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

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.

Time in Basel

Long time no see. Yet again! I need to start making time again. Anyway, recently I've been away at the Basel tattoo. (Ok, I've been home about a week now, but I've been catching up on sleep and other essential stuff at home) Anyway, despite everyone getting ill at some point, being pushed to our limits in the heat of a foreign country, and myself just more generally feeling down (for reasons I would prefer not to disclose lest people I know read this blog), it was a brilliant trip. The first two days were spent rehearsing on home soil, and travelling, then the second three were rehearsals in the city of Basel. There were two dress rehearsals, with an audience before we launched into our 2-shows-a-day routine.
The night after the first show was as good as expected. A live band played every night, and sometimes 2 or three played. The band on the first night seemed very good, and with the help of a "happy hour" of free beer and wine, the night passed very quickly and very well. It was a great night, for many reasons.
Other nights varied, depending on the plan for the next day, the quality of the bands playing, and the mood or tiredness of the members of the band population. I would guess I went out  maybe every second night or so, whilst others barely had a sober moment, and others still barely stayed out with the exception of the first and last night (when I don't think there was a sober person in the whole place).
I think I've met some decently good friends. Those from near home I'm glad to have met, and will likely see some of them again at some point, as is the nature of the pipe band world. Those from abroad, I was more sad to see go, and hope that someday, some of us will meet again. Perhaps if we ever end up at another tattoo, or concert, or competition or something. I'm hopeful - the band world seem decently well connected. Until then, there's just Facebook.
One band that was there was the Transvaal Scottish Pipes and Drums. If only I had had one of our spare Atholl Highlanders badges. With their connections, I'm sure one of them would have appreciated it. Perhaps I could post one to the band In either case, I acquired a collar-dog and cap badge from one of them (in exchange for a piece or two of my own, of course).


Anyway, as tired as we were and glad that it was finished, it was such great fun, that at the same time we were sad to go, and leave behind all that we had seen and met there.


Tomorrow, I'm off to a wedding party, though I don't currently have a place to stay, so might need to leave early (unless I can stay on a friends couch, but the vast majority of them are in the process of moving in or out of flats at the moment - well it is that time of year, when people have just graduated/changed years/moved out of halls, etc.).
Then its a week of tidying and packing up myself, before a week in Glasgow for piping live, then Dads retirement 'do, then its move-in time for my own new flat. Jeez time flies. We'll see how much time I have to update here, but as you can imaging with moving out, I'm going to guess it will likely be quite busy

It's been a while!

I believe it's been over a month since my last post, and a lot has happened in that time. I got through all my exams and passed them all with As all round. I've been to annual camp with the OTC in a sort of battle against Glasgow, although I hurt my ankle and had to miss out some parts of the exercise. It's been a couple of weeks since the injury, and it's still niggling me, so I think I need to make a visit to the doctor. I was only discharged from the orthotic clinic a year or two ago, as well. It will have to wait though, because I'm off to Switzerland soon with the band. I know - another dip in my posts probably, because I won't be using the Internet unless I can find wifi somewhere. Unlikely as it is, we will just have to wait and see. Looking forward to getting paid too. Both for camp, so that I have money to take to Switzerland, and for playing with the band in Switzerland itself, especially as my savings took a bit of a hit while I was away at camp. That's what happens when you're away for a full two weeks with the OTC. Too many bar-nights and McDonalds lunches.
Anyway, I have a few post drafts in the works now, but I find myself running out of words halfway through. I'll try and get some finished up and give you something decent to read for a change. If I get some wifi in the airport or something, I'll chuck something up if I can.
Happy summer holidays to everyone who is on them, happy summer to everyone still working, and good day to anyone reading this on the other side of the globe.
Song of the day: Walking on Sunshine, by Katrina and the Waves

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Argh! Exams!

I hate exams. Sure, as far as revising goes they're probably one of the better sets of exams I've had, maybe something to do with only having 3, rather than the 8 we had in standard grade, or the 5 at higher. Sure it's harder content, but more of it is related. I have less unrelated subjects flying around my head all at once. Biomed crosses over into chemistry so much, and psychology crosses over too, especially in the anatomy and chemical workings of the brain.
Still, I'm freaking out slightly (who doesn't on exam week), although much less so now my first exam is over. I think I did better than I expected.
What I am not enjoying, however, is being stuck inside on these glorious days of sun. I have been revising outside when I can, but my exams are all in the middle of the day, so we miss the best sunshine, when its warm enough to ignore the east coast wind off the ocean.
Perhaps it's also a good thing though, to keep me out of the sun. The main problem is that wind off the water means you don't notice the bright sun as much. It's really easy to get sunburnt if you're not careful. Having been burnt 4 times in as many months in Scotland, I'm trying to keep covered up. I don't know what I'm going to do at summer camp or our Switzerland trip, though. I think the SPF 50, UVA/UVB protection sun cream will be coming out, and it, along with my aloe vera might just stay with me the whole time.
Anyway, two more days and exams, and first year are over. Then I just have to get down to packing, washing the place up in readiness to move out, and bulling my brogues for next week.

See you all when this stress is all over.


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Location:Bedford Rd,Aberdeen,United Kingdom

So it's getting stressful here..

