Category: Just Visiting

Stunning Sligachan – 9 April 2016

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combo bDrove over Quiraing to reach Uig, then down the west side of the island to Portree. Stopped for a while at the top to take in the view and to grab some photos. I liked the style of the Indian bloke with his pink umbrella striding off across the footpath round the edge of Quiraing.

Had lunch at Jan’s Vans new café and also took on some petrol further down the road. Then we made our leisurely way to Sligachan to photograph the Cuillins which were looking quite dramatic after some overnight snow. Snow in April. Not unheard of, but after the fairly temperate winter we’ve had, it was not really expected. I got another painting done and was quite pleased with it. Just a medium sized sketch, but not timed this time. We made a really relaxed afternoon of it sitting in a lay-by off the main road with just the beautiful mountains and hills around us. Weather was kind with lovely sunshine and very little wind.

When we got back to Staffin I dropped Scamp off at the house and then headed down the slip. The place was quiet so I got to walk across the bog and on to the limestone pavement section and got a few shots, but not many. It was nice to sit there in the quiet and listen to the waves crashing and the birds singing. Sometimes that’s worth more than the dramatic scenery, but the drama helps too.

Remember, the mosaic at the top sometimes shows only part of today’s images and always at a reduced scale.  Click on the mosaic to be transported to my Flickr page.

Off home tomorrow.

Birthday Boy – 8 April 2016

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comboToday is my birthday and the kitchen didn’t switch on the extractor fans at 6.00AM or crash bang the aluminium trays to celebrate that fact.

We drove round the top of the island and over to Waternish. Rather than go on to Trumpan, we dropped down to Stein. Stein is a tiny wee village of about half a dozen houses and the famous Stein Inn. Google it.

We sat and watched the world go by for a while and the Queen sat and watched too. The Queen was a Lego minifig and was a birthday prezzy from Hazy. She had sat on our dashboard, taking in the sights from Staffin to Stein. The Queen is probably the cutest birthday prezzy, but the strangest must be JIC’s solid tapered lump of cocoa for making hot chocolate, carefully described by him as “Not a suppository” on its label!

I went for a walk down to the slip and saw the scene that I’d painted three times in different media. The actual picture. It’s a whitewashed cottage on a spit of land sticking out into the sea. On the day I first photographed it, it had a line of washing blowing in the wind. Today there was no washing, but what I noticed was that the building was two storey. I’d always painted it as a single storey building. Sometimes imagination is better than fact. The two storey building just didn’t look right. On the way back to the car, I spotted the snail. It was making a bee line (should that be a snail line?) for the other side of the footpath. It was travelling straight as a die and moving at a fast snail’s pace. However I was worried that he would get crushed under someone’s feet once I’d gone, so the least I could do was give him an airlift to the other side and placed him carefully in the undergrowth.

We drove back to Portree, the capital of Skye. There we went to Cafe Arriba for lunch. Macaroni for Scamp and Lamb and Chorizo burger for me. Brilliant! Drove back up the single track and double track road to Staffin and went down to the beach and watched the tide come in before we went for a walk on the beach.

Back to Jackie and Murd for dinner, then a dram or two in front of a coal fire. Brilliant end to a Brilliant day.

An early rise (unplanned) – 7 April 2016

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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

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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.

On the slow train – 2 April 2016

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comboWe went to Edinburgh today, hereinafter referred to by its real name “Embra”.  Since the rail line to Embra is being electrified, the tunnel entrance to Queen Street Station in Glasgow is being closed to allow the necessary building work to proceed.  This means that trains will take a lot longer to get from Croy to Glasgow, 25 minutes longer.  That’s 25 minutes added to the 15 minutes it took before last Sunday.  On the other side of Croy, all the Embra trains now stop at all stations to Embra, meaning an extra 10 minutes on that journey too.  Now, I can almost understand why it takes the extra 25 minutes in to Glasgow with all the redirection that’s necessary, but I can’t see why closing a tunnel in Glasgow causes trains to stop at all the stations from Croy to Embra.  Maybe it’s a butterfly flaps its wings thing.  I never understood that either.

