Here we are again. I haven't written since September - infact I don't think I've looked at my blog since September! Tut tut! However, I've been keeping a diary, so I think that makes up for it - just anyone who reads this can't see it (might transcribe it at a later date).
As recompence, I'll make an 'executive summery' of the past couple of months:
-Started back at uni on my MSc Environment, Culture and Society course, and have developed a love of economic theory - wonderful combo of social theory and mathematics :)
- Birthday happened: went out to Bar Khol again, fun was had, and was taken out for dinner by Chris whereupon I was suprised to see loads of friends waiting at the place- very enjoyable evening.
- Have been asked to do press stuff for next years Fringe show - have agreed as I enjoyed this years experiance, and have learned lots from it.
- Broke up with Chris: it has needed to happen for a while now, and think it'll be better for both of us in the long term
- Was taken on as a Christmas temp for Lush: loving working there! Managed to sell 3 of the £100 gifts in one day, and was given one myself for doing so well :) (And I love my 50% discount!)
- Had various differant flat meals, including a Christmas meal - all very successful and great fun - who knew vegan food could be so yummy?!
- Home for Christmas: mmmmmm, food ;) Got a 6 month subscription to The Economist from the Grandparents - very very happy about this! And Pete gave me a membership to the Cameo cinema - I love the place, but go there so rarely - hopefully this will be an inducment to go more often.
- Bathroon at the flat was misbehaving again :( Going to have to renovate the whole thing in the new year
-The flat has a mouse - little b*****d...
- Had a little kidney infection - all sorted out now
- I've lost over 2 stone this year :) Intend to continue the good work in 2008
- Obviously there's a lot more, but I can't remeber it right now - will probably update this later.
So, 2007 has taught me an awful lot, most of all just how lucky I am: I have a loving family, a wonderful group of friends, I have access to a great education, I have the capacity to take advantage of all opertunities that come my way, I have great prospects for the future and the aspiration to achieve the most I can. But I've also come to realise a great number of my failings: I never fully appreciate what I have until it's too late, I'm lazy and unmotivated, I don't express my gratitude to those I love often enough, I don't ask enough questions or pursue my curiousity to any great lengths. In the new year, I intend to work on these failings - these are not resolutions by any means - but a general set of guidelines to pursue.
So, more generally my resolutions are to: continue the good work on the weight-loss front, show those that I love my gratitude more often, return to writing more regularly (not just in my blog and diary), take risks and don't automatically assume that what I want is unobtainable, and (yes, very teenage-angsty) work out what I want from my life and relationships.
Starting the good work: to my friends who read this, thank you for your support, thankyou for your love, and thank you for being there when I need you - you are all amazing :) (ok, vomit inducing moment over).
I shall return, hopefully in the near future - until then: don't think about orange penguins.
p.s. Try not to build hopes without foundations
Thursday, 27 December 2007
Tuesday, 25 September 2007
Thursday, 13 September 2007
Here's to new beginings
So the first few days of my new degree have gone by: It's still the induction week, but I've registered and met the faculty, signed up to courses, been to the sports and societies fairs, been to intorductory lecture and done my job, as well as meeting soooo many new people. It's exciting but scarey at the same time!
Sunday, 9 September 2007
Wow! 4 years gone already!
I caught the bus back from having coffee with a friend this morning, and in doing so went past Pollock Halls of residence: it's rather frightening to think that four years ago to the day I was moving my stuff into my new room, hoping that I'd make lots of friends etc. In some respects I'm jealous of the freshers because they have so much ahead of them, and they'll be experiancing being away from home for the first time, but at the same time I'm glad I won't be doing that this time, inspite of theoretically being a Fresher - I am still nervous about making friends obviously, but at the same time I'm confident that I will be making the absolute most of this year. I register tomorrow - it's come around so quickly!
Gesine and Sally are now properly moved in and I'm pretty sure it's going to go well, and that we'll have a fairly harmonious flat (with lots of tea drinking!) because we'll all be in the same boat. We'll all be at the PG induction seminar on Tuesday for certain, so at least we'll all know each other at least! Gesine's boyfriend, Dan, is staying with us until Tuesday - he's very pleasant and I love his car! It's fab!
Pub quiz tonight - huzzah! Get to catch up with Lou, who's up for a few days :)
Right, I need to do some work!
Gesine and Sally are now properly moved in and I'm pretty sure it's going to go well, and that we'll have a fairly harmonious flat (with lots of tea drinking!) because we'll all be in the same boat. We'll all be at the PG induction seminar on Tuesday for certain, so at least we'll all know each other at least! Gesine's boyfriend, Dan, is staying with us until Tuesday - he's very pleasant and I love his car! It's fab!
Pub quiz tonight - huzzah! Get to catch up with Lou, who's up for a few days :)
Right, I need to do some work!
Saturday, 8 September 2007
Blah!
Oh dear, my head is all over the place today - I'm in one of my down-swings and it hurts too much. I'm being horrid to Chris, I feel like crying every couple of hours, I'm loosing weight but I feel like an utter pig, my emotions are running mad - one minute happy then next in a raging passion of anger. All the while I can't have a proper arguement with anyone at all and I'm just itching for a proper fight - I who hate confrontation longing for a fight. Continually iritated, on edge but having to keep my temper continually! It's utterly perverse yet typical - I blame the Spanish genes in the family.
Sunday, 2 September 2007
Fireworks!
They were awesome! Pretty pretty colours plus great music, friends and a cold beer - it was a good evening :D
My second Freshers week starts a week tomorrow :S My liver is only just begining to recover from the Fringe - I'm not sure it's ready for the on-slaught that is FW2!
I think I may have a wisdom tooth coming through - it hurts a lot.
To the guy who nearly hit me while reversing his car earlier: F*%k you a%%-£(%e!
One of my new flatmates has moved her stuff in and moves in properly next weekend, as does Gesine :) I can't wait to have flatmates again!
I miss all my friends who have moved to London :( This year is gonna be wierd cause I'll have to do the "make friends with everyone" thing, but at least I'm older and a little wiser!
The next EUSOG GandS has been anounced: The Mikado! I have a feeling I may be tempted to make one final appearance on-stage... watch this space... (well, not this one literally, but you know what I mean!)
My second Freshers week starts a week tomorrow :S My liver is only just begining to recover from the Fringe - I'm not sure it's ready for the on-slaught that is FW2!
I think I may have a wisdom tooth coming through - it hurts a lot.
To the guy who nearly hit me while reversing his car earlier: F*%k you a%%-£(%e!
One of my new flatmates has moved her stuff in and moves in properly next weekend, as does Gesine :) I can't wait to have flatmates again!
I miss all my friends who have moved to London :( This year is gonna be wierd cause I'll have to do the "make friends with everyone" thing, but at least I'm older and a little wiser!
The next EUSOG GandS has been anounced: The Mikado! I have a feeling I may be tempted to make one final appearance on-stage... watch this space... (well, not this one literally, but you know what I mean!)
Monday, 20 August 2007
Edinburgh Festival Fringe: The Finale
20/08
Work, inspite of feeling really rather ill, went ok and I have finally taken over my role as stationary-tyrant-in-chief. Not sure whether I can be bothered going out tonight, but I reckon if I get a couple of hours sleep this pm then I should be ok. Hmmm, sleep is good. Oh, damn, forgot about the form-filling and uni reading I need to do too :( Probably should do them first.
Later:
Well, we didn't even get nominated for any of the catagories of the MTM:UK awards! I'm utterly speechless and depressed - I just can't believe that a production which I believe to be as good as it can be was passed over in favour of other, rather rubbish productions (not just being rude - it've seen a couple of them) which are not even really 'musicals' per se. I just do not understand what happened. I really feel like crying because the review was good with staging being the only criticism - I just didn't think that it was serious enough for them not even to nominate it. The real bugger is that judges may nominate shows which are only showing in the third week and they haven't even seen! Seriously! I can't help but feel that someone has put a curse on the show. We also recieved our invite for the Edinburgh Evening News Amature Drama Awards: Thom Dibdin (of the 2* fame) gave two other local groups 4* (Tempo, who probably deserve it, and a primary school group, who he wouldn't dare insult for fear of alienating potential readership), so I really don't hold out much faith for getting anything when you combine it with the 3* review from Forth FM (who gave Almost Haunted 4* when everyone else slated it) - and one of the 5 judges had to drop out, so it would take two 5* reviews from the other two judges to even get us considered. My money is on the primary school production to sweep the board - damn 'cute' factor. Now I remember why I hate the Fringe.
21/08
Another day at work - ho hum. Didn't do anything terribly interesting before the show. The show itself went ok, inspite of some rather serious on-stage f**k-ups (the audience didn't notice though, so that's ok) - the audience were pretty posative and seemed to enjoy the production. Celia, Heather and her Chris, and Simon were all in the audience, which was nice (caught Simon checking out the lighting a few times during the show - tut tut ;D). Went out to Bedlam for a while after, but didn't really feel like it so went home not long after Chris.
22/08
It's about 20 days til term starts, so am really starting to feel excited about starting uni again :) Went to WHSmith and picked up stationary stuff for the start of term (it's rather sad how excited I get about choosing new notebooks - it's a problem!) But before that can happen, I must really fill-in the forms for the registry and send them off, plus do a number of other things before tomorrow. This afternoon my Mum and one of her friends are up to see some shows so will be coming along to Guilds later (poor Mum - I called her this morning and she was having a little fit: the dish-washer has died...rather messily...), as will a few people for the firm I work for :S Really cannot afford to mess up like we did last night!
23/08
Just back from work - nothing interesting to report apart from that I got to see the picture that Andrew bought for his wife's birthday: it was a beautiful Scottish sunset over Mull, and it managed to captured the peculier opalesance of the light there - very well executed indeed. Oh, and that I have a long weekend because there's a bank holiday on Monday :) So that means I can stay late at the cast party! Huzzah!
Last night's performance went very well - great audience and good energy from the cast. Went out to Bedlam (suprising, huh?) for a few drinks afterwards. Spent the evening chatting to a few people: was nice seeing Simon again, and of course, Lil' Stu.
It's a beautiful day so I think I'll go and read in the garden for a little while and wait for my costume to dry!
24/08
Today has been rather random in a number of ways - not obvious ways, just little odd things. Had a sleep-in til 11am (huzzah!), popped down to Sainsburys to get a shop, made soup and flapjack then went to get changed before the show. This may not seem terribly odd in itself, but I just cannot remember what I did with the rest of the time between afore mentioned activities! I have a feeling it may just be that my brain now runs an 'efficiency filter': it filters out the stuff I have no need of remebering and leaves me with the 'key points', as it were, to allow me to just get to the point (I'm not entirely certain the filter works correctly because getting to the point is still a bit of a challenge!). The show itself went quite well: we were recording it this evening, and there were no major cock-ups, which is good. The audience, alothough fairly large, were rather more mute than might have been desired, but in some respects this was a good thing because the amount of laughter we' ve had most evenings would mess with the recording. Afterwards, just to be original, we went out to Bedlam for drinks: pleasant evening with random chat - I popped of home around 1ish.
Bedlam last-night party on Saturday! Woot!
25/08
Not much happened during the day, but Chris and I went to see The Naked Voices - they were fantastic as ever :) Popped along to Bedlam briefly and ran into my Geography teacher from Highschool. Didn't do much else until the show - we had a great audience and they went completely nuts! Whooping and cheering - the works! It was a nice show - only one more to go :( Met up with Maya and Doug afterwards and we went to see the Imps then onto the Bedlam post-fringe party. It was ok, but for various reasons it wasn't as good as previous parties :( Oh well.
26/08
The last day of the Fringe for us :( Boo hoo! But fortunately we went out on a high: the audience were great! Whooping and cheering and all that jazz - we hadn't expected a good turn out or a particularaly responsive group, but we were in for a suprise and a lovely one at that :) Post-show we got all the set out and off to its appropriate destination before heading to Jenny's place for the party. The party was much more fun than I had expected given the previous evening: there a music, drinks and general merriment. I got the "I have a talent for public relations" Jelly Baby Award, as well as a cast photo and a jesters hat as my honoraria. Chris, Maya and I hung around til 4ish before heading home.
27/08 - Fringe Overview
All in all, it has been a very mixed Fringe: I've seen some very good shows, some not so good shows, had some late nights and some fun, but for the most part it has been a little flatter than the past three years. I'm glad I did the show because it was a fantastic show to go out on, and I learned a lot, but it is most certainly my last show on-stage. I am looking forward to a return to normality then the start of university.
Work, inspite of feeling really rather ill, went ok and I have finally taken over my role as stationary-tyrant-in-chief. Not sure whether I can be bothered going out tonight, but I reckon if I get a couple of hours sleep this pm then I should be ok. Hmmm, sleep is good. Oh, damn, forgot about the form-filling and uni reading I need to do too :( Probably should do them first.
Later:
Well, we didn't even get nominated for any of the catagories of the MTM:UK awards! I'm utterly speechless and depressed - I just can't believe that a production which I believe to be as good as it can be was passed over in favour of other, rather rubbish productions (not just being rude - it've seen a couple of them) which are not even really 'musicals' per se. I just do not understand what happened. I really feel like crying because the review was good with staging being the only criticism - I just didn't think that it was serious enough for them not even to nominate it. The real bugger is that judges may nominate shows which are only showing in the third week and they haven't even seen! Seriously! I can't help but feel that someone has put a curse on the show. We also recieved our invite for the Edinburgh Evening News Amature Drama Awards: Thom Dibdin (of the 2* fame) gave two other local groups 4* (Tempo, who probably deserve it, and a primary school group, who he wouldn't dare insult for fear of alienating potential readership), so I really don't hold out much faith for getting anything when you combine it with the 3* review from Forth FM (who gave Almost Haunted 4* when everyone else slated it) - and one of the 5 judges had to drop out, so it would take two 5* reviews from the other two judges to even get us considered. My money is on the primary school production to sweep the board - damn 'cute' factor. Now I remember why I hate the Fringe.
21/08
Another day at work - ho hum. Didn't do anything terribly interesting before the show. The show itself went ok, inspite of some rather serious on-stage f**k-ups (the audience didn't notice though, so that's ok) - the audience were pretty posative and seemed to enjoy the production. Celia, Heather and her Chris, and Simon were all in the audience, which was nice (caught Simon checking out the lighting a few times during the show - tut tut ;D). Went out to Bedlam for a while after, but didn't really feel like it so went home not long after Chris.
22/08
It's about 20 days til term starts, so am really starting to feel excited about starting uni again :) Went to WHSmith and picked up stationary stuff for the start of term (it's rather sad how excited I get about choosing new notebooks - it's a problem!) But before that can happen, I must really fill-in the forms for the registry and send them off, plus do a number of other things before tomorrow. This afternoon my Mum and one of her friends are up to see some shows so will be coming along to Guilds later (poor Mum - I called her this morning and she was having a little fit: the dish-washer has died...rather messily...), as will a few people for the firm I work for :S Really cannot afford to mess up like we did last night!
23/08
Just back from work - nothing interesting to report apart from that I got to see the picture that Andrew bought for his wife's birthday: it was a beautiful Scottish sunset over Mull, and it managed to captured the peculier opalesance of the light there - very well executed indeed. Oh, and that I have a long weekend because there's a bank holiday on Monday :) So that means I can stay late at the cast party! Huzzah!
Last night's performance went very well - great audience and good energy from the cast. Went out to Bedlam (suprising, huh?) for a few drinks afterwards. Spent the evening chatting to a few people: was nice seeing Simon again, and of course, Lil' Stu.
It's a beautiful day so I think I'll go and read in the garden for a little while and wait for my costume to dry!
