:: Okney travelogue, part two

Where was I? The Tomb of the Eagles. After the talk I was shown into the "wet room" to choose my oilskins - trousers in my case. They also had jackets and wellies. Then I headed off down a farm track in the wind and rain to the first site, the settlement. On the way I met the farmer, who had apparently been out there all day sitting in the caravan where he gives his own talk. My own "talk" was brief.

"You know about the settlement?" he said.
"Errr ... it's over there," I replied.
"Ah, you'll be all right then," he said, patting my shoulder. And then he buzzed off on his battered 50cc motobike, accompanied by a couple of slinking sheepdogs.


The caravan at the settlement.

Trudge, trudge, trudge, through the rain I went. The ancient green caravan was the most picturesque part of the settlement, so although the site was interesting, I didn't linger there. Trudge, trudge, trudge, onward and seaward. At what seemed like the edge of the known world, there was the tomb, facing the cliff's edge. No decorous stooping here - you have to get down and crawl. Or, if like me you have bum knees, you lie on your back on a skateboard-like affair and haul yourself down the tunnel using a rope.


Outside the tomb. The plastic containers hold knee pads and mitts for the crawlers.

The tomb's interior was underwhelming - a stone chamber with side chambers - but knowing that at sunrise on one day a year the light strikes the back wall made it special. And the view of of wind-tossed waves through the tunnel was striking. But for me the main draw of this place was the effort you had to make to see it: it's not a passive, theme-park experience; you have to work at it, and you do get a strong impression of how it might have been, back then. Having held the eagle's talons in my hand I could imagine the great birds "excarnating" the bodies before the remaining bones were gathered up and stored in the tomb, for example. It's a great place and I recommend it.



I'm finding it hard to remember quite what I did when! Certainly after seeing the Tomb of the Eagles I drove home, took Bertie on a walk (he was asleep in the car while I was tomb-crawling) and slumped on the sofa for the rest of the evening. That's the great thing about having a flat when you're on holiday - you can eat dinner lying down. Not many restaurants offer recumbent dining.

The next day it rained and rained, so of course I went for a looong walk. I did intend to "do" some museums etc, but after "doing" Skara Brae - brilliantly well-preserved 5,000-year-old village - I wanted to stay out in the open. Skara Brae is fab. The village was buried in sand until a storm in the 1850s revealed it. The most complete house has been recreated near the visitor centre, complete with plastic food, sheepskins and so on, and seems pretty cosy. The guide on duty at the site was excellent, knowledgable and enthusiastic. He was especially eloquent about the plumbing system the ancients installed! The drains still work, apparently - they keep the houses nice and dry.




So then I drove on and quite by accident arrived at the Brough of Birsay at low tide. There's yet another ancient settlement there, and a ruined church, this time on a headland that's only accessible via a low causeway. Very slippery but fun.



I thought I'd be able to go up to the lighthouse, but it was strictly off limits for dogs due to sheep. Tsk. So instead we had a loooong walk along the coast to Skipi Geo, a lovely little cove dotted with "nousts", little hollows that were used to store fishing boats. Each local family had its own noust. They're not used now. (The house my flat was part of is called The Noust.)


Whale vertebra on a pole, Skipi Geo.

The rain was really quite heavy by now and I was damp, so it was back into the car for a drive home the long way, and another night indoors. I did stop off in Stromness at one point to do some shopping and take photos, but the visit was cut short after Bertie had a big wobbly fit on seeing several cats just strolling around. And then some children tried to make friends with him. Too much excitement!

Is that it? I think so. On the last day we had one final walk along the cliff path to the Earl's Bu, then I jammed everything back in the car, said goodbye to the flat's owner and headed off to the ferry. It was a much nicer day, with almost no wind, so it was a shame to be leaving.


Orphir on the last morning of my stay.

I drove straight back home, stopping off for a good walk near a tiny village called Latheronwheel, and again at the Falls of Bruar just before dusk. After that the weather packed in and the drive became something of a nightmare. Just outside Perth, on a long uphill haul, I pulled out into the fast lane to let a lorry in from a slip road. A van shot out from behind the lorry and overtook it - and I had to bang the brakes on hard to avoid hitting it. In the rain. In the dark. Aiiieee! One positive element was that the emergency services were busy dealing with an accident on the other carriageway, so if I had hit the van, they would have been able to cut me out of the wreckage fairly quickly.

It was lovely getting home safe and sound. A hot bath, a glass of wine and all was right with the world!

:: Orkney travelogue, part one

About time I shared some of the highlights of my holiday, before I forget. Click here to see photos.

I had a good drive up - the weather was clear and there wasn't a lot of traffic. I stopped off at Helmsdale, a little burg on the north-east coast. Very nice B&B - the man of the house was a fishing boat skipper and the house was right on the quay. The landlady and her sister were off to the Western Isles for the weekend for the Mod, the annual Gaelic cultural competition/festival. She belongs to a local Gaelic choir and her sister was along for company. In the morning she cooked Bertie a couple of sausages.

And so on to Scrabster, a fairly grotty little ferry port right near Thurso on the north coast. There was an hour or so to spare so I found a walk to a ruined chapel along the coast a step. The ferry trip was fairly smooth, although it was a windy day. I got chatting to a couple who turned out to be from the very village I was staying in!

I drove pretty much straight to said village, Orphir, which is roughly midway between Stromness, the ferry port, and Kirkwall, Orkney's main town. The flat was ideal, a roomy one-bedroom place with kitchen/livingroom and showerroom. The shower was fantastic, and everything was really comfortable. All mod cons, including microwave, TV, CD player/radio etc. I soon found a good walk for Bertie - down the road past the fields to the coast, then along a footpath to the Earl's Bu, the ruins of a Viking drinking hall, and back home along the road. Just lovely, and I did it every morning.

So: the highlights. There are so many sights it wasn't hard to be busybusybusy every day. First visit was to Stenness, for the Ring of Brodgar, a wonderful stone circle, and Maes Howe, a neolithic burial mound. This is like a smaller version of Newgrange in Ireland. Having seen Newgrange I suppose I was a little disappointed by Maes Howe: there was work in progress to repair the concrete roof and the guide wasn't the most enthused I've ever met. He wasn't even a Scot, let alone Orcadian! However, the tomb itself is interesting and has a lot of Viking grafitti. The Ring of Brodgar is wonderful - the stones are beautiful and the setting is sublime, on a neck of land between two lochs. The sun flashed out for a couple of minutes so I got some nice shots. I didn't take any photos at Maes Howe - most uninspiring.

