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!

Not always pretty in pink

The laugh of yesterday came as I drove into the Clyde Tunnel when I spied in the opposite side a pink haired girl in a pink open topped beetle car sitting with a red face as the man tried to get his tow-truck attached to her car. A picture would have told the thousand word tale rather well. At least she knew the daftness of it all as we shared a grin.
The other girl in pink I met this week, I don't know if she'll ever catch up with her daftness. She was babysitting me as I worked on the front door of her sisters house (floor 5 of 15) with two cats in it; one gregarious the other wouldn't say boo to a mouse. So she came up to me while I was unloading after collecting a certain bit of something at ground level telling me that one of the cats had got away, it would have been tricky for the adventurous one to get through multiple doors in a quiet building but it was the timid ginger one (Sebastion, who it turned out is actually a girl). She refused my reality check! (forget empathising first) She had already checked every one of the 15 floors and asked all the workmen at ground level. I think it was the big saucers of indoor sunglasses that had tipped me off, or was it the pink jogging trouser getup? She was in hysterics and fear at what her sister would say. This went on for ages with the implication it was my fault for working on her front door. She wanted her sister to come home to look for it and the boyfriend couldn't be contacted, so Mum got all the hysterics. It was all over when we looked under a nest of tables, Sebastion sitting scared as ever, probably hadn't moved an inch all morning.
Now it was the way she resolved never to get in this predicament again that impressed me the most. Not something like 'I will not panic so quickly again' or 'Cats can hide' or 'I will be a little teeny weeny more thoughtful about reality' - no - she was never going to help her sister again.
The power of pink? I have a wee rule of thumb, men who wear pink shirts are without exception to be treated with great caution. In my grumpy old state this is a rule that I have tried to find the exception to but have given up trying.
So yes indeed the power of wearing a certain colour can be quite overpowering for some people. Its not the clothes that make the man or woman, its their colour.

Glasgow to Edinburgh by bike

Kenny and me cycled through to Edinburgh today from Glasgow via the towpath at the side of the canal that links the two big cities of Scotland. We had previosly attempted it but got stopped by intensely heavy showers that were so bad the oil on my chain set was completly washed off. It was amazingly six years since we had done this. The weather was much kinder with sunshine helping us along.

The canal is quite an interesting place if you were to analyse some of the persons on it. It is to a fair extent a very friendly place. However without too much thought there did seem to be three or four sorts of persons using it. I think we must have passed at least 50 guys out with their floats or spinners in the water trying to catch the Perch and whatever other fish lurk in the still depths of the canal waters. These men do not communicate with cyclists. Its as if the two are a mirage to the other living out lives that are in parallel universes but somehow merge together on the canal and the other appear as ghosts to be treated as wisps of a different sort of existance but not fully comprehended. There is also the sort of person that is generally walking but didn't have much to do with either the fisherlads or cyclists and was somewhat intimidated by both.

The waters seemed to be alive with lots of small fish and plenty of insect life, much of it trying to get into my mouth. One young woman was seen to be uncoothly spitting as she approached me on her bike, but she made it clear for everyone to know that she was extruding an unfortunate bug. There was a long stretch where some blue damselflies were in abundant numbers, I had thought that these were uncommon.

About £84.5 million had been spent rejuvinating the canal route. It has been done well and today it was being used a lot. The Falkirk Wheel is unique in the world and a world class tourist attraction. I saw it carrying barges today up about 115 feet from one canal to another, hugely impressive and all done with the power of a washing machine motor thanks to the physics of Archimedes Principal of displacement. Its funny how there are so few facilities on the canal route. Possibly 3 cafes/pubs for its entire length. I did manage to get a free dram by a man very well versed on his whiskys from Belguim as he gave out promotinal samples at the centre for the Wheel, I wished I could have talked to him longer and sampled all his wares.

It has 3 or 5 viaducts where the canal is on a bridge. A particularly surprising experience was the tunnel that went on for about 300 yards. It was dimly lit with a poor surface at the side with water dripping down, very much like a cave with some limestone deposits of the odd slatactite. I was really glad to get back out into the sunlight. Genuinely quite spooky and unsettling.