24/08
Today has been rather random in a number of ways - not obvious ways, just little odd things. Had a sleep-in til 11am (huzzah!), popped down to Sainsburys to get a shop, made soup and flapjack then went to get changed before the show. This may not seem terribly odd in itself, but I just cannot remember what I did with the rest of the time between afore mentioned activities! I have a feeling it may just be that my brain now runs an 'efficiency filter': it filters out the stuff I have no need of remebering and leaves me with the 'key points', as it were, to allow me to just get to the point (I'm not entirely certain the filter works correctly because getting to the point is still a bit of a challenge!). The show itself went quite well: we were recording it this evening, and there were no major cock-ups, which is good. The audience, alothough fairly large, were rather more mute than might have been desired, but in some respects this was a good thing because the amount of laughter we' ve had most evenings would mess with the recording. Afterwards, just to be original, we went out to Bedlam for drinks: pleasant evening with random chat - I popped of home around 1ish.
Bedlam last-night party on Saturday! Woot!
25/08
Not much happened during the day, but Chris and I went to see The Naked Voices - they were fantastic as ever :) Popped along to Bedlam briefly and ran into my Geography teacher from Highschool. Didn't do much else until the show - we had a great audience and they went completely nuts! Whooping and cheering - the works! It was a nice show - only one more to go :( Met up with Maya and Doug afterwards and we went to see the Imps then onto the Bedlam post-fringe party. It was ok, but for various reasons it wasn't as good as previous parties :( Oh well.
26/08
The last day of the Fringe for us :( Boo hoo! But fortunately we went out on a high: the audience were great! Whooping and cheering and all that jazz - we hadn't expected a good turn out or a particularaly responsive group, but we were in for a suprise and a lovely one at that :) Post-show we got all the set out and off to its appropriate destination before heading to Jenny's place for the party. The party was much more fun than I had expected given the previous evening: there a music, drinks and general merriment. I got the "I have a talent for public relations" Jelly Baby Award, as well as a cast photo and a jesters hat as my honoraria. Chris, Maya and I hung around til 4ish before heading home.
27/08 - Fringe Overview
All in all, it has been a very mixed Fringe: I've seen some very good shows, some not so good shows, had some late nights and some fun, but for the most part it has been a little flatter than the past three years. I'm glad I did the show because it was a fantastic show to go out on, and I learned a lot, but it is most certainly my last show on-stage. I am looking forward to a return to normality then the start of university.
Tuesday, 14 August 2007
Edinburgh Festival Fringe: Part the Second
13/08
A day off :) Well, not off really as I did have work this morning, but I then met Maya, Heather and Chris at the FunFair for an afternoon of Bumpercars and candyfloss. It was good fun (and more expensive to go on rides than I remember - £2?! Am I just old because I remeber rides at 50p) and a bit of sun didn't go-amiss. We then headed up to Teviot (Guilded Balloon to non-Edinbuggers) so Gareth and Hazel could pick up tickets for that evening. The rest of us chilled out with a drink in the 'beer garden' overlooking the building site: there was a large explosion on-site which we reckon must have been a water pump giving up - there was no smoke but lots of 'rain'! We all headed up to Buffet King for a meal: Heather and I were being good and sticking to small portions of bad stuff with lots of veg. G and H went off to see the show, Chris went off to prepare for a job interview, Maya and Heather and I went back to my Chris' to watch DVDs for the evening. Yet again I didn't get to bed before 1am.
14/08
Work again - joy. Got back. Still tired - NOT GOING OUT TONIGHT! Will have proper meal for the first time in a week and sit back without anyone around :) I get to relax and not worry about anything re anyone else (ie Maya and Jay/Helen and Kim etc - It's not that I mind really, it's just added to the general stress level lately). But the bummer of the day was hearing that the Edinburgh Evening News gave us two stars for the show.
15/08
A day off :) Went to Scottish Slimmers meeting - lost another 0.5lb: not great, but still a loss. Met Heather and we popped down to the Lothian Busses office to pick up my bus card (since I'll be travelling back and forth to Stockbridge I reckon it'll be better value to get a bus card), then went to the bank to tell them that I'm still a student, so bloody well give me back my student account thank you very much! Had lunch at Black Medicine with Nick and Heather before heading back to the flat to meet Maya. Heather was telling me about her rather scarey ghostely experiances - she's not the sort of person to make stuff up, so I'm willing to believe what she says: I've always been rather cynical about peoples paranormal experiances, but with what she said combined with various other stories maybe there's something more to it. I'm almost jealous that I've never had any of these sorts of experiances.
Maya and I have been de-junking our flats so were taking everything to a charity shop (in my case because I'm sure my new flatmates will not want their new rooms filled with junk), took the recycling down to the centre at Sainsburys and got a shop. We pigged out on Pizza and Icecream and watched Shaun of the Dead: hope it's making her feel better. It's so irritating that Jay's behaving like an utter knob - I've never seen her so upset.
16/08
Last round of work today for the week - never have I felt so incompetant! It was just one of those days where everything seems to go wrong - stupid little things. But it was over soon enough and I spent the afternoon watching shows at Augustines. First went to see Meleoncolia down in the Studio: it was a fantasic anti-war play performed by a group of young American actors. The premis of the story is a young solider reviews his life up until the point where he has to make the decision: do I step off this chair and hang myself or do I carry on? It's a mixture of music, acting, physical theatre and dance. The image which really caught my imagination what that of skeletons in wedding dresses, ready to recieve the main character, Mario, as their grooms (there's an odd multiplicity of characters which I can't really explain easily - you'd have to see it). It really was a fantasic show, but the time of day meant that there was a very small audience unfortunately: however the cast gave a stunning performance which would have been as good in front of one person as in front of a full house - there was real comitment to the show from everyone. The second show I saw was Choking Point: the premis is a young, African American journalist seeks to make his career with a story on a 17 year old snipper, but arrogance and carelessness are his downfall, and has unforseen consequeses for those around him. It was an interesting, well acted show, but could have been a lot shorter - it was unfortunate that it ran over: I was 20 mins late for dinner with Chris and his parents. We went out to Inca for dinner then on to see The McCalmans at the St Bride Centre - they were very good, but it just wasn't quite as good as last year, but never mind. They preformed The Brooms of the Cowden Knows - which makes me cry every time: a lot of their songs are about how it feels to be far from Scotland - songs about homesickness and longing for soaring mountains and the rugged coastlines - how I will probably feel when I leave.
17/08
Although today was supposed to be my show-seeing day, it has in that department been rather disappointing for various reasons. I was meant to meet Helen at 12.00 at the venue, but for one reason or another she was being rubbish, so I helped Maya take some more junk up to the charity shop. We then went out to lunch at Double Dutch: poor Jamie has lost his voice :( We then went up to Augustines and saw An Insult to Beckett and Fo: I spent the next 45 mins both confused and disappointed by the production. I'm certain that if I understood the essential message of the production (which was a double-bill of Waiting for Godo and Accidental Death of an Anarchist) then it would probably have been quite good, but because I didn't I felt rather cheated by the whole thing (inspite of not paying).
18/08
Had a lazy morning - nothing to report except a bit of cleaning in preparation for arrival of the parental units. Met up with Chris and went to see "Comedy and Cake" - does exactly what it say on the tin, with the addition of tea. Was amusing for an hour, but not fantastic - can't really complain because of the whole free-ticket thing. We popped down to Bedlam briefly between shows to say hi to the staff and pick up something to drink before racing back to Augustines to see "Melancholia" again: I'm determined that the whole cast should see this show - it's brilliant but they need a large supportive audience as much as anyone else. Chris' responce was that "It was interesting" - which translates roughly as "Hmm, didn't really get it but I know it'll piss you off if I don't give somesort of reaction, so this'll do": because I know this is what he means by "interesting" it still annoys me. Is it too much to want to have a debate and discuss the relative merits and flaws of a production afterwards without the sole response being "meh *shrug*"? We were going to head on and see "Songs for a New World" but I had to head home to let the parents into the flat. That done I went up to James' Singstar party: it was fun but there were far too many renditions of "Torn" for my liking. Spent the evening chatting to randoms and finding out that we had friends in common etc, was entertaining swapping stories ;) Got home at 3am utterly shattered and trying not to wake the parents! Oh to be a teenager again! :)
19/08
Blah. Sleepy. Rehearsal. Sleepy. Food shop. Sleepy. Drinking. Sleepy. Home - still sleepy. Don't want to work tomorrow :( Have a feeling I'm just not going to be able to cope with the hours of the job plus uni hours. Am slightly tipsy, so should go to bed before I say silly things. End of week 2.
A day off :) Well, not off really as I did have work this morning, but I then met Maya, Heather and Chris at the FunFair for an afternoon of Bumpercars and candyfloss. It was good fun (and more expensive to go on rides than I remember - £2?! Am I just old because I remeber rides at 50p) and a bit of sun didn't go-amiss. We then headed up to Teviot (Guilded Balloon to non-Edinbuggers) so Gareth and Hazel could pick up tickets for that evening. The rest of us chilled out with a drink in the 'beer garden' overlooking the building site: there was a large explosion on-site which we reckon must have been a water pump giving up - there was no smoke but lots of 'rain'! We all headed up to Buffet King for a meal: Heather and I were being good and sticking to small portions of bad stuff with lots of veg. G and H went off to see the show, Chris went off to prepare for a job interview, Maya and Heather and I went back to my Chris' to watch DVDs for the evening. Yet again I didn't get to bed before 1am.
14/08
Work again - joy. Got back. Still tired - NOT GOING OUT TONIGHT! Will have proper meal for the first time in a week and sit back without anyone around :) I get to relax and not worry about anything re anyone else (ie Maya and Jay/Helen and Kim etc - It's not that I mind really, it's just added to the general stress level lately). But the bummer of the day was hearing that the Edinburgh Evening News gave us two stars for the show.
15/08
A day off :) Went to Scottish Slimmers meeting - lost another 0.5lb: not great, but still a loss. Met Heather and we popped down to the Lothian Busses office to pick up my bus card (since I'll be travelling back and forth to Stockbridge I reckon it'll be better value to get a bus card), then went to the bank to tell them that I'm still a student, so bloody well give me back my student account thank you very much! Had lunch at Black Medicine with Nick and Heather before heading back to the flat to meet Maya. Heather was telling me about her rather scarey ghostely experiances - she's not the sort of person to make stuff up, so I'm willing to believe what she says: I've always been rather cynical about peoples paranormal experiances, but with what she said combined with various other stories maybe there's something more to it. I'm almost jealous that I've never had any of these sorts of experiances.
Maya and I have been de-junking our flats so were taking everything to a charity shop (in my case because I'm sure my new flatmates will not want their new rooms filled with junk), took the recycling down to the centre at Sainsburys and got a shop. We pigged out on Pizza and Icecream and watched Shaun of the Dead: hope it's making her feel better. It's so irritating that Jay's behaving like an utter knob - I've never seen her so upset.
16/08
Last round of work today for the week - never have I felt so incompetant! It was just one of those days where everything seems to go wrong - stupid little things. But it was over soon enough and I spent the afternoon watching shows at Augustines. First went to see Meleoncolia down in the Studio: it was a fantasic anti-war play performed by a group of young American actors. The premis of the story is a young solider reviews his life up until the point where he has to make the decision: do I step off this chair and hang myself or do I carry on? It's a mixture of music, acting, physical theatre and dance. The image which really caught my imagination what that of skeletons in wedding dresses, ready to recieve the main character, Mario, as their grooms (there's an odd multiplicity of characters which I can't really explain easily - you'd have to see it). It really was a fantasic show, but the time of day meant that there was a very small audience unfortunately: however the cast gave a stunning performance which would have been as good in front of one person as in front of a full house - there was real comitment to the show from everyone. The second show I saw was Choking Point: the premis is a young, African American journalist seeks to make his career with a story on a 17 year old snipper, but arrogance and carelessness are his downfall, and has unforseen consequeses for those around him. It was an interesting, well acted show, but could have been a lot shorter - it was unfortunate that it ran over: I was 20 mins late for dinner with Chris and his parents. We went out to Inca for dinner then on to see The McCalmans at the St Bride Centre - they were very good, but it just wasn't quite as good as last year, but never mind. They preformed The Brooms of the Cowden Knows - which makes me cry every time: a lot of their songs are about how it feels to be far from Scotland - songs about homesickness and longing for soaring mountains and the rugged coastlines - how I will probably feel when I leave.
17/08
Although today was supposed to be my show-seeing day, it has in that department been rather disappointing for various reasons. I was meant to meet Helen at 12.00 at the venue, but for one reason or another she was being rubbish, so I helped Maya take some more junk up to the charity shop. We then went out to lunch at Double Dutch: poor Jamie has lost his voice :( We then went up to Augustines and saw An Insult to Beckett and Fo: I spent the next 45 mins both confused and disappointed by the production. I'm certain that if I understood the essential message of the production (which was a double-bill of Waiting for Godo and Accidental Death of an Anarchist) then it would probably have been quite good, but because I didn't I felt rather cheated by the whole thing (inspite of not paying).
18/08
Had a lazy morning - nothing to report except a bit of cleaning in preparation for arrival of the parental units. Met up with Chris and went to see "Comedy and Cake" - does exactly what it say on the tin, with the addition of tea. Was amusing for an hour, but not fantastic - can't really complain because of the whole free-ticket thing. We popped down to Bedlam briefly between shows to say hi to the staff and pick up something to drink before racing back to Augustines to see "Melancholia" again: I'm determined that the whole cast should see this show - it's brilliant but they need a large supportive audience as much as anyone else. Chris' responce was that "It was interesting" - which translates roughly as "Hmm, didn't really get it but I know it'll piss you off if I don't give somesort of reaction, so this'll do": because I know this is what he means by "interesting" it still annoys me. Is it too much to want to have a debate and discuss the relative merits and flaws of a production afterwards without the sole response being "meh *shrug*"? We were going to head on and see "Songs for a New World" but I had to head home to let the parents into the flat. That done I went up to James' Singstar party: it was fun but there were far too many renditions of "Torn" for my liking. Spent the evening chatting to randoms and finding out that we had friends in common etc, was entertaining swapping stories ;) Got home at 3am utterly shattered and trying not to wake the parents! Oh to be a teenager again! :)
19/08
Blah. Sleepy. Rehearsal. Sleepy. Food shop. Sleepy. Drinking. Sleepy. Home - still sleepy. Don't want to work tomorrow :( Have a feeling I'm just not going to be able to cope with the hours of the job plus uni hours. Am slightly tipsy, so should go to bed before I say silly things. End of week 2.
Saturday, 4 August 2007
Edinburgh Festival Fringe: The Saga Begins
03/08
Today the first of the shows opened for previews - the Fringe is nigh! Having been out for drinks for Doug's 22nd birthday the previous evening I was feeling a little tired to begin with, but met up with Maya for an early lunch at Double Dutch - had a very nice chat about her adventures in France over the past 6 weeks :) We then headed over to the Green Room: I had been asked over for an interview for a flyering job (thought it would be a good idea to help bolster the old bank account). We got there upon which I was told that the girl who was supposed to interview me had gone home to sleep, having been working for about 48hrs straight: on the one hand I was sympathetic because I know what hard work it is prior to opening a venue, but on the other hand I was annoyed because if you make an appointment you keep it or at least call to cancel. So having waited for 30 mins to talk to someone called Steven (who promptly also failed to materialise) we had had enough, so bought tickets to Dr Sketchy's Burlesque Art Salon (we weren't about to waste a chance to get preview tickets): the general concept was that you were given art materials, a bit of burlesque-style entertainment and the chance to sketch a model for an hour or so. Our hostess for the afternoon was the lovely Ophelia Bitz, along with our model Kitty Wildcard (who I had seen previously in Glasgow at one of Kirsty's evenings). It was a fun hour, and there were some very talented artists there - fortunately the emphasis was not upon good art work! I freely admit that my art skills are rusty, but I was never good at drawing people so most of my sketches were rather abstract! But I would recomend it for those both capable and incapable of drawing. We then headed off up The Royal Mile to take a look at some of the street performances, then wandered back down: I booked tickets for The McCalmens and Naked Voices (an a cappella group we saw last year - very good). We went into Shue because there was a sale on - there were some lovely shoes (Rocket Dogs) that I took a fancy to, but I decided against them for the moment). Maya had to disappear off home because she was going to see Jay that evening: I spent the evening cleaning the flat before going out to Revolution for a little while to celebrate Josh's birthday.