The next day was grim - windy and cold - but after the morning walk I set out for the Churchill Barriers. Oh, first of all I walked round Kirkwall and visited St Magnus Cathedral, a magnificent building full of wonderful memorials and carvings and windows. So then I headed down the chain of islands - first stop was the Italian Chapel, built by prisoners of war on Lamb Holm. It's gorgeous.

I was ready for a walk so stopped fairly randomly at a likely-looking spot just by one of the barriers (causeways between the islands built as wartime defences for the Scapa Flow). Lo and behold there were a bunch of kids surfing! They had wetsuits on and boy did they need them - it was perishing. It started to rain while I was there and continued to rain pretty much through the next day. Also at that spot was a startling piece of sculpture, what I guess was a Jarl's head, with a winged helmet.

After the walk I pressed on south, heading for the Tomb of the Eagles, which had been highly recommended to me by a bloke at work. It is on a farm on South Ronaldsay, the southernmost island reachable from Mainland via the barriers, so it took a while to get there but it was totally worth it.

It's another prehistoric chambered tomb and it was discovered and opened for visitors by the farmer on whose land it is. The family has made a visitor centre at the farm house, with various bits and pieces they found in the tomb and at another site, a settlement, including pottery, skulls and stone tools. The farmer's daughter gave a really good talk, during which she passed round artefacts. It really is amazing to handle a piece of pottery tens of thousands of years old!

more later ... time for bed.

:: some pix are in

I'm back from Orkney - had a great time of course. I haven't got time just now to write a travelogue, but there are photos to look at on flickr. I've got loads more to post too, when I get a minute.

I'm writing this in the ten minutes spare before my dinner guests arrive. I'm doing lamb chops and roasted vegetables (potatoes, tomatoes, aubergine & onions) with rosemary sprigs and garlic. I don't have too much confidence in the recipe - it's by Nigel Slater, who is my top favourite cook, but I had quite a time in the butchers yesterday buying the chops & they don't look anything like the ones in the magazine photo. The butcher didn't have any neck chops left - the woman who bought them was following a recipe from Jamie Oliver's new book! - so he carved up some ribs, yelling at me the whole time that they would be MUCH better than neck chops because neck chops only have a tiny amount of flesh on them. He said if they weren't delicious I could get my money back, but only if I bring them back to the shop and he tastes them and agrees. "If I lose a finger here it's your fault!" he bellowed as he sawed away at the bones. I love butchers.

I was so worried I went and bought gigot chops at Tesco today, because they look more like the ones in the picture. But they're only a fall-back in case the butcher chops don't work.

Oh, my lucky guests. Can't you tell I don't give dinner parties very often? This is my second in this house and I've been here for five and a half years.

The starter is Orkney herrings and marinated salmon rolls, salad and oatcakes, pudding is gooseberry crumble with yogurt or icecream.

Bertie's guest, Ozzy, is having Greyhound Maintenance biscuits and fresh tap water.

:: king kong done gone

WAH! I missed the news completely (see below), so imagine my shock and dismay when I went to Ingliston market today and it was all gone! No secondhand stalls, no dodgy dealings by the gates, no burger vans, no racks of horrid sportswear, no offers to unlock phones, no piles of pirate DVDs. Nuffin. A bunch of blokes in cars watching the planes land and take off (what's that about?), a helicopter taking on passengers in a field. Boo hoo hoo!


This lovely mirror cost just £2 at Ingliston!

And even if the market does resurrect somewhere else, the gorilla won't be pink any more!

From The Edinburgh Evening News 4 Oct 2005:

FOR years he towered over proceedings at Edinburgh's biggest market, helping reunite thousands of lost children with their parents.

But now the giant, bright pink King Kong statue, which was a landmark at Ingliston Market for more than 30 years, has been taken away after the market's closure. The 22ft-high gorilla statue, which became famous at the market as a meeting point for separated parents and their children, is to be resurrected at the market's new site.

But Spook Erections, the owner of the market, which was axed last month, has still not disclosed the location of the new site.

Plans to expand the airport prompted the market's closure amid fears the current site would be swallowed up.

A spokeswoman for Spook Erections said the gorilla, which was uplifted from the Ingliston site yesterday, would undergo repairs and a makeover before being settled into his new home.

She said: "Unfortunately, he was pushed over by some vandals before the last market, so he wasn't able to take part in that upright.

"He has some damage to his back and has broken his arm, so he needs to be repaired before we can put him up at the new site.

"The planning application for the new site hasn't been finalised yet, so we're not allowed to put him there yet anyway. We shall reveal the new location soon."

She added that the gorilla, which was grey until four years ago when current market owner Lesley Maby, boss of Spook Erections, decided to paint him shocking pink, would undergo a colour change.

She said: "He will also be painted a different colour, though I don't know what that will be yet. It will be a surprise when the market reopens."

The gorilla, which weighs 890kg, was erected at the market in 1973, three years after it opened.

The spokeswoman said: "He was part of a range of unusual and fun things that the owner of the time, Mr Maby, a relative of Lesley, decided he wanted to introduce to the market."

David Dixon, of Neil Williams Haulage, was in charge of removing the gorilla from his old home and putting him in storage.

He said: "He is a real Ingliston landmark. He's been there for years and years and everybody knows about him. If children got lost at the market, there would be an announcement over the Tannoy, saying: 'The parents of so-and-so should come to the King Kong to collect their child.'"

He added: "It was very sad when we went to pick him up - he'd been damaged, so he had a lot of strapping on his arm, just as if he'd broken it."

In its heyday, Ingliston Market was renowned as being one of Europe's biggest outdoor markets, regularly boasting more than 2700 stalls and tens of thousands of shoppers every week.

I wish I had seen it in its heyday. Sigh. There are car boot sales in a parking garage in Edinburgh - I went to one once and it was horrid: stinking of petrol and cold and dingy. Yuck.

:: orkney it is, then!

