Happy Birthday To Me

Another quick update.
My computer has finally crashed for good. The hard drive fails to spin, so I have retired the Toshiba after almost 6 years. My flatmates said that I could use their computers whenever I wanted to for the last month that I am living in Edinburgh, but the following day our internet signal went out (we were just using the open wireless signal from someone in our building). Considering the fact that I spend 7 hours a day sitting in front of a computer, I'm not totally cut off from the world, but not being able to google every odd thing, or look it up on Wikipedia, has taken a bit of getting used to.

This past weekend was my birthday and it turned out really good. We had a quiz night at work, then I went out with some of my co-workers. Saturday was cold and wet, so it wasn't all bad that I hung out on the couch for most of the day... Then Sunday I went out with some friends to North Berwick to walk along the beach before grabbing lunch at a pub. My flatmates got me a cake, so we had some of that while watching a movie last night.

Tonight a friend from home is coming up to visit for a few days - he has been touring around Europe a bit, then stopped in to see Tyler in London the past couple of days. I always look forward to having a familiar face around. It definitely makes the time go by a lot quicker.

At the end of the month 2 friends are coming over from Dublin to visit for the weekend, then I will be down to 3 weeks left until I finish work and move on with my travelling - I can't wait!

Just a quick note on the weekend

The weather was amazing Saturday, so Donna, Sarah and I took a blanket to the back garden and had a few drinks. The girls got through their first bottle reasonably quickly and I finished off the beer I had brought down with me so we made the first of many trips back up stairs to restock our supplies. It is safe to say that we were all a bit inebriated after a couple hours of imbibing with our chat; Donna and I made another trek up to the flat. When we got back down Sarah asked for the keys so she could use the washroom. I looked at Donna, Donna looked at me - Damn it! We were locked out. Hazel was in Perth for the weekend and it was now about 8pm on a Saturday night - no chance of getting a locksmith. Sarah put her McGyver skills to use and tried picking the lock with her bobby pin, with no success. I was trying to figure out what our options were when Donna blurted out, I'm gonna ram it! She went running straight at the door, dropped a shoulder and it popped right open!! The three of us burst into hysterical laughter, partly due to the ridiculousness of the situation, partly due to our drunken state, but mostly due to relief that we wouldn't have to spend the night sleeping in the garden. In our manic mood we grabbed more booze and went back to the garden, being sure to remember the keys this time - not that it really mattered knowing that we could bash through the door if need be. (The door latch didn't break at all - it just popped open. A bit scary to think that is the level of security that we have). After another hour of drinking and a game of "Never never have I ever" we decided we would go out to a bar. Donna said she was going to change and disappeared into her room. Sarah and I played Music Trivial Pursuit for a bit, then went to figure out what was taking Donna so long. She was completely crashed out laying halfway on her bed with her legs drooping on the floor. She was all partied out and done for the night; Sarah and I were forced to go on without her. We met up with Sarah's cousin and friends for more drinks. I think we got home around 2:30am or so. I loaded up on water and Powerade and went to bed. I wasn't feeling all that great this morning, but hung out in bed watching stuff I had downloaded on my iPod.

Tonight I went out for dinner with Jeff and Maren at an Indian place. It was delicious - I had the butter chicken. Jeff heads back to the Sates (Oregon) tomorrow, but I figure we'll have a meet up over there soon enough once I get back in November.