Instagram #32:

I thought I'd probably saved up enough photos to make another one of these worth it, so here we go! Strap yourself in for four months worth of Instagram memories...

1. Snowboarding for the first time ever on Valentine's Day with my lady love. (Craig was also there.)

2. The view at the top of a very snowy CairnGorm Mountain, taken after falling on my bum a lot while attempting to snowboard.

3. I've been taking a fair few domestic flights for work lately, so this has become a fairly standard sight in my life.

4. A truly wonderful burger at The Breakfast Club in Soho, London. I forced two of my work friends to travel on the Tube for an hour each way just to eat here, and it was totally worth it!

5. A dorky morning selfie, but I guess I felt good that day, so why not?

6. There's pretty much always cake at WOW247 meetings, and this time it came on Toy Story plates. Awesome, right?

7. Celebrating my oldest and best friend's birthday in March with a meal at my home from home, Burger Meats Bun.

8. My glorious usual at BMB: the Big Cheese and cheesy chips.

9. Another (perhaps unnecessary) selfie! I guess it was sunny that day, what with the sunglasses and all.

10. Craig's Easter basket, complete with a chocolate 'egg sandwich', Community mug and  - of course - Easter chicks.

11. My amazing Mary's Milk Bar Easter egg from Craig.

12. A photo in my Grandad's album (from August 1963) of the first Forth Road Bridge half built.

13. Irn Bru flavoured cider (discovered in Carlisle, of all places) called Clan MacFannie. Stay classy!

14. Me and the brother of the bride at his sister's lovely vintage-themed wedding. I could've been a '40s war wife, for sure.

15. The sun setting on one of many flights back to Edinburgh.

16. Attempting to juggle journalism and eating/drinking is not always the easiest, but as long as there's one hand free for my G&T...

17. A new decal for my laptop - I love it!

18. Home made salad niçoise, with smoked salmon instead of tuna. Yum! (And, yes, I actually prepared it myself...)

19. I got a complimentary postcard with my cocktail at Slighhouse on George IV Bridge.

20. I volunteered myself to DJ at my sister's flat warming, armed with Franz Ferdinand, Arcade Fire and way, way too much prosecco. Oops.

21. Visiting with my friends' new cockapoo puppy, and brand new love of my life.

22. Another shot of little baby Chumbo.

23. Indoor fireworks at a lovely wedding in the George Hotel.

24. My dorky face on the new and improved WOW247 Edinburgh home page.

25. Craig, me and our toothy smiles at the aforementioned wedding.

26. A delicious burger on my first visit to Bread Meats Bread in Glasgow. (I'm sorry Burger Meats Bun, please forgive me!)

27. Making new furry friends at Tchai-Ovna in Glasgow this weekend.

28. More burgers (at Nice 'N' Sleazy this time) with my best burger boys, Craig and Steven.

29. And my chosen Nice 'N' Sleazy burger, the Lucretia - delicious!

Inferior Book Group #12:

Let's ignore the fact that I haven't written a blog post in two months and just jump right back into it, okay? Okay.

I recently finished reading Tina Fey's 2011 autobiography Bossypants and - as with most non-fiction books - I whizzed through it. I've been a casual admirer of Tina Fey and her work for a while now. I'd be surprised if you haven't heard of Tina before but, just in case, you will probably recognise her as the unfortunate but well-meaning teacher Ms Norbury from Mean Girls.

Source: here

But here's the best bit - if you didn't know already - Tina Fey actually wrote Mean Girls herself. She also co-wrote and starred in US TV comedy institution Saturday Night Live for many years; created, wrote and starred in off the wall sitcom 30 Rock and - most recently - handcrafted one of the best written, most intelligent and hilarious TV shows I've seen in my life: The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. 

I myself knew all of this information before reading Bossypants, but somehow witnessing Tina Fey (very humbly) list all of these achievements one after the other made me realise exactly how much talent this incredible lady has, and just how much she's done with it.

Source: here

As you may be aware, Tina Fey and fellow SNL alum Amy Poehler are best friends in real life which is both amazing and awful. Amazing because they are (by all accounts) two of the sweetest and most hysterical ladies in comedy today, and I love imagining them making each other roll about laughing on the floor when they meet up for a cup of tea and a catch up. But awful because I've always felt that I needed to choose my favourite out of the two. Up until recently my love of Parks and Rec had me thinking I was firmly in Amy's camp, but Bossypants may just have shifted the balance. That's how brilliantly written this book is. Tina Fey should consider becoming a politician. (Although remember to ask me again where my loyalty lies after I've read Amy Poehler's autobiography.)

So, onto actually discussing the book. Back when I read fellow funny lady Mindy Kaling's autobiography in 2013, I wrote in my review that it felt like Mindy was chatting to me as though to a friend through the pages. I realise now that I was wrong. Compared to Tina Fey, Mindy Kaling speaks to her reader like a business acquaintance, or maybe her hairdresser - polite and really funny, but still ever so slightly guarded. 

