.... I'd still only have 460,000 pounds. Darn exchange rate!
Seriously, though, after three-and-a-bit months here in Dundee, there's a few social conveniences in which I find the town lacking; and if I did have the aforementioned million bucks, here's what I'd invest in.
1) A Sushi place. Seriously. There's not a single shop that I've found in Dundee where you can get hand-rolled sushi - even the pseudo-Sushi handrolls you can get in any given place in Melbourne. Open one here, you've got no competition whatsoever.
2) A comic book store. Minotaur, your path is set. Aside from the Borders down the road (which only sells trades and graphic novels) there's no strong comic-book presence in central Dundee. I haven't read Ultimate X-Men in months!
3) a 7-11. Or some kind of open-all-hours convenience store. We've got a 24-hour Tesco (think Coles) down the road, but they don't have a Slurpeee machine. Or a place where you can buy questionable, fat-laden, microwave-in-the-store foodstuffs for immediate comsumption.
With these three things, I could turn Dundee into a geek's paradise. All I need is the money. Any takers?
Monday, December 29, 2008
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Monday, November 24, 2008
Well, finally!
We haven't had anything we could possibly tell you, because life here is rather dull. We get up, we clean the hostel for about three hours (if that), we hang about the hostel drinking tea and either knitting (me) or writing (Felix). Sometimes we'll head out for a walk, either up hill or down dale.
Early Sunday morning, life got exciting again. I had insomnia so I was wide awake at 2:30a, when it started snowing. Not a flake here, a flake there, but snowing. I ran outside in my pj's to get covered in snow, then ran up five flights of stairs to wake Felix up so he could wake up and see the snow. Sorry about that, babe...
Woke up around 7am to see this.
This is right outside our kitchen window, and as you can see, daylight still hadn't arrived. I ran back upstairs (yes, I am getting into better shape here), got dressed and grabbed my camera. Then I ran out and had some fun.
All the barricades were set up for the turning on of the Christmas lights here in Dundee. It was a HUGE evening! Take a look at half of the crowd.
They came to watch this:
...turn into this:
There was a countdown, then as soon at the lights were on, the fireworks went off.
Best view in the world - our bedroom window is about 20 metres from where the fireworks were being let off.
Yesterday was the first day I've ever felt like I belonged here, and it was amazing.
Even the fairies are bigger in Dundee.
Early Sunday morning, life got exciting again. I had insomnia so I was wide awake at 2:30a, when it started snowing. Not a flake here, a flake there, but snowing. I ran outside in my pj's to get covered in snow, then ran up five flights of stairs to wake Felix up so he could wake up and see the snow. Sorry about that, babe...
Woke up around 7am to see this.
This is right outside our kitchen window, and as you can see, daylight still hadn't arrived. I ran back upstairs (yes, I am getting into better shape here), got dressed and grabbed my camera. Then I ran out and had some fun.
All the barricades were set up for the turning on of the Christmas lights here in Dundee. It was a HUGE evening! Take a look at half of the crowd.
They came to watch this:
...turn into this:
There was a countdown, then as soon at the lights were on, the fireworks went off.
Best view in the world - our bedroom window is about 20 metres from where the fireworks were being let off.
Yesterday was the first day I've ever felt like I belonged here, and it was amazing.
Even the fairies are bigger in Dundee.
Saturday, November 1, 2008
Boo!
Despite the sole solitary American telling us that Halloween is an American holiday only, we persevered and had a party just the same (he's wrong, you know. Halloween has been celebrated in Scotland a lot longer than the US. The Irish and Scottish took the holiday with them when they emigrated. Moron). Waaaaaayyyy too much fun was had by all.
Aside from some sparkly bats and pumpkin tinsel (no, really) we also had some tasteful dribbly skull candles,
and a pumpkin, carved by yours truly. This was my very first pumpkin and I managed to impress myself. Next year, I'm doing Doctor Who.
Yes, for the observant, it is Frank from "Donnie Darko". I thought he looked evil enough.
Now for the costumes.
Felix, playing Shaggy, complete with Scooby Snacks.
