Posts (page 2)

What do you have, what do you need and what do you want?
Submitted by Miss Scotch.

I have everything I need and yet need everything I want.

What decision changed the course of your life? 
Submitted by Ally.

I don't think I have made it yet.

Aaaargh.  WHY is Facebook so addictive?  WHY?

So, today is our wedding anniversary.  We have been married for two years.

To celebrate, we took the train to Largs yesterday, where we ate the best chips we had ever eaten.  Then we got on a little Calmac ferry to the island of Cumbrae, where we walked for a few hours.
 

Cumbrae Map

When we got into Millport, the little town on the island - actually it is probably technically a city, because it has a cathedral - we ate strawberries and had a look at the famous crocodile rock.  Millport is kind of the land that time forgot.  It feels like the 1950s there.  Everyone plays crazy golf and hires bicycles and strolls along the sea front.  There are lots of sailboats.  It was majorly pretty.

Crocodile Rock

Then we felt tired and got on the bus back to the ferry slipway, and got back onto the ferry.  When we were back in Largs we went to Nardini's for ice cream.  I had the first nougat wafer I had had in years.  Mmmmmm!

Nougat Wafer

I slept on the train back to Glasgow.  When we got back the West End festival was just finishing and the streets were full of drunk people.  I think it is probably the only time that Glaswegians are allowed to drink outside en masse and they have a good time doing it.

One of the problems of living in Chilly Jock Land (please blame that celebrated Sassenach Moobs for this name, it's sticking) is that it never ever ever ever ever ever seems to get dark in the summer.  I had forgotten the pain that this can involve, and have not slept properly for over a week.  I was woken up at ten to four this morning by the birds having a really good shout in the back greens.  My throat hurt really badly.  The Breakdancer made me a Lemsip.  Being married has its perks.

I went back to sleep after about an hour of lying in the non-dark, wondering what was going to happen to me, fantasising that I get the swanky job I thought I might have been offered and get to travel to New York as a part of the deal.

I also thought long and hard whether to buy one of these bags:

Orla Kiely

or this one:

Ollie & Nic

Ho hum, you can tell that I am busy at work.  It's time for another Lemsip now.

It's all happening up here in Chilly Jock Land.

Well, sort of.  Becoming a freelancer takes time, I'm realising, and it involves strange cold shoulders that don't seem to bother me.

Physically, my body is a temple.  I am much less boozy here than I was in London, and I have not smoked for 5 weeks.  Not a single puff!  I have also been doing gyrotonics, power yoga, and ballet (beginners - I have to get back into exercise slowly or I will be injured again.)  I haven't been running because running seems to be so bad for my knee.  This is majorly annoying because I was getting ready for the Race for Life AND because it was making me well buff.  The Race for Life is in Edinburgh this Sunday and we will be doing it - I shall power-walk it and my mum and my sister will run.  It makes me so upset that they will run it - I was going to beat them!  No worries, it's more important to me that I have a functioning knee and can carry on doing exercise that doesn't seem to damage me so badly.  And thank you to all who have sponsored us for the run - it's so good to have been able to contribute to this cause in this way. 

My plans for my week in London and shaping up very nicely.  There's the dance course which of course I am very excited about.  Then I have been sorting out who to stay with, and a nice little tour of chums is working out.  Then I have also been sorting out various research bits and bobs, interviews, etc.  I can't wait!  I don't miss the daily grind of living in London (time lost to the bendy bus, perpetual acne, omniscient skintness, having to work 10-hour days) but I do miss London - the exciting bits, the places to go, the food (food is no way as good here) my friends, etc.

And now I have a question.  I want to be funded for doing my PhD so badly, and my application this year was as good as it was going to get, it's my last chance.  And I'll find out if I get it in August.  I've been turned down twice before, I think basically on the grounds that I didn't get a first for my undergraduate degree.  Hmph. 

Well, there's no use in being bitter about that.  So I thought I would throw open a question to the floor.  The question is this:

What superstitious thing do you do to ensure that your wishes come true?

The ones I tend to do are - talking to magpies and black cats, blowing loose eyelashes away, crossing my fingers and toes and repeating the Lord's Prayer.  I also don't walk under ladders.  Actually, the Lord's Prayer is for really serious situations, and I haven't yet tried it for this since this is quite a selfish concern.

Having made this list I am rather ashamed to see how irrational I am.

Books: Show us your summer reading list.
Submitted by marvel is my pen name.

I just drew a house for the Vox street, prompted by Daisy's entry.

What fun!

Although, I am pretty sure that what it says about me most is that I have been watching a lot of Grand Designs recently, as we have thought about building our own house (before rejecting the idea for the main point that we would have to live in the countryside.  Ugh.)

I have a bunch of spinach and potatoes and loads of lentils at home.  I thought it would be nice to make some Indian food tonight.  But I don't have an Indian recipe book.  I thought I would like to make some daal and saag aloo and maybe buy some paneer and make some sort of paneer curry, but I have no idea where to start.

Does anyone have any recipes?

I thought of something else to blog today, but I can't remember it now.  My brain is like a sieve.  I must be getting old, like I am 29 and 364/365ths or something.