Old Rich White People

I now have a new cord for my computer, and am back to full power! That said, I am heading to Italy tomorrow (!!!) and will not be bringing my computer with me. Maya has a computer and an iPad that I will be able to use, so I may post while in Italy, but I'm not promising to... I can't remember if I mentioned this before, but yes, I am going to Italy for two weeks. My friend Maya recently moved there, and as her husband is away on a training thing for a couple of months, she invited me up to help her settle in and explore, something I was very happy to take her up on. So, Italy! 

Also, it says a lot about how long my power cord was on its way out that I am finding it very distracting having its little light on while I'm typing this (bonus – I now have both UK *and* Canadian attachments for my computer!). 

Now. This will be my last post about anything during dissertation (I believe), meaning that we have basically caught up to my looooong period of not posting! And its a short one – not much to say, other than Charles and Camilla came to my uni while in Edinburgh to look at the music centre, and we took a study break to go out and gawk and them. I made several snide comments to my friends about asking them how they feel about being a part of an outdated and useless form of governance, Charles asked us if we were on our tea break while walking past us, we all laughed awkwardly, and that was the end of it. 

Royalty is weird (I mean that as in the system, not the individuals, though, in some cases, the individuals as well).  

EDIT: after writing this post, I realized I already talked about this in my brief attempt at chronicling my entire dissertation process. This summer has been a bit of a faff for blog posts, I admit. Never writing a dissertation again should help prevent this sort of thing from becoming a regular occurance though.

Please Note

My computer cord has given up the ghost. I've ordered a new one, but until it gets here, I am rather limited in my computer access.

I will return shortly, apologies for the brief absence.

One Year!

While I celebrated my one year move to Edinburgh Monday, today marks the one year anniversary for this blog! Hard to believe that its been a full year since I wrote that first post. Its crazy to reread it and remember that feeling of having just arrived in not only a strange city, but a strange country, and how lost and off-kilter I was. Its also kind of hilarious to reread my first impressions of things (like my first flat... LOL) and that I was confused about the bus route, when I can now name off the top of my head three different bus routes I could have taken that particular day, instead of walking all. That. Way.

Anyways, 174 posts later, and I've been living in Scotland for over a year. Though I will be leaving the UK at the end of October, the blog will continue, detailing my next adventure, and of course, keeping track of all my new projects and activities. I will try to bring a bit more polish to this blog, as it evolves from somewhat of a travel journal to something more expansive.

Its been a good year, and I'm excited to see what the next year brings, though I will be very sad to be saying goodbye to Edinburgh.

Also, throwback to my rainbow hair. That was awesome.

Moving (Round 3)

On July 14th, I moved from my flat on Morningside to my new place, a room near Becky and Leanne's houses. While I would have loved to stay in my Morningside flat, as it was a great location, super cute, and super affordable, my lease was up, and with my only option to sign another full year lease, I opted to try and find somewhere shorter term. Unfortunately, the majority of lets I found were only looking for someone for July/Aug, and very few were more open leases. However, eventually I found Brenda, a lovely lady who was looking to let her spare room, and after meeting and negotiating the terms of the lease, I had a new place!

For the big day, I did my packing the day before – I technically didn't have to be out of the flat for another day, giving me a bit of wiggle room for cleaning and whatnot. Becca came over with her car (which was SUPER nice of her and made the whole thing that much more pleasant) and we moved all of my stuff in two trips. While my new place was on the first floor, I did end up walking up and down the four flights to my old flat some 10 or so times that day (believe me, I was sore the next day). After all that, I took Becca out to lunch to thank her...

Before going back to my Morningside flat to clean. After that, I headed downtown to pick up a couple of things (mainly extra hangers) and also treated myself to a bev, as it was a rather hot day out.

This was one of my #100happydays posts. Connie commented that "it seems many of your happy days include a beverage!" to which I replied "I am heavily emotionally invested in iced drinks."

#truth

After a day of chaos, I was settled into my new place, and here I remain. After moving into my third place this year, I can safely say moving sucks, and I hate it. Unfortunately, it looks like I will soon be doing it once again...