04/08
Didn't do very much today really. Got up lateish and popped into town to get some white fabric for a headscarf as part of my costume: also got some black muslin to do a wall hanging with that i've been planning for a while, but I did think the £5 was a bit much for the two considering that they were reminants. Got back to the flat and spent a while doing some sewing. Went up to the Venue for the tech run for 5pm to get into costume to be ready for 5.30. I hadn't realised it, but the ex-changing-rooms had undergone a major re-fit and were now more toilets and a kitchen - and not a mirror in the place! Ended up doing my make-up using the reflection from a hand-drier nozzle. I was ready to go for 5.30: got my pass and lanyard, then spent the next hour sitting waiting for orders from the techies. The whole thing went fairly well, and we got everything we needed to done with some time to spare. Saw Helen briefly, but she had just got off the train from London and gone straight to the venue, so was clearly shattered anyway, so didn't appear at the pub after. A few of us popped over to Bedlam for drinks after the tech run: it was a nice, relaxed evening - busy, but not heaving.
05/08
So far: Went out for brunch with Kirsty, Steven, Chris, Dave, Claire, Nick, James and (a guy who's name I can't remember - oops) at Double Dutch (again!) - had lots of coffee and some lemon drizzle cake - yummo! Was a nice relaxed morning with a minimum of tech/show talk. Kirsty and Steven went on to Dr Sketchys Burlesque Art Salon, and the others went on to watch the F1 - dull. Chris and I went to Lidl for food before Chris went to Jitsu at Meadow Bank. I half considered going up to see the cavalcade, but decided that it was drizzling too hard for my liking and that I'd better get stuff ironed before I start work tomorrow! Since then I've just been booking in reviewers for "Guilds" :) We have judges for the Edinburgh Evening News Amature Drama Awards coming on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of week 1, and a judge for the MTM: UK Awards at somepoint (I didn't have to book tickets for them, so I don't know the date). Later I will have a production meeting (last one before the show opens) so will be reporting on press-related progress, but I guess there's only a limited amount I can say really. Following the meeting it's THE DRESS REHEARSAL: I'm slightly nervous because we are not in the venue for it, so do not have the set or lighting to work with until the opening night! But hopefully it will go well: the cast really need to concentrate and remain focused from now on - and the energy needs to be there all the time from now onward. Certain cast members are bugging me increasingly: there's lots of unnecessary whinging going on, a lack of concentration, an unwillingness to do a fair share of the work (a blonde female chorus member seems to think that she is above carrying set up to the store -she'll learn). Anyway, I'll stop bitching now. After the dress run I'll be heading down to C venue to see The Pornographer Diaries: it's not that I particularly want to see it, but there's a flyering job up for grabs with them and they want me to see the show before I take the job, which is fair enough - it's just a bit annoying that it doesn't start til 10.45 and I start work early tomorrow, but never mind - I can probably make about £70 for 12 hours flyering over 6 days. It's not much, but anything that keeps my Fringe spending to a minimum is good, even if it's just a bit of cash for drinks later on. Right, need to make some food to take to rehearsal and do some washing before I head to production meeting. Will report back later.
later:
I got the flyering job without any problem... actually, without any interview: I turned up, was told what was expected of me, and given a comp to see the show then told to turn up tomorrow at 3pm to report for duty. As I mentioned earlier, the show is called The Pornographer Diaries: I wasn't sure what to expect going in to see this production - it could go one of two ways; filthy and abhorant, or a piss-take. Fortunately for my sensibilities it was the later! The show charts the achievement of one man's ultimate fantasy: to work for a porn mag (a la Nuts or FHM). The show myth-busts some of the hype surrounding 'the ultimate job' in comic style which will appeal to 'blokes' and feminists alike. Of course it's a bit smutty, but it never gets truely seedy or disgusting (still WOULD NOT recomend taking Granny to see it). So, it will be my job to sell this production to your adverage Fringe-goer: this could be funny, or I'll get attacked by scarey feminists and Christians before I have a chance to explain that as a pro-feminist Christian woman I didn't find it too bad. So I start that job at 3pm (at which time I am supposed to be meeting the head of publicity for the National Trust for Scotland to arange a publicity stunt for "Guilds" - I think I'll have to leave this to Simon, but I have no problem with this if he doesn't). And the 'actual' job starts at 9.30 tomorrow morning! So that's two jobs, a "Guilds" flyering session and the opening night of the show to do tomorrow - it'll keep me busy anyway. On a Savoy-show note: the dress-run went ok but there's still a lack of focus from the cast.
06/08
This is being done swiftly as I eat dinner before heading up to Dave's to change for the show. First shift at work was fairly straight-forward: got there early so went for wander along Stockbridge high street. The morning passed fairly smoothly with only one minor hiccup involving a misunderstanding with a cast member over press stuff, but it was sorted out quickly. I spent my time working out the phone system and the programs to use, and doing some audio-typing. A good start I think. Then at 2pm I headed back to Southbridge to pick up the flyers and t-shirt for The Pornographers Diary: it wasn't too hard to sell in the end. Did that for a couple of hours before rushing back here for a quick meal and wash. I'm looking forward to tonight - the opening night is always good, and Nottingham Uni G and S soc are coming and they are barmey! They will laugh at everything, which makes the rest of the audience more responsive than they might otherwise be. But it's another early start tomorrow, so drinking'll just have to wait. Shall report on success/otherwise of the opening night tomorrow :)
07/08
Last night: We sold out!!!!!! First night and everything :D Very, very happy! The audience was fantastic and there were no major on-stage cock-ups, and we got so many laughs! I love the Fringe! And we had at least two posative audience-reviews on the edfringe website. Popped over to bedlam briefly afterwards to see Helen.
Started work at 8.45am today - was utterly shattered from the word go, so will be having a nap before going to get changed! But can go out tonight as I don't have work tomorrow :)
later:
It's very odd that for a show which sells out one night and has people crying with laughter can have such a differant reaction with a differant audience: it's not that tonight's audiance didn't enjoy it, becuse I could see them smiling, but there were very few laughs, even at the most obvious of jokes. The show is genuinely funny - it's witty and sharp - but tonight's lot didn't give us much to work with: we had to give 110% energy to get anything back. Audiences can be either mirrors or black holes: they will either reflect the energy you put into a performance accordingly, or they will suck everything in and you won't get anything back out no matter how hard you try. I think it has disappointed everyone, and that can be a recipe for disillusionment, and a poor show consequently. I really hope that the reviewer picked up one how much we were giving it - if only he had come last night!
08/08
Tonight was much better - although it was still quite a small audience they were far more responsive than the other night, which was great because we had a reviewer for Forth FM in. The review will be out tomorrow. The rest of the day was pretty quiet as I wasn't at work: went to Scottish Slimmers meeting and had lost 3.5lb this week :) Then met up with Maya and went to see Transformers: I wasn't expecting much from the film, but how wrong I was! It was brilliant: great plot, great CG and great soundtrack - I will be going back next week for certain!
09/08
Another good day :) Work from 9 - 2pm, then out flyering for an hour, then met Dad for a quick coffee. Dad was telling me about his and Mum's trip around France - it sounds to have been great, I'm very jealous and am considering going on holiday to France in October. The flyering was very effective and I think that it's probably why we had another large audience this evening. No major mess-ups on stage, except for a couple of missed lines, but it wasn't one that was terribly obvious fortunately as we had 3 reviewers in tonight. Audience reviews are looking good too (http://www.edfringe.com/shows/detail.php?action=shows&id=4687).
Went over to Bedlam after the show for a couple of drinks - it was a lovely evening spent with Chris, Bruce, Hogg and Richard, among others, and I got home around 2am. Huzzah for being able to sleep in in the morning!
10/08
Huzzah! Sell-out show :)
11/08
Huzzah sell-out show! And a bloody good review from Three Weeks:
Guilds
Edinburgh University Savoy Opera Group
A
joy to watch; 'Guilds' is a wonderfully topical comic musical. The play
centres on an election campaign between two jesters both vying for the
title of village idiot. Cunningly it's contemporary politics that is
being poked fun at; negative campaigning, photo ops, sound bites and
voter apathy are all mocked, and brilliantly. On top of this, the play
is a showcase of talent, with technically difficult pieces sung to
perfection. Laughter also graces the stage - Ed Curry's performance is
one of particular comic brilliance. Not often do whole audiences
giggle throughout a musical, but the comedy, both slapstick and subtle,
that adorns this musical is extremely amusing. So we have wit and
intelligence, talent, and laughter: this show is hard to fault.
Augustine's, 6 - 12, 21 - 26 Aug, 9:15pm (10:15pm), £8.00 (£5.00), fpp 163.
tw rating 5/5
12/08
SSOOOOOOO TIRED! But now til a week on Tues is our week of rest - thank goodness! Spent the day relaxing and watching The Vicar of Dibley before heading up to Nick's to change. The streets were very quiet when we went to flyer the Royal Mile, but that's not terribly suprising given that it's a Sunday and lots of people are headed home already. But we had quite a good audience (maybe 80ish) inspite of the aparent calm, and among those people were 3 MTM:UK awards judges assessing the show - which was rather off-putting. But all went off without a hitch, and we transfered all the set down to the store on Candlemaker Row for the week. We then headed down to Bar Italia for the cast meal: the food was ok, but pricey for what it was (unsuprisingly). After that we headed to Bedlam for the PGP post-week-one party (briefly in my case because of work).
Today the first of the shows opened for previews - the Fringe is nigh! Having been out for drinks for Doug's 22nd birthday the previous evening I was feeling a little tired to begin with, but met up with Maya for an early lunch at Double Dutch - had a very nice chat about her adventures in France over the past 6 weeks :) We then headed over to the Green Room: I had been asked over for an interview for a flyering job (thought it would be a good idea to help bolster the old bank account). We got there upon which I was told that the girl who was supposed to interview me had gone home to sleep, having been working for about 48hrs straight: on the one hand I was sympathetic because I know what hard work it is prior to opening a venue, but on the other hand I was annoyed because if you make an appointment you keep it or at least call to cancel. So having waited for 30 mins to talk to someone called Steven (who promptly also failed to materialise) we had had enough, so bought tickets to Dr Sketchy's Burlesque Art Salon (we weren't about to waste a chance to get preview tickets): the general concept was that you were given art materials, a bit of burlesque-style entertainment and the chance to sketch a model for an hour or so. Our hostess for the afternoon was the lovely Ophelia Bitz, along with our model Kitty Wildcard (who I had seen previously in Glasgow at one of Kirsty's evenings). It was a fun hour, and there were some very talented artists there - fortunately the emphasis was not upon good art work! I freely admit that my art skills are rusty, but I was never good at drawing people so most of my sketches were rather abstract! But I would recomend it for those both capable and incapable of drawing. We then headed off up The Royal Mile to take a look at some of the street performances, then wandered back down: I booked tickets for The McCalmens and Naked Voices (an a cappella group we saw last year - very good). We went into Shue because there was a sale on - there were some lovely shoes (Rocket Dogs) that I took a fancy to, but I decided against them for the moment). Maya had to disappear off home because she was going to see Jay that evening: I spent the evening cleaning the flat before going out to Revolution for a little while to celebrate Josh's birthday.
04/08
Didn't do very much today really. Got up lateish and popped into town to get some white fabric for a headscarf as part of my costume: also got some black muslin to do a wall hanging with that i've been planning for a while, but I did think the £5 was a bit much for the two considering that they were reminants. Got back to the flat and spent a while doing some sewing. Went up to the Venue for the tech run for 5pm to get into costume to be ready for 5.30. I hadn't realised it, but the ex-changing-rooms had undergone a major re-fit and were now more toilets and a kitchen - and not a mirror in the place! Ended up doing my make-up using the reflection from a hand-drier nozzle. I was ready to go for 5.30: got my pass and lanyard, then spent the next hour sitting waiting for orders from the techies. The whole thing went fairly well, and we got everything we needed to done with some time to spare. Saw Helen briefly, but she had just got off the train from London and gone straight to the venue, so was clearly shattered anyway, so didn't appear at the pub after. A few of us popped over to Bedlam for drinks after the tech run: it was a nice, relaxed evening - busy, but not heaving.
05/08
So far: Went out for brunch with Kirsty, Steven, Chris, Dave, Claire, Nick, James and (a guy who's name I can't remember - oops) at Double Dutch (again!) - had lots of coffee and some lemon drizzle cake - yummo! Was a nice relaxed morning with a minimum of tech/show talk. Kirsty and Steven went on to Dr Sketchys Burlesque Art Salon, and the others went on to watch the F1 - dull. Chris and I went to Lidl for food before Chris went to Jitsu at Meadow Bank. I half considered going up to see the cavalcade, but decided that it was drizzling too hard for my liking and that I'd better get stuff ironed before I start work tomorrow! Since then I've just been booking in reviewers for "Guilds" :) We have judges for the Edinburgh Evening News Amature Drama Awards coming on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of week 1, and a judge for the MTM: UK Awards at somepoint (I didn't have to book tickets for them, so I don't know the date). Later I will have a production meeting (last one before the show opens) so will be reporting on press-related progress, but I guess there's only a limited amount I can say really. Following the meeting it's THE DRESS REHEARSAL: I'm slightly nervous because we are not in the venue for it, so do not have the set or lighting to work with until the opening night! But hopefully it will go well: the cast really need to concentrate and remain focused from now on - and the energy needs to be there all the time from now onward. Certain cast members are bugging me increasingly: there's lots of unnecessary whinging going on, a lack of concentration, an unwillingness to do a fair share of the work (a blonde female chorus member seems to think that she is above carrying set up to the store -she'll learn). Anyway, I'll stop bitching now. After the dress run I'll be heading down to C venue to see The Pornographer Diaries: it's not that I particularly want to see it, but there's a flyering job up for grabs with them and they want me to see the show before I take the job, which is fair enough - it's just a bit annoying that it doesn't start til 10.45 and I start work early tomorrow, but never mind - I can probably make about £70 for 12 hours flyering over 6 days. It's not much, but anything that keeps my Fringe spending to a minimum is good, even if it's just a bit of cash for drinks later on. Right, need to make some food to take to rehearsal and do some washing before I head to production meeting. Will report back later.
later:
I got the flyering job without any problem... actually, without any interview: I turned up, was told what was expected of me, and given a comp to see the show then told to turn up tomorrow at 3pm to report for duty. As I mentioned earlier, the show is called The Pornographer Diaries: I wasn't sure what to expect going in to see this production - it could go one of two ways; filthy and abhorant, or a piss-take. Fortunately for my sensibilities it was the later! The show charts the achievement of one man's ultimate fantasy: to work for a porn mag (a la Nuts or FHM). The show myth-busts some of the hype surrounding 'the ultimate job' in comic style which will appeal to 'blokes' and feminists alike. Of course it's a bit smutty, but it never gets truely seedy or disgusting (still WOULD NOT recomend taking Granny to see it). So, it will be my job to sell this production to your adverage Fringe-goer: this could be funny, or I'll get attacked by scarey feminists and Christians before I have a chance to explain that as a pro-feminist Christian woman I didn't find it too bad. So I start that job at 3pm (at which time I am supposed to be meeting the head of publicity for the National Trust for Scotland to arange a publicity stunt for "Guilds" - I think I'll have to leave this to Simon, but I have no problem with this if he doesn't). And the 'actual' job starts at 9.30 tomorrow morning! So that's two jobs, a "Guilds" flyering session and the opening night of the show to do tomorrow - it'll keep me busy anyway. On a Savoy-show note: the dress-run went ok but there's still a lack of focus from the cast.
