1 a girl with wanderlust

Saturday, July 12, 2008

New flat

We just bought a new flat!! It's all come together and it's very exciting...Edinburgh here we come. It's near the Royal Mile - I wonder if you recognise it from the photo? (okay - reality check: it's in the Shandon area) so it's good for me and Uni and it's good for Z and the bypass. It looks out onto a park and it's walkable into town. It's great!
Will be moving through on August 15th, so watch out for house warming details....

Tuesday, July 01, 2008

Smelly party


Well the engagement/welcome back to Glasgow/we're leaving Glasgow party went down pretty well on Saturday night, even if it was probably the smelliest party ever hosted. No, nothing to do with us...more the theme of the evening - cheese and wine! We were treated to some delicious and stinky cheese and some very tasty wine. Good chance to try out lots of new flavours and indulge my two favourite things in life. Yum. Can't wait till the next one, but may go a bit easier on the cheese....maybe just chedder with picked onions on toothpicks in future :)Was great to see everyone again too and we were all on fine form. Will miss the Glasvegas 'party' scene, but there's bound to be something going on in the Burg.

On a side note; the house hunting has pretty much come to a standstill. We made an offer on a place which was turned down and now I think it probably looks like a better bet to just wait it out for a while and let the prices come down even more. Back to renting then...

Congratulations!

Congratulations go out to Sera and Tevfik who had a healthy baby boy very early on Sunday morning. Great news!!! Well done that girl. Can't wait to catch up with the family in July. So weird....babies....:)

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Sexual, irrisistable


Not sure what that title's about, but I'm in one of my wifi spots using someone else's internet connection and Take That happens to be on, hence the title....

What's new? Well we've been flogging the dead horse of looking for a place in Edinburgh. Mostly me on my own as Zain is working insania-shifts (oh the joys of Doctor-dom) Yes, there's lots on the market and as buyers we are in a fairly good position, but a lot of the stuff on offer is pure dead rubbish. People bought during the hype and now their trying to flog on their terrible purchase. We've spotted a goodun though and have been in 'negotiations'. Not sure if anything will come of it, even although I am using the force like there is no tomorrow. Oh well, we won't be destitue, most likely have to end up renting. Back to the good old non-responsibiltiy days.

Still at my boring job, keeping the wolf from the door and that's about it. Not able to support my nail art habit :(

Pleased to be catching up with people and slotting back into life.

Getting excited about going back to University. Bring on student discounts and a genuine reason to watch day time TV (I jest! but not about the discounts - cheapskate!)

Loving Yoga and being a good early morning bunny.

Hating the rain, but looking forward to the drier East coast.

Monday, June 09, 2008

The catch up

I know, it's been forever - where have I been?!
Mostly I've been on family holidays which has been pretty sweet (Puerta Banus and Kelso in case you were wondering), but frustrating at times since Z and I have so much to do! We've managed to sell our flat which is a weight off our minds, but we still have to find something in Edinburgh. We were through yesterday and had a look at a few places (those that had actually bothered to turn up for open house viewings - annoying!) and there was only 1 that caught our fancy. When Z got into work this morning he found a phone call on his answering machine from the estate agent in the Burg saying that the flat was going to a closing date on Wednesday. It's not even been on the market a week. Hrmfff. They say the market is slowing down, but that seems pretty damn quick to me...oh well, you live and learn.

I'm back at work too. I officially have THE most boring job in the world. Thankfully the 2 guys I work with weren't in the office today, so I had a bit of a lazy-ease-myself-back-into-work day which was nice. However....the boredom is NEVER going to go away, so I really have to do something about that.

What else?? Oh yes! T IN THE PARK My brother has 4 full weekend, with camping (from the Thursday night I think),tickets that he wants to sell. He'd like £220 for each. He's off to sun himself and get aquainted with the Ameritskies this summer like his big sisters before him...ahh, so much fun to be had.

Till the next mammoth time gap...

Monday, April 28, 2008

And the beat goes on....

