forth road bridge

highland bulls

highland bulls
Originally uploaded by BeckyKiil.

Was very excited to finally see these cows...they're soooooo cute!

forth rail bridge

forth rail bridge
Originally uploaded by BeckyKiil.

I like this pic even though I managed to get it out of focus somehow. There are two bridges that go from Queensferry on the edge of Edinburgh across the Forth River to the north side(where the bird flu is...)This bridge was a 'masterpiece of engineering' in Victorian times. I think around 9 people died making it. One last fact...one of Alfred Hitchcock's earliest films had a scene where someone got out of a train and did fancy stunts while it was crossing this bridge. We walked 10 miles west of here a couple of weekends ago.

congratulations ben!

A big congratulations to my cousin Ben who became a father yesterday...can't wait to get home and see little Thomas!

I don't have much more to say besides that. Woo hoo!

what have I been upto?

This last weekend was Easter (obviously) and I was a little worried about being homesick like last year as it's so much more of a friend/family orientate thing in Australia than the UK, and both of my flatmates were out of town.

No need to worry though, I was lucky enough to be working both Friday and Monday, the later of these being my last day and handover at Barco just to keep me busy.

I also had the pleasant surprise of a visit from my London friend Jess. She came up on Thursday with around 24 hours notice and kept me company throughout the weekend. It turned out to be a very relaxing weekend - bumming around doing girlie stuff, shopping, going to the pub and out to a cool Turkish restaurant with friends. Jess left on Sunday and I went out for a walk with Tom from work and a couple of his friends. We walked 10 miles along the coast west of Edinburgh, starting at Queensferry and finishing at Bo'ness. We stopped at an Earl's house and a castle, and enjoyed the unpredictability of the weather in the region. Every day in the last two weeks I swear there has been four seasons in one day. We were in the castle for half an hour and I think we went through 3 of them.

Anyway as I mentioned, yesterday was my last day at Barco (the medical imaging software engineering company where I've been the last 2 months.)Today I started a job with a council east of Edinburgh in the community care / social worker's department. I'm really enjoying it so far - I spent all of today taking calls from clients of the social workers and occupational therapists. It looks like the work will be challenging but possibly very interesting. It's on a week-by-week basis which suits me well at the moment. Oh yeah and I almost forgot - one of the Occupational therapists that I met today was from Australia...I asked where she went to uni as her name and hometown sounded familiar...and what do you know...she went to uni with my cousin Cherry. Considering these are pretty much the only 2 OTs I've ever known, this was quite bizarre. An example of 'oh you two are from Australia - you must know each other' being close to correct.

Other news...I'm going on a girl's weekend to the Isle of Arran shortly with my friend Michelle - very much looking forward to going away after such a long time working!

That's pretty much it from me. Going of to the weekly pub quiz now. Have a good one!

Becky

P.S. I forbid Adelle to post on my blog until she stops being a hypocrite and emails me :p

the bird flu is coming!!!!

Well guys, I have very troubling news...the very much worried about deadly strain of bird flu is finally in the UK. And where has it decided to land? Just a few kilometres out across the gulf from Edinburgh : )

So if this is my last post, you'll know what's happened to me. I love you all.

In other news my old flatmate Stacey has sent me a link to some photos from my leaving do in London, including some nice pics of Pete & Trudy and my other old flatmates... (don't worry, that's only salt on the carpet...Jane couldn't afford the real stuff) See Stacey's Photos.

What I'm about to be listening to at the moment: Death Cab for Cutie, Plans.

australia

OK I'm going to get controversial and mention a topic no one really wants to talk about.

Australia. Multiculturalism. Racism.

I am very interested to know everyone’s opinion of what my country is like compared to other countries, what the real big issues are and if you think Australia needs to work on anything.

Since I’ve been away from home I’ve found that my views of Australia have changed a little. It’s interesting to see your country from a different context, and compared to everyone else. While travelling and meeting other Australians I have repeatedly had conversations that you would hardly ever come across at home, almost always because someone from a different country asks us our opinion. I’ve found the travelling Australian’s opinion on our social and racial issues tends to vary dramatically between two very different attitudes. There seems to be more of a divide than I was aware of while in Australia, and people from the same country often have completely different opinions on the existence and/or prevalence of multiculturalism and racism in Australia.

So in the aim of getting more of an idea of the Australian identity and attitudes I am proposing that people tell me what they think. I hope you can feel free to be honest - you can write anonymously, this may help in your honesty. Also if you're not from Australia I would still very much like to hear your thoughts.

Some things you can write about:

what our strengths are
what our weaknesses are
what we can do about them

There is a serious dilemma for me in what I’m asking because I would really like everyone to have free speech, however if I deem anything to be too offensive I can and will sensor it. This may be the most stupid thing I’ve ever done, but here goes!


P.S. On a much lighter note, what I’m listening to at the moment – Mogwai, Mr Beast / Sigur Ros, Takk / Beta Band, The 3 EPs (AGAIN AND REALLY LOUD)

jobs, prints, tickets and cigarettes

Footprints in the snow (not sand) ... 4th March 06.

Thanks everyone for such lovely comments, good to here from you all!

I don't really have any more news since last week. Actually I guess I do - the office I work at finally has permission for a permanent role so I will be leaving there in around 2 weeks. I'm going to start looking for new positions this weekend...maybe I'll make use of the marketing contacts for arts & performance organisations that I've had on hand for a while.

In other news I bought a ticket to a Glaswegian band Mogwai play here in Edinburgh which should be cool. On the creative side, I've collected a very large print of the photo below to go on display in our lounge room, and bought a b&w film to take more pics. I'm going to try to find the best place in Edinburgh where I can sit and watch people and hopefully get some good candid shots.

I went to the community arts cafe that I mentioned last week, but for a party not to use the darkroom yet - there were lots of 'smoking' parties last saturday night so people could suck as many cancer sticks as possible before the ban on smoking in public places commenced on Sunday. There has been a lot of debate about how well the smoking ban will go. There was actually quite a bizarre story in the paper this week about a man who is blaming his father's death on the smoking ban...he said if his father hadn't been forced to get up and go outside for a cigarette then he wouldn't have fallen and hit his head on the bar and died. He made a call for the ban to be taken away for old and disabled people in public places to curb such dangers of having to walk through the premises and outside. What is this world coming to???