Weekend Shinanigans

It’s been a weekend of socialising and catching up with mates. I finished my first full week at my temp job on Friday 11 Jan and joined a few workmates for some after-work drinks…sounds like they’re a social bunch and this Friday I’ve been invited to Shona’s (the girl who I’ve replaced) leaving do! Should be fun.

Tarns (Riddington cousin) and Dee moved up to Edinburgh on Monday, they’re looking for work and will stay for the next 2-3 months before going off travelling, which is wicked for us to have a couple more people we know around! Hilary (London flatmate) and Nippy came up for a wee visit Saturday. Hilary is going home to NZ within the next fortnight so it was so cool to see her, huge effort coming all this way, 9 hour bus rides and all! Saturday afternoon we wandered around Edinburgh and took a few token pics of the castle etc as Nippy hadn’t been before. We had an encounter with Braveheart, a yummy cheap pub lunch and lotsa giggles while purchasing matching Scotland undies (weird? I think not!). Was a lovely clear crisp day but all these girls from Dunedin couldn’t handle the cold!

Saturday night Hilary and I had a few drinks at home, whilst Nippy went on a ghost tour with old friends. Hilary had been before and said it was soooo scarey – so there was NO way I was going to give it a try! Later on in the night we all met up, also with Tarns & Dee and their friends. Was good to meet some other ‘locals’ as they directed us to some new nearby bars that I didn’t know existed. Tarns’ mate Daniel was in a shots-mood so the tequila came out! I had the camera with me so of course I proceeded to take a million photos, a few of which are displayed here and have posted the rest on facebook. Apart from poor Nippy losing an earring and a glove (which is something I often do) we all lived to tell the tale, even finding a bakery on the way home and purchasing a pie each – which we all miss from home… but alas it was yuck!!!

On a separate note I’ve managed to track down some old school friends from when I lived in The Netherlands! (Good ol’ facebook!) We last wrote to each other over 10 years ago, so that is very exciting, and yes they all remember me too! I’m definitely going to arrange a visit to see them =) How cool is that! Just as well they can speak English, my Dutch is pretty bad!

Weekend culture

On Saturday 5 Jan we hopped on the train and headed to Glasgow (50mins away). We were met by heavy rain and winds which resulted in Hayley being a grumpy cow for a lil while! (oops!) We weren’t expecting much as a couple of friends had recently been and both said it was boring! Anyway Niki had been told to go to the Kelvingrove Museum (I’m soo over museums!) but it was surprisingly fun and a really good museum.

The Kylie Minogue exhibition was on (for free) so that was cool seeing heaps of her awards and costumes (mate, she is tiny!). We then headed to the nature section where there are lots of “stuffed” real animals, and they’re not behind glass so u get a good look. The highlight was the elephant! Yes you read right…an elephant! It was very impressive, had been in the museum for 100 years. There was also a giraffe, a massive crab, a reindeer and even a kiwi and many more. A large pipe organ was also on display and a guy played a few songs. We overheard a young girl of about 4 years saying to her Mum “This music is doing my head in!” Imagine in a wee Scottish accent, So cute!

It conveniently started raining again as soon as we stepped outside the museum. GRRR But we found a tavern close by and had a yummy lunch and a few pints, noticing the difference in price from Edinburgh! (cheaper!) After that we hopped on the subway back into town and looked around a few shops and malls. It’s a really good place to shop with a huge pedestrian street lined with lots of shops and about 3 malls as well. We didn’t stay too long cos it was just depressing seeing all the sales and knowing nothing can fit in my pack!

My new jop is going really well, everyone’s super nice and it seems to be a great place to work. Niki has been rostered on for quite a few hours so we are all on track for saving! Hope to register with a Doctor this week so we can look into getting our jabs for Egypt (ouch! The pain and the cost!)

Hogmanay Celebrations

Edinburgh is awesome for New Years, we have had an fantastic time. Helped along by a few visiting friends, which meant our bedroom resembled that of a 6 bed hostel dorm for a few days =)

On Saturday night we attended the Torch Light Procession which involved 1000's of people walking up the main city street and to the top of a nearby hill all holding flaming torches. At the top of the hill they burn a viking ship and other stuff, bagpipers and drum groups perform, followed by AMAZING fireworks! It was such a crazy thing to see, especially looking back at the flame filled streets coming your way. I'm not really sure why they do it, something to do with old viking traditions I guess.

Sunday night was the 'Night Afore' monster ceilidh which we didn't really make it to as we were slack, losing track of time whilst having drinks at home! Debra and I got there in time for the last half hour while the others went straight to the pub. Again there were lots of people there all in a festive mood with a big stage and a band set up. And most impressive (yet strange) there were giant 'monsters' everywhere! Alot of amazing costumes of insects walking on stilts and a really tall inflatable monster that was as tall as the buildings, like something out of King Kong! Also a stage where there was beat boxing and break dancing going on in conjunction with bagpipes! Weird!

Monday - new years eve we had tickets for the street party. Niki had to work from 5pm and the rest of us had drinks at our flat til about 10 when we headed into town. It had been raining all night but was just misting by then and it was warm out (well warm for Edinburgh, didn't need my coat - maybe the vodka helped with that)! Immediately we lost each other but luckily I was with Debra so we spent the next couple of hours talking to random people from all over the world, waited in line for the porta-loo and purchased overpriced vino and hot food. Then my phone rang, and I got to talk to some of my fave peeps back home which was super neat, thx slapper! The fireworks were surprisingly crap, we had heard they had spent £10million (ridiculous I know) on them! The torchlight fireworks were much better and longer. Perhaps the rain ruined these and they decided not to finish the show?? Anyway was a fun countdown and then we managed to find the others up by niki's work which we got smuggled into and were allowed to sit in the corner drinking whilst they cleaned up. We got home at 4am (I'm too old for this) and all escaped hangovers! YIPPEE

Most of my pics are blurry - surprise surprise! and I didn't take our camera to the actual street party so hope to get some pics off Debra and will add to our album. Although from memory most the pics are of us posing with complete strangers!

All the Very Best for 2008 everyone xo

Work it a little bit

Great news! I have a new temp job working at PricewaterHouse as a team secretary which should take me through to the end of January at least! =) Such a relief to know I've got work as we really need to save save save for our travels in March/April!