This is a rather late and awfully photo-less offering to the last round of Friday 5′s. The first week of uni has churned up a surprising amount of homework, and being the diligent, conscientious (or, rather, confused and panicky) student that I am, I’ve been sitting at my desk for most of the weekend, feverishly typing away and attempting to soothe my brain back into study mode (which, by the way, isn’t really happening for me). The topic this week was favourite local hotspots – one that I couldn’t not have posted about. Any excuse to bore people with tales of my beloved Edinburgh is just fine by me. The only problem was that I couldn’t narrow my list down to just five. I know, blatant flouting of the rules and all, but seeing as it’s the last one I didn’t think anyone would mind. So in no particular order, here are my six favourite spots in Caledonia’s capital…

Loopy Lorna’s Tea House

Loopy Lorna’s comes very high on my list of afternoon tea joints as well as my list of favourite local hotspots. Mismatched floral china, hand-knitted tea cosies, three-tier cake stands positively groaning with all sorts of goodies…it’s heavenly. It’s also a little on the expensive side, so I don’t go every Sunday, but the cakes are ludicrously good. I’ve fallen so madly in love with the Victoria sponge at this place that I seem to be ordering it every time I go and rudely neglecting the other tantalising offerings. Loopy’s also does an admirable range of speciality teas, including rose petal and masala chai. My standing favourite is ‘bricks and mortar’ – a proper builder-style brew which is absolutely perfect for all these autumnal afternoons we’re currently experiencing!

The Meadows

Any list of my favourite Edinburgh hangouts would be achingly incomplete without this. The Meadows is really just a series of tree-lined paths bisecting some randomly shaped patches of grass, but it is such a special and interesting place to be. Special because of the atmosphere, interesting because of the people. I once saw a man holding an umbrella over himself while he unicycled home from work, for instance (how cool is that?!). I’ve also seen a rather joyful girl doing cartwheels in the rain stark naked, and a runner who was using his hands to claw the air like a tiger as he jogged (I kid you not). An often-bizarre but ever-brilliant place to pass through, the Meadows is definitely one of my favourite things about Edinburgh.

Dominion Cinema

My boyfriend and I always joke that the Dominion isn’t just a cinema. It’s an experience. And I can’t think of any better way to describe it than that. Set way back from the heart of the city in leafy, lovely Morningside, the Dominion is old-fashioned, traditional and a world, a universe even, away from the mass-produced multiplex conglomerates that are, depressingly, absolutely everywhere. It has huge screens with leather two-seater couches, armchairs and coffee tables. It’s like watching a film in a giant living room with a whole bunch of your friends. It also has a bar serving beer, wine and tea, and which is manned by a barman who wears a suit and a bow-tie, not a garish polo shirt and a baseball cap a la Cineworld, which I love. The sad thing is, of course, that the chain multiplexes with their vast PR coffers are driving places like the Dominion out of business, in the same way that Tesco is forcing the closure of local high street grocery stores left, right and centre. So, here’s my one and only plug of the post: if you’re ever in Edinburgh, looking for a place to watch a film, please please give the Dominion a blast. You’ll love it, I promise!

The Rusty Zip

The Rusty Zip is a branch of Armstrong’s, a vintage clothing emporium with, I think, three stores in Edinburgh all told. The Zip is a tiny place, but it’s packed to the rafters (literally – if you want something from high up they have to get a ladder out) with second hand clothes, shoes and killer accessories. Particularly good finds of mine have included a polka dot dress a la Julia Roberts at the races in Pretty Woman; a pair of black slouch boots that I wore so much they now need to be re-heeled and a purple taffeta dress that properly rocks my world. Think the high school hop in Grease and you’re totally there. The Rusty Zip will always be one of my favourite shops, simply because it’s so quirky and it houses so many weird and wonderful bits of clothing that the high street would simply turn a blind eye to. Cute, kooky and Amazing with a capital ‘A’!

