Man v Fly

I love to have a nice fresh bed to sleep in, so I always leave my windows wide open to let in plenty of fresh air - one of the fringe benefits of living on the third floor. It would be an invitation to burglers at any other lower height. It does mean that the odd fly can get in though (it can't be quite as fresh as I think).

To get rid of them isn't a problem, usually they are drawn to the window so I open it wide but they still get trapped in the corner so I have to open it untill its almsot done a 360 turn. I don't really like killing any life because even a wee fly is a miracle of life but having said that I do enjoy it when its a frotsy night and I know their metabolism is about to freeze up.

I do consider myself an excellant fly swatter too. The trick is to slowly come up on them and then a flick of the wrist is enought to despatch them or at least stun them. A stun is usually preferable to a squash of course! I don't want to get too gory as I am drinking a cup of tea.
Last night though I met my greatest adversory of the fly variety.

It was a big whopper that seemed to be particularly disgusting and annoying. I think he was in my kitchen when I had come in from work. I hope they don't like butter as the lid was off. I chased him a bit firstly in my living room with a newspaper to no avail. At bedtime he was really starting to annoy me and I particularly didn't want him in my room as I read, let alone sleep. But he seemed to be able to buzz around and then disappear as my eye lost him. I was starting to get really annoyed, but I had a certain admiration of him (or her). The only glee I could muster was the probable fact that he'd be dead long before me! But even that I couldn't be certain of. His sanity was going to last longer than mine at that present rate. So I was back in bed giving up a little when I couldn't find him then out again even more determined, yet still he was able to land without me seeing him which is usually a flies fatal mistake. But this one made the kamakaze error of crossing in front of me and wallop, I got him mid-air with a rolled up copy of the Christian Aid News still in its clear wrapper. I found him on the ground unable to get airborne, so I opened up the wrapper of said publicaiton and wrapped him gently in it - and the rest is history.

I feel a little sad today at his passing - he was a worthy adversory and will be sadly missed.

Its all about the light

The weather forecasters kept saying that today was the best day of the week and with no work lined up why not go for a hillwalk. I did try to climb this one before together with Ben Vorlich but the weather forced me back at the first summit.

It wasn't wall to wall sunshine today and as I drove up I feared another boring gray day but it turned out great as a yellow sun showed lots of variety all afternoon as the clouds came and went and it sank lower in the sky bathing tracts of land. I suppose a subtelty is meant to be subtle but oxymoronically (!) it can make a bigger impression if you are open to it. I am thinking about the way the light can in a fairly subtle way be totally beautiful such as when on one side of me I had the white snows while above the light orange sky was sumptious.

I was caught unawares by the wildness of the area I walked through. I kept thinking how amazing it is to find it so near Glasgow and with the only footprints belonging to deer. I had expected the usual overgrazing and a boggy fairly featureless landscape. It got better as I climbed too when the chasm below Ben Vorlich was revelaed which would have looked good in a Lord of the Rings scene. In the distance the winter snows and mists were giving the west coast mountains an untamed and wild mantle (that makes me want to visit them soon).

A bit of wildlife was enjoyed too - the barking of a deer is the stuff of dinasuars Jurassic era. There is no way any sound could ever be more primordial. Some non-mallard ducks on the river and a diver of some kind on a reservoir promised some possible future fishing casts. A raven isn't that special but out in the wilds it takes on an added resonance, just as the sound of a thin ribbon stream rushing downwards is so lovely as I pass over it walking home and hear its rushing drift into the silence.

So that's my fourth Munro of the year (hills over 3000 feet high), I aim to do ten a year so I will have to get cracking if I am to reach that this year. Watch this space.

Stuc a'Chroin - good hill, but great approach from the south than the slightly shorter but far far steeper northerly approach.

Gig and misc

Leonard Cohen gave a great performance on his second night on Thursday here in Glasgow. Famous for his songs Hallelujah, Suzanne and Famous Blue Raincoat, I felt like a young 'un amongst the liberal hippies allowed out for the night. The sound quality at gigs is truly rotten to use a genuinely true generalisation; bucking the trend though a blind man would have queried if it was a CD player he had come to hear. I think it was a copy of a copy of a copy of The Songs Of Leonard Cohen on a 'normal' tape that was my introduction to him and it remains my favourite album of all time easily overcoming that hissy start (ironically it may even have helped). That debut album of his has tones of real misery around it and I find it hard to reconcile it with the audience. I suppose he mellowed a lot with his later output. The band of ten were a fine collection too; the Hammond organ player giving that edgy mellowness that maple syrup would if it were to sing, and the backing singers giving a simmering compliment to Cohen's deep 'golden voice'. His songs passed so quickly and despite his years he went on for about 3 hours minus his tea-break in the middle (or whatever Canadians use to whet their tonsils). Like Tom McRae he has a sense of humour that is needed for songs that to many people sound depressing (I don't hear them that way though) He dedicated a song to what he heard was a hard drinking city including the line 'I fought against the bottle, but I had to do it drunk'. You had to be there! Overall a quite memorable night and a one-off that just about justified the hefty ticket cost.

I wonder who is the most bemused? A Brit in the USA or an American in Britain. Like how many Americans have heard of Pinky and Perky. But watching one of the numerous exports from the land of Uncle Sam one learns to guesstimate ones way over these references.

I noticed this banger season how the recession had even bit into that bit of fun for the young urchins of Glasgow. One of the good aspects of the recession. Could it be that people are ready to be more frugal and realise that the spend spend spend lifestyle isn't hitting the spot. Back to the streets of Glasgow it is quite amazing how little of the big rubbish is left for the large item uplift on Thursday mornings. Because Partick is a first-time buyers area I suspect old sofas end up here for their final sojourn because every week there would amazingly be at least one if not two or three left out for landfill. Its one of those fascinating statistics that will never be known sadly.

I heard a great song this morning on the Rock Radio - the new James Bond Theme it turned out on looking up the set list on the Internet. I was quite surprised as it sounded a bit like an obscure singer-songwriter (with a rocky edge) getting his CD dusted off. Aside from my recent ascent to one of the sets of 007 my first single was For Your Eyes Only by Sheena Easton, still a song I have plenty time for a listen and one of the more under-rated artists and deserving of an Abba like revival. Well maybe not but worth taking a bit more seriously. Oh well sometimes I am a bit bemused at my own self!