Anyway, the train arrived early, which was a surprise, and it was empty, which is unheard of.  Arrived in Embra and got tea (tea leaves, that is) at my favourite shop.  Walked up past the conference centre where there was a massive queue to get in to the Embra Comic Con, which at up to £27 for a ticket was really well named.  There were Doctors Who, Captains America and some vaguely demonic looking souls.  I said to Scamp that I should have worn my black and red striped rugby top and gone as Dennis the Menace, but she didn’t think that I was taking the thing seriously.  As if!

Walked through Princes Street Gardens, enjoying the thin sunshine.  Went to John Lewis and looked around the Toys.  Not the kids toys, the big boys’ toys.  Got an early birthday present of a camera bag.  Smiled at a bloke asking his wife if a radio he was thinking of buying was green or grey.  A constant topic of discussion between Scamp and I.

Walked back along to Zizzi and spent the voucher we got way back ages ago for complaining about the service and food in Exchange Square Zizzi.  Sometimes it pays to complain.  Squeaky wheels and grease.

On the way back to the train I went in to Waterstones and waited 15 minutes while a moron decided whether or not to buy a Dorling Kindersley book on Peru, because he was going there in June with a friend.  He has a friend?  Is it an imaginary friend?  I expect so.  He wasn’t sure whether to buy the book or not, because the new version was coming out.  He asked the girl behind the counter when the new version was due out and she said it was due to be published early June.  He then asked her if that meant the shop would have it then.  She said no, it was published on that date.  “What exactly do you mean by published?” he asked.  I sighed loudly “For fuck’s sake!” and walked away to go downstairs and pay for my book there.  How the hell is Peter the Peruvian Prick (alliteration) going to get all the way to Peru?
Go to the train station and ask Information “When is the next train to Peru?“
“It’s at 3.30pm sir, but you have to change at Queen Street and remember it stops at all the stations, so it will take you an extra 35 minutes.”
“What exactly do you mean by ‘stops at all the stations’?“
“For fuck’s sake!” Says the girl at Information and pulls down the blind.  “This position is now closed.”

We went home in the train in the rain, having had the best of the day.  It stopped at all the stations.

I Think It’s Going To … 26 March 2016

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combo b… Rain today.  Rained almost all day.  We went shopping.  Food shopping.  We could have gone to Tesco, but I thought it would be better to go to Stirling, even in the rain.  There’s a Waitrose there and I can usually pick up some nice meat there.  I also wanted a second look at a watercolour painting I’d seen in a gallery there a month or so ago.  Not to buy it of course, but to try out the effect the artist had achieved.  Thirdly, as usual I had a photograph in my head that I could take if the sun came out.  I didn’t get the meat I was looking for although I did get some kidney to make steak and kidney stew.  I didn’t get to see the painting either  because when we came out of Waitrose the rain had stopped, clouds were lightening and the sun was looking like it would start poking through so I went straight to option 3.

While we were driving to the location I’d picked, the sun did come out, but by the time I’d navigated Traffic Light City (do they really need all those red lights?) and found the spot, the good light had all but gone.  I did manage a couple of shots but without the light on the castle I wanted.  Actually there was no good light, but Lightroom is a brilliant piece of software that can spread sunlight where there is none and that is what I did.  Darkened down and texturised the sky with one graduated filter and brightened and warmed up the foreground with another.  That is how the top image and the bottom left image were faked created.  The image bottom right has only had minimal adjustments and show what the scene really looked like.

When we turned and headed for home after a disappointing stop, the rain started again, but not as heavily as it had earlier.

An excellent Chicken Curry tonight with my own version of a curry paste.  Feeling quite pleased with it.

Madness in Perth – 25 March 2016

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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.

