New year’s resolutions….

I was trying to think what I’d done/ achieved this past year and what would I like to do in 2010. Well I tried to learn to play squash better to be able to at least occasionally beat Michael- but I still haven’t beaten him! I did learn some new moves but only made it to 4 out of 10 lessons, not as many as I’d hoped! Next year I’m going to try to go to more lessons!

I’ve picked up dancing again for the first time in seven or so years and despite an unpromisingly, uncoordinated start I have improved and am really enjoying it! I’ve been doing salsa and a range of other styles from Bollywood to African to contemporary with a bit of Michael J’s Thriller thrown in just for fun. I just started a bit of Brazilian samba too which is very fast and makes all your wobbly bits shake – oooh!

I didn’t get up as many mountains this year as I would’ve liked but I think maybe I should learn to read an ordnance survey map properly – that could be one of my challenges for 2010: learn to navigate in the hills! Then I’d feel more confident going out without an expert and maybe Michael and I would get lost less often!

Yoga has been a regular feature in my life in 2009 and I am actually improving! I think I am inflexibile genetically but I am gradually getting there:-) As my teacher says- it’s taken her 30 years to get to where she is now (she’s in her mid-60s and can do the splits and many weird and wonderful contortions). That’s something I am definitely going to carry on with in 2010.

On a more practical, less personal note, one of my more urgent ‘resolutions’ is to move to a bigger place without a damp problem! Hopefully by February we will have moved out of our tiny bungalow and will actually be able to invite people round for parties and to stay over! Maybe next new year I’ll have an ‘open house’ on 1st January and have all my local friends and family over! It would be nice not to have to sleep on a mattress on the floor when we have someone to stay and to be able to have more than one guest at a time in the house! It would also mean that we can have a separate room for the computer desk rather than have it in the living room.


Another ‘wish’ rather than a resolution is that I’ll make it to France next year for a visit at some point –maybe somewhere I’ve never been before like Toulouse or Lyon. My last visit was to Paris in 2008 for a weekend. I loved it but I have been many times before, particularly as I spent a year in Versailles in ‘93-’94 and had my half price travel card which was very well used on numerous weekly trips into the city!

I do fancy doing some language learning next year – maybe picking up my Spanish again or starting something new like Arabic or Gaelic (just for fun!). It will depend how much time I have on my hands…

Now, I am off to make the most of the last 1.5 days of 2009! Happy new year!

Winter 2009

November/ December Chaos

It's gone by in a blur! Inevitably, November and December are busy months with various parties and celebrations from birthdays (including mine!), to bonfire night, dinners and charity events to secret Santa gift-giving. Add to that a week-long holiday abroad (Lanzarote, which I’ve already written about), my numerous job applications and interviews (some bizarre experiences), and a climate change march – not to mention a change of job - and I’ve barely stopped until now!

I’ve found the whole experience of academic job applications somewhat of a let down. There is often no real equal opportunity in academia where jobs are promised to individuals but then must be advertised by law. You can’t know in advance which jobs actually exist and which are a complete waste of your time – very frustrating. Anyway, after numerous interviews including one in Bournemouth the outcome for me is that I have a short-term, full-time contract at Stirling Uni, where I used to work, as an extension to the project I’ve been working on for the past 2.5 years. That ends in January when I should have two part-time contracts based at Stirling giving me a full-time research post for 12 months. It is working with really nice people so I am looking forward to it but it will be extremely busy as I will also still be unofficially doing work on the current project which is still running until March.

Doune Castle, Nov 09 - various Monty Python scenes were filmed here

View from Doune Castle


Through the portal- a view from Doune castle ramparts

In amongst job interviews etc I’ve been out and about enjoying various salsa nights including ones for a charity set up by my friends to raise money for building wells in Nicaraguan villages (http://www.agua.seoras.com/).

I also managed to visit the Xmas markets in Edinburgh which are really pretty and atmospheric- there’s a ‘highland village’ market selling loads of woollens and also drinks like mulled wine –mmm! – and German market with loads of foods, trinkets, and decorations from, guess where, Germany. There are also traditional funfair rides, like a big wheel and helter skelter, and an ice rink –all in the Princes Street gardens. They’ve even temporarily stopped work on the (much delayed) tramline on Princes Street over Xmas so people can get around more easily.

We finally had a proper look around Doune castle and enjoyed the very entertaining audio guide by one of the Monty Python actors complete with optional excerpts from the film dialogue. If you visit I’d recommend taking a torch as some of the staircases in the upper sections of the castle are very dark and narrow!

