Scotland Part 1 18th - New Year.
Good Afternoon from Sunny Gifu! (Sunny yet Snowy....)
After 36 hours of traveling ( I counted...how sad) I Finally got back to Gifu where Rin picked me up and we went for Ramen and I died.
The flight coming back was alot easier than coming out. I didn't seem as exhausted and the next day (after 4 hours or so sleep) I went straight to work. I had a wonderful time at home. A truely wonderful time.
As it was the festive holidays and alot of people were busy etc I didn't get to see as many people as I may have liked to. But I saw alot of people that matter and for that I am truely happy.
I got back to Scotland on the 18th and after a few days of settling in and fighting the sleep deprivation that was causing me to be non functional at 8pm at night, I went to Dundee to see some friends. Walked around whitespace, bumped into Gregor, Went for dinner with Sensei and friends ( Martin, Malcolm, Chris, Kirsty, Rob, Pete, Nomi and Deji) . Drank at Dukes corner (the old Doghouse) met up with more friends (Amy, Mike, Neil, John, Iain) and then went to Amy, Mike and Cathals CASTLE of a flat where I scared Neil with my monster impressions. It was awesome. Especially the running around the stone pillars and the drinking the bottle of champagne and the eating of all the biscuits and then again with the running around the flat. I also got to see Cathal in the morning before he was going home to Ireland and his Girlfriend which was nice. I missed friends! I then went to have lunch with Karen before going back to Glasgow to maybe see Gemma but that fell through, so I didn't get to :(. But I did get to watch films with dad and crach out on the couch.
The next day we went to the Pantomime with Chris and Bob. It was like a Scottish Pantomime, with all the local Glaswegian accents and voices. They even had Black Eyed Peas "I've got a feeling" as one of the songs. We went to see Pinoccio, which was on at the pavillion http://www.paviliontheatre.co.uk/xml/shows/shows.asp?id=20091202
I don't think Robert really liked it...but that didn't matter! :) Afterwards we met up with dad and then it was off to dinner. Hunters Chicken and some Cider. Yum Yum.
Then there was Christmas.
I had got these months ago for my family. How cute do we look :) I bet your Christmas didn't look like that!!
I don't think dad liked his so much...
After opening many many presents ( mine included Socks, Pj's, weird badges and things from my brother, bags, gloves, etc) we had Christmas dinner.
(Rin also got me a Tiffany's Key Necklace....very expensive and posh and loved!) I got lots of cool things like a Diary and just well...everything! Maybe didn't need so much chocolate though!
Mmmm Christmas Dinner. I love brussel sprouts!!
Mum, Dad, Uncle Iain, Robert, Gran and Aunt Chris were all present for Christmas Dinner. We even watched Dr Who at the request of Aunt Chris. Then it was time to say goodbye and everyone went home. Me and Bob watched one of his Dvd's...I can't remember which one for the life of me now but I remember it was good.
Boxing day was spent in Dundee meeting up with the Kids and Karen. (The kids being my lil cousins Ewan and Emma). Look how Cute she looks there. She never tells you that shes secretly wanting to jump on you!!!
Me and Emma. On a rare occasion where she allowed me to photograph her.
Mum and Karen in the kitchen with the wine.
Dad asleep on the couch.
we then played party games. This one was musical chairs. We also played musical bumps, pass the parcel and musical statues.
All of those games were lost....to the kids. But thats the way it should be! Its not right if I can win at Musical Bumps!!
Ewan and Emma were great. We played War, Dress up, Ewan's ps3, james bond, football, skateboarding, and all sorts.. I had alot of fun with the kids. Even if they did think that Rin was a boobist!! We made him a video to tell him so too... he really enjoyed it.
The next day we got up, ate and had a round of bowling.
Emma, Ewan and Dad. I lost the bowling. Oh well! It was nice to see Karen and the kids again. I just wish I could have spent more time with them. But maybe next year.
We then hurried back to Glasgow to meet up with Gemma, but I never got to see her, oh well. Then....it was off to see Cat and Tom in Edinburgh!
In the morning I went off on a search to get a belly dancing outfit...but got lost and asked at one of the wiccan shops...not only did she point me in the direction of the Belly dance shop...she gave me 3 belly dance outfits for free!!!!!!!!!!!!! So that was an unbelievable highlight of the day!
Then I met up with Cat and Tom :) It was so good to see them again. We went to the Jekyll and Hyde Pub first off for lunch. (stealing your photos here Cat).
Going through the Bookcase to get to the haunted Toilet!
We worked our way through the 7 deadly sin Cocktails :) I think we did fair enough!
Then we went to continue our pub crawl to the Frankenstein bar and then to another restaurant where me and Tom met our fate at the hands of what we thought would be a small-ish Pizza...
I mean...LOOK AT THE SIZE OF THAT THING! we had decided to go for a slice of pizza...but seeing as this was cheaper...then we went for it..and boy could we not finish it!
Then it was off to the last bar, in the old Cinema for Kahlua's on the rock and lots of knatter. We met up with various friends of Cat and Tom's but somewhere down the line they always disappeared O_o maybe we ate them. Did get to see Miquette, Rob and Aoffie though too which was nice.
The trains unfortunatly were extrememly late..so we had to kick about for a while. Oh I got an awesome book about Themed Restaurants in Tokyo which is a new project I'll start on when I go to tokyo next. To go to them all!! :) It was great seeing Cat and Tom though. I wish Japan and London were closer.
(Cat's post on the day can be found here; Cat's Blog )
Then it was off to....I dont know..what did I do again? I went shopping again :D:D:D:D Then I headed up to Dundee for the last time (OH noes!) I went up and had an amazing Pancake place lunch with Louisa (YEY) where she gifted me in lavishes of Dior Perfume and frame sets and brushes and things. (I smelt awesome coming back into Gifu). We went a little shopping and raided Monsoon for clothes. Of which we were successful. I met up with some of her other friends and then it was off to see Kirsty and Malcolm in the flat. Kirsty was working on photoshot and Malcolm was being Malcolm and doing 300 things at once :P I brought up some wine for them as they got engaged recently (OMG ENGAGED!) So that was super nice. I like Kirsty's ring, it sparkles. We hung out in the studio, drank wine and then headed out to Bert Wednesday (basically a night out for gamer type people). I got to see more of Louisa and also Iain, Rob, Martin, Cathal, Mike, Amy and Neil. Then it was back to the flat full of cats and then to Lunch the next day with everyone.
The trip back to glasgow wasn't so bad as I was reading Twilight (oh yes...I've been reading it). Then mum and I picked up a Chinese before sitting down and eating it. It was yummy. I love UK Chinese food. Its nothing like Chinese I bet, but it still tastes amazing. I think we ordered too much as we had stacks of the stuff left over. But it was amazing none the less.
New Year was spent at home with a few Neighbours round and Gary and Vikki, Leon, Gail and Aiden, Liz and some people I had never met in my life. Then some of the neighbours from down the street came and suddenly an accordian came into the picture. We went to bed about 3.30 and then that was it for New year.