One of the things that signifies the start of summer for me, is when we make our own version of the classic Greek tzatziki. The last couple of days in Aberdeen have given us glorious sunshine, gorgeous blue skies and days of doing nothing other than worrying what ice-cream flavour to pick and what book to read.

Yesterday, my mum and I decided to set about making our home made Tzatziki like dip. We don't follow a recipe, instead we put in rough amounts of the things we think make the dip delicious. When I looked up an actual recipe yesterday, out of curiosity, it turns out we do miss out a few ingredients here and there, but overall the dip still tastes yummy. And here's how its done:

Ingredients:
1 Cucumber
1 large pot of natural yoghurt
Salt
Olive Oil
Lemon Juice
Mint

How To:

• First, scoop out the inside of a cucumber and put this in a bowl, this is the watery part, and to do this we use a melon baller. Then grate the rest of the cucumber, without skin, and add this to the bowl.
• Then pour the whole pot of natural yoghurt into the same bowl
• Add a pinch (1/2 a tea spoon) of salt
• Then a tea spoon of olive oil
• Add about 5 mint leaves (but this can be adjusted depending on how much you like mint) and cut them up finely before adding to the mixture
• And finally, add as much lemon juice as you prefer, we like it to taste quite lemony so for us its a lot. 
• And mix it all together

We usually leave the dip in the fridge for a day to let the flavours infuse one another, and find that after a few days the dip tastes its best, that's if it actually lasts that long.

Today, I thought I'd do my first ever 'Throwback Thursday', rather sceptically might I add, as I'm well aware that some moments, though special to myself and those involved, may be on the boring side to those of you who read this. However, I feel like this is too good a moment to not mention, and such a great opportunity to show off a present that I was given today.

Back in February last year, one of my best friend's held a "small" party at her house while her parents were away. The night was amazing, and remains one of my favourite parties from 6th year. That is aside from the fact that I was sick on her bed, all over a fur coat. But the whole night was really funny when I think about it. I drank a lot that night, I sheepishly admit, but remarkably remember a lot of it. That is sitting in a room downing a bottle of goodness knows what while a few of us girls told each other secrets, walking into a door and acquiring a swollen eye, gaining an extraordinary amount of confidence and chucking an uninvited and unwanted someone out of the house as well as hugging a lot of people. I apparently cried that night too, but I don't recall why that began although I quite believe it. The night ended with my two friends having to walk me down the road to my house, and locking my door and posting the keys through the letter box (something which gave us away to my parents). But the next morning I was surprisingly cheery and still managed to make it to church to teach a Sunday School class!

This photo always makes me smile, the girls in it are just the best and I'm so happy to have this as a phone cover.


This is the actual photo:


And this is the more sensible one that preceded it (although I think I look like a vampire here, awfully pale but hey ho):

My song from this week has definitely got to be 5 Seconds of Summer's Heartache On The Big Screen. 

I first got into 5 Seconds of Summer after I saw them perform as One Direction's support act on their Take Me Home Tour, when I saw them in Glasgow. I found their tunes really catchy, and this was around the time Heartbreak Girl first came out. I kept this song on repeat for a couple of months until I went to see One Direction in Manchester, and I just fell in love. Both my little sister and I started playing all their songs all day until they got banned in the house, we bought merch and became obsessed on twitter.

Their EP was released a couple of months ago, and of course we went a bit mad for it, but just this last week I've had Heartache On The Big Screen stuck in my head non stop. I think its to do with the fact that I had a dream about Michael Clifford (I hesitantly admit this) and started replaying a lot of their songs.

I don't know what the particular thing about this song is, but I can't stop listening! I would highly recommend this song for a good ol' sing along. I just really like the analogy of a movie that they use to describe the love story... its such a great song!

I think of Edinburgh as a place that has so many things to do and see. And yet, when it came to the question "what do you want to do today", both myself and Eleanor were stumped. Our plan had originally been to have a lazy day at the meadows and have a barbecue late afternoon, but typical Scottish weather made us rethink our idea. And so, we took to Google for inspiration of "touristy" things to do in the capital. Although we were left feeling rather uninspired by the lists of quite expensive or, in all honesty, rather boring sight seeing things, we spotted on one sight Edinburgh Zoo. That was the winner for us. So despite having a late night and still being in our jammies at 10 o'clock, we managed to get ourselves together and on the bus to the zoo.

I've only been to Edinburgh zoo once before, and that was about five years ago, so I couldn't really remember any of the animals or what it was like. All I knew was that I needed to be there in time for the penguin parade.

So here is a collection of my favourite animals and pictures for you to see.


 So I don't know if it was because for a lot of last term I was learning about how humans developed from apes or if its because a new planet of the apes is coming out, but I was really excited about all the monkeys that the zoo had. And there were a whole lot of different types. The little monkeys were really cute, but I just loved seeing the big apes in the section called "the Budongo Trail". A few of them were swinging about, others were grooming one another, it was just really cool seeing them up close. And those photos above also happened.

