Scotland – Page 7 – My Photo Blog

A Delightful day – 21 December 2015

Posted on December 21, 2015December 21, 2015 by Zogman

Well, at times it was delightful. It started well, with blue skies and early morning sun. I had planned to go in to Glasgow to get my Christmas shopping finalised. Well, sort of finalised. Final is such a, well, final word that I very rarely use it. Let’s say that “Today would see my Christmas shopping nearly finalised.” That’s a better way to put it, it leaves a bit of wiggle-room. “Wiggle-room” is a hyphenated word that will no doubt make it into the OED next year if it isn’t already there. Scamp kindly offered me a lift to the station so I could travel in comfort rather than sit on a cold bus for 45mins. The kind man at the station gave me £7 change with my tickets which was a bit of a surprise as I’d only given him a fiver! I gave him the fiver back. He smiled and looked relieved that I’d been honest. After all, ’tis the season and all that crap.

By the time I got to Glasgow the rain was pelting down, so I cut to the chase edited out my window shopping and concentrated on the real stuff instead. Got everything I wanted and headed home on the first available train. I’d phoned Scamp and she was just driving in to the station as I was walking out. Perfect timing.

After a swift lunch, we both went to the gym, separately. She to have a ‘facial’ me to investigate the new whizzo machines in the gym and to have a swim. Gym looks much better laid out now. More stuff in it and it looks like there’s more space. A sort of ‘Tardis’ conversion then. I’m hoping to try out the machines later in the week.

Dropped in at Tesco to spend a Tesco voucher I got when I retired, that’s almost 18 months ago! I bought myself a bottle of Glenrothes whisky with it (Whisky was what I was told to spend it on 18 months ago). Glenrothes appears to have nothing to do with the New Town of that name. I don’t think I’ve ever been to Glenrothes, but the name ‘New Town’ damns it anyway. On the way to Tesco, the sky had cleared after dumping tons of rain on us from about 11.00am and it looked like being a great sunset and the statue of Arria was catching some great light, so I took the opportunity to combine the two and take some shots of it. You get someone to build a gigantic statue of a Roman emperor’s mother (Why?). You put it in a prominent place overlooking a busy motorway, but you don’t tell anyone how to get to it. That’s Scotland for you. Shoots itself in the foot every time. Actually it’s quite easy to find if you know where, but isn’t that a universal truth. You have to drive through Eastfield Cemetery, park at the end and find the overgrown path to the statue. Simple! Such a shame as it’s a stunning piece of work, but I’ve no idea why she has four arms. There’s probably a good punchline waiting to be heard there.

So, for once it was a delightful day. Started well, crap in the middle and finished well. Sort of like a crap sandwich. Now there’s a delightful thought to end with.

Back to Reality – 20 November 2015

Posted on November 20, 2015November 21, 2015 by Zogman

An hour by the pool this morning, then a walk down through the town to buy a final load of stuff to take home, then a last coffee and roll ‘n’ sausage in The Pantry, but…

The holiday is over. We got the taxi early nearly 30 mins early and joined a queue at checkin. An hour later we got to security. Every other queue went down fine, except ours. The through security and duty-free to join the next queue at the departure gate. The. They changed the gate. Next was another hour’s wait for the plane. We’re now just thundering down the runway and rotate! Bye bye Tenerife until the next time. Last temp I saw was 25degrees. I think it may be cooler in Glasgow.

A Bum-py Day (Toilet Humour) – 29 October 2015

Posted on October 29, 2015 by Zogman

After yesterday, I had a bit of an upset stomach. I’m not saying it was the chicken bhuna, but it was the only thing I had, but Scamp didn’t. Ghandi’s Revenge? Could have been. Despite this, I still managed a coffee with Fred P. I nearly laughed out loud when the barista told me to to tell him to stop ordering Cortados because she’s fed up making them.

I was driving out to the Tesco carpark when a woman reversed into my car, despite me virtually standing on the horn. Luckily, because of plastic bumpers on cars these days and the fact she was travelling very slowly, there was only the tiniest of scratches on the door, so I let her go without even a sweary word. I must be losing my touch.

That was almost it for the day. Went out later to Tesco (without an accident this time) and grabbed a few shots of the sun going down over the ‘pond’. Officially Broadwood Loch.

Looking forward to my Flu Jag tomorrow morning. 🙁

The long way home – 11 October 2015

Posted on October 11, 2015October 17, 2015 by Zogman

It’s never a happy day, leaving Staffin for the seven hour journey down the road. We always leave with a heavy heart. Me, to lose the silence and Scamp to lose the space. Today was nearly worse. I nearly lost my rugby top. Thankfully Jackie texted Scamp to say I’d left it on the bed, so, since we were only a few miles on our way, we headed back to retrieve it. Drove down to the biscuit tin to have a coffee and a scone. Scones are becoming important to me. Eilean Donan has a photography gallery just now featuring the castle. Some are great, some are just good and some are honestly abysmal. Each has a small description of the photog, written by the photog. Like the photos, some are good, some are … well, you get the idea. Most have ‘a passion’ somewhere in their description. I hate ‘passions’. It’s everywhere just now. Cooks on the thousands of cookery programmes, dancers, everyone has to have a passion. One of the photogs used the ‘passion’ word five times in his self promoting prophesy. That’s too much passion for anyone to have, even about themselves.