With exams around the corner, it's difficult to relax much. I don't believe you've had a poem from me for a good few months now. I read through the Hunger Games book in 5 hours flat, barely setting it down (reading is one of my "wind down" hobbies) and decided that perhaps reading should wait until after exams when I can read all the fiction I like without the prospect of textbooks on the shelf making me feel guilty. (BTW, in case you don't know already, the Hunger Games is brilliant - need to see the movie now, but that will also wait)
My brother was barely out of hospital a full day when he was readmitted, and now he's discharged again, with daily checks at the warfarin clinic, and an increase on his meds. We'll see how he is in the morning. I relaxed by making another batch of tablet, which I must remember to share out at the OTC on tuesday.
I don't have much other news I'm afraid. My mind is whizzing too much to remember the vaguely interesting stuff from the boring guff.
I have the Scottish Pipe Band Championships in a weeks time, so I'll hopefully remember to update you on that, if I don't update before. I'll try though. Blogging is almost a stress relief in itself, really.


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Location:Burrelton, United Kingdom

Ramblings: I can't deal with scientific inaccuracies...

Really, I can't. It's on a par with my inner spelling- and grammar-nazi. I can not copy out lecture notes without correcting all the spelling mistakes and incorrect grammar I notice. Neither can I write lecture notes without adding asterisks and arrows with references and inconsistencies between different subjects.
I remember getting the distinct impression my music teacher at school hated me when we came to the Scottish section, because I had grown up surrounded in the music and was adamant she was teaching us wrong, when in fact it was just being vastly oversimplified. I remember fuming at being told that a march was a jig, because it was in a 6/8 time signature, and jigs were 6/8s. (except the problem with the analogy is that jigs can be in any compound-time, and marches can be 6/8s too)

I'm not vain. Really I'm not. I know I'm not right all the time. In fact very little of the time. There is a great deal I don't know. I make mistakes here, on my own blog. I only change my own lecture notes, I only fume silently in my own head (and now, apparently, here), and I try to avoid conflict about it. But I'm not sure where the line starts or ends. I like people pointing out my mistakes, because I can fix it and there's one less on the page, but other people may take offence if I were to tell them.

Anyway, this particular reference happened to occur just a few hours ago. It was in reference to "ketones" or rather, as it was meant to be, " ketone bodies". Basically the problem with mixing them up is that they are different things. Ketones are derived from oxidation of a secondary alcohol. Ketone bodies are triglycerides. Well it was in reference to a "carb free diet" so I was hesitant to say anything, also knowing full well that both ketones and ketone bodies are, technically, carbohydrates.
Really, had the tone of the article not been rather derogatory, I probably wouldn't ordinarily have become so annoyed. After all, it is a widely accepted phrase. Usually it's easy to brush it off without a thought.

I'm going straight to sleep when I get back. I likely will have forgotten in the morning and more than likely hating myself for some silly mistake in my essay. As much as I'm ranting, I do make mistakes too.

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Location:Meston Walk,Aberdeen,United Kingdom

Sorry Y'all

I know I've been away. It's been a bit of a busy time lately. My brother went into hospital last week and I wasn't exactly in the mood to be posting here. Anyway, he appears to slowly be getting better which is good.
So, in other news, I was at the sports club dinner on Thursday. I had been feeling ill all day, so it was hard to eat much. It was a very good night though.
I have one last week of lectures left, then it's exam time.
I got a ball gown in a charity for £20 and with a little bit of work on my sewing machine it's turned out perfect.
Other than that I have very little news.
See you all again soon :)

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My blog has a new look!

Yes, I'm making use of Bloggers new design system, and giving my blog a new coat of paint. Like or not? Let me know what you think.

Ramblings: Collecting instruments

So the other day, my friend told me she was buying a cheap violin she found on eBay. (How cheap, or worth it, it is, is as yet unknown to me. You never know with eBay auctions. It could be an undiscovered gem, or totally useless) Upon a whim the decision was made that she would learn to play on this instrument, having never picked one up in her life before. Each to their own...
One of my other friends (who rather has a perfectly good excuse, being at university to study music) has found herself gaining more and more instruments in her little room at the halls. From what I gather, she currently has all her percussion stuff, a stand-up electric piano (her 18th birthday present), a bugle, an oboe, and various other bits and bobs.
Mind you, I can't talk either. I currently have a clarinet, a violin, a bugle, tenor sticks, and bass sticks in my little room. I can only be glad that singing requires no instrument, and that other people look after the drums. I have four that I play spread across the country, mostly staying with other band members/in a store where we practice. Dad also gave me a bagpipe chanter. It seems to be a common trait among musicians to constantly attempt to play, and own, more and more instruments. You would think I would know by now, especially as it is hard enough to keep a regular practice schedule with my main 3. Yeesh. I guess inside I just hope to one day be able to pick up pretty much anything and play something, anything, at a decent standard. Ah well, I'll never understand it myself, so I don't know how to explain. For now, my friends and I will plod on and share our musical silliness with each other.
Maybe someday I will share some musicians silliness, but it might take a bit of editing to make it publishable ;) certainly most of our songs are far from tame, and even some of the most well taught comrades can never quite out-sing the band. To quote a friend of mine with similar roots and band-times: Many's a time I have sat on a train or bus listening to a bunch of men singing football songs, with a wry smile on my face, knowing that, if I could be @r$ed, I could totally out-coorse them with some of the songs I know.
And really, that is the truth of the matter. We're slowly encapsulating our comrades in arms on nights out too, so things are just getting more-so like that. With more people singing drunkenly in the bar, it can get interesting very quickly, especially with some of the made-up verses.
Anyway, I'm totally off topic now. Doesnt matter. See you soon.

PS. For those who don't know, "coorse" is a Scottish word, generally taken to mean, rude or bad. Hence out-coorse, in this sense, means to be worse than they are in terms of singing rude songs. Yeah, things might need heavily edited if I ever get around to giving you the band-banter.

Again, see you soon :)

Location:Meston Walk,,United Kingdom