Back Up for Air

She's Alive!

Once again apologies for the long break, convalescing post-surgery and then going back to work proved to be a bit of a drain on my energy levels. It wasn't for the lack of doing interesting things though!

I believe that healing is in the mind as well as in the body, so I made myself go in to town and see some things that my normal work schedule otherwise wouldn't allow. I went to the Gallery of Modern Art (affectionately known as GoMA here), during the end of their Living with War exhibit. This featured works by various artists, spanning the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. It was quite moving and I'm really glad I was able to go. Obviously I didn't take pictures of the art, because that would have been less than popular, but I did snap some photos of the GoMA itself, which is also lovely!

Lovely Glass Dome

A view from the Top!

I also went to a talk on Seeing God in Japanese Traditions, which was held by St Mungo Museum of Religious Life and Art as part of a wider "Seeing God in... " series. I didn't get round to seeing any of the other talks, but Japanese spiritual life is a topic I know very little about, yet it seems so important to the culture. The talk was really lovely and informative, and the speaker was kind enough to email me with some suggestions for further reading. 

Sometimes when I wait for my train home from work I am struck at how lovely Glasgow Central Station really is, architecturally speaking, when you strip away all the fast food restaurants and newspaper shops. In my imagination I try to envision how it must have looked like when it opened in 1879. 

It's the lovely metal frame and glass roof, it's really quite iconic. The other large station in Glasgow, at Queen Street, has similar features inside, but not nearly on the same scale. Until I moved to Glasgow, I had no cause to see Central Station, as the fastest trains between Glasgow and Edinburgh run from Queen Street Station. I still remember telling MoTH "Why didn't you tell me Central Station was so beautiful?!" when I first saw it. If I told any resident "weegies" that I think Central is so lovely, they'd look at me as if I were daft, but sometimes it's all about looking up and seeing it as a construction marvel. The people in the station and on the trains, however, are another matter. As much as I like public transport, I have a great dislike of some of my fellow travellers. 

BBC Radio 2 recently had a mini debate about the eating of food on public transport. Hot and smelly food in particular. Apparently people are taking to snapping photos of the "offenders" and publishing these photos on facebook. You know, because apparently the smell of an egg sandwich can ruin someone's entire day! Boo hoo. If that is your greatest trouble in life, I hope you get reincarnated as a worker in a sandwich factory. If people are still getting limbs blown off by landmines, the rest of us don't get to complain about a smelly sandwich. Don't get me wrong, I get annoyed by a lot of things. Do I feel so strongly about it that I have to shame individuals on social media for mildly irritating me? No. There are bigger fish to fry in the world.

In early April MoTH and I had the opportunity to go see my parents in Norway! Yay! One of my mum's dogs had puppies back in February, so by the time we got there they were all fluffy and playful and adorable. It was very hard not to steal all of them, they just make you want to  love them forever!

Usually when I come back from Norway people ask me if I did much. And usually the answer is no. When I go home to visit my family, it's like when "normal" people go to their parents house for Sunday dinner. It's just that in my case it cost me a plane ticket and about half a day of travelling to get there, that's all. So it's not a "vacation" in the travel magazine sense of the word. On this occasion I did manage to snap a few shots of what they call "Salmon Stairs/Steps":

The idea is that in the salmon mating season the salmon swim upriver back to where they were born, to spawn. These stairs are put in where there may be dams, waterfalls or other hindrances to the salmon getting where they need to go. It's a pretty cool design, and pretty as well!

MoTH also caught a photo from the very bottom of the "stairs", over the river itself:

I feel like I always take photos of home when it's all misty. I promise, the sun does shine there! A lot! I just think it looks so magical, mysterious and moody, hehe. 

And now, because they are too cute to leave out: PUPPIES!

Okay, so they are asleep, but just look at them! Don't they just make you want to bundle them up and cuddle them forever? They are obviously all a bit older now, and have found loving homes, none of them with me, unfortunately. Ah, one day!

And then of course, the inevitable yearly event, my birthday! And MoTH had his the day after! We both had really great days. Actually, I think we had a really great week! Lots of well wishes, lovely and thoughtful gifts, nights out and just an overall fantastic time. MoTH got me this mug as one of my presents, and I have to say it feels like someone drew me as a pony. A disapproving, chubby (and AWESOME) pony.  I love it (because deep down I'm really a Unicorn, the fat pony is just a cover!)! 

Get Your Own! From TopatoCo

And with that, I feel I should conclude my return to blogginess! I hope to have fun and exciting news for you all soon! In the mean time, take care and enjoy the rest of your weekends (did I mention that I have Monday and Tuesday off too? hahahahaha!)!

XOXO, 

Miss Sophie

Engine Problems, or Lessons Learned from a Hospital Visit

First February Blogpost! Woo!

As many of you may have picked up, I was taken to hospital twice in two weeks due to pancreatitis caused by pernickety gallstones. I have now been discharged and am fine and well, although very tired, sore, and a little shaken by everything.

