:: I'm baaaack!

I've been back for a couple of days but as usual have been flying around catching up with practical stuff and not sitting down and writing about my hols.

Which were great! We went up to the farm on Friday after Bertie got the all-clear from the vet (and more biscuits). Had a great few days on the farm, including a lovely dinner out with Andrew's folks and his aunt and uncle. I got lots of presents and so did Andrew, so we had a little opening session every day. There was also a small drama involving Andrew's other aunt and the Cawdor estate drama -- for a few ghastly minutes she thought she was to be evicted from her cottage, which the estate owns, but it was a misunderstanding. Phew.

Sunday we left for Skye, had a great drive there, stopping for a late lunch at the railway station cafe at Plockton. The bridge tolls have to be the friendliest anywhere -- the attendant sweetened the £4.70 charge with a handful of biscuits for Bertie!

Our first stop was the B&B at Eabost West -- very comfortable.

View from the lounge (same as from the bedrooms):



Tasty breakfast too!



We had a good walk to wear that off, to the Coral Beach near Dunvegan Castle. There was a "no dogs" sign, but we decided it really meant "no terriers". Bertie behaved himself perfectly, apart from eating sheep droppings (ewww!) After a quick cup of tea in Dunvegan, during which it rained, we headed south to um, er, a place near Carbost, long Gaelic name where we scrambled around on cliff tops in a cold wind. Brrr. Next port of call was the Talisker whiskey distillery, where we were disappointed to learn that the next tour wasn't until 4.30pm, too late for us. But a group of Norwegian submariners just happened to be there having a private tour, so we tagged along with them. Very interesting, lots of fascinating smells and sights. We weren't allowed to take photos because of the firefighters' strike.

Then it was back to Moira's B&B to wash and dress and walk the dog. Then, hurrah! We were off to the Three Chimneys for our birthday treat (a major treat for me, as Andrew picked up the tab!! What a guy!)

It was the most extraordinary route to an award-winning restaurant, driving for miles down a single-track road keeping an eye out for straying sheep. But well worth the effort -- the food was divine. Here are some snaps:


My starter: Skye seafood croustade with scallops and lobster, mmmmmmm


Andrew's starter: black pudding with mushrooms and apple. It looks odd but he says it tasted sensational.


My main course: lamb, perfectly cooked, on leek mash with roasted root veg and a port wine sauce.


Andrew's main course: Scallops and monkfish, luscious.

We also had half a dozen raw Skye oysters each, fresh and delicious. First time I've had raw oysters for a long time.

I didn't take photos of the deserts because by then other diners had arrived, but I had a dreamy chocolate tart, which managed to be creamy, rich and light all at the same time, and Andrew had marmalade steamed pud and drambuie custard. The wine was a German sauterne, just off dry, very nice.

We were full as ticks after all that! It was the best restaurant meal I've ever had, wonderful.


Andrew was falling over, he drank so much ... no, he's trying to be artistic. "There's something wrong with your chin," he said. Yes, the famous family chin, glowing away roundly.

The next day we moved to our next accommodation, at Flodigarry, but first we went off down to Elgol, another looooong single-track road. At one point it was guarded by a fierce highland cow. We had to shout at her to get her to move. Bertie was very impressed by her horns and didn't even THINK about barking at her.





Then black north to Flodigarry, stopping for lunch at the Aros Experience at Portree and for a steep walk at the Old Man of Storr. I stopped before the top -- ran out of steam -- but Bertie and Andrew pushed on up to the Old Man. It was a rush because it gets dark at about 3.45.

The hotel was great, a real treat. It's quite expensive in season, but at this time of year it's almost cheap -- £35 each. There's a vast lounge with several sofas, a grand piano and a roaring log fire, a swanky dining room and a fairly scuzzy bar. There were hardly any other guests, so we got to have our bar meals in the dining room and had the lounge to ourselves. Bertie wasn't allowed down there, but he was exhausted so didn't mind too much.

Pics:


The hotel was built as a private house by a descendent of Flora Macdonald -- she used to live in a cottage nearby.


These were everywhere -- big mice, dressed up. Bertie was creeped out by them. So was I.


The bar is in the battlemented white bit you can see in the view of the house, on the right. It has a Moroccan theme -- the original owner lived there -- but the hotel owners haven't let that influence the decor.


Meanwhile, back in the lounge...


It was comfortable in a tatty, well-worn way.


