Wednesday 29 August 2012

A last-minute trip away!

In my glass: bitter lemon
On my iPod: Time, by Pink Floyd
From my bookshelf: Spellwright by Blake Charlton - it's just a small book I just started.
Outside: dull, night, no stars
My mood: sleepy
Facebook quote of the day: "random drunk dude wandering the street singing 500 miles by the proclaimers, then a few minutes later he was snoozing on a bench. Looks like he didn't quite make it :( "

Ok, so I moved in, left to come home and haven't left again. Cowal is over, with all the regular amount of drama and booze with it, and now to plan for next season. A certain leading drummer made me an excellent offer, and I can barely resist the thought of being back in a band with the friends I started this with, even if it does involve travelling from Aberdeen once or twice a month.
In any case, the reason I haven't left is that I've had an invitation to go with my mums band to Colorado. It's my first trip to America in my life and I'm really looking forward to it. Apparently there's a couple of bands going, and we'll be going non stop, so I won't get to see much, but I still can't wait.
For now though, I'm sleepy, so I'll talk again soon




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Location:Perthshire, United Kingdom

Friday 17 August 2012

A new flat..

In my glass: Freshly squeezed grapefruit juice
On my iPod: the Flying theme from How to Train your Dragon (the movie)
From my bookshelf: none - I left them all at my parents house. I am in the middle of an ibook on my phone called The Demon Girl by Penelope Fletcher and I was reading Thud by Terry Pratchett before I left.
Outside: Rain... lots of rain
My mood: Contemplative, in the mood for poetry writing, but uninspired.
Facebook quote of the day: (courtesy of one of the home radio stations, and one of its facebook fans)
    Radio DJ: "Bristol are reportedly getting their own currency...the Bristol Pound (Boring name!)
If we had our own Scottish money, what would we call it? The Quid? The Scot? The Geezapound ?! Over to you.... :)"
    Facebook fan: naw, i'd call it beer tokens
    Haha :P

So here I am, in my new flat (yay!). Seeing as uni hasn't started back yet, and I can't seem to get a full-time job after being away at things all summer, I have been rather bored. Yesterday I spent most of the day cooking. I made bread, as we had far too much flour in the cupboard left by the last tenants. Unfortunately as it was only plain flour and not regular bread flour, the bread turned out a bit heavy-textured. I was thinking about making cupcakes too, but couldn't be bothered to get the other ingredients, like bicarbonate of soda. I made carrot and ginger soup, which is now in the freezer, and I roasted a chicken last night. There are only two of us in the flat, and the chicken was quite large, so the leftovers should do us for a few days, then we can make soup from the bones too.
Otherwise, I just generally sorted out all my stuff into its new home, and stocked up the kitchen cupboards with essentials like potatoes, onions, stock cubes, oil, vinegar and the likes. The flat is just lovely though, made even lovelier by the fact that its ours for at least the next year, if not longer.

Tomorrow, I'm heading off to a friends (very much overdue) official housewarming party. Should be great fun. We've still to organise one for our flatwarming, but we decided to wait until people were back at uni, because at the moment lots of people are on holiday/away home/have a full-time job. Then I'm staying home at my parents the week after (hence the reason for not having any books up with me) until the Cowal pipe band championships. Hoping for sun, but with this recent weather, its anyones guess what we will get. I still have sunburn from Glasgow last week and now its chucking it down. As a matter of fact, I don't know how I managed to be in Switzerland for two weeks without burning, then get burnt in Glasgow, where it was colder, and I was still using the same sunscreen as I was in Switzerland. Jeez.

My savings took a dip, courtesy of the flat deposit, but oh well. I'll just have to spend as little money as possible over the next couple of weeks until I get paid at the start of the money. That should at least be easier if I'm staying at my parents.

I'm missing my cats already :( Waking up in the morning is remarkably more difficult when you don't have a cat trampling over your face and sticking his whiskers up your nose in an effort to get you up to feed him. I'm glad I'll be seeing them at the weekend.

I've had an idea for a poem, and I'm in the mood to write, but the right words just don't seem to be there today. Its annoying. Maybe if I jot down what I have so far, it will be easier to come back to edit and finish off later.
So instead, I'm giving you a quick poem, in a slightly different style from my norm, about the World Pipe Band Championships which are held in Glasgow. This year was exceptional in that it was sunny, but most years, and indeed the year in which I wrote this, it was very much chucking it down.

