~ ANNE! ~

Thanks to Rob for the cheering news that next Monday is going to be the worst day of the year. Something to look forward to then! Although I agree with the guy from Edinburgh who posted: what with Burns Night on the 25th there is at least the promise of a good party to get you through the week. We will probably be heading to the Last Drop for haggis (Pia) and sticky toffee pudding (me!) I have a feeling sticky toffee pudding will help stave off the January 24 blues.

Of course today is absolutely gorgeous, and it's hard to be too depressed with all that sunlight. The wind is down to a sort of constant breeze, and the castle is shining on its rugged perch over the city. On days like today, I have to check Jackie's blog or the weather forecast to see what it's doing in Alberta at the moment, and smirk. (-19 at the moment, -26 with windchill, and Rob's email speaks of freezing rain. smirk smirk)

I am going to Sarah from BUNAC's Burns Dinner and Ceilidh tomorrow. She has promised a good time, and has further promised many, many guys in kilts. As far as I'm concerned, that's a good enough reason to go (not to mention a very good reason to stay in Scotland). Not that they're too hard to come by - saw one just last night, hailing a cab and trying to keep the wind from flipping his kilt up!

It's a four-course meal as well as speeches, dancing etc, so it should be good. I hope so, as it's pretty expensive. Attire is "as formal as you can manage", so I think I will go shopping tomorrow. I'm sure I could scrape something together out of what I have, but charity shops are cheap and I'm very bored of wearing the same six outfits all the time.

In other news, I think I will go to an open practice with Jen's lacrosse team. I almost went last night, but I didn't have enough time to get my gym clothes and get there in time after work. Also, I am pathetic and will have to psyche myself up to go try and play a sport I've never even seen played before. It helps that I've met a good portion of the team at parties, though! I miss soccer a lot and could use some activity, and Jen really seems to like it (though she is way more athletic than me). Also, I really can't turn down a chance to try Canada's national sport!

Instead of going to lacrosse practice, I went to yet another free gym trial last night. I will NOT be joining this one, as it's just as expensive as Virgin Active, but much smaller and farther away. Speaking of Virgin Active, I had an interview with them today - they're looking for a receptionist. I am not holding out high hopes, as I have been to roughly seven million interviews since I got to Scotland and have not yet been hired.

(Is it just me, or is Virgin Active the most bizarre name for a gym ever?? It sounds like they are offering a lot more than cross-trainers, if you know what I mean. I hope I get the job just so I can answer the phone, "Hello, Virgin Active!")

Anyway, I actually had two interviews this week, and in both cases they seemed pretty hesistant about the fact that I get kicked out of the country in a year. I think only having a year left on my visa is going to bite me in the butt again. I have been keeping my eyes open for temporary positions, but they're hard to come by if you're not with an agency. I would like to find something on my own, though, because I'm pretty tired of the agency getting a cut of my wages right off the top.

Oh well, on the plus side two days off in a row for the first time since Christmas. Enjoy the weekend, because Monday is going to be hell!

ps. In academic news, Marcia has submitted another paper with my name on it! This one is called, "Spatial Encoding in Mountain Chickadees: Features Overshadow Geometry" and has been submitted to Biology Letters. My friend Emily from Honours is first author on this one, and I'm third. It's the chickadee experiment for which I got to design the really cool apparatus (charmingly nicknamed "The Asylum" because the poor chickadees hated it and freaked out) for testing their spatial memory. It took ages to get any data, and I'm very excited that it's finally been submitted. We shall see how it goes.

pps. This made me laugh inappropriately at work.