BEDA #14: Travel

It's hard to say whether or not I travel a lot. I do and I don't. I share my time between home: Scotland, and home-from-home: California. The amount of time spent in each place varies, but I guess you could say I live in both. In that respect, you could say I don't travel very much at all.

I do love it, though. I'm extremely lucky to be able to go back and forth as much as I do, and for all of the trips that I take in-between. Some of my favourite places to visit are:

• Glasgow: Naturally. It can be a dour place at times but when it's a clear day and you can see a long way, or pass all of the beautiful old buildings, or take a stroll through the West End on a sunny day, it's lovely. We have amazing old theatres and cinemas, lots of bars and coffee shops, and, of course, lots of great people. No matter where I end up, it will always be "home".

• Santa Barbara: I lived in Santa Barbara for a school year, about 9 months. It's difficult to get around if you don't drive, but it's absolutely gorgeous. Lots of beaches, palm trees everywhere, sunshine, clear skies (even after a morning of rolling fog), beautiful Spanish Mission-style buildings, and the Sierra Nevada.

• Vancouver: I only ever spent a few days in Vancouver, but it's somewhere I wish I could live. The contrast between the tall buildings and the lovely plush greens of Stanley Park, the bridges and harbour and the hilly streets, made me think of San Francisco and Glasgow mooshed together into one super-city. The people were ultra-friendly, the public transport easy to navigate, the streets are clean, the sun shines all spring, the food we ate was amazing, and the bars were fantastic. They even close the bar-friendly streets off from traffic to keep the pedestrians safe. Where else do you see that?!

• San Francisco: A little big and intimidating for my tastes, but I love to spend a weekend here. The hills, the bay breeze, and the baseball park are the best. I'm pretty sure I went on and on about it on Day 4.

What are your favourite cities to visit?

'Til Tomorrow!
Nicola x

P.S. There are some new posts at Uncultured Critic: Here, here, and here. Enjoy!

BEDA #12:Daily Routines, a.k.a. Wharrgarrblll

I don't know about you, ladies, but it is Day 12 and I am feeling the burn. It probably doesn't help that I slept for maybe 5 hours and got up early this morning to shock myself out of my horrible sleeping schedule.

Which pretty much sets us up for today's theme: Daily Routines.

I'm pretty sure this one was my idea, but I forget why. I haven't had a set daily routine for... oh, probably about 2 years. My final year at uni involved a semester of film production, during which I rose at various times depending on our shooting schedule, and only had to attend one lecture and one workshop per week. In my final semester, I had 2 classes (meaning 2 lectures of 1 hour each, 5 weeks apart, not 2 per week!), and the rest of the time was devoted to writing my dissertation, eating nutella straight from the jar, making cups of tea, surfing Tumblr, and watching Gilmore Girls while making filled pasta. It was a good semester!

I've been kind-of trying to emulate that lifestyle since then. Since the beginning of 2010, I've had 2 jobs at once, one online job for a few weeks, been unemployed, and covered a couple of events. It's difficult to gain momentum, which is part of why I'm running two blogs, BEDA, and getting out of bed to sit in a room where people are actually studying instead of refreshing Twitter and Facebook until I realise that social networking websites are not a good enough reason to be out of bed before noon.

There are some things I try to do every day, though. Par example:

• Wake up at a reasonable hour. (i.e. Before noon.)
• Drink lots of water.
• Watch a film (or something visually interesting/stimulating).
• Write something, usually try to devote at least an hour.
• Chat to Evan (easy for now!)
• Read: a book, some blogs, an informative website.

 That's about it, really! No doubt this will all change significantly when I go back to do my Masters in September and have to wake up and travel 15 miles for 9am-2pm classes. Eep!

What are your daily routines?

'Til Tomorrow!
Nicola x

Wishful Thinking

My ideal workspace would look something like this (on the right). Cardigan and all. Simple, sparse, clean, and just the right amount of desk space. No distractions. Even the tote and the fact that it's an attic space are perfect. I'd wake up in the morning, make myself some coffee and breakfast, grab a bag of essentials and troop on up the staircase. Bringing supplies would make the loft my workspace, and downstairs my home. No benign wandering to see what's on the TV; no unplanned trips for tissues or another cup of tea. Once you're in, you're in.