Misc. Dissertation-ing

There's not a lot to say about most of July (and quite a bit of August as well) as I was so focused on doing my dissertation. For the first part, while I was doing research, most of my day was spent outside Starbucks, enjoying what I would latter find out was the sum total of Scotland's very brief summer. 

Getting tanned.

After I finished reading the 50 articles that made up my initial research, and also were all the articles I printed out (in the end, I read about 72 articles – my references made up a LOT of pages at the end of my dissertation), I started going into school every day to write.

Writing itself didn't take me that long, so I got to spend about three weeks editing and practicing photoshop as well.

I also went to the movies with Jordan and Maya like three fridays in a row, which was pretty awesome. The one night we went to Nando's beforehand for dinner, which was actually my first time at Nando's, a fact everyone seemed to find very surprising (they're a thing here).

Also, this is a terrible photograph, but that shinning ball of light above the buildings? Not a street lamp. Thats the moon. It was HUGE that night.

Sunday Product Review: Soap & Glory Sugar Crush Body Scrub

Oh hey, a new thing! As part of my attempt to expand into other areas and show off my writing skills, I'm going to be posting skin and beauty product reviews every Sunday!

Soap & Glory, Sugar Crush Body Scrub

I had been eyeing up this product ever since my friend had gotten me to smell it at the shop, but couldn't really afford it, so when my friend Maya offered to give me her basically full jar when she was clearing out her stuff to move to Italy, I jumped at the chance! This product smells absolutely amazing, and I would recommend it on that basis alone, but it also does its job very well – namely, exfoliating your skin and making it hella smooth.

The sugar crush body scrub smells like a delicious combination of lime and sugar (similar to a Margarita, but with significantly less tequila), and is an excellent exfoliator, leaving your skin super soft. Now, I admit dryness isn't really a skin problem I suffer from, so I am mostly in it for the scent (and am definitely using it more than the one, two, or three times weekly they recommend on the jar) BUT it has made my skin noticeably softer, and, if I haven't mentioned it enough, it smells freaking incredible. My mum once got this tiny bottle of body wash as a birthday present from Sephora that smelt like vanilla birthday cake, and I used almost all of it in like a week because I was so in love with the scent – this is comparable to that. It is addictive.

So, if you suffer from dry skin or if you just love a good smelling shower product, check out Soap & Glory's Sugar Crush Body Scrub.

£8 from Boots in the UK

Shoppers Drug Mart in Canada (no price listed)

$25 from Sephora in the USA

From their website:

Soap & Glory’s cult-classic Sugar Crush™ Body fuses freshly-squeezed sweet lime, sparkling lemons, sweet vanilla musk and almond oil, with sea salt, smashed brown sugar, glycerin and macadamia oils to leave your skin feeling smooth, supple, and sexy. Miraculous on dry legs, elbows (really – all over), it’s energizing, exhilarating, amazing!

INSTRUCTIONS FOR USE: Use your Soap & Glory ™ Sugar Crush™ Body Scrub in the shower once, twice, or three times weekly, depending on the level of scaliness you struggle with. (Four times if you’ve ever been labelled ‘old lizard legs’.) 

Drinks with the Girls xx

For one of Vicki's last nights in Edinburgh, Jordan, Vicki, and I went out to dinner at TGI Fridays. Of course, when we got there they told us it would be about an hour before we could get a table, so we ended up wandering down Princes Street to Primark (where I got some SUPER cute new rings) before going back for dinner. They also have super fun cocktails, including this thing that Vicki got...

And the MASSIVE blended drinks Jordan and I got (Pina Coladas forever).

Check out those rings. So cute.

While TGI Friday's is a heavily meat-based establishment, they did have some veggie options, including a tasty veggie burger. I don't know if its because I'm from Alberta, but I find generally it is much easier to find vegetarian options here than it is in Canada. And not just, like, passively vegetarian options like salads, but actively vegetarian options like veggie haggis.

It was a bit of a splurge, but it was a really fun night. Plus Jordan had a coupon for a free appetizer.

Seriously though, the rings.

