Wednesday, February 24, 2010

A shopping trip is a shopping trip is a shopping trip!

(view from the ferry)
Last week I took the proverbial giant leap for a vehicle dependent Kansas girl and hopped on the ferry for the mainland with nothing but a backpack. Yes, I left the island knowing that for the next two days I'd be completely dependent on public transportation. Not such a big deal for most people, but a huge step of faith for me. So are you wondering how it was? Are you imagining me stranded at a crossroads in the middle of the Scottish Highlands? Well, although that would have been a somewhat romantic situation (I'm now picturing a tall dark Scotsman coming to the rescue of course), that's not what happened at all.

My friends and I got to Inverness, to the B&B, the shops, and the movie theater and back home without a hitch! I even came back with a free artistic vegetable peeler from a Tesco Extra demonstration. Don't worry, I'll have an example of what it is capable of up soon :)

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

aN oFF DaY...

Today was the very definition of an off day. Woke up early and still managed to be scrambling for the bus that turned out to be late. It was sunny as I scrambled and started snowing just as I crossed the street to wait. I got carsick on the bus (amazingly this has never happened before). Once in town I headed to the Lanntair (the local arts center) to get some lunch and hang out before my dreaded driving lesson. I choose to go here because they have nice tables and free wi-fi. Today it was drafty and the internet was down, but since it was cold and I was lazy, I stayed put until my driving lesson...which turned out to be canceled. Although most of me was ready to jump for joy, the reasonable part of me reminded the rest that I only have 5 more weeks until my driving test...doom.

Since I was free now until 3:30 I decided to head to HS1 (another restaurant) to have a hot chocolate served with some of their free wi-fi...which was indeed working, yay! However, it wasn't long before my computer ran out of juice :( Apparently I'd spent too much of it's power waiting for the wi-fi to work at the Lanntair.

With more free time on my hands, I decided to give myself a driving lesson. I ended up in 3 culdesacs and ran a red light.

Next up, my Gaelic conversation class! I LOVE my Gaelic conversation class. Today I HATED my conversation class, and was watching the clock the whole time. When I finally got to leave for my Ulpan class, I was out like a shot. I ended up at the college a little early...just in time to eat my dinner, perfect. Until I headed inside and found that not only was my class in a different room, but everyone was early that day. Overachievers...

After class I had a few spare minutes before I had to pick up my roomie, so I headed to the grocery store. I grabbed a few non-necessities and found my check-out line. The man in front of me had a cart full of bags of flour and breakfast cereal. Like, those were the only two items he had chosen and the cart was FULL. Needless to say, I had a bit more time to mull over my day.

On my way to pick up my roomie, I decided to try once again at a bit of driving and...can you guess? Yes, I ended up in another dead end...I really seem to have a nose for those culdesacs.

Once I was finally home, I breathed a sigh of relief, looked in the mirror and realized that my shirt was inside out. Oh dear...

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Pancakes for lunch!

Amazingly enough it took the worldwide phenomenom of Pancake Day to get me to finally make some pancakes. I haven't had homemade pancakes since I came to the UK last April, and I'll tell you what...it's been way too long. I'm not a breakfast eater, and even though I like breakfast food, it's really easy for me to overlook it when I'm trying to decide what I want for lunch or dinner. So maybe this is the start of me having a personal pancake day on a regular basis. We'll see about that.

So what's up besides me rediscovering the humble pancake? Well, my housemate, another friend and I are getting ready to embark on our first car-less trip to the mainland! I just booked the bed and breakfast in Inverness, so on Thursday morning we'll hop on the Ferry to Ullapool as foot passengers, hop on a bus from there, and hopefully make it to our B&B still excited about our adventure. The catalyst for this trip was to see Avatar in 3D since our little cinema doesn't have the technology for that. Maybe I should check on tickets...

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

The soundtrack of life


Today was one of those days that my music throughout the day seemed to fit perfectly the situations of the moment. Has that ever happened to you? Where you're writing about something, or thinking about something and you realize that the music playing goes along? Well, that's what happened to me today over and over. I normally have my iTunes/mp3 player on shuffle, and sometimes take the coincidental playing of a song as a sign...there's something about the random play that seems to make it possible.

I also was tickled to find a free download of Fireflight's new single Desperate in my inbox this evening. I had toyed with buying it off iTunes since the album hadn't come out yet, but waited because the last thing I wanted to do was buy it twice if I ended up getting the whole album. What's funny about that? The album title is "For Those Who Wait." Hee hee.

Speaking of random...this is a picture of my first ever needle felted creature! (Inspired by this genius) And...according to my camera...I made him one year ago today! Happy birthday little creature :)

Monday, February 8, 2010

Peanut butter cups and pens...


I received two packages in the mail this past week and both were AWESOME! But one did make me a bit happier than the other...and that's because it was 1) a complete surprise and 2) edible. Someone from home decided to make my day and sent a box of homemade candy! Every year she makes these little pieces of heaven and distributes them to her friends. This year I was out of the country, but that didn't stop her from giving me a taste. In fact, I'm pretty sure that I got more than my fair share :)

The other package wasn't such a surprise...since I ordered it myself, but I was still pretty excited. I ordered a set of 10 Stabilo point 88 fineliner felt tip pens from Amazon (after being inspired by a classmate) and now my planner is oh so colorful. Happiness...