Scotch on the rocks

Last Thursday I headed up to Scotland for reunions, a 30th birthday bash and a spot of culture. I meant to write about it sooner, but I'm still recovering. I should have realised that it was not going to be a quiet trip when, an hour and a half after arriving in Edinburgh, having had only a chocolate orange for lunch, Cathy and I were meeting Joe and Barry in the pub. Needless to say a chocolate orange isn't a suitable meal before going drinking, so pretty soon I was feeling the effects. So Xathy and I went home, talked about her upcoming move to Okinawa (Jealous? Me? Muchly so) and watched a crap Japanese horror film ("Pulse") and then "Hostel" which was hilarious despite being rather horrible. And then on Friday I headed over to Glasgow.

 

Now, I've never been to Glasgow before and had heard that Edinburgh is much more beautiful, but I'm not sure. The picture iabove shows what much of Glasgow city centre is like. Gorgeous old buildings that are well maintained. I didn't go for my free spinal check though.

 

The reason I went to Glasgow was to see Jess and Dan, friends from Japan who are doing PGCE courses. Jess and I had a quick wander around the town and discussed having a quiet night as she was full of a cold and wasn't wanting a big one. I agreed, thinking the party in Edinburgh the next night would be a big one. And then we met Dan in the pub. Dan was not alone. He was with... Mr Harper.

  

Mr Harper is dangerous. He is very good fun, likes to have a good time and likes his drink. He is DANGEROUS. But in a good way of course. He likes his drink, and he likes other people to drink too. So by 8 eight o'clock we had each consumed comething stupid like 6 pints of Fosters and 8 Jagermeister and Red Bulls. At which point Mr Harper went home leaving the three of us flailing about like loons (or perhaps that was just me). We headed to Jess and Dan's flat befgore carrying on drinking and I broke their kitchen. Elephant's can't fly you know, but it seems microwaves can. Dan led me into their lovely kitchen, and in my drunken state I decided to jump on their breakfast bar. The breakfast bar was clearly not prepared for this and flipped up under my weight launching the microwave into the air. Oops...
The rest of the night is a bit of a blur, but involved more drinking, Mars bars, secret bars with members' keys, sandwiches, pies and curry. I must go back to Glasgow soon...

 

So, Saturday came and after only about 4 hours' sleep it was bound to be messy, but after waiting for other visitors to park their bags at Cathy's and watching X-factor, we headed off to Joe's 30th. A very drunken evening ensued with lots of new people to talk to (or should I say babble at, as the drink was doing it's job) and some suitably lewd dancing. The party was in a nice bar somewhere in the centre of the city, but was followed by an after-party at Joe and Barry's flat where Cathy became toast queen and everyone marvelled at how massive the flat was.

Sunday, the actual day of Joe's birthdau was another marathon, where Cathy and I made a late entrance to a breakfast and drinking session that had apparently started at 10. Breaking our drinking run for a spot of shopping, I managed to make an idiot of myself in Topman by paying for jeans on my storecard and then paying off a random amount on the card straight away. And Cathy hugged a tree. Cathy and I finished drinking early, she at 6:30 and me at 8, not before time. The others battled on until 3am. Brave soldiers they were.

  

On Monday morning I had somne time to kill before my train and wandered around Edinburgh trying to figure out what foodstuffs would counting three days of drink and chocolate consumption (approximately 23 bars). ANd I also took some pictures. This is a view of the buildings on the Royal Mile from Princes Street. Very pretty.

 

More pretty buildings on the Royal Mile where I searched unsuccessfully for sticks of rock.

  

Some funny rooves with interesting tile work. Lord I was feeling rough at this point.

  

This was the view from the train on the way home. Lots of the journey is on the coast, so you see just beach. The best bits are between Edinburgh and Newcastle. I relaxed on the journey, reading, gorging myself on fishy sandwiches from Sainsbury's (you can bet the man sat next to me wasn't too impressed) and gulping down healthy smoothies. And despite my best efforts I seem to have a heavy cold now. Good job this weekend's been quiet.