Glimmers 012 ✧˖°
week 28: summer salads, endless bookstores, and an epic concert
Happy Sunday, folks!
I am somewhere in Inverness at the moment, at the second(ish) leg of my ‘great’ Scottish Highland tour for the summer. And sitting at that train yesterday, trying to somehow put my gratitude list to paper, all the initial days of this week felt like a blur as they all just seemed to be lived in anticipation of this travel. Have you ever felt that, when moments seem to concentrate towards something and you almost forget to live the more mundane days? I am honestly guilty of this most of the time — but then, I also don’t want to apologize for being excited about the grand things in my life.
So, for the week and the next, a lot of my favorite things would probably focus on this trip. While it’s not my first time in Scotland1, this is my first time in the Scottish Highlands. And let me tell you, it is such a different beast! I’m just busy trying to take in everything with wide-eyed wonder and commit them to memory. ✨
I can’t wait to share a lot of things about this trip, but in the mean time…
Here’s a list of my favorite °˖glimmers˖° that made my days a little brighter the past week:
✧˖° First 5K run in a while! It wasn’t all running obviously, it was mostly walking. But it happened. I did it, and that’s what matters.
✧˖° That lovely homemade salad: chopped kale, blue cheese dressing, chunks of blue Stilton, air-fried streaky bacon, dried cranberries, pine nuts. I missed making it and I still love it.
✧˖° Back-to-back physio and osteopathy sessions. It was great talking to my osteopath (who happens to also be my Pilates teacher from time to time), about food and books and food. Also nice knowing that my scoliosis is not as bad as I thought it was.
✧˖° That watermelon and feta salad, which was a first. I’ve always wanted to try it and when I finally did, it did not disappoint. It was a simple but special refreshing summer salad that I can’t wait to recreate at home (if I ever get a decent watermelon, that is). (Try it at: KONJ Café)
✧˖° Endless bookstores in Edinburgh!
✧˖° Spotting a Mucha bookmark pinned on the bulletin board for what-nots in Armchair Books.
✧˖° The perfect sunshine of a dress! I always find the nicest dresses in thrift shops in Edinburgh — and this one was a lovely yellow surprise. It randomly caught my attention while we’re walking towards somewhere. Finding out it was in my size was really cool.
✧˖° Dinner at Yamato in Edinburgh. My favorite was the thinly sliced salmon in with avocado cream and caviar, a starter I randomly decided to try out. Another one was that gorgeous matcha ice cream, which felt luxurious and had the perfect blend of the bitterness of the matcha and subtle sweetness of the cream. I am not usually a fan of the flavor, but this one I can get behind. (I’m planning to have another In Transit entry for all the memorable things that I ate in Scotland, and this one will definitely be there for sure.)
✧˖° One of the highlights of my week was definitely this: attending a Ludovico Einaudi concert. It was the last leg of his The Summer Portrait tour in the UK and I am so glad we were able to snag some tickets last minute. It was my first time attending a concert like this (and in a place as massive as this!). It was unexpectedly epic: the blue sky and the perfect UK weather to be out, the Edinburgh Castle in the background, and Einaudi playing till the sun set. It was a very dramatic experience, with the lighting, the backdrops (random vignettes that I loved so much), the camera work. It was a privilege to experience music like this. 🎼 Thank you, universe.
✧˖° And finally, this is a little bit meta: writing this week’s gratitude log on a train, with the Scottish landscape as a background. I want to soak up as much of this moment as I can. I hope I get to experience more things like this.
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I go to Edinburgh at least once every year, for the last 3 years.