Culzean Castle

Really enjoying my new-found freedom post-phd. First weekend, absolutely loving the no niggle at the back of my mind feeling. Watched the boys play footie on Sat morning, went to see the dons on Saturday afternoon, few drinks and some FIFA with Jamie Smith in the evening. Always thought I’d be on an enormous celebratory bender the weekend after I passed my Viva, but I’m still feeling totally exhausted by it all, so it was a nice, quiet one.

And a Sunday morning without a hangover to go adventure. Headed down the Ayrshire coast to go see Culzean Castle. The weather was brilliant, lovely and sunny and dry. Parked up a couple of miles north of the castle and walked to it along the beach. Seemingly it costs a load to get into the grounds but we did it all for free and got a great beach walk thrown in for good measure. Even got to play with a puppy. Excellent.

Hattie The Spaniel

This is Hattie, who’s staying with my Maw and Paw for a couple of weeks while her owner’s on a cooking holiday in India (alright for some!)…  At first meeting, Hattie’s a bit crap really, she’s definitely not a dog who’s up for a fight or a chase. But get to know her, and in her own quiet way she’s really pretty cool.

Had a great weekend up with the parents there. My sis was back from Paris with Nico, so I headed up. Had tonsillitis all last week so it was great to get up and relax, I was needing it.  Cracking weather for walking on the beach, and loads of sport on TV, so happy days.

Snow snow snow!!

Been pretty quiet on this blog for a while, but then I’ve not really been up to much which has been super exciting. Unlike this last weekend, which was the best I’ve had in a long time. An unbelievable amount of snow has been falling around the UK this last week, but up here in Scotland there was a nagging feeling that I’d been missing out. No massive dumps of snow up here. Until late last week, when in the course of 2 days Aviemore had 2 feet of snow. Had to get up there.

Bit of a worrying drive up, news reports of hazardous driving conditions etc, texts flying in from worried parents. No bother tho, we just bought a sledge in Glasgow, filled the car with meat, and off we went. Road was no bother, apart from missing the Aviemore turn off cos we couldn’t see the road markings!  Beer and cider and Winter Games 2009 and FIFA till early morning. Snow falling heavily still. Another 6 inches overnight.

Up and at ‘em bright and early. Grabbed the black chariot and headed into the wilderness. Headed up into the hills to the west side of town, primed for sledge run spotting.  Found one really quickly.

 

That way adventure lies!

Jamie Smith spotted it. Problem was, and we hadn’t seen this one coming, that there was too much snow to sledge. Who knew, too much snow to sledge. Not to worry, we gave it a shot, and they were perfect conditions for a bit of snowboarding and skiing tomorrow.

Spent a good 4 hours farting around in the snow. So much fun. Built a big snow cock and then broke it down with a springy tree. Yeh. Hopefully Bobby J will get the video up. Ended up getting ever so slightly lost, and it was hellish hard work wading through snow that deep. Ended up in a building site and had to climb a fence to get out. Brilliant fun.

Complete with hairy balls.

 

Miss Helen arrived on Saturday night to join us for the skiing. Jeez we were so excited. Even Jamie Smith, who had a nice mixture of apprehension and excitement, seeing as he’d never snowboarded before. What a day he chose to start!  Just about the best conditions I’ve ever skied in, and this was in Scotland, couldn’t believe it! We got up bright and early out of the flat by 8, up the mountain by half past, and onto the first train up the hill at 9am. Sun not quite up by this stage but clear as clear as clear. The snow was fantastic, hardly any ice anywhere at all, lovely covering of powder, and some of the more remote bits with a decent foot or so of powder to ski in. Fantastic.

Helen and I totally made the most of it, but man my thighs were burning. A mix of  snow drift yomping on the saturday, and my first bash at skiing for 2 years. Sore sore. Fresh air exhaustion, one of the best feelings in the world. Maximum kudos to Bobby J and Jamie for getting fired right in. Helen and I left them at the baby slopes and headed off. We came back an hour later to find them and see how they were getting on only to find out they’d headed straight off down the mountain, brilliant. So Jamie Smith, in his first ever 3 hours of snowboarding, had made it from the very top to the very bottom of the Cairngorm slopes. Well done that man.

What a brilliant weekend, finished off with a chip shop dinner in Pitlochry on the way home, and a slow, slow drive through the snow from Stirling back to Glasgow.

Back fae Hydro Connect

Loved it, loved it, loved it, loved it. Connect, I want to do it all again.

Hydro Connect

I shall be a guest of the Duke and Duchess of Argyll again this weekend, for it is once more time for Hydro Connect. Nothing too exciting with the music this year, except Sigur Ros, but there’s a really good crowd of us going so I’m really looking forward to it. As we speak, Sam and Nic are winging their way west, and I’ve just walked down to B&Q to get me some wellies (last year the mud was unbelievable). Bring it on!

Summer Hols 2008 – Oban

Group photo between Connel Bridge and Oban

I seriously don’t know where to start, this was just so good I’ll never be able to describe it. I spent so much time thinking to myself “this is amazing, I’m having so much fun”. Romain said at one point, “Today has been my ‘one day’”, in the way that people say “one day I’ll do this, or that”, and he was right enough, every day was that one day. Immense. So many hilarious things happened, so much amazing banter, I’ll never do it justice.

Loch Lomond Adventure

BitsofBobs has already covered most of this (he blogged pretty much as soon as he got in, I went straight to bed, ah well) so I’ll keep it neat, with plenty pics, for this was, most of all, a trip on a sunny May bank holiday to take photos with our new (and newish) fancy cameras! Great fun.