Hello! Well over a month since my last post, I’m sorry! There’s been a lot to write about, and I want to go into more detail, and type out stuff I’ve written, and show you things I’ve found, and photos- but quite simply, I see a computer once a week ish, I facebook and reply to emails and that’s it.

So, for a start, new musical obsession: Bon Iver, I’m a bit obsessed, I’ve been listening to his album constantly for the last, oh, month. At least once a day and usually more. Just discovered William Fitzsimmons which is worth looking up on Last.fm.

In other news, I’ve been thinking more about studying- I’ve held off deciding when, where, for ages now, and it definitely won’t be next year or anything- but I’m getting a better idea of what. When I left school I had a huge list of things I wanted to go into- music, art, design, outdoors, tourism, event management.. list went on. But there was always this feeling that something hadn’t been found yet, there was something wrong with just studying something straight up- I know I’d have changed my mind a dozen times already and not have done well. Thing is, I’m not willing to have a career (and a life) in something I’m not happy with completely- not saying it’s gotta be perfect, or easy, but it’s got to fit the bill, or I’ll move on within a year- as with most things I do. Thing is about design and art, say I got a job in visual promotion for something- that’d mean I’d need to live in the same place all the time, all of a sudden I’d be promoting a company- and for what good? I can’t do anything for very long for just the money. I’d need to feel like I was contributing to a better world, doing my bit, something positive and more lasting, not going along with the consumer norm, something that’s just going to get thrown away. Music? Too narcissistic. I’d love it, for maybe even a few years, but at the end of the day there’s only a few job options available there anyway. Teaching, yeah, but honestly- only just finished school, not keen after seeing all my teachers washed out and discouraged all the time, and I wouldn’t get to travel much .

I’ve been giving thought to a few things- Event management is still a big one, travel is a feature, I’d probably end up living here though- festival work, tours, etc. It’s a lot of office work too, but at least it’s varied and they do get to see some amazing stuff. I think I could do that for a while. The other thing  I’ve noticed lately- I have this weird habit of noticing really strange things that other people don’t, asking strange questions about things, but completely missing big obvious changes. Like when Dad got a new truck and I didn’t notice for a year that it was purple, shiny and new, not the old navy one. I like observing things about society, small differences between cultures, and within cultures, I love little quirks unique to places and it’s people- language differences within 10 miles in the same city, looking at how a glaswegian reacts to an aberdonian buttery (delicious pastry thing, unheard of outside aberdeenshire), or Raro. How a canadian will interact with an american in a hostel. I point out these little quirks that delight me so much to other people, and while they find it vaguely interesting and odd, I hear ‘I’d never think of/notice that’ a lot, and it’s simply not as fascinating to anyone else. I like wondering why people are the way they are, what they react to, and what makes them change. On an individual level, a group level, and for society as a whole. I love finding pockets of society that have somehow been in their own sheltered bubble- people that’ve never travelled more than 20 miles to the next town, and think NZ is a part of Australia. I find it incredible when people don’t understand why you can’t understand their accent and slang- they’ve only met a handful of people from outside of their town in their life. And most of them were on the TV. I want to know why, and what makes them content, and I want to know why some people are the opposite, never happy to stay still for long, like me. I even enjoy, in a strange way, observing how I react to being alone all the time, and all of a sudden having someone there all the time (Amy’s with me at the moment)- all of a sudden, if I went missing, someone would notice within hours, not weeks- does that make me feel safer? Should it? It doesn’t, really. If anything it makes me feel a bit exposed. Someone (he’s not mad) told me I should be an engineer last month- I laughed at him, like why on earth would I be a good engineer? What kind of engineer? He went through a bunch of engineer jobs and what they do- no way, I said to all of them, it’s too.. machine-y. Technical. Completely unappealing. So why would i want to be an engineer? Well, he said, I’ve got a very analytical mind. Which, the more I think about it, makes sense.

