23-29 april

23 monday
worked on my ICMPC abstracts, went to work, had a group come look at the flat, did more school work.

24 tuesday
went to the gym, worked on my abstracts, went to work, looked up bpms online.

25 wednesday
worked on my abstracts, went to work, made paper mache pinatas, dealt with my bpm file.

26 thursday
went to the gym, finalized my abstracts thanks to adrian's feedback, looked broadly at my bpm data, went to work, played rounders.  i took the opportunity to reinforce baseball terms rather than random rounders primary school nonsense. according to one child, it's my specialty.  i liked that comment, but it was a rough go at trying to have a game.

27 friday
went to the post office to post off my genie (magic bullet uk-style) so there goes another thing.  glad to have it sell, but i've learned the larger heavier objects don't do as well since the shipping is so much that it doesn't give you as much as lighter things like books and CDs.  although i suppose any bit of money back it more than nothing.  plus i sold the slinky dog toy i got for my birthday and the boules set so that's not too bad.
went to campus.  worked on my CLOUD data results, but soon had more questions than expected.  went to the gym.
dealt with scanning/taking pictures of my papers from roehampton so that takes care of a binder's worth of papers that no longer have to be moved.

28 saturday
had a skype chat with a student in australia who might be able to help me get a few participants.  definitely will be an adjustment learning those phrases and that accent coming from here.  then video chatted with autumn which was really nice.  glad to talk to her although i got sort of sad to be away from friends.  had a girl come look at the flat - she'd be great so we're hoping that it could work out with her.  went to campus to get some work done.  worked on my cloud results, and then went to the gym.  except apparently the gym has switched to summer hours and it was closed already.  i probably looked really strange standing in front of a self opening door waiting for it to open. was sad that i couldn't get into the gym.  talked with mom.
brittany and i decided to cook a nice dinner.  so we had bangers and mash.  homemade mashed potatoes and veggie sausages cooked with onions. and a side of corn and a cheesecake for desert.  plus this sparkling berry cider.  it was delicious.

29 sunday (today)
went to the castle since it was basically the last day i could go still for free from my english heritage membership (runs out tomorrow).  was super chilly - 40 degrees or so out and cloudy so not a nice day.  walked around the castle and the military museum (which i didn't see the other time i was there).  although at one i tried to hear the gun and it didn't go at one so i'm not sure how i missed that. oh well. saw the crown jewels and strolled through the hall and whatnot.

PHOTOS: http://blogographannex.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/castle.html

went to the weaving mill on the blanket mission, only to discover the one i was meant to get is no longer there.  the guy recognized me though, so that's special.  clearly he's answered my questions more than once about the blanket options. told him he'd see me again as i'll have to go back.  went to the gym and did a bit of work on campus.

PHOTOS: http://blogographannex.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/hwu.html

was thinking i'd get to a different section, but really just went back through one i did yesterday.  not excited with the results (still may have to re-run the analyses, so i'm hoping the relationships stay the same and i'll just then have to change the specific numbers...we'll see) but maybe something will come from it.  nothing is standing out as a great result, and there's some that seem to be contradictory to what i'd think so i could use some assistance with it.  

15-22 april

15 sunday
went to campus to work on my ESM draft and to the gym.

16 monday
had a skype meeting with adrian at 9 in the morning.  end of his day but the start to mine.  it was really really really nice to talk to him.  hadn't had contact other than emails since he left i  guess.  and with the things we were discussing (related to this ESM article draft) it really works better to be able to have a back and forth conversation.  not a delayed attempt at describing my question via email.  so that was great.  it was the last day of the holiday break and so i wanted to do something before re-starting the regular week. and since it wasn't raining, i decided that i would take part of the afternoon and go for a walk and see the modern art gallery since i had never been.  so i did that and had a lovely few hours to myself seeing sculpture and walking through a bit of town that i don't usually.
and then i went to campus and worked on my draft and went to the gym.

photos: http://blogographannex.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/modern-art-walk.html


17 tuesday
article draft work and then oscars work

18 wednesday
went to the gym and to get work done on campus before oscars work.
received word that i have been awarded a scholarship to curtin university which makes it financially possible to live in australia while going to school there.  which is amazing. it really is, but while that news is great, it didn't come with a revised letter to be able to apply for a visa.  so i'm still trying to sort out the visa, and being here, and getting there and whatnot.

19 thursday
while my pottery class has finished, the thursday people still have class. so i went to pottery class to finish glazing my 3 pieces that weren't fired before my class finished.  and i picked up a bunch of my finished stuff.  i like some of them.  i don't know what to do with them though now.

photos: http://blogographannex.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/edinhoodies.html


20 friday
called australia to ask about my scholarship offer and then went to the post office to post my acceptance of the scholarship. sadly it has to be a physical thing and will take 7-10 days to travel there.  and the lady that goes to is not someone who is able to help me with my enrollment letter. so i emailed that lady hoping that in this coming week i can get that letter sorted out.  i'm still stressed about the whole process - my brain hasn't really factored in this scholarship to make it more likely that australia will happen.  i think i need to have the letter to apply for the visa before that.  i went to school to try to be very productive.  and i was sort of productive and cleaned out most of what i had there but being on campus wasn't that great.  was hoping to see jane-marie but she didn't come in so that was that.
spent the evening going through clothes and things to find more to donate and clean up my room. and scanning some documents to cut down on papers that i then won't need to move.

