I will be keeping this post rather short, and skimping on the content simply because I've once again let it go so long between posts and things are happening at a breakneck pace lately that I now need to catch up.
So the continuation of Scotland [Highly abridged version] Aberdeen was lots of fun, L's parents and brother are really cool. We had ice cream on Aberdeen "beach" in the cold miserably wet weather. Spotted dolphins in the harbor and a double rainbow... what does it mean!? On our last day we went to the lower Highlands to Finzean [Say it with me now Fing-in... yeah I don't understand either] Ballater which isn't far from Balmoral, Her Majesty's main Scottish residence. While in Ballater, it was beautifully sunny and rather 'warm' (A whopping 3C) and snowing - yes, snowing. Very bizarre indeed, we may as well have been in the Bermuda Triangle! We left Ballater and hightailed it to Aberdeen Airport where L's dad decided to take a "short cut" through an office estate at 1700... so we ended up spending about 20-30 min longer in the car than originally planned. Lucky we were getting to ABZ early anyway, n'est pas? I mailed Heidi and Billy their second cards from the airport (each had Heeland Coos on them hehe) and went for a wander. Half way through this wander, we were walking back to the gate area and I noticed a piece of paper on the ground, I'm not sure what caused me to look at it, but I'm sure as hell I did - it was my boarding pass. It had somehow jumped out of my pocket about 20min before hand.... oops! The flight home was rather unremarkable, other than the fact that Flybe is exactly what I expected - average.
Fast forward a couple of days, and I got a phone call from a guy named Adrian, he started asking me questions about my customer service experience etc... it wasn't until half way through the call, he informed me that he was carrying out a phone interview for a local hotel that I'd apparently applied to. Great start. An hour or so after the phone interview I receive an email from the company saying that I've passed the interview and have been scheduled for a face to face interview! I went to the interview, and to be honest I thought it was the worst interview I've had out of all the ones I've attended. Cut to 48hrs after that, I get a phone call. I've got it. I've now been at the company for a week and a half, and I have to say its been an eye opener. My 6 year sentence to hard labor with Contempo has certainly prepared me well!
So thats just about everything thats happened in the last 14 days or so (at least as much as I can recall!) I'm going to try and update the blog once a week now, so stay tuned :-)
Cheesy Love!
C.
3.30.2011
3.17.2011
Scotland!
Well, what an eventful week its been! Scotland was an absolute blast :-) I loved every minute of it. I am beginning to learn that whenever I travel, something somewhere doesn't quite go according to plan.
Our trip started bright and early on Saturday morning, I made sure that I had absolutely everything ready to go so that I could just go through my morning routine, and we'd be on our way... yeah, right *full of false optimism*. So the alarm clock goes at something obscene like 0700... we get ready and are at New Street on time, L collects the tickets (for our fixed-time train) and then turns to me and says "Have you got your railcard?" It was one of those moments where you feel your blood drain, quickly followed by that awful sinking sensation where you want to curl up in a fetal position and have the ground open up below you and swallow you into the dark abyss below. Then came the false glimmer of hope, was L trying to wind me up? He knew I'd forgotten it, he'd seen it on the table in the bedroom and picked it up, and was going to torture me with it. After 2-3 minutes of "you have it, you're just winding me up" and "no, I don't have it"... it finally set in - our train was leaving in 10 minutes. It would take at least 20 to get home and back by a cab. We could either go home and get it, losing out on both our tickets and paying for new ones (the most expensive option). I could go home and get my railcard and buy a new train ticket for the next train in an hour, while L took the scheduled train. Or we could wing it, and take the scheduled train and hope I don't get asked for my card, and if I did, I'd have to play dumb and feign surprise and try and get away with it.
Well, we opted for the latter, and somewhere past the industrial wasteland that is Wolverhampton, we were asked for our tickets, they were presented, ticked and returned. I would like to point out at this moment in time, that I am *NEVER* lucky with anything, I always get caught out even with a white lie, let alone something like this. I looked at L, and he grinned and gave me a "You lucky S.O.B." sort of look. Breakfast was had, and solitaire was played for pretty much the entire journey up. I'm surprised at how quick the trip actually went, L was pointing out all the little points of interest (FYI, he's a closet train geek lol) I didn't see any warning signs about any dragons or killer haggii.... but less than 30 seconds after passing the border, a little way past Gretna I saw the most peculiar thing ever. There were sheep in a field, not terribly noteworthy, especially in that part of the world - but its what one of these sheep did, is what was incredibly curious - it jumped. I have seen plenty of sheep in my life [insert requisite Welsh joke here] but I have never seen one jump before. I notched it up to being north of the border and in the badlands of southern Scotland... akin to The Expanse in Star Trek: Enterprise where the most bizzarre things happen, and laws of physics need not apply.
