i've been living in Glasgow for 4 months....4 MONTHS!!!....and these are the first pictures i've been able to take since i've been here. That fact just makes me want to cry. The moment i got here, my camera broke and until a few days ago I had given up hope on it's revival. It still "works" fine and takes pictures, but the screws that hold it together have all fallen out, so basically you just have to hold the camera together, and take a picture and it works! Oh well, at least I was able to capture some moments of my friend Waynes visit to Glasgow. Wayne and I are long-time friends! :) We met 6 years ago in London while Lauren, Whitney and I took a trip to Europe just before I went off to college. He's originally from South Africa but for the last 3 years he's lived in London and the last few trips I've taken over the pond I've been able to visit him. He even came over a few years ago to Seattle and visited me and Lauren! This weekend was a short trip for him due to work but we made the best of it. From drinks out with friends at Brel, a favorite Ashton Lane pub of mine, to sightseeing and being touristy all day long on Saturday. We walked from one end of the city and back - never missing a spot in between - and ended up watching Rugby. Scotland got their butts beat sooo badly, but so did England, so all is fair in the United Kingdom. Saturday night it was off to a Cuban street party where we were on the guest list- which meant complimentary drinks! :) There were cuban dancers, great bands and a famous cuban cigar roller flown in from Havana to roll cigars all night long. It was alot of fun dancing to cuban music and sipping our mohitos! Here are some pictures I took of our weekend sightseeing....
....wayne and I outside Kelvingrove Museum (sorry, you can't see the museum. My arms not long enough.)
...me on top of the Lighthouse, Scotlands center for architecture and the designs of Charles Rennie Mackintosh
....the view of Glasgow city centre from the Lighthouse
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Monday, February 12, 2007
new loves...
new love #1: Rugby
Currently the Six Nations Rugby Tournament is going on all over Europe i couldn't help but not get into it. As an American, where rugby is such a foreign sport, i knew very little about it. I didn't even know that after the man with the ball was tackled, the game keeps going and they basically rip and tug and pull at each other until the ball's free. It's good fun seeing those boys get all dirty and bloody- no padding mind you! That's a true sport! I don't know what American football fans think they're watching - a bunch a big guys with PADDING running 5 yards then falling, 5 more yards then falling, then maybe 15 more. So what the Six Nations is all about is Scotland, Ireland, France, Italy, England, and Wales will play each other twice, once at home and once away. This last weekend I sat at the pub with my friend Becs, my Rugby guru, for about 5 hours watching England v. Wales and Scotland v. Italy. Scotland WON!! :) In order to keep our seat in a crowded pub we had keep ordering drinks and food so we had a 3 course meal with dessert and drinks! It was good fun!
new love #2: grocery shopping:
I have my cool, eco-friendly, canvas bag that I fill up with my fruits and veg, yogurt, porridge oats and muesli and other nibbly bits and it never cost more than like 10 pounds or so. Such a good deal for organic! I also have loved shopping every few days or so. I'm buying fresher foods and alot more fruit and veg. I think I'm eating alot better since I've lived in Glasgow - besides the endless coffee and occasional, not nearly as many as before, cakes and pastries from work. hehe. ;)
Currently the Six Nations Rugby Tournament is going on all over Europe i couldn't help but not get into it. As an American, where rugby is such a foreign sport, i knew very little about it. I didn't even know that after the man with the ball was tackled, the game keeps going and they basically rip and tug and pull at each other until the ball's free. It's good fun seeing those boys get all dirty and bloody- no padding mind you! That's a true sport! I don't know what American football fans think they're watching - a bunch a big guys with PADDING running 5 yards then falling, 5 more yards then falling, then maybe 15 more. So what the Six Nations is all about is Scotland, Ireland, France, Italy, England, and Wales will play each other twice, once at home and once away. This last weekend I sat at the pub with my friend Becs, my Rugby guru, for about 5 hours watching England v. Wales and Scotland v. Italy. Scotland WON!! :) In order to keep our seat in a crowded pub we had keep ordering drinks and food so we had a 3 course meal with dessert and drinks! It was good fun!
new love #2: grocery shopping:
I have my cool, eco-friendly, canvas bag that I fill up with my fruits and veg, yogurt, porridge oats and muesli and other nibbly bits and it never cost more than like 10 pounds or so. Such a good deal for organic! I also have loved shopping every few days or so. I'm buying fresher foods and alot more fruit and veg. I think I'm eating alot better since I've lived in Glasgow - besides the endless coffee and occasional, not nearly as many as before, cakes and pastries from work. hehe. ;)
Thursday, January 25, 2007
just like Madonna sang...we all need a HOLIDAY!
ok, i need your help!!
For my birthday in a couple months (March 28) I am taking a week's paid holiday to the destination of my choice and I don't know where to go!! I want to get a tan (this girl needs one badly) and go to a place I've never been. here are a few options...let me know where you think i should go, or if you've been to any of these places and you have comments! :)
- Spain: Barcelona, Seville, Madrid, or Toledo
- France: southern beaches like Marseille
- Greece: Mykonos, Athens
- Italy: Tuscany
told you I am having trouble decieding! There are so many great places to go in Europe, and I'll only have a week.
For my birthday in a couple months (March 28) I am taking a week's paid holiday to the destination of my choice and I don't know where to go!! I want to get a tan (this girl needs one badly) and go to a place I've never been. here are a few options...let me know where you think i should go, or if you've been to any of these places and you have comments! :)
- Spain: Barcelona, Seville, Madrid, or Toledo
- France: southern beaches like Marseille
- Greece: Mykonos, Athens
- Italy: Tuscany
told you I am having trouble decieding! There are so many great places to go in Europe, and I'll only have a week.
