Today I did a search for Scotland on Facebook. I.e. a Facebook search, not a Google search. Some of the page names are so funny I wanted to share them (if you live in bonny Scotland, you’ll understand…). I do wonder if the rest of the UK and the Republic of Ireland are similarly in tune with their nation.
A few weeks ago, a couple from Scotland won the biggest ever UK Euromillions draw. But will their newly found riches make them happy?
I shouldn’t have thought so. For starters, if you win £161m you better keep quiet about it. Unless you want hordes of hangers-on camping outside your house, begging for money, harassing you wherever you go.
On a personal note, I’ll soon find out if money does indeed make you happy. I’m about to sell my house in Italy, which should find me with cash in my account of a 5-figure-sum. Nice. I’ll sure report here how happy it’ll make me (though I’m already pretty happy. How happy can you actually get before your head explodes?).
Today I’m going to the Scottish Highlands. As a writer-to-be, one of the meth0ds to “elicit or accelerate … a psychological activity or response” is to place myself within new landscapes and people – changing the surroundings to and backdrop of my trajectory.
This has worked well in the past: A first visit in Rome, 9 years ago, forced my weak self, at the time only infrequently anchored in reality, further into imagination.
Today, then, I’ll be taking my camera and my scrapbook. I won’t be talking to people (random people get in the way of thinking. They are but a backdrop) and instead just look out of the window, and walk, by myself, away.
ok. da bin ich also in rom. in: der endlosen stadt. hier findet die liebe statt. ich steige aus der strassenbahn. hier finden die spiele etc. statt. hier findet:
der papst statt.
I have an appointment with my GP this week to discuss whether or not I want to go back on the pill. I think I’ve blogged about this before. The only criteria I will be applying to decide whether or not I should try it are:
– will it make me fat? From what I remember, the Pill (some brands anyway) will make you put on weight. Though this may be untrue – but it’s definitely one aspect I want to ask
– will it be free? I remember that when I lived in England 15 years ago (!), I got it free from the Family Planning Clinic. This may not be the case any more, or may not be the case in Scotland.
Thus my decision will be made. I might just go on it for a few months so that I can have ‘unprotected sex’ to see what it feels like (with B. of course – not some random stranger), and then stop it again 😛
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](https://i0.wp.com/img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png)
I found out the other day that my wee nephew’s birthday was this Sunday passed (25th January) which is the same as Burns’ birthday (the Scottish National Poet). The funny thing is that my nephew is also a redhead – this gene ‘jumped’ a generation (my dad is a ginger or ‘strawberry blonde’).
My BF told me that ginger hair was an indication of potential Scottish ancestry which I quickly googled today. While it’s true that world-wide the greatest percentage of redheads lives in Scotland (13% of all the population), the ‘ginger gene’ is generally considered to be Celtic, not Scottish. And even the Celts didn’t come out of nowhere – some say it originally came from the Scandinavian Hugh hair.
Either way, my dad’s dad is from Prussia (Preussen), which to me is far more historically interesting. Even my surname is much more common in the East. Plenty of people carrying my surname apparently live in Berlin. If the ‘ginger gene’ did come from my granddad, it may have been through some Scandinavian connection (Scandinavians immigrating to Prussia hundreds of years ago).
So I don’t think I have anything Scottish in my genes – more likely a tiny amount of Viking ancestry, which would make more sense (even my body shape and height etc. is quite Nordic).
How to be Happy 