Blackford Hill

Blackford Hill is one of the first places I’ll think of when I need a bit of peace and quiet. It’s only a half hour walk away from my flat and it has a really beautiful view right over the entire city and beyond, across the Firth of Forth to Fife and the surrounding area. I sometimes go on my own, just to sit and think about whatever’s going on in my head, and I go with my boyfriend lots too. I can’t count the number of times we’ve sprinted the last couple of minutes to the top just to catch the sun setting! Blackford is a great place to go with friends as it’s so easily accessible. A group of us went on Bonfire Night two years ago with a tray of home-made toffee apples and a few flasks of tea, and a bunch of us also went on New Year’s Day this year, where we watched the first sunset of 2010 and played in the foot-deep snow. Hmm, all this talking about it has made me want to don my boots and go right now!

Edinburgh University Main Library

My final favorite hotspot is a new one to me, which I’ve only really discovered in the past week or so. From the outside, the main library looks like a multi-storey car park which, oddly enough, it actually was originally intended to be! But inside, the place is a mecca for learning. There are thousands upon thousands of books here, on every subject thinkable, from astronomy to obesity to linguistics to engineering. There are desks, computers and quiet study spaces absolutely everywhere and it even boasts a little cafe where you can refuel yourself on tea while chewing on coursework problems. The thing I like most about this library, however, is its location. It sits right on the edge of the Meadows, so if you’re lucky enough to bag a much-coveted seat by a South-facing window you can punctuate your study or reading sessions with a bit of people-watching and some tree-gazing. It’s a wonderfully relaxing place to spend a bit of time, and I already know I’m going to be truly sorry at the end of this year when I have to relinquish my student card and say goodbye.

This has been a rather difficult Friday 5 for me.  At the risk of sounding all do-goody and annoying, I can’t say I’m overly fussed about Christmas gifts anymore.  I suppose it’s a concomitant part of growing up.  I still really love to see the faces of my young siblings light up when they realise that the all-knowing all-seeing Santa has bestowed the very thing they were pining for upon them (seriously, how does he get it so right, all the time?!).  But I myself am not really bothered anymore.  Christmas these days is about being at home, EATING and watching trashy television with my family.  If I get those things, I’m happy.  Easily pleased, huh?

Nevertheless, that wouldn’t make for a very interesting Friday 5!  So here we have five things that, while I could happily go without them, would definitely put a smile on my face come Christmas morning…

A stash of pretty fabric

I’m always on the lookout for pretty fabrics for sewing projects, but they can often be terribly expensive, not to mention a waste of money if the said sewing projects go disastrously wrong!  I’d really love, however, to have a good stock of dainty florals, quirky retros and bold geometrics in my sewing supplies basket, so that when the urge to make something springs itself on me I can get going straight away.  This would also be good for my Etsy endeavours (which, erm, haven’t started yet – who smells a New Years’ Resolution?).

A hammock

I don’t know why, but I’m really fascinated by the idea of having a hammock hanging from the ceiling somewhere in my flat.  I’d love to be able to jump into it and swing back and forth while I read a good book and sip a pina colada (or maybe just a cup of tea).  The logistics of introducing a hammock to a second floor Edinburgh-based flat are not really something I’m keen on pondering for very long, so if Santa could sort those out as well that’d be grand.

Snow

OK so it’s probably the cheesiest Christmas wish there is going, but I would really love a proper no-holds-barred white Christmas this year.  I want to curl up infront of It’s a Wonderful Life, eat lots of lovely food, drink mulled wine and watch some morbidly obese snowflakes plummet their way to the ground from a leaden grey sky.  I also want to go sledging.  Hardcore sledging.  And snowball fighting.  I’d love it if my entire street came out to play a great big snowball fight for oh, say, an hour, before we all went home for hot chocolate.  That’d be amazing.  Santa, if you could organise this I’d happily forfeit all material presents.

A stack of Pierre Hermé macaroons

These (above) keep popping up all over the internet, and by gosh do I wanna eat some!  I want to eat some, and then wear the rest.  Soooo pretty!