06/08
This is being done swiftly as I eat dinner before heading up to Dave's to change for the show. First shift at work was fairly straight-forward: got there early so went for wander along Stockbridge high street. The morning passed fairly smoothly with only one minor hiccup involving a misunderstanding with a cast member over press stuff, but it was sorted out quickly. I spent my time working out the phone system and the programs to use, and doing some audio-typing. A good start I think. Then at 2pm I headed back to Southbridge to pick up the flyers and t-shirt for The Pornographers Diary: it wasn't too hard to sell in the end. Did that for a couple of hours before rushing back here for a quick meal and wash. I'm looking forward to tonight - the opening night is always good, and Nottingham Uni G and S soc are coming and they are barmey! They will laugh at everything, which makes the rest of the audience more responsive than they might otherwise be. But it's another early start tomorrow, so drinking'll just have to wait. Shall report on success/otherwise of the opening night tomorrow :)
07/08
Last night: We sold out!!!!!! First night and everything :D Very, very happy! The audience was fantastic and there were no major on-stage cock-ups, and we got so many laughs! I love the Fringe! And we had at least two posative audience-reviews on the edfringe website. Popped over to bedlam briefly afterwards to see Helen.
Started work at 8.45am today - was utterly shattered from the word go, so will be having a nap before going to get changed! But can go out tonight as I don't have work tomorrow :)
later:
It's very odd that for a show which sells out one night and has people crying with laughter can have such a differant reaction with a differant audience: it's not that tonight's audiance didn't enjoy it, becuse I could see them smiling, but there were very few laughs, even at the most obvious of jokes. The show is genuinely funny - it's witty and sharp - but tonight's lot didn't give us much to work with: we had to give 110% energy to get anything back. Audiences can be either mirrors or black holes: they will either reflect the energy you put into a performance accordingly, or they will suck everything in and you won't get anything back out no matter how hard you try. I think it has disappointed everyone, and that can be a recipe for disillusionment, and a poor show consequently. I really hope that the reviewer picked up one how much we were giving it - if only he had come last night!
08/08
Tonight was much better - although it was still quite a small audience they were far more responsive than the other night, which was great because we had a reviewer for Forth FM in. The review will be out tomorrow. The rest of the day was pretty quiet as I wasn't at work: went to Scottish Slimmers meeting and had lost 3.5lb this week :) Then met up with Maya and went to see Transformers: I wasn't expecting much from the film, but how wrong I was! It was brilliant: great plot, great CG and great soundtrack - I will be going back next week for certain!
09/08
Another good day :) Work from 9 - 2pm, then out flyering for an hour, then met Dad for a quick coffee. Dad was telling me about his and Mum's trip around France - it sounds to have been great, I'm very jealous and am considering going on holiday to France in October. The flyering was very effective and I think that it's probably why we had another large audience this evening. No major mess-ups on stage, except for a couple of missed lines, but it wasn't one that was terribly obvious fortunately as we had 3 reviewers in tonight. Audience reviews are looking good too (http://www.edfringe.com/shows/detail.php?action=shows&id=4687).
Went over to Bedlam after the show for a couple of drinks - it was a lovely evening spent with Chris, Bruce, Hogg and Richard, among others, and I got home around 2am. Huzzah for being able to sleep in in the morning!
10/08
Huzzah! Sell-out show :)
11/08
Huzzah sell-out show! And a bloody good review from Three Weeks:
Guilds
Edinburgh University Savoy Opera Group
A
joy to watch; 'Guilds' is a wonderfully topical comic musical. The play
centres on an election campaign between two jesters both vying for the
title of village idiot. Cunningly it's contemporary politics that is
being poked fun at; negative campaigning, photo ops, sound bites and
voter apathy are all mocked, and brilliantly. On top of this, the play
is a showcase of talent, with technically difficult pieces sung to
perfection. Laughter also graces the stage - Ed Curry's performance is
one of particular comic brilliance. Not often do whole audiences
giggle throughout a musical, but the comedy, both slapstick and subtle,
that adorns this musical is extremely amusing. So we have wit and
intelligence, talent, and laughter: this show is hard to fault.
Augustine's, 6 - 12, 21 - 26 Aug, 9:15pm (10:15pm), £8.00 (£5.00), fpp 163.
tw rating 5/5
12/08
SSOOOOOOO TIRED! But now til a week on Tues is our week of rest - thank goodness! Spent the day relaxing and watching The Vicar of Dibley before heading up to Nick's to change. The streets were very quiet when we went to flyer the Royal Mile, but that's not terribly suprising given that it's a Sunday and lots of people are headed home already. But we had quite a good audience (maybe 80ish) inspite of the aparent calm, and among those people were 3 MTM:UK awards judges assessing the show - which was rather off-putting. But all went off without a hitch, and we transfered all the set down to the store on Candlemaker Row for the week. We then headed down to Bar Italia for the cast meal: the food was ok, but pricey for what it was (unsuprisingly). After that we headed to Bedlam for the PGP post-week-one party (briefly in my case because of work).
Monday, 30 July 2007
I got my MSc acceptance!
As the title says, I got final acceptance for my MSc! Woo! I get to do the whole Freshers week thing again - which I'm pretty excited about :) But also getting to know a whole new group of people, a new way of studying, a chance to work as hard and achieve as much as I should have in my undergrad degree. I'm soooooo excited. I'm getting a second chance but with the maturity to appreciate it at last.
later:
very funny! I just got an email from Margret Smith at the Parliament inviting me to an interview as a research assistant! I've never been contacted out of the blue to inverview for a job - my confidence is sky-high now! Of course I can't go for it what with the MSc success (I've thought about it and I don't think I can manage a job and the MSc p/t), but have suggested I could do a few hours a week voluntaraly to keep my research skills in tune. :)
later again:
Had a job interview with an accountancy firm today - no, not as an accountant, but as a secretary for a few hours a week. The firm is much bigger than I thought, but still nice and friendly - the people interviewing me were pleasant and generally seemed to think that I'd fit the bill for the job. Mr Hamilton's attitude was "stuff interviews - I'll take the first suitable candidate", and he seemed to think that I was suitable, so it's all good. The pay is pretty good to, and they're willing to be flexiable about when I do the hours. They said they'll get back to me very soon - and I believe them!
Later still:
I got the job - woooo! I'm employed! :)
And later again:
I got a call offering me the job at the Uni information services a week after the interview - got to tell them that they were too late cause I've got a job ;) Ok, not literally, but near enough!
later:
very funny! I just got an email from Margret Smith at the Parliament inviting me to an interview as a research assistant! I've never been contacted out of the blue to inverview for a job - my confidence is sky-high now! Of course I can't go for it what with the MSc success (I've thought about it and I don't think I can manage a job and the MSc p/t), but have suggested I could do a few hours a week voluntaraly to keep my research skills in tune. :)
later again:
Had a job interview with an accountancy firm today - no, not as an accountant, but as a secretary for a few hours a week. The firm is much bigger than I thought, but still nice and friendly - the people interviewing me were pleasant and generally seemed to think that I'd fit the bill for the job. Mr Hamilton's attitude was "stuff interviews - I'll take the first suitable candidate", and he seemed to think that I was suitable, so it's all good. The pay is pretty good to, and they're willing to be flexiable about when I do the hours. They said they'll get back to me very soon - and I believe them!
Later still:
I got the job - woooo! I'm employed! :)
And later again:
I got a call offering me the job at the Uni information services a week after the interview - got to tell them that they were too late cause I've got a job ;) Ok, not literally, but near enough!
Wednesday, 25 July 2007
Tum te tum te tum (wow my titles are unimaginative)
Just waiting to hear back about a job interview I had today - really really hope that I get it. It seemed to go well and they were friendly enough, but I worry that I don't have enough of the practical skills they are looking for - ie good numerical skills! But I'm willing to work hard and to learn what's required for the position. On the plus side one of the interviewers did some acting at Manderston House, where I used to work, during the filming of The Edwardian Country House series, so that was some useful common-ground. The other interviewer was pleasant - head of sales and marketing for the university. I just hope I've made a good enough impression!
Wednesday, 18 July 2007
Leaving drinks etc.
Went to Jordans leaving drinks last night: was a nice evening, and I wasn't uncomfortable around a large group of people I didn't know (I was worried that I'd just freak out and have to make my excuses early in the evening) - makes a nice change. Was a sad evening, of course: it's never nice to see a friend leave, but I'm going to have to get used to it over the next couple of weeks. I'll miss him lots, as I'll miss Lou and James and everyone else, but it's not as if I'll never see any of them ever again! It's just another end, and another begining: all of us will be starting something new (including me hopefully) but we'll all keep in touch. It's just going to be differant, and we'll meet new people and make new friends and learn new skills - it'll be good.
Speaking of new - I got a job interview at long last :D Huzzah! It's a slaes job, but it's not Tesco, which is always good! I just hope I get it!
Speaking of new - I got a job interview at long last :D Huzzah! It's a slaes job, but it's not Tesco, which is always good! I just hope I get it!
Friday, 13 July 2007
Newspaper star (cont.)
Well the article came out today, but not in the Edinburgh Evening News as I expected, but in The Scotsman! It's a half-page spread on page 22 but has a big picture of me (from graduation) and a short interview section :D
Wednesday, 11 July 2007
Newspaper star today...
...fish+chip wrapping tomorrow! ;)
I'm very ammused! I mentioned to a friend (at the pub, as all great stories start) who works for the Edinburgh Evening News that Edinburgh University graduates were being offered a 10% discount on post-graduate study fees (which is a nice little bonus for those of us who had made-up our minds already to continue study here). This has since been turned into a full-page spread with me being featured as a case-study :) Very, very funny! I got the call from Simon this morning while I was helping Harry clean her flat (Chris' old place - it was increadibly mucky) so there was me dressed in my oldest, messiest clothes being interviewed for a newspaper - it's the sort of situation I find funny. He was going to send a photographer around to take a picture to go with the case-study, but (fortunately for me) no-one was avaliable so I sent in a couple of graduation photos instead. The story might not yet run but, hey, it's a bit of a laugh.
I'm very ammused! I mentioned to a friend (at the pub, as all great stories start) who works for the Edinburgh Evening News that Edinburgh University graduates were being offered a 10% discount on post-graduate study fees (which is a nice little bonus for those of us who had made-up our minds already to continue study here). This has since been turned into a full-page spread with me being featured as a case-study :) Very, very funny! I got the call from Simon this morning while I was helping Harry clean her flat (Chris' old place - it was increadibly mucky) so there was me dressed in my oldest, messiest clothes being interviewed for a newspaper - it's the sort of situation I find funny. He was going to send a photographer around to take a picture to go with the case-study, but (fortunately for me) no-one was avaliable so I sent in a couple of graduation photos instead. The story might not yet run but, hey, it's a bit of a laugh.
Thursday, 5 July 2007
Catch up
Right, I have a bit of spare time and the inclination to write something at last. Where do I start?
25/06 - Graduation
Was a lovely day :) The family came up at 12ish and we headed up to Bristo Square. They went off to have a coffee while I went to pick up my gown and hood, and register: I had the standard black gown with a white hood, represtenting I had graduated with an MA. It felt great flouting around in my gown and smart clothes, but I only got to keep the gown and hood for a few hours other wise I'd probably still be wearing it now :D After doing the necessary preliminaries I went to join the parents at the cafe. We went from there over to Potterrow for a quick complimentary coffee and the expected photos (which turned out really well) before heading off to McEwan Hall for a few more pics then the big ceremony.
The McEwan Hall is a beautiful, awe-inspiring building and the perfect setting for what was a ceremony of pomp and circumstance. I was sat with the rest of the Geoscience set down in the main hall and the parents were sat up in the balcony. The first group through were the physics Mscs and Undergrads - Ali Braiden was there getting his PhD and looked very smart in his kilt and colours. Then came the Geosciences - Geography and Politics came toward the end of this section. I was fortunately sat next to Jordan who I know quite well and Gillian who I've met a couple of times before - there were only five of us (one guy had decided to graduate in absentia). We were sheparded into place one by one to be tapped on the head with 'The Cap': 'The Cap' is the one hat with which all graduates of Edinburgh uni are tapped on the head with (we do not get to wear the traditional caps for various reasons) which is reputed to be made from the trousers of John Knox or John Buchanan depending on what you believe - the one bit you can believe is that the university badge sewn into the inside of the bonnet has been into space, which is very cool :) It was all over very quickly as we were quickly herded off to collect our scrolls - I can't very clearly remember the 10 seconds after being tapped on the head with the cap, I blanked out a little bit with the disbelief that it was all over! We went back to our seats and were followed by the chemistry class.
The whole thing was over in an hour which suprised me a lot, but pleasantly. After this the geosciences group went down to the department for drinks - the place was crowded! Dad had to go home to pick up my brother from work, so Mum and I went for a quick wander down but it was so busy that we beat a hasty retreat. We ran into Jordan, his parents and Rosie coming the other way - his parents were very pleasant and Jordan and I had a couple of photos taken together (I was a bit annoyed because I had handed back my gown at that point - it would have been nice to get a picture of both of us in our gowns with our scrolls, but never mind). Mum and I then caught the bus back to the flat (my shoes, as low heeled as they were, had given me nasty blisters!) where we waited for Dad and Pete to arrive.
When they did at last we opened a bottle of champagne and had a wee drink with Ruth (flatmate) before the family and I headed off to dinner at La Gerrick on Jeffery St. La Gerrick is a lovely little French restaurant looking out onto Carlton Hill - which at sunset is a very beautiful sight indeed. I had a provincial style mackeral pate: it wasn't abbrasive as a lot of mackeral dishes are, it was very soft and pleasant: for the main course I had roasted saddle of rabbit wrapped in pancetta served with creamy pollenta - I've never had rabbit before and I was so impressed by this dish! The softness and taste of the meat worked beautifully with the creaminess of the pollenta (I've cooked pollenta before and I was so unimpressed - clearly I was just doing it wrong!) - I can't remember anything to equal this dish! We had this with a lovely French red wine, but stupidly I didn't check what it was - will try and find out at some point. And for pudding I had a lavender creme brulee served with a raspberry syrup and a lemon biscotte: I nearly died and went to heaven. The burnt suger was the perfect flavour to contrast the creamy sweetness and soft texture of the lavender custard - I would go again just for that! The tables were made by the artist Tim Stead - a wonderful artist who worked in wood: he was well know for the use of heavily knotted wood to make unique, sturdy and very tactile, practical works of art (I remember going to see a post-humerous exhibition of his work when I was very young - the piece I remember from this was an enormous, low-level chess-set formed of a full slice of tree trunk inset with darker wood, and polished to a lusterous shine using bees wax. The outside edge was uneven but smoothed out - a really beautiful piece). The meal was slow and relaxed, and we had one of the family discussions that I relish, covering everything from politics to art to architecture (we discussed a fantastic new paper by one of my ex-lecturers on the politics of corridors - Pete, as an engineering student and I as a social scientist had a wonderful discussion on how the use of specific materials can affect the impact on the interaction of people - I'll write it up a bit later). The family decided to head home that evening rather than stay at the flat - Pete drove them all back to Duns.
