Hashtag Launch Party

After quite a few delays, we finally managed to have the launch for Hashtag Magazine. We had the launch at Alix's flat, and the shortcut through the NHS is actually quite lovely when taken during the day instead of in the dead of night. Of course, my walk home was still alarming. 

I think there must be a rabbit warren under the NHS complex, as I don't think I've ever walked through there without seeing at least one - I ended up walking through there twice in two days and saw a total of four bunnies.

I also finally got around to drinking the champaign I won for my knit+ presentation. 

I also saw what I assume was the same fox in the same place the two nights I walked home, which was pretty exciting as I'd never actually seen a fox before (I don't think anyways).

The Saturday night we went over to Leanne's for Eurovision. I'd never actually watched Eurovision before  and it wasn't quite as insane as I was expecting, but was still kind of amazing. We drew countries, and person whose country came in absolute last lost completely.

The Eurovision Song Contest, shortened to ESC, Eurovision, or EuroSong, is an annual song competition held among the member countries of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) since 1956.

Each member country submits a song to be performed on live television and radio and then casts votes for the other countries' songs to determine the most popular song in the competition. The contest has been broadcast every year since its inauguration in 1956 and is one of the longest-running television programmes in the world. It is also one of the most watched non-sporting events in the world, with audience figures having been quoted in recent years as anything between 100 million and 600 million internationally. (x)

Austria won this year with Conchita Wurst's Rise Like a Phoenix - you can see the video of her song in the link. (x)

Pancake Party

So Fat Tuesday or Pancake day is apparently a pretty big thing here. I honestly had no idea what was going on when Eve invited me to a pancake party, I just heard pancakes and was THERE. Because I didn't want to share the kitchen with other people (I'm not very good at that) I made my pancakes before going over to Laura's. I really wanted to make Æbleskiver but my pan is currently in Canada and I am too poor to buy one here. However, I was telling Eve about this and she asked me if I thought a cake pop maker would work. I thought it might, and so did Connie, and it turned out that Eve actually owned one, so I borrowed it and... 

AREN'T THEY CUTE?! It worked really well, they were smaller than Æbleskiver usually are, but still tasty! I also made some normal yoghurt pancakes, and then headed over to Laura's.

However, everyone else was apparently much less prepared than me, and as I arrived they were all leaving, heading out to the store to buy flour and other ingredients, but the Sainsbury's by Laura's was actually out of flour (like, pancake tuesday is a really big thing over here for something I was totally unaware of). So there was a bit of challenge in finding ingredients, but we managed, and headed back to Laura's for Æbleskiver, yoghurt pancakes, crepes, and Swedish pancakes (it was a very diverse group of pancakes). The Æbleskiver were, of course, a hit, because they are awesome, and Melissa and I promoted the joys of real maple syrup to everyone else.

After pancakes, Ali brought out his edition of Cards Against Humanity that he had gotten for his birthday. I had to leave before the game ended as I had to get up at seven the next day, but Alix apparently won.

Party Like An American!

The other week Maya had a party at her house... but before that, a picture from Laura's birthday party that I missed when I did that post!

Me, Camille, Ali, and Maya

Bam. Camille is my co-Project Manager in the live projects (I'll be getting to those in the next post). So Maya's boyfriend, who is stationed in Italy with the US Army came up to Edinburgh with some of his friends for the Valentine Day weekend. And Maya decided that we absolutely had to go out, so Saturday night I headed over to Maya's, which is on Rose Street, the street which runs parallel to Princes' Street, and thus is the perfect place to launch any night out downtown (so convenient!)

Maya, Me, Stella

I do not know why I look like I have a black eye. Sidenote: Alix is always horrified when I drink Stella, because as a Belgian, she firmly believes it is not a good beer. To which I saw, whatever, it is hella cheap over here, which is right about my speed.

Dude-whose-name-I'm-blanking-on, Harriet, me, Eve, Jade

Alix was hungry at one point and when I told Maya that, she was like 'oh I got this' and ran out of the room, and came back with a banana.

To which the general response was NO, CARBS.

Alix...

