I gave a few wee updates to make, and probably a couple posts that I have not been keeping up with but they are on their way. So exciting news is on its way I think!
February has been cold, but surprisingly sunny a lot of the days and we totally lucked out last Sunday with great weather. So I took advantage of my new Royal Zoological Society Pass that I got for my Birthday, and went to the zoo! But I haven't edited the photos for that yet so that will come soon!
So for now I found a wee courtyard just beyond the Writers Museum and snapped so photos hopefully that will tide you over.
I forgot to post this before, and apparently because blogger is on google and I've linked the account google sometimes makes photos out of your photos, so from my previous post about the big wheel, it stitched a couple photos together and came out with this beauty!
So I have been away to Canada the past week and a bit, well I have been back a few days too, but I had a really good visit with some of my friends and most of my family. So I really appreciate all the effort that everyone put in to see me and getting me from one place to another. I did take a bunch of photos while I was there but not really any of the actual places I stayed. I reverted to my non photo taking self. But maybe I have a post in there.
I got to meet my nieces and they are both such awesome wee people. I could probably fill this blog with pictures of them!
But I realised I am quite behind, Hayley and I went to the Christmas market and on the big wheel way back at the start of the month. So I thought I would go back to that and get some of those photos out there.
I have wanted to go on the big wheel ever since I very first moved here, and yet somehow between working and not wanting to go alone, I have never done it. But it turned out to be a gorgeous day for it, and it couldn't have been better. We finished off the day with mulled wine and churos/crepes.
I didn't find my speculass cookies so I will need to try next year!
Hello! Back again this December, I didn't know if I would post again before the year was out. I have been super busy working and my days off have been busy too, so this is the first time I have had a chance to actually sit down and post about what we have been doing.
It was my birthday not long ago now and we had some pretty excellent plans, firstly Dixon was going to make me breakfast, but we went out the night before. And boy were we hungover! So we went out for breakfast! We were planning on trying a new place for it, but they stopped serving breakfast at 12, ridiculous! So we went to an old standby, Pappi, and I of course got waffles! They had their new coffee machine installed now, and the coffee was amazing! I didn't get a photo for you of breakfast but you get the idea if you have seen them before.
After eating I for one felt a whole lot better, I think Dixon was putting on a brave face.
Afterwards we went to The Game Masters Exhibit at the National Museum of Scotland, you got to play everything from original Donkey Kong and Pac Man on the Arcade machines, to The Nintendo 3DS, Computer games like Warcraft and Starcraft, PS2 with Shadow of the Colossus, which I have wanted to play again for ages. All the way to indie games for the iPad, with loads of info about their creation and concept art for some as well. It was really cool!
I was hoping to take a lot of photo as we weren't told you couldn't when we went in and there are no signs posted, but my flash went off and this guy came hovering over and said, "You can't take any photos in here" So I was totally fine with this and said sorry and whatnot. Apparently, I didn't sound sincere enough because he felt the need to come closer and say, "If you take any more I will have to ask you to leave" I don't know if that was necessary, but he wasn't on the job too much when other people were snapping away and he was playing Mario 3 on the SNES.
Anyway that didn't dampen my spirits too much, and I had a lot of fun, though Dixon almost had to drag me away from Sonic 2. And he got me a wee souvenir from the exhibit, a Pac Man ice cube tray!
We did also plan to head down to the Christmas market, and get some Mulled Wine, got ice skating and go on the big wheel, but my hangover had not gone away as much as I though it had when I was in the museum. So we just went for a bit of a walk through and then home again to see Gail Gordon and Hayley.
I have made frequent trips lately to the bookstore, only to notice that Alan Cumming wrote an autobiography, part of which details his experience on Who Do You Think You Are? the British version. Caryn had already recommended watching the episode as she is a bit of a Who Do You Think You Are? addict, so I did because I really wanted to read the book.
Not only that but I found out that he was coming to Edinburgh to have a talk about the book and do a bit of a reading, I really wanted to go. Now I have said before, I am not good at doing things by myself, I really psych myself out of doing loads of things that would probably have been really cool if I only had a few more guts and actually went.
Not this time, I used my fail safe double motivators, I told Dixon and Caryn that I wanted to go, and then they pretty well made sure I got a ticket and went, and I am really glad I did.
Now not to say that I wasn't still awkward, I waited in line, patiently, to get my book signed, I decided to get a wee line below if I could, and when it came to me, I was pretty nervous. Not because I thought he would be mean, I knew he wouldn't, and not because I thought it was silly what I wanted inscribed, I knew it was. But he was really nice when he saw PIFF PAFF POFF, written in pencil just below my neatly written out name. He said hello, and said "its actually just the one 'f'" if I was better armed I could have replied "Oh, dearie me" but I just smiled hugely and thought of wonderful things to talk about but scampered away saying thank you, as the assistant took a couple photos.
Now all of this interaction will make much more sense if you watch The High Life, just go do it now, its brilliant. But at that very least watch the clip below, which explains Pif Paf Pof and in the book there was a piece about the Eurovision Song Contest, which reminded me and had me pif pof pof-ing all week.
On my last day with Caryn and Jackson, we took advantage of the good weather to have a walk down to the shore, and up the River Almond. We had a spot of lunch at the cafe and took pictures of ducks and ponies, classic walk to the shore for me. It's something I like to do with my family when they come over, because its one of my favourite places to go for a walk in Edinburgh! I hope they enjoyed that walk as much as I did.
So that was basically the whole trip of Caryn and Jackson being over, and it was a lot of fun it felt like we got to do a lot of things, but it felt like it was going by really fast.