Jade, as Mata Hari (just pretend you know who that is, okay? I felt like a nerd for knowing).
Andrew, as Father Dougal from "Father Ted". Being Irish, he had the accent down pat.
John, as a ghoul. I did his makeup, and he sat perfectly still, so kudos to him.
Fransisco, as a Celt. He's from Chile, which makes this so much funnier.
Scott, taking his shot, even though he can't see properly. His Lego head took him two days to make, and he was stoned out of his mind from the fumes. Won seven games on the trot. Still no idea how.
Felix agreed that the head makes you dizzy.
Peter was a WerePimp. His medallions read "Pimp My Wolf Winner 2007". Scary how sleazy he sounded with the silly voice.
Mitch was Angry Jesus. He's back and he's pissed. Complete with cross with a pointy end for stabbity.
As for me, I was an iPod ad.
Well worth it.
Aside from some sparkly bats and pumpkin tinsel (no, really) we also had some tasteful dribbly skull candles,
and a pumpkin, carved by yours truly. This was my very first pumpkin and I managed to impress myself. Next year, I'm doing Doctor Who.
Yes, for the observant, it is Frank from "Donnie Darko". I thought he looked evil enough.
Now for the costumes.
Felix, playing Shaggy, complete with Scooby Snacks.
Jade, as Mata Hari (just pretend you know who that is, okay? I felt like a nerd for knowing).
Andrew, as Father Dougal from "Father Ted". Being Irish, he had the accent down pat.
John, as a ghoul. I did his makeup, and he sat perfectly still, so kudos to him.
Fransisco, as a Celt. He's from Chile, which makes this so much funnier.
Scott, taking his shot, even though he can't see properly. His Lego head took him two days to make, and he was stoned out of his mind from the fumes. Won seven games on the trot. Still no idea how.
Felix agreed that the head makes you dizzy.
Peter was a WerePimp. His medallions read "Pimp My Wolf Winner 2007". Scary how sleazy he sounded with the silly voice.
Mitch was Angry Jesus. He's back and he's pissed. Complete with cross with a pointy end for stabbity.
As for me, I was an iPod ad.
Well worth it.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Can someone turn the heating up?
It's 5 degrees today. There was snow at 7am - we of course slept til 9am because it was so cold (0 degrees overnight). I love this weather. Apparently, it's going to snow again tomorrow.
We haven't really been doing much of late. Get up, clean stuff, swear our heads off because 44 people left in one morning. Yesterday was 23 people. They were a set of four bands on tour. Guess how much four bands can drink? We know because we cleared the empties - 7 garbage bags full. *sigh*
Anyway, for your entertainment today, we give you Angus MacLeod.
This was Angus' room - as you can read, he was a bagpipe maker. There was a fire, and he died, about a two centuries ago.
Unfortunately, he likes to turn up now and again. Like when you're asleep in Room 14. People get woken up by a Scot in a kilt telling them there's a fire. When they run out of their room, there's no fire. Then they go back to their room, and there's no one there.
I live in a building with a ghost. I'm pretty darn satisfied here.
We haven't really been doing much of late. Get up, clean stuff, swear our heads off because 44 people left in one morning. Yesterday was 23 people. They were a set of four bands on tour. Guess how much four bands can drink? We know because we cleared the empties - 7 garbage bags full. *sigh*
Anyway, for your entertainment today, we give you Angus MacLeod.
This was Angus' room - as you can read, he was a bagpipe maker. There was a fire, and he died, about a two centuries ago.
Unfortunately, he likes to turn up now and again. Like when you're asleep in Room 14. People get woken up by a Scot in a kilt telling them there's a fire. When they run out of their room, there's no fire. Then they go back to their room, and there's no one there.
I live in a building with a ghost. I'm pretty darn satisfied here.
Monday, October 20, 2008
Quite a journey
Six months ago, Felix and I sat down to buy ourselves an anniversary present. It was one year, so traditionally that means paper. We bought two plane tickets.
Move to now and we're here. It's a little surreal at times, but otherwise fun. Oh, and it's 10 degrees tomorrow. Hope you're all enjoying your suffocating heat...