Me, Eve, Harriet

After a fair amount of hanging out at Maya's, we headed out to Electric Circus, which was a pretty cool club right near the Mound. I ended up leaving around 3am, catching the bus home from Princes' street at 3:30 because I neglected to take into account that the night bus only comes around every hour when I left. I got home around 4am, which mum was rather concerned about when I told her about it, but Princes' street is busy all night, both with (drunk) people, but also with buses and taxis, and not only do I live in what my friends keep telling me is a fairly posh area, but it is also a fairly busy street, and there are taxis going up and down it quite frequently (plus its about a two minute walk from the bus stop to my flat). 

An excellent night out with some lovely people.

More Birthday

Very birthday. Much fun. Wow.

So apparently February is EVERYONES birthday month on this course (Camille's is next week, Ali's is coming up as well). Although Eve, Laura H, and I do all have the same birthday, so there's that.

Laura W celebrated her birthday friday night with a super awesome party.

Laura H and Maya

From the left: Becca, Laura H, Maya, Laura W, Hannah T, Hannah D

I didn't realize quite how many repeat names there are on our course... three Kyras (all different spelling though),  two Lauras, two Hannahs, three Rebeccas...

Maya, Laura W

Maya, Laura W

Laura decided to put on a cat onesie at one point and, because it was boiling in that flat with so many people crammed in and dancing, decided to tie it around her waist, in what definitely won coolest outfit of the night :P

I got there at 8 and ended up staying until 2, so it was a pretty successful party :P Some highlights included Ali's "dance" move, Maya and I discovering that we share a we-need-to-dance-NOW mode, Laura H's awesome dance moves (and crazy eyes), and deciding to nickname people after their countries most famous brand (this quickly fell apart when we realized we couldn't pick a single brand for America, and that Scotland has no famous brands). There were also several moments where Maya and I stood by while everyone sang and danced along to a song that clearly never made it big in North America. But there was also a rousing sing-along to the Spice Girls' "Wannabe" and Grease's "Summer Nights".

Alix Had A Birthday, Turned An Age

We now return from a weekend of English geekery to our regularly scheduled programming.

Friday and Saturday were fairly uneventful - I spent most of those days sat at my computer in the living room, working on various things but mainly fielding questions and dealing with problems arising around the book projects. Sunday was a nice break from that, as people either had run out of problems or seemed to have done all they could until Monday...

Sunday was also Alix's birthday, and she decided to have a crepe party, because Alix has the best party ideas. 

I recently bought some new (drug store brand - gasp!) turquoise mascara, that, unlike the navy blue mascara that I have, is an obvious blue, and really fun to wear. I decided to pair it with a blue lip gloss from indie makeup company Lime Crime that Shanni gave me last year, but that I haven't really had a lot of opportunities to wear yet.

Why I decided to wear what is probably the most labour intensive lipstick colour in terms of maintenance if you are eating or drinking anything, on a night filled with eating and drinking, is a mystery. Even I don't understand my choices.

Walking to Alix's was once again an adventure - you may remember the last time I was at her place for a party, I ended up walking home at 1am fairly tipsy, on FaceTime with Logan so I didn't get murdered. I once again decided to take the short cut through the NHS complex, figuring that, at 8pm and sober, it couldn't be that bad - and yet.

I kind of got lost again - I found my way through the whole complex, but couldn't figure out where I had entered last time. I found the gate that I tried to get through last time that was locked (it was locked again) but couldn't find the pedestrian entrance through which I ended up getting in last time. Instead, I ended up in a little park behind more NHS buildings, which was kind of sketchy, but I did get to see a bunny!

Instead of FaceTiming Logan, I was snapchatting him, figuring he would be amused by me once again getting lost and freaked out in the same frigging short cut.

But it would seriously take so much extra time to walk around the NHS complex, it is really so much better to cut through it. BUT! I survived, it was all good, and I got to Alix's carrying my whipped cream, strawberries, and wine... (it was a crepe party remember). Alix made some excellent crepes (she was flipping them in the air, it was terribly impressive) and everyone brought toppings, while Harriet also bought a cake, so, y'know, a really healthy evening for food :P

Melissa, Rachel, Me

Leanne, Alix, Harriet

Leanne wrote Alix a Mad Libs in her birthday card, which we all helped fill in, and was really funny (but doesn't bear repeating).

