Hey Hey! OK, so its my last Monday in Scotland. And I am not workign. Happy happy joy joy! I am, howver, considering my finacnes (or lack thereof) for the first time i..er..a wee while. IT not encouraging. Sigh. No the plus side is the exchange rate and opportunity to get my taxes back. We won't talk of the negatives.

IRonically or maybe just plain stupidly, I planned to stay in Edinburgh until Sept 11 so I could make more money working. And thens eomwhere along the line I decided I should finish on 2 Septemebr. And then i decided I wanted to stay at my flat until the weekend - three days into September. I didn't realise my landlord would charge £60 for three nights. Sigh. So, as noted above, the irony of my foolproof plan to make moer money by staying longer has backfired and I am quite suer by week's end I will haev spent more than the difference of a flight on Sept 2nd. But then agani, I wouldn't get to see Rae & Chris & Wendy and that, well folks, that is pricelss. You can't put a pricetag on friendship and so I am very very very happy to be here for the week! I am also eternally grateful to Ailbhe & her flatmates for letting me stay with them!

So, this si teh last weekend review I wil be writing from Scotland. I will have to break tradition and be concise as I am at the library and trying to do other rather important things like book my bus to the airport on Sunday. So here it goes:

Friday night - Leaving do/last drinks with workmates. Started at the Ritz where many coworkers joined. Even Mark & his wife, Mrs Mark, joined despite Mark being on holiday. Gonzo joined us too- I let him have a few sips of my wine even though I think he may be underage. The rst of the muppets stayed at work to guard fellow colleagues' workstations. Mrs Piggy really wanted to come out, but we all know she has a drinking problem so we chained her to the desk to be sure she didn't get away. Anywho, most everyone left to go home to their respective partners (sigh) or beds, or both (double sigh) after the Ritz. It was just me, Michelle & Helene, but that's OK - they are my fav workmates (plus Derek & Mark of course!) More wine was drunk adn then Brandon joined. Eventually the workmates left so Brnadon & I joined Ailbhe and her former workmates for more drinks. IT was a godo night until I had to go home ot my empty flat. Last night in the flat and I was all by myself. Obviously I HAD to play teh Scissor Sisters one last time on my stereo!

Saturday = Pakcing & Moving my crap to Ailbhe's. I thought I had packed most everything on Thursday night. OH how wrong I was. Bloody hell, the amount of stuff accumulated over one year..not all of it mine mind you, but I had to get rid of it all. It was devastating to say goodbye to so many clothes and jackets. Luckily, Grand & Brnadon provided some muscle to assist in moving the dresser & boxspring out. OH, who am I kidding? they didn't assist - they did it all! And ethn some old lady started eyklling at us for leaving the furniture by teh rubbish bin and threatened to call the Council. Brandon & Grand just stood there silent and possibly a bit fearful. I *May* have did a bit of talk back - nothing rude but reallyit wasn't her business and my landlord had instructed me to do it this way in any case. Gads. i hate when peopel start yelling about things just for the sake of it. I vow never to be that kind of old woman (or young woman for that matter).

Ailbhe helped me move the rest of her stuff after I made my way to her place with my 30 pound backpack, 15 pounds laptop case and other bags strung haplesslly aroud my neck. I was quite the sight I am sure and I had to walk a ten-minute janut from teh bus stop to her place, but it toko me twenty mins at least!

Finding a cab that will take a mattress was an ordeal in itself. Whenw efinally did get one, I didn't realise we would be folidng teh mattress in half. Who would have thunk it? Folding the ol mattress -tricks of the trade I guess.

Sideote- jsut realised I am not being concise, so will do so fomr here on in

Satuday Night - spent in, too tired and feeling rather sick so to ebd by midnight.

Sunday - late start to the day. Pam (of Dublin days) came down to meet up with Ailbhe & I . She is the link and only way that I everwould haev met Ailbhe. We all went to an Asian festival & had Chicken tandoori. Went home, freshened up then went ot pRinces Street to watch the Fsetival fireworks - was fabulous (note - was going to make a big anaolgy about how fireworks are like going ot live in a new country, but it is rather lame & I haven't really got the time!) . Few drinsk afterwards, then turned in for the night.

Which brings us to today. I have lots of plans so I must depart now. Adios - will write again sometime soon

It’s Friday and yet another ‘last’ to deal with. My last day of employment with Scottish Equitable, last after work drinks with my favorite Scottish people (Helene, Michelle, Derek et al). If this blog had sound effects I would insert a ‘Shannon Sigh’ here.

Now don’t get me wrong, I am LOVING the fact that I will never ever have to process another death case again or tell another client I am sorry for our error and any inconvenience it may have caused. I am so NOT going to miss the 45 minute commute to work or, surprisingly, the constant temptation of sweets and biscuits (cookies) that the Bonds team seems so enamoured with.

But I will miss the people, first and foremost, the monthly deposit in my bank account secondly and the massive amount of holiday entitlement (i.e. 48 days p.a. if I wanted to do flextime). And, of course, my last day of work reminds me that it will soon be my last day in Scotland. I was, unfortunately, less than successful in my attempts to find a Scottish sugar daddy. I was, however, successful in finding sugar, but that’s another story, which I believe I have told many a times.

Anyways, they’ve already given me their farewells and pressies at work – a beautiful necklace (MacIntosh) and box of Thorntons chocolates. I don’t know where they got the impression I like chocolate…But, really, if I get anymore chocolate or candy or anything that even resembles junk food anymore I swear I will go nuts (or possibly turn into a Goodyear Blimp and float off). Insert another Shannon Sigh.