I'm going to be staying at The Noust for four nights, in the one-bedroom flat. It's only £25 a night, which is just great. The plan will be to drive up to probably Helmsdale the night before, then catch an earlyish ferry from Scrabster. The tricky part of travelling with Bertie is that I can't just do my usual thing of driving off without any bookings and just stop wherever looks nice. I have to find out in advance whether dogs are welcome. And I've stayed in some really rubbish places as a result. The first test of B&Bing with Bertie was a disaster - the room was so tiny and so crammed with furniture there was barely space for me, let alone him, his bed and his dishes; the door was directly opposite the front door, which opened straight on to a road busy with speeding traffic; and the resident dog was extremely unhappy at having an interloper on the premises. Nul points. A flat is ideal, however, because there is oodles of room for everything. Hurrah!

A five-day trip is good too, that way I can spend some time at home as well, tidying the garden, going out with friends and playing the guitar.

:: plinketty plinketty plonk

I've got about five chords memorised on the guitar now, and am concentrating on changing from one to another without looking. Lots of discord. My fingertips are getting tender. Next week I'll phone the local guy who does lessons.

I'm also pondering where to go/what to do on my week off. I'm thinking of spending a few days in Orkney. I went there a long time ago, on a day trip from Inverness and have always meant to go back. The day trip was great - I went with Annmaree, who now lives in Melbourne. The coach left at some ungodly hour and drove us to John o' Groats, where we got a ferry across to South Ronaldsay. The coach that met us there whizzed us round a selection of Orcadian highlights: Skara Brae, the Italian chapel, the Ring of Brodgar, the Churchill Barriers. We didn't have time to do Maes Howe and I only got a brief scurry around St Magnus Cathedral. The only thing is that it's a very long drive from here - about nine hours according to Google Maps. But then they suggest driving 29 miles north from the pier at Scrabster, so there's probably a bit of search and rescue downtime factored in.

It's only seven and a half hours from John o' Groats, but that ferry doesn't run after September. And there's always the option of getting a ferry from Aberdeen - six hours on the boat, which would be pleasant for me but no fun at all for poor Bertie.

The alternative would be to spend the week at home, making day trips now and then and doing stuff like going out in the evening and getting the garden tidied up. I'm leaning towards Orkney, myself.

:: michael, row the boat ashore ...

A few things meshed over the past week and voila! I have a guitar.

See, I have always longed to play a musical instrument. Last year I noticed a flyer in a local cafe window offering guitar lessons. Hmmmm, I thought, maybe I should take down the phone number. Then at the weekend I got my computer magazine through the post and the free CD included ... a Teach Yourself Guitar program. Finally, the day before yesterday there it was, in the "for sale" section of our electronic staff noticeboard, a Spanish guitar in mint condition, cost £140, selling for £50.

I collected it today - sadly minus the promised "Teach Yourself Guitar" books (the vendor's mum had given them to a charity shop. "Sarah could play Greensleeves, and you could tell what it was!"). But hey! I have the computer program. Which, marvellously, includes a tuner - you bong bong bong on the string in front of the microphone and the computer widget goes green when it's in tune. Ah, the miracles of technology. All tuned up, I was able to start strumming. I did three chords: simple G, simple C and G7. They are all strummed on just three strings. Tomorrow I progress to four-string strumming.

As far as I can tell it's a nice guitar.

I'm going to plug away at the computer lessons for a bit, but I think it would be useful to have lessons with a real person - I can't seem to get my fingers into the same positions as the man in the video clips.

The weather is crispening now we're almost into October, and the trees are turning. We are told this is going to be a severe winter and I wonder if that is related to the appearance of squirrels in the back yard. I've been feeding the birds for years, and last week had my first-ever squirrel. Within two days all my seed feeders had been destroyed, the little perches gnawed off. So now I've got squirrel-proof feeders with metal perches. The squirrel still gets fed - it tips the feeder sideways so the seed pours out. But at least the birds get some of it. Bertie is useless - this morning the squirrel AND a rabbit were chowing down in the garden while he lounged around upstairs. He deigned to look out the window but claimed he couldn't see anything.





I had a housework blitz last weekend - most satsifying - but the garden has really fallen behind. The front doesn't look too bad - the lavender has done especially well this year and is just gorgeous to brush past - but the back is tragic. I'm planning to relocate the vege bed, but it seems like too big a chore at the moment. I've got a week off next month and may get stuck into it then, weather permitting. What I'd really like is a raised bed, like the ones Leighanne had at Waihola, but I remember her saying what an enormous effort it was to create them, and ... err, I'm too lazy. But it would be ggreat to have something high enough for me to work on in comfort and to keep Bertie from trampling everything. Oh, and where the vege bed is now, I'm going to put in some blueberry bushes. Yum. And maybe a plum tree up the back.

:: liftoff

I haven't done the laundry or washed the dishes or the floor or the car, dusted, vacuumed, mowed the lawn or even made the bed, but I have established a wireless network connection between my two computers. [Cue thunderous applause] Thank you! Thank you! This is so unexpected ... I'd like to thank my bank manager, who made all this possible ...

It's autumn, suddenly. Have I been working on the computer for that long? I feel a bit like Rip Van Winkle.

The ivy outside the back door is in bloom and is a riot of wasps and flies. I must have a go at it with the clippers - two sneaky strands are trying to force their way into the livingroom.

There are squirrels in the back yard! I've lived here for five years now and it's the first time I've seen squirrels. It was just one to start with but word got around and now there are at least two. They hang upside down on the bird feeder, gorging on peanuts and seed. I'll have to get some squirrel-proof feeders - the poor birds are missing out. No pictures of squirrels yet - they flee as soon as I open the door. Bertie was excited at first, but less so now he realises he will never, ever catch one.

:: I have a new boyfriend

How gorgeous is he? Fwoar! I don't know why I didn't get a laptop long ago. I've wanted one for long enough - I nearly got one when my old computer blew up, at the end of last year, but ... well there was the trip to NZ and other stuff & in the end I had to economise. I decided I would wait until next year to get one, definitely. Then a few days later I was in Stockbridge and glanced in the window of the Sony shop ... and when I came to I was signing a credit card slip.

geektalk
It's not blisteringly fast, but it does have a TV card and built-in wireless & a big HDD (100Gb - annoyingly partitioned into two drives, and I didn't realise the small one was C: until I got a panicky error message saying I was nearly out of space ... "I'll just start deleting stuff, OK?" it squealed hysterically, while I yelled at it to shut up and started firing all my photo files over to the D: drive. Grrrrr. I now have to uninstall all my programs and reinstall them on D: How annoying), plus a docking station & good speakers. The screen is unbelievably good, much better than my telly, so it's fab for watching DVDs. I got a wireless setup too, which I'm going to have to finesse somewhat - the signal is allegedly "excellent" but I get a lot of disconnects. It may be the phone interfering. Or it could be that all the skirting boards and door frames in my house are cast iron. The old box is relegated to the spare room upstairs, where it sits rocking and sucking its thumb. I'm trying to set up a wireless network, but no joy so far ... the lappie won't share its stuff.
/geektalk

I can watch DVDs in bed! I can surf the net from the sofa! It's fab. I haven't tried taking it outside yet - the weather's been a bit too changeable - nor have I sat in a cafe pretending to write a bestseller. Hee hee!

