Horses and Butterflies

Two weeks ago I did a session called Equine PALs (Peer Assisted Learning).  Along with a few others from my class, we worked with some second year students teaching them how to do a clinical exam of a horse.  This session counts towards a certificate I am working on.  The certificate is for teaching in Veterinary Medicine.  Essentially throughout my degree I participate in or create teaching sessions and reflect on how they went and what could have been improved.  We are currently the only veterinary school with a certificate like this.  While I have no ambitions to be a teacher per se, a lot of being a vet is about being a teacher.  You have to explain and teach things to clients on a daily basis.

The next day we spent an afternoon at Butterfly World.  We didn't go to see the butterflies, we went to look at how they housed their reptiles and discussed if their husbandry needs were being met.  A lot of reptile medicine is preventive.  Many conditions they get can be stopped or prevented by proper husbandry.  We were split into groups and led by either a final year on their exotics rotation or by the exotics clinician.  My group ended up with the clinician.  As we got to the first stop it was a Red-Footed Tortoise.  He asked us where the tortoise was from.  Well I had no idea, but I had noticed an information plaque.  So I subtly tried to read the plaque.  When I answered South America, the clinician told me I had almost gotten away with reading the plaque and that he had only seen my head turn toward the plaque at the last second.  For the rest of the tour, if he asked our group a question and we didn't know the answer but the answer was on a sign, he would have me read it because in his words "I am a very good reader!"  We looked at lots of different animals like many snakes, a monitor lizard (who was out for a walk on a leash), other lizards, other turtles, chickens, quails and some insects and spiders "just for fun" (I wouldn't call insects and spiders fun...).   All in all the afternoon was quite good.  It was quite funny to see us university students touring around a facility filled with children probably all 5 and under!

Huck the Red-Footed Tortoise

Hen with tiny little black chicks and a quail at the front

As I mentioned last post I have been out a few nights since my photo tour doing some night photography around the city.  So as promised here are some photos from those outings.

Edinburgh Castle

View of Edinburgh Castle from the Grassmarket

View from the Mound

Scotland's National Gallery

I also went out one evening to try and catch a good sunset.  It's hard to get a good sunset.  It takes me a while to get down to Calton Hill or to another location to take pictures of the sunset.  So I have to set off well before I can tell whether it is colour are going to be worthwhile photographing.  Also since it is cloudy so much of the time that limits the beautiful sunsets.  I caught one a couple weeks ago that was pretty good.  It was definitely worth the hike up to Calton Hill.

Sunset from Calton Hill

From Calton Hill, looking at the clock tower of the Balmoral Hotel

Photography, Comedy, and my Birthday

A few weeks ago I went on another photography tour/lesson with Iconic Tours.  This time it focused on learning how to take night photos.  I had done a little bit of night photography before but all my settings were sort of trial and error as opposed to having a specific reason for setting it that way.

I signed up for a group tour and the day of the tour the tour guide Will emailed me to say I was the only one who signed up so I was going to get a private tour.  I met him at St. Giles and we went on our way.

Our first photo stop was Barrie's Close just around the corner.  We tried a couple different things and this was my favourite photo.

Can you see the "ghost"?

We then moved on and took some light trails pictures over Waverley Bridge.  To get light trails you set your exposure for a really long time so when cars go by it blurs their lights.  It works particularly well in Edinburgh with all the double decker buses!

Waverley Bridge, Waverley Station and the Balmoral

Next we went up to Calton Hill and took several different pictures from different locations.

From Left to Right:  Edinburgh Castle, The Clock Tower of the Balmoral Hotel,
The Scott Monument and the Dugald Stewart Monument

Looking down Princes Street

Caught another photographer shooting the National Monument

After Calton Hill we headed back toward the Old Town and stopped at Advocates Close off the Royal Mile.  I had been there before during my day tour but I think I like the feel of it better in the night time.

We moved onto Greyfriars Kirkyard.  It hadn't really crossed my mind to go wandering about a graveyard at night but it turns out there are lots of interesting photos to be had if you know where to look.  Will got out a light and lit up one or the more intricate grave stones.  Illuminated from below it gave the grave stone some very interesting shadows.

