shop talk

Last week I took home my second paycheque - "took home," but haven't deposited, because I still don't have a bank account, though that's a whole different blog post.

Thanks to the UK's quirky once-monthly pay schedule, the arrival of paycheque #2 tells me that I have been working at Aberdeen College for two months now - thus I've received a two month crash course in British dialect.

There are little intricacies of language that differ between here and home - things I didn't notice until fully submerged in professional life here.

So I've created a little lexicon for your education:

North America
"Weekly staff meetings are on Thursdays"
Britain
'Weekly staff meetings are on a Thursday' (and by 'a thursday' they mean EVERY thursday)

North America
"I blog outside of work hours"
Britain
'I blog outwith work hours'

North America
"Meeting adjourned"
Britain
'Right. That's us' or just 'That's us'

North America
"Did you have any luck?"
Britain
'Did you have any joy?'

North America
"Phone him at 123 456 789"
Britain
'Phone him on 123 456 789'

North America
"These notes need to be typed"
Britain
'These notes need typed' (yes, they ignore two whole words!)

Other office peculiarities:

- their post-its don't stick
- their file folders are flimsy and don't have tabs!
- they have hour and a half lunch breaks (no complaints there)
- they don't use a 3-hole punch. Only 2 holes or 4 holes (it's not standardized like at home)
- most z's are replaced by s's (for example, a Brit would have written 'standardised')
- they use single quotations where we use double (see lexicon above)

Any other expats or former UK residents, care to add to the list?

end of an era

Gone are the days when one could instantly stream any TV show for free, online.

bye bye TV Links (via Dave)

up to now

Lately I've been doing a very good job of blogging about anything BUT life in scotland.

Things are busy but I have some good posts on the roster... if I could just find the time. In the interim, here's a rundown of life of late:

+ I earned another stripe in wifehood. that is, I prepared my first thanksgiving feast! It came a week late, but we hosted a small thanksgiving gathering at Kingier with half-Canadian Dave and entirely Irish Cheryl. See evidence of my newly acquired culinary prowess below ;)

And while I'm patting myself on the back, I should add that I recently invented the most spectacular turkey burger recipe. I may post it soon and share the love.


+ We saw another castle. With a Sunday afternoon wide open, we reconvened with Dave and Cheryl and invited a couple other friends along as well for a day in Deeside. We lunched at a local garden centre (the weirdness of which was not lost on us... made weirder by the fact that our waiter was approximately 12 years old, and the menu did not include everyone's favourite British staple, chips). Then we leisurely kicked the football around in the shadow of Crathes Castle.

When we got tired we had tea and scones in the little town which used to service the castle. Now it's a posh tourist trap.
Yup, this is life in Scotland.





+ We work a lot. Dean spends weeknights prepping for presentations and trying to keep on top of his dissertation, while I've been doubling up - mornings at the College and evenings at Starbucks. I'm now a fully trained barista, but - no suprise - I like working on the till best. Nothing beats chatting up customers and telling them all about the wonders of Vancouver!

+ We're going to Ireland. Tomorrow in fact! Dean has a conference in Dublin. With some 99p flights (yup, basically $2 each way, before taxes) we finagled a way for me to come as well - hence all the doubling up of shifts last week. Looking forward to meandering the grounds of Trinity College and throwing back pints in Temple Bar. I am bringing along some James Joyce (you know, just some light reading—wish me luck) to add a literary element to my exploration.

+ Company's coming. I am so proud. One of my oldest friends decided to turn a long weekend holiday into a full week in Scotland and impulsively purchased a ticket to Glasgow! We're going to meet up there and discover Scotland's hippest city together before embarking on six days of highland fun.

+ I'm going to Dundee. On Wednesday, fresh off a Tuesday night flight from Ireland, I'm heading south to do a *ahem* very important and highly educational course: the, errrr, Starbucks Experience. Dundee might not be on my list of cities to see before I die, but a train trip is always fun.

+ I have a new job. For those who are counting, this is job number three! I've been asked to teach a second-year Marketing & PR course at the College. I'm excited. It's just one day a week, until Christmas or whenever they hire a permanent lecturer. But the pay is great and it will be fabulous on my resume.

+ The days are getting shorter. The upside is that we get to see some great sunrises and sunsets from our back and front windows respectively :)

Garance Doré

Thoroughly enjoying - no, LOVING - the drawings and photography at Garance Doré's blog. Judging by the number of comments her posts receive, the French speaking public feel the same way. I think I am newly motivated to refresh my Francais reading skills. Et vous?