One of my favourite parts of the day was when we went to the "Big Cat" section and there was a spotted leopard. While we were watching through the glass, he came off of his branch and walked right down to us and stared at us. It was so cool to see, and while we were all watching him, you could hear him growling and it echoed through the glass. It seemed so scary, and I was so thankful for the glass between us.


Oh and we also posed for these photos.


Eleanor's favourite animal that we saw was the Koala bears. For some reason as soon as we got into the park she was so eager to see them, so when we finally found their enclosure she was so happy. Apparently, Koalas sleep for most of their lives, but we had timed it right to see a mummy Koala move branches to eat the Eucalyptus the watched as her baby followed her slowly and unsteadily across the branches to join her. While we were in the enclosure, there was a zoo employee in there too telling some other people about Koalas, which we of course listened in to, and it was fascinating to hear about them.


My favourite out of all the animals there were the penguins. I just love watching them waddling around, and at this time of the year the penguins had baby chicks, so we saw a few of them sitting on eggs and one sitting on a little chick, which looked absolutely adorable. The best part of all though was the Penguin Parade. This happens everyday at 2.15, and the penguin enclosure is opened and they are allowed out to walk along a path. The whole parade lasts maybe 5 minutes at most, and everyone there is lined up to make a human wall so that the penguins don't escape. At one point though one of the penguins came right up to us, as if trying to get onto the grass behind us. The Parade started in 1950, when the park keeper didn't close the gate properly and all the penguins came out of their area. So the keeper walked around the circular path with the penguins following on behind him, and lead them back into their enclosure. And its become a tradition ever since. It genuinely looks as though the penguins are loving the attention and they line up at the gate waiting to get out and show off, although only a few actually decide to venture out of the cave. I think I smiled throughout the whole parade, it was just such a funny sight, I loved it.







And that is a summary of my day at the zoo!
Hope you enjoyed reading it and seeing a few snaps from it all.
Lots of love,
Emily
xxx

My little sister, who is currently off on study leave, made a trip down to Edinburgh yesterday and is planning on staying for a couple of day- just to give us both something to do during the days.

I was back in Edinburgh from Monday till Wednesday for my first two exams of this semester, which both actually went okay- although if you follow me on twitter you would have probably seen the rambling tweets of a stressed out student.

My trip was very short because it was my little sister's 17th birthday on Thursday. As soon as I got my exam timetable out, I told my parents I'd be getting a train back on the Wednesday night for her birthday, but to keep it a secret. So we had some moods from her on the days before I left, and I acted like I was upset to be missing her birthday, all the while knowing I'd be back again for her.

So I got on the train and arrived back into the familiar Aberdeen station at 10.00 at night. We planned for Holly to say she was picking up her boyfriend, and she walked into the living before I did, saying they were going to her room- then I came round the door and shouted HAPPY BIRTHDAY to her.
She literally jumped off of the sofa then burst into tears, it was so lovely. We hugged a lot and she cried (although she's going to be annoyed that I've said that). But it felt like such a special moment, and shows that she does love me.

On her actual birthday, we got up at 6.45 so that we could open her presents before breakfast. As it was her 17th, her main present was driving lessons from the family. Holly and my present to her was tickets to Go Ape, at Crathes Castle, for Saturday, so that the three of us could spend the morning together having fun, then have lunch at the Crathes Castle cafe.  We had a very lazy day on her birthday. I decided to take the day off of revision, so we went for a dog walk in the morning then started on an afternoon of movies, consisting of Atonement, One Direction: This Is Us, and Sydney White, all of which were Eleanor's choice. It was really fun, and I loved all the movies that she picked, despite being sceptical of Sydney White, and we devoured plenty of sweets while watching them too.

Eleanor opening her presents

Eleanor's present to me for being a good sister

We toasted her birthday at Las Iguanas, a relatively new restaurant in Aberdeen, which served Mexican food. It was absolutely delicious; to start Eleanor and I shared a portion of Nachos and Honey Peri- Peri Chicken Wings, and for mains I had a Crisp Cayenne-coated fried Chicken, Avocado and Aji Tortas with fries. It was so filling and was really lovely food, and the restaurant had a good feel to it- it wasn't too crowded and the staff were all very friendly.

At the restaurant

Waiting to dig in!

We then went home to have birthday cake, which my mum made (as she always does), and enjoy the last few hours of her birthday.

Giving Eleanor her cake

Eleanor with her cake

On saturday, we headed to Go Ape, which was absolutely amazing! I often get quite scared doing things like this- its not the height that I have a problem with, its more the worry that the harness won't work and I'll fall because of that. So although I was nervous to begin with, hugging onto the trees when I had to move on the platforms, and having to talk myself into doing the bigger things, I still loved it. Each section of the course starts with a ladder up to the obstacles, then ends with a long zip wire, which was so much fun; although because we couldn't land on our feet, we found ourselves being pulled along the chip wood on our back, resulting in very muddy clothes. But it was so enjoyable, and I'd definitely recommend it to anyone who isn't scared of heights, we just had a laugh along the whole course. It took us 2 hours to complete it all- which was probably longer than it should- but we had someone who was terrified in front of us, and we did the huge Tarzan drop twice. The Tarzan drop was the scariest part of the whole course, it involved swinging by the wire into a huge net, but as you began to swing, you dropped so far and I honestly thought I was going to free fall to my death. It doesn't help that you're in charge of your own harness the whole way round and there is no instructor to make sure you've done it correctly before the obstacles. But I was safe and the adrenalin rush from the Tarzan drop and the Zip wires is great, and I could have gone around again!
But we were absolutely starving, so headed to the cafe for a quick lunch, since we had to rush back for our Church's annual Spring Fair. The cafe is really cute, and has a good menu for lunch; both Holly and Eleanor had jacket potatoes with tuna and salad, while I had a big bowl of vegetable broth soup and a bread roll. It was so yummy, just what we needed after all that activity.  The next morning I woke up with very sore abs from having to hold myself up on ropes and nets, as well as aching upper legs from where I almost fell into the splits on the hoop section of the course!