Move to now and we're here. It's a little surreal at times, but otherwise fun. Oh, and it's 10 degrees tomorrow. Hope you're all enjoying your suffocating heat...
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Pretty out of it
Did you know that the Opposition Leader in Australia is Malcolm Turnbull? I didn't until today. Ooops.
On the other hand I did notice that the Secretary of State for Scotland, Jim Murphy, is the spitting image of Tony Abbot, he of the "Noooo, religion and politics do mix, honest!" ideology.
Freaky isn't it?
On the other hand I did notice that the Secretary of State for Scotland, Jim Murphy, is the spitting image of Tony Abbot, he of the "Noooo, religion and politics do mix, honest!" ideology.
Freaky isn't it?
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Welcome to Dundee!
As usual, rumours of my death have been greatly exaggerated. I caught a nasty cold that turned into virus, which sent me to bed for five days straight, followed by one day sightseeing, one day bed rest. Bleurgh.
Right now, it is a very sunny 16 degrees, and Felix is off at the Magic release day, and I promise he will not be allowed to blog about it. We have a bagpipe band playing outside and all's right with the world.
My dad is at home asleep, and dreaming of this. Trust me on this.
The hostel we're staying in is amazing. No other words necessary. Now for the tour...
This is my ballroom. I now it's not finished, but it's a ballroom. You may now be jealous.
Here's the kitchen, with the ovens arriving shortly. I can't wait for that to happen. Just a hours after I took this picture it was chaos, mainly through three women feverishly trying to meet their 6pm finishing time for Yom Kippur - they used four saucepans and two frying pans! It was amazing to watch.
Here's the dining room - although now the new server is set up, it's the chosen room of the nerds with the wi-fi laptops (myself included).
This is the main hallway - usually full of the houseslaves workers. We tend to just hang about and slack off.
If you're looking for Felix - he'll be here at night. Turns out he's a shark and I didn't know. He foolishly beat me, so I must have vengeance soon.
This is ideal for me, so I was delirious with joy until I walked in...
...apparently, it'll have furniture soon.
I couldn't manage to get a decent shot of either the bathrooms or our bedroom. The bathrooms are small, but perfect - all brand new with heated towels racks, just lovely.
The bedrooms are either private rooms, such as the MacLeod Suite (sadly, there can be more than one bed, it has three) or dorm rooms. As members of the cleaning staff (in exchange for free accommodation) we're sharing a 10-bed dorm with 6 others. I'd take a picture of our room, but - scarily - we're the tidy ones. Really. It's a small disaster area, except for where we sleep. Scary.
The best thing about this place for me? The stair wells.
You can see just what kind of place this was - a townhouse built in the 1550's when you look at them. They're very steep and unfortunately there are a lot of them. To get from the ground floor to our room requires five flights of stairs, but they're so pretty you just don't care.
People just walk by with no idea how cool it is - I really like that bit.
Right now, it is a very sunny 16 degrees, and Felix is off at the Magic release day, and I promise he will not be allowed to blog about it. We have a bagpipe band playing outside and all's right with the world.
My dad is at home asleep, and dreaming of this. Trust me on this.
The hostel we're staying in is amazing. No other words necessary. Now for the tour...
This is my ballroom. I now it's not finished, but it's a ballroom. You may now be jealous.
Here's the kitchen, with the ovens arriving shortly. I can't wait for that to happen. Just a hours after I took this picture it was chaos, mainly through three women feverishly trying to meet their 6pm finishing time for Yom Kippur - they used four saucepans and two frying pans! It was amazing to watch.
Here's the dining room - although now the new server is set up, it's the chosen room of the nerds with the wi-fi laptops (myself included).
This is the main hallway - usually full of the house
If you're looking for Felix - he'll be here at night. Turns out he's a shark and I didn't know. He foolishly beat me, so I must have vengeance soon.
This is ideal for me, so I was delirious with joy until I walked in...
...apparently, it'll have furniture soon.
I couldn't manage to get a decent shot of either the bathrooms or our bedroom. The bathrooms are small, but perfect - all brand new with heated towels racks, just lovely.
