Monday, December 26, 2011

{the 12 days of [after] Christmas}

december has been completely and absolutely exhausting. i'm ready to fall over and sleep for ten years.
like a bear dosed to the max on cold medicine in a cave of cotton balls and pitch blacky blackest blackness.

for real.

until i regain some semblance of open-eyed sanity, i'm basically being a bum and reading blogs and checking my email over and over and over and eating lots of things while saying, "i don't need any more food." 

i'm right. 
but still, i eat.

anyway. the point is not that.

the point is that i came across a sweet promotion the itunes store has on right now: free apps, music, tv shows, movies, books, etc, for 12 days, starting today!
i wanted to share, because i'm a very nice girl:

Sunday, December 25, 2011

Saturday, December 24, 2011

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

{Christmas lights}



When you're still waiting for the snow to fall
Doesn't really feel like Christmas at all

Up above, candles on air flicker
Oh, they flicker and they float
And I'm up here holdin' on
To all those chandeliers of hope

Those Christmas lights light up the street
Down where the sea and city meet
May all your troubles soon be gone
Oh, Christmas lights, keep shinin' on

{oh ufo, oh ufo, how lovely are your light rays}

our little radioactive ufo Christmas tree is finally back in its place in our living room so that we can bask in its quirky yet festive rays. 

so i'm pretty happy about that.

Monday, December 19, 2011

{the week before Christmas}

the expiration date on the milk is december 25. i guess that means that Christmas is coming pretty soon. whoa.
i'll put up the rest of the travelling stories after Christmas, i think. this week is going to be way too insane to even think about it.
in the meantime, a cute cute cute video my scottish cousin beth showed me:


Friday, December 16, 2011

{pt. 2}

Clocks (Extended Instrumental) by Coldplay on Grooveshark

so like i said, we arrived in edinburgh, scotland at 10:15 am, wednesday, november 30. the ten minutes it took to get from my plane seat to the terminal felt like a century and a half. the fifteen minutes it took to get through customs and claim our bags felt like a million jillion years. but as soon as we stepped into the waiting area and realized we were done with the last of the line-ups and questions and bag checks and squishy flights, the years and centuries of waiting were reversed and i was 24 again, happily. and there was barclay's uncle, brian, and barclay's cousin, annabelle.

there were hugs and introductions and all that, and then we jumped into their car and headed off.

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i felt like i'd stepped through a magical wardrobe into some alternate universe that i'd heard of but never visited before. it was exactly what i thought it would be like--the sheep dotting the rolling green hills, the water coming up onto rocky beaches, the CARS DRIVING ON THE WRONG SIDE OF THE ROAD.

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i know i'm a rookie at life for never having experienced this, but for real. so trippy.
we took turns sitting in the front seat, though i couldn't stay quite in the seat because i wanted to look at everything all at once.

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brian took us back home to meet his completely fantastic family, who live in the most adorable area and house. ruby, anne, & matthew fed us pancakes and croissants and we did origami and i told them about my horrible sweaty airplane seat mate and they made jokes in their thick scottish accents and then we hiked up a volcano with them, even though we hadn't slept in hours and hours and it was still technically 5 in the morning our time.

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the volcano's name was arthur's seat, and it was absolutely massive. the sky was grouchy and the wind was obnoxious, but i barely noticed. half sleep-deprivation, half awe, i'm sure. barclay had visited arthur's seat the last time he'd come to scotland, and on that trip he'd told his mom, "someday, i'm going to bring my wife here. this is amazing."

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so there we were.

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and, like anything worth experiencing, you had to have been there to understand what i mean when i say: the view. THE VIEW.

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the tippy top of the volcano was so windy that i couldn't stand up straight. i held on tight, because being blown off a 900 foot hill would've been a nasty start to our trip, for sure.

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it was hard to leave our place on top of the world, but we eventually made our way back down to earth.

we went back to brian and anne's house for a meal and some drinks with barclay's grandparents before finding our hotel and negotiating with the receptionist for a room with a view.

and thus, day one ended with us completely crashing into bed at 10 pm, having said, "i can't believe we're here" close to 98 times.

Thursday, December 15, 2011

{pt.1}

The KO Hip-Hop Cello-Beatbox Experience: Julie-O mp3 by Kevin KO Olusola on Grooveshark

when barclay's mum was just a bit younger than i am, she moved to canada from scotland. she got married and settled down here, but all of her immediate family still live on the east coast of scotland in the city of edinburgh. i met her two brothers and her parents a few years ago at his older sister's wedding but after 2 years of marriage, i still hadn't met any of barclay's cousins or aunts on that side.

so in october when his boss told him he had some time off coming up, we didn't really hesitate. we jumped online and booked a couple of international flights.

