Colour Run!!!

The Sunday after I got home was the colour run. I was supposed to be meeting four friends there, but ended up only seeing two of them, due to the absolutely insane traffic. I don't know if they just weren't expecting that many people or what, but the airport road definitely wasn't used to that level of traffic. I took the bus in, but ended up abandoning it about an hours walk away from the airport as we were at a total standstill (it was hilarious getting on the airport bus, as it was just filled with people dressed in white). But it was a gorgeous day and the walk to the grounds by the airport where the run was being held was absolutely lovely, if very long. But the bus never caught up with me, so it was definitely a good call to ditch it. By the time I made it though, Laura and Kate had both already run, so I decided to wait for the Hannahs, who were still stuck in traffic. 

The last wave was supposed to be around 10:30, but they kept going well past that (I ran once the Hannahs arrived, which I think was just after 11).

It briefly spat on us, but nothing too bad, and overall it was a lovely day for a run! I actually ran the entire 5k, which I was very proud of myself, as I have been quite slack on my running this summer, though I did go out a couple times while I was back in Canada.

The people at the green station were being very enthusiastic, and I kind of ended up looking like I had some sort of skin disease, which was unfortunate.

After we finished the run, Hannah T offered me a ride back into town, which I took her up on, but we ended up stuck in the parking lot for ages, as it was utter chaos. But once we left it, it was clear sailing, and we decided to stop at the mall for Burger King as we were all starving (Hannah T also brought her daughter Skye, who was a trooper having finished the whole thing, but was really hungry after all that as well).

We were definitely getting strange looks at the mall, though we also weren't the only runners stoping by for food.

I ended up basically half green and half orange, which was pretty funny. My bathtub also looked like I had murdered an ompa-loompa - the orange station guy had thrown a entire handful directly at my chest, so of course most of it ended up in my bra - luckily I remembered this, and took of my bra in the tub and not in my room :P My boobs were orange for a couple of days though.

Such a fun day!

Airlines Hate Me

Happy Canada Day!

My flight didn't leave until 1pm, which made a nice change from having to get up at the crack of dawn to head to the airport. On the way into the city, mum and I passed what I thought was a really funny sight to mark the end of my time in Alberta...

So country. I also soaked in the last views of the big blue prairie sky - still and always the thing I miss the most about Alberta, though the sky in Edinburgh is much bigger than the sky in Sackville ever was, so it isn't quite as bad as it used to be.

Also, elk.

Like I said in my previous post, I love the way that the land they drained to build the highway just fills right back up with water (I pointed out all the water to Connie while driving past it, she then informed me that it is because they drained marshland, a fascinating insight that I never knew before).

We really wanted to drive through the brand-new airport tunnel, but missed the turnoff for it, so Connie pulled an illegal u-turn (like the rebel she was) so we could go through it.

It was very exciting.

And then I got to the airport and the fun began. I checked my bag (exactly 50lbs, whatup, I am the queen of packing), bid Connie au revoir, and proceeded to head to my gate. I was wandering around trying to decide whether I wanted an ice cap or a passionfruit lemonade to be my last Canada drink, when I thought I heard my name on the intercom, but was unable to hear anything else. A couple of minutes later, same thing, I heard my name, but what came after it was just garbled. Finally, the third time I caught that they wanted me to come to the WestJet service desk. I was told by the dude there that my flight to Toronto was delayed. I was supposed to be flying Calgary-Toronto-Amsterdam-Edinburgh but would be missing my Amsterdam connection due to the delay. He then told me I would be flying direct to Amsterdam instead, but after agreeing to let me on the flight, KLM then changed their mind and told WestJet I couldn't get on that one. After a bit more searching, the dude managed to get me on a British Airways flight to London, then from London to Edinburgh. I was pretty stoked, because that significantly cut down my travel time, and took away two connections, but it didn't leave until 10pm, and it was about noon by then. Yay. The guy gave me food vouchers for $40 for the Calgary airport, as he informed me that I wouldn't be able to get in-flight meals, and then told me I'd have to leave the secure area and then go back through security.

Fun.