Tina, on the other hand, lets it all out. She swears, she makes snide remarks, she shares gossip and doesn't skimp on the juicy details. Throughout the whole of Bossypants I felt like I was having my own rather surreal coffee shop catch up with Tina Fey. Move over, Amy Poehler.

The content of Bossypants is fairly standard for an autobiography. Tina's childhood, awkward teenage years, struggling artist stories and rise to fame are all chronicled - and it's all hilarious. Quite often the writing style reminded me of the way my friend Marianne (the Amy to my Tina and an extremely funny human being) talks, and I now realise that's because Tina Fey's comedic timing is absolutely flawless, even written down.

Source: here

Not to hate on Mindy Kaling unnecessarily (because I don't, she's great) but I remember finding the structure of her book to be particularly disjointed and jarring. Tina Fey has written what is in essence exactly the same book and it flows together beautifully. If you have the time you could easily read Bossypants in one sitting, but it isn't a throwaway book by any means.

If you're a fan of SNL or 30 Rock, you'll find out things you never knew about their creation by reading Bossypants. If you ever wondered why Tina Fey wanted to impersonate Sarah Palin repeatedly on live TV, you'll find out by reading Bossypants (vague spoiler: she didn't actually want to!). If you've never even heard of any of these new-fangled telly programmes and you haven't got a clue who Tina Fey is, you'll want to find out after reading Bossypants. That's how darn funny and good Tina Fey is.

I'm going to stop fan-girling about Tina Fey now (how many times have I written 'Tina Fey' in this blog post now?) but if you are a human person and enjoy laughing you should read this book. As long as you don't mind snorting out loud on public transport.

Amy Poehler's autobiography Yes Please will be appearing in one of these book group reviews soon, but to space out the funny ladies I'll be reading John Darnielle's novel Wolf in White Van next. You might know Darnielle better as frontman of the Mountain Goats. I love his lyrics, so am very much looking forward to reading his first novel.

Read my last review here: The New York Trilogy

Instagram #31:

Well, I kind of thought that the end of January would be a pretty quiet time for me work-wise and I'd be twiddling my thumbs. It turns out that I'm busier than ever, hence the pathetically low number of Instagram photos I managed to take all month...

1. My tired face when I was drinking an airport coffee after getting up at 4am for my very first business trip.

2. A keep-sake from a 'Polaroid party' club night - in my head the pose made me look a lot cooler and a lot less chubby.

3. This is Guillame, a resident of Edinburgh's new cat café Maison de Moggy. I was allowed to film there for WOW247 just after it opened and you can watch the resulting video below! Best two hours of work ever.

4. A hilariously poorly taken panorama of the brilliant Supermoon playing at Henry's Cellar Bar.

Inferior Book Group #11:

Hello book friends and fiends! You may (quite understandably) assume that it took me nearly three whole months to read The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster. Actually, I just completely failed at reading anything at all during most of November and December. When I finally got around to properly giving The New York Trilogy a go I was - to be completely honest - kind of dreading it. Because The New York Trilogy was critically acclaimed and a university course text I fully expected it to be a really difficult read, but it's actually one the most artfully written books I've read in a long time.

As I mentioned in my last Inferior Book Group post, this is a book I was assigned to read for a module on detective fiction during my final year of uni in Dundee. Don't tell my tutors, but I didn't read all of the books we were meant to read, and this was one of them. That being said, after uni was over and I sold a lot of my course texts, I still held onto my copy of The New York Trilogy because I had a feeling it would (eventually) be a story worth my time - and I'm pleased to say I was right.

The New York Trilogy is a series of of three novellas written between 1985 and 1986 that are now published together in one volume. The stories - City of Glass, Ghosts and The Locked Room - are very, very loosely linked in that you'll notice recurring character names and repeated themes, but otherwise they all stand alone.

Source: here

Without going into spoiler territory, each of the three tales is a pseudo-detective story which explores the fine line between an author and their characters. To make things even more confusing, Paul Auster even puts himself (or someone named after himself, who also happens to be a writer) into City of Glass as a peripheral character. And that odd turn of events really sets the mood for the whole trilogy.

In each novella Auster weaves an impressively perplexing mystery which I fully expected to be neatly explained by the final page. Maybe writing this is giving too much away, but nothing is explained. Nothing. Normally I would expect to get very frustrated with such a baffling book, but I couldn't fault Auster's writing style and after a certain point I couldn't put the book down.

In my opinion, to be able to write such a confusing yet compelling collection of stories - each one stranger, yet more interesting than the last - is a truly impressive achievement. The New York Trilogy doesn't feel dated or aged at all (to be honest, I didn't even realise it was written in the '80s until I had finished reading) and that's another indicator of the author's skill.

I would definitely read more of Paul Auster's work, and highly recommend The New York Trilogy to anyone - but prepare to be simultaneously fascinated and frustrated by these deliciously abstract stories.