The bedrooms are either private rooms, such as the MacLeod Suite (sadly, there can be more than one bed, it has three) or dorm rooms. As members of the cleaning staff (in exchange for free accommodation) we're sharing a 10-bed dorm with 6 others. I'd take a picture of our room, but - scarily - we're the tidy ones. Really. It's a small disaster area, except for where we sleep. Scary.
The best thing about this place for me? The stair wells.
You can see just what kind of place this was - a townhouse built in the 1550's when you look at them. They're very steep and unfortunately there are a lot of them. To get from the ground floor to our room requires five flights of stairs, but they're so pretty you just don't care.
People just walk by with no idea how cool it is - I really like that bit.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Fun in Dundee
Just popping in with a quick note to assure you we're not dead. Well, not completely, anyway - Andrea's developed a nasty cold, so she's been laid up for the last few days.
I managed to complete one of my goals yesterday - I competed in my first Magic: the Gathering tournament in the northern hemisphere. And, just like my sense of direction has been turned around by the move north, I've managed to turn my luck around, too: I managed a Top 8 finish, which felt kinda good.
The tourney was a little different to the ones I was used to. Ordinarily, in Melbourne, you'd be in a group of 32 guys, and there'd be between six and eight groups over the course of the day, playing four rounds of 50 minutes each. So, with allowances for deck building and general shenanigans, the whole thing would take about 5 hours - this means that the first group would be in by 10:30, out by 3ish.
There were around 40 players in total at Highlander Games, so we all ended up in one big group. According to the rules laid out by Wizards of the Coast, this means 6 rounds. And with the tournament starting at 12:30, this means that the thing ran for just under 8 hours. Now, I normally get match fatigue around the third round (due in most part to the fact that I've normally lost the last two rounds), but I somehow managed to keep myself awake and concentrating long enough to win four of my six rounds, netting me a 7th place.
Mad props to the guys at Highlander Games in Dundee, who run a very tight ship, and to Gary, who placated Andrea when she rang them at 8pm last night to try and find out where I was (once again, honey, I'm incredibly sorry).
Well, that's about all from us. Hopefully by the time the next post rolls around, we'll be (somewhat) gainfully employed here at the hostel. Wish us luck!!!
I managed to complete one of my goals yesterday - I competed in my first Magic: the Gathering tournament in the northern hemisphere. And, just like my sense of direction has been turned around by the move north, I've managed to turn my luck around, too: I managed a Top 8 finish, which felt kinda good.
The tourney was a little different to the ones I was used to. Ordinarily, in Melbourne, you'd be in a group of 32 guys, and there'd be between six and eight groups over the course of the day, playing four rounds of 50 minutes each. So, with allowances for deck building and general shenanigans, the whole thing would take about 5 hours - this means that the first group would be in by 10:30, out by 3ish.
There were around 40 players in total at Highlander Games, so we all ended up in one big group. According to the rules laid out by Wizards of the Coast, this means 6 rounds. And with the tournament starting at 12:30, this means that the thing ran for just under 8 hours. Now, I normally get match fatigue around the third round (due in most part to the fact that I've normally lost the last two rounds), but I somehow managed to keep myself awake and concentrating long enough to win four of my six rounds, netting me a 7th place.
Mad props to the guys at Highlander Games in Dundee, who run a very tight ship, and to Gary, who placated Andrea when she rang them at 8pm last night to try and find out where I was (once again, honey, I'm incredibly sorry).
Well, that's about all from us. Hopefully by the time the next post rolls around, we'll be (somewhat) gainfully employed here at the hostel. Wish us luck!!!
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Things I have learned in my first week in Scotland
1. Bacon sarnies kick serious ass.
2. This place is really old. Really, really old.
3. Most public transport in Scotland has free Wi-fi and power-points to plug your laptop into. Learn, Connex, learn.
4. A lot of bars in Scotland also have free Wi-fi. So, for the cost of a Coke, you can go house-hunting for hours.
5. Haggis has a bad reputation. It's actually quite nice.
6. Although public transport is kinda on the cheap side (once again: learn, Connex, learn), it's much more rewarding if you use the old two feet and a heartbeat. Unless you're dragging your suitcase from the hostel to the bus station, in which case it hurts like hell.