Our last stop on our tour was to Victoria Terrace.  From here we tried some more light trails.  After multiple attempts we were getting ready to give up.  There didn't seem to be much traffic heading up Victoria Street.  But we tried one last time and this is the result I got.  I think this is probably my favourite picture of the whole tour.

Can you see the truck with the flashing lights
making a u-turn at the base of the street?

I really enjoyed my photo tour.  I feel like I learned a lot of cool tricks that I will implement into my photography from now on.  I have already been back out a couple nights to take some pictures (But I will save those pictures for my next post!).

Two Thursday's ago a friend and I went to Glasgow to see a comedian Jack Whitehall.  We went to Glasgow early and had dinner at a Mexican Tapas restaurant.  After an incredibly filling meal we decided we would walk the half hour from the restaurant to the venue.  We both thoroughly enjoyed the show.  He only took one jab at Trump but it was a big one.  He also got in a couple shots at the Scots including the fact that Scotland is the only place where pilots get arrested for being too drunk to fly the plane (he did eventually mention that the pilots in question were in fact Canadian...).  But most of his jokes revolved around the many unfortunate and funny circumstances he seems to find himself in.  It was nice to get out of Edinburgh for a change of pace.

Jack Whitehall  - At Large

On the way home we ended up having quite the adventure.  We arrived to Glasgow Queen Street Station in plenty of time for the 11pm train.  The train would get us into Edinburgh just before midnight and would get me home slightly after midnight.  Well when we arrived we discovered that the train would only go partway to Edinburgh due to track works and then we would have to take a replacement bus service the rest of the way.  So we headed off and got off the train in a little town called Polmont.  When we arrived in Polmont there was staff their directing us to line up next to a bowling green.  We then waited for several minutes while they counted how many of us there were to figure out how many buses they needed.  Eventually the buses showed up and continued the route that the train would follow.  Unfortunately the roads aren't as straight as the train tracks so it took substantially longer to get home.  At 1:30am I arrived home.  It made getting up for 9am lecture the next day a little more challenging!  Luckily I only had two lectures I had to stay awake through.

That Saturday was my 25th birthday.  I started the day test driving cars with a friend.  After much discussion over the past few months with my parents I decided (with their approval) to get a used car.  I don't need a car but it will make certain things more convenient such as placements.  It will also give me more chances to explore some places around Edinburgh and Scotland you can't get to or are difficult to get to by public transportation.  I test drove two cars.  The first was a Vauxhall Corsa.  It is basically a nice little station wagon.  The first test drive was interesting.  I had never driven on the left side of the road except for about 10 minutes where my friend let me drive her car around a little subdivision.  So this was my first drive on real roads on the left hand side.  It was a little stressful.  After the test drive I thought the car seemed pretty nice.  Onto the next car.  It was a tiny little 3 door Peugeot.  Went to pull onto the main road which was up a hill.  When I took my foot off the break the car rolled back substantially.  Then when I put my foot on the gas it took a second to kick in and then it started up.  We were on a road with a speed limit of 50mph.  Well the car could go that fast but I'm not sure how much faster it could go!  Part of the reason I was getting a car is I have a mini road trip planned with a friend from home all through the Isle of Skye.  Well Skye is very hilly and the speed limits are quite generous.  I don't think the Peugeot was the right fit.  After some consideration I decided to put a deposit down on the Corsa.  And last Friday I picked up my car.  I have driven to and from campus a couple times now and I am really pleased.  All I need now is my parking permit for parking around my flat (at the moment I can only park after control hours are over... So after 5:30pm and have to be gone by 8:30am.  The one plus is it is making me stay on campus to work!).  I also have to learn how to parallel park.  I was not very good at parallel parking when I was sitting on the left side of the car... So lets see how it goes now that I am on the opposite side!

After the car adventure I went out to dinner with two friends to a place called Gusto.  It was more of an upscale restaurant (well as upscale as a student budget would allow).  We started with a cheese, olive and bread platter, I had a lamb dish for my main and finished it off with the classic sticky toffee pudding.  All in all it was a great birthday.