During February I'll be reading the hilarious and totally inspiring Tina Fey's autobiography Bossypants. I get the feeling I'll whizz through this one, as her writing style is brilliantly funny and so easy to read.

Read October's review here: Orange is the New Black

Instagram #30:

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you, friends! Sorry for my absence during most of December but - as I mentioned in this post - I have been pretty busy lately, and I very much enjoyed having some time off over the festive period. Here's what I got up to while I was gone:

1. Another amazing hand drawn Christmas card, made by my talented buddy Marianne.

2. I was lucky enough to lose spectacularly in this surprisingly intense spontaneous game of Scrabble on a trip to Dundee.

3. Our Christmas gator ballerina tree ornament made a new friend this year.

4. Craig and I did the obligatory couple photo on our fifth anniversary. We still (kind of) like each other really, don't worry.

5. Not only did Nicola give me the amazing Amy Poehler's book for Christmas, but she also wrapped it in paper with my own Instagram photos on it. How amazing is that?

6. Mossy proof that we spent Christmas in deepest, darkest Cumbria. There wasn't even any phone signal!

7. I was given this badass burger cushion by my lovely adopted cousin Anna for Christmas, which is now in pride of place on our bed. I can't express how much I love it!

8. Speaking of Amy Poehler's book - here it is alongside her pal Tina Fey's book and Lena Dunham's book! I got all three for Christmas, and I'm very excited to read them and write about them in future Inferior Book Group posts.

9. Some of my favourite adopted family in a Hogmanay group selfie that gives Ellen DeGeneres a run for her money. Right?

10. And finally: a charming 'Happy New Year!' photo we sent to all of our friends...

Instagram #29:

1. A stunning sunset from the WOW247 office window. No photo does the view justice - on a clear day you can see all the way from Fife to the top of Calton Hill, it's insane.

2. A Throwback Thursday photo with my wee pal Nicola (in honour of her birthday) as we got ready to see The Reflektors (AKA Arcade Fire) in Glasgow last year.

3. Waiting to interview the charming Jonnie Common while drinking an amazing orange hot chocolate at Mary's Milk Bar. Go have one!

4. An amazing rainbow I spotted on the walk to work that apparently ended in my office building... (No pot of gold, though.)

5. A wintery weekend face of the day, complete with fuzzy earmuffs. It wasn't even properly cold then - it's freezing now!

6. Tipsy shopping in Waitrose after a boozy Sunday lunch with my irresponsible family...

7. Two un-Christmassy dogs for our Christmas tree. They go perfectly with our Christmas ballerina alligator decoration.

8. Trying the daily special at Burger Meats Bun Edinburgh. It was the first time I have ever eaten something other than their Big Cheese burger. Not bad!

'Hey life, I am still here':

I've been incredibly rubbish at getting blog posts written lately, and that's partly due to currently working two jobs, but - let's be real for a second - it's mostly a result of my own laziness. I'm definitely guilty of writing endless to do lists and then never completing (or usually barely even starting) any of them. This very blog post has taken over a week to finally get around to. Anyway, here's what I've been up to since I essentially fell off the face of the blogosphere back in October.

Here I am looking like a dork on my second graduation day, but smiling because I've finally escaped education forever. (Although I almost definitely said that last time around too...) Graduating with my MA journalism buddies was good fun, but the whole experience felt a little rushed and kind of surreal. I knew this would happen, but as quickly as it started (and very quickly totally overwhelmed me) my postgrad is over and done with.

Source: here

After graduation, normally the next task is to find a job. Lucky for me, I had actually already started a three month internship with WOW247 before officially graduating and I'll be there until January. I'm still working at my old job every other weekend so that means the occasional 12 day stint without a day off (just as fun as it sounds, let me tell you) but I'm really enjoying the opportunity I've been given.

I've been writing a lot of articles for the website (which you can feel free to browse through here) and I've also had the chance to do a bit of filming and editing, which I really love. I've interviewed Jonnie Common about his new album and Neil Pennycook about his new music pseudonym. I've discovered facts about two of my favourite movies - Ghostbusters and Ferris Bueller's Day Off - that even I didn't know. I got to write a piece about visiting Centralia, PA and include my own photos, which is lovely because I thought those pictures were kind of beautiful (in their own way) and deserved to be seen. It's great fun when you can draw on your life experiences in your work. I especially enjoyed choosing 13 films that perfectly portray what it's like to work in a crappy job - very therapeutic.

Weirdly I've found myself choosing washing up or laundry over blogging of late - simply because it means I get a break from staring at my computer screen. A hazard of the job, I suppose. Housework aside, I haven't really had the time or energy to do much outside of my two jobs, but I did manage to get some time off to celebrate Craig's birthday with him last month. We saw Nightcrawler at The Cameo (so good, but such a moral minefield for any journalist viewers!) and went for a lovely dinner at Rafael's in Stockbridge - highly recommended.