I R Settled

Realisation suddenly hit me today - i'm settled in. I no longer feel that i'm abroad and after a long day coming ot the flat feels like home.

Whats been happening you may be asking?... well:

- Hiking: Scotland has amazing scenery and we have been visiting it thanks to Breakaway - the university's hill walking club (www.breakawayclub.org). Last weekend we stayed at Kinlochleven and went hiking around Glen Coe in the areas known as - "The Devil's Staircase" and "The Lost Valley".Yes they are as impressive as their names suggest :). Unfortunately i didnt get any photos on the last day (lost valley walk) since it rained NON-STOP all day.... och the scottish weather...

- Photography: Lots of things to photograph: Sports, Events, Campaigns for the Student's union, and my istocky stuff :). Also we are getting closer to the 5D Mk2 release date... come to papa!

- University: Department is great, subjects are interesting, coursemates are fun.... but... I remember how much i hated prolog and logic at uni.... oh well.Oh and more assignments :)

- Friends: I miss you guys! (and gals! - without whom my sexist jokes wouldnt be half as fun :)) Luckily the people are really friendly here - i think in the last month i've met more people than i have in the last 5 years back home.

- Pancakes: Keeping the tradition alive (always reminds me of mattoo) and going strong - last P Night i actually experimented by making the thick american style pancakes - they are yummeh... but the batter is stickier than... er... um... well its sticky :) Nutella + Chicken mixture (NOT TOGETHER!) are still the favourite toppings :)

Oh apparently we had extremely summery weather so far (by scottish standards clearly) and the weather is going to get colder in the next few days. Over in the west there are weather warnings issued - i think the wind is strong enough to knock you down... crazy.

Over and out!

Busy Busy Busy!

Freshers week has just finished and so many things have happened in the last week that it amazes me just how much of your day is 'gone' when you work.

On the scholarly side all is well, we're having an Introduction to Java course (which i used to teach demmit! :)) ..but i'm actually enjoying going completely over spec since the last months at work didnt involve much programming.

In more general terms, the deparment of CS is great here - we have a great environment, which is very well equipped, there are Macs everywhere which i have learnt to love. In fact hand on my heart i take back everything negative i ever said about them. Oh and we also have a real coffee machine! (i was still missing the lavazza machine at CcBill :)). Lecturing is going to be pretty intense and we are looking at lectures all day for many days of the week - unlike malta, here we will learn 1 subject at a time intensely for 2-3 weeks and move on rather than all the subjects at once for the whole year.

On the social side, many of the people here are very friendly and we've already made many friends. also for such a small town there are a huge amount of things happening - the university clubs and societies (i've joined a few :)) are very active and its not uncommon to have multiple events in the same day. This weekend the town is buzzing because of the Dunhill Links Golf tournament here on the old course (pics in whats happening section).

Internet has been ordered and i expect to be fully connected again (read: able to download/upload stuff) on tuesday.

Cheerio

Our new home

Short and sweet post :)

Still having to use the library for internet which is a bit tedious, still sorting out bank/broadvband etc etc.... but in the meantime here are some photos to keep you busy

http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=161158&l=4126a&id=686765532

Settling into St Andrews

Och Laddie! Its a wee bit cold innit?

Dunno how to put it, we came in, dumped our clothes and turned a perfectly clean, perfectly empty apartment into an aparment perfectly full... of rubbish :) i kid i kid, clothes and electronics have been put away neatly and i find myself doing things (like cleaning up) which i would never do at home. The apartment itself is lovely, big enough that we both have enough space (and space for visitors!!) and small enough that its cozy.

I'm still on my diet and have reached the target weight of 85kgs (only 3 days after target! HA to those who said it was not possible :) ), and next week i'm looking forward to opening all the new herb jars and christening my new kitchen!

University starts next week and now freshers parties will be starting any day - i'm now ready and settled in (only internet is pending so i'm going to be spending time in coffee shops and their free Wi-Fi) - so bring on the Masters lets begin!

On a seperate note istock is really picking up, i have 110 downloads and its steadily growing :)

Talk to you all when the next coffee arrives

Packing away Ze Canon

Yep,

its getting packed away as we speak, i was planning to do a last photoshoot this weekend but there is too little time and there are too many people i want to meet so its going to have to wait..

here are the last images taken in malta. Broken Puppet, and Krista graduating respectively.

I'll be gone til november, i'll be gone til november...

Actually it might be a bit longer than that! In just 2 weeks i leave sunny malta to go to study in Scotland - St Andrew's.

At first i was quite nonchalant about the whole thing, but midway between preapring thigns & farewell parties its really hitting me that i'm going to be away from pretty much everyone i know and like for a pretty darn long time.... but i digress

Most of my clothes dont fit! So with 14 days to go i have set a weight loss target of 9kgs ie a total weight of 85 kgs.... going to be a toughie but copious amounts of gym and excercise should help... i figure if i write my weight here every day it will be an added incentive to keep it up... we''ll see

So:
Start: 94.2kgs
Day 1: 92.7kgs
Day 2: 91.9kgs
Day 3: 91.4kgs
Day 4: 90.8kgs
Day 5/6: 90.3 kgs (Gozo Weekend)
Day 7: 89.8kgs
Day 8: 89.5kgs (Not doing enough exercise...)
Day 9: 88.9kgs
Day 10: 88.4 (Still not exercising! wake up demmit)
Day 11: 87.7 (Excercise started again! :) )
Day 12: 87.4
End : ?

Oh God vince's food smells tempting..... must resist!

Over and out!

Of Teeth and Red Hats

Ok so as i write this i'm still in pain from the wisdom tooth extraction. To be fair its not as bad as i was afraid it would be, however it is incredibly annoying to do anything with your mouth (i was referring to eating and talking.... perverts)

With less than 3 weeks to go i really should start packing... but since i never leave things to the last minute i spent this weekend taking photos.. (for a change!).

Here we go:

Unfortunately the first shoot didnt go very well technically (i made big booboo with the lighting) so my patient model and i reshot the whole thing.

Meet: Happy Girl (tm), The Grinch, and Is that MY present?!? Girl :)