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.

21 things to do before I turn 21 - Completed list, and current progress

So back to my list of things to do, to bring it up a bit, and attempt to fill in the remaining gaps.
1) Get into 3rd year at uni (that means no failed years, or semesters)
2) Rent my first flat and get some flatmates
3) Get a decent-paying job to fit around uni, band and OTC commitments (few and far between)
4) Date a guy I like
5) Save up and get that tattoo I've been pining over for years.
6) Make a ball gown from my own design
7) Keep up with my blog here (ie. at least once a week - yell at me if I don't)
8) Learn to shoot safely and well
9) Organise a night out, instead of just going to them
10) Go abroad
11) Take part in a Great Scottish Run
12)Pass an OTC PFA, and every one thereafter (50 sit-ups (2 minutes), 22 press-ups (2 minutes),and a 2.4km run (13 min or less))
13) Learn to ski
14) Learn Reveille, first post, and last post on the bugle
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.
16) Try to keep enough savings to tide me over a few months if I'm broke
17) do what I want and stop caring about rumours/talk from others. Those who matter don't mind and those who mind don't matter.
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.
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.
20) play my fiddle at least once a week, every week, for at least a year.
21) have a super, dooper, birthday party that I will always remember (or not remember, as the case may be)

So progress so far: 1 is going well, as I passed my first semester with first class honours. My sewing is improving for 6. 7 you can see here for yourselves. My plane is in the process of being sorted for 10 for a trip to Switzerland with the band. Im only 40 seconds behind for the run in 12, though the push-ups are a long way off. I have just about nailed the short reveille for 14 if I could get the high note better. 17 is getting easier each day. 20 is going well so far, but I still have to keep it up.

All in all, good progress methinks.
PS, sorry if my jumping around of topics annoys anyone. This is a place to empty my thoughts into, and my head does jumble up and jump around a lot. It can be difficult to calm it down when it want to have four trains of thought going at once. It's the beauty, and annoyance, of multitasking all the time.
Have a good day, everyone. :)



- Posted using BlogPress

Location:Aberdeen University Kings Campus

Monday Again..

And not so bad either. I got up nice and early to go for a roundabout sunrise walk to the post office, to send a little package by special delivery to my mum. I'm always surprised by how much happier I am when I wake up early.
Anyway, I spent the whole weekend near Dundee with the folks from the OTC. The band had pretty much the whole drum corps there, but was rather lacking in pipers. Either way, I got bass and tenor music written out for all but the two tunes we havent got out from the pipers yet.
The plan to do some rifle training didn't quite go to plan, but we will at least hopefully get around to doing all that by the time summer camp, if not spring camp, comes around.
There were two birthday celebrations on saturday night. There would have been three, but one person was not there. Three pints (roughly the amount usually contained in our usual yard glass, which was back at the mess back in Aberdeen) was downed in quick succession by each, as per tradition, and it was all in all a good night, regardless of how tired everyone was. We had a 2 mile run on Saturday morning, but our PFA (physical fitness assessment) was postposed on sunday due to ice. Thank goodness. There were also blizzards reported on facebook by friends, and apparently some problems due to the weather in London.

So I have a poem with regards to the cold weather. The past month or so, I have heard of many reports of flowers and animals coming out for spring early, thanks to the better weather this winter. Unfortunately these animals and flowers are often very succeptible to sudden bad weather. Most spring-times, a blizzard can cause a lot of trouble for the young animals, expecially the lambs, and last year was no exception, so here I have a poem, inspired by their struggle:

THE LAMBING FALLS (by Me)

The freshness of the new grass;
An avalanche on the senses.
The sights,
Smells,
Sounds,
Of spring.
The strange,
Though not unpleasant smells
Of ivy
Climbing up stone
Into the soft sunlight
Dancing in streamers
Between the clouds.
The ewes are lambing,
And little bleatings of joy
Are in the air.
Then once again the sky falls,
In little white tufts,
On the land of hope,
Turned fear.
And another fight against nature begins.

A long while later,
As the sky lightens
And colours to blue,
The survivors appear.
Shivvery lambs enjoy the grass once more,
And fresh sprigs appear above the whiteness,
Happy,
Sad,
Cold
But strong;
The survivors of the lambing falls-
The spring snowstorm.

So, now I'm back home and contemplating a gym membership. Students at my university get cut prices, so it works out well. The plan is to increase my stamina, my upper body strength (and learn to do 25 push-ups by this time next year - I can currently do one, if you're lucky), and hopefully, my flexibility.

I read an article today about a woman trying to do 23 things before her 23rd birthday, in memory of her brother, and I think its an amazing idea. I would like to think I could try to do 19 things before my 19th birthday, but with uni, band etc, etc. I think timing and money are issues for me. So, I have decided to try to do 21 things before my 21st birthday. Here's my list:
1) Get into 3rd year at uni (that means no failed years, or semesters)
2) Rent my first flat and get some flatmates
3) Get a decent-paying job to fit around uni, band and OTC commitments (few and far between)
4) Date a guy I like
5) Save up and get that tattoo I've been pining over for years.
6) Make a ball gown from my own design
7) Keep up with my blog here (ie. at least once a week - yell at me if I don't)
8) Learn to shoot safely and well
9) Organise a night out, instead of just going to them
10) Go abroad
11) Take part in a Great Scottish Run
12)  Pass an OTC PFA, and every one thereafter (50 sit-ups (2 minutes), 22 press-ups (2 minutes), and a 2.4km run (11 min or less))
13) Learn to ski
14) Learn Reveille, first post, and last post on the bugle
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.
16)...
I'm out of ideas for the moment. I'll update again once I think of more things I would love to do.

PS. sorry for the ultra-long post