In other news .... I don't know if I menationed, but I've started cooking Bertie's food. He's gone off tinned stuff almost entirely, apart from one flavour in one brand. Plus I got sick of the smell and washing out the tins for recycling. So now I get a big tub of whatever meat is cheap (today it was lean minced beef, last time it was turkey chunks) and cook it up with veg and stuff. Today it was elderly zuccini and pasta shells. I did the turkey with carrots and rice. He absolutely loves it! His favourite so far was liver porridge - liver is cheap as chips & so are oats, and he licked his bowl clean. He also gets a full serving of Greyhound Maintenance biscuits, which is enough to live on.

On Sunday I went to Fife for a walk, on a hill near the Scottish glding centre. It's a good place to walk because the gliders ride the thermals around the hill and they're wonderful to watch. They're so graceful and silent, like big birds. There were also a lot of paragliders launching from the top of the hill - a lot less graceful than the gliders, plus they were yelling at each other! It was a fairly gruelling climb - it's steep, plus I tried a shortcut and got scratched to pieces on gorse bushes, and it was hot, too. But very enjoyable. I had to keep Bertie on the lead because there were sheep. He was probably too hot and knackered to bother chasing them, but there's no knowing with him. We also had a walk at Loch Leven, which I thought would be nice and cooling for B - but it has blue-green algae, so I couldn't even let him have a drink, let alone a paddle.

Yesterday was spent mainly clearing up the clutter created in the course of setting up the new computer - it looked like I'd been burgled!

Big shout-out to Cathie and Bill in Christchurch: Cathie has just come through major surgery that could have knocked out her one remaining kidney - and she came through with flying colours! The kidney is ok, plus she was in and out of ICU in a day instead of the expected 3-4 days. What a trouper!

:: a dog's life

This just in:

Dear Bertie,
What has happened to your mistress? As John might ask: has she given up on her bloke?
Did the cry-for-help knife wound turn septic, therefore hindering her typing ability? Has she spent all her time frivolously tootling around the glens in her whizzy new car and left herself no time for blogging? Has she fallen down and not been able to get up? Are you, Bertie, at this very moment, chewing the remains of her ulna to stay alive?
Yours bloglessly,
Cousin Margaret

Bertie's reply:
Hey there, cuzzy! We've been having fun. First of all Faye came to stay, she's my favourite visitor on account of lots of walks and cuddles and treats. She didn't stay long though, just a few days. Then Andrew came by, but that was just the one day, for two walks. Great to see him though. And then it was David and Donna staying! They are cool too - Donna says she loves me, and I love her too. No more visitors since then, but I live in hope. We have been for lots of rides in the new car. I like it apart from the windows, which whizz up too fast and sometimes hit me in the nose.

We've had some really good walks lately and I've got some cool new friends. Yesterday we went to Holyrood Park and I waded in the pond, got all muddy, ha ha. The weather's been too hot for chasing rabbits though.

Look at my new table! I love it:



There might be more to report soon. There's been some talk of a "new machine" - hope it's not one of these computer things, she already spends far too much time fiddling about with them.

This picture was on the screen today - anyone know what it is?

:: cutting edge cuisine

I had a delicious dinner on Saturday night - spaghetti with an absolutely scrumptious sauce. I started cooking it at about 7pm and finally sat down to eat at just after half past midnight.

In between ... ?

It started with an olive. A black olive with a stone in the middle. The way not to stone an olive is to grip it in your left hand and slice it with a very sharp knife. The olive will slip from your fingers, the very sharp knife will keep going and you'll end up with a very nasty gash. In this case, across my thumb.

I eventually managed to stop the bleeding with a pile of paper towels, and after a little lie down (cold sweat, trembly knees, singing in my ears) I decided to try out NHS24, the new dial-a-nurse service. It was excellent! I learned that my nearest A&E Small Injuries Unit was too busy to take me before it shut at 9pm. The next nearest A&E was in Livingston, which I don't know at all, so I opted for the new Royal Infirmary. The nurse said she'd fax them my details, so off I went.

It was also very busy, Saturday being the night for disasters, and a cut thumb obviously isn't a high priority case. But there were plenty of magazines and plenty of interesting people, so the three hours I spent waiting went fairly quickly. By the time I got to a doctor the cut had started to seal up, so I didn't even have stitches, just steri-strips, a bandage and a tetanus injection.



It's still extremely painful, and the area between the cut and the thumbnail is numb. The doctor said that was ok, so long as the tip isn't numb it'll all settle down. The tetanus shot didn't hurt at the time but is now a big angry boil, like a giant insect bite.

Sunday I went to a lunch party at John & Penny's place, which was jolly. A former colleague was up from London with her daughter and it was nice seeing them again, plus there were other friends there I hadn't seen for a while. I also met lots of interesting new people, so it was a thoroughly good time all round. Oh, and the food was wonderful too.

I've been doing a bit of community volunteer work that's turning out to be interesting. A local livewire has organised a survey of what residents think of the town and what they'd like to see, and I've been helping type up the results in a spreadsheet organised by another livewire. The latest batch I did were teenagers, and it made slighty depressing reading. There isn't anything for them to do, they say, it's boring. So what do they like about the town? They like Tesco, McDonalds, Burger King. What would they like to see in the future? KFC, Pizza Hut and (wait for it) a theme park.

Later: I'm on to some grown-ups' survey sheets now, and they have a lot more to say about everything. The funniest teenager "dislike" was: "Too many police so you can't get into trouble". The elders, of course, would like many more police, on foot, patrolling the place at all hours. And something called "sequence dancing".