Lessons I have learned from all of this:

1. Take aches and pains seriously. Gallbladder issues can be so painful you feel like you’re giving birth to one of those chestbursters from the Alien films. A gallstone episode is sometimes known as biliary colic. If you get increasing pain in your upper abdomen (just under your chest, it is not a heart attack!) which reaches a crescendo and then diffuses slowly over the course of an hour or so, that may be the sign. My episodes have varied in terms of pain levels and how long each episode would take, but they all started with the same discomfort that morphed in to pain. The worst times I was genuinely frightened as that was a whole new level of pain. I didn’t go see my GP about these pains until after the third or fourth episode, purely because it was starting to happen on weekdays (and thus work time). Let’s pause for a moment: I waited until something was going to bother me AT WORK to seek medical help. Because apparently hurting and being in agony in my own spare time is ok? No, it isn’t. I would ask and beg all my friends, family, strangers on the street to seek proper medical attention as soon as you are able if something is not right. You know yourself well enough to know if a pain isn’t “normal”, and if something just isn’t right. Your time is just as important as “company time”.


2. As much as the NHS want us to use it, I’m not wholly convinced by NHS 24. To those who don’t know, NHS 24 is a telephone helpline for people to call up if they’re feeling a bit under the weather but can’t see their GP. During the swine flu season a lot of people were asked to call NHS 24 if they displayed flu like symptoms INSTEAD of visiting their local doctors’ practice, so they didn’t cough up their flu germs on everyone. HOWEVER, calling this number and having to go through that rigmarole when you are alone and in pain is an agony all in itself. After getting your personal details they then have to determine whether you are so ill you merit an ambulance, and if not, you get passed over to a nurse on doctor. These people can’t see you, so they can’t take your temperature, see that you’re covered in sweat and flailing like a child with colic and they certainly can’t give you any drugs to help it! “Get warm, take some paracetamol and take deep breaths” was actual advice given to me by a nurse who had ascertained that I possibly had acid reflux. When she said that, all I could think that those Gaviscon (a branded UK antacid made to combat acid reflux) adverts *really* downplayed the level of pain experienced by acid reflux sufferers. Don’t get me wrong, she did well given the extreme limitations of that service. It is, in my opinion, not an ideal service for people going through acute pain.


3. Surgery is terrifying and really cool at the same time. I went in to the theatre on Valentine’s Day. Let me tell you that exposing myself to a bunch of surgeons, nurses and anaesthetists and getting cut open was not what I had planned for that day, but it couldn’t be helped. I am slightly embarrassed to admit that I was not as brave as I had earlier let on to said surgeouns, and a tear or four escaped while I was lying under the harsh lights, listening to my own pulse racing on the heart monitor and keeping track of the ca. 5 - 6 people that I could see. That was before a nice lady doctor knocked me deeply unconscious with the power of drugs, of course. The seconds before my enforced Sleeping Beauty moment I willed myself to marvel at the miracle of science. Gallbladder removal surgery is usually done as a keyhole operation. Think about that. No one has their hands in you, 4 small cuts and some telescopic instruments are all they need. Apparently the procedure only takes about 45 minutes. My lunch break at work is 50 minutes! All that jiggery-pokery and playing peek-a-boo behind the liver, and hey presto, the gallbladder has left the building, in 45 minutes. It is deeply cool and awesome. NHS, take my money, it’s all good!


4. Be nice to porters. A totally under-appreciated group of people in the healthcare system, they are the ones who make sure you get to the right place. Going for an MRI? They’ll wheel your butt over there and back again. Going for another procedure somewhere else? No problem. Oh, changing wards? That’s fine. They spend their time wheeling people in beds and wheelchairs from place to place to let the nurses and doctors pend their time doing what they do best. Oh, and a shout out to lab techs and other unseen and unsung folk who work in the medical profession, you’re all part of the great science machine.


5. I hate morphine. The second time I went to A&E the doctor had only squeezed a minuscule 2 ml of morphine in my veins, when I grumbled and asked what on earth that was. Yes, it took away the pain, but it also took a dimmer switch to my cognitive thinking abilities. It was like someone was smothering my thoughts with a metaphysical pillow. Not to mention the nausea. While she laid off the morphine for the evening, I had a re-visit from my newfound nemesis post-surgery (apparently it’s the recovery drug of choice), which a poor surgical nurse had to witness the effects of. It may just be because I’m a control freak about… well me.. I hate being incapacitated in a way not of my own choosing. 

6. And let’s pause for a moment while I recite my ode to nurses.
Nurses are actually awesome. I know we all say this, and we all lament how underpaid they are, but they REALLY are. Don’t get me wrong, they aren’t all “nice” in the Sunshine Sally with Rainbow Sparkles kind of way, but bloody hell they do a lot of work. They are the ones who make sure you have tissues when you’ve burst in to tears in front of the 10 consultants and their minions who talk about you and not to you. They are the ones who tie your open-back (really irritating for someone who turns in her sleep, by the way!) hospital gown properly because you can’t reach the ties, and bring you lots of tea (or coffee). They dispense your medicine, turn down your bed, help you wash your face when you’re away in morphine-hell, make sure you get fed and watered, and are not bothered by various bodily functions and reactions. It was a nurse who helped me sit up and get out of bed the first time after surgery, a nurse who dressed my wounds, and a nurse who told me what to expect when going home. Being an introvert, I love the night nurses, who glide across the darkened ward and fix your saline drip while you sleep, or apologise when they wake you because they have to check your blood pressure.


