Park... or Car Park?

Union Terrace Gardens is under attack.  If you have lived here, or visited here, then you may well remember the Gardens in the City Centre.  They are a favourite spot on nice days for all kinds of people, and they are beautifully landscaped year-round.  To turn them into a carpark would be worse than just a tragedy.  Please, if you can, even if you don't live here now, read the information and go vote 'no'.  I would appreciate it greatly! 



'A public consultation is now underway on Sir Ian Wood's vision to concrete over Union Terrace Gardens to create a Civic Square and 3 acres of underground real estate.  The cost is £140 million+ of which at least £70 million must come from the public purse. 

This consultation is NOT allowing the public to express their views on anything other than the City Square.

There is an alternative...

Peacock Visual Arts' scheme for a major new cultural facility in the Gardens has full planning permission and 75% of its funding in place.  It allows the Gardens to be retained and regenerated at a fraction of the cost to the environment and the public purse of Sir Ian's scheme. 

The Civic Square involves the felling of around 100 trees (including elms up to 200 years olf) and the loss of an historic park.  It will be impossible to plant mature trees on the Civic Square as there will be nowhere for their roots to grow. 

The Civic Square violates all guidelines on planning and green public spaces.  It would potentially require compulsory purchase orders for Belmont St properties.

It has a £90 million + funding gap and may need to introduce a new local tax to cover its costs.

Peacock's scheme will welcome over 200,000 visitors per year and bring £5 million annually into the local economy.  Peacock is a local charity, their new arts centre would retain the gardens providing disabled access, baby changing and cafe facilities as well as activites for including dance, music, art, education and community activities. 

If you support the Gardens and the Arts Centre please visit the website www.thecitysquareproject.com and say 'No'  to the City Square on the questionnaire, and sign the petition at www.iloveutg.org.' 

(from a brochure handed out on campus by the Iloveutg group)

january hermit

Paige was kind enough to let me use her flat as my writing hermitage for pretty much all of January.  She's been home in the States, so I've been keeping the wee flat cozy.  I had hoped to have a full draft done by the time I left here;  I'm close, but not quite.  I got a lot of work done, though, and it was good to have some time and space completely on my own.  I needed that.  (Sorry, Dillon and Thomas.)  Here are just some shots of what my time here has looked like, and felt like.  A couple of times sick, several times very productive, you've already heard about the fun with Liz... that's it, in a nutshell.  My Januaray. 

January. It was a good month.

Snow and Darkness

It snowed in December.  A lot.  It was great!  I loved it.  And I got some photos of it around campus, and even in the Bridge of Don.  Because we had a Darkness Party at Liz's--me and Aleithia and RitaB and Liz, of course.  To celebrate the shortest day. Because what reason is there to complain about the dark?  It was a good party.  As they always are when those girls are involved.  And the snow... and the bus came... and it was great!  The snow pictures weren't taken all on one day, but during the same extended snowfall.  

Who?

THIS is the sole reason I agreed to go to Glasgow for the day during our girls-only Christmas fest.  I had been waiting for a year for the chance... it was worth it. 

If you don't know who these are, or what this exhibit if, or why I went... I may have to reconsider our friendship.  Sorry.  I only like cool people.  =D

Thank you, Kelvingrove.  Doctor, I love you.  I'll miss you.  *sob* 

iPhoney

You heard it here first, folks...

There's a new text-speak language in town, developed by Apple, apparently.  See, my sister has an iPhone.  She uses it to chat with me on Yahoo!  Messenger.  Except that I end up having to translate (and laugh my head off) most of the time.  However, we are sure it's going to catch on.  Here's your starter course: 

hoebullu = hopefully
hash = haha
jerker = tee hee
javon = n'est pas?  it originally changed from 'i have', but we've been using it as a 'you know?' kind of phrase
dait = cursing, like dangit.  except for not dang. 

We actually have been using these now, in our texting.  I particularly like hash, hoebullu, and javon.  i use them a lot.  For instance...

So, hoebullu this new language we've termed iPhoney will catch on, javon? 

hash!  =)

Dait.  I'm such a dork. 