The rest of the day passed without incident, and we walked down the Royal Mile and to Holyrood Palace (the official Scottish residence of Her Majesty) and Scottish Parliament. The next day we went to Calton Hill, and then we decided to go to the top of Arthur's Seat in Holyrood Park which is 823ft above the city. It offered a fantastic view of the city, but it was one hell of a hike!
We then left Edinburgh for Glasgow by train, where L and I parted company for a few hours. I went onwards to Loch Lomond and Balloch, I spent a few hours wandering around the grounds of Balloch Castle, and was hoping to go in and see it, but its unfortunately fenced off and boarded up and in a rather sorry state. After a late afternoon tea and dinner with Rosemary, we got the second to last train up to Aberdeen, getting there just a little before midnight.
More on that later.
Our trip started bright and early on Saturday morning, I made sure that I had absolutely everything ready to go so that I could just go through my morning routine, and we'd be on our way... yeah, right *full of false optimism*. So the alarm clock goes at something obscene like 0700... we get ready and are at New Street on time, L collects the tickets (for our fixed-time train) and then turns to me and says "Have you got your railcard?" It was one of those moments where you feel your blood drain, quickly followed by that awful sinking sensation where you want to curl up in a fetal position and have the ground open up below you and swallow you into the dark abyss below. Then came the false glimmer of hope, was L trying to wind me up? He knew I'd forgotten it, he'd seen it on the table in the bedroom and picked it up, and was going to torture me with it. After 2-3 minutes of "you have it, you're just winding me up" and "no, I don't have it"... it finally set in - our train was leaving in 10 minutes. It would take at least 20 to get home and back by a cab. We could either go home and get it, losing out on both our tickets and paying for new ones (the most expensive option). I could go home and get my railcard and buy a new train ticket for the next train in an hour, while L took the scheduled train. Or we could wing it, and take the scheduled train and hope I don't get asked for my card, and if I did, I'd have to play dumb and feign surprise and try and get away with it.
Well, we opted for the latter, and somewhere past the industrial wasteland that is Wolverhampton, we were asked for our tickets, they were presented, ticked and returned. I would like to point out at this moment in time, that I am *NEVER* lucky with anything, I always get caught out even with a white lie, let alone something like this. I looked at L, and he grinned and gave me a "You lucky S.O.B." sort of look. Breakfast was had, and solitaire was played for pretty much the entire journey up. I'm surprised at how quick the trip actually went, L was pointing out all the little points of interest (FYI, he's a closet train geek lol) I didn't see any warning signs about any dragons or killer haggii.... but less than 30 seconds after passing the border, a little way past Gretna I saw the most peculiar thing ever. There were sheep in a field, not terribly noteworthy, especially in that part of the world - but its what one of these sheep did, is what was incredibly curious - it jumped. I have seen plenty of sheep in my life [insert requisite Welsh joke here] but I have never seen one jump before. I notched it up to being north of the border and in the badlands of southern Scotland... akin to The Expanse in Star Trek: Enterprise where the most bizzarre things happen, and laws of physics need not apply.
L drew me a map, just in case I got lost. From top to bottom: Norway (TR), John O'Groats, Ben Nevis, Aberdeen, Glasgow & Aberdeen
Just across the border, around about the time I saw the infamous jumping sheep.
We made it to Edinburgh by lunch time, and the weather was absolutely stunning. We dropped our stuff off at L's friends house (with whom we were staying) and set off to do all the touristy stuff. First on the agenda was Edinburgh Castle, which, to put it mildly - was less than inspiring. Thats not to undermine its historical and cultural value... but I've seen plenty of castles (as noted below)
Those are castles. This... not so much:
One thing was constant, small children were present at all the aforementioned castles *shudder*
The castle was great though, we got to see the Scottish Crown Jewels which I didn't even know existed. I decided that I wanted a picture of the native with his castle, so I directed L to stand in front of the central building for a picture. Now, those that know me know that I don't really care for people I don't know, in my pictures (when avoidable). Those that know L, know that he refers to anyone under 5'10 as "little people"now out of his peripheral vision, he could see some children and loudly said "Make sure you don't get the little people in the picture!" Now, at this present moment in time, The Great British Reserve that had been instilled in me at birth, lapsed... only momentarily of course. I snapped the picture as quickly as I could and promptly turned around, walked down the hill quite literally pissing myself laughing. What L didn't know, was that those children were not children at all, but midgets. What made it all the more awkward, was that everywhere we went after that, they happened to be in the same place as us.
