One of them is living out of a suitcase. I’m so tired of wearing the same clothes! It sounds so stupid but I’m a firm believer in variety being the spice of life. In fact, it’s probably my life statement and so you can understand my frustration in opening my suitcase every morning and going, “Should I wear the butterfly dress or the tartan skirt today”. Every day. It’s just crushing my artistic temperament. :-)

This sounds ridiculously frivolous. I really don’t worry about things like this. I normally have no worries resigning myself to only being able to afford the cheap and cheerful shampoos instead of the ones that make my hair smell like hot chocolate and marshmallows. It’s having all this time to think that is making me discontent. Lying in a bed for two days straight will do that to a person.

One of the things that I have realised in my fevered contemplations over the past couple of days is that some of my expectations for this trip have been stopping me from enjoying it as it’s been. Instead of loving the fact that I’m on this amazing adventure and living in one of the cities that I love most in the world, I’ve been agonising over things that are completely out of my control. No more. Starting tomorrow, I fully intend to squeeze every last indulgent pleasure that I can out of Edinburgh. I’ve made a lot of sacrifices to have this opportunity. I’ve worked two jobs for the past year, one of which I despised. I’m missing out on my graduation ceremony, a friend’s wedding and another friend’s twenty-first birthday gala to be here. I am now completely resigned to enjoying every last morsel of this trip.

Tomorrow I’m going to spend the day reading in the Meadows with a punnet of raspberries :-)

A Travel Blogger, I Am Not!

Hmpf! I have to say that I am the absolute worst travel blogger in the history of travel bloggers! Before my trip, I set up a blog to document my travels and post all my pictures for friends and family to see. Much easier than repeating the same news! HOWEVER! I am sooo lazy and it is my eighth week away from home and I still have only one draft half done! Luckily, I have been very good with my travel journal and have been keeping track of all my activities with my trusty pen and paper. So now instead of doing bullet-points of what I've been up to, I'm just going to transfer my travel journal onto my blog. (,")

Well....I arrived in Manchester on the 20th of June to drama, drama, drama. It is a long, boring story but basically, I left everything until the last minute (as usual) and some ill-timed problems meant that I ended up leaving the country with $10 in my purse and two bank cards that were out of order. Who does that? Boards a plane to the other side of the world with $10 cash. So Manchester was about three days of stress and bellyache trying to sort my funds out.

I left for Dublin the Sunday after I arrived. I actually nearly cancelled the whole trip because I was so stressed out with the money situation and my bad planning. I'm so glad that I didn't though. I flew to Dublin on one of the windiest days possible. My mom would have hated it! This tiny plane was being blown all over the place and I was just praying that I would get there in one piece. I was so happy when I heard the wheels touch down on the tarmac and see the seatbelt sign turn off. I just wanted to get off that plane!

It took me about an hour to get to the B&B from the airport. It was actually a lot nicer than I thought it would be, considering how cheap it was. Carly was already there and what a joyful reunion it was!! Hugs, smiles and lots and lots of laughs. I love you, Carly!

After exchanging some stories and meeting Kathleen, Carly’s European travelling buddy, we left the hotel to get some lunch because we were all starving at this point. We somehow managed to end up eating at the unfriendliest pub in the Temple Bar district. The food was great though and we sat there for hours chatting as we had sooo much to catch up on. Poor Kathleen had to endure so many hours and hours of SUISS reenactments and 'Do you remember when so and so....'. She put up with it like a champion though, I must say. Good on ya, Kathleen! :-)

We went back to the hotel with the intention of resting before going out for the evening but every one of us was asleep before eleven. I didn’t even take my contacts out. So much for seeing the Dublin nightlife!