Well it's 6pm and I've got to have a shower and walk the dog before I go out. I'll finish this later on ... maybe tomorrow night at work. Sigh.

:: ouch

That's what it says on Bertie's new bandage, in several languages. Autsch! Aiee!! That's pretty much what Bertie was saying when the vet snipped off his broken dew claw. She made him a little muzzle out of a bandage in case he bit her, but I don't think he would have. He was really shocked that she hurt him though -- his pal! His chum! And I was in trouble too for taking him in there and not smacking her when she hurt him.

He came round after a lot of cuddles and biscuits -- at one point the vet was hugging him and crooning: "You're just misunderstood, yes, you're so unloved and no-one understands you, poor dog,"

"No-one feeds him either," I added.

"Noooo! You're starving and unloved and misunderstood, poor, poor Bertie," she said as he crushed up against her, trembling. I think it was a Vulcan mind-meld.

I don't know how Bertie managed to break his claw, but he probably caught it on something while running around manically on this morning's walk. We were at Blackness for the first time in ages, and he was really excited. We were just going into the woods when I noticed there was blood on his leg. He was very put out when I marched him back to the car.

Right now, full of biscuits, painkillers and antibiotics, he's conked out on the floor behind me. I have to take him back to the vet on Friday morning, before we go north, to have his leg checked out. It should be ok -- it doesn't seem to bother him too much to walk on it, it was just horribly painful to the touch.

Here are pictures:

That lovely bandage in full -- it's still reasonably pristine because I sprayed chew deterrent on it. Ewwww, yuck.


Injured dog writhes in pain while owner callously takes his picture. Actually he's zonked out on painkillers and waiting for me to carry on scratching his chest.

Otherwise, we're good to go! We're staying at a B&B at Struan, south of Dunvegan, for two nights, then one night at the Flodigarry country house hotel. Both my first choices were closed and it was tricky finding somewhere that's open and takes dogs. I'm leaving on Friday, after the vet visit. Friday night we're going to see the latest Harry Potter film, Saturday night we're going out with Andrew's aunt and uncle, then Sunday (after feeding the cattle) we leave for Skye. We head back to the farm on Wednesday, and I go back to Edinburgh on Thursday.

I'm really looking forward to the whole thing.

:: flat tack

This new job certainly has the hours whizzing past. I start half an hour earlier, so for a start I'm having to alter my routine. Then I'm busy from when I sit down until now ... my break. I do prefer to be busy right through, and it's varied work. I'm beginning to learn some of the system's internal workings, which is most interesting.

Tomorrow is my last night on before I go on holiday for a fortnight. I've been pondering how to celebrate my half-century (how can I possibly be that old?) and it's taking shape -- I'll make bookings tomorrow. For a while there I feared it might be a misery-fest, what with the work crisis, but now that's sorted I feel fine about it all.

I'm going up to the farm, probably next Friday, then Andrew and I will go to Skye for a few days. We're going to stay at Dunvegan, hopefully in this B&B and have our joint birthday dinner at the Three Chimneys restaurant. Then we move to Glen Eynort, in a remote corner of the island for another night, then head back to the farm. Fingers crossed it all works out.

My cold is nearly all gone -- it was just an annoying sniffling one, nothing serious. Bertie cut his foot the other night charging around after rabbits, but that's healing up well too. He was beaten up by a staffordshire bull terrier the other day but wasn't injured -- apart from severely dented ego and bruised pride. The staffie's owner had to sit on it to subdue it. Meanwhile his other dog, also a staffie, was ignoring the boys' antics and trying to get me to thrown her "stick" -- a great big log. They really are strong dogs, eh!

I'm thoroughly enjoying my new sofa. It's sooo comfy! I can stretch right out on it and my feet don't touch the other end. It's a more tomatoey red than I remember from the shop, but that's ok.

Back to work again now...

:: hot gossip

In case you didn't find it, here is the link to the story about Andrew's neighbours. This is the second episode -- it's rumbling on nicely.

:: sickly

Woke up with a sore throat this morning, really sore. I had a nice hot bath and wrapped up warm so I feel a bit better now. I hope this doesn't turn my weekend to mush. I haven't had a cold or anything for years.

Driving home last night I suddenly found my rear-view mirror full of blue flashing lights. I pulled over and immediately went into my "please don't give me a ticket" routine. I always get out of the car, I never sit there waiting for the cop to come up to the window. I'm unflaggingly polite, pleasant and cheerful. I admit right away to doing whatever it is they're pulling me over for, apologise sincerely and thank them for their chastisement.