7. Hills. Lots and lots of hills.
8. Castles. Lots and lots of castles.
9. The birthplace of Alexander Graham Bell is now home to a software development company.
2. This place is really old. Really, really old.
3. Most public transport in Scotland has free Wi-fi and power-points to plug your laptop into. Learn, Connex, learn.
4. A lot of bars in Scotland also have free Wi-fi. So, for the cost of a Coke, you can go house-hunting for hours.
5. Haggis has a bad reputation. It's actually quite nice.
6. Although public transport is kinda on the cheap side (once again: learn, Connex, learn), it's much more rewarding if you use the old two feet and a heartbeat. Unless you're dragging your suitcase from the hostel to the bus station, in which case it hurts like hell.
7. Hills. Lots and lots of hills.
8. Castles. Lots and lots of castles.
9. The birthplace of Alexander Graham Bell is now home to a software development company.
If you ever need to lose weight...
...move to Edinburgh. The hills will either kill you and make your thighs disappear.
The trip over was uneventful, apart from a 20 minute turbulence episode that caused much humiliation (there may have been some sobbing). We arrived and headed straight off to our hostel.
Yep, it's an ex-church. As you can imagine, most of the tour was spent with dropped-jaws. Once we settled in, it was time to tour Edinburgh.
We were doing rather well up until the moment Felix said that it felt a lot like Melbourne. I pointed to our right and said "Except for that castle up there." He agreed on that point.
There are so many old buildings with signs stating "Burns ate here" or "Scott drank here" or "Johnson met Boswell here". I kept looking for a "..... hooked up with a harlot here" sign, but I never found one.
We walked up the hillside to Edinburgh Castle, almost falling over once or twice (obviously me, not Felix) and I left the desire to climb up the side and storm the castle to him.
The Old Town is a rabbit-warren maze, lots of steep hills and dark alleyways. I freaked out quite often, but only because I know far too much about Edinburgh serial killers. The steps are crooked, steep and a challange to beat any Stairmaster.
Other than that, I love it. It's old, dark, warm and lovely. I even like haggis. Not as much as Irn-Bru, but that's a new addiction, and must be respected accordingly.
Today we moved to Dundee. More updates soon.
The trip over was uneventful, apart from a 20 minute turbulence episode that caused much humiliation (there may have been some sobbing). We arrived and headed straight off to our hostel.
Yep, it's an ex-church. As you can imagine, most of the tour was spent with dropped-jaws. Once we settled in, it was time to tour Edinburgh.
We were doing rather well up until the moment Felix said that it felt a lot like Melbourne. I pointed to our right and said "Except for that castle up there." He agreed on that point.
There are so many old buildings with signs stating "Burns ate here" or "Scott drank here" or "Johnson met Boswell here". I kept looking for a "..... hooked up with a harlot here" sign, but I never found one.
We walked up the hillside to Edinburgh Castle, almost falling over once or twice (obviously me, not Felix) and I left the desire to climb up the side and storm the castle to him.
The Old Town is a rabbit-warren maze, lots of steep hills and dark alleyways. I freaked out quite often, but only because I know far too much about Edinburgh serial killers. The steps are crooked, steep and a challange to beat any Stairmaster.
Other than that, I love it. It's old, dark, warm and lovely. I even like haggis. Not as much as Irn-Bru, but that's a new addiction, and must be respected accordingly.
Today we moved to Dundee. More updates soon.
Monday, September 15, 2008
Almost there...
Lolli thinks she can thwart our escape.
Nice try, kitty. That suitcase is leaving in two weeks as unaccompanied baggage.
Now, to try and relax - pretty hard to do when you're leaving the country in less than 24 hours.
Nice try, kitty. That suitcase is leaving in two weeks as unaccompanied baggage.
Now, to try and relax - pretty hard to do when you're leaving the country in less than 24 hours.
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