Islay: whisky, gin and cows on the beach
Islay is the “Queen of the Hebrides”, an island with such clear seas and bright beaches it sometimes felt like we’d been zapped to the Caribbean… until the sheep and cows came wandering along the sand.
But it’s really all about the single malt whisky with the hard-to-pronounce names (though Brian Cox will show you how).
The whisky was a bit lost on me (Laphroaig review: “Tastes like punishment”) but I heartily recommend The Botanist, the gin made by Bruichladdich. Hands down the best I’ve ever thoroughly sampled!
Cover for Gareth’s new prog album
Ardbeg Distillery
All...
Source: The Amazing Adventures of Dietgirl - July 25, 2013 Category: Other Conditions Authors: shauna Tags: Travel Source Type: blogs
Chiptych
Chips – A92 motorway.
Chips Chips – Pittencrieff Street, Dunfermline.
Chips Chips Chips – Edinburgh Marathon finish, Musselburgh.
Huge thanks for your kind thoughts for MIL Mary. She’s still doing okay. Thank you! (Source: The Amazing Adventures of Dietgirl)
Source: The Amazing Adventures of Dietgirl - July 11, 2013 Category: Other Conditions Authors: shauna Tags: Dinner Time Living In Scotland Source Type: blogs
Relief
“Well,” said Mary, “I’m never going to forget where I was when Andy Murray won Wimbledon.”
As over-bloody-joyed as we were to see Andy win yesterday, we were even more happy that Mary was here to make a joke about it. Comrades, it’s been a crazy six days. My parents-in-law miraculously survived a terrible head-on collision on Tuesday. I’ll forever be grateful to the inventor of airbags, sturdy Volkswagen Golfs and the National Health Service.
David was thankfully okay, but Mary was in surgery for six hours with internal injuries. The surgeons did amazing things, and she survived. T...
Source: The Amazing Adventures of Dietgirl - July 8, 2013 Category: Other Conditions Authors: shauna Tags: Doctor G Living In Scotland Source Type: blogs
Two weeks with Vitamin D
We’re back to default grey and miserable today, so I’m not jinxing anything by mentioning out loud: the last two weeks were… sunny.
It started with the Edinburgh Marathon Festival weekend. I’d warned my visiting Up & Running pals to expect hypothermia, windburn and/or bad hair for the race, but the blue skies made a fool of me.
While I was on cheer squad duty, Gareth lounged in the back yard for six hours listening to the England v New Zealand cricket test. It was cool and windy, so he had a hoodie on his top half, but he’d unarchived his shorts and sandals for the bottom half. This was...
Source: The Amazing Adventures of Dietgirl - June 12, 2013 Category: Other Conditions Authors: shauna Tags: Living In Scotland Travel Source Type: blogs
Authors on authoring: Jen Larsen
Do you remember about two and a half years ago I started Authors on Authoring, a “series” talking to authors talk about the minutiae of their writing lives? The rituals, the quirks; the paralysing self-doubt? Well, in timely fashion, I now bring you the second instalment!
Today’s kind volunteer is Jen Larsen from Ogden, Utah. Her new memoir Stranger Here (How weight-loss surgery transformed my body and messed with my head) is, “the brutally honest, surprisingly hilarious story of her journey from one extreme of the weight spectrum to the other, and of the unexpected emotional chaos it created̶...
Source: The Amazing Adventures of Dietgirl - June 7, 2013 Category: Other Conditions Authors: shauna Tags: Authors on Authoring Read and Write Source Type: blogs
Up & Running Summer winners
Anyone else busting for a holiday after all those Up & Running giveaway comments? Here are the lucky winners are declared by the Random Number Generator:
Georgia‘s round-the-world romp would include Spain, Germany, Holland, France, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Japan, Vietnam, Vanuatu, and New York.
Sarah‘s tour would start in Denmark so she and her similarly Lego obsessed child can get their fix.
Emmaline would do “an international (mostly European) tour de la famille”.
Nicole is going country downhill skiing with friends and family in British Columbia with and evenings in a cosy lodge with Jamie Oli...
Source: The Amazing Adventures of Dietgirl - June 6, 2013 Category: Other Conditions Authors: shauna Tags: Up & Running Source Type: blogs
Win a spot on the June Up & Running 5k or 10k course
Comrades! It’s that time again when I clumsily pimp my wares and see if I can tempt you to try out what one of our members has wonderfully dubbed, an “international running club”, better known as Up & Running.
Would you like to have a summer of run? Or a winter, if you’re on the lower half of the globe? Our awesome next 5K Course starts on Monday 10 June and the 10K Course starts on Thursday 13 June, and each run for eight weeks.
So… fancy joining us? Here’s what you get:
eight weeks of training plans
inspiring and motivating daily blog posts
unlimited support from Coach Julia Jone...
Source: The Amazing Adventures of Dietgirl - May 31, 2013 Category: Other Conditions Authors: shauna Tags: Up & Running Source Type: blogs
The Adventures of Bird Crap Girl
“Hey. HEY! I THINK A BIRD SHAT ON YOU!”