Salsa night for charity in local bowling club - I'm the one in the blue dress

Finally, I took part in my first demonstration! I joined thousands of others (around 6000-8000) in ‘The Wave’ in Glasgow to stop climate chaos. The atmosphere was great with samba bands and pipers playing and lots of families taking part. We walked a few miles from Bellahouston Park in Ibrox to Kelvingrove park in Glasgow’s west end via the new footbridge over the Clyde (video at end of post). With folk from my Friends of the Earth group we carried our blue banner and were joined by the ‘People and Planet’ group from Stirling uni. One of their banners was a lot ruder than ours - I can’t remember exactly what is said but it included ‘F*ck’ in it…

Me and Walter carrying our banner at 'The Wave', Dec 09 - a bit blurry but the only one with me in it! It says 'Stirling for Climate Justice'

In London everyone had been asked to dress in blue to create a visual ‘wave’. In Glasgow we weren’t asked to do the same- it turns out that this was probably because of the Celtic match being played that day. Their arch enemies Rangers wear blue and there was concern that we might be mistaken for rival fans…! How sad!

Yelitza & Roser with their Xmas teddies they got from secret santa

Snow on the Ochils behind Stirling station on Xmas Eve


December snow on the hills in Riverside, Stirling

Stirling Baptist church with a hint of snow still on the roof

I have been hugely enjoying my time off over Xmas catching up on reading, sleeping, seeing family and doing some swimming which I haven’t done in ages. The week before Xmas I had the pool practically to myself as there were only three people using two pools at the university! It was a lot busier yesterday as people are trying to burn off some of the Xmas excess!

Video of the start of the climate change march in Bellahouston Park, Glasgow (it would only let me insert it at the end of the post for some reason...)

A Walk in the Ochils

November walk from Tillicoultry
I hadn’t been out on a hill walk for a couple of months- far too long –so when Toni suggested a Sunday walk I immediately said yes. It looked like it would be just me and Toni until Roser also came at the last minute.

We met in our usual place at the Macrobert café on the uni campus and spent too long chatting with Sonia meaning we had to opt for a more local short walk in order to be able to finish it before dark. It’s now dusk around 3.30pm!

Great texture of the rocks on the hill

Me & Roser at the summit in the clouds-it wasn't raining but very windy. Toni assured us that on a clear day you can see the Cairngorms and the West Highlands

We drove a few miles to nearby Tillicoultry where we started our walk in Mill Glen – a popular local Sunday walk. It was very steep in parts and hard going on the ascent but peaks at only 671 metres. As we got nearer the summit we were walking in the clouds – they look just like fog and I can’t really tell the difference. We briefly stopped for tea and a snack at the summit in the howling wind before heading back down out of the clouds to admire the views across the Forth valley.

I love the contrasting colours of the bracken and grey sky

Roser & Toni on the descent down Ben Cleuch (sounds like 'clook')

I saw the recently disused Tillicoultry quarry on the way down – a large hole in the side of one of the hills and a gorse bush in very early flower (they usually flower around February time) in the sheltered glen.

We made it in 3 ½ hours and arrived back at our car to find 2 fellow walkers had lost their car keys and were trying to break back into their own car! They still hadn’t managed by the time we had removed our muddy boots and left.

Lanzarote

I finally persuaded Michael to go on a proper holiday together only 3 years after our last proper break together… Our last holiday was to Canada in 2006. The idea was to find somewhere not too expensive, warm and sunny and with the possibility of doing a bit of scuba diving – that kind of narrowed down the choice! The Red Sea was going to work out too pricey so the Canary Islands seemed like a safe bet weather wise.

Many of you will know that Michael and I first met in 2000 in the Canary Islands- Gran Canaria to be exact. I was on a 2 week post-PhD break with my sister Kate and Michael was there for a week’s last minute break with his best mate Tony. Our eyes met across breakfast-time sangria…. (we weren’t drinking it but the holiday reps had provided it at 10am- yuck!). Six months later we were engaged and living together in Ipswich!

I had already been to Tenerife and Michael and I went to Fuerteventura a good few years ago (we swore after that we’d never do another package holiday again)! Neither of us had ever been to Lanzarote and as we could get a flight there from Glasgow Prestwick we made our choice. I found a villa with a heated private pool (woo!) in Play Blanca in the south of the island which was described as being popular with families and couples – the villa had been reduced because they’re not getting so many tourists just now with the economic downturn and strong euro.