So, from these things, I’ve found a few things that sound appealing- I haven’t looked into where I’d study, or what exactly it’d be called- probably Physchology/Sociology. Look at these big words: Microsociology, the Sociology of Emotions- this stuff really appeals to me. I think possibly I’m a bit odd. Could go on but it’s late and I want to tell you about my adventures…

Ok! Went up to Aberdeenshire for a week (over a month ago now!) which was beautiful, took lots of photos on my new camera- photos on facebook. Love it up there, full of weird little places, bits of history, quirky places and interesting people. Was a pretty relaxing week. Back down to Glasgow, hung about for a couple of days, had a bye party, which was a bit mental.  
Soon hopped on a coach down to London -> Windsor for the Royal Horse show- was working nice long hours in a carpark, good money, and surprisingly good fun. Mastered the art of the baby wipe/dry shampoo shower, record is 4 days. Made a couple of excellent friends, went out on the Sunday night with our last pennies scraped together to pool for a pint. Excellent night dancing in a horrible club, missed my train to Minehead the next morning- we couldn’t find the train station, so after a few brief moments of panic, my nice new friends offered me a seat in their car to wherever they were going. Had an excellent wee road trip and I’m honestly glad I missed my train- the boys drove me all the way to Minehead too, sweethearts. Stayed with a friend there for a night, picked up all my old stuff, and got a train back to Glasgow- had to drop off the stuff from Minehead. A few days taking it easy in Gla, went all the way back down to Somerset on a coach/train (by the way, we’re talking between 17 and 8 hour trips here- not fun) for Sunrise Festival, which was a great big stomping hippie fest. Am really quite fortunate to escape without a multitude of dreamcatchers, dreads, henna, and glitter all over me. Think I adapted quite well though, did embrace the glitter, tried Chi Gung (type of Tai Chi, v weird) and did a Yoga class, shared a rather small sauna with three naked men without pulling faces, bought a pair of 2nd hand gumboots and combatted lack of money/food by doing dishes for my meals (delicious vegan stuff) , carved what will only ever be a very ugly keyring out of welsh stone. Saw some nice bands, favourites being 3 Daft Monkeys and Undercover Hippie. Should really have gotten out more and seen stuff, but being on my own, sober and straight, in a rather high, wasted crowd only goes well for a few hours before you get sick of it. Sun was blazing hot, got a decent bit of colour on me without getting burnt. Discovered my tent is actually more suitable as an oven, except for the hours between 10pm and 5am. Did an awful lot of sleeping outside in the shadows of other people’s tents/porches- as they were all hippies this was pretty normal behaviour and they’ll kindly step over you. Spent nearly a week there, was a good time, a lovely festival with a very friendly safe atmosphere. I did 3 6 hour shifts stewarding over the 4 day festival, and it really felt like nothing.
Then spent another week in Glasgow, said bye to team Canada, who are touring Europe. Next day Amy joined me, which was pretty super, and while I meant to take her exciting places in Gla, I was a bit slack and we mostly spent 5 days lazing about the hostel cackling, drinking, catching up. Did do a bit of shopping, something I haven’t enjoyed for the last.. oh, year? Was quite nice.
We then got on a coach to Inverness, where we met Joy’s grandparents- absolutely lovely, but we feared for our lives when Dallas went round a roundabout the wrong way. Errrr..! Once over the shock of that we got fed delicious real meals and given real beds- family meals are a rare and wonderful thing for me, I love them. Next day we were off to Rockness Festival down the road from Inverness.
