Morgantown

Dandoo and Bumpy! Yay!

Vegas, again

I know, I know, it's crazy. Who visits Vegas twice in three months? There was a pretty good reason why I'm back this time, though. My pal Kirby has hooked me up with admission to a four-day teaching conference that was the bomb. We don't do anything like that back in Scotland. It was big-massive and I learned a helluva lot and refreshed a bunch of things in my mind. It didn't mean that I didn't enjoy myself though.


I'm completely knackered. Yeh, I did engage with the drink, but it's more than that. Every day at the conference was intense, with the lectures, reflecting on your practice, thinking about how to modify and augment my class and teaching. All the brain work was draining for the lot of us who attended. Save Kirby. Nothing stops that Energizer Bunny.

Her new thing is that she's into the gambling. She and her pals did the slots shortly before I arrived and won, so she convinced me and her guy, Beau, to chip in $7 to play. I hate gambling, as I might have expressed previously. I'm pretty sure I'm a cooler, you know, like the William H Macy film. I ooze bad luck, so I like to avoid stuff like that. But Kirby was convinced we win cos she's an anti-cooler or sum'ink. Well, my ability to cool overrode her good luck thoroughly.

Anyway, I'm meant to be boarding my plane so I'll end this now. I'm very thankful to Boy for letting me come back. Do you think he'll let me do it again next year?

London, Brighton, Atlanta and Beaufort

Friends, I have begun my US leg of my summer hols. I flew into Atlanta on the 7th and spent time with my brother. Then moved on to Beaufort, where my parents live and spent some time with them. I write to you from the airport, where they, thankfully, have internet. Going to my parents' place is like stepping back in the digital ice age. It's quaint, really.

I'm enjoying my time here and not as swept by nostalgia as I was last time I visited. It might be because I was visiting two places in the US that I would hate to live in. Beaufort is not a place for anyone except OAPs. My mother was so cute because she kept proposing endeavours, but really, there was nothing going on there. And Atlanta is much too busy for me. I think I'd rather live in London before Atlanta. And if anyone knows me, that was a major statement. London is interesting to visit, but, I would think, hell to live in.

However, I really enjoyed my time in London, the first leg of my summer hols. I went with VBP (Volleyball Best Pal -- I really should give her a better name) and we stayed in London with her pals, Vodka and Jager-Bomb. This will be their monikers because that's what they plied us with. V and J-B lived in a neighbourhood in London that an estate agent would call "up and coming". That can be translated into shitty in some spots. But I found the place really personable and within the city, so very interesting. However, I did view everything intoxicated, so I can't really talk. I avoided tourist spots in London (save Camden Town market) and ended up really enjoying myself. More evidence that philosophy of travel (not filling it choka of touristy things and engaging in more home activities) is the right one for me.

Bottom line, I've been relaxing at every stop and everyone's taking good care of me, so I feel loved and chilled. But at the same time, I miss home, Edinburgh, and my Boy and dogs. I'm a little knackered, which explains why I'm all over the place with this entry and why I didn't mention anything about Brighton.