Shandwick's Place, Portobello, Jazz in the Summer

So, Saturday we went to the Shoes* Branch at Shandwick's Place. It was quite fun actually. They were expecting 6 -7 people but only 3 of us turned up. Well, it was some induction thing that we had already gone through when we were in newcastle but in addition to this, I won chocolates! We also each got goody bags, consisting of Soltan Once (suntan lotion), Ted Baker Body Wash, Botanics Body Wash and No7 Highland Mist Lipstick and also a free lunch! Great day indeed!

Sunday came by with good weather, so the four of us decided to go to Portobello, the seaside of Edinburgh. Sun, sea, and ..... cold water... The sea water was freezing! But we only walked on the beach and didn't actually go down to the sea.



We saw a man burying his kid.....









Here we are at Jazz in the Summer... There was great music.. it was a preview of the Edinburgh Jazz Festival and we had fun nodding our heads to the music. Wanted to join people who were dancing but didn't dare as my friends didn't want to accompany me!
The weather was weird tho. It was sunny in the morning when we went to Portobello and when we sat down to enjoy the music at the Gardens at Princes Street but 10 mins later, the clouds came running over and started drizzling. It only went on for around 20mins before the sun came shining out again. Well, that pattern went on for a few times before it started raining heavier, so we left!
Btw, we got free yoghurt from this place. They were launching Muller's Amore, new yoghurt i think so we got about 4 each! The picture of the 4 of us was taken by one of the people controlling the crowd. When i asked him whether he would take a picture of us, he ask me, "Me?"
Well, duh.... of course him... asking such obvious questions.. Should've said, "No, that invisible guy behind you."










Btw.. this is a picture i took on the bus when we were on our way back from Fort Kinnaird where we went last monday. I think it's a job recruitment agency, but look at the name! Soul Recruitment!! Working for the Devil? I wouldn't want to go to such a place to find a job!





That's all for now.. More pictures at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=10082&l=d3b4c&id=535206745

Weekends!

It's the weekends!! Quite happy today as I finished work at 5 instead of 6 today. Glad to get out of the place. Tomoro will have to go to Shandwick's Place, which is a place near my work place. Keep wanting to take photos of the place i work at but either the weather is terrible or i keep forgetting. As i sit here typing this, 2 fire engines and 1 ambulance have passed by with the really really loud siren. Wonder why there are so many emergencies these days.

One thing good about working til closing time is that you get free sandwiches and cakes and maybe drinks. Stuff that are going to expire that day. Got a lot of sandwiches yesterday.

Seem to have a craving for chocolates these days. Going to stop by Marks and Spencer later to get the 2 for £2 sponge cake that i have been drooling over ever time i see it.

Cooked fish with ginger and onions that day. Problem is, the only fish that was reasonably cheap was salmon. It came out quite nice, despite the fact that i didn't notice that the salmon i bought was lightly smoked, making it taste a bit smoky. I don't see a lot of white fish here, except haddock and cod, which are quite expensive. Should stop by a fish place soon to get some nice fish. Want to stop by a butcher if i have time to get some haggis to try as well.

Don't know why i can't access hotmail. Guess i'll need to come back tomoro and try it.

Edinburgh is full of tourist now. Chinese, Spanish, Italians, and so on and so forth. Also a lot of Americans. There are some who complained that there are a lot of coins here. £2 coins, £1 coins, 50p, 10p, 5p, 2p and 1p. It's so heavy carrying along change and most people would try to dump it all when they buy something. That day we had a pharmacist who's originally from NZ and he complained that there is a lot of different notes. Clydesdale Bank, Bank of Scotland, Bank of England, Bank of Ireland all produce their own notes. It's quite difficult for me as well to know if it is indeed real. So, why bother my brain so much, i just accept whatever they hand me. Should not be a forgery i guess.

Got my pay again. Remember in my first blog that i said i got taxed? Apparently, i'm getting refunded on it now. but i still have to pay national insurance, even though i won't be getting any benefit from the National Health Service. Well, now my pharmacist tells me that i'm actually going to get paid £6.50 instead of £6.90 per hour. So I need to expect my pay to be reduced in weeks to come.

Ah.. end of week 4. Time passed quite fast. Can't really believe that I've already been here for 4 weeks. Anybody miss me?

Work again

So, haven't been online for a few days now. Have been working for the whole day yesterday, today and also for tomoro as well. From 8am - 6pm. Think I'm the only one who does such long hours. But... good things do come out of it. Yesterday i got a free sandwich and a banana cake (which is obviously expiring that day or they won't give it away for free), and today i got a banana cake as well! I love their banana cakes. Nice nutty taste to it as it has walnuts on top of it. Hopefully tomoro i can get something as well.

Want to post photos but this place doesn't have a memory card reader. So, will have to post it up some other day. Maybe will post one of the banana cake.

Has been quite quiet these days at the shop. Probably cuz most people have gone off for holidays. Wish i were in a warmer place. Today's weather wasn't very good.. but now it's sunny.. Imagine.. Sunny at 6.30pm.. It never feels like night here.. It will only get dark at about 11pm and it gets bright again really early (but i don't know what time it gets bright as i'm fast asleep, wrapped around in my warm blanket.)

Nothing much to say today.. Nothing eventful happened that's worth noting down.

Grand opening of Emily's Blog

Following with advice of my cousin, I have decided to open up a blog where I can post photos and relate what is happening in my life right now.

I have nothing much to say right now, except that it is very very cold here these days. In fact, it's freezing. And it is suppos

ed to be summer! Everybody is saying that this summer is just miserable. And how good last summer was and how I should've been here last summer. What a wrong time to come! The weather was quite nice this morning but turned cloudy after i came out from church. So now it is freezing again.

Work is ok.. Not very fun. Am not doing anything related to pharmacy most of the time. Sometimes do give advice to some customers but mostly have and dealing with moneyto refer them to the pharmacist as i'm not sure what to give them.

Some of the funny people that come in: A customer came in few days ago to ask for lime.. thinking that i heard him wrong, as it is sometimes quite hard to understand some of the Scottish people, even tho the guy who asked wasn't Scottish.. probably Indian, I asked him, "Lime? Lime for?"

He went, "Lime, Lime.. you know.. round, green fruit?"

?????? I didn't know why he came to the pharmacy to get lime. Maybe he thinks it is a chain supermarket, instead of a chain pharmacy.

Another day, someone came in for sponge. The first thing that came to my mind was sponge that is used for washing dishes. Wanting to clarify, i asked the customer what sponge is she looking for, and she said for washing. So, thinking that, i just told her we didn't have it. My colleague heard me say that and instead directed the customer to the bath section where they had sponges, sponges for WASHING during BATH!!!! oh my... can't they not be so ambiguous.. making my life difficult.

This guy is very good at what he does.
He's there every weekend and he does this robot thing.

Went up to the castle that day. But only went to the outside of it as to go in you have to pay £11. But the scenery was quite nice as we climbed up the steep hill.



Went out on Friday after we got our salaries. Celebrating our first time being paid. And we got TAXED!!! nearly £200 for me! Can only get the money back at the end of the tax year which is April 5th, 2008. I don't see how that is enforced savings. I can probably earn quite a lot putting that amount into an online bank account where to the interest is 6%, which is being paid every month!


Picture of us before going out and having to cover ourselves with lots and lots of layers.


Outside waiting for bus after dinner at Pizza Hut.