I know.. I know.. I'm rubbish...

The paradox of keeping a blog is that having exciting and enthralling news to write about generally involves being out and about doing exciting and enthralling things, which unfortunately, doesn't lend itself well to having time to sit down and write about them. Especially for people like me who take an age to write anything, what with my well constructed sentances, carefully planned paragraphs, and short attention span.

Soooo just to fill you in on what you've missed: basically I have been, and still am insanely busy, what with acquiring girlfriends, bouncing around at various gigs, lots of toing and froing about Scotland and the UK and somehow managing to fit in a whole heap of clever PhD type stuff to boot. Speaking of: at the mo I have a whole 3 weeks and counting left of my field work and data collection Up North (EEEEEK!). Whilst trying to coordinate all this, I also moved out of Stirling for good, and have since been looking for somewhere to move to once the fieldwork finishes. I chose Edinburgh. No. The fact that Ruth lives there has NOTHING to do with it... no really... its because the Forestry has offices there. Actually. Shut up.

And so yeah, I alwasy knew flat hunting in Edinburgh with pets to house was going to be a barrel of laughs, but clinging to my inane belief that everything will work out in the end I carried on searching regardless. Which became another excuse for my lack of blogging, as I diverted all my attentions from blogspot (well, those which weren't already diverted towards Ruth, and otherwise general frivolity and adventuring) to gumtree instead, where I have been permanently glued to the flatshare ads. Oh the joys.

However, the end is finally in sight because *drum roll* I have a flat! Wooo! Annnnd the best bit is that the animals will be completely legal, seeing as I decided to 'fess up to the landlord ..which may or may not have had something to do with the fact that I found out he lives in the flat upstairs.

So as of the start of July I will be a resident of Newington, Edinburgh. Hurrah! The flat is an ennnorrrrrrmous old traditional tenement. Seriously large, bright, sunny rooms, high ceilings, original window shutters etc etc. Its right in the city centre, but still handy for getting out to Arthurs Seat and the Meadows for dog walking and generally getting muddy (I will have to get my fixes somehow once I leave the countryside). Its surrounded by delis and cafes and shops and bars, and the whole area is just vibrant and, well, lovely! The only slight oversight is that its a four bedroom flat, and as yet we are only two, me, and Gio, an Italian PhD student I randomly met while flat hunting. But these are minor details, and I'm sure the flat will be no problem at all to fill *ahem* I'm totally confident and not at all worrying about that one.... Totally.

So there will probably be more lapses in blogging frequency over coming weeks as I frantically, simultaneously try to coerce the martens to be good cooperative martens, and fit in with my very tightly timed schedule, AND be engraciating to hordes of potential flatmates, whilst trying to coerce them into moving in with me and my menagerie.

By mid July though, life will be pretty much settled back to normal, and I will no doubt be busy thinking up new and inventive ways of avoiding actually sitting down and starting my write up. I mean 6 months is plenty of time to write a PhD thesis anyway.......!