Random events of the last 6 weeks

So, this last six weeks has been rather full. I posted most of these photos on facebook already, so for those who "see" me both places may well have already seen these, but for those who don't, here's a quick catch-up in photos... (May looked rather sparse for blogs, so I'm cheating and using this as a catch-up!)

First off, my friend (and Jeremiah's wife) Shawna had to leave in the beginning of May, so we had one last party over at our friend Jeremy and Elizabeth's house. As before, there was much sing-star-ing (Jeremiah and I managed a top score as did Shawna and I. The secret to this is one-note wonders of songs!). It was, of course, followed by some Wii boxing, bowling, and tennis.

Kathleen and Jeremiah singing with Shawna enjoying the surround sound.

Shawna and Jeremiah show off the method for a happy marriage. (Shawna won the boxing match, btw.)

The following Monday I had to go back to Glasgow to do my biometrics for a third time (I still don't have my visa nor my passport back, but that's a different story and I am working on rectifying this situation -- my flatmate meanwhile is threatening to turn me out and rent my room to a legal-immigrant!). Kathleen kindly let herself be convinced to drive me to Glasgow and then do something interesting afterward -- the interesting activity being my first visit to the Kelvingrove museum.

Kathleen outside the Kelvingrove.

Continuing my Pre-Raphaelite quest, a Rossetti!

Random hanging faces with lots of different expressions... So I had to join in, of course!

Mom, this one's for you, reminds me of so many of the books at home!

The star of the Kelvingrove, a stunning Dali (Christ of St John of the Cross)

The following weekend involved an evening/overnight/gourmet breakfast at Meg's with Kathleen featuring quite a number of Buffy the Vampire Slayer episodes - and the stunning pancake/egg/sausage breakfast the next morning. This was immediately followed by a trip to Glasgow with Team Bridesmaid for Nina's wedding -- the first time all 4 bridesmaids were in the same place in an attempt to find us dresses for the wedding. The attempt was partly successful in that we identified the best dress but unsuccessful in that Monsoon didn't have them in stock in the right sizes. (Nevertheless, she was eventually able to order them online, so the day was, all told, a success!) That was then immediately followed by the Castle Ceilidh - something I've wanted to do the whole time I've been here but never have actually done. It's exactly that, an outdoor ceilidh in the grounds of the castle. There were probably 150 or so people there, swinging and spinning and running into each other wildly. I met up with Meg beforehand and Verena in the castle and danced the entire evening. There was a good ratio of guys to girls and once I got over my very first asking-a-complete-stranger-to-dance fear, I then danced nearly every dance -- with strangers, some repeats, a few friends... as it should be! =) It was a blast!!

The chaos on one I chose to sit out and have a breather.

Meg and I. Sad she's leaving in July - it really helped that she's way more extroverted than I and got me out there dancing at the start...

Starting up the torchlit procession in town. It made me think of days when this would have probably been a terrifying mob scene leading to someone burning at the stake or something. This was just vaguely organized chaos...

A last farewell to the castle at 10pm - still light out!

The torchlit procession wound its way along from the castle to the cathedral...

...and then to the end of the pier (at which point I ran out of camera battery). We sat up on the hill by the cathedral watching the traffic jam at the end of the pier until the first lights began to head back along the top of the pier -- and hoped no one fell off that narrow ledge!

A few weeks of other undocumented stuff - such as Amber and Paul's baby shower, the Eurovision party for which I've already shown photos, a farewell party for some other friends, as well as a ton of work, last weekend brought in a high degree of hilarity and randomness to my life. All along I've known I was very lucky with my current flatmate, but since I was gone somuch in the fall I hadn't really gotten a chance to get to know her until this semester. She's one of those amazing people who actually does the things I've always thought about but not done - which brings a great deal of randomness and fun into life.

So, Friday we (with someother of her friends) watched Momma Mia! and pondered how much brain space was wasted between the two of us with Abba lyrics. Saturday I somehow found myself standing at the carwash holding down our very grey (white plastic) bench from our garden while she powerwashed it. We returned with a light grey-white bench which she then scrubbed with steel wool while I cleaned out (for the first time ever) the back corner of our garden. We now have a very welcoming little sitting area back there -- but we also then wondered if this was really the best use for our energies... But anyway... Sunday afternoon she then kidnapped me and took me off to Tentsmuir Forest, a nature reserve/beach just north of Leuchars to which I have shockingly never been. We wandered out to the beach where conversations went along the lines of:

V: "Ooh, a hole" (stoops to photograph said hole for next 5 minutes).

V: "Ooh, driftwood!"
V:" Ooh, more driftwood!"
V: "Ooh, broken bottle!"
Me: "No. we don't need that."
V: "Yes we do!" (bottle bottom comes with us along with all the driftwood fragments)

V: "Ooh, driftwood!"
Me: "We are NOT carrying a 10ft long tree of driftwood back to the car!"
V: "We totally could!"
Me: "No. We are Not." (driftwood tree does not come with us)

V: "Since I couldn't have the tree I can keep ALL these other pieces of driftwood."
Me: "I think you should drop that one - it's ugly and boring!"
V: "If I pick up another piece that's more interesting I'll drop it."
(Picks up another piece but keeps boring cut piece. Threatens me with broken glass when I threaten to remove boring wood. I concede this battle.)

Me: "Ooh, I like that rock!" (rock added to collection).

After which we discover on walking back that we are a good mile-and-a-half away from the car. It was a long way back.... =)

Tentsmuir beach, looking north

Tentsmuir beach looking inland to the forest.

Verena, applying a subtle applying a subtle layer of sand stubble.

On our way in to Tentsmuir, we both confessed to a long-standing desire to jump around in a rapeseed field. Next thing I knew, the trip home involved a quest for a suitable yellow field... Finding one, Verena pulled the car over and in we went. My camera alas was out of battery again (there were a lot of unshown photos between various dead battery experiences), so I was dependant upon her SLR to capture the experience and I also took some of her on her camera -- but here's me investigating what it's like to leap around a rapeseed field. It's fun. Sonya reckons it might work on me like catnip on a cat -- I think it's the bright colour though! Most people around here cringe with an allergic reaction looking at these photos -- thankfully neither of us are allergic!

An initial leap - but you can barely tell that I'm leaping for joy (except for my face, which is fully expressive of said joy!).

I checked out the straight-up-in-the-air method of leaping to more success. =D

Good times were had. As I said to her by the end of last weekend: "I feel like my life took a turn for the random when I took you as flatmate!" It's so so so good and so healing for me. She brings such joy and humour to my life!

This past Saturday (yesterday) she helped me pick out a pair of glasses. It was rather comic and at points I put on bizarre pairs just to watch her face twitch as she tried to contain her reaction of horror to various looks I tried. One pair I really liked from the front had really bright and pattered sides -- apparently not such a good look on the whole as I watched her trying to hang herself with an invisible noose. Ultimately when I was down to 3 (or 4 including the one she hated so much!) we called in backup - not everyone answered their phones but Emily came along and provided the tie breaker. I'm getting a red, squared off set - quite stylish, but not overly obnoxious. The competing pair were black on the front and bright pink/red (I think pink, Verena thinks red) sides and while I loved them I decided that on the whole they were a little less professional than the others that I loved pretty equally. So... glasses I will own by the end of the week!

There, now May can end, I am entirely up-to-date. =)