I started this the other day and put it away due to busy-ness, so I'd better publish it now or I'll never get it done. Work is just go go go the entire time these days, from when I arrive at about 4pm right through to 1am. Tonight I went to the pub for half an hour, but that's rare. At times I want to chuck it in and be a professional dog-walker. But Bertie can't afford to pay me, and I do quite like my posh new car, so I soldier on. At least it's interesting!

The Tattoo started tonight - and it was raining, of course. We've had a very dry, hot summer, but there were a couple of rainy days last week. "Tattoo weather," said one old hand, and so it is! Poor Festival visitors, I do feel sorry for them.

:: dog wars

Apparently X along the road has had a letter from the factor of the flats across the road complaining about her dogs. She is *furious*. She's an angry person anyway, and this is just about to tip her over the edge. NO-ONE ELSE has had a letter, she says, and anyway her dogs never poo around the flats and she carries bags anyway. She blames Y - who lives in one of the flats opposite her and has three dogs - for the factor's letter. X went into an angry rant about how "aggressive" Y's dogs are, "especially that black one, he needs a smack". (Actually the dogs are all perfectly OK, and Bertie gets on particularly well with the black one. X's two dogs, on the other hand, regularly growl at and nip Bertie.) X had gone across the road to confront her but got Z instead, who didn't say much.

So anyway then I met Z, who walks Y's dogs because Y has MS and can't manage them(I'm not sure if Z is her partner, her brother, nephew or even son - she's about my age and he's in his 30s). I mentioned X's letter to him, and he said they'd got one too. In fact every dog-owner in the whole complex had got a letter. X was the only dog-owner on our side of the street to get one, though. Z's theory is that the culprit is a cat, because the poos are quite small. There is a big black fluffy cat that seems to be outdoors all day and night. And when I think about it, something has been peeing and crapping on my front lawn, leaving bleached patches. That's highly unlikely to have been a dog. I forgot about that until I mowed the lawn this afternoon - the grass was so long it hid a pile of poo until it was too late.

I should write a letter of complaint to all the cat owners in the street.

:: cruising

Ah, having a (nearly) new car is lovely. Electric windows! Electric wing mirrors! Central locking! Most of all - extreme cleanliness. The last means, of course, no dogs allowed. I did take Bertie for a birl at the weekend, but he got (white) hairs on the (black) upholstery despite the seat cover and slobbered all over the windows, so he's banned again for a while. It won't be too long before I've tashed it up myself though, and he'll be back in the rear seat enjoying the 70mph breezes.

Also at the weekend I went to a party across the road - Dave & Diane's 35th wedding anniversary. It was fun! Dave has a jazz combo so I'd hoped for music - but they didn't play. I did meet most of the band, though, and their spouses, all real characters. And I also met a lot of across-the-street neighbours, who all knew me as "the woman who walks the tall skinny white dog". Hee hee! D&D's house backs on to the river, and it was wonderful to sit outside watching the yachts and dinghies and ships.

On Sunday I made jam - a dozen or so jars of gooseberry and just two of raspberry. The rasps are not up to much this year - possibly not enough rain. The gooseberries did surprisingly well. The fencing guys trampled one bush, breaking several branches off and damaging the others. But although the remaining branches were lying right on the ground almost hidden by straggly grass, there was an abundance of berries. The other bush suffers every year from some kind of insect attack or disease, not sure which, that strips off all the leaves just as the fruit are ripening, so I end up with a weird bald bush covered in gooseberries. The jam was excellent, a beautiful colour (green skins and seeds and pale pink jelly) and perfectly set.

The blackcurrants are coming along nicely too, should be ready in a week or so depending on the weather.

Oh, I forgot to mention last week's fun - meeting some flickrites in the flesh. I've never done this before - met internet contacts - so I was a bit nervous. Brendada came up from Durham and stayed with me, and we met up with Birdw0rks from New York and Chumplick from Texas. Not their real names! I also got to meet Shooz and Ladybobo briefly.

I'd better get back to my work - will write more later.

:: new wheels

Or nearly new, anyway - I've signed on the dotted line for a one-year-old Ford Fiesta, boring car in boring silver. It feels very nice to drive though, so it'll be ok. Also, the sales yard I'm getting it from is giving me £50 for my poor leaky, dented old bomb! Which is £50 more than anyone else has offered.

I have Tuesday off, so I'm collecting it then. I didn't like to ask if I could try putting my dog in the back seat to see if he fits, so too bad if he doesn't!

I'm looking forward to getting it, I must say. The window in my car is really hard to wind up and down - the mechanism is broken - and because various bits have broken down it has three, count 'em three keys. And now ... electric windows and just the one key. Luxury.

It's under warranty until May 2007 - and that's when it has its first MoT test!! No MoT (WoF) worries until then!

So anyway yes, I am still driving my old bomb around, as it happens. I went over some speed bumps today & suddenly thought - erk, that doesn't sound too clever. The suspension bearings are "worn to excess" in the back. Fingers crossed.

Yesterday Bertie and I went on the Make History Poverty march. It was quite something - up to 200,000 people aiming to form a white band around the centre of Edinburgh. This was organised before Geldof's Live 8 thang, which kind of overshadowed it in the end. What really struck me about the Edinburgh rally was the amazing variety of people there - all political persuasions, from Socialist Workers to church leaders (including the cardinal), punks to hippies, tres chic folk to teenage hoodies. The atmosphere was good too, relaxed but purposeful. People had come from all over the place, even Wales.

Bertie did brilliantly well, considering the place was heaving with children, and most of them were blowing whistles. He hated it, but he didn't freak out. Afterwards, as a treat, I took him to the Water of Leith.

:: argh

Bad news today: my dear old Peugeot, which has ferried me back and forth to work pretty much faithfully for five years, has failed its MOT (WOF, for kiwis). The repairs needed for a pass would cost £500 or so, and it's just not worth it.

Worse news: I thought I'd be able to sell it for scrap, but no-one I've phoned so far has offered a bean! They don't want to know! "I'll take it off your hands but I won't give you anything for it," they say. Bah. I'm going to offer it to the lads down the road who mend cars in their driveway - if I'm giving it away I'd rather it went to someone I know. They might not want it either, of course, it is pretty rough. But hey, it has four good tires! Errrr.... and that's about it.