I mention this next instant because I don't want to always gloss over things. We approached a bridge with a female of mid twenties perhaps who appeared to be not wearing much. As we passed we realised that she was actually sitting naked covering herself up with a very upset look on her face with an intimidating guy opposite her. I'm really disappointed in myself that we didn't stop to see if she was OK. The shock and bizarreness of it all and the nakedness too was a bit much to take in. In a small way for myself I did get a chance to redeem myself a little when coming out of the subway near home a girl was seeing to another girl sitting who looked like she had passed out but she had been sick and just needed something to mop up the vomit which someone else nearby was getting. However I'm still annoyed I didn't do something for that woman.

So onto Edinburgh. For all the praises Glasgow gets for its growth into a city of culture, the capital of Scotland is a very cosmopolitan and European city. We weren't very impressed with the 'beaty' music from the tents at one of the greens but the architecture around the canal and the pedestrian and cycle routes were wonderful. Kenny was a bit more tired than myself so we just caught the next train back (free to take your bike) in time to see the football.

All in all a good wee adventure.

Let's get ready to grumble

One of those things that annoys me is people overclothed. I'm out riding around the streets a lot during the day for my work and cycling too.

You see it a lot in Scotland. People don't have a clue how warm it is outside so they just pile on a few layers and then a winter coat. But when they cross that threshold do they go back inside and change? Of course not.

Maybe its the Scottish weather too, with our 4 seasons in half an hour, better to be too warm than shivering with pnemonia I suppose. It does annoy me though when you see someone happily wearing a t-shirt passing a dark coat clad walking ball of insulation. Aren't they uncomfortable. And they are always done up, never with the zip or duffle coat buttons undone.

Another thing that gets up my goat are cyclists doing either of two things and frequently both at the same time.

First is when their seat is too low and their knees are sticking out and they are having to put a massive amount of effort to move forward. Equally annoying is when they put the gears into such an easy stroke that they are going like the clappers with their legs while inching forward up some hill. Its an insult to Grannys to call it the Granny gear. Most grannys have more sense.

The glass of wine I am drinking I am conviced has continued to ferment in the bottle. I'm all spoken out and ready for bed.

Sadly I won't get a picture of that library around the throne in the previous post as he has sacked me. He phoned me to say how he hadn't seen me working on the job for a while and then admitted he was just taking it out on me then texted to say send the bill. This might sound a bit off the tone of what's gone before however I get this feeling occasionally lately about how a lot of men have missed out on having a good Dad. I got that feeling a lot from this guy. There aren't many cures for that one, in all honesty I can agree with U2, and say I too still haven't found what I'm looking for, well not entirely anyway, a bit but more to come I hope and really do pray.

There's even a dedicated book series

Get your wits about you and get ready for another chinwag from/with me.
I'd like to say after my last post I am writing while listening to the Pink Floyd album 'Animals' which has got the production style that I do like, much more stripped back to the songs unlike 'Dark Side of the Moon'.
I'd like to discuss the issue of reading on the loo. My inspiration comes from a customers' house I was in recently who has turned his throne into a mini-library. (I will try to get a photo to illustrate my point this week). He seemed to have quite an interest in history.
His habits are at one end of the extreme. I think my friend JW lies at the other as I clearly recall his disgust at the habit. He is quite a particlar person, for instance I wouldn't object to re-using my tea cup for a second time or thrice but this wasn't in his lexacon of good habits. Neither too was squashing the rubbish down to let some more in the top! The fact that I have noticed that probably says more about me than him I will quite happily admit.
Another friend thought it would be cool to wallpaper his loo with pages from a book, I forget which one. I think he got rid of it when doing up his bathroom but I'm not 100% certain as he had varnished over them and it was a problem wall with condensation, it might still be there.
In some ways it is like listening to music while driving. What I mean is that there are natural moments in a day where we are alone and can catch up on our thoughts and feelings on some things, like while driving alone or on the loo. So if we fill these moments with distractions perhaps we need to try to 'be still' a little more. I do think my life would be improved with a little bit more time to be quiet and listen to myself. But perhaps reading is one of those things that is good for the soul and more enjoyable done in quiet.
Having said that I also think that it can be a fantastic chance to get some relatively good reading done before ones attention span has faded (making certain assumptions here).
My own practices recently have been to have a couple of easy reading books - which I like to keep off the floor on the edge of the radiator for hygeine reasons.
This is a massive topic but isn't for polite conversation.
I wonder if we'll ever get an e-book built into a loo, that would be my kind of gadget.