Ozzy Christmas Day Temp of 38 looms

Arrived safely at Perth after an overdose on airport stress. Tight connections and missing luggage as a result but in the end it worked out all right.I even made $100 in beer and wine profit.
The summer temps are starting to pump up the mercury here - sadly Scotland tuggs back at me with the remnants of a chest infection so I had to go see a Doctor. Its been on me for ages but what is it about men - we just soldier on without complaining!
I bought a great wee bike - very old but in its prime it would have been an expensive bike - its been well looked after. Very light and perfect for the great cycling here. However i have become the bike repair man with my hosts bike needing a new tube as well as mine as it popped off as i tried to pump it up.
Down By The Sea was amazing yesterday. Australia is very different outdoors to a walk up a subzero hill in Scotland! I'm struggling to say how great it is to be at the beach here. Its very hot, 33 yesterday and bright and the water is warm. And its gorgeous. What more could you ask for.
I met Mr Apocalypse on the beach - Dave bemoaning the poorer attitude and parochial outlook on the west compared to his native east coast. His real points were all about sinking cities as they suck up the water beneath, rising sea levels driving mass exodus from Indonesia to Australia. However I did manage to outdo him at a few points.
Well i better go i don't want to spend my holiday blogging dood.
I was highly amused btw at the doctors receptionists advice about antibiotics; she stops taking them as soon as she starts feeling better. I wonder if the east coast receptionists are as clever.

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!

Recent trip to Switzerland

It's not often that you walk into a completely different sort of environment. That's sort of what happens when you leave the flat part of Switzerland and head up the glacial valleys of the Alps. My destination was in the German speaking part to a chalet over 500 years old in Lauterbrennan. I think the anticipation of something new is one of the great parts of travelling, because you can read the travel literature and even look up the photos on google maps but the first sight of somewhere is always memorable.

After such a build-up all I actually got to see after getting off the train and walking up the main street was a view of the valley walls and a big waterfall, and lots and lots of mist. And also the snows that had fallen early. I had a sense of something but vague. The day after taking the train up the valley wall things only got worse. After church (we went to an English church, just in case folks were missing home after 24 hours) we stumbled across a big marquee with an assortment of traditional and semi-traditional bands from nearby villages were taking turns in the spotlight. Great entertainment as the mist was now threatening to come in through the door. It was all in honour of the first new uniforms in 30 years for the local band.

Monday was a nice walk down by the lake in the valley below. Standing on a bridge right over a torrent in a waterfall was a thrill sport in itself. Mist still clung to the mountains though.

Tuesday things weren't much better but we took to two forms of mechanical transport to get into the clouds. Things were bleak and I wanted to head back down but Mike and I pressed on. After a couple of hours things started happening as we rounded a bend on the mountain track. Snow on the ground and then the cliffs above us glistened in the bright late summer sun and the remote valley below too; all came together in view and I knew I was in a big place.

Looking back I am not sorry about the slow parting of the clouds over the first few days as it gave a greater appreciation of it all.

It is said that the Americans don't get irony. Whether that is true or not, the Swiss don't get vulgarity. Who in their right mind would stick a big round space ship on the top of a 10,000 foot peak, or dig a tunnel through the Eiger in order to get a train up it. We have our own version in Scotland, and those that complain about our ski centres and funicular railway (I may from time to time be one of those people) should visit the Schilthorn summit centre and take the twin elevators to the revolving restaurant in order for them to bless the day they were born in Scotland. I had spurned the cable car (on the way up anyway) to climb up 1600 metres to the star of James Bond baddies and explosions and it was bad. I'm too much a purist for my own sanity.

Before I get all smug though. we too in Scotland have over exploited our mountains turning them into barren fields for whatever is remotely profitable, sheep,deer and game birds to the exclusion of a healthy eco-system including birds of prey. I don't like walking in the summer in many of the hills where sheep grazing has taken away the wildness and beauty and replaced it with the homogeneity of supermarket strawberries. Brought home to me on a recent trip to Glen Lyon where a large section of hillside had been fenced off and instead of a washed-out impression of green the hill-side had the hue of true green. I hope the EU does bring in their tagging of sheep that makes it uneconomical to breed them on our hills. If we could turn our hills into one big massive national game park the tourism and improved environment would be so much better. Instead be bulldoze and scar the mountains with straight drainage channels with the barbarism of 18th century greed.