21 saturday
spent a large portion of the day cleaning since brittany and i are having an open house today (sunday) for potential new renters for the flat.  as part of our deal in breaking our lease early we're sort of in charge of dealing with finding new people for the flat.  the open house is happening right now, we've had three sets of people come in.  only one group was interested but we're waiting on more people who said they were coming although it's close to the end of the time we said we'd have it.  so i'm less excited about the chance of sorting it out today.
after cleaning, brittany and i went to the cafe to do some writing.  i re-went through my discussion and conclusion bit of my draft and figured it's at a point to send back off to adrian.  so i did email it to him last night.  hopefully it's not too terrible.  i think that bit is a bit jumbled - the ideas are there but it's not the most precise writing. and now it's 19,500 + words (a dissertation amount).  as adrian said, it will make a nice sound when dropped on a desk in paper format.  and it is a then a considerable chapter of my thesis.  so hopefully it's not terrible.
we went to wetherspoons to have a pint and burger meal deal for the evening.  there was this concert thing that was supposed to happen but then plans got all iffy and weird so we opted not to do that and just go to the pub. it was a chill evening although real madrid was playing barcelona so the pub was packed for the match.

22 sunday (today)
went for a walk along the canal and ended up at asda.  and this open house.  so far not as successful as hoped.  but the flat's really nice and clean and tidy. maybe people will still arrive.  we'll see.

photos: http://blogographannex.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/canal-walk.html

8-14 april

8 sunday
went to the grocery store with brittany.  we decided to walk to asda to get some exercise so there's an easter event.

9 monday
went to campus to get some work done.  sadly couldn't go to the gym, but did get a push  to start getting back on track to get some work accomplished.

10 tuesday
worked the afternoon shift of easter holiday after school club.  again only a few kids and nothing that great.

11 wednesday
brittany and i had only one day that both of us weren't working in some way during the holiday break and so we took a day trip.  we took the train to north berwick (east of edinburgh).  i'm really glad we were able to at least take a day during the holiday.  was really sad that i wasn't off traveling somewhere ( i mean last year i was on an island having amazing indian food for easter dinner), so i was glad we could take the day.  and i hadn't travelled east on the train (only really have gone to glasgow to the west).  so we went over and it's a little tiny town on the water.  it reminded me of cape may in a few ways.  we walked along the beach and then checked in on the bird centre.  there was supposed to be a cheaper boat trip option, but that was no where to be found so we ended up booking with the scottish seabird people so it was more money than either of wanted/could spend.  the boat goes out and around two little islands to see the seals, puffins, and gannets.
The gannets live on bass rock and it really is an incredible sight.  so in the end the boat trip was definitely worth it.  So because we booked that for the afternoon, we had time to walk over and climb the law (north berwick's equivalent of arthur's seat).  It was a good walk and an awesome view from the top.  when at the top, we were able to watch the train from edinburgh come across the fields into the town which was really neat to see.
And we lucked out with the weather because it was a beautiful sunny day (came back on the train to the rain falling in edinburgh).  it was forecasted to be rain and sun so it could have gone either way, and with our entire day being outside, it was really great that it was nice.
We walked through the little main street and had lunch sitting on the beach.  And went back on the train after our boat trip.  Was a nice day.  We saw lots of animals.  Oh and i also got to hold a lobster.

photos, lotsofotos: http://blogographannex.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/north-berwick.html

12 thursday
Went to work for the morning shift of holiday club.  it was a pirate themed day although the kids didn't really want to do much of the activities.  i did spend a chunk of time making paper gold coins.  which occupied my time if nothing else.
Went to oxfam to donate some clothes on the way back and went in and out of about 4 charity shops.  Was nice to actually be able to go in them instead of just pass them on the bus.  To actually be out during day hours was weird.
Went to campus to work on my ESM article and the gym after that.

13 friday
went to work for the full day of holiday club.  we had 3 kids and took them into town for the science festival.  we had tickets to go see the bang goes the theory (a BBC science tv show) which was interesting although probably above the kids knowledge levels. and had lunch in the park on princes street and visited the interactive bit of the festival.  it definitely was a nicer way to spend an entire day of work.

photos: http://blogographannex.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/field-trip.html


14 saturday
went to campus to get work done on my ESM paper.  did pretty well throughout the week working on it which was definitely needed.  also went to the gym.

1-7 april

1 sunday

2 monday
it was easter holiday week. so i only worked from 8-1 on the first monday day.  we only had about 5 kids and 3 adults so it really wasn't that great.

3 tuesday
didn't really do anything for the rest of the week.  sadly was not a productive week, not even a little.

4 wednesday

5 thursday

6 friday
went to the cinema with jane-marie.  we saw the hunger games and then had some nachos at nachos fiesta.  it was really clear to me that i haven't been out in town doing something on a friday night in a really long time and that i haven't been out and around in a place with a large group of strangers because it was kind of bewildering evening.  just probably more sad than anything else.  but we had a nice evening.

7 saturday
i went for a walk down to holyrood and then up the mile home.  was a nice walk although it started to rain and was really gray and dark when it wasn't raining.
brittany, jane-marie, and i went to have dinner at nando's which was nice and then brittany and i got a cake from tesco for dessert that was super delicious.  we called it dinner for easter, not that it was fancy or in any way easter-like, but it was nice to go to nandos.  haven't been in a really long time.

photos: http://blogographannex.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/april.html