Goodbye, 2016

I saw this article yesterday about 'romjul', which is apparently the Norwegian word for the weird days between Christmas and New Year and seems to mean being cosy, going for winter walks, and 'mindful mooching'. I very much like this word, though I am taking this interpretation with a pinch of salt, as one of our favourite hobbies as English speakers right now seems to be borrowing words from other countries and (so I'm told by my exasperated friends on the mainland) reading more cultural significance into them than is probably really there to find.

(I keep sending my Danish friends photos every time I see something going wild for 'hygge', our newest obsession, complete with pronunciation guides of varying degrees of accuracy. "Hooo-gah?? HOOO-GAH? It just means cosy or nice, please calm down" - my confused and exasperated Danish friend. As an aside, apparently Danish is impossible to pronounce correctly for non-native speakers and they can spot us a mile off. There's even a phrase considered a sort of 'test'. There's also a fun little video guide to 'hygge' pronunciation here, which I also cannot say. I'm so sorry, Danish speakers. I'm glad you didn't have to witness me trying to say these things.)

When Nostalgia Goes Right

If you're one of my older internet friends from Flickr or maybe even Instagram (hello friends!) then you might know that I used to live in St Andrews. It's where I did my undergrad, I lived there for four years, and it is one of my most favourite places in the entire world. I graduated in 2012 and hadn't been for a return visit until last month. I was sort of afraid it would be weird and emotional in a bad way, or disappointing, or seem less beautiful, or be somehow less than I remember. But it wasn't! It was perfect.

Autumn in Aberdeenshire

Last week we had a mini roadtrip to to Scotland to see Gavin's family. (By which I mean: we drove to and from Aberdeenshire with a few flyby stops on the way, but calling it a roadtrip makes driving over 800 miles sound much more fun. It was fun! I don't think either of us are long distance driving pros, but we have a system that works pretty well for us. That is: we stop and swap regularly, and we've both decided that the passenger's job is to both carry the conversation and to be basically the equivalent of a video game HUD. HUDs don't judge you. They are helpful and informative. I recommend this attitude very much.)

Yorkshire Sculpture Park

Last week we took a day trip to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park. There's a pretty big installation by Not Vital at the moment, which features a lot of awesome reflective things that are just asking for weird and wonderful mirror selfies. The mirror selfie is a big favourite of mine (whether or not Mr Vital intended his work to be used this way...)

Meet My Rats

(Firstly, just to address the elephant in the room: yes, it has indeed been nearly two years since my last blog post here, goodness me. I've given the blog a little refresh and I'm back. Hope you like it!)

I'd like to introduce you to the two rats that now live with me....