I've been back in the homeland for just over a week now (apologies for those who haven't heard from me - I am still tired and trying to get on top of my newly found food consumption mmmmmmm pizza anyone?) and at the end of this week I move back to Glasgow town. Will be strange to be back where I started, but I can't wait to be back in city life; I realised when I was away that I am SO not a country girl and I suppose at least that is a good thing to know. So Zain and I will have 3 months to make the most of the West and then we are off to the East.
In that time we have to:
Sort the flat
Sell the flat
Source and buy a new flat
Get a job
Plan a wedding
Have a life....pretty much in that order too. Therefore, if you catch me feeling stressed, bear with me. Ta.

Looking forward to catching up with y'all.

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Ashram life is over

I've finished. It's over. I'm a qualified yoga teacher.

I can't believe that this long month has finished. I've surprised myself that I got through it in one piece without having a major breakdown or breakout-self-combustion. I've found it transformational, frustrating, physically and mentally challenging, fun, sad, laughable, tearful, sore on my body, good for my body, ridiculous, touching and so much more. It's going to take me a while to get over it and figure out what really happened back there at the ashram, but it's fair to say that I'm now a yoga 'teacher' and I'll be boring you all with yoga/ashram stories for the next few months (there's even potential for YEARS worth of dinner party stories) so get the invites rolling in....I can't wait to share them with you.

Only 36 hours to go until I'm on the plane and returning to Scotland for the first time in almost 18 months. It's exciting and slightly apprehensive at the same time. Bring on the cold weather though - it's all I've thought of for the last 30 days or so...sweating when you sleep is no fun at all!!!

On that note, Hari Om Tat Sat and may Shanti be with you.

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Ashram life - week 3

Today I am tired and hungry and thereby pissed off. Another morning of waking up at 5am. Mostly for the last 2 weeks this fact hasn't really been bothering me, but I just needed a lie in today. I have been sooooooooooooooo mega busy with the physical classes, teaching, doing exams and doing suryanamaskars (sun salutations and 108 to be precise. 108 is an auspicious number and no doubt I am going to be blessed with beautiful children or something of the like as my just reward), that there just isn't a moment to not do anything, plus the heat is totally oppressive.

So what's been happening this week:
- more singing and omming
- less food eating (breakfast is getting so dire that I've stopped eating it. Just isn't worth while)
- more difficult yoga - balancing your whole body weight on only your elbows perhaps? I have the bruises to prove it. Plus, did you know that I can do a headstand in the middle of the room all by myself now. I'm proud of this fact.
- people revealing their more freaky sides. For example: Star boy - who's been to a star, naturally; oh and he can see auras and hear plants sing. Marbles - because we are all the same energy and therefore that means that you are the marble, you are the air, you are the person. Energy - who is growing on me to be fair, but has gone into over drive about how she has visions and she can see the energy that I have with other people on campus. J-ji - a late thirty something who is as cool as they come, but has been searching for herself for the last EIGHT years and has nothing to show for it....she's not even sure who she is. C - a really goodie-two-shoes who is driving me up the wall! Curls - who carries a crystal ball with him wherever he goes, including doing the washing up. There are soooooooooooooo many 'characters' (as my granny used to call folk that she thought were weird and she didn't like) here I can hardly get into details. But buy me a coffee when I get home and the stories are all yours!
- Exams! yikes....3 written, 4 physical and 2 teaching....when does it end?
- Oh! how could I have forgotten. I did Vaman this week which means that you drink as much salty water as you can bear and then you vomit it up in a projectile clear stream. Sandeep-ji even complimented me on my vomiting technique. Nice. I have video just in case you don't believe that a group of crazy Westerners gathered in a field and then vomited together.
- And while I'm on the salt water bandwagon...I let someone pour melted butter up my nose so that it made it 'wet' and then in the morning I poured salty water AGAIN up my nose to perform the cleansing technique that is known as Neti. Delightful.
- A few excellent lectures that totally resonated with me and made me think it was all worth while and I was learning things....I'm a changed woman and I met my Guru (dispeller of darkness) etc.......
- only to have it ruined by the bloody course leaders. They truly need to get a course in tact!

And, there's bound to be more...but seeing as I am on a curfew time schedule to get back to the ashram, I can't write much more. Only 10 days to go.....bring on the Scottish summer ;)