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
So if writing in my blog and sharing info with all of you is the internet equivilent to getting together for coffee then I am fashionably late. :) Sorry about that but life has taken over here and it seems I have fewer and fewer days where I am bored and deciede to go sit at a internet cafe. That's a good thing, right!? If I'm not working 5 days a week, then I'm at the cinema, browsing in town (i have no money to shop, so i just browse) or enjoying a pint or a coffee with friends. The weather hasn't been that bad lately either so I've enjoyed some nice walks around. Some films I've seen at the cinema lately that I highly recoment seeing are "The Holiday" with Jude Law and Cameron Diaz. Such a cute film by the writer of Something's Gotta Give and Father of the Bride, Nancy Meyers never dissapoints me. This last week i've seen "The Last King of Scotland" and "Pan's Labrinyth". "The Last King of Scotland" is based on a true story of the brutal Ugandan dictator Idi Amin's regime. It's a bit gorey at times but has a captivating story line. Pan's Labrinyth was a film I didn't innitially want to go see, but after reading rave reviews about it, and having the company of Kevin, I decieded to give it a shot...and I'm so glad I did. It's in Spanish so the subtitles intrigued me from the very beginning. (My favorite film is "Life is Beautiful" so any film with subtitles I give a shot.) It's a dark fairytale set against the Postwar repression in Spain. If you loved fairytales as a kid, i would recomend this "older fairytale" to anyone.
Other than the occasional film, I've been at work, which has been good. It became aparent to me today that my first couple months working at the cafe has flown by because not only do i know everything to do there and rarely need anyone to tell me what to do, but today I trained someone. I remember when i was a "newbie" there and struggled with things that are ingrained into my mind now. It's nice to have adapted so well. Some exciting things have been happening there lately as well! Working in the tinderbox is the British equivilent to working at the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf on Santa Monica Boulevard I would think....today alone i served Malcolm Middleton (lead singer of Arab Strap - hugely famous Scottish band over here) and Gary Lightbody (lead singer of the band Snow Patrol - hugely famous band EVERYWHERE). A week ago Robert Carlyle( famous Scottish actor) came in, but supposedly he comes in all the time because he lives around the corner. Along with famous footballers, rugby players and other british sports elite (most of whom i do not recognize at all) it's the best place in Glasgow to see and be seen.
Also, we're supposed to have a monthly mix cd with about 90 songs on it that plays on repeat in the shop, but the "october mix" had been playing until about....umm, yesterday! Thank God we got a new one because it was becoming really hard to listen the same songs over and over and know what's coming next. The new mix is great because it has The Cure's "Just Like Heaven" song on it and that's one of my all time favorite songs. Kinda cheesy...yes, but I can't help but dance around when that song comes on.
This is my first blog after the new year so happy new year to everyone! I hope you haven't broken too many resolutions yet. I usually do because as long as I can remember, my resolution has been to "work out on a daily or weekly basis" but here i am, making that my resolutions again! oh well. My resolutions are also to read the newspaper more, eat breakfast every morning and a few other random things that come to my mind daily. So far I've read alot and I've also been really good at waking up a bit earlier to have breakfast. The pooridge oats (oatmeal) they have here are incredible and the organic fruit is as well, so it's worth it to wake up with a yummy breakfast. I've also started drinking more green tea as well because I heard it's good with your digestion, skin, body, and over all health. I drink about 3 or 4 cups of tea a day so it hasn't been hard to incorporate green tea into that system.
the weather is changing here...less rain, more wind, and chillier nights, but i don't mind. It suits me. I have this coming saturday off so I'm looking forward to a walk through the park with a warm coffee in hand. So until then my friends....
Other than the occasional film, I've been at work, which has been good. It became aparent to me today that my first couple months working at the cafe has flown by because not only do i know everything to do there and rarely need anyone to tell me what to do, but today I trained someone. I remember when i was a "newbie" there and struggled with things that are ingrained into my mind now. It's nice to have adapted so well. Some exciting things have been happening there lately as well! Working in the tinderbox is the British equivilent to working at the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf on Santa Monica Boulevard I would think....today alone i served Malcolm Middleton (lead singer of Arab Strap - hugely famous Scottish band over here) and Gary Lightbody (lead singer of the band Snow Patrol - hugely famous band EVERYWHERE). A week ago Robert Carlyle( famous Scottish actor) came in, but supposedly he comes in all the time because he lives around the corner. Along with famous footballers, rugby players and other british sports elite (most of whom i do not recognize at all) it's the best place in Glasgow to see and be seen.
Also, we're supposed to have a monthly mix cd with about 90 songs on it that plays on repeat in the shop, but the "october mix" had been playing until about....umm, yesterday! Thank God we got a new one because it was becoming really hard to listen the same songs over and over and know what's coming next. The new mix is great because it has The Cure's "Just Like Heaven" song on it and that's one of my all time favorite songs. Kinda cheesy...yes, but I can't help but dance around when that song comes on.
This is my first blog after the new year so happy new year to everyone! I hope you haven't broken too many resolutions yet. I usually do because as long as I can remember, my resolution has been to "work out on a daily or weekly basis" but here i am, making that my resolutions again! oh well. My resolutions are also to read the newspaper more, eat breakfast every morning and a few other random things that come to my mind daily. So far I've read alot and I've also been really good at waking up a bit earlier to have breakfast. The pooridge oats (oatmeal) they have here are incredible and the organic fruit is as well, so it's worth it to wake up with a yummy breakfast. I've also started drinking more green tea as well because I heard it's good with your digestion, skin, body, and over all health. I drink about 3 or 4 cups of tea a day so it hasn't been hard to incorporate green tea into that system.
the weather is changing here...less rain, more wind, and chillier nights, but i don't mind. It suits me. I have this coming saturday off so I'm looking forward to a walk through the park with a warm coffee in hand. So until then my friends....
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