Leanne-as-Alix, Alix

Laura, me

A+ photobomb

We also played Cards Against Humanity, which I had heard a lot about, but had never had the chance to play before then - it was just as hilarious and disturbing as I had been promised.

Unlike most of the party games you've played before, Cards Against Humanity is as despicable and awkward as you and your friends.

The game is simple. Each round, one player asks a question from a Black Card, and everyone else answers with their funniest White Card.

Its basically Apples to Apples, but for terrible people. It is absoloutly hilarious, so long as you are willing to let go of any basic human decency - as a general rule, it is the person who has the most horrific (and thus probably funny) card who wins each round. The person with the most black cards at the end wins. I wasn't even close to winning, but the three black cards above are the rounds I won.

To give you an example, for the "What's the next Happy Meal toy?" I won with a card that said "Edible Underwear". And that is so far from being the worst thing anyone put down that night.

Joneses, we need to play this game sometime. Maybe not the UK version though. There were a few times where I was nudging the person next to me and getting them to explain the card I'd drawn.

Harriet, Becky, Eve

I'm really not sure why I ask my friends to pose for photos. Although I believe this was because Eve told Becky that she didn't want to pose next to her, because Becky is tiny and would make Eve's head look weirdly huge.

#friendship

Rachel gave me a ride home, as she lives quite close to me, so I didn't have to brave the NHS shortcut of doom twice in one day. A really fun night :) 

Merry Ho Ho Holiday

So first off, a brief tour of Sam and Tom's pub!

Sketchy narrow stairs leading up to the flat.

Christmas day Megan and I helped Tom clean up and set up the pub a bit while we were waiting for the very, very good breakfast Carol had made to finish up. After that Megan, Carol and I began cooking christmas dinner and Sam, Tom, and Richard headed down to open the pub (which was open 11-3).

We took a break at one point to have a mulled wine/hot cider break :)

Megan was having way too much fun and was way too amused by how much that cabbage looked like brains.

See? Too much fun.

Sweet po-ta-toe.

For the meat-eaters, Tom prepared a cooked goose.

Megan and I chopped and peeled ALL the things. Megan also picked through a bag of pink, off-white, and white mini marshmallows (because apparently they don't just do bags of plain white marshmallows in this country) to get enough white marshmallows to top the yams.

Apple pie <3

The cat was harassing us.

Carol made some awesome buns from scratch (though they had some difficulty rising, since the flat was absolutely freezing).

Cutie :) (points for anyone who spots the apron and guesses who made it!)

Can you guess what traditional family dish Megan made for Christmas dinner?

CAT

Boooooooons.

You guessed right! Granny/Christine's jello salad! (also, I'm sure Tom and Richard were a bit confused about the fact that I kept referring to Megan and I's grandmother as Christine, while Megan refers to her as Granny).

Lookit all that food...

Carol was having some challenges with the gas stove.... while I, sitting in front of it, was just hoping I wasn't going to light on fire.

BUNS SELFIE.

BUNS SELFIE.

We also broke out the wine around this point.

Holla. It was also around this point that I had a brief facetime with the fam jam back in Canada, to the great amazement of my Grandmother.

Megan and Tom.

And finally, before dinner, we did stockings and presents!

It was all very colour coordinated, save Tom's lovely Christmas fairy princess wrapping paper.

Totally awesome socks from Carol.

My major contribution to the party... just couldn't resist how awesome it was (no, its not a giant lindor... its a ball filled with normal sized lindor... I'm not sure which would actually be better).

Megan was the only one to receive a safety crown from the crackers. No pointy edges for her!

After dinner, I had another lovely facetime with the Jones clan, resulting in our official family Christmas picture for 2013.

Hope you all had a lovely Christmas! I know I had an awesome Christmas day surrounded by awesome people :)