Entry 67

Hallooooo.

Been busy, busy, busy with the thesis. Trial and error learning is FUCKING slow.

Oh well, only one day was shit so far. This week and next week until Tuesday are looooooong...... 10-11 hour days. But alas, some people do that everyday.

Pretty much got a flat lined up for me and Sharon too; today went well for me. :)


More on that some other time...


Alrighty, I should work more now. Gotta be productive!

Later,

Dave

Flats, mice & my thesis.

Flat hunting has been interesting so far... apparently I'm too prepared. Nobody here looks more than 1 month in advance generally and that means there's not so much available for late August/early September... yet. Still, if you look hard enough you seem to find them. I do owe the Student Welfare office at HWU a big thank you; they seem to be the only reliable place you can find private lets for the time period we're gonna need.

Stupid letting companies will want 6 months rent up front because me and Sharon wont be working when we move in AND we won't have a UK resident as a guarantor. Buggers...

We do have a mouse... not that I've seen it, just found poop so far. Also makes me wonder if it's the reason for the funny sour milk smell near the fridges... that could be sour milk though. I've vacuumed, swept out all around (inc behind) the fridges/freezer, no luck, still a smell. Oh well, gonna starve the mouse away, that's my plan, Tom's gone at the moment, which means a clean kitchen, and I hope the mouse gets the message. I am not leaving it a single crumb to munch on so I hope it decides to find greener pastures soon.

And the thesis, my life for the last three weeks. It's been getting along well, well enough to see all the problems that are gonna arise. Not gonna go into that, I could write you a 5000 word report on that before I knew I had.

I hope all's well.

Ooo, and if you want a custom T-shirt from Portugal (or maybe Brazil, I didn't see where) check the comments on my last blog. ;)

Dave

How does this work?

Look at the picture (NOT YET THOUGH!), it was taken here in Edinburgh.

This is like one of those kid's games you get on a place mat at somewhere like Pizza Hut. So, basically look at the picture and find what doesn't belong.
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Do you see it? I hope you do. A palm tree. You don't see these here, ever, I thought.

Anyways, here are a couple other little piccies I tool from Blackford Hill here in Edinburgh last weekend. I hope you like them. ;)































Dave

Flat hunting, mice, Billy Talent and (almost) a straight week of drinking

Hello, been a fun week.

Finished exams last Friday, went out caught some belly dancing at Octopus Diamond, then we narrowly avoided a fight with a stupified fella after the bar closed. Saturday was Scott's gig at Bannerman's in Cowgate, that was a blast, great location, awesome sound and fuck, Scott's getting good, was a great show. :)

Sunday we headed to Oni's, had a few beers, just chilled. A nice counter-point to the previous couple nights. Then Monday was Olga & Lenka's goodbye party for Tyler. Mmmmmm goulash and slivovitz. Took Tuesday and Wednesday nights off, worked on the thesis (it's going somewhere finally!) and got ready for Billy Talent.

Thursday was BT night at the liquid rooms, got prepped up with Scott, Ysella and the boys from Scott's band in Grassmarket. I figured I'd have a pint before the show... he he, 5 pints and a whisky later we were off to see BT. Nice show, really beena while since I managed to get front row at a show like that. Was wicked! Odd too, I had 10 years on nearly everyone in the audience... well, so did everyone I was there with too. :)

Last night was the last Whisky Soc for the year... ok, they start again in October, so not that long. Anyways, we had 4 bottles between the 10 of us, 1 40 year old, a cask strength (~62.5%) from somewhere in Speyside, god knows which distillery it was. Sweet stuff these two were. Never got the others open, Andy, the Whisky Soc president made the night free but after going over-time by 1 & 1/2 hours, felt opening them was better another time. After that we headed to Huw's for a kegger. One of the other 4th year's'd, Matt, had just got a job and his brewery sent him up a keg from Glasgow to celebrate. They also managed to score anther keg from the Caley, personal connections of some kind.

Also, at Huw's, one of the 4th year's, Scott (different guy) and I got to talking and he said he'd done an exchange during high school and stayed in Oakville. Random. He's even got an OT rugby jersey. Go figure, small world, eh?

Ummm... yeah, looking into other flats now too, getting all excited! Checking into Polwarth and Merchiston, both on my bus route and even closer to town. Better shops around too. Also, apparently we've got a mouse in the house! Fun shit. Oh well, I haven't seen it, probably never will but Tom ( the new guy here) said he was gonna buy some traps.

Well... I want to look online at flats. I hope you're all having a nice warm weekend wherever you are. ;)

Bye.

Dave

Ok, also, I WILL BE IN OAKVILLE this JULY 17th to the 1st of AUGUST. I know everybody's gonna be fighting to spend every minute they can with me so I thought I'd let you all know in advance. :P

But anyways, I'll call people when I get back or maybe if I get to it email??? I don't know who checks email, or if I have the right ones anymore... I'll put something on Facebook and there's this now. Oooo, I'm thinking maybe a weekend in Collingwood?

Perhaps the 27th, 28th, 29th?

We'll see, no idea what'll actually happen once I'm back on hopefully familiar Canadian-soil.

Later!

Dave

Ma knees, ma poor knees.

Hey,

So I've kinda had wonky knees since Rome, funny little discomforts when my knees are bent, random little reminders of how shit my knee/knees eventually felt during the Rome run. Started looking into it today, (been running a lot less, much more walking) but today I think I've confirmed that it's not the end of the world but I think maybe I've managed to give myself runner's knee (Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome, thank you Dr. Pribut) in both knees. :( / :)

I'm looking at this as a blessing in disguise. Gone are the days of running without considering what kind of effect it is having on my body. I used to stretch and warm up, stopped that, going to start that again now, also have a host of things that I've now found out I can do to help repair and also reduce the damage running can and will do.

I just felt that I'd like say that if anyone who reads this enjoys running at all, no matter if you run like a maniac or just casually on the weekend, check this website out, it seems to me to be about the best on the net:

http://www.drpribut.com/sports/sportframe.html

So, no pictures, no videos tonight, just a little "hello, this is what's up with me" info.

So now that I've explained how I'm going to fix my knees I'm off to wreck my liver again. Go figure, I guess it's true life's about dying. In this case it's my liver, little bit by little bit.

I hope everybody had a pleasant weekend. :)

Later!

Dave