7. Speaking of wards; I have a newfound admiration of the system. There’s a new giant super-hospital being built in Glasgow, which is proposing to have everyone in individual rooms. Again, the introvert in me rejoiced! I am not a-social or anti-social, I do like people, but I like to control who, when and how long. I can get over-saturated with human contact, especially around people who aren’t my family and very close friends. So the idea of being in a ward with 3 other people is a bit freaky to me. However, there was no way around it. The beds were far enough apart that we could sit happily in silence and have our naps (sweet, blessed naps!), but close enough to have an occasional chat. I am now a bit of a convert to the system, for a couple of (possibly weird) reasons. Firstly, being in isolation for prolonged periods of time can’t be good. One of the ladies in my ward had been there for over a month! Can you imagine if she’d had to sit in a room on her own all day? Second, knowing other people are in the same boat is both comforting (in the “I’m not alone in this” kind of way), and also a bit humbling. It forces you to stop thinking about you and your pain for a moment and share a sympathetic and empathetic moment to someone else’s pain. I think that’s incredibly important, not just on hospital wards, but in society in general. The moment we remove ourselves from others entirely and fail to see and acknowledge other people’s troubles, pains, joys and successes, is the moment society, in the true sense of the word, dies. But that was possibly a bit too philosophical. You can’t blame me really, I had a lot of time to sit and think!


8. Now, my last point: Having someone at home who tidied the house, went shopping for me and made me dinner on my first day home is awesome, and I am incredibly grateful to the Man of the House for the pains he has taken to take care of me! <3

A bit of a long post about something we are apparently not meant to talk about in polite society, hehe. As I’ve been signed off for 3 weeks I don’t know if I’ll have anything to really blog about, but in any case, I will endeavour to make my next post a bit more lively, hehe. But if I start blogging too much about daytime TV, please please please put me out of my misery!

Happy Halfway to Weekend and Good Health to all my readers! 

Shopping, Life, and Food!

Hi-de-ho campers!

Okay so I’m like four days late with my promised follow up blog, BUT it is still January meaning that this will be the third update in a 30-ish day period, the second post in January proper. Ha! I am awesome. ^.^

No but seriously, I am enjoying being able to write in a semi-creative way. I even managed a couple of hundred words of my novel the other day. They were terrible, but they were better than nothing. I also had a chance to look at something I had previously written and was actually able to give myself constructive criticism without telling myself things like “that is horrible, why would anyone publish that, ever? YOU SHAME ME!” So, progress is being made. I am pleased. 

This January saw me do something I never thought I would do: hit the January sales. In a big way. I mean really big. For me anyway. I have spent some portion of my adult life with very little money, so I have developed a habit of buying things on a needs-must basis. For example: I need food, so I buy it. I need a new pair of shoes because the only other flat pair I have are now broken and letting in water (an abomination I will not suffer gladly!), so I buy a new pair, etc. Buying something now for another day hasn’t really been a factor for me for a long time. It’s getting a lot better and I’m at the stage now where I can save AND buy something nice once in a while, woo! So what did I buy? Christmas things. Yes, you heard right, don’t judge me!

I was watching TV when the show Extreme Couponing came up, and it was themed specifically about the post-Christmas super sales a lot of stores (in the US) tend to have. While they may look mental, those women carted a whole load of stuff away for about half the recommended retail price. And mostly it was not luxury items, it was very methodically planned to stop them from shopping pretty much for the rest of the year (except for food, of course). My shops were much less organised, but I did manage to score some really awesome things! As I said, a lot of it was Christmas stuff. I bought about £70-£80 worth of stuff for about £35 which included baubles, cards, gift tags, a pillow (it had two turtle doves on it, I could literally not stop myself), etc. No I didn’t *need* all of it. No one *needs* a serving platter shaped like a Christmas tree, but it was adorable and now I have something cute to display my vaniliekranse (that’s “vanilla wreaths” to you non-Scandis, a lovely vanilla flavoured biscuit) on for Christmas 2014. And anywhere that sells gold and silver spray for less than £1 is a winner in my book. 

Apart from Christmas stuff I also got my very first Le Creuset item! I am so bourgeois that I would be one of those people that get killed in revolutions, so obviously I love me a bit of finery and well made products. My mum has a Le Creuset casserole dish in the original dark blue (they come in all sorts of fancy pants colours now!), and because I can’t remember when we got it, I am convinced it was forged in the primordial fires of the Earth’s creation, because that’s how long it’s lasted. It still works, it’s still awesome, and it’s still gorgeous. 

So this is my "Fennel" coloured Le Creset dish - I love it!

I also bought something to remind me of home. Royal Copenhagen are a Danish (duh) company that make stunning (and expensive) porcelain and china crockery. In addition to their traditional sets, they also make novelty style items with a yearly theme (you can see the 2013 stuff here). Last year was dedicated to The Little Mermaid, as the statue of her was erected in 1913, so it was a big anniversary! I bought the commemorative plate, but because I bought it after Christmas in the sale, I didn’t get it for the recommended retail price of £75, oh no. I bought it for £25! You could argue that no one needs a decorative plate these days, that’s old fashioned, and as it has no practical use (I wouldn’t dream of actually putting food on it!) then it’s just snobbery and a luxury. You could say that, but then I would just shrug and think you were very wrong. I need it because I am homesick and as I am set to be staying in the UK for a fair few more years, I want to have something that shows off my “heritage”, where I come from. I think it’s important, especially when it comes to settling down with a partner and making a home together.

Isn't she beautiful?