I did that, and then grabbed some Tim Hortons for lunch and prepared to wait.

Just before getting on the flight, I also purchased a whole bunch of food from Starbucks with the rest of the money I'd been given, for my upcoming breakfast and lunch the next day (to my great distress, they were out of passionfruit, so I had a green tea lemonade, which, while good, is no passionfruit).

Eventually I boarded, about eight hours after I got to the airport. I made my way to my seat (a window seat) and sat down. I had only been sitting for a couple of minutes before the stewardess approached me and told me that she had noticed how tall I was when I walked past her, and, if it was possible, would I like to sit in the emergency exit row? To which I said yes, obviously, and a couple of minutes later she gestured for me to come up to the exit row. So for my flight from Calgary to London I was sat next to the window in the emergency exit row, with no one next to me. The attendant was really friendly, as was the English dude sat in the middle part of the row, and I chatted with them quite a bit.

We were late both taking off and landing, which meant that I ended up missing my connection to Edinburgh (Heathrow is HUGE) but it was fine because they got me on another one leaving an hour after that. And after going through customs and them back through security (for the third friggin time) I only had a little wait until my flight left.

When I got to Edinburgh I hopped on the bus, but was falling asleep, so woke up and panicked and got off at the totally wrong stop, ages away from any bus station that could take me home. After walking two blocks bent in half (my suitcase handle broke somehow while I was at home, and wouldn't pull out anymore) I just hailed a cab. It wasn't until the next day when I was crossing my legs that I noticed the huge black bruise on the back of my leg where the suitcase had been banging against them while I was walking, as well as more bruises down the length of my legs. So lesson learned: if you wake up on the bus, don't just panic and get off.

Chillin' with Connie

I spent a large part of the last couple days before I headed back to the UK hanging out with Connie. We went for a walk the one morning, down her "street", and were delighted to see so many songbirds, as well as a couple of evil geese, out and about, especially around the marsh that lives at the intersection down the road. Even if a couple of them did try to kill us (I mean, Connie said they were probably just chasing each other and we just happened to be there, but I maintain that they were trying to kill us). 

It really is a gorgeous little bit of land, I took a lot of pictures of this corner from the car while staying with Connie and Brad, but it was nice to walk down there and get some really clear ones.

It certainly didn't hurt that it was such a gorgeous morning.

I love the fence posts in the water. One of my favourite things about being in the country in all these farms is seeing all the places where nature has taken back over from human attempts to tame it, whether that be the rather small fact of marshland taking back over drained land as in these fences, or all the flooded bits beside Stony Trail, or the more obvious sight of decaying barns and sheds that slowly list over and eventually succumb to gravity (there was a shed on the corner leading into Christine's farm that slowly, over the course of my childhood, went from standing mostly upright to leaning over and then disappearing entirely).

The redwing blackbirds were one of the most populous species of birds that morning - the red flash as they fly is so beautiful.

This guy was being very nice about posing for me (but refused to do the same for Connie - hahah).

Mum and I also ended up taking a couple of trips into the city - after I got home, my mum put me on a wait list for the dentist for the couple of days before I left back to the UK, and I ended up getting in due to a cancellation, which mum was *extremely* excited about.

(so of course I had to counter that by continuing to drink as many slushees as humanly possible before heading back to the land of no slushees).

The same day that we went in to the dentist, we stopped by to see Grandma Jones, as well as Lorraine, which was really nice to see them one more time before I hopped back across the pond. We also stopped into the mall and went into Sephora where I cried over the fact that they don't have it in the UK (just kidding I didn't actually cry... much). Mum bought me a Stila liquid eyeliner for my birthday, and I also used my reward points to get a really nice Clinique mascara, AND got my birthday treat from Sephora. So it was a pretty awesome trip. Mum also bought me a book for my birthday. It was awesome.

Then we went to COSTCO. Nothing quite like that big box shopping experience. Plus we hit it at a really awesome time - all the samples were out so we got to try loads of different things. Except the fruit liquorice. The lady serving that didn't seem to actually want to serve it to anyone.

We stopped at the dome briefly on the way home, and I lamented again that I was leaving before there were actually any strawberries.