Children of the light

Hi. I'm back, after a long drought. I have been MAD busy the last few months, and I've also not been wanting to procrastinate as what I've been doing has been so fun (especially interning with church).

However, I had a few days off..I organised my days off to work out so I had an elongated weekend (although technically still intern on Sundays, serving in church which to be honest I'd be doing anyway, but maybe not in as many services) and had a friend come to visit from Edinburgh, Karli. 

Karli's an exchange student from California (I've been invited back so must take advantage of that) and she was in Edinburgh for the year.

 She'd previously been to London and hadn't really enjoyed it that much. She did all the touristy stuff so I thought I'd show her a different, more fun, side of the big smoke. I do realise that she is stood underneath the London Eye which is incredibly touristic, however this was just on our journey..not the destination.

 We headed down to South Bank and stumbled upon the Festival of Neighbourhood. They've set up a temporary allottment, which is fun. There were so many vegetables and plants, but these were the most entertaining to look at.

 Karli also mentioned she wanted to see some cool street art. Here's some on the side of Wahaca.

 I really want to eat at this one one day. I've been to the one at White City Westfield for a work do, last year, and that was highly enjoyable. I particularly liked their quesadillas.

Here's a bit more of the Festival of Neighbourhood.I took so many photos I'm going to leave it here for today. More to come tomorrow.

Many apologies. I have so little spare time. Will update as soon as I get a minute or 30. Lots has happened.

Together we made it.

We finally made it to St. Andrews. Here's a photo of the monastery.

 spot my Ma in the corner haha

This cheeky chappy was so close to us, rather fetching feathers.

 Seeing this gravestone really made me think. That even after death this person (or their family, who knows) wanted to show the paramounce of Jesus in their life. I told my Mum I want a gravestone like this. She said she'd hope to not be around when I die, which is fair enough. So, internet world, let it be known, when I die I'd like a cross on my gravestone. Also I'd like a verse, not sure which yet, maybe from Isaiah 61, my favourite chapter currently.

 This is the other side of St Andrews beach. A rocky outlay, with lots of sea- birds as well as a little family of mallard..I'll be impressed if you spot them- they blend in so well and its a surprise to see ducks on the sea anyway.

 So the day after St Andrews, we packed up all of my stuff into the car, headed around the corner to put them in storage with a friend and then headed on home, with a stop in the Lake District at a friend's cabin. Which is where these photos were taken.

 How lovely is this! Just at the bottom of their garden. Perfect relaxation place.

Oooh I love running water.
When I was younger (I think 11) a school friend got me a water feature for my birthday. This was the most unique present I'd ever received (but I'd always wanted one, I don't think I'd told her that) but that one present changed my whole perspective on gift giving. No more bubble baths or glitter girls gift bags from me- it is so totally the thought that counts.

And I realise that ending is really random, but this photo just reminded me of it and I think its important.


I've decided to post things on scheduled posts because otherwise I'd just post everything at the same time, when I have the time, but I'll see if this works and if so it'll be cool. I think so anyway :)

On to the next one

Here's the next installment on my road trip to St Andrews. We passed many award winning beaches, but just look at this!! It was such a beautiful day, although very cold.

 Hence why my Mum is wearing a furry hat.

 Many times we found these beaches by taking wrong turnings. One such wrong turning we ended up finding this mini-gym park. SO fun! I'd missed going to the gym that day due to packing and getting everything sorted for our journey and so this was perfect. Can you imagine going to a gym with these kinds of views!? You'd never want to leave.

WARNING: TURN DOWN THE VOLUME - IT WAS REALLY WINDY! Quite amusing to watch, although slightly long, sorry.

 A lot of the machines/equipment used your own body weight so were actually quite tough.

 This is Elie, where we stopped for lunch. HOW GORGEOUS! We found a lovely little pub called The Ship Inn, apparently its award winning, we didn't even know, just stumbled upon it. We were travelling for quite a while without food and my stomach was killing me from hunger (I've had issues with this recently, too much pain from hunger, don't think its right..maybe I'm growing...hahaha unlikely)

 The view itself was prize worthy.

My Mum made me pose like this. 

The service was great, the staff were lovely. We both had starters, but were far too ravenous to even think to take pictures. I had a hummus with warm pitta (homemade..was fantastic) and my Mum had a Scotch egg (when in Scotland) with a beetroot and radish pickle, which was equally lovely.

For our mains we both had a half portion of haddock and chips. This was the best fish and chips I've ever had. Seriously. The batter was SO lightly delicate it was barely there, exactly what you want. The chips tasted as if they'd been cooked in truffle oil and were delightfully waxy.

Come back tomorrow for the next installment, next stop St. Andrews!

Caught up in grace like an avalanche

So I thought during the summer I'd have more time to blog. It appears I have less time; interning + working + having a social life = very little down time in which to blog. Life is good though, who wants an easy, lazy summer anyway! Its all about changing the world for the better. I'm still young and have the energy (most of the time, helped greatly by the fabulous flat white) to do lots so LEGGO.

Think I'll have some more time tomorrow and will upload more pictures from my Scotland road trip.

Being home is great. Seeing my friends makes it even better. YAY for life right now!

On my way Part I

So I've been away for a wee while. My Summer has officially begun.
Had my final exam on Thursday and then my Mum arrived in Edinburgh. We had dinner at The Albanach, which I'd been recommended by a friend. The food was good...when it arrived. This is why I have no pictures. The food took FOREVER to arrive; we knew what we wanted so ordered almost immediately, but the food took 45 minutes. I was in physical pain from hunger by the point the food arrived (I hadn't eaten since before my exam (about 12:45) and it was  about 20:00 when we arrived at the restaurant). The waiter said our order had got crossed with someone elses. Not good. Food was nice though. My Mum & I shared a Balmoral Chicken & a haggis, neeps & tatties. Good Scottish fare. I felt I needed to eat Scottish food considering I'd just finished half of my degree in a Scottish university. Only 2 years to go!

The next day we headed to St. Andrews, very slowly, along the Fife Tourist Trail.

This is going over the Forth Road Bridge (the car one). It felt like we were driving into the clouds.

 We accidentally headed down a cul de sac, but this beach was at the end so was very worth the detour.

 This view is back looking at the Forth Road Rail Bridge, and Edinburgh is in the very far background.

 There were so many of these snails on the beach. They're alive, don't worry.

 Here's me, being a tourist.

I took SO many photographs this will need to be done in parts. So this concludes the first installment.

I'll tell ya what I want what I really really want

So I said something exciting was happening...
it did.

I dyed my hair. Well, I bleached it, then dyed it due to the very dark nature of my hair I knew that just dye wouldn't work. So here's an instagram picture of the final results; I'll put more in the future, but all my technology seems to be breaking down on me at the moment.

I feel like Scary Spice. My plan is to go a bit more adventurous in the Summer, pinks, blues, maybe everything altogether (ha!) I've been checking out Bleach London's blog for inspiration. I'm excited :)

One more exam to go and then fun times!