Happy Valentine's Day everyone! OK, honestly I'm not a huge fan of this day in which people are pressured to demonstrate love by purchasing flowers, chocolate ,cards, etc. Personally, I am of the mind that we should celebrate the love in our lives on a daily basis. I'm also a big dan of spontaniety, surprises & sincerity, none of which are particularly present on the preordained day.

Anyways, so yeah, enough of my babbling, maybe the truth is that I am slightly concerned to be, yet again, alone on the 14th of February. Why can't Valentine's day fall in teh summer, at leat then I might have had someone to celebrate with in past few years? But wait, what I am I saying - I do have people to celebrate with - a fabulous group of femme fatale friends who are free as me. Keri, Ken & I are having a candle light dinner tonight, prepared by Keri. Should be interesting. I am glad that my friends haven't started ot get married yet. In factm very few of them are even in a relationship and those that are, well they are back in Canada anyways. Guess the whole relationship thing is a bit more diffcult for wanderlusts who don't know how long they will be around or where their next destination might be.

So, what else is there to say?

Make love, not war.

The greatest thing you'll ever learn is how to love and be loved in return.

Love is all you need (save for food, water & shelter)


OK, so on to weekend review:

After utterly uneventful Friday evening, I was raring to start out on weekend adventure to Glasgow. Anne, Jen & I were planning to head to the city and then maybe check out Bothwell Castle or some other site near the city during the day, then head out on the town in the evening.
And that is all the planning we did. And it became evident that my usual role as planner should not have been abandoned in vain attempt to be more spontaneous, because, initially, we had a few probs deciding what to do and where to go. In the end we caught a train out to New Lanark - a tiny village preserved in a time capsule of the 1800's, it represents the first town that embraced the Industrial Revolution. Above the little village lies a gorgeous waterfall, which we hiked up to see. That was definitely the highlight of hte day trip - absolutely gorgeous. BAck int eh village we had the optionof paying £5 to see some workign looms OR check out the village store and maybe buy some old-fashioned sweets. Is it sad that I chose the candy option?

Back in Glasgow by 6.30, we determined that we wanted to go to a nice restaurant for a decent meal. We checked out a number of places only to find that our singleness and lack of reservations was a major hurdle. Sigh - yet another reminder of why one might prefer to be in company of male on V-day -if only to procur a decent meal.

Anyways, we ended up going to mediocre restaurant where we waitedone and a hald hours for our food. The bill cam and JEn was overcharged by a margin of %100 on her jacket potato, she complained and the server said he couldn't do anything!!! So, in act of passion and anger, we suggested Jen pay the amount on the menu (she was way ahead of us in this idea anyways) and husteld ourselves outta there!

Spent rest of night 'dancing' to tunes at, you'll never guess..wait for it, wait for it - the Walk About in Glasgow. Oh yeah, we're so cool. In hindsight, may not be best idea to head to a city for night out without having any idea where bar areas are. OH, and did I mention the biggest gaffaw of the day??? As we were leaving Edinburhg int ehmorning I saw loads of lads in kils, and load so otheres in green/Ireland clothes. WE MISSED THE SCOTLAND VS IRELAND RUGBY MATCH, WHICH WAS BEING PLAYED IN EDINBURGH!!!! More precisley, we missd being at Edinburgh bars after the game to enjoy the 'sights'. Anne & Jen both agreed that, given my track record, it was best I was far away from any Irish blokes.

Sunday we went to The Barras (the Glasgow market), where I poceeded to get ripped off again Last time it was perfume, this time it was CDs - I bought Damien Rice CD but all it does in my player is whir around at super high speed. I also bought 3 disc comilation of Best of the Legends. Too bad each CD has the same bloody tracks on it - so I have three copies of Disc 1. I wonder if someone else has three copies of Disc 3???

ON the bright side, I got an awesome deal on a jacket at LOGO. I have ability to look chic now.

I arrived home midday - very tired and somewhat smelly, only to find flat overrun by girls on ANti-Valentine campaign. Keri et al had baked cookies and were icing them with lovely little sentiments like 'Men Suck' and 'He's Just oOt That Into U'. Not suo sure this is way forward in celebrating love, but the cookies were yummy. We all sat around and watched a movie, which was most certainly NOT anti-love. In fact, it was about True Love, and is one of the only movies which has made me tearful. I, therefore, highly recommend the movie 'THE NOTEBOOK' to anyone who belives in love.

The End (for today)
Love, Shannon