The much-coveted World Link necklace

Finally, I really love this necklace from uncommon goods.  It’s a map of the world, and I think it is so completely beautiful.  I’m not overly mad about necklaces (much more of a big earrings, big rings gal), but I’d definitely make an exception for this lovely little thing.

Don’t forget to pop over to the other ladies’ blogs today for a squint at their Friday 5 posts.  I’m off now, for three-ish weeks (I’m almost sad at the thought of not blogging for that length of time!).  I’ve scheduled some picture posts to make their way onto your screens in my absence, which I hope you’ll enjoy, and I’ll be back with some substantive writing in the week beginning Monday 6th September, hopefully also with a raft of exciting holiday tales to tell and photos to show.  Have lovely, lovely weeks everyone! xxx

Image above from Flickr – yuichi.sakuraba.

I’m taking a raincheck on Friday 5 this week (sorry ladies!).  I could only think of two 80′s movies I could write about, and thought my time might be better spent with a little post on planning, given that I’ve got a myriad of things to do at the moment, and slightly inflamed levels of stress!  Whatever you do though dear readers, don’t forget to stop by the other girls’ blogs and have a read!

So to a soporific and substantially unnecessary post about chores (you’d much rather be reading about movies right now, wouldn’t you?).  I won’t hold it against you if you want to exit the blog at this point but I always feel better about these things once I’ve written them down.  So, in no particular order, here’s my current to-do list…

Before I go to New York on Sunday 15th August I need to:

• Clean out my work desk
• PACK
• Exchange some pounds into dollars
• PACK SOME MORE
• Finish my job and probably get all teary-eyed at leaving
• KEEP PACKING
• Post some eBay items
• Apply for a career development loan
• FINISH PACKING

It would be easy to lump all of these tasks into one big ‘do this now’ category. Easy, but probably a bit dangerous. Whenever I bundle my tasks up, no matter how good a job I do of the packaging, I inevitably end up with a flabby, laborious pile of stress in my head. A ball and chain of obligation that does nothing for me but induce grumpiness and major irritation. And those are never good.

So, after some inward deliberation, I have developed a stress-prevention strategy. It’s called looking at things in a positive light. Because really, when there’s so much other great stuff going on that I really want to take time and enjoy (the Edinburgh Fringe is on for example – it’s the best time of the year here!), it just doesn’t seem right to be worrying about admin, does it? And when all is said and done, those annoying niggly tasks we so constantly come up against in life are usually just constituent parts of something bigger and better – the wood that’s obscured by the trees, if you will. So, in a bid to refocus on the good that’s coming from all of these little things, I’m going to try and find something positive to say about five of them. Let’s begin…

1 Clean out my desk at work, finish my job and probably get all teary-eyed at leaving.

OK so clearing out desks is never going to be pant-wetting in terms of excitement. But I strongly believe that it is good for the soul. Throwing out (ahem, recycling) piles of paperwork that I’ll never have the misfortune of looking at again, that feeling of ‘a new start’ that’s slowly starting to permeate my soul and just generally blitzing the dust that’s accumulated in my daily routine over the past two years are all things to look forward to, and be thankful for. I can’t wait to be a student again next year, to have breaks in the middle of the day where I can sit and read a book, to have 11am starts and little bits of homework and an excuse to buy a new pencil case (hey, I might even make one this time!). These are all good things. Moving on, progressing, ADVANCING in life. Nothing in there is bad. Nothing.

2 Post some eBay items

Tedious a task as this is, the fact that I’m posting some eBay items inevitably means I’ve sold some eBay items. Which means pennies in my pocket. To add to my selling fun, I’ve decided to save all the money I make on eBay and treat myself to a little trip somewhere once I reach the £300 mark (unless I run into dire financial straits and need to use it to buy cornflakes and wine). Which will essentially be like a free holiday, given that I’m only selling things that mean nothing to me, and that I won’t miss at all. Weekend for gratis in Berlin? Or Paris? Or Amsterdam? Who in their right mind would say no?!

