Bone and mash

I wad proud of my dinner tonight. Ever since having guests here, I've been super lazy again about cooking. I think part of it is also money. If I feel like I can go out and buy whatever ingredients I need, then I'm more likely to be adventurous and make something good. But once again, I managed to spend most of the month's money in the first week of the month. I'm down to £120, which would be fine to last me two more weeks, if it weren't for the fact that I started a list of things to do before I turn 30 (a bit late, but why not?) and on that list is to start Spanish classes, and I got a flier through the post box for classes around the corner. The Spanish class started this week (so I've missed a week), but it costs £60 which I have to pay up front. So yeah, that doesn't leave me with much to last until the 28th.

So my cupboard is looking a bit sparse. I have some leftover potatoes, and some sausages in the freezer, so I made bangers and mash! It's not much to be proud of, cuz it was super easy, but it beats my staple diet of pesto fusilli.

I went to Bill's yesterday to grab some stuff I'd loaned him, and since we decided to be friends, I loaned him Arrested Development and he loaned me his complete volume of the comic Bone. I feel like I've found a lost remnant of my childhood. A few chapters of Bone were printed in Disney Adventure magazine when I was about 11, but then it disappeared just when I got hooked! When our subscription ran out, for ages afterward I would check the back of the magazine whenever we went to the grocery store, but Bone never reappeared. And then there it was, sitting on Bill's bookcase. I haven't put it down since yesterday, except for sleep and work. I even let them send me home three hours early today so I could go home and read it!

So behind

Oh gosh, so much to catch up on, I can't even be bothered.

1. Beginning of July, PhD student sent me 217 articles to read and evaluate by the end of July.
2. Becky and John visited in August, right in the middle of the Edinburgh Festival, the biggest festival(s) of theatre, comedy, film, music, and books in the world. (217 articles still not finished) We had such an amazing time and it was beyond wonderful seeing them. And I finally made it to Hadrian's wall! (so that's my August Visiting the UK box ticked. Still need June and July, though.)
2. A week after Becky and John left, Izzi and Tim came to stay. I was a happy, happy clam. We ate lots of delicious food. I also saw fireworks to mark the end of the International Festival. Watching a fireworks show that is being launched from a castle on the side of a cliff is pretty darn amazing. They had a waterfall! Of fireworks! (217 articles still not finished)
3. At work, I was asked to be shoe specialist instead of till specialist. I've been till specialist for a year and a half, so was kind of miffed and terrified when they told me they were changing my role, but I absolutely love it! I got to organise the whole shoe stockroom! And I get to use a typewriter to write labels for the display shoes! And create a product information binder! And so much more! It totally inspires my inner librarian.
4. First week into September, I finally finished the 217 articles. Phew! Suddenly, I have loads of free time and no clue what to do with it.
5. A week after Izzi and Tim came, Carina arrived in town. She had a conference in St. Andrews (where Wills and Kate went to university) but stayed at mine because she loves me (and I her). We had dinner with Cheryl on Friday night, so it was a proper reunion. It's going to be hard not having any visitors again until December. However will I entertain myself?
6. Yesterday, I broke up with a man who makes me laugh, who likes all the same things I like, who I feel super comfortable with, and who is just generally wonderful...but for whom I just don't feel a spark. I guess I'm holding out for amazing.

So that's my life in a nutshell, at the moment. And now I have TB-related job to apply for.

More settling in

After weeks of inconvenient scheduling, I finally managed to meet up with Laura, who did the masters course with me. We went to a Japanese restaurant near the university for dinner. It was nice, and the food was yummy. It took a while to get the bill, but then they brought us each one of these so I had to forgive (I'm such a sucker.)

Afterwards, we went to Doctors for a pint, and Cheryl (another girl from our course) and her husband, Soul, met up with us. It was so nice to catch up! I hadn't seen Laura since graduation.

I cooked a few more good meals for myself, though I've been much worse lately. Back to my usual habits of junk food or eating out. Here are mini pizzas, and a store-bought chicken kiev with healthy veggies. (Okay, so all my meals are essentially the same, but they include lots of veggies and colors and stuff!)

I made another trek out to IKEA (was significantly less enthusiastic the second time around) and got myself a coffee table for £3 and change. Three pounds! Can you believe that?? Totally worth the £3.20 bus ride there and back. So my flat is coming together...or at least is functional now.

Coffee

I've always hated coffee. I hate the smell and the taste. The bitterness. A couple times, while struggling with excessive daytime sleepiness, I've tried mochas in an attempt to wake up. I find mocha more palatable than regular coffee, especially after I've added quite a bit of sugar ;-) But it never seemed to wake me up, so I gave up on coffee.

