Thursday 31 March 2016

Edinburgh Trip



Somehow I managed to get my parents to fly me up to Edinburgh for a couple of days. God only knows how I managed to persuade them, but on Tuesday, Mother and I flew up to get absolutely #rekt in Scotland.

Obviously, that was sarcasm. We went up to visit the University, which, I can finally confirm, I put as my insurance! It was a long and arduous decision to make, but hopefully it was the right one. If anyone here is hoping to study at Edinburgh or has done in the past, please don't hesitate to send a quick message!

What first took me by surprise when getting off the aeroplane in Edinburgh was the weather. Being in Scotland, I assumed that it would have been colder, especially in contrast to 'Sunny Sunny Bournemouth', where I had flown from. The skies were blue, and the city looked gorgeous.

Along Princes Street

The Castle I didn't get to visit !!!


We were quick to dump our luggage off at our hotel. We had booked into a Travelodge on Rose Street, which was located conveniently close to Princes Street. For those who haven't heard, this is Scotland's equivalent of Oxford Street in London. In my opinion, it's also much nicer, as if you turn away from the shops, Edinburgh Castle is up on the hill towering down over you. Edinburgh feels much greener, much cleaner than the busy streets of London. On the third and final day of our visit, Mother and I went on the SightSeeing tour bus which was £15 each. It enabled us to hop on and off for the whole day, and pick it up again only 15 minutes later. The tour guides also offered us the opportunity to buy discounted tickets for different places (such as fast-passes to Edinburgh castle), but unfortunately we didn't have enough time. Maybe if I go to Edinburgh again I'll write a blog post describing my adventures then.

Great for the elder. Childhood memories were brought back to Mum and she exclaimed 'Ohh I had one of those!' every five seconds.

Scottish Parliament. Eye sore. Looks like guns are on the side of the building.
Mother and I
Please can someone tell me what this is

I can't remember, sorry. Looks cool though.




Moving on to the University - wow! Well, the day wasn't very well organised, but they had a cool app available on AppStore and GooglePlay which enabled you to schedule your day. My main lectures would be in St George Square, and it all seemed very modern and clean. After getting lost several times around the city, I came to realise that I was getting to know the city by doing so. As someone once said, "The best way to find yourself, is by losing yourself in a new city".


Friday 25 March 2016

The Boathouse



Every time I've been to Christchurch, I have always had such lovely days out. Today was no exception - the sky was blue, the birds were singing, and it was surprisingly nice weather considering that tomorrow is forecast 'torrential rain'. Hurrah for Easter.

I arrived in the center of town at around 10:30am, and spent half an hour sitting by the river reading Simone De Beauvoir.* I have recently found myself wanting to escape social media more and more, or just technology as a whole. There's a sense of release for me when I don't have to be looking down at my phone all the time. I'm able to look around me, take a deep breath of fresh air, and just appreciate my surroundings. That being said, I was reading on my Kindle, and was on loudspeaker to Adam**. Oops.

When arriving at the Boathouse, we were pleasantly greeted by a waitress who showed us to our seats. I'd recommend booking, as even though their most popular times are in the evenings, lunchtimes do get busy, especially since it is in a prime location opposite the quay. As shown above, I ordered Boathouse Burger (£12.75) and Adam ordered Chargrilled Halloumi & Roasted Vegetables (£12.95). Both were cooked to perfection, and served on an aesthetically pleasing dish. #snapchatworthy

Unfortunately, we were both too full to be able to slip in a Sticky Toffee Pudding or two, so we instead walked it off by visiting the ruins and walking along the rivière. I truly believe that an experience is enhanced when the weather is pleasant, but also, or even, more importantly, when you're in such great company.





* For those who haven't read The Second Sex I would highly recommend it. It tackles the treatment of women throughout history and is arguably what created the second-wave of feminism.

*All names in this blog are fake in order to ensure the privacy of my friends and conceal their identities. However, the characters are all real people and the events actually happened

Thursday 24 March 2016

Ramblings #3

I AM SO ANGRY AT ALL THESE HIGH STREET BRANDS THAT USE FRENCH WORDS/SAYINGS ON THEIR CLOTHING WITHOUT EVEN CHECKING IF THEY'RE SPELT CORRECTLY.

You'd think they would have enough money in their design department budget to be able to check up to see if the words are spelt correctly, right? Well, apparently not, and bilinguals are able to pick it up VERY quickly.

I was in River Island today (NO I'M NOT GOING TO KEEP THEM ANONYMOUS BECAUSE I'M SO ANGRY) and they had a t-shirt which said 'soigné' written on it. Nice material, nice colour, nice style, but not a nice saying!!!!!! I assume they meant to reference Kanye and the typical 'blessed' and wanted to add a nice twist to it. Fair enough, indi3 af. But the term in French actually comes from the word 'soin', meaning to 'care'. This, when conjugated, can be translated to 'to be cured from'. WHICH DOES NOT MEAN BLESSED. PLEASE GET A NATIVE OR NEAR NATIVE FRENCH PERSON TO CHECK YOUR PRODUCTS BEFORE PRODUCING THEM.

Rant over.