The World Pipe Band Championships (written my me)

The Worlds!
Up at 6.
Yawn.
Bus at 7.
Groan...
Arrive at 8.
Hop out.
Smile...

Pipes singing,
Drums beating,
Sticks flying.

Boxes opened,
Cases unzipped.
Tuning now...
Eeeeeeeeeee,
Tum te tum te tum...
*sigh*
Tap;
boooom.
tap;
booooooom.
tap;
booooom...
Crackcrackcrackcrackcrack.
Crackcrackcrackcrackcrack.
...
Mud mud mud mud mud.
Time to go.

Bytheright,
*Slide*
Quick march.
Boom boom boom.
*Slip*
Boom boom eeeee
tum te tum te tum...
Kilts swinging,
Sporran on hip,
Heart in mouth,
Marching on.
.....
clapclapclap.
*sigh*
*smile*
...........
...*Slide*

Wait....
Wait...
Wait..
Wait.

Play again.
Beer tent?
no.
Pub?
no.
*Slip*
Bus.
Joke.
Laugh.
Beer tent.
*Slide*
...
Drum lost.
Drum found.
Massed bands.
Sore feet.
Sore legs.
Sore arms.
Knee deep in mud.
Results...
Hats fly.
Hat lost.
Drums beating.
Crowd cheering.

March off.
Hat found.
Bus.
.....
...
...
..
Pub.


And lastly, before I go...
         Current progress in my 21 things to do before I turn 21 (scratching off the completed things, of course.)
1) Get into 3rd year at uni (that means no failed years, or semesters)  - Well, I'm into 2nd year now, with no fails :) progress..
2) Rent my first flat and get some flatmates - done!
3) Get a decent-paying job to fit around uni, band and OTC commitments (few and far between) - Not unless you count a tattoo to be a job. Besides, its hardly regular, is it?..
4) Date a guy I like - still searching...
5) Save up and get that tattoo I've been pining over for years. - Maybe next summer. My savings are better, but not quite enough for me to have a safety net afterwards if my finances go down the pan.
6) Make a ball gown from my own design - I have the machine, I have the pattern, I just need to afford the material and the time.
7) Keep up with my blog here - oops
8) Learn to shoot safely and well - well I can shoot safely, but I don't know about "well".
9) Organise a night out, instead of just going to them - should happen whenever we decide to have our flatwarming
10) Go abroad - Done (Basel tattoo in Switzerland)
11) Take part in a Great Scottish Run - not done yet. Ankles are being a pain in the a**, so I haven't been training, and I need to go to the doctors about it, but haven't had the time yet, especially with the GP being booked up.
12)Pass an OTC PFA - Again with the ankles. The press-ups are being a pain too, because my ganglion flares up painfully whenever I try to train for them.
13) Learn to ski - Not yet
14) Learn Reveille, first post, and last post on the bugle - I almost have the basic five notes. If I can get the fifth note stronger, I should manage the bugle calls easier.
15)Buy my great long-time friend (who is younger than me and has known me since she was merely a few days old - we are like sisters and grew up together) her first legal drink from me on her 18th. - she isn't 18 yet.
16) Try to get enough savings to tide me over a few months if I'm broke - well I'm broke at the moment, so my savings are going down, but I still have enough to keep me going for a good while if I'm careful.
17) do what I want and stop caring about rumours/talk from others. - doing much better. In fact I made good friends with someone I thought I wouldn't get on with, and I just generally feel much better.
18)stop eating junk. No really. Stop buying stupid, unhealthy food when you're drunk/hungover/bored/cant be bothered, because there's always a better tasting, and just generally better alternative. -I've had one take-away chinese in the last 2 months, and it was a treat, so I'm marking this off.
19) sing in front of someone. Whether it be in a group, solo, drunk or sober, I want to get the guts up to perform with someone there. - not done so yet.
20) play my fiddle at least once a week. - oops. my fiddle playing has been in rather sporadic bursts over the last few months
21) I'm changing this to learning to sail - My uncle offered to teach me sometime. That is, when he isn't house-sitting in Australia. :)

Anyway, thats my progress so far.