I have never ever been given a ticket, and I've been pulled over lots of times.

This time it was speeding -- 50mph in a 40mph zone. "I didn't think I was going that fast," I said, "I thought I was only doing 45." That made them laugh, because of course it was still over the speed limit. Apparently I was "only" doing 45 but then I sped up as I went down a little slope just before the start of the open road.

The nice policemen made me get into my car and turn off all the lights. Then I had to turn them all on again -- parking, full, high beam, indicators, brakes. Everything worked. Then I had to pop the bonnet (I couldn't find the catch and one of them had to do it for me) and they checked the engine. Finally I was admonished and sent on my way.

One o'clock in the morning, you'd think they'd have better things to do, grumble grumble.

My last day in my current job! How strange. I don't have a last-day feeling at all.

Tim is away from his desk and this is tinkling away tinnily as his mobile phone rings unanswered.

:: argh

This is how I feel lately -- though I hadn't thought of this chap's practical approach to it!

Today I had to collect Rona from the railway station, so it was probably not a good idea to start downloading the Windows XP service pack an hour before I had to leave. I got engrossed, and suddenly had five minutes to shower and get out of there. The download still had two hours to run. Blimey.

So I hurtled off through suddenly sluggish traffic, found a park, flew down into the station -- and her train was late. Whew.

Traffic was bad on the way home too, so Rona got the fast-forward tour of the house and facilities before I roared off. Bertie will be happy -- she was planning to take him for a walk. Gorgeous day, by the way, sunny and clear, with lots of golden leafy autumn goodness everywhere. I had to be in to work early for a meeting with the two blokes I'll be working with. Very interesting -- seems my course in Visual Basic was a good idea!

Ikea phoned -- the new sofa arrives on Monday, which is a day off, hurrah, so no complications with me not being there.

Right now I'd better do some work.

:: happy endings

Crisis over! I'm moving on to another job, still on the paper though -- details by email. I was offered a couple of choices (plus the option of staying where I am, with changed duties) and took the most interesting -- it's a temporary position with a small production team for four or five months. I get on well with them -- in fact I had dinner at the home of one of them on Saturday night -- so I'm happy about the move.

Best of all, I get to take two weeks of annual leave which I wouldn't have been able to take if there hadn't been any changes, due to lack of cover. Hurrah! I'm planning a wee trip to Skye.

I was worried about how two of my colleagues would fare -- one of them walked out on Monday (which I think he secretly enjoyed), the other is staying on, hopefully with his position unchanged. I'm carrying on with my old job unchanged to the end of the week, then I have a week on the new job, then two weeks off. Then it's practically Christmas!

I'm collecting my next guest, Rona, at the railway station tomorrow afternoon (this afternoon, seeing it's past midnight). She's staying until Tuesday, looking forward to that.

I was going to link to a story in today's Scotsman about Andrew's next-door neighbours, the Earl and Countess of Cawdor, but it's not on the website yet. Very exciting! Check it out later on, it's a fascinating family feud. The earl's lawyer is none other than our old friend Sir Crispin Agnew of Lochnaw.

Nearly time to go home. What a stressful week this has been -- I was so distracted when I arrived at work yesterday (Tuesday) I left my headlights on when I parked in the garage downstairs. Luckily someone reported it to reception so I got them turned off before the battery went flat. I've got a long weekend -- Saturday, Sunday, Monday -- and I'll be able to relax and really enjoy it. I want to go for at least one good big long walk.

I went to see 28 Days Later on Monday night, a very scary movie. Scary because it was so real -- it's shot on digital video with a mix of experienced and inexperienced actors, so it had a gritty feel to it. Recommended for fans of scary films but not for the squeamish.

:: still ok

But I still don't know what I'll be doing in the near future.

I'll send another email update soon. In the meantime I'm frantically busy it seems. Marian came and went and crammed a lot into her visit. It was too short, wah! But it was great to see her and catch up. Next guest arrives Thursday, cue several loads of laundry.

Today I hiffed out the old sofa, disturbing Bertie no end. Not that he sat on it or anything, but ... well, shouldn't that be inside the house rather than out on the street? He doesn't like change.

Oh, there's too much to report, too little time to report it in. But I will get there. Honest.

:: I'm ok!!