And that was the day - hectic but wonderful. It's funny that that was the day that I had been building towards all the days of my education, and sundenly it was all over. I'm so grateful to everyone who has helped me reach this point, especially my parents - they've done so much for me all my life, I couldn't even begin to express the level of my gratitude.
Since then:
I've been on a bit of a come down since then because I've not had a lot to do: the Summer job hunt has so far been unsuccessful - I blooming well hope I get a job before my Msc starts in September. Speaking of which I am still waiting for my letter of confirmation from the Geography department: it's frustrating because I feel so insecure about the whole thing anyway that being kept waiting that little bit longer isn't helping! Everyone has disappeared for the week on holiday except for me so I've spent my time cleaning the flat, doing some DIY, visiting galleries, seeing films etc to fill the time. Rehearsals for the Fringe show start again on monday - looking forward to it! Speaking of which, I'd best write in rehearsal dates and times on my calander before I forget!
25/06 - Graduation
Was a lovely day :) The family came up at 12ish and we headed up to Bristo Square. They went off to have a coffee while I went to pick up my gown and hood, and register: I had the standard black gown with a white hood, represtenting I had graduated with an MA. It felt great flouting around in my gown and smart clothes, but I only got to keep the gown and hood for a few hours other wise I'd probably still be wearing it now :D After doing the necessary preliminaries I went to join the parents at the cafe. We went from there over to Potterrow for a quick complimentary coffee and the expected photos (which turned out really well) before heading off to McEwan Hall for a few more pics then the big ceremony.
The McEwan Hall is a beautiful, awe-inspiring building and the perfect setting for what was a ceremony of pomp and circumstance. I was sat with the rest of the Geoscience set down in the main hall and the parents were sat up in the balcony. The first group through were the physics Mscs and Undergrads - Ali Braiden was there getting his PhD and looked very smart in his kilt and colours. Then came the Geosciences - Geography and Politics came toward the end of this section. I was fortunately sat next to Jordan who I know quite well and Gillian who I've met a couple of times before - there were only five of us (one guy had decided to graduate in absentia). We were sheparded into place one by one to be tapped on the head with 'The Cap': 'The Cap' is the one hat with which all graduates of Edinburgh uni are tapped on the head with (we do not get to wear the traditional caps for various reasons) which is reputed to be made from the trousers of John Knox or John Buchanan depending on what you believe - the one bit you can believe is that the university badge sewn into the inside of the bonnet has been into space, which is very cool :) It was all over very quickly as we were quickly herded off to collect our scrolls - I can't very clearly remember the 10 seconds after being tapped on the head with the cap, I blanked out a little bit with the disbelief that it was all over! We went back to our seats and were followed by the chemistry class.
The whole thing was over in an hour which suprised me a lot, but pleasantly. After this the geosciences group went down to the department for drinks - the place was crowded! Dad had to go home to pick up my brother from work, so Mum and I went for a quick wander down but it was so busy that we beat a hasty retreat. We ran into Jordan, his parents and Rosie coming the other way - his parents were very pleasant and Jordan and I had a couple of photos taken together (I was a bit annoyed because I had handed back my gown at that point - it would have been nice to get a picture of both of us in our gowns with our scrolls, but never mind). Mum and I then caught the bus back to the flat (my shoes, as low heeled as they were, had given me nasty blisters!) where we waited for Dad and Pete to arrive.
When they did at last we opened a bottle of champagne and had a wee drink with Ruth (flatmate) before the family and I headed off to dinner at La Gerrick on Jeffery St. La Gerrick is a lovely little French restaurant looking out onto Carlton Hill - which at sunset is a very beautiful sight indeed. I had a provincial style mackeral pate: it wasn't abbrasive as a lot of mackeral dishes are, it was very soft and pleasant: for the main course I had roasted saddle of rabbit wrapped in pancetta served with creamy pollenta - I've never had rabbit before and I was so impressed by this dish! The softness and taste of the meat worked beautifully with the creaminess of the pollenta (I've cooked pollenta before and I was so unimpressed - clearly I was just doing it wrong!) - I can't remember anything to equal this dish! We had this with a lovely French red wine, but stupidly I didn't check what it was - will try and find out at some point. And for pudding I had a lavender creme brulee served with a raspberry syrup and a lemon biscotte: I nearly died and went to heaven. The burnt suger was the perfect flavour to contrast the creamy sweetness and soft texture of the lavender custard - I would go again just for that! The tables were made by the artist Tim Stead - a wonderful artist who worked in wood: he was well know for the use of heavily knotted wood to make unique, sturdy and very tactile, practical works of art (I remember going to see a post-humerous exhibition of his work when I was very young - the piece I remember from this was an enormous, low-level chess-set formed of a full slice of tree trunk inset with darker wood, and polished to a lusterous shine using bees wax. The outside edge was uneven but smoothed out - a really beautiful piece). The meal was slow and relaxed, and we had one of the family discussions that I relish, covering everything from politics to art to architecture (we discussed a fantastic new paper by one of my ex-lecturers on the politics of corridors - Pete, as an engineering student and I as a social scientist had a wonderful discussion on how the use of specific materials can affect the impact on the interaction of people - I'll write it up a bit later). The family decided to head home that evening rather than stay at the flat - Pete drove them all back to Duns.
And that was the day - hectic but wonderful. It's funny that that was the day that I had been building towards all the days of my education, and sundenly it was all over. I'm so grateful to everyone who has helped me reach this point, especially my parents - they've done so much for me all my life, I couldn't even begin to express the level of my gratitude.
Since then:
I've been on a bit of a come down since then because I've not had a lot to do: the Summer job hunt has so far been unsuccessful - I blooming well hope I get a job before my Msc starts in September. Speaking of which I am still waiting for my letter of confirmation from the Geography department: it's frustrating because I feel so insecure about the whole thing anyway that being kept waiting that little bit longer isn't helping! Everyone has disappeared for the week on holiday except for me so I've spent my time cleaning the flat, doing some DIY, visiting galleries, seeing films etc to fill the time. Rehearsals for the Fringe show start again on monday - looking forward to it! Speaking of which, I'd best write in rehearsal dates and times on my calander before I forget!
Saturday, 23 June 2007
Thursday, 14 June 2007
I've calmed down now, honest.
I'm still very happy about my offer, obviously, but have calmed down on reflection of the fact that the course is still under internal review and by no means certain to run, and my application is still required to undergo a final review. I'm not being negative, but I'm very consious of the fact that I shouldn't pin all my hopes on this one thing.
In the mean time: I'm still waiting to hear if I've got an interview for the parliament job, and I've decided to sell my soul to Tesco (again) for the Summer to earn a bit of cash - I don't particularly want to because the memories of just how crap it was towards the end of last Summer are still very clear in my mind, but I've got the experiance and the training already and the pay's ok. Might still try applying to Lidl because the pay's better - £7, as opposed to £6.75 at Tesco.
In the mean time: I'm still waiting to hear if I've got an interview for the parliament job, and I've decided to sell my soul to Tesco (again) for the Summer to earn a bit of cash - I don't particularly want to because the memories of just how crap it was towards the end of last Summer are still very clear in my mind, but I've got the experiance and the training already and the pay's ok. Might still try applying to Lidl because the pay's better - £7, as opposed to £6.75 at Tesco.
Tuesday, 12 June 2007
Tuesday, 5 June 2007
"Grab the horn of the Ox, Think outside of the box, and devise a solution instead"
(quote courtasy of "Guilds" by A. Braden and J. Davy - Fringe show wooooooo!)
Time to do just as that quote says. New Plan: work full time and do MSc part-time.
Ok, back track slightly and explain: there are a lot of 'ifs' involved in this so I'm not counting my chickens by any means. A position has come up at the Scottish Parliament as an assistant to an MSP, and I've applied on the basis that I have a year's experiance doing much the same thing part-time for a differant MSP in the same party, so have good references and experiance - this should at least put me in the position of being a reasonably strong candidate anyway. It's a good place to start working because I know quite a number of people there and I like the environment, plus it keeps me in the way of research practise. I have still to hear back about the MSc, but if I do get the offer then I think it would be best to do it part-time for several reasons: I would be earning enough to support myself, pay council tax and tuition fees. My grades haven't been good enough to qualify me for funding. It would also mean that I have access, through the Parliamentary information centre, to a vast source of information on environmental issues in Scotland and up-to-date debates. So, that's the idea, but there are a huge number of 'ifs' involved, and I'm reticent to pin any hopes at all on this, but it's a plan anyway.
Time to do just as that quote says. New Plan: work full time and do MSc part-time.
Ok, back track slightly and explain: there are a lot of 'ifs' involved in this so I'm not counting my chickens by any means. A position has come up at the Scottish Parliament as an assistant to an MSP, and I've applied on the basis that I have a year's experiance doing much the same thing part-time for a differant MSP in the same party, so have good references and experiance - this should at least put me in the position of being a reasonably strong candidate anyway. It's a good place to start working because I know quite a number of people there and I like the environment, plus it keeps me in the way of research practise. I have still to hear back about the MSc, but if I do get the offer then I think it would be best to do it part-time for several reasons: I would be earning enough to support myself, pay council tax and tuition fees. My grades haven't been good enough to qualify me for funding. It would also mean that I have access, through the Parliamentary information centre, to a vast source of information on environmental issues in Scotland and up-to-date debates. So, that's the idea, but there are a huge number of 'ifs' involved, and I'm reticent to pin any hopes at all on this, but it's a plan anyway.
Friday, 1 June 2007
Swimming up-river (the one where you don't get a paddle)
I've finished my degree. Well, actually I finished it technically on the 17th of June at the end of my exams, but now I have confirmation of my degree results; 2:2. Can't say that I'm not dissappointed because I really thought that I had got a 2:1, but it would appear that Housing and Society dragged my mark down (got 54%) - it's a course which has been subject to a lot of criticism from myself and my fellow class mates for a range of reasons (my personal gripe has been the urbancentricity of the course). Oh well. Might appeal, but my Director of Studies doesn't think that it's marginal enough to be successful.
On the plus side, I heard back from the postgraduate coordinatior. I got an offer for a place on my MSc course, on the condition that I got a 2:1 (which came as a bit of a kick in the metaphorical balls considering I had been waiting to hear back about it for ages and I got the response just after the results came out!) But I may still get it: the case is being refered to the course convenior to decide. This is a new course, so the chances are that all the places will not be taken anyway, and it would be to the advantage of the course coordinator to have a full class even if they are not all 2:1/1st students than a class that's not full up. My Director of Studies said that he would have 'an informal word' with the person responciable for the selection of students for the course. I really appreciate how much has been done for me by those I have talked to within the department - I wouldn't stand a chance without their support! However, it could still all come crashing down because the course is still subject to internal approval. This may still count in my favour in that if enough people are interested and signed up then approval may go through far more easily than if they only had a few people interested. I shall have to wait and see, but I believe that God does not close a door without opening a window. I really want this oppertunity, and if I'm accepted then I'm going to have to work so much harder than anyone else to prove myself capable, and I'm willing to do so. I recognise the sacrafices that I will have to make, but I know that they'll be worth it.
If there's one positive lesson I've taken from this, it's that we cannot take our oppertunities for granted and have to make the most of every chance we get. As Mum said, what's meant for you will not pass you by. My parents have been so supportative: they said that they were not disappointed by me, but for me, and that's been a really big help. With the support from my family and friends I've managed to remain very posative, and turned this result to my advantage: I'm now very motivated to do my best and strive for what I want.
On the plus side, I heard back from the postgraduate coordinatior. I got an offer for a place on my MSc course, on the condition that I got a 2:1 (which came as a bit of a kick in the metaphorical balls considering I had been waiting to hear back about it for ages and I got the response just after the results came out!) But I may still get it: the case is being refered to the course convenior to decide. This is a new course, so the chances are that all the places will not be taken anyway, and it would be to the advantage of the course coordinator to have a full class even if they are not all 2:1/1st students than a class that's not full up. My Director of Studies said that he would have 'an informal word' with the person responciable for the selection of students for the course. I really appreciate how much has been done for me by those I have talked to within the department - I wouldn't stand a chance without their support! However, it could still all come crashing down because the course is still subject to internal approval. This may still count in my favour in that if enough people are interested and signed up then approval may go through far more easily than if they only had a few people interested. I shall have to wait and see, but I believe that God does not close a door without opening a window. I really want this oppertunity, and if I'm accepted then I'm going to have to work so much harder than anyone else to prove myself capable, and I'm willing to do so. I recognise the sacrafices that I will have to make, but I know that they'll be worth it.
If there's one positive lesson I've taken from this, it's that we cannot take our oppertunities for granted and have to make the most of every chance we get. As Mum said, what's meant for you will not pass you by. My parents have been so supportative: they said that they were not disappointed by me, but for me, and that's been a really big help. With the support from my family and friends I've managed to remain very posative, and turned this result to my advantage: I'm now very motivated to do my best and strive for what I want.
Sunday, 27 May 2007
Right, time to just get on with it!
I've done the panic about my future, never going to be employed, getting left behind etc, and now I'm ready to get on with applications and interviews. I will probably get a huge number of rejections and it's going to be difficult to remain positive, but I'm determined to do the best I possibly can.
Speaking of just getting on with it, I wish certain people would start standing up for themselves, perhaps even get some balls: i'm a bit sick of the whinging "oh, woe is me!" attitude. Learn to be a bit of a bastard and you'll go far, cause if you don't you'll end up with nothing: 100% nice people rarely get what they want.
Speaking of just getting on with it, I wish certain people would start standing up for themselves, perhaps even get some balls: i'm a bit sick of the whinging "oh, woe is me!" attitude. Learn to be a bit of a bastard and you'll go far, cause if you don't you'll end up with nothing: 100% nice people rarely get what they want.
Wednesday, 23 May 2007
Wibble!
I had my first non-heights related panic attack in months this afternoon :( The future's unclear and very scary. I think this was mostly brought on by the fact that I was turned down for a position which I thought I was a shoe-in for - it's just one of those moments where you come to question your overall validity as a human being. I'm begining to wish that I had chosen a degree with more practical skills, like business or languages. I know everyone jokes about MAs being rather useless, but I'm starting to agree. I just wish that I could talk to my family and friends about it honestly, but I just keep bluffing on as if all was fine, and what's even worse is that they believe me - I'm setting myself up for a very big fall, I know, but I'm still going to be suprised when it happens because I have become very good at fooling myself into thinking that 'everything will be ok because it's always ok and it has to be ok'.
Running away and living as a hermit sounds so attractive right now.
Running away and living as a hermit sounds so attractive right now.
Friday, 18 May 2007
And out the other side...
Here I am at the other side of university education - slightly terrifying just how quickly it's gone. What I've come out understanding is that I'm more uncertain and more ignorant that I was when I went in: when I began I had certain understandings and beliefs which I felt to be unshakable, but now there are no certainties and a much bigger world to have no certainties in. I get the impression that the further one investigates a topic, the fewer absolutes there are and the deeper the mire one can get lost in. What am I getting myself into?
Tuesday, 15 May 2007
The end of my undergraduate degree and musings on working life in Scotland
I will be finished with academic exams FOREVER in less than 48 hours! Huzzah!
And at the same time I must say that the prospect of not having my year devided into pieces by exams is unsettling, because it also signals the end of long Christmas and Summer holidays (ok, so they haven't really been 'holidays' for quite some time because I've always worked, academically or otherwise). Even if I get the MSc place, it's going to be much more like a job than my undergrad has ever been - or at least that how I intend to treat it (God willing), so there will be regularised hours and no/little working from home, and (again) no holidays as such.
I've thought for quite some time now that the way the holiday system is organised in schools and at Uni has trained us to look forward to long, lazy holidays, and when we leave academia it comes as a rather rude awakening to realise that we might get 2 - 3 weeks off per year tops, most of which we will be obliged to spend with our family for the forseeable future.