The mechanic says it's actually dangerous to drive, so I'll probably have to hire a car to go car-hunting in. One of the chaps at the garage offered me a P-reg SEAT Toledo for £150, but as I said to him, it's probably time I got a proper car.

So, car-hunting. Tomorrow is my day off, but it's also, wait for it, Make Poverty History rally day. Yes, not only would I rather be rallying myself, but a) I can't and b) car-hunting/hiring/scrapping will be made difficult by road closures, heavy traffic, police, steel perimeter fences ... oh, it's going to be just lovely.

Oh, and of course then there's car parking at work - you only get into the car park with your own car, the one registered as yours. So I'll have to explain to them about my hire car etc etc.

An added complication is insurance - apparently some car dealers will insist you have a certificate of insurance before they'll let you drive your car away. So that means giving them a deposit, arranging insurance, waiting for the insurer to post a certificate and then picking up the car.

Grumble grumble grumble.

Plan A is to get the bus into town and hire a car, then tootle around looking at car yards. What is missing from this plan? Bertie, that's what. So I have to walk him, get the bus, hire a car, blah blah.

Everything else I was planning to do on my day off goes out the window.

I'll stop grumbling now. It's a lovely sunny day, hurrah.

:: The Big Update

John phoned today (hi John! hi Mum!) and said: "Have you finished with that bloke then?" Or at least that's what I thought he said. In fact he was asking about this blog, not about my imaginary boyfriend. And he's not the only one asking about the blog. It seems I have Readers.

So here it is: an update at last and a promise to drop an occasional line or two here.

Where did I get up to? The general election.

It was a busy night at work but fun - it was strange seeing all the London-based political correspondents in the office, and very strange indeed that we were almost all still in the office as dawn broke. Bertie stayed with my colleague John's wife Penny, and I collected him before driving home. The downside of this late shift was that the next night at work I felt as though I had a really shocking hangover.


John and Alistair compare notes at the end of the all-night shift. Please note that I have two computers!

Anyway, soon enough I was off for my extended weekend trip to Argyll and points north. I took my time getting there - I was still a bit groggy from sleep deprivation. The weather was a bit wild en route: I stopped to let Bertie out for a wee on a bleak hillside and nearly couldn't get the door open, the wind was so strong. And I had some trouble finding the B&B - I've stayed there before, so I thought it'd be easy to spot. But in fact it's fairly tucked away, and Mrs Gordon doesn't bother with a B&B shingle.

It's a lovely comfortable place - not great on mod cons, but wonderfully homey and relaxing. I also had a nice big room, which is great where Bertie's concerned. Click on any of the photos to see more on flickr.com.


After walking Bertie I hit the hay and had a wonderfully restorative sleep. Just as well, because I had a busy day planned. First off, south to Loch Sween and the Kilmory Knap Chapel, to look at gravestones:



After that I had a great walk at a forest reserve along the road. It was a real gem - Bertie enjoyed it enormously. He doesn't get off the lead much on country walks due to sheep, so a gallop through forest glades was just thrilling for him.



Then I drove down the other side of Loch Sween just to have a look-see. Major thrill there was a roe deer dashing across the road right in front of the car, which caused Bertie almost to explode from excitement. I stopped in Tayvallich for a late lunch - the cafe was right on the shore, so I had a grand view of dinghy sailors battling the strong wind in the bay.

Next stop was Crinan, at the end of the Crinan Canal. Nice spot for an hour or so.



And still there was more to see! I hurtled back north to Kilmartin, to visit the graveyard there.



Then south again to Dunadd Fort, once the stronghold of Scotland's kings.



I was flagging a bit by now, but hit one more prehistoric highlight: the Nether Largie standing stones. It started to rain, so I headed back to Ri Cruin, completely cream-crackered. I didn't bother with dinner, just had a cup of tea and a biscuit.

While walking Bertie that evening, I saw something intriguing: a huge ruined house on the hill, half covered in ivy. I asked Mrs Gordon about it the next day, and she said it was Poltalloch House, which used to be the home of the owners of the big estate. It had a magnificent oak staircase and a pipe organ. Ri Cruin was the factor's house, and her parents had bought it after the war, when the estate was downsized.

She said they couldn't get staff for the house because young people didn't want to go into service any more - "they found out there was a world out there" - so they decided to demolish it. "They went and lived in the castle ... it's not like they didn't have anywhere else," she said.

So of course I had to go up there for a look. Mrs Gordon said there were Keep Out notices, but just to ignore them. I'd noticed what looked like a private road leading to the house during my walk, but when I looked at the map there seemed to be another one so I thought I'd try that. Next thing I was bumping along through a field on the most terrible farm track, trying not to gouge out the underside of the car on the ruts. And coming towards me was another car. Uh oh, I thought, here comes the farmer to berate me for upsetting his lambs.

He stopped and wound down his window. "Have you seen a lurcher anywhere?" he asked. Er, no, I said. Bertie of course was almost climbing out of the window - he does love novelty! "There's another road up here, you know, a much better one than this," he said as he drove off. So I carried on up the rocky road to the house. There were indeed signs warning me, but soon I was in the most amazing ruin. The roof was gone and the upper floors, and the ground was thick with mud and festooned in rolls of barbed wire. I couldn't get through all the obstacles to reach the front of the house, which was annoying.

Back in the car I drove round the front to see if I could get access that way, but it was all fenced off. (As I drove out on to the track, a van stopped and the driver wound the window down. "Have you seen a lurcher around anywhere?" she asked.) Plus I was due in Oban for lunch and still had other places to visit. I'll go back one day for a better look.



I headed off down the better track and met the lurcher man driving back up. "Did you find your dog?" I asked. Yes, he had. "She loves the farm so much she always runs away and hides when it's time to go home. She was in the house the whole time."

Off to Oban then, with a brief stop at the Temple Woods stone circle. I took some wonderful photos there the first time I visited - the bluebells were amazing. But this time it was drizzling and the flowers weren't quite out yet.



I was in Oban to visit Kate, Robbie and wee Calum. I found them all well and happy, in a nice little cottage tucked around the corner from a beautiful beach near the town.



After lunch (delicious soup and home-baked bread) I headed off across the country to the Rose-Millers' farm. It was an uneventful trip - until I got to Inverness. I got stuck in a rush-hour traffic jam! I still can't believe a little city like that could have a rush-hour, let alone one that traps you in a single street for nearly an hour. As it turned out I got to the farm just as dinner was served, so the timing was pretty good.