While I was living with Corrado and Kasia, they offered me espresso a few times, and eventually, I decided to try it (granted, with lots of sugar added). I didn't really notice a strong effect, but it was a nice ritual to share with friends, like a cup of tea or a pint.

One day soon after, a girl at work invited me to grab coffee at Wellington's (purportedly some of the best coffee in Edinburgh). I've felt on top of the world for about 45min afterwards, and then felt queasy and jittery for the next 45min. Hm, slightly terrifying, but completely predictable, I suppose.

Then a couple weeks ago, I was super cranky at work. The first four hours of the day draaaaaaagged, and I could hardly believe that I was only halfway done. Corrado suggested coffee, so I grabbed a mocha from Wellington during lunch. I also treated myself to fries :-) For the remainder of the working day, I was cheerful and friendly and helpful. I was a new woman. A woman who enjoys, and possibly even needs coffee. It's only a matter of time before I'm fully addicted, spending 10% of my meager income on coffee.

So now, here I sit, in an internet cafe, working on my project with a coffee in front of me because I was feeling sleepy and losing concentration at home. Seriously, the last thing I need in my life is another useless substance to waste my money on. Sigh. It's all downhill from here. I'd feel worse about it, if the coffee didn't make me feel so goooood...

Reasons I love it here

7. People here are as pasty as I am!

8. Karen is a really common name (giving the impression that I belong here.)

Settling in

I was pretty proud of myself when I moved into the new flat. First, I discovered an awesome cafe with WiFi just around the corner. It's called Moo Cafe. The food is really well done and affordable, and the service is very friendly. If I ever work up the nerve, I might join their weekly French speaking sessions.

I get really annoyed with strappy tops that fall off their hangers, but when I was unpacking all my clothes, inspiration struck. I stuck push pins into the wood of my IKEA hangers, and voila!

I explored my neighborhood a bit more, and discovered that I live in a really, really nice part of town. There's a library and loads of cute shops nearby. Here's a picture of a deserted hotel by the river.

I made my first trek to IKEA. It's a 30 min bus ride out of town, and its not long before you hit the Scottish countryside. I had to limit what I bought based on what I could physically carry, but got loads of basics.

My first week, I was really good about cooking. I started off with a broccoli and cheese casserole (I modified a recipe from Campbell's). Then I made oriental turkey burgers for Bill. Yummers! Here's a picture of leftovers.

(Sorry, the photos are all out of order. Not entirely sure how to work this Blogger app.)

I has a smartphone! Woo! It's hard to type on this thing. Have to dash back to work but will update more later, I promise!

New Home

I have a home! Yay! There were a few teething problems when I moved in, and I wasn't 100% sure that I'd made the right choice. But after a week and a half, I know that I did make the right choice. I have a studio flat all to myself! I don't have to share with anyone! And the kitchen is a decent size and in a separate room.

Problems when I moved in:

1. The whole place smells of cigarette smoke and I am allergic to it. I've improved that a bit already by removing the huge, dark red, smoke-infused curtains that made the place look like a theater (or brothel) when closed. I bought some sale curtains from work, but then found even cheaper, thicker, more appropriately-sized ones at Ikea. Already the place looks and feels lighter and airier.



2. One of the windows wouldn't shut or lock properly (deja vu from my Seattle studio!) I called the letting agent immediately and she sent someone round to fix that. He did a pretty shoddy job, but at least my windows lock shut now and no one can just pull them open from the outside. Result!

3. The guy who moved out didn't hook the washing machine back up, and whenever I used the kitchen sink, I leaked water into the cupboard underneath it. It took me a few days to realize this was happening. Anyway, the letting agent made the guy come and hook it up properly, so all is good so far (knock on wood that it stays good!)

4. I'm on the ground level, right off the street, so if my blinds are open, anyone and everyone can see my whole life right there, so I think I'm gonna make some screens for the windows, once I figure out a good way to do that. Ikea sells some bamboo and wax paper window coverings, so I might try cutting those to size.

That's pretty much it. I've already spent most of my paycheck for July on furnishings and kitchenwares and bits and bobs, but I'm very pleased with the place. I got a futon base and a big, blue bookshelf for £13 (plus £2 delivery!) Now I just need a futon mattress and my guests will have a comfy bed to sleep on. Yays!

Note the flowers, from a man!!

Budget

I was reading "R's" blog earlier and one of her posts actually made me miss Africa. I'm not sure how. I didn't think it was possible. I did not love the Africa, as Carina once put it. But her post made me remember my dream, which I've forgotten with time. Well, not really. I just have two competing dreams: one to live in the UK and have a really enjoyable time here and maybe never leave, and another to go to India and save some sick people...without doing any doctoring or nursing, cuz I'm not qualified for that...not sure exactly how that will work.

