Fandom Snowflake - Day 1 (I am behind!)

[narya_flame]

Day 1: My Happy Place

It will surprise exactly no-one who knows me to read this, but my happy place is St Andrews, Scotland.  I spent four years there as an undergraduate.  I loved the town, I love the friends I made there, and I loved being surrounded by history and the sea.  (Celebs popping up for the golf on occasion were an added entertaining bonus.)  I adored spending cool summer afternoons at the beach or lazing in the cathedral grounds, book in hand - and that was also the period in my life when I first got really into fandom.  I shyly posted a couple of one-shots at the erstwhile lotrfanfiction.com, got some good feedback, started chatting to people, and the rest is history.

I work in Manchester now, and live in Clitheroe, neither of which are very much like St Andrews at all - but I married someone I met there (we actually met in the Students' Union on the first night, although it took us eighteen months to get our act together romantically), and we had our wedding ceremony in the university chapel.  Some of our friends have done the same thing.  In non-wedding years, we try to get up there for a long weekend if we possibly can, to walk the streets and see what's changed - and revisit what hasn't and (hopefully) never will.  Dolphin-watching from the end of the pier.  Sunset on West Sands.   If we're very lucky, the Northern Lights over the Eden Estuary.

I'd love to move back one day, but until my firm decide there's a role for me in our Edinburgh office, I'm happy enough where I am and lucky to have had such a wonderful place to call home for four years.

Comments

[tjs_whatnot]

Sounds lovely. ♥

One of my favorite places and one of the only places I hope to go back to is where I went to college as well--Montana--for many of the same reasons. I hope you get back there, and if not, that you keep it as home in your heart and mind forever. ♥

[narya_flame]

Thank you <3 Montana looks beautiful, I've never been, but I hope to one day!

lovely

[oldtoadwoman]

I've always wanted to visit Scotland. The scenery looks so lovely in the photographs and there's something about old castles and crumbling stone walls. I've told myself that I'm probably just romanticizing it, but you're at least the second person this week who has mentioned actually being there in person and loving it.

Re: lovely

[narya_flame]

Oh, no, Scotland is beautiful. Outside of the big cities (and really, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen aren't that big compared with, say, London or New York) it isn't very densely populated at all; in places it feels utterly wild - and full of ghosts and history.

Away from the East Coast the weather can be poor - grey, cool, and damp - although it can also be wonderful, if you catch it right! It's pure luck. And there are a lot of midges in summer XD and some of the old industrial and fishing communities have really suffered (although that's true all over the UK) so they probably don't by into the "storybook romance" depiction. But there is something about Scotland; it can really get into your blood. I adore it.

Re: lovely

[oldtoadwoman]

The midges sound horrid. The first time I heard about them I thought, "Meh, that can't be that bad." And then someone posted a YouTube video of this swarm. If I ever scrape up the money to visit, I'll have to avoid midge season.

Re: lovely

[narya_flame]

Depending on which part you want to visit, I find May a pretty good month. You've got a good chance of nice, warm weather, but there's still usually a bit of breeze and cool air at night, and it hasn't got too humid yet.

[spiced_wine]

Your love for St. Andrews really comes across in ‘Paradox’ and makes me feel as if I can walk the streets, go in the pubs, see and feel the eeriness of the ruins of the Cathedral. Oh and I did mean to say on your last chapter :

We walked in silence for a while, meandering towards the point where the three main streets merged and ringed the cathedral. The ruins huddled in the twilight, and as we turned through the crumbled archway and onto the Pends, I shivered at the kiss of the wind.

“Cold?”

“No.” It wasn't entirely a lie; the late winter air was still bitter at night, but even with company, walking past the gutted cathedral in the dark sent phantom fingertips walking down my spine

Gave me that definite sense of ‘otherness’.

I honestly do hope that you can live up there one day!

[narya_flame]

Thank you :D the Pends are so creepy and weird in the dark. You're never quite sure what you're seeing!

I hope so too :) taking my dog for a walk on East Sands is one of my low-key life dreams!

[spiced_wine]

If I ever go there I shall think of Paradox and be a bundle of nerves! :)

That is a future to plan for; it sounds lovely 😊

[bunn]

Your love for St Andrews really shines out of Ways of Paradox : so much so that after the last chapter I found myself visiting it virtually via Google Streetview to look at the pier!

[narya_flame]

Oh, really!? :D I do love the pier; it's a great place to go and think. And you get such a wonderful view of the town. I once stood out there in freezing rain, eating ice cream, trying to come up with an essay title XD it worked!

[independence1776]

Given how your love of the place shines through in Paradox, I was indeed completely unsurprised to read this. :D

[narya_flame]

:D I have loved writing a fic set there. I have wanted to for years!