Hairy Coo (Round II)

For one of Vicki's last days in Scotland, we decided to head up into the Highlands – while she did a couple of paid tours on her own, we booked into the free Hairy Coo tour together. You may remember that I previously did this tour in October with Kate. So while there weren't really any surprises on the trip, it was still quite fun, and seeing the highland cows is always a treat!

Since the tour leaves quite early, we of course *had* to stop at Starbucks first. Also, I love that nail polish so much.

The first stop on the tour is just outside Stirling, at the William Wallace Monument. Built in 1869, the monument houses Wallace's massive broadsword.

The monument overlooks the site of the Battle of Stirling Bridge:

On 11 September 1297, an army jointly led by Wallace and Andrew Moray won the Battle of Stirling Bridge. Although vastly outnumbered, the Scottish army routed the English army. John de Warenne, 6th Earl of Surrey's professional army of 3,000 cavalry and 8,000 to 10,000 infantry met disaster as they crossed over to the north side of the river. The narrowness of the bridge prevented many soldiers from crossing together (possibly as few as three men abreast), so, while the English soldiers crossed, the Scots held back until half of them had passed and then killed the English as quickly as they could cross. The infantry were sent on first, followed by heavy cavalry. The Scots' schiltron formations forced the infantry back into the advancing cavalry. A pivotal charge, led by one of Wallace's captains, caused some of the English soldiers to retreat as others pushed forward, and under the overwhelming weight, the bridge collapsed and many English soldiers drowned. Thus, the Scots won a significant victory, boosting the confidence of their army. (x)

It wasn't that nice of a day out unfortunately – though it didn't actually rain, it was overcast most of the day.

After leaving the monument, we briefly stopping in Stirling at the base of Stirling Castle.

We then headed over to Lake Menteith, one of Scotland's few actual lakes (as compared to lochs)

It was pretty chilly at this point, so we all kind of huddled around on the beach for a couple minuets before quickly heading back into the bus.

Next stop was for lunch, at some small town (I can't remember where). We grabbed a pub lunch before taking a walk along the river before hopping back on the bus.

We then headed up into the Highlands a bit more, for the main stop of the tour...

The hairy coos for which it is named!

So. Cute.

After that, we headed up to Loch Katrine, which is the setting of the Lady of the Lake story, and also the birthplace of modern tourism.

The next-to-last stop of the day was at the Monty Python Castle (aka Doune Castle).

Vicki and I also spotted this wee bun while walking around the grounds! SO. CUTE.

Vicki laid down to get a better angle for her pictures of the castle. I made fun of her for a bit before joining her.

Vicki also bought this truly epic beer.

And finally, we stopped at the Forth bridge.

More photos under the cut, including lots more coos!

Canada Day!

For Canada Day in Edinburgh, Melissa and I invited everyone to join us in the Meadows for a BBQ and drinks...

The grocery stores sell these little one-use BBQs that people use in the meadows (there are designated use areas, AKA that little chunk of pavement in the middle of the grass, but a lot of people just use them wherever, though you can get fined for doing that). The BBQ is basically charcoal under a mesh screen, with this sheet lying under the mesh that is used to light the charcoal on fire. There are big disposal bins specifically for them at the exits of the park.

Everyone was late. And Melissa and I didn't remember we didn't have bottle openers until AFTER we bought our beer, so we had to wait for our friends.

My terrible attempt at a patriotic manicure...

The City of Edinburgh allows the consumption of alcohol in public places but under a by-law, anyone drinking in public has to stop if asked by police. But basically everyone drinks in the meadows, and since it was such a nice day, there were quite a few other groups out in the meadows, drinking and BBQing.

Melissa attempts to hide her pale, pale skin from the sunlight.

I tried.

The coolest kids...

All of the Americans came out to celebrate with us, though Maya and Jordan were very late (Lindsey was there for quite a while though!). I asked Maya if they were doing anything to celebrate America Day, and she replied "There's an America Day?"

....

No comment.

After spending the entire afternoon in the sunshine, we decided to head to a pub for *cold* drinks, and some food.

On Alix's suggestion, we all gave this Belgin beer a shot (it was quite tasty).

And pink.

I got a grilled mushroom burger and it was delicious. After, we all headed home, as the pub was starting to get quite rowdy with World Cup enthusiasts.

xx