Anyway, I have these two opposing forces inside me, one to save money for when my visa expires and have to go out into the even wider world and seek my fortune, and another to live it up while I'm here. And I was thinking about it just now, about setting myself a budget for the next 9 months in order to save £1000 (which seems like so little but will be such a struggle to save). And I got to thinking about how much money I've been living on for the past year. I have been paying well over 50% of every paycheck to rent. I could certainly cut back and save more money than I do currently; I could stop eating out full stop, I could stop buying prepared lunches when I'm too lazy to make mine ahead, I could stop buying discounted clothing from work and exclusively buy charity shop clothing. But I think I have to give myself credit for just how little I've been living on for quite a while. Give myself credit, and then buck myself up for further cuts, because I could definitely do better.

Wish me luck. It's going to involve lots of things I'm terrible at, namely, planning ahead and cooking. Blech. And possibly giving up my addiction to the internet, because internet is flippin' expensive!!! In this country, you have to have a landline in order to get internet, so you have to pay a monthly fee for the landline (even if you NEVER CALL ANYONE) and another monthly fee for the internet. Not to mention the set-up fees for both. And most companies charge you an exorbitant fee for the wireless router. When I heard that Amy and Diana didn't have internet, I thought they were crazy! Now I realize, they're just grown-ups who have to pay bills. Since I've lived with other people (or in residence halls) up to now, I haven't had to deal with any of that. Bills were just included in the rent, and that was that, happy go-lucky. Now I'm forced to consider every minute expenditure. It might break me!

I spend a huge amount of each day online. I'm not sure I can live without internet. But I might try to see how long I can last. Uugggggghhhhh...It's for the children; for the sick, little children...

Crafty stuff

I had the day off today and the weather was mees-air-aw-bluh! so I spent all evening on the web, mostly video chatting with Becky, but also checking out crafty blogs. Now I feel inspired to do some crafting, but as I'm living out of suitcases and all my crafty stuff is in boxes at Corrado's, I'm going to write notes to myself of things I want to make.

1. At work, they are doing a company-wide contest for an employee to create a new apron. I don't know how to sew and know nothing about fashion design or textiles, but I thought I could brainstorm ideas anyway!

2. There was a tutorial here for making a mini magazine. I thought the idea was cute, but didn't really have anything to make.

But then I was looking for yarn shops in Edinburgh, and remembered that I wish I had a special map of the city where I could mark places to check out/go back to (shopping in this city is AMAZING!!) So maybe I'll make my own little map book using this technique...if I can find a color printer somewhere.

3. I saw a baby onesie in a magazine that had applique ballet slippers on the chest and an attached tutu, but I totally didn't see ballet slippers; I saw lungs and thought, "Awesome! But what's with the tutu?" Then I realized they were ballet slippers and felt completely let down. So now I need to learn how to applique so that I can make a lungs t-shirt. Because that would be awesome on so many levels.

Don't they look like lungs??

4. Um...I forgot what was gonna go here. It'll come back to me later. Oh yeah, I remember!! I was telling Becky about this earlier. On the corner of Corrado's street, there is an off-license (a kind of crappy convenience store that is ubiquitous throughout the UK). I noticed that they had a couple old, metal shopping baskets shoved in the window and forgotten. One of them is rusty and unappealing, but the other has kind of a yellowish enamel and looks like a flea market treasure (something we would sell in our shop for £35 or more). I really want it but I'm too chicken to go in and ask about it. Becky said I should go, though, and have no fear, so I think I'll pluck up the courage. It would be great in my new flat, maybe for storing my yarn stash.

5. On the same topic of flat decor, I was in a shop a couple weeks ago called Nomad's Tent. They sold some cool stuff from all the world, mainly Persian rugs, but they had this BEAUTIFUL metal trunk from India that I fell head over heels for. It was painted bright blue with big pink roses painted on the lid. I waaaaaaaaant it! I wish I could find a picture of something similar. Maybe I'll just have to go back and ask the man if he minds if I take a photo. Anyway, it's £65, which is a staggering amount of money...buuuut...I mean, it's way cheaper than we'd sell it for in our shop. I think it's too low to double as a coffee table, sadly, so I can't justify it as a furniture expense. And I couldn't really use it as luggage, even though that was it's original use back in the day. I don't know...I'll think about it for longer.

6. Not a craft, but whatever: this is what I'm going to buy in July (as if I'll make it through the month having only bought one article of clothing; it's good to have goals).


I think it's perfect for the Scottish summer and will go well with my dresses. Also, I love these, but they are still a bit pricey for my budget.