Long overdue update

Getting back from Brazil, moving house and a lack of decent internet access have put the blog on the back burner for a few weeks. As I'm on a 22k modem, I won't be putting any photos up or doing much internet until civilisation arrives in the form of broadband web access on Wednesday.

Sky plus was installed on Friday, so at least we can now watch the 24 hour live feed from the new Big Brother house. What a rum bunch they've found this time round. There aren't many to like there, but thank god it's more interesting the Camerooooooooon and Tickle fest last year.

Rio was bloody amazing - I was still battling my cold so I didn't enjoy it as much as Stef who went on a 2-day diet of no sleep and beach life. The full day we had there was great though - we went up sugarloaf mountain, James Bond cable car and all, took a helicopter ride over the city, a lobovan trip to see the Christ Statue ("Jesus Christ!") and went out on what was a planned few quiet last night drinks which turned into a 6-hour fruit flavoured caipirinha fest, with inevitable 2.30am paddling on Copacabana beach.

3 days after getting back we moved up to Edinburgh, and we're now living in our new flat in Broughton. We're very much enjoying it so far. The flat is on the 3rd floor of a traditional tenement block, with high ceilings, nicely done up, a really good place to live. It was a bit of a nightmare moving in.

Rach's work is now a week old, and she's settling into the responsibilities of working as a fully qualified architect. She has a site on Shetland, 3 ferry rides away, so we're hoping for a crafty weekend visit if possible. I'm still looking for work / whoring myself around, and I've got a few decent leads, so I should be doing something before not too long. Ideally I want to work for a local company so I get out and meet people, but initially it looks like I might be working from home.

We've been out wandering the city in the evenings, went up the touristy and brilliant camera obscura on Saturday, have tried some trendy cafes and pubs, been out with Charlie and the new neighbours, had dinner with Emma and Dave the Cave at Charlie and Mel's (and got drunk on wine and Balvenie Doublewood) and yesterday went to a concert of a local amateur orchestra, who have spaces for horns, so I'll be joining when they start again in Septembner.

We're lucky to be 5 mins walk from a decent cinema, and have caught up on a few films:

Van Helsing: Pretty rubbish.

Troy: Better, very Gladiator-esque, proving that time is irrelevent when it comes to starting wars for stupid reasons.

Kill Bill 2: I think I enjoyed it more than Chris did - but I did nod off at one point. There is one amazing movie hidden in there somewhere between the 2 of them, hopefully rumours of a single vol Kill Bill DVD are true.

The Day After Tomorrow: Big dumb Hollywood Summer Popcorn Blockbuster (tm). Fantastic.

More later this week, along with some photos. Fun fun!

PS - Chris - sorry about West Ham...