We then left Edinburgh for Glasgow by train, where L and I parted company for a few hours. I went onwards to Loch Lomond and Balloch, I spent a few hours wandering around the grounds of Balloch Castle, and was hoping to go in and see it, but its unfortunately fenced off and boarded up and in a rather sorry state. After a late afternoon tea and dinner with Rosemary, we got the second to last train up to Aberdeen, getting there just a little before midnight.
More on that later.
3.02.2011
I am a culinary goddess. Fact.
So I've completely forgotten about this silly little blog, and I don't think anyone has even read it, so for now I shall treat it as my diary where I keep all my juicy secrets*.
In the month that has elapsed since my first post, I've been to Brussels which was a lot of fun! L was working in Belgium for a couple of weeks and it was decided that I would meet him there for a long weekend. Brussels was exactly what I expected it to be. So I hopped on the Virgin to Euston, walked to Kings Cross and took the afternoon Eurostar to Brussels by way of Lille. The two highlights of the trip were meeting up with L's friends Gary & Stefanie having some fabulous Belgian food (haven't had rabbit in years, sooooo good!) and rounding off the night at a Cuban bar with some killer mojitos that very nearly made us blind :-) There was also the Atomium which was pretty cool, and reaffirmed my love for all things 50s and 60s (we brought back a 1950s SABENA poster... and those who know me well, know I love my vintage travel posters!). L and I also explored the EU Commission buildings and the surrounding parks, and even found ourselves at the Autoworld car museum (L was in his element). We also found a cute little restaurant called Carpe Diem on the corner of Av. de Terveuren and Keltenlaan... it was here I realised that my French isn't as bad as I thought it was *smug*.
In the month that has elapsed since my first post, I've been to Brussels which was a lot of fun! L was working in Belgium for a couple of weeks and it was decided that I would meet him there for a long weekend. Brussels was exactly what I expected it to be. So I hopped on the Virgin to Euston, walked to Kings Cross and took the afternoon Eurostar to Brussels by way of Lille. The two highlights of the trip were meeting up with L's friends Gary & Stefanie having some fabulous Belgian food (haven't had rabbit in years, sooooo good!) and rounding off the night at a Cuban bar with some killer mojitos that very nearly made us blind :-) There was also the Atomium which was pretty cool, and reaffirmed my love for all things 50s and 60s (we brought back a 1950s SABENA poster... and those who know me well, know I love my vintage travel posters!). L and I also explored the EU Commission buildings and the surrounding parks, and even found ourselves at the Autoworld car museum (L was in his element). We also found a cute little restaurant called Carpe Diem on the corner of Av. de Terveuren and Keltenlaan... it was here I realised that my French isn't as bad as I thought it was *smug*.
St. Pancras International. I absolutely adore this building!
Grande Place
Top of the Atomium
Autoworld
Desert at Carpe Diem
Not much has happened since Brussels, I'm still looking for a job, and getting nowhere fast (Frustration is starting to creep in now). Both of my parents now have iPhone 4's which means they are calling me on Facetime on a regular basis which is really cool, I get to see them, and also get to see Wayne, Claire and the kids too which is a major bonus :-)
Lately I've been watching a lot of daytime TV *horror* but it has actually had an unexpected plus, I'm starting to regain my interest in cooking. While I find cooking rather cathartic, I need a recipe to follow and I always follow it to the letter. Today I took the plunge and decided to go into the kitchen and make something I've never made before, without a recipe or any clue as to what I was doing. I pulled out the cupboards and came up with a tuna pasta bake. I have to say I'm quite proud of the result! I did have some transatlantic assistance from a one C. Friend who reminded me to add the tuna to the pasta bake (I was about to put it in the oven sans tuna).
A spicy tuna pasta bake paired with a 2005 Rioja
If anybody would like the recipe, just ask :-) There were a few moments where it was touch and go whether this was going to be a complete failure or a success. And I'm happy to say that it came out a lot better than expected, and L will be having it for dinner tonight :-)
We're off to Scotland this weekend, which I'm ever so slightly nervous about. I have "Meet The Fockers" in my head... and it also recently dawned on me that I have three mothers-in-law... that has to be a record? Anyhow, more on that at a later date! Its time to get stuck into "Deal or No Deal?" ♥ Noel Edmunds hehe.
Culinary Love!
C.
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