43 posts tagged “scotland”

Well, I didn't take a nap last night before my sister came over - mainly because I was working on getting the pictures from the Scotland trip off of my laptop and onto Flickr. You can see them now - however I warn that I haven't "edited" them so there are a lot of apparent repeats due to exposure tests.

America's Next Top Model was good! I was so glad that Whitney - the plus size model in the competition - has not only survived again, but she also wasn't in the bottom two as I suspected she would be. With the remaining three chosen - and one of them being a plus size model - I really wonder what kind of runway show they're going to do. It may not even matter of course, if Whitney is cut before, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed. If anything, I just hope that this gives the next plus size contestant more confidence that you can make it far in the competition if you just keep trying. Whitney said it best in her interview reel - the last plus size contestants all gave up eventually and it had very little to do with their ability to be a model. I'll be happy if Anya wins though, because I'm not a big fan of Fatima. Its surprising that I say that now because when I first began watching I hated Anya because of her accent - I fear that's going to hold her back when they do their Cover Girl commercials next week.

Tonight I've made no plans and I'm just going to relax! I'm going to go home, get some stuff together for my lunch tomorrow because I'm determined to try and bring a Bento box, take a quick bath as I'm hairy like a beast, and then hit the hay early...

I don't know if I'm going to dive into posting about the trip straight away - but I wanted to let everyone know that we're home and all four flights were successful :) We actually got home last night and I was falling asleep at 9:15pm! When I woke up this morning, bright eyed & bushy tailed at 5:20am I was happy to realize that I think we didn't mess up our internal clock too much and I just hope I'll be able to fall asleep & wake up so easily indefinitely.

Here's a short list of what I'm going to miss and what I'm not going to miss from Scotland...

I'm NOT going to miss:

• The smell of gas on all the streets. It appears that despite all of their commercials about saving the environment they don't have very strong smog regulations in place, at least not in comparison to California that has some of the strictest. I know that everyone complains about smog checks and all that, but I'm now very grateful. Being able to walk down the street - or be in the vicinity of cars without gagging on fumes - is nice.
  
• Lack of toilet seat covers, and toilets that flush the first time. Before everyone starts in about the toilet seat covers, I know that there have been studies that prove them next to worthless - but that doesn't matter to my piece of mind and I'm just glad to have them back in public restrooms.
• Driving. Enough said.
• Banking hours - for EVERY business. I'm an American and a Californian, the fact that I can't find hot food at 1am is appalling and was very frustrating as we couldn't adjust to the time change despite waking at the crack of dawn for our included breakfast everyday.

I'm going to miss, very very much:

• The sky. I'm going to miss those thick sweeping clouds that moved faster than us and spotted the hills with shadows. Playing peek-a-boo with the sun was a big game that we never get to play here.
  
• The wet weather. Everywhere we went, people were apologizing about the weather - and everywhere we went we said, "This is what we came for!" I'd like to point out that it was in the high 90s (° Fahrenheit) with a chance of burning alive while we were gone from our home area.
  
• The sight of livestock everywhere. I was telling my dad when he asked if we saw sheep, "We saw them everywhere - and up to the very end I shouted 'SHEEP' or 'COWS' every time we saw some!" :) I don't know much about sheep, so I'm just going to assume it's our luck, but there were lambs everywhere. I felt like I was browsing cute overload 24/7!
• The easy access to fresh, affordable produce. The reason I don't eat as many fruits and veggies as I'd like is because everything that looks good and fresh, is so expensive! Since we had to feed ourselves a lot because we missed the open hours of so many places, I began to rely on these stores. I <3 Sainsbury!
• The open, open landscape. I'm going to miss this one the most I think. Everyone had boundaries to their properties - it just wasn't as loud and foreboding as it is here. Short rock walls and tree lines seemed to be all they needed - and that's what I'm going to miss. If I never saw another chain link fence again - I'd be ecstatic.

Anyhow... So I'm home. I was really home sick towards the end but now that I'm here I feel like I just left and I'm so sad it's all over so soon :(

My camera filters are here!!!

I bought these books (which have given me some really simple but great suggestions though on a whole the book is for photography newbies) and I ordered some filters for my camera based on their suggestion. I bought a UV filter (which I know is a bit pointless to some - but I find a lot of use in it), a circular polarizing filter, and an ND filter.

While hunting for the filters I found out a lot about my camera which is both good and bad. The good is that it really does have almost every feature a DSLR has - if I'm willing to work for it. The bad is that it has almost all of them for the same price as an DSLR camera. I'm not going to dwell on it though. I'm only just beginning to understand my camera and ergo fall in love with it again - I'm not about to ruin that love with second guesses.