Poor Amy was subjected to my physcotic tent pitching – I have this unfortunate, irritating habit of being really weird about tent pitching. It might be something to do with Dad, just maybe- don’t lose the pegs! Don’t put it away wet! Fold it properly! Straight! You’re going to lose the pegs!  Every time I put a tent peg in the grass, I get a bit nervous and twitchy and have to put it away in it’s little bag, like I expect Dad to jump out and start criticising my tent technique. Luckily I didn’t inherit his soup-eating twitch- yep, in order to eat/drink your soup correctly, you have to put your spoon in the opposite side, and sip from this side without slurping. Yes. I know. Whenever we had soup for dinner in my house it was quite an apprehensive affair, someone would slurp accidentally and someone would start giggling nervously and everyone would look at Dad and wait for the soup lesson. OK, now I’m making my father sound completely mental. I did inherit some good stuff too, like, um, grey hair, wide feet, and an annoying tendency to annoy people with disney songs at inappropriate times. He’s not completely mental. Just likes his soup eaten/drunk and his tents pitched well.
Yeah. So poor Amy was subject to my nervous twitch, which worsened when we couldn’t figure out her new tent, causing me to stomp about angrily and mutter about not losing pegs. Sorted myself out with a good old primitive go with a rubber mallet on the pegs, and a bit of time out.
Worked for Oxfam, 2x 8 hour shifts, which really kind of dragged compared to Green Stewards (Sunrise Fest), but we got rather good shifts, were all finished by Saturday 8pm. The site was absolutely beautiful, main stage set at the bottom of a hill covered in daisies and buttercups with a view down the length of the Loch (Loch Ness, where Loch Ness monster lives), was really lovely. Saw Placebo, Dizzee Rascal, Sneaky Soundsystem, Basement Jaxx, and a tiny bit of Biffy Clyro and Prodigy. Atmosphere was a bit aggressive for my taste, a lot more booze-fuelled and I really couldn’t get into it, although I really enjoyed the music. There were a lot of really young, and really stupid people- Dizzee Rascal stopped his set twice because people were getting mauled in the mosh pit, and the front dude from Placebo had scissors thrown at him. Why would you do that? Ugh. There were two deaths over the weekend, just from people overdoing it. I think there were a fair few people there who have fairly tame office job lives, had been looking forward to it too much, and blew it all on drugs and alcohol. Really sad, on my night shift the ambulance was going past our gate every half hour.
By the end of the weekend I was really ready for some nice NZ dub- sick of hearing dance music and heavy basslines for 3 days. Shame they didn’t have a chill out area for overwhelmed people with welfare people etc, probably save a lot of hassle. That, and a dub tent. Was definitely a huge contrast to Sunrise. Still, by no means a bad time, it was sunny most of the time, saw some good music, met neat people, had a fire on the beach, met Nessie man, and oh! Nearly forgot! Tatted a paddling pool! Had been wanting one of those. Excellent multipurpose tool, a paddling pool. Had tatted (tatting: going looking through all the tat people leave behind at festivals) a  tent at Sunrise, my tent poles snapped (adding to my twitchy tent stress) so used the tatted ones, which were a bit small but worked. The tatted tent was a fantastic groundsheet for laying about on and playing cards. I love tatting, it’s incredible what people leave behind. Amazing how much fun looking through other people’s junk can be.  I left a bit early to go properly tatting- was hard to tell which tents were abandoned. Glastonbury will be one great big epic tat fest. Do wish my Dad was around to see that one- I can see his face- ’stuff!’ he’ say. (stuff! is an exclaimation not unlike crikey! or wow! in my Dad’s vocab. I think it’s funny, and often exclaim with stuff, but people don’t quite get it) ‘Look at all these tents! Well, they haven’t been put up very well. What a waste of a good tent. Is that a camping chair? oh, look, someone’s left a tent peg on the grass! I can’t believe it! Stuff!’
.. lol.

Poor Amy hated camping, but put up with it like a champ and didn’t complain <3 I’m very proud of her. It’s a nasty rugged little life in the tent, no bathrooms or mirrors or kettles or microwaves or plugs or standing room, the ground’s hard and lumpy. It quite suits me, although I’m probably going to hate life when it really rains properly. Please nnoooo, I’ve heard stories and they’re bad..

Next up camping and a little work at Silverstone F1 racing, then Glastonbury, wheee! and then Hop Farm, TinthePark, Glade.. xx