It’s time to say farewell to the place I have called home for the past year.

Last night I said my farewells to all of the amazing friends I’ve made here in Edinburgh while living here. It ended with a few tears when I actually had to leave everyone at the end of the night. Some of them have taught me alot about myself and of course, alot about their own cultures.

They say it takes one door to close for another one to open.

But I will miss them all.

And the next adventure is here. In two days (after madly packing my flat and giving away half of my belongings to the charity shop) I fly to London then head off around Europe for 2 weeks with my mumma. Fabulous.

Right, I need to get packing.

Farewell to the Burgh and all of my beautiful friends, you’ve treated me well. ♥

After checking out a whole lot of shows throughout the festival, this was by far the best and I recommend it to anyone.

La Clique. Almost impossible to describe… Burlesque, magic, A 100% satisfying rush of pure, adult carnival magic, an unforgettable night of entertainment. It leaves you feeling satisfied and with such a magical feeling.

Their website says they travel the globe with their show, so you might just catch it.

Check it out here:

If you ever get the chance to spend time in Edinburgh during August and the festival madness, DO IT. The ‘Burgh has come alive and I’m so glad to be living here now for this. Street performers, artists, actresses, people in costumes all over the streets. Flyers planted everywhere.

I promised myself that I would make the most of living here for the festival so have been booking tickets all over the place for various shows throughout the month.

I went to the following shows and really loved them.

• The Lady Boys of Bangkok, a cabaret show featuring men as women - we could not believe how gorgeous some of them were. I was one of the few pulled up on stage with the Ladyboys and danced YMCA with them.
• Office Party, one crazy show where we part of the office party and it felt just as awkward as one. We weren’t sure who were actors and who were part of the audience. We were part of the marketing team and our Manager ended up a stripper and poledanced.
• One of the funnest nights, the Silent Disco, where everyone gets a set of headphones and you can switch between the music if you don’t like it, and if you take them off, it is silent apart from the bad singing. What a phenomenon.
• We checked out Jason Byrne, an Irish comedian from Dublin with a filthy mind and amazing improvisation comedy. We absolutely rated it.
• La Clique, a cabaret show full of talents from all over the globe in the famous Spiegel tent.
• And many more free shows, and random shows we spontaneously stumbled across…

I have had friends stay most weekends of the festival (one of the benefits of me living here), some came up from London. I took them to a ceilidh and hung out with my friends. It really has been one of the best months of my life. Alot of people don’t realise that there is a free festival as well as the Fringe festival where you have to pay for shows. I have been to so many free shows throughout the month. The free shows can be hit or miss, either really great or really mediocre. But with a free show, there is nothing to lose.

Here’s a few piccies I have taken over festival time:

At low tide this weekend, a mix of couchsurfers/friends from different countries walked over to an island in the Firth of Forth for a weekend of fun on a deserted island. There is absolutely nothing on the island apart from remains of the barracks from WW2, so it was really back to basics. Bring out the guitar, the campfire, and drinkies.

we had our own entertainment - graham on bagpipes

making sweet music in the bunker

We had such a great time on the island. It’s amazing how much fun you can have with a guitar, good times and good company. It has dawned on me that I am leaving some of these wonderful people in a month or so to move to London. Awwwwwwwwwwwwwww.

Rock on Edinburgh.

If you haven’t seen the movie Trainspotting, you will most likely have no idea what I am rambling about…

But lately, I have seen so many clones of the character Begbie in Edinburgh that are true to form to the character on Trainspotting.

Someone brimming with bravado, ready to explode at any moment, at anyone, for any reason.. Much like a pitbull.

As I walk home from a bar, across the Bridges, I see more than one person, walking the streets with blazing red eyes, a smell of whisky and barely being able to walk straight. They can snap at any moment.

Then there is the girl on the bridge kicking and screaming against the concrete boundary walls, with bloody hands and arms. This is the harsh truth of drugs. Junkies.

You have to wonder why. They are so young… and yet here, they can be so frightening.

Back in New Zealand, people would probably feel a need to stop and help a young girl like this in trouble. Here, it is a different story and it is better not to stop (for your own goddamn safety) as it would probably make the situation worse. So people walk by and do not acknowledge the behaviour.

Drugs are destroying some of the young people here. It’s so sad.

In the words of Begbie, “No way I would poison my body wi’ that shite” he says, Scotch and cigarette in hand.

This week in Scotland there has been…………….. SUNSHINE!

Real sunshine, well kinda. Its not the blaring hot summer sun we get in kiwi land but we are pretending it is.