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{and we didn't really tell anyone.}

about that:
if you're one of the majority of people i know in real life who was completely shocked to find me in another country with absolutely no warning, please don't think i don't love you.

there's this thing with me about being excited: i love being excited for a day, for a week. i can't handle being excited for longer than that. it's like fire ants under my skin. it's like the hot burning sun in my pocket. so if something big is coming up in the future, i don't really like to talk about it until it's either come or passed. i pretend it's not happening until it's happening. is that weird? it's just how i am.

plus, i like secrets. that's how i am too. i feel like a more interesting person when i have a thing or two up my sleeve that i'm not telling anyone. i don't know if this actually makes me interesting or if it just makes me unpredictable and shady. but the point is not that.

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the point is that the morning of november 29 found us in kind of a blur of harried hurriedness, packing our bags to go home, arriving home, unpacking our bags, repacking our bags to go to scotland, and finally at the airport checking our sloppily-packed luggage through to edinburgh--me checking to make sure i had my passport for the 60th time and barclay fighting off the remnants of a really nasty stomach flu. we're kind of ridiculous; we decided to do a major bathroom renovation right before leaving for our trip {we're talking tearing EVERYTHING out and redoing drywall, wiring, plumbing, flooring, tile, you name it. major.} we were living out of our suitcases in barclay's parents' basement, barclay working like a madman to get the bathroom finished, me packing and running around the city buying insurance and good walking shoes and train tickets. that same week, we both got the flu and lost our truck {an inconvenience at the very least, especially when your car has up and died again}, and consequently sent our sanity on ahead to the uk, where we decided we would meet up with it when we arrived.

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i don't know if we ever really found our sanity but that's ok.



airport: 9 am. flight: 11:30 am. calgary airport: 11:39 am. {time change -1 hour.} flight: 3:30 pm. amsterdam airport: 8:30 am. {time change +7 hours}. flight: 9:45 am. edinburgh airport: 10:15 am. {time change -1 hour.}

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i didn't sleep on the plane trip over the ocean, due to a ridiculously large gentleman wearing a turban in the seat next to me who smelled strongly of spicy food and salty sweat and who neither acknowledged nor appreciated my existence, but who spilled over into my personal space to the point where i felt there was not enough air for the both of us.

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i did, however, develop a decent appreciation for bon iver, who serenaded me from iceland to ireland.

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

{splat}

i woke up not too long ago, confused about the day and the time and where i was and all of that. the usual. we're back in canada, though not back home quite yet because of reasons that i'll go into later. to say i'm tired would be a great understatement.

two weeks, 10 trains, 8 buses, a ferry, 6 airplanes, two taxis, 2 b & b's, 3 hotel rooms, a cozy attic, 12 new friends, 3 castles, hurricane-force winds, rain, hail, snow, sun, firths, lochs, oceans, seas, incidents and accidents, great big adventures and fantastic little moments, 2000 photographs, 2 x haggis, and, oh good graish, so much else.

tomorrow, i'll start at the beginning.

Monday, December 12, 2011

{the fall}

one day left, and we're going to squeeze the living daylights out of it. it's 2:19 am at home and 7:19 am here. so i guess either way, we're getting an early start on the day. i'm sad to leave, but the thing about real life is that it's just kind of there and that's non-negotiable. it's like gravity and a vacation is like a straight up-and-down slingshot. so.
we splat tomorrow night. but the fall has been fun.



Sunday, December 11, 2011

{back from london}

our time is drawing to a close. we're back in edinburgh now, trying to get in a few more hangouts with the family here and preparing our bodies for the double-whammy that is jet lag in reverse as we fly back in time across the ocean.
yikes.


Saturday, December 10, 2011

{game #3}

these past two weeks have been like a dream; we've had so many ridiculous things happen and have seen and experienced so much--from getting locked in the train station at night to the crisps commercial to taking the trains from one side of the country to the next. when i get home, i'm going to have to write it all out so i don't forget it, and organize the pictures in folders {i've taken well over 1000 already}. thanks for still reading even though it's sporadic, and for all the lovely comments and emails. you all are fantastic.
anyways.
for now, i thought we'd have another go at the where in the world are we game.

only hint: not in scotland.

Wednesday, December 07, 2011

{crisps and pants}

a thing not to say to a stranger in scotland:
"oh, we have no plans for today. we're just going to fly by the seat of our pants." because here, pants means underoos and distinguished british gentlemen get really awkward once you mention your underoos to them. 

while i was uploading these pictures, a lady came up and asked if barclay and i wanted to be in a commercial for "crisps". so i guess we're going to go to that now. 
so.
there's that.

Tuesday, December 06, 2011

{hey ho!}

you guys! i don't have a lot of internet time or anything, but i thought i'd hop in and say hi. i'm broadcasting live from edinburgh, scotland {can't believe how many people guessed scotland just from those three pictures}, and i am loving it. i might not ever come back across the pond.
trains, buses, ferries, castle ruins, new friends & family. good times.

Friday, December 02, 2011

game #2

answer: calgary, alberta. good guessing, all. you are very good sports. we were on our way then to where we are now...
obviously.

round two?