WHAT TO SEE AT THE FESTIVAL OF PHYSICS

I'm a fan of all things clever and curious, so it's safe to say that I'm looking forward to the Festival of Physics - a celebration of the wonder of science, the power of curiosity and the inventions and discoveries that shape our world and our future.

From Friday 26th - Sunday 28th October, the Institute of Physics have a packed three-day programme of scintillating science shows, hands-on workshops and inspiring experiences, plus creative conversations from the domains of music, theatre and art alongside talks and lectures for all ages.

Taking place (with one exception!) at Edinburgh's Dynamic Earth, the majority of the programme is free of charge, making it super easy for everyone to explore the universe, learn something new, and take a chance on some science fun.

There's loads of events on for people of all ages, but here's the stuff that's caught my eye:

Astronomy on Tap
I like space, I like pub quizzes, and I like having my mind blown by cool science facts, so this sounds great. This night has three local scientists doing informative and exciting short talks, with fun pub quizzes and space-themed goodies up for grabs.
Saturday 27th October, 9pm

Space & Time
Ever wondered what the heck space-time is? Astronomers from the Royal Observatory Edinburgh chat about the fundamental components of the universe and how scientists use them to uncover its secrets.You'll find out about how they are creating new technology to look at ancient galaxies, and track changes in space-time. Space secrets!
Sunday 28th October, all-day drop-in activity

Cooking with Science: A Culinary Arts workshop
Ever wondered why store-bought ice-cream can stay out of the fridge for longer than home-made one? Looking at this, and all sorts of innovative fancy cooking things made possible by science, this interactive workshops dives into the culinary arts and shows you how to make bubble tea, as well as lots of other delicious demos.
Saturday 27th (2pm) and Sunday 28th October (3pm)
Buy tickets (£3) here

Photography at the Speed of Light
Get an ultrafast portrait taken using a camera with frame rates so high they can see light move at 300 million meters per second! This super-cool technology shows you the physical effects when you're hit by a pulse of light, and is going to be used for all sorts of interesting things in the future, like driverless cars.
Saturday 27th and Sunday 28th October, all-day drop-in activity

Physics Wizardry: Potions Class
Yeah, yeah, I know this is definitely an event aimed at kids, but I want to learn how to make magical potions! With the power of physics, this workshop shows you how to make spectacular potions with unexpected effects, learning how to turn some boring liquids into some much more impressive, intriguing and beautiful substances.
Saturday 27th (12noon) and Sunday 28th October (3.30pm)

Prof Fay Dowker: Past, Present and Future: The Science of Time
Professor of Theoretical Physics at Imperial College London, Prof Fay Dowker knows a thing or two about time. This (free!) talk explores the history and future of time from Newtonian-model physics to quantum gravity, and the fascinating possibilities emerging from the world of cutting-edge theoretical physics.
Saturday 27th, 7pm

Modern Times 
Science comedian Helen Keen presents a very special screening of Chaplin's 1936 classic comedy Modern Times, followed by a discussion and Q&A (with lols) inspired by time - how we conceptualise and measure it, the relationships between human, industrial and deep time, and what the future holds for our understanding of space-time.
Saturday 27th, 5.45pm, Filmhouse
Book tickets (£10) here

View the full Festival of Physics programme here.

LIFE LATELY

If there's anything that years of blogging has taught me, it's that I am completely incapable of juggling fun hobby deadlines (i.e. weekly blogs) with actual serious work deadlines. I had felt like I had done a pretty good job of resurrecting this blog, but then film fest life took over, I had loads of deadlines, then we had to deliver the actual thing, then I went on holiday, crashed, holidayed again, and here I am!

I reckon I just need to get comfortable with the fact that this is how I handle my work-life balance. I'm always going to be a sporadic blogger when real-life amps up, and I think that's okay. So rather than make a big fuss about returning to blogging (again), I thought I'd catch you up on my summer!

Here's what I got up to:

We ran a film festival!

It was my third Edinburgh International Film Festival, which took place in June this year, with over 500 screenings, absolutely loads of filmmakers in town, 20 venues across Edinburgh, and 1 slightly disruptive heatwave. I'm the Festival's Head of Development, which means my team & I bring in and look after all of our funders, sponsors, partners, donors, and anyone else kind enough to want to donate to us, or cool enough to want to be part of the action (and why wouldn't you? Support your local festival!).

