Oh hey friends!

The last few weeks have been brilliant and tiring and inspiring and fun and all of the best things but they definitely haven't been productive as far as writing goes!

A little over three weeks ago my friend Tabitha and I boarded a bus in central London that took us North where we met up with Nick, hopped into the van, and went off on a Scottish adventure. I managed to blog about the great food in Glasgow from a campsite which wasn't easy and involved such modern things as attaching my computer to a 3G hotspot on someone's phone. Magic! After a week of lochs, walks, eating, and exploring Tabitha hopped onto a train back to Brighton and Nick and I did a spot of cat sitting for my friend Imogen in Edinburgh.

Whilst we were there we met up with my PPK pal Rachel and she introduced us to some of her vegan friends. I also squeezed in meet ups with some vegans I know through Twitter and Instagram as well as a quick dinner with my brother who moved to Edinburgh a couple of days before I left the city. We went to Zizzi's and I finally tried their vegan pizza. It was delish' but next time I think I'll add some veggies.

After Nick and I left Scotland we spent a few days in and around Manchester visiting Caroline from Tea and Sympatico and her partner Matt in Glossop (I finally ate at The Globe which was so great), grabbing dinner with Jenny (Spice Box of Earth!) and Emil (Hasta La Vegan!) at The Pasta Factory in the centre of the city, and having rainy picnics and fire pit fun with the vegan friends we made in Tokyo earlier this year.

Thats a sausage holder from B&M by the way. It's the exact right size for your Vegusto Farmhouse sausages. Buy one immediately! Also, top BBQ / fire pit tip, cook the vegan jam doughnuts from the Co-op over a fire if you get the chance. I think grilling them would work too as would switching those particular doughnuts for anything sugar coated and filled with something oozy. Roasting doughnuts makes them about 100% more delicious which is a pretty epic discovery. I totally thought that doughnuts were already at the top of their game.

I've loved saying with friends these last couple of weeks, getting to hang out with like minded people and chat about life is the best. The longer I spend in the UK the more I realise how many great friends I have scattered all over the place. Unsurprisingly, like with my friends who are scattered elsewhere across the globe, I've usually met these people through blogging, Vegan MoFo, social media, or The PPK forums and despite a part of me wanting to take a little step back from the internet (especially social media!) I can't because this is where all of these wonderful people are sharing their day to day thoughts and ideas and where we keep up with each others lives and there's no way that I want to miss out on that.

For the next few weeks I'm going to be based in Thames Ditton in Surrey but I foresee frequent trips into London (I'm going to see The Bouncing Souls tomorrow) as well as a couple of trips down to Brighton. At the end of the month Nick and I are heading to Calais to volunteer at the refugee camp. We'll be sorting donations at a warehouse every day and before I go I'll be organising collection of food and hygiene products in Brighton. I watched this video from the camp earlier that highlighted the fact that there are people there who aren't even getting a hot meal every day because there just isn't enough food to go around. It's so sad and I hope that I can help a little. I'm currently finalising the list of things that people are desperately in need of and then I'll publish that and the collection point(s) on here and on social media as well as on posters in Brighton. Hit me up in the comments or via e-mail if you'd like to donate or help in some way and I'll make sure that you get the info as soon as I have it. I hope everyone's been having a wonderful summer and I'll be back soon with some delicious Edinburgh eats.