My farm visit was pretty busy too! On Tuesday, after a lazy start for me and lots of farm work for Andrew, we went to Culbin Sands for a walk. Bertie flushed a hare and chased it at break-neck speed straight into the forest. He must have been doing 30mph when he hit the treeline - he was very close to catching the hare. When we finally found him he was badly winded (he is seven and feeling his age a bit) and had scraped his back legs on logs or something. The walk back to the car was a good warm-down for him though and no serious harm was done. We had lunch at Brodie Country Fare, a favourite spot. It has a great restaurant and the most mind-boggling shop, a cornucopia of ornaments, gee gaws and objets of every description - all wildly expensive. The smell of potpourri would fell an ox. Which they would then stuff, decorate and sell to American tourists.

After Brodies we hurried home, ditched Bertie and headed off to the movies. We saw that Crusader film, the name of which escapes me. Kingdom of Heaven? Anyway it was OK - I have a thing for Orlando Bloom so the ludicrous plot didn't bother me too much.

After the movie we hurried home again and got ready for dinner. We went to the Cawdor Tavern, which has great food. I didn't see much of Jenny, who is, as ever, busy with the museum. But Andrew and John are on good form.



Andrew is looking forward to starting teacher training. He's going to a college in Glasgow, arriving in July or August. His preparation includes observing at a school in Auldearn, a village near Nairn, and doing high-school maths.

The next day after a nice walk I headed for home. I went via the museum and then south over the moors via Carrbridge.



Fast-forward now to later in May and a brief visit from Faye. We went toHopetoun House, which is just down the road from my house but which I've never visited. It was great, and I'd like to go back for a second look. We had a sumputous afternoon tea in the cafe, which is in the old stable block. "The horses lived better than the servants," the waitress said.



Faye enjoyed having a break from her job - she says it's lovely to sit and read or do embroidery and know you're not going to be summoned away to deal with something. She's now waiting to hear from the Home Office whether her application for permanent residence has been approved. If it has, she'll try to get work up here in Scotland. If not ... wah!

So that's the main events. Other than that I've been quietly, happily busy: work, dogwalking, photography, the occasional movie or meal out, yakking on the phone, gardening, going to the gym, tapestry, reading. I'm feeling the benefits of the gym work, though my knees are still pretty painful. My trainer, Stewart, is a hoot. I had my MP3 player on while treadling away on the crosstrainer and he asked what I was listening to. "The Supremes," I said. "What do they do?" I let him listen to a snatch of Baby Love. "Oh, that 80s stuff!" he said. "Sixties, I think," I said. "I dunno, I wasn't born then," he shrugged. Now he ribs me mercilessly about my "old people's music". "Yeah, it's some old stuff from the 90s, before you were born," I told him.

I'm so old.

Also on the fitness theme, some workmates and I have started up a walking group - we're going to go for a longish hike one Saturday a month, see how it goes. The first one was yesterday: Barbara, me, Anne and Anne's friend Gina. We went to the Pentlands, did the long flat walk by the reservoirs. Barbara brought her dog, Jack, along and I took Bertie. It was a good walk, good company too.



I had a lovely letter from cousin Jean the other day. She and Margaret are coming to Scotland next year, probably November. I haven't seen Jean for years and years, so it was great to hear about her family and their farm and the McKenzie Country. It's amazing to think how similar our start in life was and how completely different our lives have been. I'm looking forward to having them to stay.

Work has been particularly busy the past few days, as John's away on holiday, so I have more solo shifts. Friday was a complete nightmare: it was the busiest I've ever been in this particular job, I was a blur from go to whoa. But I survived, and not only that, I didn't kill anyone or even shout at anyone, which is quite an achievement.

Tomorrow I'm getting my hair done - I'm going back to my natural colour, or rather my hairdresser's interpretation of it. But it's only a semipermanent tint, so it washes out - it's looking terrible at the moment. I've got Tuesday off, hurrah.

So there you go! All caught up. I will try to be more regular from now on.

:: 1,000 words

Well. I have been away for some time - I hope you're still checking my pulse now and then.

I've been over on flickr, which is lots of fun. The combination of a new camera, broadband and flickr has been addictive - in fact I've decided to limit the amount of time I spend online.

In other news ...

I have a new back gate and fence. I'd accepted the quote I had (plus an extra £20 for a bit more height) and I had a call at 10:15pm one night asking if it was ok if they came the next day. And they did! I raced out before they arrived and took the canes down from around my "veg garden" (aka patch of weeds).

The team of two blokes started with the gate - within a few minutes they had demolished the old one and set up new posts.

 

Then they went off for "breakfast" before coming back to hang the new gate, take down the bamboo curtain and put in fence posts. After coffee and biscuits they got stuck in to fencing proper. One of them had a nail gun, so the whole thing went up incredibly fast. They didn't do too much damage, just broke some branches off a gooseberry bush and a blackcurrant.

That was a Thursday. I spent the entire weekend, Saturday and Sunday, coating the fence in wood preservative. Very messy stuff, runny and bright orange. Saturday I did the gate and panel, both sides, and nearly all of my side of the fence. Then on Sunday I went next door and cut out the old wire fence (which Frances tells me was put up by Mrs Blacker's son, the builder), chopped out the weeds and grass that was growing under it and painted the rest. I had felt I was more than halfway, but I hadn't counted on how bloody long it would take to paint the inner edges of the planks. It was agonising! But so worth the effort. 

My other news is that I've been officially diagnosed as having mild to moderate arthritis in both my knees. I knew that already, but had an X-ray to confirm. It's been quite depressing over the past couple of years, the deterioration and pain. I've had to give up sailing - I'm not nimble enough any more, and any kneeling at all, even just briefly, leaves me in bad pain for up to a week. And I've been wimpish about hillwalking too - it's so painful going downhill! So I've put on weight, which has in turn put more pressure on my knees.

At about this time, the Guardian published an article by the late Andrea Dworkin about her arthritic knees. What struck me about it was how relentlessly negative she was, and how passive. She didn't appear to have done anything positive herself about her condition - losing weight, for example, or investigating alternative remedies. I've tried various things - cutting out fruit juice has helped, oddly enough, and glucosamine is good too - and of course I've surfed the net for ideas.

