Sun, Glorious Sun!

It’s summer! The sun is out, it’s warm, what country am I in again?! Surely this can’t be Scotland, land of wind and rain. 

Oh don’t get me wrong, it still rains plenty, but we’re actually getting some half decent full-on sunshine too. Which is great for anyone suffering from a lack of good old Vitamin D. 

It’s been a good few weeks since I last posted, so I will bring you up to speed with my endeavours!

I will start with the exciting news I mentioned at the end of my last post. Mere days after launching the last blog post in to the “blogosphere” (I hate that word, and promise never to use it again, probably), I was accepted on to the University of Glasgow’s Access Programme. As my high school  grades are not super amazing and also about 8 years old, I need to put some more work in to getting back to Uni that your fresh-out-of-high-school-youngster. The Access Programme involves taking two evening classes a week over an academic year, and if I achieve good results I will be admitted to the University proper in my chosen undergraduate degree programme! I cannot tell you how excited I am, and I for one cannot wait for September, when my evening classes start. While I don’t regret leaving the course I attended when I first went to University, I do regret not thinking more carefully about other options. But that’s water under the bridge now and I’m really looking forward to the future. I suppose there are downsides to returning to full time study at this stage in life. It would likely involve leaving a public sector job unless I can get part-time hours, and there’s that biological clock to consider. I remember when I was around 20 years old, my plan was to either have no children, or to have had all of them by the time I was 30. Sorry past-me, that was not to be, but that’s just how life is! But I know other people have pursued their ambitions and faced even greater challenges than I will, while managing a job and little ones, so I’m just going to run with it. My job is just that, a job. It’s not a career, there are few (if any!) development opportunities linked to my current role, whereas with the degree I’m looking at, there are a few options available that tickle my fancy that could lead to a genuine career path, even in my mid-30’s. 

I feel supported in this decision by this magical Unicorn, that I discovered in a shop while in Edinburgh for the weekend:

It’s clearly a sign that I’m on the right track, after all, it’s not every day you find the softest, plushiest and oh-so-affordable (it was on sale, another sign!) Unicorn! My joy at the Unicorn discovery (I named him Fred, by the way) was boosted by finally seeing the Edinburgh trams in action!

Okay, so it took way too long for them to be built, and they cost way to much money to build, and the whole project was one gigantic mess after another, but now that they’re here, I kinda like them!

My Edinburgh weekend was amazing, it was a proper girly weekend with two of my friends. There was take-away food, there was wine, there was music and dancing. Oh, and we visited the Ting Thai Caravan, a pop-up restaurant that decided to stick around, offering up some delicious food. 

Near the end of June, MotH and I, along with a friend, let’s call her G, attended the Southside Shindig in Queen’s Park in Glasgow. It was a scorcher of a day, and the festivities were in celebration of the upcoming Commonwealth Games and diversity in general. There were wee performances and more delicious food! Mmmm, jerk chicken, so good! We ended the day with a pint of something alcoholic (naughty!) and a lovely view.

And I got my annual sunburn.

This happens every year, I step out of the door thinking “oh, it’s partly/mostly overcast, I’ll be fine”, and then the sun comes through and goes “hahahahahaha, fooled you!” It leads to an even redder faced me, along with tender arms (my legs on the other hand never see daylight). When I remarked on how warm my sunburnt skin was, even days after the initial burn, MotH replied with “it’s because you’ve trapped the sun in your skin!”, which I thought was quite adorable (awwwwww!). 

Despite all these outings, I have been a right hermit for pretty much the last half of May and most of June. A new MMORPG (that’s Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game for you uninitiated) has been launched by the name of Wildstar, and it’s awesome! Despite the “Multiplayer” aspect, I do most of my playing by myself, much to the dismay of MotH, who thinks I should be more social. The game is clever and witty and sarcastic, and doesn’t take itself to seriously, which are all good things in my book. The characters I’ve created are me, but more awesome and with enormous weapons. I feel like a ninja, an angel of death, and sometimes the power gets to my head, muahahahaha. I have engaged in small-scale socialness, like small group events and some general chit chat in the chat function. MotH doesn’t understand my reluctance to play large group oriented events. My main worries are those age-old fears that we all had as children (unless you were a psychopath/sociopath): “What if the other kids don’t like me?!”, “What if I don’t play well?”, “I haven’t done this before and I’m scared of doing it wrong!”. Considering that it’s a GAME, and that I’m 28 years old, I can see why these fears seem totally irrational. But it’s still a social game, and behind all the pixels are real people of every creed, gender (or non-gender), orientation, age, ability and so on, and I don’t want them to dislike me :-P But despite the non-socialness, the story within the game is really compelling, the graphics are beautiful, and it’s just awesome! It keeps me coming back, which I can’t really say for World of Warcraft (the Big Boss of MMORPGs that every other MMORPG gets compared to) anymore. I’ve slightly overcome my yay-it’s-so-shiny-and-new addiction, which resulted in a stack of dirty dashes, piles of dirty laundry and many missed bedtimes. What can I say, I was enthralled! If you’re in any way of the computer game persuasion, I can highly recommend it! In fact, I think it’s time I went back to play some more!

Have a continued lovely day, everybody!