Back to the filters! I'm excited that I bought them because most of them were suggested in the books landscape section and I'm really looking forward to photographing the landscape. I just hope that I'm able to make use of them all at least once, and come back with some amazing pictures.

Four and half days!!!

I'm feeling better today - so far as my mood and my outlook. Though I'm having some problems at my job right now, I'm going to go on vacation and come back with a clean slate and just keep working and trying my best as I was before. I'm not going to let one incident - that was blown completely out of proportion to the actual situation - ruin this job for me right now. However, I'm still determined to look for other jobs or perhaps become Paul's person job hunter. But that's all for another post.

My knee is feeling better. I'm not free from pain all the time - but most of the time I am and that's the important thing. I'm still taking ibuprofen in the mornings though, as it seems to be after I wake up that it hurts the most. I'm just glad that the terrible pain went away as I really didn't want it to ruin our Scotland trip.

I went to JoAnns on Monday night and bought some straps and small buckles to put inside of my carry-on bag for Linnet. Last night I put one strap in but it took me awhile and I wasn't able to get the other two in. I'm hoping that tonight I can work on it some more if not Thursday. She fits well in the bag - however I find that I have to remove her wig so that it doesn't get muffled. I'm sure if it was a normal synthetic wig it wouldn't be so bad but the mohair gets teased and tangled so easily. However, I'm still very much in love with the wig and am considering buying a second one so have as a back up for when this one falls to pieces from my constant attention :)

I joined two group orders recently - both for Dollmore - and I'm frustrated by how slow they've progressed compared to my very first one. The first of the two, the organizer said that she wouldn't take any money orders unless they were sent three days before the order closed - but she didn't keep up on the orders coming in and so the order closed long before she realized we'd reached our max. Therefore people who were sending money orders sent them long after we'd closed the order and so she didn't place the order for a good week after it closed. Very frustrating considering I'd joined the group in order to bypass the fraking money order wait. To top it off, by the time she made the order a bunch of stuff was sold out - luckily I wasn't effected - but I feel bad for the others who were. The second of the two was much quicker and more efficient in regards to the organizer, but then Dollmore didn't respond to our order for two weeks! I was hoping to have the order before I left - but that's not going to happen as Dollmore is sending it out tomorrow and it can take three days to get it from them and then three days to get it from the organizer. The money I save using a group order is wonderful - however the process is frustrating more often than not. Once I get back - I'm doing my own group order so that I don't have to wait on others and I get the store credit!

Anyhow - this was just a bunch of little stuff that would have been pointless to put in their own post :)

What are your travel plans for this spring/summer?

This is obvious.

SCOTLAND!!!

I'm getting nervous about Scotland. I feel I'm not ready - not in the least. Plus I just checked the weather and it's going to be cold. Last year it was warm this time of year, and then of course this year has to be freakishly cold compared to others. Plus I don't have any filters for my camera. Or a rain guard. Linnet's head is still in Pennsylvania. What if I can't bring my tripod? Where do I put that? I can't put it in my suitcase - can I carry it on? Will I have to choose between my purse and my tripod?!

I'm freaking out.

We got our myguideBritain travel package today, and I was disappointed to find that they still have not provided us with street addresses for 4 out of our 7 accommodations. Some of the directions are pretty straight forward - but most are not. One place simply says Bruce Gardens - but that place has more than one B&B in it so how are we to know which one it is?

I emailed the person I'm working with at myguideBritain and told them that if they can't give me street numbers - that's fine. But I need some longitude & latitude coordinates or something. I'm not going to go tramping across half of Scotland looking for one B&B. Sure, that'd be a story to tell and I'd see some cool stuff but in the process I'll be wasting time I could be spending seeing places I've been dreaming about for ages.

I'm expecting a few things this week - and missing others.

First, as I might have mentioned awhile ago - I joined a group order on the DoA forum that ordered from Dollmore. I bought a new wig (after taking measurements, I realize the first wig I bought from Luts was actually the wrong size) and also a new pair of eyes. I joined the order on the 7th under the stipulation the group of orders would not be closed & paid for until we reached $800 and qualified for free shipping. On the 7th we were only at $400. Three days later it was closed! We finished & cleared all payments on the 19th and we were expecting to have to wait at least two weeks before it getting to the group coordinator and then surprisingly yesterday it was delivered! So quick, I'm beyond relieved because I was depending on the wig for Scotland. I paid for shipping last night and the group coordinator is in the US so it shouldn't take too long to get to me. The only bummer is that I've dismantled my doll and sent her head off for a touch up on her face so I wont even be able to check it all out for awhile.

