Hair friends

Haha, it's funny when I see pictures of my hairstyle on pinterest... I guess it's time for something new! ^^

Self Portrait Thursday - week 51

This is me with some candles that I've lit for the projects in my life that I want to tend to and make from small flames into big fires in the coming months. :o)

Wishing everyone a very merry Christmas!

Some more Yule pictures

Our improvised altary on a hat box. ^^

This is what the scene in front of the window looked like yesterday at nightfall, as we were waiting for the dark.

And this is what greeted me this morning:

Phew! Another year where the sun hasn't died, but is reborn. :o) Hooray for sunny days! I think I'm gonna take the plunge and go for a run in the park now.

Here's some pictures of my yule-styling. When nobody around you celebrates, you have to make the day special for yourself somehow.

Tonight it's the whole family outing to the theater. I'm curious as to what awaits me in terms of British comedy...

Yule

Even though it's only small and simple, we've improvised an altary and a little celebration for the solstice. And we'll bear with the world as the longest night wears on.
To you all a blessed Yule, happy Hanukka and a very merry Christmas!

The place to be

The place to be on a long, dark and dreary winter afternoon in Britain is, of course, a pub.

A pub is something like the British's public livingroom... they go there to meet up, eat, read, work, watch TV, play games...
So a good pub, of course has to be homely but spacey, serve good food (most importantly chips!), and, of course, good beer.

For people like me, a good pub serves mulled cider, offers free wifi and a quiet corner to do my evening knitting. ;o)

I think I can get used to this solution for the dark and cold times. Cheers!

Pictures from London

I don't know what it is with me and Britain, but every time I've been here the weather has been favourable. Sure, it rains from time to time, and it is often grey. But most days have moments of sunshine in them, and then you can see everything glow. It is almost as if the world here is more able to enjoy these precious minutes of glorious light.
I won't lie, I also love the drizzly, grey evenings in the city, when London seems to dress up as Ankh-Morpork and you're walking in a cliché.

I couldn't help myself but I've really only selected my absolute favourites this time.

Southbank

British museum

Christmas lights

Happy Weekend everyone! :o)

Self Portrait Thursday - week 50

This nasty cold has been creeping up on me like I've never seen it before. Normally I feel it coming for a day and then - wham! There it is. But this time I really believed I could hold it off until yesterday. Then I woke up with a severely sore throat and hurting ears and I knew I would go through it all.
So I'm whipping out the Tiger Balm and hiding in my big scarf. Some things you just have to take how they are. ;o)

Take care, don't let the bugs bite!

Oh how pinteresting!

Here are some of my current favourites from the infamous Pinterest. I'm linking up with the Vintage Apple for "Oh how pinteresting" Wednesdays.
We're visiting Trev's Grandmother in the countryside for two days, so I'll be off the net for that time. I wish you all a great second half of the week.

starfishing

i think everybody needs a space like this!

Make cinnamon ornaments for your christmas tree... yum!

How about some simple and phantastic holiday decorations?

really sweet and easy christmas card!

Who would make these for me??

Thanks for reading!

A tin of santas...

Ok, so Santas, yeah, funny.

Hey, look, there's more... haha!

Uumm... what the...!

 

Holy shit!!!

!!!!!!

Season's greetings! ;o)

Hello London, hello bugs

Trev must have passed on his cold to me. I've had a scratchy throat all night and don't feel my most energetic today... So I've been staying in bed dozing the day away with a hot water bottle and a flask full of hot lemon with honey to keep me company.

Haven't really been doing anything... it makes me feel even more tired. I hope I will feel better tomorrow. I don't want to spend my time here half-sick. Oh and having that scratchy throat makes me want to eat icecream all the time. Blegh.

Glasgow

So we're up here in Scotland since two days. Trev has an interview at the University of Glasgow for a job as a post doc.
I know, I know. :o) We've just got a flat in France, now we're up here in the noth. How is that supposed to work? Well, Montpellier was always only planned as an interlude between PhD and postdoc. The university there doesn't have any groups that work in the field that Trev wants to get into (Biofuels). It was my choice to go to France because I really want to spruce up my French and since after this our destinations will be very much defined by where there's work for Trev, he agreed to go there for a while.

Now up here, of course, it is a different story than in sunny, 15°C Montpellier. Trev was at the uni all day yesterday, so I went out exploring on my own. You might have heard in the news that Scotland had the worst storms in over ten years - yesterday. I can tell you, they really were BAD. One time really all I could do was brace myself against a wall and use all my strenth to not get blown into the direction that I just had come from... it was frightening at times. I also saw a girl that had been hit on the head by some stones that had fallen down from a roof.

Nevertheless I walked all day and got a good impression of the city.

Botanic garden

Cathedral

Necropolis

When I was walking through the Necropolis, it started to pour down, and then the rain turned into hail. It was really painful because the gusts of wind slammed the little pieces of ice against my legs. So I ducked between two tombstones until it was over. Weird feeling...
Afterwards, the grounds looked as if some favouring spirits had spread cherry blossoms everywhere.

random city shot

I decided to walk back towards the hotel along the river. It was such a fight! Parts of the walkway were flooded. When I got back I was really exhausted and felt as if I had been walking for hours (well, I had, but I felt unusually exhausted). When I was lying in bed that night my legs still felt like they were walking, struggling against the draft. ^^

really high waves

So after that exceptional first day, today felt a lot milder, even though it is very chilly and still soggy and grey - winter weather in Scotland.

Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery

 

University of Glasgow tower

You'll read this on Saturday, when we'll be spending the day looking at the city together and possibly deciding if it would be a place to live in for 2-3 years. On Sunday we're taking the train down to London to stay with Trev's parents until christmas.