One of the things I bought in the Christmas sale was actually just sheets of coloured paper. It was obviously meant to form part of a “Oh God, please just give this paper along with some crayons to small children to get them to leave you alone!” scheme, but I knew there were destined for a higher purpose! Last year one of my friends told me about this awesome idea. The premise is that for each awesome, lovely, quaint, delightful or just-positive-in-general thing that happens to you, you write it on a scrap of paper, fold it up, and put the paper in a jar. Over the course of a year the jar with fill up with a visual reminder that life is actually okay, look at all the awesome stuff you’ve done so far! And then, at the very end of the year you tip all the paper pieces out and read them, to think about the year gone by in a really positive and uplifting way. I meant to do this last year, but was totally unorganised, and by the time I remembered it, it was May and I couldn’t remember what I had done in January! Not so, this year! Behold! 

So I basically cut strips of the paper and I write my little notes starting with the date, then what happened, and why it was awesome. So far I have included cinema trips if the film was really good, chats with friends I haven’t seen in a while, basically anything that made me go “Aww, that was really nice!”. There are no set criteria, except that it is nice, positive, or powerful in nature. Feeling down and just had a lovely mug of hot chocolate that made you feel better? Write that stuff down, and put it in the jar. I want to remember all the nice bits about this year. Also, to steal a phrase from another website (called The Everygirl), I want to make this year a “platform" year - A year of developing skills and laying the groundwork for things I will want to do next year and the year after. Basically a present to “future-me”. While I realise that I should also take care of “now-me”, I think there are ways of doing both. 

I’ve also been gluten-free (ish) for just under a month. So far… Well I never really liked bread that much anyway. Except Danish style rye bread, but I found an awesome Danish gluten free blogger who may have solved that issue for me, hooray! (for you Scandis reading, here she is: http://tante-glutenfrei.blogspot.co.uk) The world of bloggers have been immensely helpful in finding a shining glimmer of hope in the gluten-free desert. I’m finding it a bit hard though, and have slipped up a few times, because who knew that manufacturers put gluten-containing stuff in so many things?! That and I feel like such a killjoy for being the person who always says “I can’t have that” when sweets are being passed around the office. And I feel like a prat for Googling the gluten content of the custard my “mother-in-law” has made for dessert (there is none, by the way, yay for custard!). One of my colleagues was really sweet and bought me gluten free cookies. I could have cried of happiness. I don’t know if it’s just me, but when someone tells me I can’t have something, I immediately want it. I have such a craving for every kind of baked goods, it’s unreal. I want a mountain of pancakes. Luckily there are ways to make gluten free pancakes, but I’m trying not to go overboard because I don’t want to eat something just because it’s gluten free, if that makes sense? Anyway, next month I will be more organised and hopefully slip up a bit less! It’s all a learning process!

These are NOT gluten free! Boo!

These are totally gluten free! Yay!

Anywho, it’s time to put this blog post to bed. I hope everyone enjoys the rest of January, and I will probably be back in February with some new stories. Maybe. Hopefully! 

Tata for now!

My Favourite Thing - Books!

Helloooooooo! I'm back! Yes, can you believe it, two blog posts in a month. You'll see pigs flying soon, hehe!

This is more of a hold-up, slow-down, let me tell you something blog, but I promise my next one will be slightly bouncier :-P Maybe. Hopefully!

I said a while back that I would do a book "review" type thing, but with the moving and everything else it kinda got away from me. This isn't going to be a countdown, a top 10/20/40 or a critical anything, just an exaltation of the books that have really stuck with me and that I go back to time and time again. 

The Alchemist by Paolo Coelho - I read this for the first time when I was... 12, maybe? It's not really what I would call a children's book, you're more likely to find Coelho's books in a mind, body and spirit section, or even near the philosophy books. It's a story about a boy who knows what he wants, is given a task, goes on an adventure and ends up, well... Back where he started. In a good way. All of what I just said is a massive understatement. You cannot describe The Alchemist, only read it. It's one of those books that is simple enough for a child to read and understand, but when I read it now as an adult it moves me in profound ways. It's about the material world and what we want from it, the soul and what it needs, it’s also about faith and doubt, but it's not preachy and you take from it what you want. There's an element of "magical realism" in it, which I really like in South American literature. Even the foreword in the edition I have is deeply moving. His later works haven't had the same affect on me, but that's okay, this book is enough.

We'll stay in South America with some more magical realism from Isabelle Allende this time. Her debut novel The House of the Spirits is an epic family saga set in Chile pre-revolution. It centres around Clara, the youngest of a large family and follows her life and the life of her daughter and granddaughter. There are two narrators, one of which is her husband who is writing about her after her death. It is a story about people, some ordinary and some extraordinary, doing awesome, wacky and sometimes horrible things. It is critical of its characters as well as forgiving and generous. It celebrates humanity and the power of women as individuals and in communities. The author herself has become quite the activist for women's right in areas where these are lacking, and her TED talk on the matter is really powerful. If you haven't already experience the pleasure of TED talks then please Google it! There are so many fantastic talks and lectures on every topic you can imagine. Anyway, I digress. Bille August made a film version of this book, featuring Winona Ryder, Antonio Banderas, Meryl Streep (truly one of my favourite actresses) and Jeremy Irons, but it misses out a whole generation and just isn't as powerful as the book. If I had to pick just one book to read the rest of my life, this is it.

The Children's Book by A S Byatt is next on my list. This book takes us to the UK, spanning a time period from ca. 1880 to the outbreak of the First World War. It follows a group of adult bohemian types (some are a bit more "square" or traditional) who are friends and who all have children. One of them is a popular children's book authoress, and she and her husband have the largest brood of the group. The story follows the adults (who may not be as happy, free, or caring as they seem) and their children, and how they and their relationships change with the times. There's love and betrayal, unconventional decisions made by seemingly conventional people and vice versa, a wee bit of politics, scandal and all sorts. Alongside that there are little informative tidbits about the period in general almost seamlessly interwoven in to the story itself. It's a rich and indulgent book that I could do with re-reading soon. When I had finished it, I just had that 'wow' feeling, and I needed to mull it over for a while. 