The most common question you get working in festivals is 'so what do you do the rest of the year?', as if the whole thing pops up overnight, and then is packed away. We were working on EIFF 2021 (ahh!) before we delivered this year's EIFF, so it is a bit of a never-ending task, but it's fair to say that it properly ramps up a few months before it takes place, and completely takes over your life.

Despite the stress/lack of weekends/general dehydration, I love festival life. I'm so lucky to have wonderful festival pals, and this year I got to see loads of amazing films, meet really interesting people, attend fascinating events (how Pixar design costumes! So cool), and the very best part of my job - reading the nice comments from our audiences each year (always guaranteed to make me a bit teary). I am quite glad there's a while before the next one though.


I went camping!

I'm a total camping convert these days, and for the last few years have ventured up north to the Highlands for a week of wild camping. This year we went the furthest we have ever gone, and drove up to Loch Assynt, a beautiful loch with a ruined castle on its banks and the legend of a mermaid in its waters, about 5-6 hours drive from Edinburgh.

There's a wee road that goes around the loch, but we squirrelled ourselves out of sight by its banks, and it was the most perfect week. I read loads of books (including the perfect book to read while camping), we ate amazing campfire food and drank wine out of boxes, we paddled to the loch's tiny islands in seek of firewood, and spent days just soaking in the quiet air and beautiful views. It's trips like this that make me want to up sticks and move somewhere very quiet and a bit tucked away from the world, I didn't want it to end.


It was the Edinburgh Festivals!

A bit of a change of pace, but as always, August in Edinburgh means Festival time! I think this was possibly my least enthusiastic year - I was still feeling a bit zoned out after film fest when tickets went on sale, which meant I missed out on a few things, and I didn't quite have the energy to try and navigate the 1000s of events that were on (although I was happy to sample the 1000s of festival bars that popped up).

Edinburgh International Festival stole the show with their opening event, Five Telegrams - a super cool and very beautiful event inspired by telegrams sent during the first world war - with digital artwork projected onto Edinburgh's Usher Hall, live choirs, and a moving orchestral score. They keep setting the bar higher for their opening events each year - I can't wait to see what they do next.

I went to Croatia!

And finally, I'm just back from a trip to Croatia... which will be the third time I've gone on holiday to a Croatian island, as I just love it there so much!

This time we went to Brač and stayed in this amazing, quirky cottage which was also a total bargain (thanks Airbnb!). The weather was beautiful, even hotter than I had expected for this time of year, so we spent a week exploring the island, reading books (in that hammock!), eating seafood, and just switching off from the nonsense of the everyday world. Can I go back?

COLOURFUL KITCHEN IDEAS

It's been two and a bit years since I bought my lovely little flat, and I've only just got round to fixing up my kitchen. I was so good when I moved in! I spent hours painting and transforming each room - the bathroom had to be completely rebuilt from scratch (so depressing, but so worth it), I had to paint over intense lime green walls to create a calm, neutral bedroom, maths was needed to get the candy cane striped wall in my study just right, and the living room was pretty much pain-free but still took an age to paint.

The one room I just hadn't touched was my kitchen, which wasn't AWFUL, but it definitely wasn't great. It had off-white walls (that needed painting), off-beige vinyl flooring (that looked grubby constantly), and blue, but-not-nice-blue-more-denim-blue, cabinet doors. And that's how I left it. For two years!

But I've finally worked up the courage to tackle it (on the world's smallest kitchen budget), and here's what I'm thinking...

Kitchens: Pinterest

I know they're all over pinterest, but I'm pretty bored of white kitchens. I want something colourful! I'm lucky that my flat get loads of light so it can pull off having colours in each room, without it feeling too busy... or at least that's what I'm telling myself.

I love the idea of bright cabinet doors, against a bright, white room - I've already painted the walls white (whyyy did I not do this years ago?), and have had fun photoshopping different colours onto the existing cabinet doors to see what might work. I'm pretty obsessed with those red cabinets (and it's nice to see a red kitchen that isn't boring grown up dull red), but that geometric bench is also super cute!