Searching for a solution – 22 March 2016

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P3220833- flickr--82Today we went to look for a ship. A ship that would take us on holiday to a sunny, warm place. Scamp has been looking for such a ship for some time, but today we were going to speak to some people in a travel agents and they were going to search for a ship for us. A cruise ship. They didn’t find one. We gave them lots of options, lots of dates, lots of itineraries (not itineries. I can’t stand people who mispronounce words. Misspelling is ok, it’s just a mistake and that can be corrected. Mispronunciation is simply laziness and that is more difficult to fix.) We also gave them free rein to suggest suitable companies. The first advisor we spoke to didn’t come up with any firm suggestions, but spoke very enthusiastically about his own recent cruise to the Caribbean on the brand new P&O ship Britannia. The second advisor tried very hard and finally offered two possibilities and one outsider with a good itinerary but with a stopover in Amsterdam. That’s the price you pay for living in Scotland apparently. I find it quite amazing that with such an open set of options we come down to only two possibilities and one wildcard.

Today’s shot is of today’s sudoku puzzle. Like today’s search for a cruise, you start with almost unlimited options, looking for a single solution. Sometimes you find that solution, sometimes you almost get to the end and then find you’ve made a mistake. Sort of typifies the day.

By the way, today’s puzzle was a ‘Medium’. That’s because you almost needed one to find the solution.

At the Airoport I’m happy – 12 March 2016

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combo bListening to the “Passaheros” and “Condestinos” announcements while we wait in one queue after another, I’m almost tempted to stand to attention when German flights are called. German seems such an abrupt stentorian language. More a set of commands and demands than lyrical French or stiff upper lip English or even drunken Gaelic. Like the lady who informed the chef at breakfast “You vill cut up the fried eggs for me.”  A statement.  Not “Vill you … ?”, a request. Thinking along those lines, wouldn’t it be better if we used local vernacular at places like airports: “Aw right, them thits gaun tae Zurich git in the queue noo. Them thits no, jist haud yer wheesht an’ wait ’till yer telt.” Now doesn’t that have a bit more character and humour?

Anyway, for once we were called to the gate, then boarded well ahead of time and we are currently flying through the air strapped in to an armchair in an aluminium tube, heading in the general direction of Dublin. Isn’t technology wonderful?

Arrived ten minutes ahead of schedule in Glasgow. It took about 20 minutes to get through security, possibly because three planes had landed in swift succession, possibly because the much vaunted automatic Euro Passport booths weren’t working again – well, to be honest, they’ve never worked since they were brought in. It took another 20 minutes for the cases to be delivered. What’s the point of having faster and faster transport links when the infrastructure at the airports isn’t up to the job? Anyway, we were home and the weather was, as a flight attendant once said “… eh, Scottish.”

Today’s title comes from the Loudon Wainwright III song “Lowly Tourist”
“… at the airoport I’m happy ‘cos I know I’m going home.”

Last full day in the sun – 11 March 2016

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combo bMaking the most of the last full day. It started with grey skies, but by the time we headed off after breakfast, the sun was breaking through. We were headed again for Corralejo town. Basically it’s north to the town or south to the dunes. East is the Atlantic and there is no road west. We wandered round an open air market and I was thinking about buying a Rolex watch, but I couldn’t decide between it and a Breitling. Both were €35. I decided to think about it. Scamp was taken by a woman’s scam, selling wine bottle openers.  She had a slick pitch, but was no match for Scamp.

So we are now sitting in La Cantante in Corralejo having a mojito after another of their excellent tuna pizzas. On the walk back to the hotel. On the way we passed a wee shop selling souvenirs and I got two shirts for €6. A bargain at twice the price. Ok, they were so thin you could spit peas through them, but bright cheery colours to match my sunny disposition.

When we got back, there was just enough sun left for an hour or so on the sun beds. Then it was back to the room to pack. 🙁

As you can see there were a lot of photos taken today.  To get a better look at them, visit my Flickr page by clicking on the mosaic.