The Witches by Roald Dahl is another of my favourites, in fact, pretty much anything Roald Dahl wrote was kind of awesome. I think all parents, would-be-parents and soon-to-be-parents should be required to buy and read his collected children's stories. And then read them to their children. I like how un-sanctimonious he is about kids and what little horrible devils they can be, and how hilariously clever and observant they are too. My dad read this to and with me a lot (along with Tales from Watership Down, I remember) when I was younger, and I'm really thankful for that. The film version with Anjelica Huston is actually very good too! 

Next up is Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. It's a coming of age story set in Nigeria. Our main character Kambili is the daughter of a very religious (and seemingly quite affluent and influential) man who appears to have a great disdain for his own heritage and culture. To me the books is about that moment when you realise that your parents are people, and you learn more about who they are as people, and how you may not always like who they are even though you love them. I also have such great respect for the author, who in her TED talk, spoke about the dangers of a "single story", as in the potentially one-sided view we may have of a person, a group, a nation or culture. It's an incredibly powerful talk, and I can recommend anyone to watch it! Press here to be directed to the TED talk!

David Attenborough is an icon and my hero. His autobiography Life on Air only made me respect him even more. Honestly, that book is one of the most amazing stories I have ever read. It's obviously about his career, but he also talks about the beginnings of the BBC and throws in some anecdotes from when he was a child. There's a couple of "behind the scenes" moments, and of course a lovely collection of old and new photos. It is everything you could really want from an autobiography. 

Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden is perhaps not the most amazing book in the world. So why oh why have I included it? Nostalgia, for one. I've moved around a lot, so my memory if very location based. I can tell you what house we lived in when I first read it, and roughly how old I was. I remember that I didn't understand all of it, but that this was set in a really fascinating culture. If you haven't come across the book or the film, it's a story about a girl who by unfortunate circumstance becomes a Geisha in what we now know as Kyoto (I think, my memory may be slipping). In hindsight I obviously do question how accurate a western author can be in describing a culture that is so very different, but the book certainly sparked an interest in Japan that has not faded since. 

There are so many books that I love, but the ones above just stuck on to me and never let go. I hope one day to be able to write a book that does that for other people! 

I may in future write a similar piece for films or TV movies as well. I think it’s easy to scoff at visual media, but it shouldn’t because it can produce some truly beautiful pieces of art and be just as thought provoking as literature. 

I’ll do a more general blog for you all tomorrow as well, a little treat for the weekend, hehe. 

Cheerie Byes!

Auld Lang Syne

Ho Ho Ho! No wait... That's over now isn't it. Yes. Sorry!

So I haven't updated in four months (you're not even a little bit surprised, are you?), and my apologies for that, but I will tell you why in a little bit. 

So we're in the in-between Christmas and New Year period, and I always find it a bit befuddling as an adult. When we were young we'd be on holiday so there wasn't all this hassle about who in the office in getting what holidays, is there enough cover, "...but they got Christmas off last year" bonanza. Also I find myself in a great quandry with regards to food. Purely because I can't eat any more! I've been stuffed with various selection box chocolates, crisps, cakes, pork roast, turkey, three kinds of potatoes, and on and on and on. How is any person meant to cope?! Although I will take this moment to gloat over having lost 3 lbs over the festive season, but we shall see if all the merriment has caught up with me when I get weighed next week ;-)

In Denmark and Norway we call the in-between bit "romjul", and in the modern Scandi languages "rom" means.. well.. it can mean space (as in a living space, the space between two objects, etc, not "Space... the Final Frontier", astronaut space) or rum.  As in the booze made from sugar. I was always a bit confused about what either had to do with anything Christmassy or Yule-y (Space Christmas? Rum Christmas? What's going on?), but when I looked it up I was educated. Well, possibly educated, as the entry is from Wikipedia, but it seems legimate enough! Apparently the word stems from an Old Norse term which means "days that aren't quite as holy" or "half holy". The Christmas traditions in Denmark, Norway and Sweden in particular are quite fascinating as they are a cool blend of various traditions, including an Italian-Catholic one of St Lucia Day on the 13th of December!

And now on TV we get all the various Countdown style shows. Best/Worst Songs, Couples, Breakups, Get Togethers, Events, Fashion, bla bla bla. While I do enjoy the occasional re-cap of cool things past, I get annoyed when they get to events that happened a couple of days before. I know it's the end of the year, but that just literally just happened, I haven't had time to miss it yet! I also feel weird coming in to a new year as suddenly things that happened a few days ago happened "last year", and I get confused. It will take me until March or April 2014 for me to accept that "last Christmas" was Christmas 2013, and not Christmas 2012, hehe.  Anyway, before we move on, a shot of THIS year's Christmas tree:

This year's beast was a Scottish Fraser Fir, and it was also slightly crooked, but we loved it anyway! I'm not a massive fan of artificial lights, mostly because it seems like too much hassle, so I opted for illuminating the room via other means, hehe. 

