Spring Forward

Yesterday we changed our clocks forward an hour (a couples weeks later than the States), which means, more daylight! The sun didn’t go down until about 7:30ish last night and will be setting later and later until July! I believe sometime in July, the sun doesn’t set until 10:00 pm! I’m definitely excited, considering we’ve had a dark winter, with the sun setting at 3:30 pm back in January. The daffodils are out and all the Castles and Distilleries are opening their doors! I have a feeling we’re going to be putting some miles on the car soon.

The weekend came and went as always. I really don’t know where all the time goes, but it seems to go by pretty quickly. Because of our Holiday schedule, I don’t get every other Friday off anymore so weekends go by even faster. Instead, I work a 37.5 hour week (8-4; M-F – normal for the UK). So, if we’re not out of town, I’m in the office 5 days a week, which is tough...haha. Although, getting off at 4 is nice because it allows me 1 hr at the gym before Gerald gets off work =) Working out has been good, but I haven’t really seen any results so I must step it up!

We had a quiet weekend with a full day at home on Saturday...yay. I decided to make it somewhat of a “date night” with dinner and a movie. I stumbled across the Farmer’s Market in town after getting my hair cut Saturday and picked up some nice seafood: scallops, langoustines, and mussels. Langoustines, aka Norway lobsters, taste like shrimp/prawns but are bigger and have claws, almost like a lobster but smaller and skinnier, hence the nickname. The fishmonger suggested I eat one raw; he said it was super sweet and superb. So I did, and he was right. We shall introduce the langoustine to sushi chefs...haha. I was too excited about this, I just had to share.

With all the goodies I got, my intention was to make steam mussels as a starter and the langoustine and scallops with pasta for our main. After cooking the mussels and eating them, Gerald and I were both pretty full! Instead, I decided to just cook the langoustines and had them without the pasta. The scallops we saved for Sunday's dinner.

Anyhow, dinner was a hit but the movie was a BUST! I was in a romantic comedy mood and love Reese Witherspoon, so downloaded “How Do You Know” from iTunes and watched it on the Apple TV. 50 minutes into the movie and we fell asleep! So yah...don’t rent this movie! I forced myself to finish it the next day but got no satisfaction out of it.

Sunday was a nice day outdoors. My elementary school friend, Carla, is here in Aberdeen working on a Chevron project and we happened to bump into each other in the cafeteria one day. I haven’t seen Carla in years and didn’t have a clue she was in Aberdeen, let alone the Chevron office, so this was a complete coincidence. Gerald and I offered to show her and a co-worker around Aberdeen Sunday. We took them to Dunnotter Castle (our favourite) and out to see the highland cows, since she’s a fellow Longhorn! We had a good time catching up and filling our bellies.

Now, off to another 5 day work week.

Dublin, Ireland

Happy Saturday!

I’m finally back to about 100% now. I’ve been having stomach issues this past week so have not been feeling well. It all started with food poisoning from our trip to Dublin and I guess continued on through the week. Anyhow, I’m all better now and have definitely learned a valuable lesson. When in Dublin...do not eat a BURRITO!

Our trip to Dublin to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day was a success! We arrived around 5:00 pm into Dublin so we missed the crazy parade but had a great celebration that night. Gerald, Jon and I all wore green that morning to catch our train to Edinburgh for our flight and noticed we were the only ones sporting the color. What’s up with that? Supposedly the Scots don’t celebrate St. Patty’s day like we do in the States but they did have Irish Cupcakes with Baileys frosting! Yummy!

I couldn’t find green beer anywhere but had plenty of Guinness to make up for it. Our Irish Co-worker gave us a list of places to go in Dublin so we pretty much worked off her list, which was excellent!

We found Dublin to be very diverse and pretty friendly. There were Americans everywhere so it was a nice change from the other cities we visited. During the weekend, we met people from Romania, Norway, DC, Virginia, Chicago, Australia, of course Ireland and even TEXAS! This one man was sporting his UT baseball cap and a shirt with the Texas flag on it. How much more Texan can he get? I feel like when you’re abroad and meet someone from Texas, you have this special connection even though you don’t know each other. And an extra connection when they’re Longhorns!