With that being the case, it's little wonder to me that mental health in Britain is as poor as it is, and that we suffer sever burn-out and stress - far more so than most other European countries: we work long hours for a wage which has a generally decreasing value to service ridiculous mortgages on houses which don't justify their cost because we feel compelled by current social trends to 'get on the property ladder'.
I get the impression that the British public would benefit, in terms of mental health and stress reduction, from a more relaxed attitude to work as is generally prevelant in Europe - perhaps an enforced 'lunch-hour' rather than the sandwich-at-the-desk approach which seems to dominate attitudes toward breaks. On adverage, Scottish empolyees take 20 minutes off for lunch (if indeed that much) and another 15 minute break per day - all of roughly 40 minutes in an 8 - 10 hour day: is it any wonder that so many sick-days are taken? In general, I think that British industry could be as productive, if not more-so, if employees were activly encouraged to use their breaks: eat then go for a quick walk, sit in the sunshine, read a book, do something physically active - it has been proven that people are more productive if they take regular exercise, it clears the mind and releases endorphins, and can do wonders for individual confidence. These benefits are just not avaliable if employees simply stay at the desk or go for a quick cigarette break. It's just like it was in school, in fact: we were given regular breaks and space to relax, and on the whole people were more productive, willing to work and positive in attitude.
A combination of lessening 'leisure' time, prioritisation of work/career (from a very young age) and little exercise (indeed, little time to exercise); it shouldn't come as a shock to anyone that we have such high levels of cardiovascular and lung disease: stress-eating and smoking are symptomatic of a culture of prioritising 'output' over the individual. Oh, and of course, the rotten weather doesn't help. The attitudes of employers and employees across Britain need a complete overhaul: work to live, not live to work.
Think I might just skip the lot and move abroad now.
Wow - this is really not where I meant to go with this post, and I should get back to exam revision now. Ho hum...
Friday, 11 May 2007
Frustration and thankfullness
Tired. Sick of revision. Fidgetty. Eatten too much suger. Sick of waiting for people to tell me that I'm worth something. Hormonally imballanced. Sick of obsessive brain. Tired of waiting for my life to start. Tired of waiting for the moment where everything changes. Bored of having unfilfilled plans and dreams. Despising the feeling of being chained down, hemmed in, put in a cage. Tired of trying to please everyone. Frustrated that I can never live up to my own expectations. Annoyed that whatever I do will never be enough. Disparing that I'm not taken seriously. Angry that I've created a persona designed not to be taken seriously. Feeling put-aside, disregarded, forgettable, invisible. Making it easy for people to disregard me. Angry that I never speak out. Angry that I hold my tounge because it's conveniant for someone else. Feeling destined to be the bad guy. Terrified that I will always be the one to make the sacrafices. Wanting what I can't have. Being to scared to take what I want. Making bad decisions. Hiding behind morality. Never saying exactly what I'm thinking. Never thinking about what I'm saying. Setting myself up to fail. Justifying other people's bad decisions. Never being utterly honest.
In spite of all the crap, the baggage, the neurosis, the self-doubt, anger and pain I drag around from day-to-day, I'm still aware of how much I have to be thankful for.
Life. Family. Love. Friends. Stability. Acceptance. Intelligence. Self-respect. Librality. Taste. Humour. Support. A future. Choices. Expectations. Patience. Insite. Empathy. Sincerity. Tact. Ability. Sympathy. Determination. Enthusiasm. Devotion. Grace. Talent. Opportunities. Morality. Consiousness. Chances. Peace.
In spite of all the crap, the baggage, the neurosis, the self-doubt, anger and pain I drag around from day-to-day, I'm still aware of how much I have to be thankful for.
Life. Family. Love. Friends. Stability. Acceptance. Intelligence. Self-respect. Librality. Taste. Humour. Support. A future. Choices. Expectations. Patience. Insite. Empathy. Sincerity. Tact. Ability. Sympathy. Determination. Enthusiasm. Devotion. Grace. Talent. Opportunities. Morality. Consiousness. Chances. Peace.
Friday, 4 May 2007
Catch-up and Misc. non-sense
Well, here I am back in Edinburgh after a nice long break at home :) (by break I do mean spending 12 hours a day revising, but that's beside the point) So, what's happened recently that I can remember?...
I handed in my MSc application at last (God, I hope I get it!)
I started applying for jobs for over the summer (mostly book shops)
I may be going on a 2 - 4 week road trip around Europe in July! Sweet!
I got my shiney new book on Aesthetics of the Natural Environment, and the collected works of Norman MacCaig - yay :D
Gran and Dads birthdays happened, so lots of nice food (Pete and I even made Dad a birthday cake, although it should be more acuratley described as lots-of-chocolate-with-slightly-less-butter-and-suger-and-flour. It was gooooooood)
I got new cycling gloves, so now my hands won't freeze - huzzah!
My friend Sarah got a PhD place in St Andrews :)
I found some of my old short-stories - quite pleasantly supprised by how well writen they were - my fictional writing skills are now sadly lacking :(
Came back to a clean flat, and a much better television in the sitting room (it's Chris's, but he's moving in with Gareth, who has a HUGE tv, so Chris's one would have been rather redundant there. Can now ask people over to watch films)
The Scottish Lib Dems may have lost Berwickshire!!!!!!! It seems impossible because t has been such a strong-hold for years upon years, but the Conservatives or SNP have nabbed it >:-( Plus the huge muck-up which seems to have lost 100,000 votes
I'll probably come up with more stuff later, but this is all I can remember right now.
I handed in my MSc application at last (God, I hope I get it!)
I started applying for jobs for over the summer (mostly book shops)
I may be going on a 2 - 4 week road trip around Europe in July! Sweet!
I got my shiney new book on Aesthetics of the Natural Environment, and the collected works of Norman MacCaig - yay :D
Gran and Dads birthdays happened, so lots of nice food (Pete and I even made Dad a birthday cake, although it should be more acuratley described as lots-of-chocolate-with-slightly-less-butter-and-suger-and-flour. It was gooooooood)
I got new cycling gloves, so now my hands won't freeze - huzzah!
My friend Sarah got a PhD place in St Andrews :)
I found some of my old short-stories - quite pleasantly supprised by how well writen they were - my fictional writing skills are now sadly lacking :(
Came back to a clean flat, and a much better television in the sitting room (it's Chris's, but he's moving in with Gareth, who has a HUGE tv, so Chris's one would have been rather redundant there. Can now ask people over to watch films)
The Scottish Lib Dems may have lost Berwickshire!!!!!!! It seems impossible because t has been such a strong-hold for years upon years, but the Conservatives or SNP have nabbed it >:-( Plus the huge muck-up which seems to have lost 100,000 votes
I'll probably come up with more stuff later, but this is all I can remember right now.
Monday, 23 April 2007
Thanks, sorry etc.
Got this idea from a friend, and think it's a pretty good one really: basicly say what you want to tell someone, but don't be name specific - they'll probably never read it, but it's a good 'cleansing' practise. I'm speaking to people who are (more-or-less) out of my life now.
1. I'm sorry you couldn't come with us and achieve your potential. I know you got scared, afraid of being abandoned and I should have been more suportive, but you had to want to move on, and you didn't. I hope you will eventually. Have a nice life darling.
2. I'm sorry I never kept in contact; we were good friends I think but we both got so caught up in the new that we drifted apart. I might work up the courage to call you one day.
3. You made my life a misery for years: we made up, but you know what?: I never really forgave you and I still can't bring myself to think well of you - I'm glad we're out of one another's lives.
4. Yeah, you knew all about it, I know that for a fact. It's pretty ammusing in retrospect, don't you think?
5. Sorry, we didn't really know eachother it would seem, but I'm still sorry that we didn't keep in touch. Thanks for your past kindnesses, and I hope you're doing well.
6. I wasn't really in a position to do what I did, and I'm sorry if you got the wrong impression - it wasn't meant that way - I was just afraid, so I messed you around without intending to.
7. You're a lovely person, and I hope we keep in contact after having not talked for so long. I admire you for you're strength throughout the troubled times - you coped where others couldn't have.
8. We were an odd bunch, and I can't work out what it was that brought us together but I'm glad it did - I doubt I could have coped without you, and without you I would never have learned that I like cigars ;)
9. It was what it was.
10. I forgive you all for your actions, but I won't forget. I hope you've changed.
11. I still think about you, and hope that I make you proud. xxx
xx
x
12. Thanks for making life a bit more interesting, and for ignoring the idiots :)
13. I'll come back one day if you're still around - we'll chat then (and I'll get the icecream this time)
14. Thanks for so much - I'd be a completely differant person if it weren't for you. I hope you've read 'Persuasion' by now!
15. I think you made the wrong decision, and I respect you less for it i'm afraid - things change and I can't help but think that our friendship is much the worse off for it.
16. I'm glad that you're doing well but I wish you weren't so far away! Keep well sweetie x
17. It's incredible how alike we are, it's just a shame we met in passing - I hope we meet again soon.
That's all I can be bothered with for now.
1. I'm sorry you couldn't come with us and achieve your potential. I know you got scared, afraid of being abandoned and I should have been more suportive, but you had to want to move on, and you didn't. I hope you will eventually. Have a nice life darling.
2. I'm sorry I never kept in contact; we were good friends I think but we both got so caught up in the new that we drifted apart. I might work up the courage to call you one day.
3. You made my life a misery for years: we made up, but you know what?: I never really forgave you and I still can't bring myself to think well of you - I'm glad we're out of one another's lives.
4. Yeah, you knew all about it, I know that for a fact. It's pretty ammusing in retrospect, don't you think?
5. Sorry, we didn't really know eachother it would seem, but I'm still sorry that we didn't keep in touch. Thanks for your past kindnesses, and I hope you're doing well.
6. I wasn't really in a position to do what I did, and I'm sorry if you got the wrong impression - it wasn't meant that way - I was just afraid, so I messed you around without intending to.
7. You're a lovely person, and I hope we keep in contact after having not talked for so long. I admire you for you're strength throughout the troubled times - you coped where others couldn't have.
8. We were an odd bunch, and I can't work out what it was that brought us together but I'm glad it did - I doubt I could have coped without you, and without you I would never have learned that I like cigars ;)
9. It was what it was.
10. I forgive you all for your actions, but I won't forget. I hope you've changed.
11. I still think about you, and hope that I make you proud. xxx
xx
x
12. Thanks for making life a bit more interesting, and for ignoring the idiots :)
13. I'll come back one day if you're still around - we'll chat then (and I'll get the icecream this time)
14. Thanks for so much - I'd be a completely differant person if it weren't for you. I hope you've read 'Persuasion' by now!
15. I think you made the wrong decision, and I respect you less for it i'm afraid - things change and I can't help but think that our friendship is much the worse off for it.
16. I'm glad that you're doing well but I wish you weren't so far away! Keep well sweetie x
17. It's incredible how alike we are, it's just a shame we met in passing - I hope we meet again soon.
That's all I can be bothered with for now.
Saturday, 21 April 2007
Zoo!
So yesterday was a bit less productive work-wise than I predicted cause I went to the zoo instead! Huzzah! Adam had 2 free tickets from his job last year and wanted to use them before he left Edinburgh for good (i.e. tomorrow :( ) It was so much fun! I haven't been since I was about 9 or 10, and it's as much fun as I remember - probably more because I appreciate all the work that goes on there too. We were there for about 6 hours in the end and it didn't feel like it at all. The zoo is on a rather steep hill, so we got a lot of exercise walking up to see the Lions at the top :) And best of all we went on a really quiet day which wasn't too warm, so no screaming kids with icecream to deal with thank goodness - also meant that we had a chance to talk with the trainers and keepers about the animals, which was really interesting.
We started out by going to see the Sealions being fed and trained - they're such graceful creatures in the water, and very intelligent too. We then went up to see the Red Pandas; there are very few left in the wild now because of habitat destruction and population isolation: they do, like giant pandas, eat bamboo (which is highly toxic apparently) but the food-value derived from it is so poor that they cannot move very fast at all, rather like Koala's in that respect. When we went initially they were hiding high up in the pine branches, but we came back later we were just in time to see one at ground level, and watch it climbing back up to the canopy - it was certainly one of the highlights of the day for me. There was a talk on the herd of Bongos later on, and then the Penguin Parade, which turned out to be a penguin strole because only two of them could be bothered to go (it's a vollentary walk) but was fun none-the-less.
The funniest incident of the day was walking through the lemur enclosure and being hissed at by one of the lemurs - it was sitting on the rope overhanging the path, staring at us and hissing - I wasn't sure whether to be scared or laugh because it was just so un-threatening!
Adam's highlight of the day must have been the animal handling session: he held a snake dispite being utterly terrified of them (for obvious reasons involving a snake-pit when he was 10) - was very proud of him for that. Also got to hold a Giant African Land Snail - apparently they form their shells by consuming the bones of dead creatures on the plains :) also held a guineapig (how very scary), a cockroach and a bearded lizard.
Was a great day out, which I thoroughly enjoyed :) Much better than revison!
Other news: Mum has been organising the MacMillian charity dance in Duns - don't think she was terribly keen on the idea, but one of the new members forced the issue, so Mum really hopes it'll be a success inspite of only 40 tickets having been sold and the dance being tonight. And now I'm going to organise notes and watch a film- possibly My Fair Lady.
We started out by going to see the Sealions being fed and trained - they're such graceful creatures in the water, and very intelligent too. We then went up to see the Red Pandas; there are very few left in the wild now because of habitat destruction and population isolation: they do, like giant pandas, eat bamboo (which is highly toxic apparently) but the food-value derived from it is so poor that they cannot move very fast at all, rather like Koala's in that respect. When we went initially they were hiding high up in the pine branches, but we came back later we were just in time to see one at ground level, and watch it climbing back up to the canopy - it was certainly one of the highlights of the day for me. There was a talk on the herd of Bongos later on, and then the Penguin Parade, which turned out to be a penguin strole because only two of them could be bothered to go (it's a vollentary walk) but was fun none-the-less.
The funniest incident of the day was walking through the lemur enclosure and being hissed at by one of the lemurs - it was sitting on the rope overhanging the path, staring at us and hissing - I wasn't sure whether to be scared or laugh because it was just so un-threatening!
Adam's highlight of the day must have been the animal handling session: he held a snake dispite being utterly terrified of them (for obvious reasons involving a snake-pit when he was 10) - was very proud of him for that. Also got to hold a Giant African Land Snail - apparently they form their shells by consuming the bones of dead creatures on the plains :) also held a guineapig (how very scary), a cockroach and a bearded lizard.
Was a great day out, which I thoroughly enjoyed :) Much better than revison!
Other news: Mum has been organising the MacMillian charity dance in Duns - don't think she was terribly keen on the idea, but one of the new members forced the issue, so Mum really hopes it'll be a success inspite of only 40 tickets having been sold and the dance being tonight. And now I'm going to organise notes and watch a film- possibly My Fair Lady.
Friday, 20 April 2007
Yay - the adrenalin has returned!
So, last night was the first rehearsal for 'Guilds' - yay! Can't wait to be back on stage although it's difficult to believe it's been a year since my last rehearsal. I was fairly aprehensive as the cast already know each other from the past two shows which I hadn't been in (damn final year) and I don't know them, fortunately there are a few of us oldies around too (rather odd to say that as I'm only 21 and haven't done as many shows as some of the newer members, think it's just cause I joined the society at the tail-end of 'old savoy' so have been accepted as such) although not very many (Andy, Chris and, Rachel and I). But got chatting to a few of the chorus, and they seem like nice girls, so hopefully that'll outweight the irritation that certain people will cause.