Second, after thinking about it for awhile I did end up ordering the outfit from Souldoll. I'm not regretting it in the least either, because when I went to the site while writing this post to get the URL to link to it - I saw that it was sold out! I really, really liked this outfit and knowing that I got it before it sold out has made me so happy. I just have so many ideas so far as outfits! I ordered it on Saturday morning and on Monday night I got a shipping confirmation that said I'd get it today! I'm not sure how - but I am. Of course, the fact of her body being completely dismantled takes away from the bit of joy - but only a bit :)

Third, today we're supposed to be getting our entire travel itinerary from MyguideBritain - the travel coordinators we worked with for our Scotland trip. I'm excited about this because it's supposed to have our plane tickets (they coordinated one flight for us - Edinburgh to Dublin) as well as I'm hoping full contact information for our B&Bs. All of the websites only give streets - which is all fine and dandy when you're planning but when you're trying to actually drive there it's something different. If they don't have complete addresses they're going to be getting a phone call from me, that's for sure.

As for what I'm not getting yet; my Softly She Walks order. They're stationed in Canada and their website says it can take up to a week to ship and up to three weeks for delivery after shipping (they're shipping the slowest & cheapest because shipping was free). I'd love to have these outfits before Scotland, but it's not imperative in the least.

Also, and I'm not surprised I'm not getting it this week, some boots I ordered from eBay. Still on my hunt for black boots (as the pair I bought last time were way too big), I was browsing the DoA boards and ran across a sales thread for red boots. The seller explained they wouldn't fit on her SD13 boy and would probably fit an SD10 girl well. My girl is SD10! Though I didn't need red boots - the boots looked familiar and I realized that they were off of the same eBay seller who I bought my initial boots from. I scurried over to the site and found they had black ones and that with shipping it'd be under $20. The inner foot length is supposed to be 7.5cm (my girl has a 6.9cm foot length) so I'm hoping they're going to fit. I'm still skeptical though, because my last boots were supposed to be 7.5cm as well and were in actuality 8.4cm. I figure that once I get these - if they don't fit - I'm sending them back. Last time, I resolved to just try and work with them but not this time.

I also wont be getting back Linnet's head this week - at least I don't anticipate to. The person I found to do the touch up on the face understands my time frame and is very willing to work on her as soon as she's received and get her back to me pronto. I figure it'll take three days to get to her - three days to work on her - three days to get back. So hopefully late next week. I'm upset about having to have her face touched up at all - but that's what I get for pissing off the person doing my body blush - she chipped the eyeliner when putting in the eye lashes and I wasn't about to send any part of Linnet back to her for repairs.

Anyhow - that was a long post :P

Awhile ago I posted on my Scotland blog about me wanting to purchase a different toiletry kit as the one I have now is just a tad bit too small and it took me ages to pack it so that everything fit - the very thing I was trying to avoid. So I went onto Amazon and bought another bag through one of their merchants. Two weeks later and I'm still waiting for A) The money to be taken out and B) For the item to be shipped. After many emails asking for a status I get an email that says the item is actually out of stock. Nice. However, as an apology they'd like to give me a 25% discount & free shipping to use at their online store (not Amazon). Looking around I've found a few options and I'm having trouble deciding.

First we have two Eagle Creek (I've come to love them!) toiletry kits that are essentially the same however one is larger. The reason I'm debating is because I don't want to get a monster kit - but I don't want to do what I've done with my current kit which is get just enough. Their sizes are 10" x 6.5" x 4" for the medium and 11.5" x 9" x 4" for the large and the price difference is about $10 which bothers me a bit... In fact, as I'm writing this I think I've decided to just go with the medium. For one thing, I don't like paying $10 for a total of 4 inches more. Plus, the inches are height and width but not depth which is where I think I'd find it most beneficial. So, now we've narrowed down which toiletry case to get :)

Second we have two shoulder bags. The reason I'm considering these is because as everyone knows, I'm taking Linnet with me and I want to have her as my carry-on and in a proper bag that will keep her safe and protected. These bags drew my attention because I can't have her stretched out due to carry-on baggage size limitations so I need something that will allow her to bend at the waist but not have to bend at the knees too. These bags are perfect in size, they have a stiff bottom, and the bottom has those metal numbs that will prevent the bag from resting directly on the floor which I think will protect her even more. The decision to be made here is which color/pattern to choose.