I received this news in the science lab, during the first term of my first year of high school. I’d come from a tiny country primary school with just five people in my grade. Now I was in the scary high school with all the kids from the big primary schools who already knew each other and had trendy sneakers and snogging experience.
I just wanted to blend in. To slink into class, hide up the back and never be noticed. But it was hard, with the ginger hair and the tubbiness and the wrong skirt. The Mothership was a busy working woman and had ran out of time to sew the...
Source: The Amazing Adventures of Dietgirl - May 30, 2013 Category: Other Conditions Authors: shauna Tags: Living In Australia Source Type: blogs
Tasty snippets from Italy
When Julia picked me up at Bologna airport she asked, “Do you want to get straight to work, or would you like a surprise?”
Umm…
We hit the autostrade and she whisked us away for… an afternoon in Venice. Venice! I know it’s been ten years and I should be over the novelty of countries with famous places crammed close together, but when you grow up with endless boring roads of dirt dirt dirt sheep dirt dirt dirt small town kangaroo dirt dirt it’s endlessly exciting to just zap into an iconic place for a wander. Even if your damn TOES get sunburned to little pink stumps, despite being marin...
Source: The Amazing Adventures of Dietgirl - May 15, 2013 Category: Other Conditions Authors: shauna Tags: Travel Up & Running Source Type: blogs
Walking in Bologna – 2013
I’m just back from the Up & Running retreat in Bologna. Good times, great gelato! One of the highlights was the Julia Jones Running Festival 6K race on the last day…
I confess I’d been too obsessed with the chatting, the goodie bags and the pre-race banana supply for our runners to really think about the race part of our retreat weekend. This was great, as I had no nerves or expectations at when we arrived at Piazza Maggiore. I was just thinking about what flavour of gelato to choose afterwards!
Team Up & Running! Photo courtesy of Clare S.
It was very crowded at the start – heaps more walk...
Source: The Amazing Adventures of Dietgirl - May 13, 2013 Category: Other Conditions Authors: shauna Tags: Travel Source Type: blogs
Curse of the Phoenix
Day 49
I’d really meant to write those words! But first…
… I had to catch the bus to Edinburgh. Rhiannon and I were the only ones on board without silver hair. But we’ve always thought like silver-haired people: get to town early and beat the crowds.
… then we needed breakfast. We went to our old neighbourhood from the backpacking days. The deli where we’d discovered Cream O Galloway ice cream had turned into a Sainsburys. The Wok 2000 takeaway was gone, which is a shame because instead of sounding outdated as it had in 2003, it’d be retrotastic now.
There were sw.y new cafés. We ...
Source: The Amazing Adventures of Dietgirl - May 7, 2013 Category: Other Conditions Authors: shauna Tags: Read and Write Sister Acts Source Type: blogs
If anyone has lost a duck
Mothershipism of the Day: “I really need to read that book, Let’s Talk About Lionel.”
I’ve just returned from a brief trip to Australia and I’m nutty with jetlag, so this is your Warning: Excess Emotion Ahead!
Because of the time constraints this visit was about small country towns and family. I have a bad habit of “freezing” everyone in their 2003 state, but things have changed. There were just a few wrinkles when we left, but now with illnesses and all the things that come with getting older, there was an urgent need to get my butt over there.
It was strange being back without Ga...
Source: The Amazing Adventures of Dietgirl - April 12, 2013 Category: Other Conditions Authors: shauna Tags: Living In Australia The Mothership Travel Source Type: blogs
Spuggies, skelfs and skives: 10 years in Scotland
Ten years ago today my sister and and I arrived in Edinburgh. My first week was spent whinging about the £1 = $2.60 exchange rate*, drooling over men in kilts on Princes Street (sadly not a regular occurrence; just rugby fans), grumbling about the snoring dude in the youth hostel, searching for work and accommodation, swooning at the sun setting over the Castle, and generally believing I could control the shape of my two-year stay through meticulous planning and to do lists.
I’d hoped to write some profound reflections on this unexpectedly long Scotland stay but looking back through my 2003 mega Book of Lists I f...
Source: The Amazing Adventures of Dietgirl - March 28, 2013 Category: Other Conditions Authors: shauna Tags: Globetrotting Living In Scotland Source Type: blogs
The Mifl Report – February
* MIFL = Month In Focused Living
Back in January I chose “focus” as my Word of The Year, a way to set a theme and intention. I’m doing regular MIFL Reports to keep me on the straight and narrow.
Ol’ Carnegie catching the last rays, during Up & Running 5K Workout 1.2 today.
. . .
1. Bandwagon Muesli
A friend of mine in Canberra declared it “porridge weather” the other day so geographically that must mean it’s time for me to commence yogurt season. It’s 4′C/39′F so not exactly toasty but, feck it, I’m sick of porridge. I ransacked the pantry for scraps of...
Source: The Amazing Adventures of Dietgirl - March 13, 2013 Category: Other Conditions Authors: shauna Tags: Monthly Check-Ins Source Type: blogs
Thug life
Signs of spring in the Valleyfield Wood. (Source: The Amazing Adventures of Dietgirl)
Source: The Amazing Adventures of Dietgirl - February 27, 2013 Category: Other Conditions Authors: shauna Tags: Living In Scotland Source Type: blogs