The MD, John, ran through the music (which he wrote) and it sounds superb! Am thoroughly impressed, and looking forward to hearing it with it's various eight-part harmonies :) Chris, the Director, went through the storyline (written by Alister Braden): it sounds good, and has plenty of New Labour jokes thrown in. I have a feeling that if we get the publicity right and the show goes to plan, we might have a very sucessful show on our hands. Fingers crossed! Rehearsals are Sundays and Thursdays until the summer break, which as a rehearsal schedual I've always prefered to the Sunday-Monday rehearsal schedual of previous shows. The big question is ; where are we going to rehearse after the break? I'll be damned if I'm travelling out to Liberton every rehearsal. Oh well, hopefully that'll get sorted earlier rather than later. So, first real rehearsal on Sunday - horrah!
Today: start revision (no rest for the wicked), go to Adam's leaving drinks.
The MD, John, ran through the music (which he wrote) and it sounds superb! Am thoroughly impressed, and looking forward to hearing it with it's various eight-part harmonies :) Chris, the Director, went through the storyline (written by Alister Braden): it sounds good, and has plenty of New Labour jokes thrown in. I have a feeling that if we get the publicity right and the show goes to plan, we might have a very sucessful show on our hands. Fingers crossed! Rehearsals are Sundays and Thursdays until the summer break, which as a rehearsal schedual I've always prefered to the Sunday-Monday rehearsal schedual of previous shows. The big question is ; where are we going to rehearse after the break? I'll be damned if I'm travelling out to Liberton every rehearsal. Oh well, hopefully that'll get sorted earlier rather than later. So, first real rehearsal on Sunday - horrah!
Today: start revision (no rest for the wicked), go to Adam's leaving drinks.
Monday, 16 April 2007
Home again :)
Well, last night was fun - went on the ghost tour with Maya and Jay. This one went around the Grayfriar's Kirkyard (home to Bobby and Burke/Hare - can't remember which) and the infamous black mausollium (sp?). So did a bit of a tour around with the guide telling us about the various sightings in the graveyard (what with the 450,000 bodies estimated to be burried there). The highlight of the tour was the group going into the Black Mausollium where people are regularly 'attacked' by supernatural forces - over 180 people have reportedly been knocked out there. The guide did a good job of planting the suggestions in peoples minds throughout the tour (ah, the power of repetition) so by the time we were in there everyone was thoroughly keyed up (except for me it would seem - I love being utterly cynical) are ready to be 'attacked'. So we were standing in this crypt for a good ten minutes and nothing happened (well, one guy said he felt breathing on the back of his neck). The guide said that we would probably feel an ache begin in our legs working its way up, and that this was generally a prelude to an attack: well, I was feeling this, but put it down to the fact that we were standing in the cold, on a hard and uneven floor, so circulation was bound to play up a bit. However, I did develope a sever headache - but I suspect that this was down to the fact that the dark was straining my eyes and that the black mausollium backs onto an electrical substation, and the structure of the BM itself comprises a metal framework - hello electrical fields! No wonder people faint and have visions or spasms - their internal electrics are being scrambled! But whatever it was, the ghosties didn't feel like playing. And of course no tour would be complete without the guy jumping out to scare everyone. So, like the rest I screamed, but unlike the rest (while still acting on sheer terror) I took a swing at 'it' - fortunately I missed, thank goodness my depth preception is pretty damn poor in the dark!) All the while the logical part of my brain was shouting "It's a man in a costume you idiot!", but it would seem that instint was in charge. Said sorry to the guy later, and he said it was ok - he'd been attacked with umbarellas, elbows etc on more than one occassion, so was always very careful to dodge. So, was quite a fun evening.
Today
Didn't do much except a clothes wash and the washing up, packed stuff. Caught the train at 2, got into Berwick at 3 only to find that the next bus to Duns wasn't til 4.15 - bloody borders bus service! But am home now :)
Today
Didn't do much except a clothes wash and the washing up, packed stuff. Caught the train at 2, got into Berwick at 3 only to find that the next bus to Duns wasn't til 4.15 - bloody borders bus service! But am home now :)
Sunday, 15 April 2007
And Relax
Thursday - Friday
Unsuprisingly, worked all day. Went into the computing labs in the Geography department to work later-on and ended up pulling an all nighter (first time I've ever done that). The geo department is an old hospital, which made the whole thing rather creepy, especially when the security men came around and turned off all the lights except in the lab! Didn't help that I was by this point having hallucinations due to sleep deprivation! But got the work done, printed, bound and handed in on time, so that's all that really counts. Also got a call from the producer at classic fm asking if I wanted to make a request on-air (I had emailed the day before asking to hear the Anvil Chorus), so I did that too, which was pretty damn cool :) Then went to the pub; met Dave and Nick D. there, but they both had to head away fairly quickly. Was soon joined by Alison, so we had dinner and a nice chat before Chris arrived. Lou joined us after, and we ended up playing Monopoly which was fun except for the fact that Chris thrashed the rest of us :( so we called him a Fat Capitalist Pie. Lou disappeared cause she's still working on her dissertation, so Alison Chris and I hung around for a while longer. By this point I was past tiredness and into the manic phase, which is always fun, but seriously concidering going to bed when I got a call from Maya saying that she, Jay, Doug, Gareth, Anna and a friend of Gareth's were on their way over, so the evening was extended. Had a nice time and chatted to Doug about his newly aquired job at Google - delighted for him and also utterly jealous, but he deserves it having worked so hard. Decided that hallucinations were really getting quite bad so went home.
Saturday
woke up around midday. Still shattered and couldn't move for love nor money, and spent a considerable time crying cause I felt so weak! Think it was a combination of sleep deprivation then having slept a lot, lack of adrenalin, and the lack of deadlines - but whatever it was I was a wreck. Managed to pull self together enough to get up and see a friend's production of The Tempest - was very high standard inspite of the fact that the lead man could not appear for personal reasons. Instead they did a show-case of the rest of the scenes and a Q and A session to fill in the gaps at the end. Set was great given the space avaliable, costume was great (especially for Ariel who they painted blue). Then went for a walk in the sunshine which was lovely. Spent the evening with Chris watching Boston Legal.
Today
Another late start. Read I Capture the Castle again (forgot how much I love it). Came back to the flat (also forgot what a State I left it in). Going to Sainsbury's in a bit, then possibly on a Ghost Tour with Maya and Jay.
Unsuprisingly, worked all day. Went into the computing labs in the Geography department to work later-on and ended up pulling an all nighter (first time I've ever done that). The geo department is an old hospital, which made the whole thing rather creepy, especially when the security men came around and turned off all the lights except in the lab! Didn't help that I was by this point having hallucinations due to sleep deprivation! But got the work done, printed, bound and handed in on time, so that's all that really counts. Also got a call from the producer at classic fm asking if I wanted to make a request on-air (I had emailed the day before asking to hear the Anvil Chorus), so I did that too, which was pretty damn cool :) Then went to the pub; met Dave and Nick D. there, but they both had to head away fairly quickly. Was soon joined by Alison, so we had dinner and a nice chat before Chris arrived. Lou joined us after, and we ended up playing Monopoly which was fun except for the fact that Chris thrashed the rest of us :( so we called him a Fat Capitalist Pie. Lou disappeared cause she's still working on her dissertation, so Alison Chris and I hung around for a while longer. By this point I was past tiredness and into the manic phase, which is always fun, but seriously concidering going to bed when I got a call from Maya saying that she, Jay, Doug, Gareth, Anna and a friend of Gareth's were on their way over, so the evening was extended. Had a nice time and chatted to Doug about his newly aquired job at Google - delighted for him and also utterly jealous, but he deserves it having worked so hard. Decided that hallucinations were really getting quite bad so went home.
Saturday
woke up around midday. Still shattered and couldn't move for love nor money, and spent a considerable time crying cause I felt so weak! Think it was a combination of sleep deprivation then having slept a lot, lack of adrenalin, and the lack of deadlines - but whatever it was I was a wreck. Managed to pull self together enough to get up and see a friend's production of The Tempest - was very high standard inspite of the fact that the lead man could not appear for personal reasons. Instead they did a show-case of the rest of the scenes and a Q and A session to fill in the gaps at the end. Set was great given the space avaliable, costume was great (especially for Ariel who they painted blue). Then went for a walk in the sunshine which was lovely. Spent the evening with Chris watching Boston Legal.
Today
Another late start. Read I Capture the Castle again (forgot how much I love it). Came back to the flat (also forgot what a State I left it in). Going to Sainsbury's in a bit, then possibly on a Ghost Tour with Maya and Jay.
Monday, 9 April 2007
Consequently...
...I think I may have caught Cat's cold! Doh!
Oh well, sun's still shining :)
Next day...
Yup, definately have the cold- blegh!
Next day again...
Mwahahaha! Am killing evil cold with flu capsuals, oranges and caffeine!
Oh well, sun's still shining :)
Next day...
Yup, definately have the cold- blegh!
Next day again...
Mwahahaha! Am killing evil cold with flu capsuals, oranges and caffeine!
Sunday, 8 April 2007
Cat and Ed's wedding
Spent yesterday out at Costorphine for Cat (ex-flatmate) and Ed's wedding at St Thomas's church - such a good day! :) They had the perfect day for it too! Blue sky and sunshine, lovely and warm. The flowers, the dress and the bridesmaids dresses were all beautiful - Cat look stunning! And I was amazed by just how calm Ed was from begining to end, having said that I don't think that he's one for emotional outbusts. The ceremony was lovely - the minister was Mike from P's and G's, and everything went really well. The photographer had everyone gather around the bridal party at the end for a photograph, which was a great idea, but I ended up standing right next to Cat, which was rather embarressing (didn't want to be in the front row)- looking forward to seeing the photos.
Then Chris and I headed over to his parent's house for the rest of the afternoon and dinner, then we went to the reception. We stayed until the cake was cut, but disappeared after that - both of us were utterly shattered.
Favourite moment of the evening was when Cat came over to chat, and I asked whether she had a cold; she said yes, and that the first thing she did after she and Ed were married was to hand him a snotty hanky because her wedding dress lacked pockets - I nealy died laughing! It's so like her :) Will never forget the morning that I wondered through to the kitchen for breakfast; Cat came through and said, "Oh, by the way, Ed and I got engaged yesterday afternoon in the graveyard [across the road]".
Have to start thinking of them as Mr and Mrs Kinley now :-S
Then Chris and I headed over to his parent's house for the rest of the afternoon and dinner, then we went to the reception. We stayed until the cake was cut, but disappeared after that - both of us were utterly shattered.
Favourite moment of the evening was when Cat came over to chat, and I asked whether she had a cold; she said yes, and that the first thing she did after she and Ed were married was to hand him a snotty hanky because her wedding dress lacked pockets - I nealy died laughing! It's so like her :) Will never forget the morning that I wondered through to the kitchen for breakfast; Cat came through and said, "Oh, by the way, Ed and I got engaged yesterday afternoon in the graveyard [across the road]".
Have to start thinking of them as Mr and Mrs Kinley now :-S
Friday, 6 April 2007
Gah!
Oh, such a big mistake! Big, big, big mistake! I embarress myself so much at times that it's just scary, and it's not as if I can blame drink or being blonde! I think I need to go bury my head in the sand somewhere far, far away from here, possibly South Africa. Mo and Pete said I'd be welcome out there with them, and right now it seems increasingly appealing. Wonder what the chances of getting a job out there for a year would be? Hmm. Apart from being a rather extreem way of avoiding embarresment, it does sound like an idea... Admittedly it's 'all change' in a couple of months anyway, but am feeling like I'm in a bit of a rut here. Needs thinking about.
Thursday, 5 April 2007
Another highly productive day
So far I have...
got up, showered and dressed
made brunch for Chris and me; kippers are good :)
put through two loads of washing and hung up in glorious sunshine
did shop at Sainsbury's
made ginger cake :)
played on internet
avoided work
basked in sunshine a bit more
thought about working and decided it was a waste of time...
...then worked out I have 8 days til I have to hand this evil wodge of paper in and decided that maybe it wasn't such a waste of time after all.
Still to happen today...
Lou's coming over for a change of scenery, also being stuck in dissertation hell
Will continue on evil 'D' then email to parental unit to read and criticise
Laura's off home for a few days, so again have empty flat to work in
Might take a bath later to try and get rid of these rocks which are currently posing as my shoulder muscles.
Have muscles (of the shellfish variety) for dinner with wine and garlic :)
Watch some CSI - it's worrying just how addictive it is!!!!! And I'm also somewhat concerned by just how attractive I find William Petterson (Gil Grissam)!
So just now...
I'm gonna stop typing
Drink some coke
Stop wishing I were outside
Start working
got up, showered and dressed
made brunch for Chris and me; kippers are good :)
put through two loads of washing and hung up in glorious sunshine
did shop at Sainsbury's
made ginger cake :)
played on internet
avoided work
basked in sunshine a bit more
thought about working and decided it was a waste of time...
...then worked out I have 8 days til I have to hand this evil wodge of paper in and decided that maybe it wasn't such a waste of time after all.
Still to happen today...
Lou's coming over for a change of scenery, also being stuck in dissertation hell
Will continue on evil 'D' then email to parental unit to read and criticise
Laura's off home for a few days, so again have empty flat to work in
Might take a bath later to try and get rid of these rocks which are currently posing as my shoulder muscles.
Have muscles (of the shellfish variety) for dinner with wine and garlic :)
Watch some CSI - it's worrying just how addictive it is!!!!! And I'm also somewhat concerned by just how attractive I find William Petterson (Gil Grissam)!
So just now...
I'm gonna stop typing
Drink some coke
Stop wishing I were outside
Start working
Wednesday, 4 April 2007
The sun is shining and all is well...
...well, as much as normal but certainly made better by sunshine :) (although it did take most of the Scots a while to stop running around, screaming about the sky being on fire and the mysterious dissapperance of the clouds, and realise that blue skys do occassionally happen, or so it is said).
So, mini update...
1) Hair got cut - huzzah! Although I do now look at little too choirboy-ish.
2) Dissertation is on it's way to being finished - huzzah! (only 8 day til hand-in)
3) Saw the 300 - loved it in almost every way :)
4) Parents want to let out the flat for the Fringe. Great, cause it'll make quite a bit of money, but not so great cause I'll have to move out and find somewhere to stay for 3 weeks, and I can't even go home cause I'm in the Savoy Fringe show. Hmm. Shall have to work something out soon I think.
5) Seasonal headaches have returned - booooooo! High pressure during summer gives me really bad headaches which don't go away with out painkillers, water and a darkened room.
6) Chris has now gone from Winter hibernation mode into Summer insomnia mode.
7) Need to start job hunting for the Summer - thinking about signing up to a temping company. Don't think I could deal with going back to Tesco; the job bores me silly and the customers are soooooo rude, but the pay is pretty decent so may have to consider it.
8) Found out a few things which suprised me about a certain person - wibble! :s
9) A girl from Savoy is appearing in a BBC3 documentary 'My Big Breasts and Me'; follows her story, as well as two other people's, as she decides to have reduction surgery in order to alleviate the chronic back pain her breasts cause her(BBC3, 9pm, Thursday).
10) Other stuff has happened, but I can't remember/it's not that interesting.
Back to work now, and will probably stop in time to watch Ugly Betty (It's my brother's fault for getting me hooked on it, seriously). Might go and work in the garden for a while :)
So, mini update...
1) Hair got cut - huzzah! Although I do now look at little too choirboy-ish.
2) Dissertation is on it's way to being finished - huzzah! (only 8 day til hand-in)
3) Saw the 300 - loved it in almost every way :)
4) Parents want to let out the flat for the Fringe. Great, cause it'll make quite a bit of money, but not so great cause I'll have to move out and find somewhere to stay for 3 weeks, and I can't even go home cause I'm in the Savoy Fringe show. Hmm. Shall have to work something out soon I think.