Anyhow, we went out to the pubs, met various friends, drank some pints, danced some, ate oysters, visited the Guinness factory, and had a grand ole time. We even got to see some weird Irish, modern music and dancing along with the traditional music our last night. I loved all the different characteristics of the Pubs; we spent many hours inside soaking it all in. No matter what time of day it was, all the pubs were packed! By the third day, I was done with beer and had an espresso-tini instead. I needed the caffeine boost, and it helped =) something new for my cocktail list

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Well, despite our food poisoning on our last day, everything else was great. I forgot to mention our hotel, Number 31, it was a cute place with good breakfast and decor. Here’s the website: http://www.number31.ie/ I spent the week taking it easy and trying to recover and will probably do the same this weekend. We have a busy, busy month ahead of us. A friend is coming to visit next weekend from London, then we have the ½ marathon in Edinburgh, which I am still debating if I should do, then off to Prague, a 10K in Balmoral and our African Safari in South Africa at the end of the month. Next thing you know, I’ll be in Houston celebrating my Sister in Law’s wedding! I’m totally looking forward to that. Of course, I’m always missing my girls, family and friends! I will see you all soon. Have a fab weekend.

Mardi Gras-in Scottish Style

The AWA put together a wonderful Mardi Gras Party on Saturday at the Old Mill Inn. I started off the weekend cooking a nice pot of gumbo to bring over to Jon's place for a pre-party. Sooo thankful for my cajun seasoning and seafood boil! We found a bakery in town that made King Cake and ordered one as well. It was delish! A couple of Old Fashion's, gumbo, blackened trout, King Cake, Jenga (with drinking rules), and F*** the dealer (with me as the dealer) left us pretty happy before heading out to the Old Mill Inn.

Upon arrival at the Old Mill Inn we were given Hurricanes and muffalettas. I haven't had either one in years. For dinner, we had jambalaya, red beans and rice, some form of bread pudding (tasted like eggs) and king cake! The food was decent considering we had Scottish Chefs cooking Cajun Food (recipe provided by one of the AWA member). However, the King Cake was awesome, made by our very own AWA ladies. We paraded around the room second line style and even crowned a King and Queen of the Mardi Gras. The rest of the night was more drinking, dancing and good times. We even did the Cha-Cha Slide =)

Thanks to the AWA for a great party!

Happy Early Mardi Gras from Us! What are you giving up this Lent season?

Somewhere Down in Texas

Howdy!

Rodeo, Crawfish, Cajun Food, and Spring are a few things I’m missing about TEXAS at the moment! I’ve been reading all my friend’s Facebook postings about all of the above and wish I can just fly down for a week to indulge. Note to self: plan trip home in March 2012 =) Speaking of Texas, I saw this in a magazine and thought it was cute. Do you think I’m Tex-y?

Other than that, life here is moving along quickly! We’ve been in Aberdeen the past two weekends just hanging out. We watched 3 movies in the past week and if you know Gerald, that’s ALOT! We watched some of the Oscar nominee movies: The Kids Are All Right, 127 Hours, and The King’s Speech. All were great movies. I think I have a crush on Colin Firth! He’s a very handsome man and he was wearing a kilt at one point. I do love men in kilts; I’ll get Gerald in one before we leave this country. Only a few more movies to watch and we would have watched all the Oscar nominees for the year! That would be the first! Living overseas does have its perks: Gerald watching more movies.

We have a ½ Marathon in 5 weeks and I’m nowhere near ready for it. I did run 6 miles last Saturday, which wasn’t bad, but another 7 is going to be rough. Red bull, ibuprofen, and energy chews will be my best friend come race day! Haha...

This weekend we’re celebrating Mardi Gras, Aberdeen style. The AWA is putting together a party with a second line, Cajun food, hurricanes and all! I’m thinking we need to do a Rodeo Party next year: fried goodness, country dancing and some beer would make for a fun night! We can even have a bbq or chilli cook off! I’ll definitely keep this in mind for next year. Other than that, there’s not much else going on here.

I’ll leave you with this! It’s one of my favourites from George. Have a great weekend!