The further I get into this year, the more bittersweet I feel. Most of the time I'm on autopilot trying to get my work done and recruit participants for my dissertation study but every now and then, something will hit me and I get particularly struck with the fact that this is genuinely my final year as an undergraduate. 

Realistically, this was probably the last Bridge of Allan display I'll ever attend... which is a pretty jarring thought. A thought that if I dwell on long enough will, without fail, turn me into a panicked, spiralling mess of a human, spending the remainder of the day job hunting for positions and graduate schemes I can't yet apply for.

So let's not do that.

This was my third time attending the display in Strathallan Park (you'll remember my post from 2013) as I missed the last one due to my semester abroad. It definitely wasn't as cold as I remembered but maybe I've finally acclimated to the Scottish weather. Or maybe getting as close as possible to the perimeter around the bonfire was a smart idea.

As always, I took way too many photos in a very short space of time but some of them turned out nicely.

With the display over, we all filtered out of the park. On the walk back to campus with the masses of families and students who had come to see the show, I was left to mentally cross off another notable event from my final year. Gulp.

For the majority of last week, I was hobbling around my flat, having spectacularly pulled both my calf muscles from showing too much enthusiasm at my first ceilidh. Whether my injury was from spinning and jumping with partners or winning a space hopper in musical statues and deciding to ride it home, I'll never know but it had me feeling worse for wear and generally quite sorry for myself. The simple act of walking to Tesco for milk made me look like an 80 year old with a bad hip and feel like that one limping gazelle that gets taken out by lions in every single David Attenborough documentary ever.

Now, the times when you feel like an octogenarian (and the times when exams are around the corner) are exactly when you really need somewhere cozy and warm to recuperate. Short of having your grandma's house down the road from you (where you'd watch Countdown under a blanket with a relative who can wholeheartedly relate to your immobility), there aren't many options available when you need a warm fire and a hot toddy... unless you live near Bridge of Allan and know about the Allanwater Brewhouse.

In the past week or so, it has gotten cold. A fortnight ago I could go out in maybe a hoodie and still feel my extremities but at the fireworks display in Bridge of Allan, I was wearing a thermal vest, long-sleeved shirt, jumper, coat, scarf, hat and gloves with wellies and three layers of socks and I was still struggling to keep warm. (Finger crossed for snow soon!) However it was well worth braving the cold for on photographic basis alone!