I love Zombie McCain

Zombie McCain wants votes.. nghhh..





That pic was in a Scottish Newspaper i was reading at the Elephant house cafe (the place where harry potter was written). I can't believe they published a picture like that. Poor guy looks like they opened the Ark of the Covenant (that's a little Indiana Jones humour for you)

Searching for a flat in Edinburgh

Figured while i was in Edinburgh for a few days i'd have a look at a few flats.

So far i have seen about 6 places and all of them fit into one of two categories:

1) Nice flat, shame about the people

2) Nice people, shame about the flat


I had a look at one flat in town, that was about 460gbp per month. That's pretty high. Actually for what the flat was, it was REALLY high. It was an old dentists office. It had two showers and two toilets. Sounds good yeah? Well, the showers are literally a shower with a step then a door, the toilets were smaller and the the door formed the 4th wall. So there was no real bathroom. But i guess that's okay because my room had a sink, in the middle of the wall. So if you wanted to get around your bed you had to scooch past between the sink and the bed. The kitchen was a mess, it was sharing with 5 other people, was probably going to get work done to it soon, it had no rubbish collection and he was trying to charge 460 for it! Ridiculous.



The other flats weren't exceptionally bad like that one, they were just kind of meh. I mean, i'm going away for two weeks so i can afford to be choosy. Basically, i just want a nice flat that is pretty new or newly rennovated with a lounge and a reasonably sized room. Sigh.. guess i've got plenty of time to look and i can stay in a hostel until i find something that really grabs me :)

Still though, Edinburgh is beautiful and i could have done a lot worse for a place to wander around.

From Edinburgh

I climbed Arthurs seat yesterday, i'll have to go back up there and bring my camera.

On the train back to Glasgow.

My gran is awesome OR My gran is Mrs Doyle from father ted

Okay, so because i grew up in New Zealand and most of my blood relatives were living in Scotland and Ireland i never really knew them.

I DID go to Ireland when i was 5 years old and met them then:

From 10-21-2008 - Family Photos

but to be honest i don't really remember it, and do you really ever meet someone properly when you're 5 years old. Actually, i do remember talking a lot about Postman Pat, but then he was awesome (even if he was a Ginger).


[sidenote: wow the train is getting REALLY full, glad i've got a seat.. take that old lady with crutches.. hehe joking]

Grandad is gone now, as are my mum's parents. So i'll never really meet them properly.

Yeah so i might not have known my family over in Ireland, but they certainly knew me. I went to Grans house and found a whole lot of pictures of us as kids and even my graduation photos (unfortunately it was from my Bachelors degree so i had the 'white fro').



My gran is awesome. She suffers from dementia and forgets things within a few minutes BUT she can remember old stuff and is still in really good physical shape so is not completely dependant or anything.

From 10-15-2008 - Ballycastle

Thing is, she doesn't know who i am whenever i walk in the room. I got worried about this initially because i didnt want to freak her out.. but my gran is so awesome and welcoming she gets me tea and biscuits talks to me for ages then asks my aunt discretely who i am.

From 10-17-2008 - Ballycastle

What's good though is that once i explain i'm Peters son she understands completely and everytime is like meeting a  long lost relative for her. It's so sweet.

She is the ultimate hostess. :) Even if she does offer me tea over and over again. She forgets i've just had one you see, or that i'm having one and don't have it my hand at the moment. It's funny. One dinner time she offered me bread like 50 times.

From 10-17-2008 - Ballycastle

She says i'm a lot like my dad. At one point she thought i WAS my dad. I'm hearing that a lot lately from my relatives. I guess it's true, right down to me bounding off the track to look at a mushroom while on a walk. :P

From 10-19-2008 - Carrick - a - rede

I could do worse, my dad is pretty awesome too.

Rathlin or "you are so much like Peter [my dad]"

Bear with me here, i'm writing this retrospectively. :)

I went to Ireland. It was green. I met relatives. They said i was like my dad.

That's it really.


Okay, so my Aunt and Uncle took me to Rathlin, an Island off Ballycastle where my dad grew up.

From 10-14-2008 - Rathlin

I have a bit of family history linked to that island. My mum's dad grew up there, as did my dad's mum. In fact they knew each other at school (well, EVERYBODY knew each other on a small island like Rathlin). Also, my dad's dad was the lighthouse keeper on Rathlin for like ever. My mum's mum used to spend most of her time there as did my mum and dad. Oh, and also my house in Waitakere was called 'Rathlin' after the island.

From 10-14-2008 - Rathlin

The Island itself is pretty small (like 4 miles across). You catch a small boat over from the mainland (Ballycastle) and it takes all of about 55mins on the big boat, or 20min on the small.

Hmm, actually if i go on and tell you about the island it's going to be pretty boring. There's not much point describing it because you can SEE what it looks like right here:

From 10-14-2008 - Rathlin

From 10-14-2008 - Rathlin

From 10-14-2008 - Rathlin

This is the Western point lighthouse that my grandad worked on.

From 10-14-2008 - Rathlin

Thats me at the Mack and Cherries. Apparently, if the two rocks touch the world will end so the thing to do to prevent it is put more rocks in between.

From 10-14-2008 - Rathlin

Just down from the Mack and Cherries is Arkill bay. Apparently my dad would love to build a house there. Bit isolated, not sure what mum will think :P

From 10-14-2008 - Rathlin

Probably the most exciting things on the island are the seals. How badass are seals? Quite badass.

From 10-14-2008 - Rathlin

Yeah so here's another slideshow thing.



I just had two nights in Rathlin, because i needed to head back to the mainland to meet my gran and family on my Dad's side......

First days at work aka blog post wall of text

I've just had my first couple of days of my new job. About 2 weeks ago i got offered a job as a Research Assistant at the University of Edinburgh, in errr... Edinburgh. When i left for the UK i would say that i don't really want to work in London, but it would be nice to get a job in Edinburgh and here i am, worked out quite well i think.



So my job is within an Evolutionary Biology Lab that does a lot of work on Malaria to test evolutionary theory (basically evolutionary theory states that an organism will do what's best for making babies). Don't worry, i'm working with rodent malaria so there is never a chance of me catching anything. But it does mean i can't have pet mice.

Working with mice will be cool, except for the killing and cutting them up thing. :|

But, in my first two days i didn''t even SEE a mouse.

I got to work at 8:15am because i figured that i best make a good impression and start a little earlier (at my old job i started at 8am, but i figured most places start at 8:30). Turns out that Edinburgh uni employees can start anywhere between 8 and 11am. So basically i was sitting around until someone turned up at 10. Great way to start.

Actually, it's pretty awesome that they are so casual. Because everyone has their own schedule you are left to work to your own hours. So if you feel like sleeping in... sleep in. :D

Yeah, so there isn't actually that much to report considering my first two days involved paperwork and pretending to work.

Everyone at work is really cool. It's a pretty young crowd which makes a change from working at Landcare (i DID really enjoy working at Landcare though, don't get me wrong). My boss is exceptionally easy going.

So i had my two days of work and now as i'm heading off to Brussels i've got 2 weeks off.

I think i'm really going to like this job. :)

Went to the Uni Halloween party last night too. Everyone made such a huge effort. Winner of the night was Pac-man. Oh, i went as pig man. Pig mask, bloody shirt and a black hoodie. However, later in the night i put on my spiderman outfit and with the pig mask i became SpiderPig!



Awesome.

Well, i guess i'm officially on holiday again. Man, working life is tough.

Placeholder : Will be back to internet access on Sunday

Michelle is my new favourite Beatles song.