Similar to the End-of-Year Countdowns are the Annual Letter to Tell Everyone How We've Been. There is a lot of hate against those letters, but I rather like them. In an ever globalised world it's nice to get a letter that sums up a person or a family's hightlights of the year. It makes a change from just "liking" each others Facebooks statuses and sending each other Candy Crush requests (don't get me wrong, I like to "like" AND candy crush, request all you want! ^.^). My 2013 has been good, and hopefully the blog posts up untill now have reflected that! In August, shortly after my last post, a huge thing happened in my life, a milestone for a contemporary couple, Man of the House (MotH) and I bought our first house together! And subsequently discovered the costs of new flooring, and just how shattered a body can get after painting a whole room three times. I still get weird moments when I'm walking from one room to the next where I think "this is MINE, I can do what I want, I could...  I could.. graffiti the hallway! If I wanted to, which I don't, but still. MINE!" - And let me tell you, after a LIFETIME so far of renting... being able to swing a hammer without having to worry about a landlord getting miffed is amazing. 

Later, in November, some of my best friends came to visit me, all at once! I have known these girls for 9 - 10 years and even though I don't get to see them as much as I'd like, I have a great time every time I *do* see them.

I also got to catch up with some of my family earlier this year in June, which was also lovely. This is the hard part about being a supposedly "international" person. A lot of people think that maybe my type is selfish, or we don't *want* to be close to our families. While it is true that I maybe don't want us all to live on the same street, I genuinely do wish there was a way for us to be closer, geographically. But life doesn't always work that way so I try the best that I can to visit. It doesn't help that my parents + brothers and the rest of my family are living in two different countries either! Hehe. 

Health wise it's been a bit turbulent, for myself and family members. While I won't divulge family details here, I'm not so shy about myself. I've had high blood pressure for years and this year I finally decided to take the bull by the horns and start taking my medication properly. High blood pressure is weird because you don't feel it (at least I don't). There's no noticable difference between taking the pills and not taking the pills (apart from when using a blood pressure monitor, obviously), so if you're like me and are fed up of tablets, it's all too easy to just.. forget.. for a long time... But no more. Apart from actually taking my pills, I have also lost about 39 lbs since September, which is around 17 kg. I'm somewhere between ⅓ and ½ of the way to an initial target weight, but every kilo helps, hell even a half kilo helps.

While I was at the Doctor's getting slightly scolded for being bad, he showed me the results of some blood tests I had had taken the week before. They showed low iron, which made him order another test, which came back positive, which resulted in me having a camera shoved down my throat. I had two choices: Get a numbing throat spray or sedation, which will drug you in to forgetful co-operation. I chose the throat spray, who needs sedation, eh? For the love of Sonny Jesus, choose sedation! The throat spray made me feel as if my throat was tightening and I couldn't breathe (even though I could), and they don't tell you that numbing your throat is not the same as telling your Gag Reflex to stop working. It works just fine, and was ever so unhappy at this camera tube getting in the way. So I lay there on my side, biting down on a plastic gag, crying, gagging, a total slave to uncontrollable reflexes my body has used since the dawn of time to survive. I felt VERY sorry for myself and would not go for another unless my life depended on it. The end result? I have Coeliac's Disease. "Oh Goody" I thought, "another thing to add to my list!". In brief, Coeliac's Disease is an scarily common ailment which causes the body to attack and damage the stomach lining and villi of the small intestines when a person eats anything containing gluten. So, no more cakes, breads, pizzas, etc. It's not an allergy or intolerance, but an auto-immune disease which can lead to malabsorbtion related ailments such as low iron and osteoporosis. Apparently I have a mild form, but there was still sign of damage done already. I've joined the Coeliac UK organisation and will be going gluten free as of 1 January 2014. It does make me worry though. This is the 2nd auto-immune disease I've had in my life, and I'm being tested for a third around March 2014. Does my body really hate itself that much? Clearly I need to sit down with myself and have a talk about how I'm actually ok! :-)

Ugh, what a downer Miss Sophie, lighten up! :-)

Yes, indeed! I am genuinely looking forward to 2014, to all the old and all the new. To the birthdays and anniversaries and babies and Easter and Summer and Halloween and right back up to Christmas. I am looking forward to planting stuff in MY garden (yes, I have a garden, yes I'm going to join the grow-your-own brigade, yes it's going to be messy!), to making this house my own one shelf at a time,  seeing my friends and family, all that good stuff. 

One of the things MotH and I did recently was visit the new Hydro venue which has just been built in Glasgow. They hosted a Fantasia - Live in Concert Event, featuring clips from Fantasia and Fantasia 2000 with a musical accompaniment by the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra. Anyone who knows me even a little will know how excited I am about Fantasia, so I *had* to see this. MotH purchased tickets for us as a present to me, which was very kind. I managed to get one shot on my phone during the intermission:

Music has always hit me right in the most tender parts of my brain and feelings, tears welled forward for some songs, other times I was grinning like a mad person sharing a really happy memory with an old friend. For some songs I was so excited I had to claw MotH in the knee to stop from bouncing on my chair like a small child. But for more familiar pieces I found myself looking at the conductor. I think conductors are awesome (musical conductors more than train conductors, really), I love how they love the music, and if I could live my life over, THAT is the job I would want. 

I... might have to go watch Fantasia again... So... Auf Wiedersehen, Adieu and so on. I hope everyone has had a nice holiday time and that you have a lovely New Year's Eve. I will be back in 2014 with more stories, I am sure! :-)

Update and some questions about Confidence

Hello ladies, gentlemen, folk of non-specific or extra-specific gender orientations!

