You came in that thing? You're braver than I thought!

So the rest of last week was such a blast, I have to tell you all about it. Last Wednesday, after posting the last post, I went to go see Heidi Talbot and Tommy Sands perform at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall as part of the Celtic Connections Winter Music Festival that goes on every year in Glasgow. Both performances were fantastic. It reminded me of going to see Irish folk music with my parents in Fort Collins. I went with a couple who really wanted to see them and we were by far the youngest people in the audience. Heidi Talbot was so cute; she was 8 months pregnant and this was her last show before taking leave. At one point she finished a song and bolted off the stage to go to the bathroom and the guitarist had to take over. Tommy Sands was also brilliant. He is really famous in the Irish music as well as peace scene. He grew up near Tommy Makem and was commissioned by the BBC to write a song for him when he passed away. It was such an Irish performance though. He performed with his two kids, Moira and Fionan and you could tell that Moira loved the stage and Fionan was not pleased to be there. It was a really cute show though and the music was phenomenal.

The next day we went to go see my office-mate's band play. He's the bassist in a band called "Be a Familiar". This was their last show before they start work on their first album. It was the first time I had really experienced the Glasgow music scene and I thoroughly enjoyed it and was blown away by the talent that I saw. We also went to a great vegan restaurant in the city centre that I had never been to before. They had a fantastic Greek platter that was entirely vegan.

Friday was my first day back at teaching 2nd year Astronomy labs. It was great to see the students again and they seemed happy to see me as well. We had a few hiccups with some of the computer programs, but it all worked out in the end. I do really enjoy teaching, but it is weird to be an authority figure to university students. That night I went out clubbing for the first time with a few girls I had met through friends here at the university. One of the girls is really into metal music so we decided to go to a metal club. The doors didn't open until 11, which is so beyond anything I usually do on a Friday night, it was weird to get used to. We met up at this great bar, though, the Solid Rock Cafe. It is a big metal bar and is filled with my kind of people. It was pretty ridiculous going clubbing with a bunch of girls who are all in long-term, committed relationships. They spent the entire night trying to hook me up with people at the club, so I do not think I will be rushing out to go out with them again anytime soon. Most of it was a good time though.

Saturday was absolutely brilliant and MUCH more my style for the weekend. One of my friends splurged and bought the LEGO Millennium Falcon set. When finished, it measures about 3 feet long! We all decided to have a massive LEGO building party on Saturday night to see what we could get done. The instruction manual was 300 pages and you have never seen so many LEGO pieces in your life! I went over at about 5:30 to help sort the pieces and get everything ready to go. Most people came over around 7pm and we started building. At about 11 we were only 75 pages into it, but it was looking so cool, we knew we'd be up all night finishing. We threw on A New Hope, poured some whisky and settled in for the night. So many lines such as "These are not the pieces you are looking for" and "What a hunk of junk!" were thrown out there all night long. It got progressively worse towards the early morning. The last piece was put in just after 6:30am and we all stumbled home, with sore fingers and sore backs. It was totally worth it though and we had such an awesome time.

Most of Sunday was spent sleeping off the night before, or moving very very slowly. In the early afternoon I walked down to the row of shops just down the road from me and hung out with some people down there for a few hours. I then went into the city to do some shopping for the flat for little things we still need. (Who knew that mesh colanders were so expensive? I need to rinse my rice!) All the people from the night before then met up at the cinema to see Avatar mostly out of curiosity. If any of you are considering seeing it, then I would see it in 3D at the cinema. The story is not worth seeing it on a small screen in 2D, you might as well watch Pocahontas or Fern Gully but the visuals were quite phenomenal and it was totally worth the price.

I am now back hard at work, finishing funding applications and putting together a technical document to be published this week. Back to the grind and until next time!