Category: Driving

An early rise (unplanned) – 7 April 2016

Posted on by Zogman

ComboThe kitchen started work again at 6.00AM and so did the noise.  It was so loud, and it woke both Scamp and me and we just couldn’t get back to sleep, so I suggested we make an early start and get on the road.  Breakfast was very good – the food IS good.  Shower in the room had an air-lock in it and squealed when you turned the flow up above a trickle.  Scamp made sure she complained about this and the abominable kitchen when we were booking out and got a small amount removed from the bill after the receptionist had gone to speak to the manager.  The manager chose not to meet his irate customer face to face.  I wonder why.

The rest of the run up north passed without incident until we were on the single track section out of Portree when a diddy of a woman decided that we should reverse back a couple of hundred yards to a passing place and allow her through, even though she had just driven past a passing place.  I’m afraid that wasn’t going to happen and I was pleased to see her go incandescent when I made silly faces at her through the window.  Some people think they own the road.  They don’t, I do.

Went for a drive later as we’d arrived far earlier than expected.  Drove to Aird and I got two paintings done – TWO!  Ok, one was a small sketch, but the other was a full watercolour, both of the same scene.  I think the small one is better than the bigger one.  I’ll maybe post them some time to garner opinion.

After dinner I went down the slip and got some possible photos.  Will know better when I process them, but that may be a problem as it looks like the battery on the Mac is dying.  Down to 37% of its designed capacity.

On the road north – 6 April 2016

Posted on by Zogman

P4060006- flickr--98--97Waited in for the postman hoping that he’d brought the paracord camera grip I’d ordered on Saturday. He had and it’s really neat, much neater than I could make. Fits well and black to match the ’10 – that’s their new names sorted. One’s the ’10 and one’s the ‘5. Much better than Oly’s ridiculously long names. Anyway, it arrived and I’m pleased with it. Got all the bags loaded into the Megane and we were off by 1pm. Weather was as predicted, sunshine and showers. Good April weather. Traffic was light with only one slow 40mph max Lordy to contend with. Once we were past that it was plain sailing up to Fort William. We did get stopped at the edge of Rannoch Moor by police because of “filming”. A mile or so further on we saw the film crew working a boom mounted camera just off the road. Didn’t see any stars though. Bummer. Arrived in Fort Billy just before 4pm. Room is ok. Just a room. Going swimming now. A chance to compare and contrast.

Well, we did compare and we did contrast and the overall result was that home’s best. The Ben Nevis leisure centre had a better pool, a much better pool, the sauna was not as good as Westerwood and the steam room was much the same. The changing facilities and showers at home were much better, so overall it was a home win, but that pool was really good.

Biggest disappointment was the room, or to be more precise, the location of said room. Right on top of the kitchen, which meant that from about 6.30 until 9.00pm the extractor fan ran non stop and there was the banging of trays and pots you’d expect in a hotel kitchen. We just didn’t expect to have it relayed into our room. However, when the kitchen closed, the noise stopped at 9.00.

Dinner was good. Scamp liked the chicken pakora we shared and we both enjoyed fish and chips.

And a Bang on the Ear – 31 March 2016

Posted on by Zogman

comboWe set off fairly early on an improving day. Down the M80 on to the M8 down to and across the Erskine bridge, past Dumbarton (can you guess were we’re going yet?). On past Balloch and up Loch Lomond side. We drove past Luss on the right and Inverbeg on the left and north to Tarbet (not to be confused with Tarbert which is miles away). From there it was over the pass to our first destination, Arrochar. We parked in the much reduced carpark across from the collapsing pier and watched the light change on The Cobbler (Ben Arthur). We saw folk walking some of the paths through the pine forests. If I’d brought my boots we could have been up to the summit and back down again in about an hour – Aye Right!

Arrochar is scenic, but there’s not a lot to see in the village itself, so we headed up past the part demolished torpedo testing station, past Ardgartan and on up the long slow climb to the top of the Rest and Be Thankful, passing on our right the new landslide trapping nets. This was the end of our scenic tour. We sat in the parking place at the top of ‘The Rest’ and had our coffee and ‘pieces’ – not sandwiches, Pieces. I took lots of shots looking down the valley of the River Croe and off to the west to the higher peaks where the snow still lay.

I went off to get some shots of still, dark, gloomy Loch Restil and that’s where I got my ‘bang on the ear’. I walked right into a road sign and bashed my ear on it. How stupid can you be not to notice a notice? It’s not as if it was a wee sign, it was about a metre wide by about 60cm high. Having said that, it was a stupid place to put it, right where somebody would bang their ear on it. It’s amazing how much pain is caused by such a small cut. Numpty.

From The Rest it was all downhill – literally. Took a different road back, down the side of Loch Long to Helensburgh (It’s ok, JIC, we didn’t stop except to go to Waitrose) and then back over the Erskine Bridge. There I made the big mistake of attempting the M8 rather than the M74 to take us home. In future, remind me to take the left lane and head for the M74 because the traffic is less horrific there.

Good to get out and see some beautiful scenery in good light with great company. Must do it again some time soon, if possible without the bang on the ear.

Madness in Perth – 25 March 2016

Posted on by Zogman

combo bToday we went to Perth.  It as a plan.  Today, Good Friday, was forecast to be the best day of the holiday weekend.  I needed coffee and Perth is where my preferred coffee bean shop is.  It was also announced last night on the news that Scamp’s favourite ladies wear shop, McEwan’s of Perth had gone into administration and was opening today for the start of the closing down sale.  Soooo, we were off to Perth today.

The road was busy on the way north and every time the traffic started to jam up, I said “Oh, oh!  This is where the queue for McEwan’s starts.”  Actually, the road wasn’t all that busy, considering it was the start of the Easter holidays and it was a sunny day.   But every car seemed to have bikes on the back or a Thule style rack on the roof.  It looked like everyone seemed to want to get out of Glasgow and Edinburgh and head north to the great wide open.  Maybe that was the plan, but it looked like the ‘great wide open’ was going to be closed by the time they all got there.  When we arrived at Perth, there were roadworks on the road into the city.  Like a few others, I bit the bullet and headed back to the swimming pool and parked there, despite the signs saying that these parking spaces were for ‘users of the facilities only.’  I wasn’t sure what the ‘facilites’ were, but I was using the facilities of Perth itself, so I felt secure in my decision to park there.

When we wandered round Perth after getting the essential coffee beans, we found the real queue for McEwan’s.  Apparently it was estimated that over 400 people were waiting to get in through the doors and because the company had paid off more than half its staff with immediate effect last night, only 20 customers at a time were being allowed in.  There were going to be a lot of long faces in Perth tonight.

After our return from Perth, I managed an hour in St Mo’s in a biting north wind.  Got a few photos of some deer and I fed the ducks.  So, that was Good Friday.  Not so good for the hundred odd McEwan’s staff without jobs after this week.