University of Aberdeen Blog

This past weekend marked the switching on of the Christmas lights here in Aberdeen. It seems as though it gets earlier every year. I am normally the one trying to encourage people to start getting in the festive mood in October and bemoaning my friends’ lack of Christmas Spirit. For some reason however, my feelings have changed. Maybe this is me just growing up…but I’m not sure I like it. No matter how much music I listen to, or how many presents I decide on, I can’t get the Spirit flowing!

Presents are of course at the forefront of most people minds right now. If, like me, you are terrible at gifts and want to give vouchers to everyone, you have to start looking early. I think this year may be slightly easier due to the new shopping centre here in Aberdeen.

Union Square opened at the end of October and according to Wikipedia, is the 2^nd largest shopping centre in Scotland being 700,000 square feet. Now I have no idea how big that is in relative terms…but I know that there are lots of shops, some of which are new to Aberdeen such as Paperchase and Ollie and Nic (Hurray for those!). As it is mostly undercover, it will definitely be easier than trailing from shop to shop in the cold and rain. As well as all the shops there is also a selection of restaurants. As I found yesterday, it is far too easy to spend an entire afternoon there getting nothing done!

Although I am now in the process of picking and buying presents, I have a lot of things to consider. Things that I never considered before coming to Aberdeen. Such as how many outfits will I have to sacrifice to fit that in my suitcase or how many pairs of shoes will I have to forego in order to keep it under the weight limit for the plane. I should possibly take a leaf out of my sister’s book – she bought all of her presents in September before going back to University. Hmmmm not sure I could be that organised.

Well as for now, I have to go peruse some websites in the hope I can just buy everything online and have it all delivered to home so its waiting for me when I get back.

As I sit here writing this blog entry and looking out the window I cannot help but notice that autumn has arrived in Aberdeen. The leaves are all changing colours and falling down, the days are getting darker, and the winds are getting colder. All of this means that winter is just around the corner and that it will soon be time to put on a thicker jumper and turn up the heating a bit. Having just started my eighth year in Aberdeen, I am fairly well used to the winters up here and actually enjoy them. It never gets too cold, because we are an east coast city and the darkness has its advantages from a study point of view. It makes it more appealing to sit in a class room or office or one of the many coffee places around campus with a nice mug of tea or coffee (or a hot chocolate if you are feeling really indulgent) and read a chapter or two in a text book or plough your way through some journal articles. I find I am always more productive during the winter and hope to get a lot of work done on my PhD over the next few months. This will be crucial towards me finishing it on time, so I for one am grateful that winter is coming J

Until the next time, be well in all things.

David