I’m getting to that point in the day where I really don’t want to do any more work (actually this feeling occurs every day), but that today I think I can get away with actually not doing any work!

So, in other news – it is my last night at 4H Canon Street – I have to be outta there tomorrow. I am so lucky to have the generosity of Ailbhe, who is letting me crash at her place until next Sunday. My landlord came by last night and, surprisingly, after a quick tour of the flat he confirmed that we would be getting our entire damage deposit back (minus £60 for the extra three nights I stayed there!). I even think he is giving us back more than we initially paid – I thought we paid in £650, but he thinks it was £700. Jen, if you are reading this, can you confirm how much Kelly paid you? Anyways, Canon Street was fabulous –so many good times had there and such fab flatmates from PEI! In succession – Jen, Keri, Kelly, Lindsay and Jen Again! Many random visitors as well –too many to count in fact. I need to move a dresser and a bed out of a four story building -we are on teh top floor. Thank goodness for strong, male Canadian friends!

Well, that’s about it for now – its been a hectic week, but unless you are a cleaning and packing fanatic and like to hear stories of other people’s experiences in these arenas, there really isn’t much to report. If you are one of the above-mentioned characters., well, I can only say I am sorry. Good luck to you.

In less than two hours I am asta la vista, upwards and onwards to the Ritz Bar & Grill then the Festival Tavern to celebrate my unemployed status! Wish me luck –the wine specials are too good to pass up!!

Holy Bananas - it's all happening so bloody fast I can't get my head around it. In less than two weeks my Scotland Adventure will be but a bunch of wonderful memories and I will be basking in the last of PEI's summer sun (I hope).

Today I said goodbye to Kelly & Lindsay who are off to tackle Europe on a two-month adventure. I'll put a link to their blog up asap. Anyways, it was sad, because now all my flatmate (who have also become really fab freinds) have leftm, and now its just me, the bathroom scales, some veggie hotdogs and my new Scissor Sisters CD left.

In the not-so-sad department - only three full days of work left!! Then a whole week off and visitors from Canada :)

I had another long weekend, which was fabulous. That is definitely one thing I will miss about Europe -the holiday allottment over here is so generous.

Anyways, Thursday night I went to see Tommy Tiernan with my workmates. He was, as expected, hilarious. Definitely worth the £13 ticket price. I also discovered a new favorite bar, The Wash (pronuonced The Waarrsh if you are from Ireland or PEI!). Very classy, but with cheese music so you knew the classy decor was just a front...Kind of like the NOodle House in Charlotteown is probably a front for something else :)

Friday I franticallya dn unsuccessfully tried to get some emailing done - including the payment of my credit card bill. Unfortunately it's been so long since I used on-line baking that I can't remember my password. I hope I don't get a bad credit rating. That might kind of bite. I also tried to do some emailng, bt was late meeting Brandon so didn't get anywhere with that.

Anyways, Brandon & I met up midday to see if there were any festival shows at half price that we might want to see. There weren't, so we did what any normal person would do under these circumstances and decided to get a bite to eat. Well, I got a bite and Brandon got a main meal, That boy likes to eat.

Following on our meal, or rather Brandon's meal and my side order of potatoes and veggies, we went in search of a hoste for my friends to stay at next week. I checked out three hostels and highly recommend Castle Rock Hostel to anyone coming to Edinburgh - prices are decent, location fab and rooms super nice/clean.

Brandon & I then went to book tickets for a show on Monday. I've decided to spend money like it is going out of style... By this time it was 3 o'clock in teh afternoon - awhole two hours since Brandon had eaten. He suggested we find another place to eat. I obliged. He ordered another main meal while I cursed my metabolism and watched enviabley as he enjoyed his stir fry with nae a worry that he would gain a clove or a stone or whatever. Gads - anyway, mental note for future - avoid eating with people like Brandon & Ailbhe. One cannot help but become slightly jealous/paranoid/crazy....

Saturday Alibhe & I hopped on a bus to Inverness early in the am. WE arrived in teh capital of the higlands midday to wet & windy weather. We proceeded to eat and shop the afternoon away. I *may* have spent way too much money ona black velvet blazer which I will now have to live in, in order to make it worth the money invested.

IN the evening we went out on the town. It was a rather hilarious evening, which can only be compared to night out in Charlottetown but with more kilts and no cover charges. Oh my, it was rather interesting. The last place we ended up had a very skewed demographic- about 70% men - but as I quickly realised - quality is much more important than quantity.

Sunday we puttered around Inverness, ate more and waited to get the bus back to civilisation. I don't know why, but I decided that I best spend Sunday evening out on the town. Lindsay, Beth, Kelly, Grand & Anne were all present at some point or another. Lindsay & Beth pprovided much amusement following their consumption of liquor. I had never seen wither properly inebriated before and it was quite the sight!

Yesterday, I spent the afternoon watching a Fringe show, MacHomer, with Brandon. It was a guy impersonating all these Simpsons chracters doing MacBeth - it was actually very impressive - he'd integrated so many things into the script and the show, he also had a film screen behind him to assist with setting the scenes. He did an encore of the top 20 annoying voices in music doing Bohemiam Rahpsody. And then, predictably, Brandon wanted to grab a bite to eat after the show. I ordered a starter of haggis which was morethe size of a main. Now onder I've gained a clove!

Last night we went to Anne's for dinner and farewells. It was delicious (dinner) and sad (the farewells for Kely & Lins).

K - back to 'work' .