They do seem to have reached a better balance between their grazing needs and nature in Switzerland even though their restaurants (and hotels) would be better at ground level. Someone else said that the restaurants are odd because of how the food is of secondary importance. There is still plenty wildness left in their mountains such as the thunder-like boom of the avalanche formed as the tip of a glacier breaks off over a cliff. Or a herd of Chamois deer bound nonchalantly out of sight round a distant top. I am more than happy to stick to the wilds of Scotland though especially as autumn and winter approach and the sheep are rounded up.

Don't know if I've been missed

Its been a while since I wrote. I'm feeling good just now, working very hard and enjoying it. One of the down sides to being self-empolyed is you really do have to make hay while the sun shines. Not that the sun has been shining as much as it might have been for the farmers to get their hay in, all the plants are half flattenned in the gardens with all the rain we've had. Tuesday had a great weather moment with my sun coming out and giving my arm a uv bite while a thunderstorm was going on above me.
I feel a little guilty tonight. I had a friend helping me out with my joinery work yesterday and his back muscles didn't seem to be too impressed with their new job as my labourer, so I gathered as the groans got louder and louder. Anyhow I feel a bit had as I asked him back today (I gave him a lie in) but he was just the same. I feel like a slave driver despite telling him he could go home at any point. He really gave it his heart and soul but even mentally he was struggling today as the pain must have been really taking its toll. Anyway he has a wife and 3 kids to feed so I was doing him a favour. Andy I salute you.
I checked on my boat today. She needs a little bit of tlc. There are quite a few skuffs and scrapes which are starting to spoil her looks. I just don't want them to get worse than that.
Did I mention that I bought a windsurf board. So far its been good, I still am a beginner, getting time out on it is easier said than done, but I'm glad I got my own board instead of relying on a course at an RYA school somewhere.
I have to end on a bit of a grumble I am afraid - why are there so many adverts for feminine products on the tv? I don't care if its un-pc to say so, but it is what all the guys are thinking. Goodness me how are all the teenage boys coping with it?? Sitting watching a bit of family viewing with their mother and sister in and some feminie hygeine toiletry comes on the screen. Enough already.
More work this weekend as of course everyone wants everything done by the middle of last week or before they actually bought their new house - I will just have to ask for overtime rates, whatever I decide them to be.

Back from Islay

I visited the island of Islay in 1999 when I used my bike to get about and stayed at a youth hostel for a long weekend. I don't recall it that well, my memories of it weren't all that great I have to admit, but I did revisit it last week with my two friends and their families.

Of course when on holiday the weather has such a big part to play, and Islay certainly is no exception. You can go with great plans but they can all come to little if you can't get out of the door. We were quite at the mercy of the elements in our slightly too flimsy tents, as it turned out to the hefty winds we encountered. Even erecting our tents was like trying to fly a massive kite two feet off the ground! The tents lasted a few days until eventually the wind raised its game even higher and a move was necessary as poles were snapped.

I'm watching Billy Connolly doing a tour of Ireland just now. I'm not a big huge fan but I can watch his tours easily unlike most of the other things on and he is an intelligent commentator on things and I've not noticed any phopas and ignorant generalisations. The thing that Billy gets though is the spirituality of the wilds. In my experience of companions through the Highlands it is quite a rare thing for someone to appreciate the specialness of laying a hand on a wall of a prehistoric house. He does concentrate on the human side of it. There is a reverence required when out in the wilds of Scotland, probably anywhere in the world when out in the sticks, but I am biased and I think that there is more in the mist enveloping a remote beach than in the clouds over a mountain in the English Lake District or the wilds of Yosemite.

I still seem to be a target for tics. Jokingly over dinner I said I'd need to do a search that evening for them as I rolled up a sleeve and there was one slurping my blood as I jested. Goes to show you how discerning of rich blood they are though. But its nay fair - they seem to be able to mess with ones mind and make things not quite right without one realising. Wee buggers. Or make your muscles edgy and just not right. I had more tic bites than midge bits for goodness sake.

It was an experience to be around the 'modern' kid for 24-7 for seven days (though of course I wasn't). I do have to take my hat off to parents, especially of larger families, they are gluttons for punishment. The photo is of two of them as we set out to hunt for mackerel, they both managed to catch soon after, Craig was pretty excited as four decent sized fish all started pulling at once having second thoughts about biting a shiny hook. Emma got a couple too. That's Charles in the background.

They need joiners/handymen around this time of year there (apparently) which is tempting. It would be easy to come out with excuses so I'll have a think about it. It might be quite good for a month or six weeks. The old rural/city conundrum I struggle with.

But Islay is a wild place; the wilds with a few wee shops and plenty of sea views. I would like to go back sometime and take in Jura and Colonsay which the weather held back from me this time. Maybe I should go in the winter when the tics are less hungry lying in the ground, horrible beasties!