I apologise for not posting sooner, but I've been kinda drawn in to a whirlwind event which requires a fair bit of energy on my part, and has left my will to write a bit deprived. I shall tell all about these events soon I hope, I'm just waiting for the last details to slot in to place, but gee-whiz, it's gonna be a whopper!

Where have I been? Well. First off, a shout out to one of my friends who let me stay with her in LONDON! Oh you beautiful city, filled with things and stuff. I was there about mid-June and I learned a valuable lesson: You only get what you pay for. "Why Miss Sophie, whatever do you mean?". Well, gentle reader, I'll tell you. The Megabus happened to me. 

Now, I'm not a girl with stockpiles of cash, so when a transport company tells me I can get a return trip from Glasgow to London for less than £15, who am I to say no to that? I thought I'd be real clever, jump down on the nightbus on a Friday night, pack in the action on Saturday and Sunday and pop back on Sunday night fighting fit for Monday. Unless you are a very short, nimble type of person who can sit down for great lengths of time, don't repeat my mistake! I am clearly not as energetic as I used to be. On the trip down I was lucky and caught a window seat, success! But more and more and more people packed on this cursed vehicle, and it got hot and smelly in a jiffy. Someone brought a baby on with them, need I say more? Never mind, London was awesome, I saw a comedy show about happiness (learned a lot, I did!), bought roasted almonds, saw Piccadilly Circus (STILL disappointed it's not a real Circus, bloody Romans) and visisted Scandinavian Kitchen, a haven for a homesick Scandi if ever there was one. Fun times were had, unfortunately I forgot my phone on both days and am thus sans photos, but we had a good time with very little rain. Thanks again to my friend for letting me crash in her room, it was FABULOUS! The trip back was less successful. Here I, despite being at the bus station rather early, was too late to score a window seat and got an aisle seat instead, next to an actor/director man (for true, he has an IMDB page) who was a light sleeper and so utilized meditation music to get more out of the little sleep he did get. I just couldn't get comfortable at all. My legs twinged, my hips ached, and I felt bad for shuffling around in case I woke actor/director man! Ah well. Lesson learned: Spend £50 more for plane tickets next time, they're not exactly expensive either. 

Next stop: Copenhagen! Lured by BMI Regional's delightful price offer, I bagged a trip across to one of my homelands. It had been two years since my previous visit, so some catching up was essential. Again, many thanks to family and friends who provided accommodation, company and food ^.^ I had a marvellous time, and my trip ended with a wee trip to Tivoli, an amusement park right smack in the middle of town. If you ever visit Copenhagen, go there, I've always loved it!

Not a recent photo I'm afraid, but it still looks the same!

In Tivoli they have something called the Tivoli Guard, a marching band really, who march around and the procession ends with Harlequin, Columbine and Pierrot. The latter three are characters in pantomime shows (slightly different from UK pantos, as no one shouts at the stage as far as I'm aware, hehe), which play several times a day inside. 

Pierrot marching along at the end

Needless to say it's been a good summer; when I came home to Glasgow that was the beginning of all that lovely hot weather, which I think we were all glad of. Nothing like some Vitamin D to boost all the happy feelings!

Today has been a bit of a lazy day, and I decided to take a walk down memory lane and look at all my photos. It made me realise that I actually feel LESS confident now, at the tender age of 27, than I did in my late teens. Naturally, I feel slightly cheated by this, I thought I was meant to gain more confidence in time, find myself, be myself, blah blah blah. Sure, back in high school I made questionable choices, particularly where hair, make up and skin care were concerned, but that didn't matter. I made myself be more confident than I sometimes felt, and anyone who had a problem with me either didn't speak to me anyway (so no loss there), or they were busy taking the piss out of someone else who didn't have my sassy backtalk skills. 

Now... Now I just feel.. meh. I worry about if I look fat in something. Which is a completely pointless question, by the way, because I am overweight so I'm going to look it in anything I wear. I worry that some teenager (and their pack of friends) is going to yell at me because I'm wearing something they don't like. I get fed up with judgemental looks if I'm wearing anything too... "something" [insert: gothy, preppy, shabby, corporate, whatever]. I didn't sign up for that. And it's not even always about appearance. I actually have to tell myself on a daily basis that life is not a race. There's no prize at the end of this show. I am not unemployable or unskilled because I don't have a degree (even though a lot of employers would probably like to think so). I have to remind myself that even though life led me down a different path than I thought it would, I've managed to get to a good place now. I struggle a lot with anger at myself for some decisions I've made in the past, I struggle with envy and jealousy against those who have what I think I want, which then makes me feel guilty because it's totally unfair on those people. I don't like feeling that way. I want to be confident enough that the successes or downturns in another's life don't affect how I view my own achievements. I want to be confident enough so that in my personal time I can wear what I want and how I want it, without worrying about what others may have to say about it.  So there's some work to be done! Let it begin!

Steaks and the Heimlich

Salutations and good afternoon to all!

I realise it’s been a while since I posted last, and for that I apologise! Life has a habit of getting in the way of things, hehe. 

I know my last update was in February, but seriously, time is ticking by at an alarming rate, I do not approve! In the mean time I applied for another job, but didn’t get it. I got a temporary transfer/secondment opportunity at my existing place of work, though, woo! It’s... interesting, and let’s leave it at that! I had a birthday, then Man of the House had a birthday, then we had an anniversary (yay!) And then Denmark won the Eurovision!

