Ten years ago today my sister and and I arrived in Edinburgh. My first week was spent whinging about the £1 = $2.60 exchange rate*, drooling over men in kilts on Princes Street (sadly not a regular occurrence; just rugby fans), grumbling about the snoring dude in the youth hostel, searching for work and accommodation, swooning at the Read More
Signs of spring in the Valleyfield Wood.
Last Friday was Burns Night, the annual celebration of the life Scots poet Rabbie Burns in which folk gather to eat haggis, neeps and tatties, washed down with poems and whisky. Gareth and I had been invited to a proper Burns Supper but were both rotten with the cold, so it was haggis at home. Read More
“I cocked up the cake!” “What?” Gareth staggered in from an evening bike ride to find me flapping around the kitchen with oven gloves on. “The passionfruit slice! I left it in the oven too long and it’s all burnt at the edges! And I don’t have enough ingredients to make another!” “What are you Read More
In the summer we went to Edinburgh to see a screening of The Killing II, the Danish thriller I was obsessed with all year. They were screening the first episode of series two at the Filmhouse as part of the Television Festival. As a very special bonus Sarah Lund herself was present for a Q & Read More
Last night was Census night in Australia and some of my pals back home were amused that the online form had an option to post to Twitter that you’d completed it. Equally thrilling, I submitted our electricity meter reading on the phone and was invited to Share it on Facebook: I don’t know what to Read More
Happy Australia Day! I nicked this idea from the lovely Kathryn in Japan. Friends and family, derr. Hamburgers with the lot Mint Slice biscuits Proper thunderstorms Cafés that have great breakfasts* and open late** Dogs on the back of utes (especially brown kelpies with golden eyebrows) Chocolate thickshakes Sprawling starry skies, best viewed from a Read More
“Excuse me, is there a bathroom I can use?” The lady behind the till rolled her eyes at me. “It’s doon there.” Doon there was 40 metres underground. We were at Scotland’s Secret Bunker, one of Scotland’s best kept tourist secrets. “So you’ll just have to wait,” she concluded, holding her hand out for the Read More
NB: Neep = turnip, traditional accompaniment for haggis. (Proper post with words on Monday!)
