UK/Spain 2024 Part 6: TTPD day and Aberdeen

Another blog post!

The 19th of April was a sacred day in the Swiftie calendar. The day that The Tortured Poets Department album by Taylor Swift dropped. Not only that, but Our Lady Of Swift surprised us all with an additional 15 songs two hours with an additional anthology released. Jojo and I are both big fans, and we were SO excited that we were going to be able to listen to the album for the first time together. We didn't listen to it at the exact time it dropped, that was 5am and we were asleep and then Jojo had to go and do the morning sheepies things. But afterwards we made breakfast (similar to last time), got ourselves comfy in the lounge room, and hit play.

This is the actual view from Jojo's lounge room! So pretty.



We snacked throughout the day. There were some chips involved. The pickled onions one were a bit too onionish for my sadly these days onion-sensitive stomach, but the cheddar and red onion ones were incredible! The right amount of onion for me.



We just made some sandwiches for lunch. A combination of some of the cheeses I've already posted about, plus tomato, plus greens, plus these nice slices that I found at one of the shops.



Because we are 1. the cutest and 2. gay, Jojo made us some strawberry matcha iced lattes from scratch to celebrate Taylor day! While we wore our flannels. This was sooooo delicious, and kicked off a strawberry matcha obsession that is still going strong.



We spent a lot of time listening to the music, picking apart the lyrics, losing our minds at various parts. It was such a wholesome Swiftie day! I should also mention that every time Jojo and I were driving together, we were singing along to Taylor as well. So much fun!

I went with Jojo to hang out with the sheepies for a bit in the afternoon! Enjoy this rare selfie of me. Getting a selfie with a sheep is as hard as getting a selfie with a cat!







Obsessed forever with the cottage.



Jojo made us tatty scones, tofu scramble, and sausages for dinner. We watched some more Our Flag Means Death. It was so fun introducing Jojo to this show and my beloved gay pirates!



The next day we drove to Aberdeen to go to Jojo's friend's birthday. I'd had the chance to chat to this friend online, and it was really fun to meet them! And some other friends as well. I've realised the only photo I took that day was of the food I had for lunch! We went to a place called Foodstory, which is all vegetarian with several vegan options. By the time we got there they'd finished serving the brunch menu and most of the Susan and Jojo friendly vegan options were gone (neither of us can eat chilli), so we both got some of the soup (can I remember what it was, no I cannot... looking at the photo I want to say potato and dill) with bread, and it really was lovely. I also got a turmeric latte, and a Swedish cinnamon bun!



We got home pretty late that night, and just had a dinner of snacks and leftovers.

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Peps surveying her kingdom through the window.

UK/Spain 2024 Part 5: Loch Dunmore and Pitlochry

Hi friends.

Not sure how four months passed since my last post, but this is where we are at. Things have been a lot, both in life and also in the world. And I know a lot of us are reeling after the events of last week. So I come to you with my humble offering of a little slice of Scotland. It's pretty there.

We had a very cute breakfast the next morning, a variety of yoghurts with fresh berries and granola, as well as some vegan croissants. My favourite of the yoghurts was the Alpro strawberry yoghurt. I LOVE Alpro yoghurt and am very sad I can't get it at home anymore.





One of the best things about living with Jojo is that food is always served very cute, and we made these adorable little yoghurt glasses for ourselves.



After breakfast, we drove out to Loch Dunmore, a very small and pretty little loch. We took a slow walk around it, which didn't take long, but the scenery was lovely.





Lego Ed and Stede enjoyed the trip as well!



I love moss.



After that we went to the nearby town of Pitlochry. Like almost every place I went to visit in Scotland, it was sooooo pretty!



We poked around the town for a bit, and I bought some postcards to send to friends. There were so many pretty flowers out, growing in gardens or on the sidewalk.



We walked around to see the dam and the fish ladder. We spent a bit of time watching the salmoncam (an underwater camera so you can see the fish swimming by) but there were no fishy friends in the ten minutes that we waited. We walked up and over the dam, which had more lovely views.



We were feeling a bit peckish after our little adventure. There are a number of vegan-friendly places in Pitlochry! Jojo recommended we go to Jessie's, a lovely little cafe. They have a separate vegan menu, that has a number of things on it for both their all day breakfast and for lunch. I was very tempted by some of the things on there, but ultimately we were only in the mood for something lighter. We got iced lattes (matcha for Jojo, turmeric for me) and shared a piece of vegan blackberry crumble slice from their bakery display. I would really like to go back to this place again, it was super cute!