People are smiling more, and we have been heading to one of two places after work: the park (with the dogs I’ve started walking), or the beer gardens to lap up the last bit of after-work sun. Mmmm. To be consistent with Scottish weather, I wouldnt be surprised if it snows on the weekend. The weather man here has a really difficult job I tell ya. Four seasons in a day.

I’ve started dog walking and I love it. Gives me motivation to exercise as well as getting doggy luff time. Here’s a photo I took of Nina, she’s a chinese crested with no hair on her body. Everyone say’s she is ugly but I think she’s ugly-cute.

Me and my girlie have 3 weeks left until our Europe trip and getting reallllly excited. I get so amped about seeing new places and new things, that’s what Im here for after all. And we get to see 5 new countries. We will be couchsurfing quite a bit with locals so looking forward to new experiences.

I am trying my hand at photography and am learning a few things from the French boy.

Sometimes I feel borderline paparazzi, clicky clicky. But apparently it is the best way to get good pictures as you delete 80% of your photos and will only have a few shots you like. Photography is an amazing thing because once you start looking through a lens, you see beautiful opportunities in everything and things most people would not find beautiful. It gives you a new eye for things, it’s exciting.

So one Wednesday night, a whole group of us from a mixture of countries went up to Calton Hill for the Beltane Fire Festival and sat on the hill watching the pagan festival go by. Naked red people, flowers, energy, fire, dancing, drums.

Oh and how’s this for a funny story. The fire festival was great until near the very end when it started raining. Not just raining but bucketing down and we got completed soaked. We thought it was our cue to leave and ran home in the rain. On the way home, we stopped in a shop for some hot food to warm us up where we asked the guy in the shop what the Beltane was all about. Here was me and the French boy absolutely saturated from head to toe, and the response from the guy was…

“well… it’s to mark the beginning of summer”.

We all looked outside to the pouring Scotland rain.

Typical.

Wow. The Ceilidh (said like “kay-lee”) was one of the best nights I have had since being overseas. It was a non stop night of traditional Scottish dancing with the caller teaching us the dances to wicked (modernised) Scottish music.

The band Teannaich was rocking and you can’t help getting up and grooving to the funky/jazzy/folky/rocky music.

I didn’t realise how exhausting it would be, it was a complete work out. I paid for it the next day with bruised arms and aching muscles. There was a big group of us there made up of internationals from France, Spain, Netherlands, Germany and of course, Scotland (lots of men in kilts). And we had so much fun.

dancing up a storm

In one of the dances, the guys spin you around in a circle by your arms and your legs fly off the floor. My favourite dances were Strip the Willow and Gay Gordons. Soooo much fun.

On Saturday night a big group of us (about 30 or so people) did a Pub Scavenger Hunt for three of our birthdays (me and californian Stef and italian Luca). This included such tasks as finding an old lady to pull the bird, getting a stranger’s phone number, picture of a belly button, or having a dance off with someone in a pub. It was a good laugh.

My birthday was certainly one to remember this year, for more reasons than one.

Well on Tuesday afternoon at work this week, I got an email from Cabaret Voltaire (a funky bar here in Edinburgh) for a competition to win tickets to Hollie Smith (kiwi soul singer or as they call her here, the kiwi equivalent of Amy Winehouse, ugh) so I got my workmates to try win tickets too. And we got em - 4 tickets to the gig that night.

Hollie Smith was awesome. She swears like a sailor but sings beautifully.

It is New Zealand music month and I am all about celebrating our homegrown music. So I am off to Opshop and Shapeshifter this month. Go kiwi music in Scotland!

If you want a taste of Hollie Smith’s music, here she is singing at the NZ Music Awards.

I have been instructed by my mother to update my blog more often. So the reason I haven’t updated the blog is because I have been a busy bee! We have made quite a few friends here now so my nights consist of comedy nights, pub meets, drinks or coffees with friends from all different countries.

I learnt an important lesson last weekend (which I will probably forget by next weekend) - not to drink on Sundays. Monday was an absolute killer at work. But in our drunken state, me and my friend thought it was a good idea to come home after the pub and keep drinking wine and watch Trainspotting. And Cam took me to a club where his crew of gay/trannies were DJ’ing so went there then we all went for drinks afterwards. Sadie had an amazing big fluffy coat (resembling something off Almost Famous below) - love their outlandish fashion, anything goes.

They really are a lot of fun. It’s so funny the looks you get when you are out with a group of gay/trannies. I couldnt care less that I’m the only real female in the group. Some do look beautiful and deceivingly feminine. I can see how some guys with beer goggles on can get themselves into some tricky situations

love fluffy coats