Left Side, please.: Flower power

Haggis is weird. I took one look at the haggis and blood pudding and decided a big fat no. However, the Scottish do have the right idea with roasted tomatoes and mushrooms for breakfast- delicious! The berries and melon here are also excellent. However, their "potato scones" are (1) not scones and (2) a giant compressed fried doughy french fry. They're weird.

Mom went on an on this morning about how she "just can't get over Mary Queen of Scots and how horribly she was treated" to which I replied "mom, that happened a long time ago". Limpy chimed in with "Cissy, she dead. Real dead"

Fact.

Also, today in circus antics this happened.

Dad forgot to open the trashcan lid. This is real life.

I started my day off with a keynote from Dr. Hagger, an Aussie, on behavior change models. I got some good notes from his presentation. My first thought was "teach me a behavior change model that will work on dad". No luck. If they can do that, I have faith in any behavior change they're trying to achieve.

I thought his explanation of motivation types were just so incredibly fascinating. He noted that most folks, when thinking of exercise, fall into the two middle blocks. I'm one of the lucky few that tend to lean more to the left side of the motivation spectrum- all thanks to Suzanne's spin class jams. Shameless plug for the Weight Club.

What motivates YOU?!

Afterwards I talked to Elena and Dr. Banna, from Hawaii, about food waste. She informed us of an app that was developed at Perdue for food waste studies... and it sounds pretty darn spiffy. After stalling for an appropriate amount of time, guzzling two cups of delicious tea and a mini yogurt parfait I headed to the dungeon also known as the poster session.

Knowing the insanity that awaited me, I wrote down the numbers of the posters I wanted and zoomed poster to poster, snapping pictures and grabbing papers where I could. I got to talk to Dr. Yaroch, who came to VT not too long ago for a talk, about socioeconomic status and barriers to fruit and vegetable consumption. It's so great to finally talk to people in the same nerd niche as me and get fired up about research. Sometimes it's really upsetting in the culture we have today trying to promote health and it gets lonely. Nerd battery has been recharged.

Dodging and weaving in between delegates with frequent "excuse me" and "AHH SO SORRY!" as I ran into people, I hit most posters I had written down. I talked to a fellow student from Minnesota about rural schools and just how incredibly difficult working with schools, particularly remote ones, can be. So much research is focused on urban schools and so little is on rural areas. They're largely understudied and it's really nice to talk to someone who feels my academic agony.

Dropping my email like rain.

I also went to a jam-packed short oral session on food labeling. Short oral: 30 minutes, 4 speakers. No, that is not a joke. I foresee some of my research interests heading this way. I love that stuff.

Side note: American dollars here are equivalent to toilet paper. Or worse. I noticed it in my backpack and got excited for a second. And then I realized that the dollar means less than nothing here. It's. So. Weak.

Thank you, ISBNPA for my smoked salmon sandwich. I'm hoping for more of that action. I love smoked salmon.

En route home I found a real gem. Tessa would freak out. Yes, ladies and gents, this is a cat cafe. Their cats are stupidly beautiful. The one in the window? A bengal. Cat ladies, rejoice!

I thought about forking over the 7 pounds. Worth some fuzzy pets.

Not wanting to waste a second, I recruited le mom to walk the not so far 2 miles to the Royal Botanic Garden. Well, it would have been two miles had we not missed the East Gate (guilty) and entered on the other side of the 70 acre park. 23K steps and going strong.

Side note: I love Scottish bathrooms. Weird? Unlike back in the states, the doors don't have gaps. No peak a pee action here. It's grand. Single person activity.

On our way we saw the CUTEST cakes and macroons. See evidence.

Yet again putting my mediocre culinary skills to absolute shame.

Drukie whisky pony. And deer.

Entering the park, we were amazed how big the place was. Valerie, my sister-in-law, would have thought she had died and gone to heaven. We started by venturing though the Queen Mother's Garden, for Queen Mum, which was equipped with a labyrinth: all the hedges are in the shape of E's. I need this. I want a maze of all G's. I don't know how well that will work, but I need it. I'm sure Chen will be totally okay with me replacing all the grass in our yard with hedge G's... as long as I funded it.

Pretty beautiful spot

Playing with my macro setting

Mom was pumped about the Queen Mother's Garden

Wall-o-hedge

Inside a memorial for Mum

The most adorable old couple I've ever seen strolling in the gardens holding hands. Creeper photo.

We also saw the most unique blue flowers and I got really lucky with the rain. It rained just enough to add some really nifty touches to my macro photo experiments.

It took me ages to get this one. The flower kept moving in the wind

I went a little (lot) flower crazy

The rock garden was the best part. It was a weaving staircase heaven of rocks, ponds, and gorgeous flowers. And now the photo barrage.

Mom took this one about 1239862456x times. Using mom zoom.

I eavesdropped for an English speaker and mobbed them with my camera

Mom on adventure mode

And then there were macros. I'm not even a little sorry. Thanks, 64 GB micro SD.

It's fuzzy

These looked like they were made of paper, observation by mom

There was also a memorial garden for organ donations which was albiet rather odd, but it had a really interesting memorial stone.

"Nothing that ends in a gift ends in nothing"

Best mom comment of the day: "what brand of tree is this?" First and foremost, I know little to nothing about plants. Second, I didn't know trees were brand names. Learn something new.

City life is not for me. Too many people. Too many smokers. I might come home with black lung.