February 4, 2012 · 4:52 pm

Saturday Spotlight Eight – Brilliant Christmas Gifts

It’s Saturday again: I can hardly believe it! The week sure does fly by when you only have class two days out of seven… :P

I’ve been thinking of writing about this for a while, but wasn’t sure how. Then I realised, I could do a Saturday Spotlight about it! You see, at Christmas I got a bunch of amazing gifts I was really excited about, for various reasons. I got a really cool Scratch Map from Grant, some delicious shower gels and some cozy cozy slippers, and I am loving them all : ) But the ones I found myself saying ‘Thank goodness I have this!’ are, above all, the ones that I find really, really useful. And though of course all my family and friends know how much I appreciate their gifts, I wanted to gush a little more about how glad I am to have so many people around me who know just what I want and need : )

Continue reading →

3 Comments

Filed under France, Saturday Spotlight

Tagged as , , , ,

February 2, 2012 · 2:11 am

Episode Fifty Five – What Paris did to me

The only thing missing from the view from the Eiffel Tower…

Can you see the shadow of what's not here?

…is the Eiffel Tower itself.

I think Paris might just have given me an epiphany. You see, I think this one observation, however small and obvious, kind of embodies how I’ve felt about quite a lot of my life: especially last semester in Costa Rica. As the idea of moving abroad towered over me, I admired it, I dreamed up mental pictures of how it would be – me in a hammock drinking from a coconut, or shopping for mangoes at a local market, etc. – just like I admired and photographed Eiffel’s creation on that chilly Sunday afternoon in Paris.

Continue reading →

5 Comments

Filed under France

Tagged as , , , , , , , , ,

January 27, 2012 · 10:05 pm

Saturday Spotlight Seven – On Bucket Lists (Part B)

What’s up, everyone! How are those reverse bucket lists going?

As I mentioned last time, I don’t actually take objection to the idea of writing a list of goals. It’s a good way of staying focused, keeping your priorities prioritised and reminding yourself what you’re saving up all those pennies for. Yes, listing your goals is great: maybe you just don’t make one called 500 Things To Do Before I Die. That’s just setting yourself up to be overwhelmed, disoriented and, ultimately, unsuccessful.

So, I’m keeping my own list short, relevant and to the point. I have more than my usual five for you today, but significantly fewer than 500! These are all the things I want to achieve during my semester in Strasbourg.

4 Comments

Filed under France, Saturday Spotlight

Tagged as , , , , , , , ,

January 26, 2012 · 12:32 am

Episode Fifty Four – On Bucket Lists (Part A)

You know, a strange thing happened to me a little while back: I became interesting.

‘How does one go about doing that?’, you may ask. And I’ll tell you: not how you should do it, but how it ended up happening to me. Of course, I would never say that this is the only way of doing it: that’s the whole point of ‘interesting’, that there’s no formula for it. But for me, this is how it happened.

Continue reading →

7 Comments

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , , , ,

January 21, 2012 · 11:42 am

Saturday Spotlight Six – Sprucing Up Strasbourg!

Hello, hello, hello.

I’m in a very good mood because today I am off to Germany! That’s right, this place is so near the border that I can actually go to one small town on the other side using my public transport pass for Strasbourg! So, we’re going to pop over to Germany for some cake and coffee, maybe wander around a little, and then come back all in time for dinner. And I have a Skype date tonight with my favourite man, so I’m feeling pretty upbeat.

CRAFTzine does it again! This would be perfect to spruce up my new Strasbourg place.

Continue reading →

5 Comments

Filed under Crafts, Saturday Spotlight

Tagged as , , , , , , , ,

January 18, 2012 · 8:21 pm

Episode Fifty Three – Épisode Cinquante Trois

That’s right, beeches, I’m in France! And not just anywhere in France, either – ohhh no. I’m in Strasbourg, the capital of Alsace, where French meets German, where Council of Europe meets European Parliament, and where I could wander through the streets all day and just take pictures.

As of yet, that has not happened. But it will. I have plenty of time to drink it all in.

I haven't done much photographing, but I had to snap the cathedral!

Continue reading →

6 Comments

Filed under France

Tagged as , , , , , ,

January 7, 2012 · 6:42 pm

Episode Fifty Two – 25/12/11

Hello, dear readers!

So, this whole long-distance relationship thing: it’s a double-edged arrow that Cupid’s sent my way, that’s for sure. I often receive sympathies when I explain that my boyfriend lives in America: mostly in the form of ‘Ohh, it must be so hard to go without seeing him’. Well, that’s true, it is hard. But it’s also tough when we do see each other. You see, flight taxes dictate that I spend much more time over there with his family than he does in Scotland with mine; and when he does visit, we have three weeks to get everything done. Visiting friends, spending coupley time together, travelling, seeing family (especially tough when your parents are divorced and the two sides of the family live all over the place)… it’s a lot to accomplish in a short space of time. Long story short: I’m sorry I haven’t been blogging so much, but when Grant and I are reunited, that pretty much becomes top priority: I hope you all understand.


See how my head is listlessly attached to his shoulder here? Yep, inseparable.

Continue reading →

6 Comments

Filed under Scotland

Tagged as , , , , , , , , ,

December 27, 2011 · 1:04 pm

Episode Fifty One – Home For Christmas

Hi everyone, and happy Christmas, Hannukah or whatever other celebrations you may be involved in!

As you’ve probably noticed, I haven’t posted in a long time – again. I didn’t post for a while before I came home from Costa Rica, and since then it’s been Christmas central around here so I’m only just now sitting down with my computer to give you all the love and attention you deserve :P

This is how it feels to be Home For Christmas.

Continue reading →

6 Comments

Filed under Scotland

Tagged as , , , , , ,

December 10, 2011 · 11:29 am

Saturday Spotlight Five – Restaurant Faves in Edinburgh

Hi everyone.

For those of you in Scotland right now, I hope nothing horrible happened to any of your possessions. I believe there have been remarkably few injuries and no deaths so far, so that’s nice. Hope all your trampolines are still where you left them and that.

If the predicted snow is anything like last year, our arrival date may be subject to change...

Continue reading →

7 Comments

Filed under Saturday Spotlight, Scotland

Tagged as , , , , ,

December 6, 2011 · 9:55 am

Episode Fifty – The Last Months Of My Life (Part 6)

Do you see how easy it was to suddenly bring my ‘Last Month Of My Life’ posts back into the realms of accurate titling? While I was happily parenthesising away and turning even my headlines into the grammatical equivalent of Ulysses – where else have you ever seen a title which contains a dash and TWO sets of brackets? – it turns out I could have just chucked an ‘s’ on at the end of ‘month’ and called it a day. Hindsight’s a bitch, as they say.

Shall I continue chatting about the syntax tree of today’s title, or would you rather I just got on wi- ok, ok! No need to shout, I’m getting to it!

Jeez. Continue reading →

1 Comment

Filed under Costa Rica

Tagged as , , , , , , , , ,