Anyway, next stop was set for Spean Bridge. To the wee roadhouse place that used to be a Little Chef and was so much better than that was. Got there to find it was closed. End of season just, I hope. Ok, next stop Fort Billy or Fort William to give it its Sunday name – it was Sunday, so I suppose I should give it the William name. Lunch at Morrisons was a fish and chips and a good F&C it was too at a very reasonable price. Nothing fancy, just hot, fresh F&C. The rest of the road was just the boring run home. Stopped just after Crianlarich for a cup of tea and a chance to stretch our legs and a walk along a bit of a river. Beautiful evening light. Didn’t take my camera, but had my iPhone. On this occasion, the phone didn’t shine as a camera. Disappointing shots.

It was a good holiday. The quiet and the space. You can’t beat it for refreshing you.

Twenty wee Chinese men – 9 October 2015

Posted on October 9, 2015October 17, 2015 by Zogman

“Twenty wee Chinese men coming out of a Vauxhall with forty cameras“. That was Murd’s description of Portree, or to be more precise, the SYHA hostel in Portree in the summer. So you can guess, we went to Portree today … In the rain.

We drove through the rain to Uig. The ferry port to the Outer Hebrides. You see people getting out of their cars and looking around thinking “I must have missed the town and driven straight to the port.” Nope, this is it. A few scattered houses, an unwelcoming petrol station, a small (but not micro or nano) brewery and shop, a cafe and that’s about it. Not exactly the thriving hub of a community. However, it does its job. It ferries people, their cars and lorries across the Minch. We didn’t stop. We’ve seen it before. I don’t think it’s changed all that much. What has changed is the police station. It’s now a backpackers bunkhouse. I expect you have to pay extra to sleep in the cells!

From Uig we travelled down the west side of the island to Portree. Went to Jan’s Vans which is a big warehouse building on the outskirts of the town, selling everything. I saw needles and I’m sure they had anchors tucked away at the back behind the rainmates. I’d wanted to get another pair of boot laces for my walking boots. I wasn’t sure now if I’d need them with my dodgy ankle, but was getting them just in case. In Portree proper, we went for coffee and a scone at the bakery. Worst coffee I’ve had in a long time. We did, however, get to see the tourists piling off a bus (with their two cameras each, as predicted by the Staffin Seer) for their hour in Portree.

Had lunch in Cafe Arriba in Portree in the presence of a star! Donnie McLeod, formerly with Runrig was in the cafe. We felt honoured.

From there we drove back up to Staffin and sat for an hour or so at the slip, watching the waves and a lone seal swimming around. That’s the relaxing effect of Skye. Just sitting for an hour staring at nothing in particular isn’t odd here, it’s what you do. For me it’s the silence. For Scamp it’s the space.

As usual, larger versions of the photos are available for viewing in Flickr by clicking on the mosaic at the top of the page. Usual rules apply. All photos are digitally watermarked, copyright remains with D. Campbell, that’s me.

Being a culture vulture – 19 August 2015

Posted on August 19, 2015August 19, 2015 by Zogman

Last year at this time of year, we went to the Embra Festival. Note for new readers: It’s not Edinburgh or even worse Edinboro 😡 It’s Embra. It’s always been Embra. It will always be Embra. Ask any Glaswegian and they will verify this. So, today being Scamp’s day ff and well into the Festival, we decided to go to Embra on the train.

Walked up the Grassmarket which is a strange name for a street. Although we have walked up it many times and there is almost always a market there, I have never seen any grass (of any kind) being sold there. Very strange, but then, you expect strange things in Embra. At the top of the Grassmarket, we walked to the Royal Mile where most of the ~~maddies~~ performers were. All human life is there during the festival, and sometimes other forms of life too. We saw Japanese drummers, Korean dancers, ~~maddies~~ actors dressed as frogs, badgers and a bear. At least, I think it was a bear, but Scamp thought it was a dog. Just goes to show how detailed the costume was. One of the best performances was Yukinko Akira, a dancing, DJ artist. Very energetic and really quite entertaining. After a while we got tired of batting away people dressed as pirates, samauri and bewigged dandies all wanting to give you a flier for their ‘fantastic’, ‘five star’, ‘successful’ show. We did see one man dressed as a lawyer in black gown carrying his wig, but Scamp thinks he really was a lawyer as we were just outside the high court! Anyway, we walked along Princes Street gardens and had lunch at Hendersons at St John’s church in the west end. It’s probably the best vegetarian restaurant I’ve been to. Great food, in interesting surroundings. There was even a piano player showing off his considerable talent. Scamp was impressed. Walked back and visited John Lewis (of course) before getting the train home. The weather? Oh, the weather was excellent in Embra, it was only as the train drew into Croy that the large drops of rain started hitting the windows, and I don’t think it has stopped since. So, the magic weather pixies are back in business. Oh well, it was good while it lasted.