3 PACK, PACK SOME MORE, KEEP PACKING and FINISH PACKING

Because who wants to end up on the trip of their life so far with nothing to wear except a Mac in a Pack and some moth-eaten shorts? Imagine the holiday photos!

4 Exchange some pounds into dollars

Without dollars I will be unable to buy a huge slice of pizza to eat in Times Square, or an ice cream cone in the sweltering Californian heat, or a huge hotdog from a cheery Manhattan street vendor (there are cheery Manhattan street vendors, right?). Dollars = doing cool things on holiday, which is pretty good in my book (yes, my ‘doing cool things on holiday’ list mostly comprises eating food. So shoot me).

5 Apply for a career development loan

This isn’t really for spending (well, not unless I can help it). It’s more for having in the bank and knowing I can use it if there’s an emergency, seeing as the savings I’ve made over the last year (i.e. my current emergency fund) are going to be all but eaten up by course fees and books and sundry other necessities. I’ve already secured a job for the year after next, so there are no worries about when or how I’ll pay a loan off, and if I don’t use any of it I can simply give it back in one go. It’s for peace of mind more than anything else, which is always nice to have.

So apologies for the lack of interesting Friday 5-ing here today, I’ll try to do better next week!  I always feel much better when I articulate what’s bothering me, even if it doesn’t make for the most thrilling read.  As always, the power of listing is already working its mysterious magic on my subconscious.  Have a great weekend everyone, and make sure you fill it with lots of fun things!

Image above from Flickr – haglundc.

This week’s Friday 5 is most regretted purchases.  I’ve had an absolute nightmare with this one (actually, as I write this introduction I’ve only got two examples in mind!), which is curious, because I’ve certainly made some spectacular errors of judgement in my purchasing lifetime.  Anywhere, here are the five that seem worthy enough to note…

Cinema tickets

I hate it when I feel like a trip to the cinema has been a waste of money. Of course you can’t know you’re going to hate a film before you go in, but it still stings a bit when you realise you’ve parted with enough money to buy a decent cocktail or a Chinese take-away only to have a really disappointing film experience. Notable films I’ve regretted seeing are: Sex and the City 2 (enjoy a good rant here), a film called Sleeping Dogs, which I won’t go into apart from to say it was complete rubbish, and also a film called The Ugly Truth, which I saw alone last year. That was particularly annoying because I didn’t even have anyone to moan to about how terrible it was afterwards! I also regret purchasing a ticket to a film I didn’t even manage to see because my boyfriend at the time and I couldn’t find a pair of seats together (we were rather young and too embarrassed/self-conscious to sit separately). Boo to crap films!

Haircuts

I sorely regretted getting my hair cut from shoulder to cheekbone length when I was around 13. It was HORRIBLE. I vividly remember the feelings of panic welling upside me as the hairdresser KEPT ON SNIPPING and feeling absolutely terrified at the thought of asking her to stop.  So of course, I sat there, completely mute, while a pile of my hair grew ever-larger on the floor beneath me.  It was such a nasty experience – I remember coming out of the salon and promptly bursting into tears, before rushing home to sit infront of a mirror and will my tresses to grow back. I’d have given almost anything. I’ve had a fear of radical haircuts ever since, and the worst part is that a photo of me with this repulsive ‘do still hangs on the wall in my parents’ living room. The shame of it all…

Hairdyes

Hmm, another hair one…I had a minor identity crisis at the very beginning of 2006, which resulted in me dyeing my previously highlighted hair jet black.  It was awful, and to this day, I can’t think what possessed me.  Anyway, said identity crisis was over and done with within two or three months, but I still had terribly dark hair.  So I decided to lighten it, by myself, at home.  After some internet-based research, I realised that this would involve bleaching my hair almost white, before dyeing it to the intended shade, enticingly labelled ‘honey brown’ on the box.  This I duly did, but the ‘honey brown’ part never quite materialised.  Yep, I spent a while with hair that was practically orange.  Like an orangutan.  Thankfully my friends and family were nice enough not to comment at the time, but some one actually recently said to me ‘Remember when you had orange hair?  That was hilarious, eh?’  I was so terrified of dyeing it again for it falling out, that I just learned to live with it.  I now shiver at the thought.