It was a competition full of interpretive dance, interesting props and a really wonderful “half time” show that reminded me of home. I wasn’t overly loving Graham Norton’s commentary this year, who seemed a bit flabbergasted that Europe wasn’t just going to vote for the British entry just because it was Bonnie Tyler. I love Bonnie Tyler, but I just didn’t think the song was that good, sorry! That can be said about any of the other 25 (or whatever) countries that I didn’t vote for, it’s nothing personal! :P 

Of course I am super excited that the Contest will be making its way across the bridge to Denmark next year, and I can tell you right now I will be making every conceivable effort to make it over there for the show. You can just book me in for annual leave right now, ta! Hehe!

But enough about that, and let’s give a nice welcome back to what appears to be Summer Weather. This particular member of the Weather family was a sight for sore eyes pretty much all of last year, so I’m glad that it’s come back, and seemingly in the right month, too! Last year we had beautiful sunshine in May and then never saw it again. And here I thought that I’d have to go away to get my Vitamin D fix, so I booked myself on a flight to Denmark in the first week of July. Wooooo! I plan to wander familiar streets, see friends and family and maybe, just maybe, hear some Jazz.  Copenhagen Jazz Festival starts up near the end of my trip, but I’m hoping to get in a listen or two. Well.. Blues for preference, but I’m not picky!

Following that I have a festival to go to in August called Bloodstock, and I’m excited because a band called Sabaton are playing, and the vendors make excellent bacon rolls. Seriously, the bacon rolls of the normal outside world are nothing compared to ones made at festivals. It’s like there’s a rule about how challenging hygiene settings make for superbly tasty grub. And don’t be put off by the skulls and the red background and some of the unseemly band names, this is seriously one of the nicest festivals I’ve ever been to (except for that guy who jumped out of a portaloo cabin to deliberately scare me, he’s getting his shin kicked if I see him again! :P).

Other than that, we’ll see where the holiday bug takes me! I am genuinely pining to go back to Amsterdam for 1) The company, 2) The little tapas restaurant with the tortilla, and 3) The beer from the Brouwerij ‘t IJ pub. Seriously. I don’t normally like beers, these were amazing.  

But, this blog is called the Education of Miss Sophie, so... what have I learned?

Well! Following a recommendation from friends of ours, MotH and I decided to bulk order meat from a distributor. And we bought a lot, two freezer drawers full to be exact. And we have not been disappointed yet! There was an offer on porterhouse steaks, so I decided “Go on, take the plunge, Miss Sophie!” You see, it has been my poor family’s burden that I have throughout my life been incredibly picky with food. It wasn’t until I was... 20 or 21 that I decided to even try beef mince in anything. I didn’t try steak until... a year, maybe a year and a half ago? I’ve gotten to a level where medium-medium rare is yum, and I think this is where I’ll stay, but who knows! So I tried making it myself, and crikey, it doesn’t take long! I overcooked them slightly, because in my head I was going “No way does it only take X amount of minutes on each side!”. But it was still delish, I didn’t burn anything and I’ll know better for next time! I should have taken a picture of them, but I was a bit overwhelmed by steaming veg, making a peppercorn sauce, and getting the potatoes out of the oven on top of the steak-factor, so here’s just a picture of different shades of steak and, the "finger method" :P

Basically the premise is that if you aren't sure where a steak is at temperature-wise, and you don't have a thermometer, you can use the finger method. When your thumb touches other fingers, the squishy pad under it will change in firmness. If you touch your thumb to your little-finger, the pad will be at its firmest and if your thumb isn't touching any other fingers at all it's incredibly soft and cushion-y. It's certainly not a fool proof method, but beggars can't be choosers! :P

But that was very much learning by checking a “recipe” online and then doing it. And jeeeeez-o, everyone and their mother had an opinion on salting before, during or after the cooking process! For the record, I went with the idea of salting the steaks about 40 minutes before frying them in a pan (since I can’t work the grill :P). I also did not pepper until during the cooking process, as apparently charred pepper is a friend to exactly ZERO tastebuds, hehe. 

In addition to steak-based knowledge, I am now also a qualified First Aider, thanks to my workplace who kindly agreed to send me on a course. About halfway through the first day it dawned on me: Hang on, this isn’t just a “handy skill to have”, this is a responsibility too! I know that seems entirely obvious, but if someone passes out in the street I will now feel obligated to use my acquired knowledge. I would probably try to help anyway, but now there’s the added “It’s okay, I know First Aid” responsibility attached to me, which is cool and terrifying all at once. That being sad, I am a bad-ass at rolling people in to the recovery position. Need someone to help with a log-roll? I’m your girl. That’s rolling someone LIKE a log, not actually rolling logs, but I bet ya I’d be good at that too, hehe! Oh, and I was super disappointed that even though we learned how to do the "heimlich" that we all know from the TV, they didn't call it that! They called it "abdominal thrusts". It took all the fun out of it!

Incidentally, completing a First Aid course was number 30 on my 101 Things to do in 1001 Days list, woo! Also, to complete number 91 on the same list, I have now registered with a GP here in Glasgow (finally, I’ve only lived here a year!) and am back on my blood pressure medication, because the heart shouldn’t be messed with! 
Goal 25 is to read 101 books and I’ve read 6 so far, not a bad track record by I need to pick up the pace! I think my next blog will be a recommendation/mini review for two of them that have really left an impression on me. 

Until then, enjoy the sunshine if you have it! Have a continued nice weekend!