A Night out with Some Grown-Ups

Second book club tonight. I'm very glad i joined this book club. Well i say book club, its more of a gossip-and-good-food-and-occasionally-we-mention-a-good-book club. Which is, of course, perfect. I have to admit, its a bit like what i imagine going out with my mums friends would be like, but they are all lovely, don't make me feel too young and thats all that matters. I think i can play at being a mature young person for a few hours a month, and i think i have them fooled! 

Tonight was all about the second Millennium Trilogy book (a bit melodramatic but enjoyable), Janets cakes (not melodramatic at all and very enjoyable!) and Holidays in Cuba and Denmark (sometimes a bit of both!). All in all a very good night. I have far too many books to read now, but we shall see if i can get through at least this months book, A Gathering Light by Jennifer Donnelly.

A small Fiona rant concerning alcohol...

UUURRRGHH. For those of you woundering why i gave up drinking for 5 years this is (mostly)why. In truth this is why, when i woke up one morning and said "im never drinking again", it stuck for so long. I had 4 beers tonight, 2 of which were Bud 66 which is basically watered down American piss, and now i am lying in bed with a headache and feeling sick. This is so ridiculous. I even had a full dinner!! Argh! I just should not drink, its just not worth the effort.

On the plus side, i have had an amazing birthday weekend. Bacon rolls for breakfast, with a strange side-order of furniture building was excellent fun. I'm only a little bit sorry I woke Joni up at half past 7 on a Sat morning. Thank you to everyone else for my excellent birthday presents. I am particularly looking forward to a bit of a shopping trip in Dundee on Friday to spend my vouchers, thanks to Jim and Irene.

Then my Mum and Dad showing up in Edinburgh was so brilliant! It was a shame Amicus Apple had no power, but we got to go to Hendersons instead and found out my Dad has been going there since he was a student!! (and i won't tell you what year that was, but it was a long time ago!!). And Dad persuaded us to go to the Dynamic Earth exhibition, which was really fun.

And on top of all that, I then got to have home-made birthday cake and post-work drinks with my work mates tonight. Totally wonderful. We have to do that more often.

So thank you to everyone who has made my birthday excellent, its been really special.

"You're nude in the Telegraph dear... Can you pass the bacon?"

First day of house sitting for Louise today, such fun! In fact, it actually was. We had the bunny's running around the living room, they are very cute. For a short while i even thought i might want one. Then i remembered eventually you have to start cleaning up their poop, and went back to wanting a kitten. So we shut everyone safely back in their cages, with some veg and some food. All safe and happy.

Tomorrow in my birthday. It feels quite strange to be having a birthday without my family or so many of my friends. Hopefully it will be a good one. I think i might go a bit facebook-mad, so mum can keep up with my celebrations. I will definitely miss everyone tomorrow, but hopefully not too much.

Time to go to sleep, because then it will be tomorrow, and then it will be my birthday, YAY!

Dust, Dust, Glorious Dust....

Building work in the flat continued in earnest today. The wall and the ceiling have been taken down properly now, generating a huge amount of dust all over our house! Here is a picture of Joni climbing through from our kitchen into our spare room.

Very exciting, but I'm really glad Louise is letting us borrow her kitchen while she is away for the next 10 days. Cooking amongst all that dust would just be horrible.

This weekend could involve a lot of cleaning although its hard to see the point while the work is still going on. Hopefully next week will just be rebuilding the wall and kitchen so much less dusty.

In a much, much brighter note the sun is shining in St Andrews, hurray! Its amazing the difference a little sunshine can make. Iv been wearing my lighter winter coat and today, no scarf!! I even opened the window in the office today which was rather nice as it was beginning to smell like scientist in there. Everything looks brighter with a hint of spring in the air. I even saw a pheasant today on my way home.

Tomorrow is Friday, then its night time again, and then its MY BIRTHDAY!!! EEEEEEEEEE excited!

"Can't you just relax?"

"Can't you just relax!?" was Joni's lament at me across the sofa, as as soon as The Wonders of the Universe finished (Such a good show) and i decided i should blog something. I guess the answer is no, i can't really just relax any more, i'm not sure i know how. Is this sad? Or is it just cliché?

Anyway, came home early from uni today to find builders moving lots of builders things into our hallway. Nice guys, helped them a bit. I feel this means i can now claim i fixed our flat. Builders think our kitchen should be in working order again by the end of next week, so fingers crossed!

I would like to point out that since im not talking to him, Joni is watching a TV show so bad he won't let me say what it it is. And it is bad.

Just in case i wasn't egotistical enough...

....I have decided to write a blog all about me, yay! Im not quite sure why i have suddenly decided to write a blog, i have no idea how long i will keep feeling like writing a blog, and i have no idea why anyone would want to read it. 


I have called this new adventure "becoming a grown up" and this is why. 9 months ago i graduated from my undergraduate degree, and in American films, this is always the point where people suddenly become adults and go out into the real world to be like real people. So in a (fairly successful) attempt to avoid this I moved to Scotland and started a PhD instead. I dragged my boyfriend, Joni, with me, and so far we are doing a very good job of not being grown ups. 


In the first 6 months of a new project all sorts of things have to happen. You have to meet lots of new people (check), accidentally convince your supervisor you are a complete idiot (check). You have to find a nice place to live (Check - although its under reconstruction at this point, more about that later), You have to explore the surrounding area (Check, it didn't take long!), and you have to find your new favourite pub, restaurant, take-away and coffee shop, all of which im working on.


Hopefully this blog will be interesting, maybe a little bit funny, maybe a little bit sad. Mostly hopefully it will keep a nice record of all the things im up to, so any of my friends from home whom i should txt/call/facebook/write to more often, who still care, can see what im up to up here is wee bonny Scotland.