Saturday 30 April, 2005

I feel like I have barely touched the ground lately. I've been in Stirling, Campbeltown and Oban this week. Campbeltown is a small town right down at the very south end of the Mull of Kintyre (I almost typed "Mullet" there, which is a disturbing sign) and a five or six hour drive from Inverness. It was a bit of a new adventure for me, because I had only been part of the way down that road many years ago, to an alcohol detox centre when I was a teenager (there's a story for another day).

This weekend I have Jen, a joinee friend of mine from Glasgow, staying for the weekend, and we have just been out with Mike, a mate of mine up here, to Findhorn for the day. It's a lovely little village and there is a quite famous hippy commune, the Findhorn Foundation, nearby, which was very impressive and boasts a very pleasant atmosphere.

Work has been busy recently, and probably won't quieten down until I head off to Australia at the end of June. Which is not good, because I have an awful lot of planning and preparation to do in advance of that. Especially now there are rumours of a third Mullet Creek down under…

In other news, I am loving my latest book. It's bloody good.

Thursday 21 April, 2005

< rant >I've not let much of the hypocrisy and ignorance on display during this General Election campaign get to me, but the leaflet I got through the door from the Publican Party wound me up something rotten and I want to get it off my chest. The Publican Party is a single-issue party set up by a couple of bar owners in Inverness who are opposed to the forthcoming legislation from the Scottish Executive banning smoking in public places, like in Ireland.

I first came face to face with the Publican Party's idiocy when I went into one of the bars owned by the guys behind the campaign, Hootananny's, and on the huge blackboard beside the bar was the legend "Ventilation Eliminates Carcinogens". One of Scottish politics' snappiest matras? Up there with "It's Scotland's Oil" and "Free By '93", perhaps? I can hear the chanting on the streets already.

Anyway, I really got irritated by the leaflet I was sent for the following reasons:
1 – health is nothing to do with this election – health, including fag bans, is an issue devolved to the Scottish Parliament, and is of no relevance to the Westminster Parliament in London, for which this election is being held. It's like standing for the local council on a platform of reforming European legislation on coffee subsidies.
2 – what exactly does the Publican Party stand for? – other than campaigning on an issue that nobody at Westminster can do anything about, the only text I can find in the leaflet to anything other than the ban mentions that the candidate will "raise issues and concerns on other areas of your lives". Excellent. Glad we've cleared that up, then.
3 – use of English – the leaflet is full of errors of syntax and punctuation. For example, the front of the leaflet declares "What next? No sex!" when really they mean "What next? No sex?" I'm sorry, I'm a bit of a nazi when it comes to using language correctly, and this just shows the Publican Party up to be… well, a bit thick, I'm afraid.
4 – Sex in public places – the "What next? No sex!" slogan implies that smokers will be banned from smoking anywhere. Which they won't. Either that, or the Publican Party supports legalising sex in public places such as bars.

I gave up being political when I was at university, and really try to bite my tongue on this sort of thing these days. But sometimes, the occasional ignorance crops up that makes me laugh, scream, cry and just generally want to throttle those who are in our political elite or who aspire to be.

< /rant >

In other news, some of my Newburgh photos are up on the photos page.

Wednesday 20 April, 2005

Sorry, I've been a bit rubbish on the whole blogging front lately. It's been a busy week – on and off duty. I had an overnight trip to Aberdeen to catch up with friends on Saturday night, which was fun. I took some nice photos at Newburgh beach on Sunday when I went for a drive there with my friends before heading back west. It's beautiful there, and a big place for bird-watching. Not that I am into that – I just took lots of pictures of the scenery and managed to get lots of sand in my camera. I'll post some of the pictures up here in the next few days.

Then I was off on Monday night to London for 24 hours for work, and then today was Elgin, with catching up with work in the office this evening. I am hoping this weekend will be quiet! I do love the travel I get up to, and particularly enjoyed London, which I enjoy more and more every time I visit. But sometimes I just crave a week of non-stop sleeping in and playing Championship Manager in my underwear.

Sunday 10 April, 2005

This week has been quite fun. Gold Joinee Reverend Gareth Saunders was in town with a friend from Australia and came round for dinner. I attempted to make pea and ham soup until I realised I didn't have any peas. Then later on in the week I tried to make humous and falafel and almost set fire to the kitchen.I've spent much of the weekend sleeping, and then last night I had a global freeloader to stay, which was great fun. She's on tour of the highlands and will be back a couple of nights midweek.

My latest joke: what do The Sixth Sense and Titanic have in common?

Icy dead people!

Sunday 3 April, 2005

Summer's on its way at last.

It was a beautifully sunny day yesterday, and I was determined to head off for a walk and make the most of the weather. I headed along the first stage of the Great Glen Way, a seventy-mile footpath linking Inverness with Fort William, Scotland's rainiest place at the foot of Ben Nevis. Of course, I didn't walk that far, I just headed along the river, through the Ness Islands, and up Craig Dunain, a hill overlooking Inverness, on the slopes of which you will find our local mental hospital.

It was a nice peaceful walk, disturbed only a handful of couples out for a stroll, the rather hardcore-looking Moray Running Club who passed me in their sweating multitude, a meditating hippy woman whose tranquility I shattered, and two rather mentalist tinks camping at the top of the hill who offered me some drugs.

I took the photo on the right from part-way up the hill. As you can see Inverness is in a lovely setting – lovely scenery all around, the sea nearby, and good access to great countryside. I do love living here.

That's about it, really, no amusing anecdote to finish with: I just went for walk, took photos, came home. Thank goodness for blister cream and ice cold lager in the fridge. *

* I only keep one of the above in the fridge.