Communal pool for the residential area where our villa was located - mountains in background

Me with the town of Playa Blanca in the background

The lead up to the holiday was hectic with me busily applying for new jobs, going for interviews, and finishing up my contract at Edinburgh uni. Having run out of time and energy, I opted to take my un-ironed clothes with me rather than iron them and to leave my toenails unpainted!

Beach in central Playa Blanca with Fuerteventura in distance

My dad kindly offered to get up at the crack of dawn to drive us from my parent’s house to the airport since our flight was changed from the afternoon to 6.45am! The flight was fine and we got into Lanzarote Arrecife airport ahead of schedule. But it took us 40 minutes to locate our car hire rep and then when the car arrived it looked like it’d been in one collision too many- even the licence plate was bent! Needless to say it broke down on the day we picked it up after we’d parked it in Playa Blanca abd after we'd just filled the petrol tank and paid in cash for it- luckily it didn’t break down en route from the airport. We did get a replacement car over 4 hours later but it wasted most of our first day. (Needless to say I haven't yet heard back from Holiday Autos).

With the busy lead-in to our holiday, the very early start to catch our flight, the heat in Lanzarote and the unexpected long walk back to our villa laden with lots of shopping (after the car died), we were just starting to feel energetic again towards the end of our week away! Almost every night we were struggling to stay awake after 9pm!

We spent most days relaxing by the pool with one trip to see the still-active volcanoes in the island’s centre and did a bit of exploring afterwards. We found a small and rustic village on the coast where people go surfing and saw the weird and unique vineyards. The golden Playa de Papagayo (nudists welcome) in the national park was very nice (although it can’t compete with the amazing beaches we saw in Oz). We also spent a couple of afternoons scuba diving- the first time in the 3 years since we qualified in the very cold (7c) and murky Gildenburgh quarry in winter.

Michael really was as happy as he looked in our pool on the inflatable that the neighbours left behind when they left!

Michael on one of the protected beaches at Papagayo (parrot) beaches after a snorkel

We did a shallow practice dive first with the instructor (the charisma-less Else) entering from the beach and going down to just 9 metres. I had a bit of trouble getting my buoyancy right and spent some time lying on the sand at the bottom! I realised that the kit I was using was a bit different from what I’d trained in - when I thought I was emptying air from my jacket, it wasn’t actually emptying. On our second dive down to 17 metres I had got the hang of it and was pleased I could easily hover above the seabed. We saw octopus, shoals of silvery yellow-striped fish, barracuda, electric rays and an angel shark (also know as monk fish). There are volcanic reefs from the old lava flows in which lots of fish and other creatures shelter. The water was around 27c but after 40 minutes in the water I was feeling cold even in my 5mm wetsuit! You can see almost as much sea-life snorkelling, which we also did, but I’d recommend a wetsuit.

The site of our second dive and also a good site for snorkelling

Timanfaya volcanoes

Lanzarote vineyards - semi-circles of rocks protecting vines from wind and allowing condensation to collect

Although it was quite hot (27-30c) in the day it was very windy all day and night so in the evenings it felt quite cool and in the day we could tolerate the sun. We didn’t use our pool every day because later in the day it was in shade meaning we felt a bit cold when we got out.

The lovely cliffs at Playa (beach) de Famara in Caleta de Famara - a former fishing village up the coast

There were some pretty impressive cockroaches (mostly lying feet up and dead in the street), lots of butterflies, and big cacti. I had been hoping to see the haria lizard – unique to Lanzarote - on the volcano but all I saw were small scrubby bushes! Even though the land looks very barren, there is a lot of life and it does have an eerie beauty.

Life is much more laid back in Lanzarote than in the UK. The Island is very small with only 127,457 permanent residents and no-one seems to be in a hurry (except when driving!), especially at the supermarket fish and cheeses counter!

I could easily have stayed another week and when we got back to Scotland and experienced a 20 degree drop in temperature I spent the next 2 days shivering! It was worth it though! I didn't even mind missing Roser's Halloween party!

Barcelona!

September 9-12th
I had 3 nights in Barcelona – it was great. I loved it. I arrived into Girona which is about 90 km from Barcelona and caught a bus from there. The queue for the bus tickets was huge but it moved pretty quickly and I caught the bus I was aiming for. There was some quite scary driving by the bus driver as we got into the city where we narrowly missed hitting a few cars! I wans’t dressed for the heat in my jeans and I baked in the metro from the bus station to the city centre! I found my ‘hostal’ in the ‘Barri Gotic’ (medieval Quarter) without much trouble – it had an unobstrusive entrance so I walked past it initially!