Then it was back to Jojo's place, where we spent an afternoon watching Our Flag Means Death and Jojo made a lovely Sesame Soy Tofu Bowl for dinner.



And we also had some jam doughnuts (I think we bought these from Tesco but I might be lying, we may have gotten them from another shop on the way back from Pitlochry...)



That's it for now! I will be back with more of my trip, hopefully without another four months passing. I have a shameful confession to make. I was trying to catch up on blog posts from everyone but it was too overwhelming and I fell too far behind, so I have had to just go clean slate and start picking up from your most current blog posts. If anything major has happened in your life, please let me know, I care! I miss my blogger friends.

Speaking of major things, my PhD is finally officially over! Found out two weeks ago. Certificate is in my possession, languishing in my cupboard where it will live forever. No more PhD!

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Jojo's cat Peps, being very tolerant of me adoring her... from a respectful distance, of course!

UK/Spain 2024 Part 4: Meeting the Sheepies!

Hi friends! Long time no blog. I have been busy working on my thesis revisions, which I have just submitted today. So fingers crossed they are happy with my changes and I can get my PhD signed off on!

Back to Scotland hours! After Endiburgh we drove the two hours to Jojo's place, stopping off at a Tesco on the way for supplies. Jojo's place is BEAUTIFUL! Not so many food photos in this post, but look at how pretty! I adored the daffodils growing everywhere.















And of course, THE SHEEP! I loved visiting with them. Look at these cuties.











It had been a long day, starting in Edinburgh and then the drive out to Jojo's. After visiting with the sheep, we were looking for something easy for dinner. So we put together a lovely tray of Girl Dinner(TM). It included three different vegan cheeses (all coconut oil free), olive bread, foccacia, salted vegan butter, olives, and grapes. A perfect little snacky end to the day! All the cheeses were lovely, and I am very sad that I can't get anything like that here.





I also had some of this lovely Oolong kombucha!



I'm hoping to get back into more regular posting now that PhD is over, though I still have a lot of other less fun things going on. I hope you won't mind if some of these posts are more landscape heavy, but I promise there is still a lot of delicious food to come!

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Jojo wasn't the only one graciously letting me stay, I was also the guest of Peps, Jojo's cat!

UK/Spain 2024 Part 3: Edinburgh again

The next morning we all slept in, I slept for 11 hours, sorely needed after all that travel! We woke up, and started our morning with some vegan chocolate pop tarts from Aldi. I was told they tasted like warm bourbon biscuits, but I'd never had one of them. I also learned that English people and Australian people say bourbon very differently.



Jojo and I said our goodbyes, then headed out for a little Edinburgh adventure before driving the two hours to Jojo's house in rural Scotland. Our first stop was the Black Rabbit Edinburgh, a vegan cafe and deli. Unfortunately, they were out of the benedict I was hoping to order. So instead I ordered the Black Rabbit Bagel (essentially a BLAT on a bagel), and a lovely turmeric latte. Jojo ordered the Nae Egg and Cress Sandwich (and tofu egg sandwich). I also bought a couple of cheeses to try later on.







Jojo also got some strawberry cheesecake. I tried a bit, it was lovely!



A pretty Edinburgh park.



Our next stop was Lighthouse Bookshop, a radical bookshop in Edinburgh. I also wanted to visit here because a bookshop called Lighthouse is very Stede from OFMD coded, if you know, you know. Yes, I'm still on my gay pirate bullshit, I will never get off it. It was a very cool bookshop, of course soooo many books that I wanted to buy. But I contented myself with one.



Just down the road from the bookshop was Yi Fang Bubble Tea, where Jojo introduced me to the joys of matcha brown sugar bubble tea. This was SO GOOD!



More Edinburgh being pretty.



Our final stop was Considerit, a vegan bakery. It was almost the end of the day for them, which meant they were sold out of a lot of things, and the remaining things were all extremely icing heavy. But we did get a bag of cinnamon sugar doughnut holes, which were delightful.



After that, it was a drive back to Jojo's place! We stopped at a Tesco, to pick up some supplies on the way. Next time, hanging out with sheep in rural Scotland!

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Another photo of the very handsome Kobi. Since I've returned home, Kobi has gotten a new kitty brother! So exciting.