Sometimes when I look deep in your eyes, I swear I can see your soul

I escaped Leeds this weekend for a little trip to bonny Scotland, my second trip to Edinburgh this year (definite upside of having an Uncle who lives in such a beautiful city!). My Uncle likes using us visiting as an excuse for him to get out of town for a bit, so we ended up spending a lot of time skirting around the outermost fringes of the city. Although I missed having a chance to just wander up and down the Royal Mile and Princes Street, we saw plenty of the city centre from some great spots outside the hustle and bustle of the main tourist streets. 

I wanted to take a trip up Arthur's Seat on Saturday since we haven't done it in years and my Dad jumped at the rare chance to hear me willingly put a pair of walking boots on (I vowed never to touch them ever again after I did the National Three Peaks Challenge a few years ago). We ended up heading up there at the perfect time of day, my Mum and my Uncle thought we'd gone absolutely crackers as they were lagging behind and gave up when a huge cloud decided to engulf itself around them, promptly leading to them heading back to the car. We made it through the mist and had possibly the most beautiful view of the city anybody had ever seen before. We didn't get to spend much time up there as it was getting dark pretty quickly and my Mum had started sending frantic texts saying "COME DOWN NOW." but it was worth it to see my Mum and Uncle's jealous faces when we showed them how incredible it had been up there. Not that we were trying to rub it in or anything. Obviously.

Sometimes- James

And the walls kept tumbling down in the city that we love

With the exception of little old me over here in Leeds, the majority of my family all still live on or very near the Wirral. Since half of the family live within 5 minute walking distance from my parent's house (we're an adventurous bunch!) it doesn't leave many exciting places to explore as we just have to nip up the road whenever we want to see them. But I do have one Uncle who doesn't live in Merseyside, he lives up in Edinburgh. Without a doubt one of the best places I could possibly have a reason to visit on a fairly regular basis. Well done Uncle, great choice of city to make your home in.

Since we haven't all been up to see my Uncle together for a year or so we decided it would be a nice thing to do for my Mum's birthday. And, although I did go up to the 'Burgh back in August with my buddies, I really don't think I could ever tire of the city. Its flipping beautiful. In just a weekend we saw so much, going up Calton Hill, driving around Arthur's Seat (it was way too wet, cold and windy to even think about walking up there...), going up to the roof of the museum to admire the view, and so much more!

 I love how diverse Edinburgh is, from the castle you can see old buildings, new buildings, water, mountains... nowhere else could you walk to the bottom of one of the main tourist streets and end up in the middle of a country park complete with hikers and crazy runners speeding up the hills.

Even on horrible grey days like last weekend, the city still looks absolutely stunning. 

EDINBURGH, I LOVE YOU.

Pompeii- Bastille

We visit a life we both left behind

Despite all that's happened in Great Britain this year to make it one that I'm sure won't be forgotten in a long time, personally 2012 has been one of those years that's just tootled along, there've been no major obstacles or momentous occasions to mark it out in my mind (I suppose the end of a big relationship technically does fall into this category but I'm not seeing that as a bad change now by any means).

2011 was a year with a lot of change in my life, finishing Uni, graduating, becoming a real life person with a real life job, moving away from Leeds, moving back to Leeds, moving into a new house. In comparison, 2012 has just been a bit stable. I make that sound like a bad thing, when in actual fact it really isn't. I took a little look back through my photos from the past year and I have to say, there have been a lot of highlights. Being my first full year of working life, the fun bits of the year have been even more savoured as time with friends has become more valuable, shifting from student life to real life means we no longer have the luxury of being able to wander into each other's rooms at all hours of the day or whiling away hours just sat at the kitchen table. Instead, it means that when we do all spend time together there's a definite air of excitement and a lot of effort goes into making it memorable. 

I've picked out a few snaps as a bit of a review of 2012 in the life of Kaz. It probably won't mean a lot to you guys reading but I had a whale of a time looking back at all my pictures of day trips, nights out and weekends away. 

1. Birthday celebrations- lots of my favourite people all in one room (and some spookily coordinated outfits) 2. A day out at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park with my Mum, Dad and new DSLR 3. Live at Leeds 2012 4. A sunburnt sunny day in Nottingham 5. Sailing round the Isle of Wight with the Ellen Macarthur Cancer Trust through work 6. City living 7&8 Olympic stuff- seeing Friendly Fires for free definitely made me warm to the occasion 9. 'rowing' in Stratford with one of my favourites 10. Monkeying around in Edinburgh 11. Leeds Festival- seeing Florence was a definite highlight of my year/life in general 12. We're a very distinguished little bunch. Especially when filled with wine.

Roll on 2013. Bring me some more good times like these please.

Reunion- The xx