Wow, i've not blogged since April.  Funny how time flies!

I've just read over my last blog and much of this blog will tie into it so that's good, eh!  I've had a funny few months, most have been unhappy, but we'll get to that.  First, an update since April.

So, I moved out of my flat that I was sharing with Screamer (our landlord went bankrupt).  In June I moved into my own little pad on my own, which I LOVE!  It's 3 minutes door to door from my best friend, 20 minutes walk to work and right in the centre of Edinburgh.  Although I love my flat, it's not been without its issues (and i've only been in it since June!)  First of all, my neighbour (christened "catman") has 10 cats which roam in my garden, next to my garden, generally all up in my space!  There's a cute little black one that says hello to me and is quite tame (to the point it comes into my flat if my front door is open).  They don't really bother me on the whole so I guess I can't complain too much.  Anyway, I had to deal with my first mouse encounter in July.  I was lying on my bed, with my bedroom door closed and it scurried under my door, saw me and scurried back out again.  I swear it was like it was saying hello to me!  I had to hop foot it to B&Q to get some humane mousetraps to dot around my flat.  Fortunately the mouse had the sense to not come back because the traps didn't catch anything and i've not had any bother since.  Maybe one of the ten cats got to it first! 

So with that out of the way I was vermin free until two weeks ago.  I came home from work on the Monday night to 8 big massive bluebottles flying around my flat.  A coincidence you might say...me too until I came home on Tuesday and there were another 6 fresh ones!  I started to think something was wrong.  It occurred to me by Thursday that maybe I had an infestation of some kind.  Bluebottles are naturally attracted to rotting meat.  It also occured to me that I hadn't seen my fragile old alcoholic neighbour in a couple of weeks.  Cue:  Rhona's imagination into overdrive.  Sooo not only did I have bluebottle issues, I was also convinced that it was because of my neighbour being dead in his flat next door.  Okay, I'm a bit of a drama queen...but at least I know it!  By Saturday there were no more bluebottles and luckily my neighbour had made signs of movement so emergency over, no need for Scotland Yard.  I think what had happened was that a fly was in my flat and laid some eggs in the plant that I have and that's what happened.  Anyway, that was two weeks ago and i've not had any since so thank goodness!

Don't get me wrong though, I love where I am living.  Although it's right next to the Hearts Stadium (Tynecastle), it's actually really quiet and peaceful.  I've learnt to not venture out whilst there's a game going on and I have all necessary shops within a 5 minute walk.  I'm quite lucky really.  The only downside is that the neighbour above me (i'm on the ground floor) likes to sing acappella...loudly....and very out of tune.  It gets annoying, but I just crank my tunes up to drown her out.  It's not nearly as bad as the neighbours in my old flat!

Ugh...next thing to go wrong with my flat:  the ceiling in my cupboard has started falling down!  Seriously!!  That's the 3rd thing to happen now so hopefully once the landlord has fixed it (they are investigating it today) nothing else will go wrong!  Keep the prayers coming and the fingers crossed!

Right, so enough about my dwelling place.

In June I went to see Rage Against The Machine at Finsbury Park.  WOW!!  It was absolutely amazing!  Best gig i've been to!  They played all their greatest hits and everyone was so friendly!  There was 75,000 rockers there and not one fight in sight.  I was suffering slightly as I had been at a friend's wedding the night before which had been out in the open on one of the hottest days in Scotland this year.  I'm not exaggerating when I say my chest was red raw.  In fact, here's a photo to prove it:

It's 10am, i'm sitting up in my bed with the laptop on my knees, Everybody Loves Raymond is on the TV, it's Tuesday and I'm flying to Australia tomorrow! I can't believe how quick the time has flown in. It seems just like yesterday that I was booking my flight and starting the 6 month countdown!

Firstly, let me say yay - my sister has just become a follower of my randomness...and if anyone knows how random I am, it's her! You just have to ask her about her latest birthday card from me!

I got the last of my pre-packing stuff yesterday and my list is made so all I have to do now is pack it all! My gosh Raymond is funny!

Yesterday I went to my Grandma and Grandad's house to say goodbye to my family (they all live close to each other so can just go to one house and all my family come to me!). My Grandma asked me to help her on her laptop to check that the email addresses she has for me and my sisters were right, so whilst I was doing that with her, she asked me to help set her up on Facebook! How mental!! My 75 year old Grandma is now on Facebook! WTF!?!?! What is the world coming to?? How hilarious!!

I thought that I would incorporate my "pic of the week" into this blog. This drawing was originally featured in the first series of Heroes. It was a premonition picture of Peter and Simone sharing their first kiss. Although it does have that background to it, I just absolutely love it. It just looks like a really intimate and romantic moment. I just love it!

Right gonna go and pack now. Rhona out.

This is my cat. She is called Misty, and she is old! This is a picture of her most favourite position in my house. On the window sill, next to the radiator! Her usual stance is to lie with her front paw on the radiator with her body half hanging off the sill (as kindly demonstrated in the picture below). This unfortunately does not bode well sometimes when she underestimates the size of her v. the width of the sill and every so often you will hear her falling off onto the ground below. The cutest part about my fat cat lying on the sill with her paw on the radiator is that every so often she will raise said paw and shake it, as though to cool it down (like she's just realised it's actually burning), then she will place it tenderly back into her original position.

Misty the crazy fearless radiator loving cat is purr-less, which makes it considerably harder to know when she is happy or not, but I like to think that she has a constant smile on her face. Last Christmas, her buddy and partner in crime; Gemma (my pony sized golden retriever) passed onto doggy heaven. Misty took it hard. She no longer had anyone to tease, to chase, to spend her days with and it has taken its toll on the poor little soul. She is no longer the independent kitty that she once was and is more dependent on us humans now. This suits me fine since getting a hug from Misty is the best (apart from when she gets bored and decides to try to draw blood from you arms).

Misty Moments (her sunday name), long live your specialness.

Crazy cat.