A thousand misty gliders flying – 15 August 2015

Posted on August 15, 2015August 16, 2015 by Zogman

Today, as planned, we travelled to Loch Leven in Kinross. Although we were stuck behind a horsebox which seemed incapable of anything over 40mph – downhill – with a tailwind, we had a pleasant run up through the Perthshire countryside and the weather was beautiful. Parked at one of the RSPB sites at the side of the loch and walked anticlockwise around the loch. Pleasant enough walk with cornfields on our right, but not much of the loch visible as the path is mostly through trees. Saw quite a few gliders being towed up to considerable heights by their tow planes then releasing and slope soaring on the side of the hills. Walked back and drove to Loch Leven’s Larder for lunch which for me was a burger – a real one, not like Wednesday’s. Scamp had egg mayo sandwich, but complained there wasn’t much on the menu for a veggie. If you ever go there, don’t have the potato wedges. Heavy overcooked old potatoes. If you ignore this advice, you’ll suffer for it later. I think we both had far too much to eat. It’s easily done when the food is so good – except for the potato wedges. We’ve both decided to go back and try to get the boat to the island where Leven Castle stands. Just left the cafe place and before we met the terrible traffic calming in Scotlandswell, the rain came on. It was a shower which didn’t last long, but then there was another, and another shower. I think we had the best of the day.

Rain, Rain, go away – 5 August 2015

Posted on August 5, 2015August 6, 2015 by Zogman

Woke to more drizzle and rain this morning. Will it ever stop? After a breakfast that rivalled the epic Hilton Breakfast, we said goodbye to the Marine Hotel Troon, but I imagine we will be back again, if only for the excellent food. Drove in to Prestwick which looked every bit the run-down Scottish seaside town. The weather helped set the tone with drizzle soon turning to full blown rain. We watched some youngsters setting out in wee yachts or dinghies or some such small boat with a sail. They looked well prepared with wetsuits and buoyancy aids, but it still didn’t look like fun. Got a few shots of a woman walking her dogs along the sand. The drizzle helped blur the background and also gave a high key look to the photo. After that we drove down to the other end of Prestwick and I saw a shot, but didn’t have the heart to take it. A family – maw, paw, grandpa and the weans – sitting outside a beachfront cafe in the rain with ice-cream cones trying to look like they were having fun. It put me in mind of the title of yesterday’s post. It looked so sad, I couldn’t bring myself to take the shot.

Left the sad, wet, west coast behind and drove down the A 77M to Glasgow where Scamp thought it would be a good idea to break our journey at Silverburn for a coffee. I’m not the biggest fan of Silverburn. For those who don’t know, it’s a out of town retail park, but a posh looking one. Inside it’s all phone shops, sports shops and fashion outlets. No bookshop! What are they thinking of. It’s always busy, so this only goes to show that the phone buying, sport buying, fashion buying public can’t read. Its only saving grace is Wagamama, but that’s not where we were heading. We went instead to Patisserie Valerie. We’d been to one of this chain recently, but this was a different experience entirely. We were served quite quickly, but after that things ground to a halt. Bear in mind that we only wanted two coffees and two apple danish. That order took about 15mins to prepare. In that time, two customers complained about their food either not being hot enough or not being edible! A third customer was cutting up some filled croissant with a look of disgust on her face. PV in Exchange Square may be an epicurean delight, but this one is a disaster. I thought the ping was the sound of a bell to tell the server that the meals were at the pass – then I realised it was the sound of the microwave! Avoid. After that, it was just the usual drag of a drive through Glasgow. Holiday over for another wee while, and it was still raining.

Will it ever stop?

Down on the beach with our coats on – 4 August 2015

Posted on August 4, 2015August 5, 2015 by Zogman

Scamp booked us a day at the seaside today, at the Marine Hotel in Troon, in fact. It’s been a wild day with gale force winds on the west coast. Not very much rain, but not much ‘summer’ around. We didn’t really manage to get to the beach today. The nearest we got was to have a swim in the hotel pool, and from our upgraded room, we can just about see the beach. Much more comfortable to swim in the pool and stay in the room looking out at the ‘glofers‘ (my word) wandering around the glofcourse (my word again) with their little bags of glof bats. Some of them seemed to be pushing prams with their glofbats in them. Is this really a game, or is it just a challenge to the elements?

Really excellent dinner in the conservatory with a great view of Ailsa Craig and Arran. Back home tomorrow, but we are determined to make the most of our days of luxury!

Embra – 1 August 2015

Posted on August 1, 2015August 1, 2015 by Zogman

The least said about today, the better. Went to Embra. Had lunch, came home. ‘Nuf said. Saw this wee man standing in the rain just off Princes Street. He was stuck looking up at a Kelpies maquette. Thought he looked quite good with the raindrops. Also saw a couple of posers on penny farthings. Only in Embra!