The Definite Article

Angela arrived today. Flew in on a big jet plane.

We ran a few errands and came home to a house full of Africans who were rapidly spiralling out of control.

Marc was downstairs trying to make pizza with Dave; Natalie and Charmain were upstairs in Marc's bed having a pillowfight with Tom.

South Africa had just beaten Australia in tri-nation rugby (SA, Oz + Kiwi) and the Africans were jubilant and boisterous.

Later, we went to a party...but we got thrown out because, um, certain members of our party were obnoxious and loud. Not me, of course. I'm an angel! Oh, Angela's an angel, too. :)

We came back to my flat and were having a good time - and one of my upstairs neighbors yelled at us for being loud. At 2215.

Okay, fair enough, she was trying to sleep, but who goes to bed at quarter past ten at night? The sun is still almost up, for Christ's sake.

Natalie and Charmain attempt an early assault on Tom...and it goes horribly awry. Tom takes the upper hand.

Natalie, Charmain and Tom take a brief rest between rounds.

Even as Natalie and Charmain are celebrating their early victory, cracks in the alliance are beginning to show.

Tom realises that sometimes the losers are winners and dances the dance of the vanquished, celebrating with Charmain.

Natalie charges in with a surprise comeback, betraying her previous sister in arms...

and emerges as a clear winner!

Posted by Nate at 8:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (9) | TrackBacks (0)

August is a fabulous month to live in Edinburgh.

Edinburgh, normally a city of 450,000, swells to a mighty 2 million. There are over 5,000 shows - dance, theatre, opera, the Tattoo and comedy. In order to watch them all you'd need four years without sleep.

Edinburgh is also the month that the Swedes came to town.

A villian that possesses the power to move metal objects with his mind is a supervillian.

A hero who can fly and has X-Ray vision is a superhero.

People who are neither heroes nor villians, but who have powers far above and beyond the powers of normal people, who can sway men's minds, turn a party into a Partaaaaay!!, inspire toplessness in random women and incite an entire club to near riot status are just bloody dangerous.

Anna Skoog and Jessica Andersson are just bloody dangerous.

What nefarious scheme are they planning?

Something devious, I assure you.

No, really, run while you still can.

Posted by Nate at 9:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (8) | TrackBacks (0)

My sister, who has her own fantastic blog over at Everything, Nothing, and I'm a Middle Child, suggested somewhere down in the comments of one of these posts that I'm not blinded by bubble gum pop culture.

Mara, thank you.

Nevertheless, I like a few songs by Britney Spears. Toxic, for example, is a cool tune and I like the video, too.

Last night, Anna & Jessi and I were out 'til three, dancing at the Opal Lounge and just enjoying ourselves in general. Anna & Jessi are friends of mine from Sweden.

Which brings me to my next point, which is that Mara started off a discussion of differences between Europe and America. I mentioned a few as well. At one point, I claimed there were people from ten different countries in my flat right at that moment. Who were they? Well, here's who they are, as well as the countries they are from:

1. Marc Seymour - South Africa
   
2. Tom Somers - Germany
   
3. Laure Sinclair - France
   
4. Ingrida Djonsone Latvia
   
5. Antony - Scotland
   
6. Matt Shephard - New Zealand
   
7. Anna Skoog - Sweden
   
8. Anne - Canada
   
9. Alistair - Ireland
   
10. Nathan Dornbrook USA
    

There were more folks in the flat, but this is all the countries represented. I barely know Anne (who claims that her last name is "the Amazing.") Antony I actually know fairly well, but can't for the life of me remember his last name.

We have a few friends from Spain, Poland, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Australia, but, obviously, they weren't there.

By the way, Scotland was heavily under-represented. There was a chain email circulationg a couple of years ago entitled "How you know you've been in Edinburgh too long." One of the ways was having an actual Scottish friend. This is pretty accurate; I don't think I'd met someone who was Scottish (outside work) until I'd been here a year.

Posted by Nate at 10:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (10) | TrackBacks (0)