We Passed!

My very muddy back

Thanks for reading,
Love,
Emily
xxx

May is here, its absolutely crazy and I don't understand how its the 5th month of the year already when New Year literally feels like the other day. But it is here none the less, and I've decided to set myself some targets for this month, and share them on here, and reflect on April a little bit too.

I've spent much of April at home, only actually being in Edinburgh for the first couple of days at the end of term, and a one night trip back for a friend's birthday (which I blogged about here). I'm not ashamed to admit that I've suffered from quite bad home sickness being away from home for university, and I actually still do. I plan to do a blog post about my first year experience, in which I'll write about it a little, but I've found that being home this month has really helped me. I needed this month to look forward to, being at home just relaxes me a lot more, and I feel comfortable and happy surrounded by my family. As I am about to do my exams, I've been doing a whole lot of revision while I've been home, and I've found that being in the environment that I revised for my Highers has set me at ease, and made me feel a lot more relaxed than last term. It's also helped that I've been able to revise a little each day over the course of the holidays, revision week, and this last week when I didn't have exams. Last term I had a week to cram in revision for my three subjects and all it did was stress me out and almost made me sick. So being back home has helped my stress levels.
I've also got into a new study routine over the past few weeks, which I've found has been really productive as well as allowing me time to relax and enjoy the day. I get up for breakfast with my family at 7, and get ready and am at the central library for a 9am start with my sister. At the library, I'm able to focus much more as there is absolutely no internet. And I've been staying there for a good few hours- some days till 1- and then go home for lunch and then I have the afternoon to do some light revision or relax. Its been much more beneficial for me, as I've been able to get through a lot of work and stayed focused when I'm there, because I know I'll be able to have a fun afternoon. It has also made the day feel a lot longer, which I love.
This past month I've had time to reflect on what I actually want to do with my life- it seems a pretty hard going thought to have and I'm only 18, but realistically- first year has passed so fast, that its going to be next to no time until I'm graduating a faced with the reality of finding a job or whatever. Over this last year, I've discovered that I am most interested in the classical period, and in particular Classical Archaeology. So I've decided that next year, instead of Scottish Archaeology I'm going to study Classical Archaeology, and for my History subject, I'll do Ancient History. As my outside subject, I've decided that I'm going to take up beginners Greek, I loved Latin at school, but can't do the course at uni, so I think I'll enjoy Greek. With all this "looking ahead", I've been considering what to do after uni. I've always thought that I'd go straight on a gap year- travelling the Southern coast of Turkey (which is still a dream of mine), but I've decided that its not something I need to go on to do straight after graduation.  I was lucky enough to be asked in to do a talk on Roman Archaeology in Britain in my sister's primary 4 class, just the other day, and I absolutely loved it. I've always loved being with kids and working along side them, and being in my sister's class, who were all lovely, has brought that back. So I've been looking into doing a PGDE (post graduate diploma in education). Its only a year long course, then a probation year afterwards, but I genuinely think I would really enjoy it, and I can see a future being involved with kids. So this has brought me onto looking at different ways I can become involved in leadership roles, and that's something that I want to do a lot of over the next few years at university. So we'll see how that goes!

My May Goals:

• Church: After being home for the last few weeks, I've been able to go back to my church and see everyone again, which I have loved. So I've decided that after my exams are finished, I want to try and find a church that I can go along to when I move into my new flat for next year. 
• Volunteer: As I've said about the PGDE, I have to start volunteering and getting experience with kids, so I want to have sent a few emails around trying to arrange volunteering opportunities for next year.  
• Run: I said in a previous post that I wanted to try and start up running. Its not a surprise that I haven't done that yet- but I thought if this month, I set myself a goal of going for at least a couple of runs, then I might actually do it.
• Exams: This month is pretty much stress month, and I have my first exam tomorrow. So this month my goal is to complete the three exams with as little stress and panicking as possible. 
• Explore: With two weeks in Edinburgh at the end of May and absolutely no uni work to do, I want to go around the city and explore it a little more. 
• Blog: My main goal is to build up my blog a lot more over the next few weeks, since I'll be finishing exams and exploring the city and able to spend time writing things. 

I didn't want to set lots of goals, that I wouldn't be able to do. I thought these ones are realistic and achievable, and since I've written it here it means I have to give it my best attempt.

Thanks for reading!
Love,
Emily
xxx