Alcohol

As a general rule I don’t drink heavily these days, so when on the odd occasion I do overdo it with the tipple and wake up the next morning with a hangover, my overwhelming feeling is one of regret (this comes a close second to nausea).  Regret for the purchase of that last gin and tonic!  It always happens when I go out with my friends from home: our catch-up sessions always end in pissed-dom for me, which is fine at the time, hell it’s freaking FUNNY at the time, but it’s never quite so amusing the next day when I’m on the train back down to Edinburgh.  I will learn one day!

Books

Finally, I’ve made a few stupid book purchases in my time.  Before I went to Rome, I decided I wanted to learn EVERYTHING about the Roman Empire, so I bought a book all about it.  Did I read it?  Did I hell, I read my Lonely Planet guide instead.  Similarly, I made a New Year’s resolution last year to lean more about Scotland, as having lived with two Mancunians who knew way more about my home country than I did myself I had decided my ignorance was too much to bear.  Again, the book I bought to educate myself is still sitting in the cupboard, probably never to be read.  Next to that copy of ‘Tai Chi for Dummies’.  God, I really can be an idiot sometimes….
More Friday 5 next week!  You can enjoy the other girls’ posts by checking out the Friday5 hashtag on Twitter.  Happy weekends all!

Image above from Flickr (intended to signify a face of regret!) – ohskylab.

My Friday 5 this week doesn’t need much work, simply because everything I love about summer I love because of one reason: I feel ALIVE at this time of year.  I have a horrible tendency towards depressive moods in the Winter, which I quite honestly think is attributable to the weather.  I don’t mind the cold, but it does make me want to hibernate rather than get out there and, well, LIVE.  So in no particular order, here are my five Summer faves.

Strawberries – So delicious you forget you’re actually doing yourself good by eating them!  With ice cream, in salads (fruit and vegetable), by the punnet with no added frills – simply sublime.  ‘Nuff said.

Daylight! – When Summer rolls around I actually want to get up in the mornings, and go out and do stuff in the evenings rather than snuggle down in my pyjamas and refuse to leave the house.  If that’s not an argument for year-round sunshine, I’m not sure what is.  Maybe I should relocate to Spain.

Outdoors – There’s nothing nicer than being outside when the weather’s good.  Lying in the park reading books, garden parties, delicious barbeques, swimming in the sea, running (I actually feel like running in the Summer), cycling, walking, watching the sun set…I love it all.  And it’s free.  And good for us.  Kapow.

Showing flesh – Not in a slutty way, but more in a ‘my body needs some bloody vitamin D after all this time under wraps’ way.  I love going out in the Summer with bare legs, short sleeves and flip flops.  It just makes me feel so much lighter, and full of energy.  Getting dressed in the Winter can be a tiresome affair – all those layers and Winter woolies – isn’t it just simpler when you can throw on skirt, vest and sandals and be done with it?

Energy – I have bags more energy in the Summer – I rarely feel sluggish or over-tired, which is usually my default Winter setting.  I can stay up later in the Summer without being exhausted the next day, and I have tonnes more zest for life than I do between October and February.  I get projects completed, I have new ideas, I’m more likely to make arrangements to see people…the list goes on.  In short, I wish it were Summer all year round.  Apart from the first day of snow in the Winter.  That’s always cool.

Don’t forget to check out the other girls’ Friday 5′s using our Twitter hashtag!  May I bid you all lovely weekends!  I’m going to see Inception tonight – review to come on Twitter later!xx

Image above from Flickr – Fabio Marini.