What is your perfect workspace?

[Credit to Elanor Jane for the picture and therefore the idea!]

BEDA #19: BEDA Buddies!

(Image found via holga)

Becky made a post for Christina, Autumn and I, so I decided to do the same for the three of you! (Also, it's 11.40pm and nothing else was thrilling me - I admit.) So here's a wee bit more about myself.

As you know my name is Nicola, I'm 21 and I live in Scotland. I'm in my 4th year at Stirling University - my major is film and I'm almost finished writing my dissertation on anthropomorphism in Wall-E. Home for me is Glasgow, and I can't wait to move back there officially because I find Stirling incredibly dull. Last year I did a year on exchange and attended University of California, Santa Barbara. My boyfriend also lives in California so it's my home from home (from home?). I love it there. So, so much. I'm going back this summer on a work visa and I can't wait! I've also been considering moving to Vancouver on a 1-year work visa but I'll have to be able to support myself first.

Like Becky I am mad about coffee dates. My friends are all quite spread out so it's the best way to catch up--and a good excuse to hang out in coffee shops and bookshops which, incidentally, are a couple of my favourite places. Most of the rest of my time is spent writing and/or worrying about my dissertation at the moment. I spend a lot of time online reading blogs, on YouTube and Twitter and all that sort of thing. I love a good chat about internet memes. I'm a self-confessed cinéphile but I wouldn't go so far as to call myself a film buff - mostly because I'm surrounded by them in my course. Going to the cinema is still magical to me, I love it.

That's about all I can think to say for now. Do feel free to ask questions and tell me more about yourselves if it made you think of anything. It's fun getting to know you all =)

Until tomorrow!
Nicola x

Things I Love Thursday(ish)

It's a little late, but better late than never, right? I've caught my eighth wind today (or thereabouts!) and all of the stress and worry of these past couple of weeks has lifted. It feels fandabby.

This week I have been loving:

+ Teamwork — I was worried about the group-work aspect of this year, but have been lucky and my group has a really good dynamic. It's been time consuming and a completely different kind of work than I'm used to, but I've enjoyed it and I'm learning a lot about my strengths. We finished the final cut of our first project tonight and there was much rejoicing.

+ Not sabotaging the film project — I had some pretty bad luck with my production classes last year, but everything went pretty well on the whole. But I still have the tape in my possession so perhaps I shouldn't speak so soon . . .

+ My new hair colour — I dyed my hair dark brown earlier this week and it went a very black shade of black. Very goth. It was a bit of a shock to the system but now it has toned down a bit and I really love it.

+ Reading reading reading— I've updated my 50 Books Challenge post. By page two of The Bell Jar I was kicking myself for not having read it sooner. Paper Towns was absolutely fantastic - stop making me have to recommend John Green and get on it already! Looking for Alaska remains my favourite, but I'll definitely be re-reading Paper Towns sometime soon. Currently reading The Alchemist, which many have professed to be life-altering. We shall see.

+ Mid-semester! — This week is mid-semester, which presents itself in the form of seeing the boy for a whole entire week! Also going home, chilling out, drinking lots of tea, reading, sleeping, writing & never having to do anything alone. I can't wait!

+ Songs of the Week!
Julia Nunes' new album - I Wrote These, especially First Impressions
Feist - The Park
Belle & Sebastian - For the Price of a Cup of Tea
The Decemberists - Days of Elaine

Honourable Mentions
Quoting Rejected every quiet moment on the golf course while shooting; missing lectures which magically turned out to be cancelled; credit notes; chalet party with old halls-mates & hilarious exchange students & fellow film nerds, amazing crepes & somehow saying the right thing at the right time whenever I entered a room; seeing Star Wars for the first time (I know).

Have a lovely week! x