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.

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.

This week has been much better because we know we are getting out of the icky ashtray of a flat we are living in. We found a new flat in the area of Leith… a nice trashy gay bar area of the city, but with loads of character. And the flat is our first modern place, with yummy new decor, and we have a lovely lass who is keen to move in with us… so will be 3 of us girlies.

kitcheny goodness

Me and Alley met up with my friend Cam on Sunday morning and went to the car boot sale, massive markets underground. I got the coolest hat for a pound - A POUND! And I couldnt resist buying a wee fairy snow globe off a nice lady, Cam teased me for being girlie.

Here is a song which is so popular in the UK right now and gets us girls in the mood for partying. Woo.

After educating my workmates a bit on the maori culture in New Zealand and telling them that the greeting/hello in Maori language is “Kia Ora”, my lovely Scottish workmate Lindsay pops up and says “what, you mean, like the fruit drink??”.

So… I learnt today that there is a fruit drink produced in the UK by Coca-Cola that is in fact called… wait for it… KIA ORA! It, of course, takes it’s name from little ole N-Zed and comes in orange, pear, blackcurrant and pineapple flavours. Lindsay says she’s going to buy me one to sample. Funny.

Kia Ora "UK Style"

We could not live in Scotland without watching the movie Braveheart. We watched it last night at our apartment.

Now I can understand the slight ill feeling between the Scots and the English that can still exist today. I realise that it is a movie and that the movie had an agenda (to entertain people, drama, romance and all that jazz) rather than it being a real-life documentary. It would be blind to think that it is historically accurate in every way but it is a truly amazing movie.

It would have been a really difficult project to make, with such amazing scenes in the movie, so graphic. So all credit to that Mel Gibson fulla. On our trip to the Highlands we went to the place where one of the battles took place (and also filmed in Braveheart). Would make a Scotsman feel very patriotic standing in that spot, I’m sure.

If you haven’t seen the movie, here is one of the most poignant messages of the movie where William Wallace makes a famous speech which makes us all feel that truth, justice and freedom are worth fighting and dying for.

A moment of reflection.

Some thing’s I have learnt about Scotland along the way…

* Everyone here drinks a bright orange soft drink called Irn-Bru (pronounced Iron Brew) which is renowned as Scotland’s ‘other national drink to whisky’ (it outsells Coca Cola). Scotland is brought up on the stuff and is considered one of the best hangover cures… I am yet to try it but the neon bright orange colour puts me off slightly.

* When crossing at pedestrians and there’s a green blinking man sign, run for your life.

* Potato chips are called crisps and come in every flavour under the sun - it’s hard to find plain old potato chips. It’s funny to think that back home you never had to explain what type of chips (hot chips or potato chips) you wanted if you said you felt like chips, somehow you just know.

* Haggis is served (and eaten) in pubs everywhere traditionally with “neeps and tatties” (turnips and potatoes) and a “dram” (glass of whisky). I am going to try it but have to get past the idea of eating a sheeps heart, liver and lungs, oh the psychology of it. As for black pudding, dried blood - no thanks.

* People say “Aye” rather than “Yes” and also “ken” instead of “know”… as in “if you ken whit ah mean?”

* Music wise, the Scottish seem to love their Brit pop. Artic Monkeys, Lily Allen, Kate Nash, and lots of techno re-makes of oldschool songs are popular here (even chilli peppers and alanis morrisette songs are made into techno!).

* The drugs are dirt cheap (as friends found out on New Years).

* In Scotland, Scottish Gaelic for Edinburgh = Dùn Èideann. There is a city called Dunedin back home in New Zealand which translates to “New Edinburgh” and it is set up just like a mini Edinburgh by the Scots.

I ♥ Scotland.

Its snowing!!!! The first time ever I have seen snowflakes fall. I am sitting in our apartment right now watching it fall all over the cars and street outside. I didn’t realise how tiny snowflakes are and how light and fluffy they are. I thought snow flakes fell straight down but it blows in all different crazy directions. Funny what I perceived falling snow to look like. It is really magical.

i like you snow.

HAPPY NEW YEARS!!! Welcome to 2008!

We had an insane new years at Hogmanay here in Edinburgh - a massive street party of around 100,000 party people along Princes St which attracts people from all over the world. Of course we couldn’t forget New Zealand which was 11 hours behind us celebrating already… so we celebrated in lieu of the kiwi new years at 11am with a champagne breakfast with two kiwi’s we met at the castle. And then kept on celebrating until the Scottish New Year.

In other fun news, yesterday we booked a trip to Dublin for St Patricks Day in March - woo.

Well, in my hungover state, Im going to go start thinking about my new years resolutions for 2008.

Ciao.

I am sitting in one of my favourite cafe’s right now and they are playing Kora, good old New Zealand music.

Back from a whirlwind week at the Carbisdale Castle as part of the “wild and sexy” Haggis team - met some great people, including the dirtiest Santa & Mrs Claus (hilarious couple who we just loved). We worked really long hours but partied hard after finishing!

We all looked as though we were going into battle as on Braveheart since our Scottish tour guide Graham decided he would paint our faces with blue stuff. There were so many characters there at the castle. Except for the Irish guy totally stalking me - in a castle in the middle of nowhere there are only so many places you can escape to. He even brought me chocolates to try and woo me. Needless to say, it didn’t work.

The castle itself has a huge collection of art and gorgeous naked lady marble statues (which of course were the butt of jokes and photos when people were drunk). Such as me below. One of the guys working at the Castle told us that in a past year at the castle, a drunk guy knocked one over and owed 30,000 pounds and spent a night in jail for it. So there is some seriously amazing stuff in this castle.

One of the rooms, number 210, which used to be a nursery is said to have several ghosts. There used to be a secret door under the staircase which could be opened by rotating one of the statues. The massive clock-tower only has clocks on three sides. And there are 365 windows in the castle for each day of the year. Interesting stuff.

A once in a life time opportunity.

Bring on New Years. Hogmanay!

We’ve been very busy gals this week in Edinburgh but decided to sit down for 10 minutes while having a hot chocolate at The Elephant House in Edinburgh (where JK Rowling wrote most of her Harry Potter books).

Anyway so we have been out meeting quite a few people and on the job hunt this week. I have decided temping is the way to go - it means that I can tell them how long I want work for (say, 6 weeks) then they’ll give me something that suits. That way, I can travel, work, travel and fit the work around my plans.

I started a temp job today with a scottish student association in a multi cultural office - Scottish/Aussie/English and now Kiwi office.  They seem really cool and social, am heading out for after-work drinks with them tomorrow night.

And the other exciting news is that on Monday we are working in the Highlands over Christmas in a castle!!! We were reaaalllly hoping to get this job with Haggis Adventures as we didn’t really know what to do with ourselves for christmas without knowing anyone here, so why not work and play in a castle. We met with the guy at Haggis and he liked our enthusiasm so he picked me and Alley as part of a team of 5. Our job will be to welcome people from all over the world who are spending Christmas away from home and make sure they have the best Christmas ever. Serving dinners & breakfasts and also joining them for a wee dance or two.

lucky us

The company covers our transport to/from the castle and other locations in the Scottish Highlands, feed and water us, give us the chance to work with a great bunch of folk AND pay us for the privilege too - ideal for us. It costs each person $700NZD to go for the 3 day tour and we get it all for free (and paid for our work). So we leave on Monday for 4 days up there. Then we will be back in Edinburgh just in time for Hogmanay for New Years!

I am loving it here still, despite the fact its really really cold. Brrrrrrrr.