I'm so sorry to have worried people with my cryptic message -- things are bad, sure, but I'm coping really well. "Despite the stress I feel calm and cheerful" I said, and I meant it. I do feel cheerful. I'm also angry, slightly apprehensive, distracted and sometimes impatient. It's complicated. But I'm ok, really -- you don't need to worry.

One thing that's cheering me is my computer -- absurd that it should please me so much but it does. It works! It works every single time I turn it on. The software has many useful and interesting new settings for me to play with. And there's still more new software to install and play with. The only thing is finding time to play with it. Bertie finds my interest in it troubling: Why are you sitting with your face to the wall? Is something wrong? He puts his head on my lap and nudges my elbow, then finally flings himself down on the floor.

If the weather's at all decent this weekend I'm getting out and about. Did I mention our Pentlands expedition last Saturday? I really enjoyed that. More, please! Not in sheep country though -- Bertie hates being on the lead all the time.

:: stuff

There's a lot going on at the moment that I can't talk about here -- let's just say it's become an extremely stressful week. I'll email people privately or phone (some of you already know what's happening). It's nothing life-threatening but it's keeping me frazzled.

Otherwise, weirdly enough, I'm hunky-dory. Despite the stress I feel calm and cheerful. Bertie has mysteriously become obedient -- yesterday he even stopped hassling some elderly dogs on command, and later on declined to bark at some boys. Next thing he'll be letting kids pat him ...

Time to go home now.

:: wee bugger

I got the bugbear virus today! Didn't get infected though, my antivirus software caught it. I installed the program yesterday and did a scan -- all clear. Then today when I downloaded my email, BING! It roared into action and deleted the nasty. Ha ha, my computer's smarter than the Aussie parliament's entire system.

So yes, the computer overhaul goes forward, slowly but surely. The best part is that I've got the printer, scanner and camera all working smoothly, all on USB. The printer goes faster! It's fab.

:: it's not just me that's middle-aged then...

Everything is -- Universe is 'doomed to collapse' say US professors.

:: sofa so good

I finally ordered my new sofa yesterday, hurrah. In the end I got a three-seater rather than a sofa-bed (which was bigger than the two-seater but smaller than the three-seater), because I don't really need an extra bed and the three-seater is £200 cheaper. I got bright red slip covers, and an extra set of covers in natural, for summer -- the red ones would fade in the sun.

It arrives sometime after November 7, so I still have a couple of weeks left of discomfort. Oh, and to arrange disposal of the old sofa. I don't know if I mentioned but none of the charity shops would take it because it's not fire-proof.

So that's my big spending spree finished -- it was great fun while it lasted! Installation of the new software is going pretty smoothly. I installed new modem yesterday, so I'm back on line again. All the other hardware seems to be behaving better under Windows XP. I still have to reinstall all my programs, plus then partition the hard drive and install Linux. What fun! It's a pleasure to turn on my computer again -- previously it would stutter and stumble and give error messages and generally be annoying. Now it whizzes along in an orderly fashion. Yippee!

Today was busy -- I had to take the car in to the garage for a new tyre, so I flung Bertie in and took him for a walk afterwards. The weather is foul, it rained all night, so the paths are all muddy and/or flooded. But we met a gang of friendly labs & mixed breeds, so Bertie had a fine old time rushing around with them.

Back home I worked on the computer for a few hours, then showered & took Bertie back out into the rain. Met Pat with Amber and Kita, and she told me how they'd stumbled on an eagle the other day. She heard rustling in the undergrowth, thought it might be a badger -- but then out came this huge bird! It flew off into a tree -- Pat reckons it had some prey in the undergrowth.

After that I went back to the garage, collected the car and drove to work. It's still raining.

:: ah hah!

Figured it out at last.

:: that's odd...

I published a draft entry yesterday but it didn't show up on the web page today. Hmm.

Anyway -- soldiering on -- my computer isn't quite a broken mess, but I might need to get a new modem. I had suspected I might, because on reading various internet forums, it seems to be a common problem with Windows XP. Because it's very different from Win98, it needs new drivers for most hardware, and sometimes the manufacturer hasn't come up with a new driver. It's very annoying, but there you go.

I have a deadline to get it sorted out too, because Microsoft, in its desperate desire to counter software piracy, insists you must register WinXP within 30 days to validate it; if you don't, it stops working. You can apparently register by phone, but the line is permanently busy -- with people whose modems don't work, presumably.