Christmas Girl's Get-Away

The good thing about Paige living in Alva is that we now get to visit her there, and spend time in Stirling, and all the other places roundabouts that are so much easier to get to from central Scotland.

The bad part about Paige living in Alva, of course, is that it means she's not living in Aberdeen.  *sigh*

Anyway.  Liz and RitaB and I headed down in December for a wild and crazy girls Christmas weekend!  We went to see the panto on at Stirling Uni on Friday night, which was Sleeping Beauty.  Liz and I have been to pantos before, so knew what to expect.  I was a little concerned that P and RitaB wouldn't like it... they are quite an experiences.  But they loved it!  At least, they claimed to.  I don't have any photos, and I don't even really know how to explain it.  It's musical comedy theatre with a LOT of audience participation and ad libbing from the dame, who is, of course, in drag.  They are based on fairy tales or other folk tales (the other one I saw, in Cambridge a couple of years ago, was Aladdin.).  They are great for kids and families, but we weren't the only adults there without children.  It was hilarious, and a little sad, but of course had a happy ending.  Ah... a Christmas tradition I'm happy to add!

Other than the panto, we wandered around Stirling on Friday, and indulged in our first try of the Milk Shak eBar.  Oh dang.  I don't have photos of that, either, but it was heaven.  The city was all decked out, and we enjoyed it... what we could see, anyway.  We also were on a quest to find a certain board game... which was elusive, til the very last.  And we played it A LOT over the weekend.  It's better than the original!  You should try it.  =)   Oh, and Liz left us on Saturday, the day in which we pretty much stayed in the flat.  Except for the brief time the sun came out, and the three of us took a walk along the Hillfoots to Menstie and back. 

We went to church on Sunday at Stirling Methodist, and everything was all frosty.  Even the spiderwebs.  It was lovely.  From there, we went to Glasgow for the afternoon, because we could.  It cost less than seven pounds, and took just over half an hour.  Brilliant.  You can't get anywhere from Aberdeen for those.  I was going on a mission, that the girls didn't share with me.  We eventually met up at the Kelvingrove Museum, which was where I headed directly from the train station.  I saw an exhibit that I've been dying to see for a year, and just in time before it left in January.  I also heard the Salvation Army band playing in the open middle bit, and visited Jesus.  He's hard to photograph, though.  Silly lights.


Finally from there, we went back to Stirling and climbed up, up, up the slidey mountain to get to the castle.  We had tickets for the caroling.  It was lovely, with all the frost.  A little creepy, too, but I liked that.  The caroling wasn't really what I expected--it was a concert by some group.  Bah.  I expected, from it's name and it's advertising, that it would be an actual caroling eveing, with everyone joining in and singing songs and stuff.  So I was a bit disappointed.  The choir was fine;  it just wasn't what I wanted.  The Great Hall was very festive, though.

From there, RitaB and I caught the train home.  And that, as they say, was that.  

Oh, the Burning!

I went down to the beach again this year for the city's Bonfire Night festivities.  Fifth of November, remember (remember)?  Anyway.  Last year I went with Paige, but since she'd recently defected to Alva, and because I could talk her into it, I went with Liz.  We took our travel mugs of hot cocoa and headed down.  There were some crazy people walking on coals for charity.  We didn't see it, which I'm actually quite glad about.  It was quite a crowd, and the music was blaring from the local radio station's deejay.  We had to laugh, though, about how Aberdonians express their excitement.  The deejay says, are you ready for some fireworks!  The crowd says, yeah, okay.  The deejay says, I can't hear you--I said, are you ready for some fireworks!  The crowd says, sure, whatever.  The deejay gives up. 

The show itself was nice, but nothing compared to last year.  The budget crunch hit Aberdeen's city council well before it hit anyone else, so I was just surprised they were still having anything.  They cancelled the Hogmanay party because of the budget.  Jerks.  I was looking forward to going again!  Anyway.  The fireworks were cool, and the Aberdoians around us showed their appreciation--- oh.  Nice.  See that one?  Hm.  It was awesome.  They just don't get very worked up or very vocal.  But Liz and I enjoyed ourselves.  Here's to you, Guy Fawkes!