May 27: Perks

Another weekend, another bunch of boring night shifts. Halfway through another sleepy weekend of work, the idea of never working another night shift has become very appealing to me. Last night wasn't too busy, but it was rough because I hadn't worked a night since the end of April. It's hard to get used to it again, but fortunately, Sarah was working, thus providing company to keep me awake. We ended up having nachos and cake (not a great idea in the middle of the night) and going to Perks for creamsicle smoothies. So awesome.

The exciting news for the past few days basically consists of me getting a copy of New Super Mario Bros., which is easily the coolest video game I've seen in years. Being one of those sorts of people who dislikes most newish games and mostly plays old school games from the 80s, I really love the retro charm of this game. It's a classic side-scrolling Mario game that sort of remixes elements of the old NES games with some cool new features. The actual gameplay is very much like the first Super Mario Bros. — no capes or flowers to fly, just fire flowers and a power-up that turns you into a Koopa. At the end of the levels, you jump onto a flagpole. However, there's a map screen with warps, like Super Mario Bros. 3, and ghost houses, like Super Mario World. It's really pretty cool. It makes nerds like me happy.

Anyway, I'm going to a work barbecue thing that Janet has at work. Also going are Katie & David and Pugs, and although this isn't the first barbecue of the year for me, it's the first one that's happening in almost-summer, so that's exciting. On that note, I should jet, because I still have to shower and everything.

May 23: Home Again

I'm alive and in one piece, back on familiar soil. Despite the fact that I'll miss Scotland, I'm really glad to be home — things just aren't the same over there, and it's good to be back. Yesterday was hellishly long and the flights were crappy and complicated — we almost missed our flight in London (and in fact, some people making the same connection did miss it). For some reason, we had to get off the plane in Newfoundland to do customs there, which meant picking up our luggage and moving it about thirty feet, as well as going through security screening for a third time. I'm not sure why we couldn't have done this in Halifax — apparently, it's a fairly recent change that requires you to do customs as soon as you enter Canada, even if you're not switching planes.

So today I'm just dealing with the after effects of jetlag and trying to force myself to get around to unpacking. I've also got to go over to Dalhousie today to get my gown, because my graduation thingie is tomorrow morning. It's not something I'm particularly looking forward to, since I hate big ceromonies like that. I find formal events to be really unpleasant.

Anyway, I should go get started on productive endeavours. Until next time.

May 19: Back in Glasgow

We're finally back in Glasgow! I feel like I've been away for ages and ages. I've led quite a disconnected life over the past week, since none of the places we stayed had Internet access. I'm in the process of uploading my eight-day backlog of photos right now, which will be followed by emailing-a-plenty and catching up on the news. I feel really, really out of touch with the world.

Life is good and we're just sort of winding down. Only three more sleeps before we leave — we should be back around 4:30 Monday afternoon. This weekend is largely about seeing people instead of places, which is good, because I'm pretty much overloaded on amazing views and historic places (which one wouldn't think possible). I'm pretty sick of being crammed into a car, anyway.

Alas, I should go finish the photo uploading. Until we meet again. (Oh, and everyone should get their postcards pretty soon. I promise.)

May 15: Leaving Stirling

It's time for a genuine Scottish adventure: we're leaving Stirling this morning and heading off to the Highlands. Sadly, there's no way to tell when I might have Internet access again. I've got several days worth of photos to be uploaded and haven't had any way to do so here, and I'm starting to worry that I might end up with hours and hours of photo uploading to do at the end of things. Anyway, in case no one hears from me, I should be back in Glasgow on Friday and totally Internet'd up.

The past few days in Stirling have been nice. This is William Wallace and Rob Roy country, so there's a lot of history (and a lot of pride in that history). Allan (one of our hosts here) is a real history buff and can give detailed historical information for just about any location here, besides being able to play the bagpipes. Isobel has kept Grammy and Heather on a non-stop shop-a-thon for the past past week. Stuart is like me and works awful hours, so he wasn't around as much as one might expect.

Anyway, I've got to go finish packing and get ready to go. In case I'm not around, have fun, world.

May 09: St. Albans

Lots of photos on Flickr (and I bought a pro account!): Day Five (Glasgow/Jim & Anna's), Day Six (Shrewsbury), Day Seven (Cheddar/Glastonbury), Day Eight (Salisbury/Sarum/Stonehenge).

We're in...St. Albans! Okay, well, it's not exactly a nexus of excitement, but it's a pretty nice place. We're about 40 minutes away from London by train, and even if it is a bit pricey (working out to be about $150 a night for the two of us), it's quiet nice. I'm pleased.

Our day in Salisbury started out horribly, though. Someone had nicked our rental car the night before and broke a side mirror, which caused much stress. Plus, we had no accommodations for that night! We spent the first few hours of the day sitting in a Tourist Information Centre while they helped us find a place to stay.