5) Seasonal headaches have returned - booooooo! High pressure during summer gives me really bad headaches which don't go away with out painkillers, water and a darkened room.
6) Chris has now gone from Winter hibernation mode into Summer insomnia mode.
7) Need to start job hunting for the Summer - thinking about signing up to a temping company. Don't think I could deal with going back to Tesco; the job bores me silly and the customers are soooooo rude, but the pay is pretty decent so may have to consider it.
8) Found out a few things which suprised me about a certain person - wibble! :s
9) A girl from Savoy is appearing in a BBC3 documentary 'My Big Breasts and Me'; follows her story, as well as two other people's, as she decides to have reduction surgery in order to alleviate the chronic back pain her breasts cause her(BBC3, 9pm, Thursday).
10) Other stuff has happened, but I can't remember/it's not that interesting.
Back to work now, and will probably stop in time to watch Ugly Betty (It's my brother's fault for getting me hooked on it, seriously). Might go and work in the garden for a while :)
Saturday, 31 March 2007
Right!
In the next 10 hours I aim to have finished writing my dissertation and not have a caffiene induced headache/twitch etc. Ready, steady - go!
The next day...
Yeah...so that worked really well...(not)
The next day...
Yeah...so that worked really well...(not)
Thursday, 29 March 2007
not important.
Gah! Stupid brain! I have too much to do to spend time thinking and yet all I can do is think, and not even about anything productive or relevant. Why do I find it so easy to fool myself? And what's worse is I'm utterly consious of it and I'm still disappointed when I remind myself that it's not real or likely. The curse of a good imagination. I wish I were more cynical then perhaps it would all go away.
Gonna stop whining now.
Gonna stop whining now.
Tuesday, 27 March 2007
Pointless post
I love grapes.
That is all.
Oh, wait - no it's not. I HAVE SIAMESE-TWIN GRAPES! I win!
Oh no I didn't, I LOST! DAMN!
That is all.
Oh, wait - no it's not. I HAVE SIAMESE-TWIN GRAPES! I win!
Oh no I didn't, I LOST! DAMN!
Saturday, 24 March 2007
Lesson learned
Need to learn to be less critical. Do as you would be done by, etc. It's far too easy to bitch without even realising it. To anyone who I may have been unfair to ; it was very probably inadvertant but I'm sorry none the less. Will aim to improve.
Later...
Am feeling guilty for something I may or may not have done, and I don't even know what it is, or whether guilt vibes are even being aimed at me or whether I'm just picking up on them on their way to someone else! CONFUSED! Am I just a bit paranoid, or do I actually have something to feel guilty about (at a local rather than cosmic level, I mean)? This would all be a bit clearer if a certain person would blooming well answer the text I sent them.
I think I should go off and live as a hermit - that way I'd never have to worry about whether I hurt or offended anyone. Living on a croft in the Highlands is looking increasingly appealing: stuff getting a real life and engaging in human interaction, it would probably be for the best.
Even later...
Right, I should be feeling guilty apparently, and do so. But what I did was accidental, so I feel not entirely to blame. Will explain situation at earliest oppertunity, and try to clear it up. I get the impression that I'm not a great friend to anyone. I just wish people would stop telling me things in confidence, I just seem to let them down.
Later...
Am feeling guilty for something I may or may not have done, and I don't even know what it is, or whether guilt vibes are even being aimed at me or whether I'm just picking up on them on their way to someone else! CONFUSED! Am I just a bit paranoid, or do I actually have something to feel guilty about (at a local rather than cosmic level, I mean)? This would all be a bit clearer if a certain person would blooming well answer the text I sent them.
I think I should go off and live as a hermit - that way I'd never have to worry about whether I hurt or offended anyone. Living on a croft in the Highlands is looking increasingly appealing: stuff getting a real life and engaging in human interaction, it would probably be for the best.
Even later...
Right, I should be feeling guilty apparently, and do so. But what I did was accidental, so I feel not entirely to blame. Will explain situation at earliest oppertunity, and try to clear it up. I get the impression that I'm not a great friend to anyone. I just wish people would stop telling me things in confidence, I just seem to let them down.
Friday, 23 March 2007
The Fear
Right, I am now exactly 3 weeks from my dissertation hand-in and am experiancing what is commonly known as 'The Fear'. It's completely irrational as I know i've done a lot of the work and have more than enough time to finish it and edit it (oh good, more editing), but all the same I'm starting to wake up in the night panicing because I can't remember if I saved the work I had done that day (mind you, I keep on waking up thinking I left the oven on too, so maybe that's not so suprising afterall, but it's still messing with the old body-clock). And I'm worried, given my laptop's level of sheer vile malevolence, that everything is going to be lost in the ether - again irrational as I have 3 differant back-ups (paranoia, moi?) Gah! But was very ammused by the dissertation word-limit one-upmanship that was happening on the classic fm forum yesterday - think the winner was 300,000 one, although that was in actual fact a book so doesn't really count. Put's mine into perspective though :) Why am I so worried by 10,000 words?!
Family dinner last night was tres ammusant! It was almost like having dinner with a modern day version of the Bennet family - my Mum and Aunts all teasing Gran for being daft about "the youngsters of today are really missing out by not learning Bridge", and bullying Grandad into giving up the kitchen to them to prepare his birthday meal - reticence is not the word! He would only agree if Uncle Peter would agree to supervise, mostly because he knew this would wind them up. But I can't help but notice that Grandad really does prefer (my brother) Pete; suspect that it's because he's an athlete and is an engineering student, where as I'm a theatre person and study an arts subject; just feel that he underestimates me because I'm not like him. It really shows in the way he'll turn to Pete in discussions about certain subjects, even when Pete doesn't know much about it but I do, I can give an answer and he'll say 'ah well, that might be it certainly, but I'll check and see if anyone else knows', where as with Pete it'll be 'Ah yes, that'll be right' - have noticed it for a long time and it's really quite a confidence shaker :( But I reckon it's because Pete's the only boy on this side of the family - neither of my Aunts have children and my Grandparents never had any male children - so Grandad expects a lot of him, where as because they had all daughters, then I'm just not quite as important to him.
Later still...
Just back from huge family meal - was fun; intelligent debate about the expression of pride in industrial heritage through the works of Lowrie and the 'Angel of the North' - suitably highbrow. Then continued discussion of situation in Zimbabwe via Facebook - really interesting stuff. Now feel like a true intelectual snob ;) And it's back to the postmaterialist value orientation and social movements bright and early tomorrow. Must rest ovesized brain now...
Family dinner last night was tres ammusant! It was almost like having dinner with a modern day version of the Bennet family - my Mum and Aunts all teasing Gran for being daft about "the youngsters of today are really missing out by not learning Bridge", and bullying Grandad into giving up the kitchen to them to prepare his birthday meal - reticence is not the word! He would only agree if Uncle Peter would agree to supervise, mostly because he knew this would wind them up. But I can't help but notice that Grandad really does prefer (my brother) Pete; suspect that it's because he's an athlete and is an engineering student, where as I'm a theatre person and study an arts subject; just feel that he underestimates me because I'm not like him. It really shows in the way he'll turn to Pete in discussions about certain subjects, even when Pete doesn't know much about it but I do, I can give an answer and he'll say 'ah well, that might be it certainly, but I'll check and see if anyone else knows', where as with Pete it'll be 'Ah yes, that'll be right' - have noticed it for a long time and it's really quite a confidence shaker :( But I reckon it's because Pete's the only boy on this side of the family - neither of my Aunts have children and my Grandparents never had any male children - so Grandad expects a lot of him, where as because they had all daughters, then I'm just not quite as important to him.
Later still...
Just back from huge family meal - was fun; intelligent debate about the expression of pride in industrial heritage through the works of Lowrie and the 'Angel of the North' - suitably highbrow. Then continued discussion of situation in Zimbabwe via Facebook - really interesting stuff. Now feel like a true intelectual snob ;) And it's back to the postmaterialist value orientation and social movements bright and early tomorrow. Must rest ovesized brain now...
Thursday, 22 March 2007
Carnage!
Why oh why did I think that a dinner party was a good idea?! There's a universal law that states (probably also in very small writing on the 12th page) that a party cannot happen without some variety of emotional upheavel. Gah! Now that I've done the washing up I'm off to discuss said fall-out over coffee.
(Having said that, it was a fun party although the level of conversation left an awful lot to be desired - I'm all for crude jokes within reason, but really!)
Yay - off home this weekend :)
Later...
Coffee with Ads was nice - he's leaving Edinburgh soon :( It's slightly terrifying as I have yet to adapt to the fact that lots of people I know will be leaving and not coming back! We had a really good chat about life, the universe and everything; it was great to chat about a few things that have been playing on my mind recently and one thing I should certainly NOT be thinking about. It's the worst time of the year to have things on my mind that won't go away because I tend to think about that and not get any work done *sigh*. Ah well.
Oh, and cast-list not quite so predictable as I had thought.
(Having said that, it was a fun party although the level of conversation left an awful lot to be desired - I'm all for crude jokes within reason, but really!)
Yay - off home this weekend :)
Later...
Coffee with Ads was nice - he's leaving Edinburgh soon :( It's slightly terrifying as I have yet to adapt to the fact that lots of people I know will be leaving and not coming back! We had a really good chat about life, the universe and everything; it was great to chat about a few things that have been playing on my mind recently and one thing I should certainly NOT be thinking about. It's the worst time of the year to have things on my mind that won't go away because I tend to think about that and not get any work done *sigh*. Ah well.
Oh, and cast-list not quite so predictable as I had thought.
Wednesday, 21 March 2007
Oh, the predictability of it all!
So, saw Titanic last night - it was carried off reasonably well considering the show itself is rubbish. This production did a pretty good job with very poor material - who knows how the show got 5 Tonys!
Am back in the chorus this year :) Actually missed it rather a lot last year as a principal - but anyone who so much as even thinks the words 'self-elected chorus leader' is going to get bitch-slapped. Believe me, I will be leading the coup de etat!
Back to work now.
Later...
Right, so I'm hosting a Tapas dinner party tonight - should probably be about 15 people turning up, which'll be fun and more than a little bit crowded given the size of the sitting room! Everyone's bringing food and films, and Iona is bringing her chocolate fountain (this can only spell trouble - or possibly suger-high) so will be scraping people off the ceiling later on. I'm going to make mini sweet-potato cakes and chili prawns (hopefully) - nice and healthy (comparativly that is). Also need to clean the sitting room as I seem to have turned into the slothful flatmate, having done my stint as cleaning-nazi.
Am also really pissed off by this whole Virgin Media debacle; what a load of trollop!!!! We got sent out information package, and basicly they're saying that 'yes! You get a cheaper call package! *ittybitty writing at the bottom of the page* all calls will be rounded up to the next minute' Gah!' oh, and you won't be getting any channels worth watching' Double Gah! Just as well I don't watch tv much, but it's more the fact that I'm being charged just the same for less *mutters*. Can see that when I'm old and doddery I'll be one of those old women who walk around grumbling about the price of everything. When I worked in Tesco I was confronted by a little, pinch-faced old man who was prepared to blame me for the rise in the price of milk, and wanted to know what I intended to do about it! So, being a good employee I said I'd go and speak to the EU general council about the Common Agricultural Policy with regards to the price of milk just as soon as I got off shift, and walked away *evil smile*.
Am back in the chorus this year :) Actually missed it rather a lot last year as a principal - but anyone who so much as even thinks the words 'self-elected chorus leader' is going to get bitch-slapped. Believe me, I will be leading the coup de etat!
Back to work now.
Later...
Right, so I'm hosting a Tapas dinner party tonight - should probably be about 15 people turning up, which'll be fun and more than a little bit crowded given the size of the sitting room! Everyone's bringing food and films, and Iona is bringing her chocolate fountain (this can only spell trouble - or possibly suger-high) so will be scraping people off the ceiling later on. I'm going to make mini sweet-potato cakes and chili prawns (hopefully) - nice and healthy (comparativly that is). Also need to clean the sitting room as I seem to have turned into the slothful flatmate, having done my stint as cleaning-nazi.
Am also really pissed off by this whole Virgin Media debacle; what a load of trollop!!!! We got sent out information package, and basicly they're saying that 'yes! You get a cheaper call package! *ittybitty writing at the bottom of the page* all calls will be rounded up to the next minute' Gah!' oh, and you won't be getting any channels worth watching' Double Gah! Just as well I don't watch tv much, but it's more the fact that I'm being charged just the same for less *mutters*. Can see that when I'm old and doddery I'll be one of those old women who walk around grumbling about the price of everything. When I worked in Tesco I was confronted by a little, pinch-faced old man who was prepared to blame me for the rise in the price of milk, and wanted to know what I intended to do about it! So, being a good employee I said I'd go and speak to the EU general council about the Common Agricultural Policy with regards to the price of milk just as soon as I got off shift, and walked away *evil smile*.
Tuesday, 20 March 2007
*cough*
Ill :( Bloody tonsilitis has moved in and built an extention *grump* Oh well. Find out who got what part in the Fringe show at some point today - should be interesting, but have already got a list in my head of who-got-what, and admittedly it is a bit of a predictable list, but there you go. Am off to see Titanic: the musical (oh dear, let's just hope it's not a self-fulfilling prophesy) this evening; will report back later...
Hmm, back to work now.
Later...
I'm finding it difficult to think much beyond the next three weeks. With the dreaded dissertation due on Friday 13th of April (great planning guys) I find my life revolving around that and Facebook (it's an addiction, sad but true). But at the same time I just can't seem to focus or even care about it even though I should really have 'the fear' by now; I would happily fast-forward to 15.01 on 13/04/07 right now, but sadly it cannot be so. I can't wait until it's over! Going to spend a few days relaxing before heading into revision mode; I want to get out of Edinburgh for a couple of days but don't really want to spend them at home, so might go see people in Glasgow or might head to the bright lights of London. I love edinburgh as a city, but I'm getting stir-crazy here; if I get my MSc here, then that would be very nice, but quite frankly I would far rather do it elsewhere. I've been looking at MSc by research degrees in environmental ethics, and there are really very few places that offer much; Leicester and Manchester are about it. So really, If I'm serious about the MSc I have to stay here, which makes me even more twitchy.
Hmm, back to work now.
Later...
I'm finding it difficult to think much beyond the next three weeks. With the dreaded dissertation due on Friday 13th of April (great planning guys) I find my life revolving around that and Facebook (it's an addiction, sad but true). But at the same time I just can't seem to focus or even care about it even though I should really have 'the fear' by now; I would happily fast-forward to 15.01 on 13/04/07 right now, but sadly it cannot be so. I can't wait until it's over! Going to spend a few days relaxing before heading into revision mode; I want to get out of Edinburgh for a couple of days but don't really want to spend them at home, so might go see people in Glasgow or might head to the bright lights of London. I love edinburgh as a city, but I'm getting stir-crazy here; if I get my MSc here, then that would be very nice, but quite frankly I would far rather do it elsewhere. I've been looking at MSc by research degrees in environmental ethics, and there are really very few places that offer much; Leicester and Manchester are about it. So really, If I'm serious about the MSc I have to stay here, which makes me even more twitchy.
Monday, 19 March 2007
The first step...
Well, it's about time I joined the digital-diary age I reckon - I was good at keeping diaries until I came to uni, so it's time to get back to it.
(First bit of news to add here; I've lost another 2.5lb :) So that's 11lb in 6 weeks - so proud of me!)
(First bit of news to add here; I've lost another 2.5lb :) So that's 11lb in 6 weeks - so proud of me!)
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