Auld Lang Syne

It was great to be back in St Andrews, and even better to meet up with many many people - both staff and post grads - who made it all the more difficult to leave back in March. However, it was, I think, the correct decision to make for me, and the advantage of leaving was that I got to come back and visit.

Many public thanks to Sven and Tina as well as Dave and Rachel for playing host to me - appreciate it guys.

Anyway - it was very civilized to be able to go into pubs and drink proper Scotch, as well as meet up in Costa - the colonials don’t quite do it right… Ah well - you get what you can… In fact - I’m writing this in Starbucks on a Sunday evening. At least this is possible in the US of A for a reasonable cost..

I finally made it to The Balaka, which as I understand it is listed in the top 10 Indian & Bangladeshi restaurants in the UK. This is a richly deserved accolade in my opinion - it’s criminal I missed it before. Fairly expensive by US standards, but well worth it.
New Year’s Eve was spent at David & Rachel’s new pad in Guard bridge - a great upstairs flat that looks great - you fell on your feet there guys! Many folks from the department showed up for a really fun evening with lots of catching up & beer, wine and champagne involved. In addition, I even had the novelty of scraping ice of my car. We don’t do that much in Houston.. You can buy ice scrapers here that are meant to be sent to friends and family in the north of the states. See http://www.houstonitsworthit.com/icescraper/Icescraper.html.

The trip back down south to a family do on New Year’s Day was pretty foul, with high winds and solid rain much of the way. However, once again, it was worth it to meet up with many relatives who had also made the effort - thanks to Sue & Roger for hosting 20-odd people yet again!

posted by Sam @ 18:26