im off to venice!

well it happened again...

but i have to admit that breaking down in cars has brought me into conact with some lovely people lately that i never would have met otherwise so there's really nothing worth complaining about.

my current lack of car is even less important for the next week since tonight im leaving for venice for the biennale. a solid week of art. although it hasn't really sunk in yet, i think i might be excited.

so much for my carbon footprint though im mildly ashamed (although actually not) that after this trip i'll have clocked 16 flights this year. the chances of this happening again are fairly slim so i guess it's not that bad.

If it's cold just run around in circles!

Scotland is a strange place at times. I think it might be because of the people here.
I've never felt particularly like I belong here but don't get me wrong you can't help but love it here. I think that might be because of the people too.
Winter comes along, everything gets a little bit minging, (the short distance between house door and car door becomes a mini expidition - the wind attacks and your hair is left standing upwards or shooting off to the right, or if your really unfortunate it'll be the rain and you'll be soaked through) but what do we do? Complain incesantly? well... yes. But what else do we do?
We take the cold weather and turn it into the best way to cool down after a ceilidh.*
You gotta love that attitude. It makes this time of year something to look forward too. Lots of ceilidhs and stovies, mulled wine and fireworks.
I love it.

Although, regardless how many celidhs I go to I always forget how much it's going to hurt the next day.(I was at one last night. Muscles hurt that I didn't know I had and have bruises on my arms today - nevertheless - seriously good fun!)

*mildly insane energetic scottish country dancing

It's winter.

Why is it that winter always seems to sneak up out of nowhere? It happens every year and every year we (that'll be me) feel hard done by and taken by surprise.

Wednesday I walked outside with no need for a jacket. Thursday some shockingly strong winds made for a very interesting drive to uni (lorries blown over etc.) It seemed pretty cold but I figured I was being melodramatic until i found myself in the middle of a snow storm in the afternoon.

So it's official. It's winter.

My car seemed to notice too. I just picked it up from the garage on wednesday and on thursday it died in the middle of rush hour traffic smack bag in the middle of a main road. I'm pretty used to breaking down, I think it's a gift, so wasn't fazed by it, but it was just a bit annoying given that it was new so there was no way I could have broken it that quickly.

I don't do cars. They're a necessary evil. So here's my theory: never let them catch you thinking nice thoughts about them (they were starting to float around my head just before it stopped) or it grows an ego for which the engine doesn't have the right capacity and so it self destructs.

I think I might be on to something...

the best layed plans

Okay, so I may not have gotten off to the great start (or any really if I'm being honest) that I had hoped for. But in my defence - here's my defence:
My parents (who I'm currently living with) went to Kenya for a couple of weeks leaving me my dad's car. Unfortuanately that meant I had to run my brother to work - a two hour drive there after 6.15 wake up call, and near two hours back for a late dinner and early bed.

I thought it was going okay until the tiredness took its toll. Unfortuanately on my dad's car rendering it useless for the best part of a week and left me stuck away from uni chasing up the garage to fix it before my folks got back (nobody wants to explain why there is a car less in the drive after a long flight.)

Fortunately for me the mistake I made (filling up a diesel car with petrol and driving it till it stopped) cost a fifth of what it should have in an amazing turn of events where the engine didn't need replaced. The very definition of relief given that my financial status is that of a student and I didn't want my parents to pay for my mistakes.

Should anyone find themselves in a similar situation take note of the following stroke of genius...

I made a heap of apple spiced muffins for my grandparents to thank them for coming to the rescue. Seeing the results I realised that this wouldn't be te worst way to break the news to my dad on his return that despite the apparent fineness of his car it may in fact die at any point over the next week. But muffins dont possess the caliber needed for such a task. They just don't cut it. What was needed, was brownies. Not just any brownies, but the best brownie recipe in existence to my knowledge, impervious to drying out and sufficiently gooey.

Lo and behold the 'but I made brownies' line never fails to bring a smile to any silly thing I may have done for the last couple of weeks. I tell you - genius!

To account for the time between te cars return and now, I must rely on all the catching up that had to be done mixed with a couple of bad colds.

So now I'm back, and although I have learned come to the realisation that during a final year at uni, it's actually not possible to blog every day, I will make every effort to do so at least once a week (probably a saturday) and more if anything interesting happens.