I rang the buzzer and could hear the door release buzzing but could I open the bloody door? I tried 3 times until eventually the exasperated care taker – an old woman – came down and let me in. The hostal was up several flights of steep stairs (with no lift) within a larger apartment building which had once been a single house belonging to the countess of Sobradiel. As I strode up them easily with my suitcase, the old woman hobbled and panted behind me – I can see why she hadn’t wanted to come down and let me in! http://www.pensioalamar.com/presentacion_i.htm

Placa Reial in the Barri Gotic

My teeny-weeny hostel room

The hostal was a single apartment split into lots of small bedrooms along a corridor with a communal kitchen and loos and bathrooms off the reception area. My bedroom was the only one off the reception area. It was very small (as expected) but everywhere was clean and well-maintained. There was a large new fridge-freezer for us to use in the kitchen, and we got towels and bedding. There was no air-con but a fan. I didn’t sleep very well- it was hot, around 29c, even at night and the bed was a bit hard so my shoulder went numb!

On my first night I had dinner in a veggie restaurant off a small square near my hostal then headed to the Harlem Jazz café where a cover band were playing mostly English songs including the Beatles, Elvis and Stevie Wonder. Blue Suede Shoes became Blue Suede Shoe! But the singer was good and the place was busy- unfortunately it was very, very smokey inside and my eyes began to water badly so I stayed till the end of the show but then had to go.

Me with my Spanish friend Rosalia at the Boqueria food market

Amazing display of fruit at La Boqueria- yum!

It took around 24 hours for my nose to adjust to the pungent odours of the city (bags of rubbish in the streets combined with the heat made for a smelly experience). I heard different languages everywhere. There were funky clothes in the boutiques. Barca young people’s fashion style is dreads, black clothes, piercings and floor-length ‘maxi dresses’. The mullet hair-do (short on top, long at the back) is surprisingly popular here.

I felt comfortable as a lone woman tourist as I didn’t stand out too much in the hoards of tourists. On Thursday night dinner was a let down- the venus deli downstairs from my hostal had been recommended in the guide book – perhaps they’d become victims of their own success but micro-waved couscous and very stingy salad didn’t impress- there wasn’t even ¼ of an avocado and ¼ of a nectarine in it – there was however half a bottle of olive oil over it. I then went to a flamenco ‘taster’ show at the Tarantos in Placa Reial- it was a full house and impressive.

Gaudi's whimsical Parc Guell with Barcelona and sea in background

The staircase in Parc Guell- heaving with people

Over the course of my short stay I went to the beach twice and even swam in the sea, I wandered round the city, visited the Miro gallery, Gaudi’s fantastical Parc Guell and the Sagrada Familia church, and the medieval Catedral Seu.


Of course the exchange rate is crap for us just now- roughly 1 euro to the pound where you used to get 2 euros for a pound! Makes everything much more expensive. I wish I’d spent a year out studying there while I was at uni! It’s really funky and fun. Not like other places in Spain I’ve been to.

Gaudi's fantastic Sagrada Familia- still being built


Me on the beach at Barceloneta

The waterfront at the harbour

I met up with a Spanish girlfriend Rosalia on the Saturday morning before I had to leave – she spent 3 months in Stirling last summer working at the uni and that’s when we met. She also studied psychology and does Iyengar yoga like me. She lives 1.5 hours away from Barca on the train but made the effort to come and meet me despite being really busy at work. I had managed to lock myself out of my room that morning- the only morning when the caretaker was not around owing to the Catalan festival the night before I couldn’t find the spare keys until a very helpful Polish guy also staying at the hostel found them in a cupboard in the kitchen – I identified mine and got into my room! Phew!

Rosalia and I had a wander round the Boqueria food market off the Ramblas and had a light lunch in a very nice restaurant before I had to get a bus to Girona to get my Ryanair flight. She’s invited me to go and stay with her in the coastal town where she lives with her husband which is not far from the other budget airport at Reus - tempting…

Crannog - Anniversary Outing

We have been married for 8 years on 7th September. Or, as I like to say, 8 lo-o-o-ng years :-) We decided to do something nice together on the actual day of our anniversay, a Monday, since I was on holiday from work.

I had seen the Crannog on TV recently and wanted to visit and as the sun was shining, we set off on the gorgeous tourist scenic route via Crieff up to Loch Tay.

http://www.crannog.co.uk/

The Crannog- a replica of an ancient, iron age dwelling place. Made mostly of local alder wood.