Continue reading “St. Albans”...

May 07: Peanut Butter England Time

Ahoy there, England. How are things? It's our last morning in Glasgow for a while: we're leaving for Shrewsbury, the first destination in our whirlwind trip through England, in about an hour or so. We're at Jim & Anna's house, the first big batch Scottishes that came over to Canada back n 1996. They live on the outskirts of Glasgow with three kids: Martin, Gordon, and Colin. We've only been here since yesterday afternoon, since there's never enough time to see everyone, but things are alright.

I raided Martin's music collection and ripped a half dozen CDs full of fun European electronica. Music here is so much better than back home: I'd easily swap every Canadian artist of the last five years for one group half as good as Air or Daft Punk. It's not fair.

But I digress. After we leave, we have six hours of insane motorway driving ahead of us, and I think I'm the one driving. Although I'm reasonably confident we won't die, wish us luck anyway. And on that note, I should be off to plug in my poor, electricity-starved laptop.

PS: For those who are interested, we finally got to have toasties yesterday. Sucker.

PPS: I continue to update my Flickr photostream, so keep checking it. On day 4, you'll find the Falkirk Wheel. I haven't done the photos from day 5 (yesterday) yet, but I'll do them tonight for sure when we're in Shrewsbury.

May 05: Wheels, and No More Jetlag

Woohoo, I think I've finally lost the jetlag — I just got out of bed, and it's well past nine AM. This is reasonable, I can handle nine — I just can't handle five or six. Yesterday, I intentionally stayed home and did nothing (actually, I had a nap in the afternoon) in order to get myself to adjust. I feel a lot better, although it sounds like I missed some interesting places. I guess you can't have everything, and I'd rather be able to stay up past 9:30 at night, so it's fine.

The rental car arrived around lunchtime yesterday, and it's an Astra. It's neat, because that's the very sort of car that Simon so beloved before he moved to Canada. It's really quite nice (and very speedy). Mom and I made a few brave attempts to drive it around the neighbourhood before she went out, and in the evening, John and Brian took me out to look at cars (as they are wont to do). This resulted in me driving on busy streets, through roundabouts, and on the M8, which is terrifying, but not so bad.

I really have no idea what we're going to be doing today, although it'll probably involve going into Glasgow. Tonight, there's supposed to be a big family dinner sort of event where we'll get to meet John's girlfriend. I've spent most of my morning so far organizing my photos in Flickr — does anyone have any experience with pro accounts? I'm pretty sure I'll run up against the limitations of the free account pretty soon, but I don't want to spend $30 I don't need to. Is it worth it?

Anyway, the photos from yesterday are up.

May 03: Arrived Alive

We're here, alive and well, after an incredibly gruelling trip over. This is my second time to Scotland, but I don't remember it being this hard the first time. This might be attributable to the fact that it's been seven years, or maybe I was just super-excited the first time — not that I wasn't super-excited this time.

Our first day here was pretty quiet. After being awake for 24+ hours, I desperately needed a nap and slept for a good chunk of the afternoon. After being forcibly awoken, everyone just congregated in the living room t get reaquainted. Brian and John put a lot of effort into helping me get my gadgets working — the power adaptor that Heather brought doesn't work. Fortunately, it turns out that my laptop will accept up to 240 V without requiring a voltage convertor, so the juice is flowing. I was worried for a minute there (we checked about five stores and none of them had what we needed — as you can expect, all of their adaptors were going in the reverse direction).

Today, I woke up at 6 AM and I've been killing time while everyone else sleeps (imagine me being the first one awake — it boggles the mind). Not only did Brian get a real Internet connection since the last time we were here, but they have a wireless router as well. I'm in Mark heaven. I've started organizing the photos I've taken and I'm putting them up on flickr. If you want to see my photos, just go to my photostream. I've got an iPhoto plugin called FlickrExport that makes this so easy. If you want, sign up for a Flickr account so you can comment on them, or just comment here. Whatevs.

Anyway, I've got some emails to write, so I'm off. Cheers.

May 01: Before I Leave

There are a few things that people should do before they leave on any significant trips.

First, you should make sure you have travel insurance. You're not covered by the government, because they're jerks. If you inadvertantly remove a limb in a foreign land, kiss it goodbye.

Secondly, you should make sure all of your clothes are clean and ready to pack up, and that you know where all of the plugs and accessories for your gadgets are. This facilitates packing by putting everything you need in one place.

Third, try to get some cash in the native currency to use when you first get there. This removes the stress of needing to find a bank when you're jetlagged and sleepy.

Finally, try to do your packing a few days before the trip, so you're less likely to forget to bring anything.

Now, by following these three simple guidelines, you'll be prepared for any trip, and much more responsible than I am, since I have done none of these things. I can't believe I just wasted ten minutes writing this blog entry — I have to go pack!