All this came together in the decision to lose weight by getting more exercise. I hate dieting - it's boring and makes me obsess about food - and I want to build my muscle strength back up. I called the nearest gym and they said to get the doctor to refer me - it's cheaper. So I did that and my first session is Thursday.

Yesterday I went out and bought a pair of sneakers - it's that long since I went to the gym! It was hilarious - sneakers are so ugly now! And wildly expensive. I always used to get plain white Reeboks - but the style that I like is only for kids now, so I had to settle for a horrible-looking 70s-style pair, the plainest I could find. Oh well, they were cheap.

Also on Thursday is the election, and I'm doing a special late-late shift, 9pm to 6am. What fun! Yes really! Working election night is always a buzz - it's exciting when it's close and you're waiting for the next result to come in, and the next and the next. Labour is going to get a pasting but will probably still get in. I don't agree with all they've done, especially over the war, but the Tories would be a disaster. I've been hating their campaign - banging on about immigration as though it's a bad thing. Pah!

So I work to 6am on Friday, then 4pm to 1am, then on Saturday I drive across the country to Kilmartin. Yup, a long weekend has lured me out onto the road. I'm having a couple of days in Kilmartin, Argyll, then off to Oban to visit Kate, Robbie and wee Calum, then straight up the Great Glen to Inverness and Wester Barevan. I'm there for just a couple of nights.

Right now I'm off home. I'll put some pics in later on.

:: flickrd off

Flickr has taken over from my blog! Photography and website tinkering and surfing (Anthea has been sending me music and Mum and John have been phoning regularly, both via Skype), walking, work ... I don't know. Time flashes past.

I'm trying to be disciplined and go to bed early, ha ha. Today I was wrenched from my bed by the doorbell at 11:30am - Bertie's new kibble being delivered. He's recovered from his ordeal (aka my holiday) to the extent that I think he might be better off on "Greyhound Maintenance" than "Beta Active". He turned his nose up at the new stuff though. "Bleugh! I'm not eating that rubbish."

On Easter Monday morning it was the fencing man that woke me, come to do a quote. The bamboo curtain isn't going to last another winter so I'd better get on with a replacement. The back gate is also falling apart, so I got him to quote for that as well. He reckoned 4ft would be high enough for the fence, though I have my doubts.

Last week's alarm clock was the next door neighbours having new central heating installed - they were very good about it, making sure the noisy work didn't start until late morning. They had to have the chimney swept and warned me about it in advance, which was just as well - it sounded as though someone was coming through the wall!

Went to quite a good concert recently - the Edinburgh Royal Choral Union. One of its members works in the features department and sells us tickets at a discount. This was a varied programme, to mark the launch of their CD. They did a James MacMillan piece, A New Song, which was gorgeous ... I really like MacMillan ... and my favourite bit of The Messiah.

On Saturday night Fiona, who is an ace social organiser, got a fun group round to her place for drinks and then off down the hill to a pub at Granton for a meal. There were ten of us altogether, once Verity had arrived - she'd just flown in from California that day! Really enjoyable evening.

Some wonderful news: my friend Colin (used to be a workmate, taught me sailing, now training to be a nurse) has just become a dad - his wife Gillian had a little boy by Caesarian section this morning. She already has three kids and he's been being a house-husband while waiting for his course to start.

Right. I'd better head off and walk Bertie before getting to bed - it's nearly 3am!!

:: losing streak

Must ... go ... to ... bed ... must ... stop ... surfing ...

But wait! I've just stumbled on Bertie's racing record. Poor devil, he started out really well, but it all went pear-shaped in a matter of months. All his races were in Galway, Ireland, the first on 15 April 1999, the last on 21 September 1999. I've had him since 22 March 2001. "Total prize money of €0." Pooooor Bertie, he didn't earn a living.

Right! I'm off to bed. I've been working on my website revamp - it's a lot easier with broadband! Honestly!

Forth Road Bridge

Forth Road Bridge
Originally uploaded by hockadilly.

Blustery, cold day - walked across the bridge with the wind blowing up my sleeves, had an ice-cream and got the train back. At the station some Russian tourists told me Bertie was a Russian dog and asked how much he cost. They thought £50 was pretty reasonable.

:: on the mend

Bertie's fans will be pleased to know he's recovered from his ordeal (aka my holiday) and has regained most of the weight he lost in kennels. Accordingly he's becoming a fussy eater yet again - for a while there he was scoffing anything and everything and then asking for more. His bowl is always clean at the end of the day though.

I should really take some photos of my house just now - it's a wreck. I've just got broadband (which is fantastic!) and installing it involved plugging a special splitter and extension cable into the phone socket. Which is behind a six foot tall bookcase. So I took all the books out of the bookcase and stacked them on the table and wiggled the case away from the wall. So far so good. But to get the extension to reach all the way from the socket to the modem, I had to slide it round behind the four other six-foot tall bookcases. This was tricky - they fit flush against the wall, so I had to stand on a chair and delicately tip each one forward, being careful not to tip them right over - books are heavy. But the cable got stuck underneath and wouldn't pull through and wouldn't fit all the way round. So plan B is to get a USB extension and take the mountain to Mohammed. In the meantime the books stay on the table - along with the box the modem came in, a printout of the instructions for doing everything, the old phone extension cord, packets of photo paper - the usual stuff.

Meanwhile in the livingroom piles of mail are building up: photo CD-ROMs for the family, music CDs for Rowan, books for Chris and Kate, a card for Caroline, pressies for Faye. out in the hall is the recycling collection; my old office upstairs has never recovered from its demotion (it's turning into one of those rooms you have to seal off when there are visitors); my bedroom - well, let's not go there. It was tidy for five minutes about a week ago, when I finished packing. It's not any more. Bertie refuses to keep the spare room tidy. The bathroom and toilet are pretty good.

The kitchen was a disaster area until Monday, when I had a shock visit from the water inspector. "Do you mind if I just shift these dishes out of the sink?" she said. It's a random thing they do every day, apparently. This woman drives around visiting houses to sample their water. She swabbed the tap with chlorine, left it for two minutes (she had a timer round her neck) then ran it for a while before filling a bottle from her tray. As soon as she was gone I did the dishes and wiped all the surfaces and polished the kettle and swept the floor. I'm sure she sees worse, but still, it was a wake-up call.