Grumbles aside it's looking ok so far, though I don't like XP's "new look" -- it's very cartoony and bright. I'm sure I'll get used to it. There are some features that I really like -- thumbnail views of any photos in a folder, for example, that's brilliant.

I've got to do some work right now, chat later.

:: farewell!

That's my computer speaking. I'm about to reformat the hard drive, ha ha!! Either it will go swimmingly and I'll have a lovely new (software) upgraded machine with no annoying problems, or I'll have a broken mess. Tee hee.

My other bit of upgrading now in progress is my new phone. It all arrived in the post yesterday and I collected it from the post office today -- phone and software. The software was all as ordered, but the phone was a different model. I went into outraged consumer mode -- this is the second time this firm has mucked up an order, grumble grumble. I logged on, ready to send an outraged consumer email, but first I checked the specs of the phone I'd been sent. Oh .... it's worth almost twice as much as the one I ordered and actually has some rather good features .... hmmm.

I decided that if they want me to have this phone, instead of this one, who am I to argue? (And no, I didn't buy it through telephones-online.co.uk or rocom.co.uk.)

The handset has to charge for 24 hours before use, so I'm having to wait before playing with it. I'm using the answering machine that came with it though, but I haven't changed the pre-recorded message yet. At the moment a very posh woman says, "This is an answering machine. Leave your message after the tone." I'll be very surprised if I get any messages.

So, anyway, goodbye from clunky old Windows 98 -- this computer will be reborn as a dual-booting doozie, Linux and Windows XP! (I'll still be reachable by email -- just not on my days off.)

:: sdrawkcab

Just in case you were wondering, it's actually "Dogma I name Cilopraed." Which could be a clue!! If only I had Florian's phone number....

:: florian makes my day

I'm having a reasonably stressful day today filling in for my boss, but then a cheery young German who subscribes to the paper phoned up with a gem. He gets the paper by snail mail, so he'd only just caught up with our report on the "calling card" left by the Washington sniper: "Dear policeman, I am god".

"I don't know if you realise it, but you can read it backwards!" he gushed.

"Really."

"Yes, it says, 'dogma I man police read'. It's very interesting, isn't it?"

I laughed and laughed and laughed, then thanked him for brightening my day with his insight.

He wasn't bothered: "I know you probably get all kinds of crank calls!" he said, still cheerful.

His call really was a tonic, because the news all seems grim -- bombings, arrests, wider threats, the sniper still on the loose; even the director of the CIA is rattled.

I haven't killed my computer yet, but the new software is arriving tomorrow so I'll install it at the weekend and see if I can destroy it then. Ha ha. I had to get a new phone too, the old one has been playing up. It was extremely cheap and is very nasty and crackly to use. The new one is digital so should make for clearer conversations. Still haven't ordered a new sofa. I think about it every time I sit on the old one -- its bones are sticking out like an old horse.

Speaking of bony animals, Bertie has been acting up lately. He's started being aggressive to strange dogs. When I first got him he was timid and submissive, but as he's grown in confidence so he's become more bolshie. Yesterday we encountered a stray dog -- well, he's not stray exactly, he has a home, but he's let out to wander the streets on his own all day. So we met this dog and Bertie decided to challenge him. Nothing too physical, just lots of growling and shoving and posturing. And Bertie won! I was yelling at him to come, and once he'd driven off the other dog he came flying down the path, terrifically excited. He overshot me into the car park, and with me still yelling at him, went shooting past me back up the path. But now a jogger was coming along, and he understandably thought Bertie was running at him, so he stopped. Bad move! Bertie had lost his mind with all the yelling and running and beating the other dog, and started barking at the jogger. I told the guy to just keep running and he did, but he kept looking at Bertie, who took that as a challenge and followed him. "Keep your dog under control!" the guy snapped. I yelled at Bertie some more but didn't try and grab him -- he would have thought I was joining in the chase. Finally got him back and leashed.

Today we met a nice bouncy lab. His owner let him off the leash so he and Bertie could have a run around, and it degenerated into another growling, shoving match (also with lots of peeing). The other guy finally called it off after it looked like they weren't going to calm down. Bertie allowed himself to be removed from the scene -- he was about to lose the battle.

So -- I think I'm going to have to crack down harder on these challenges, otherwise he'll turn into a horrible bully. Oddly enough, his relationship with the dogs he met while he was a wimp hasn't changed at all.

And he's still scared of children, and sacks of onions, and street signs.

Right now I'm embarking on a computer backup. If it goes well I might try partitioning the hard drive. As you do.