And another fab link for fashion lovers: the sartorialist (not to be confused with the satorialist.

is THIS Paris fashion week?

A New York Times slide show shows the dark side of Paris fashion week.

Lhasa Apso boots and '58 Buick shoulder pads? ick.

I may be forced to eat my words.

bean responsible

One of the best things about my job at Starbucks is that my boss, upon learning that I was media savvy and into good causes, elected me to champion community service for our district.

Thus, myself and a coworker are the Corporate Social Responsibility advocates for all of North East Scotland (Aberdeen, Inverness, St. Andrews & Dundee). Basically we get paid to spend two hours each week contacting managers and encouraging them in their charity efforts and collecting stories for a quarterly newsletter. Right up my alley wouldn't you say?

Another part of it is an ongoing blog, documenting all the good stuff our stores are doing the community.

so I'd like to introduce: "Bean Responsible" ... it's still a baby blog, but check back soon for more updates!

man-harlot indeed.

I got a peculiar request by email today, from a friend who shall remain nameless (but not faceless) for reasons that will soon be made clear.


Amanda,

How's it going! I have a really odd request for you... you're going to laugh when you hear this.

I'm wondering if you can go back and edit one of your really old xanga blog posts for me. It's the post entitled "More Office Politics" from Tuesday, November 29, 2005. Every time I or anyone else Googles my name, this blog post comes up as the #1 entry, with the words "man-harlot" in the text right underneath! Try it and see.

Any chance you could help me out and edit it a bit, so that future employers and future churches etc. don't instantly associate me with "man-harlots" if/when they Google my name? It'd also be nice to know that my name won't come up when creepy people search online for "man-harlots"... yeah. LOL. Let me know if you can help me out on that one.

-B


The post in question has now been edited to remove all confusion as to whether or not said friend is a man-harlot. He's not, but he certainly knows how to strut his stuff on a catwalk!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Turkey Day kinda crept up on us here in Scotland. Without a day off work and a family get together on the agenda it's easy to forget these things. So we had chicken fajitas and I'm thinking about stuffing a chicken later this week - and perhaps having a coworker from New Zealand over to share in the feast.

But just because we forgot/were too tired to do thanksgiving dinner properly, it doesn't mean we're not thankful.

What am I thankful for?

A very considerate and generous husband who is currently doing the washing up.
Two good jobs and enough money for us to live comfortably.
Really amazing friends in both Canada and Scotland (and Liberia!).
Not one but TWO very loving families to miss.
The new issue of Living Etc just came out ;)

how 'bout you guys?

lazy sunday

Morning service led to all church lunch, a stroll through downtown and a mellow afternoon in the suburbs with our friend Ali - sampling some new bands and meandering along the shore of the River Dee.

The quiet day was a welcome break from my hectic Starbucks Saturday - the busiest of the year with me on the coffee bar all morning. I think I handled it with grace but I wasn't composed enough to stop and chat when Dean and Stephen stopped by for a latte.

Speaking of Starbucks, there are rumors floating around that when I put on my apron, it touches the floor. I assure you this rumor is entirely unfounded, though now that you mention it, it's curious that no one noticed my trousers were tucked into wellies at work all day yesterday ;)

Had dear friends over for dinner and chats last night. Entertaining in our flat really made Aberdeen feel like home.

While the cat's away...

Last night Dean was away at a work retreat so I had the flat all to myself. I'd like to say I took advantage of the quiet time by clearing the furniture and doing some yoga, or that I used it to transcribe interview notes that have been waiting nearly a month, or to thoughtfully handwrite letters to some of you.

But no.

I crossed the street to Morrisons and got myself a big ass bag of Tangy Cheese Doritos (leading cause of repulsive breath in the Regier household) and polished off Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Crawled into my big empty bed and was lonely for the three minutes it took me to fall asleep (compared to the usual 20). Glad Dean's back tonight, but sometimes it's just nice to sleep on your tummy with limbs spread everywhere and to gorge yourself on fake cheese flavouring.

cause. effect.

the sun came out. we went to the beach.

[Cruden Bay, North East Scotland]

the best ode to a woman we loved

My cousin (in law) Matthew wrote some beautiful words about our grandmother. They are brief and lovely, and worth a read for those who enjoy good writing, even if you've never heard of Gladys Smith.

Read them here.

over the line

I was puzzling about hip kids and how far you can justifiably take children's fashion? Angelina found the line and crossed it. Erm, matching Valentino bags? (via Glamour.)