Kitchens: Pinterest

The other big kitchen update that's happened so far is that the grim flesh-coloured floor is gone! It's been replaced by a fun black and white vinyl floor (which was only £40 from Online Carpets!). Next I've got to change the cabinet doors, mayyybe extend the worktop so it runs the full length of the kitchen, and then the fun bits start. Plants! Shelves! Anthropologie's entire kitchen collection! (Ahem, I can but dream).

So wish me luck on my budget kitchen! I'll keep you updated on how it develops (which, hopefully, won't take another two years...).

HAPPY THOUGHTS

Last week was a challenging week. I generally manage to stay pretty zen about the stresses in my life, and I try pretty hard to not obsess or dwell on stuff that gets me down, but I've been totally rubbish at that lately. Work suddenly stepped up a notch and is Busy and Hard, and I'm feeling the pressure of the millions of things I've got to get done before the next Festival rolls around. Aah!

So here's an effort to remember that life doesn't just revolve around work, and there's lots of nice things to be happy about! I remember reading about how making a note of things you were grateful for actually contributed to feeling better in your life, and that's what my happy thoughts series is all about.

These are three of the things that are cheering me up right now...

1. Riley

Riley cat is coming to visit!

If you're a long-time reader you might recognise this furry face - he's my very lovely, fluffy cat, who due to life-happenings, now lives with my ex's parents. For the last few years I've been Riley's holiday home, and it is such a treat to get to hang out with him (even if he covers my flat in cat hairs). Riley's here for the next week and I am so excited for purring cat times!

2. Stardew Valley

Help me, I am OBSESSED. My very nice boyfriend downloaded Stardew Valley for me (which has resulted in me taking ownership of his Switch) and honestly it is the only thing I want to do with my time. I only want to tend my tiny adorable farm, and look after adorable animals, and harvest adorable crops. When I'm not playing it, I'm reading the Stardew Valley reddit, or thinking about my planting strategy.

I am a 32 year old woman! This is not how I thought actual grown ups behaved! But I don't care, it's so much fun, and if you ever enjoyed Harvest Moon or Animal Crossing or SimFarm, you have to give it a go.

3. Queer Eye

If you haven't watched Queer Eye on Netflix yet, girrrrrl what are you doing with your life? I was not prepared for the pure emotion of this show - it's taken all the fun of a makeover show, but added amazing emotional depth and maturity and PURE JOY. It's a spin off from the original show, but this time they battle toxic masculinity and encourage positive self-reflection, and it's so pure and joyful and emotional - I was sobbing in the first 20 minutes of the first episode. It's so good!

I was delighted to discover that Jonathan, the show's groomer and definitely the best one, also has a podcast: Getting Curious with Jonathan Van Ness. He's just a lovely person to listen too, and I am super into the variety of really interesting subjects he covers - he's got pirates! AI! Politics! Gender identity! Fashion! Sort-of everything! And it's earnest and funny and interesting.

So, it's a new week. I'm going to put my energy into the nice moments, and do my best to not over-analyse or dwell on the stressy stuff (and if I do, I'll just rewatch Queer Eye until I have some perspective and feel better again!).

MOTHER'S DAY GIFT GUIDE

Have you remembered it's Mother's Day this Sunday? March 11th for everyone in the UK! If you haven't, don't panic - there's still a week to get something ordered and pretend you were prepared all along.

I'm lucky in that my mum (who I very much hope isn't reading this post and seeing all my present secrets!) is pretty easy to shop for. She's always delighted when she gets flowers, doesn't seem to mind when I gift her endless candles (which in my opinion, you really cannot go wrong with), but she's also into more quirky styles and gifts, which means picking presents for her is really fun (and I can pretend that I'm shopping for me).

Here's a few mum-friendly gifts that caught my eye, and will hopefully inspire you if you're a little bit stuck!

Top row

Knitted scarf | Wolf & Moon wildflower necklace | Kinska planter

Middle row

Larue vase | Edward & Irwyn salted caramels | Laboratory Perfumes candle

Bottom row

Lucky Cloud gift set | Cross-body bag | Beautiful Puffin books set