Side view of the Crannog and its bridge. It took 3 summers to build basing the design on archeological evidence found in this and other lochs.

A crannog is a type of ancient loch-dwelling found throughout Scotland and Ireland dating from 5,000 years ago. Many crannogs were built out in the water as defensive homesteads and represented symbols of power and wealth. Often when you see a small isand in the middle of a loch, it was originally the site of a crannog.

View over Loch Tay from Crannog.


Michael carving a piece of wood on the lathe.

Here's one I made earlier. Using the foot-operated pole lathe.

We also both made fire using wood & friction! Ray Mears would've been proud!

Summer stuff

Well, I haven’t been blogging much the past few months – partly to do with job-related hassle and partly me going out enjoying the longer summer nights.

I had been saving up my holidays so took 2 weeks off in July- much needed after no (official) time off since the start of March. I spent one week down in York with my sisters, their kids and my mum and dad – we rented 2 cottages outside of the city at the same place we went to last year. It’s great for kids as there’s an indoor pool, tennis courts, a pool & table tennis table and a playground. Unfortunately the weather was quite rainy with unpredictable torrential downpours on most days including the day we went to the beach in Scarborough! We had a day at ‘The Deep’ – the aquarium in Hull, went into York city a couple of times, went to Castle Howard of Brideshead Revisited fame, and a lavender farm which smelled great!

Ruben watching jellyfish, The Deep, Hull

France family portrait (minus Sarah & Kate) at Castle Howard - from front left to right: Dan, Mum, Ruben, Me. Back left to right: Matt, David & dad

The last week of my hols I spent in Stirling- it was rainy here too and pretty cold for summer – only 16c. It wasn’t the best week cos Charlie our adored cat was ill and we found out he has feline aids (they can’t infect humans) – Michael was inconsolable until Charlie pulled through his illness really well after a course of antibiotics. He (the cat) is now eating huge piles of very expensive cat food! I swear his food costs more than ours!

We did have a few very humid and hot weeks in July but since then the weather’s been really wet and not very hot – some days it’s been downright cold! I don’t think the rest of the country has fared any better mind you.

I have managed to do a bit of sight-seeing in Scotland with a day trip to Glencoe and a hill walk up one of our most scenic mountains Stob Binnein. I also dragged Michael up one of our most accessible hills, Ben Ledi near Callander!

The ascent to Stob Binnein- the ridge up to the summit in the mist

Toni & Roser at summit of Stob Binnein having lunch

Carniverous sundew plants on boggy hillside

Glencoe - The Three Sisters

Glencoe - Micael trying the real ale at the Clachaig Inn

I’ve also discovered a fantastic salsa night here in Bannockburn near Stirling which happens once a month – it’s been years since I did any salsa but I am picking it up again and really enjoying it. I am considering taking a few classes just to improve enough to avoid knocking knees with my partner and stepping on his toes! I indulged in a wonderful pair of proper dance shoes which makes a big difference - they are really soft and comfortable despite having a 2.5 inch heel (I only tried on about 30 pairs)! They mean you can do turns without jarring your ankle and also don’t slip on the dance floor.

Salsatastic!

For Dad's birthday treat we went to 'Go Ape' an adventure course in Aberfoyle in the forest with zip wires, rope bridges, ladders etc. It rained quite a lot but we didn't get too wet under the trees.

Going ape- dad on longest zipwire in UK

I am still working at Edinburgh Uni just now although the contract is due to end in November. The job didn’t turn out quite how I expected and has involved dealing with huge amounts of NHS bureaucracy and hassle which has been demoralising and DULL. Anyway, on the plus side I quite enjoy being in Edinburgh particularly in the buzzy summer season and during the Festival when there are lots of interesting street acts all over (including bands playing outside my office window)! Also my boss has gone on sabbatical for a year so as of this month I am now spending most of the week at Stirling uni which is much easier to get to and means I can fit in more fitness classes!

The Udderbelly venue at Edinburgh Festival

Unfortunately I didn’t get the project grant I applied for although I did get through to the final selection round which is an achievement in itself. But my current project has been extended for a few months and I can work on that part-time based at Stirling Uni – the prospect doesn’t exactly fill me with joy but, hey, it’s better than nothing!

I am looking forward to my next trip which is a few days in Barcelona. I have only been once and that was for the Millennium celebration in 1999/2000 so it’ll be lovely to go back and this time in warmer weather. I find I work better when I have something to look forward to!

May Party Month

Mexican-themed party

me & Roser

Trying to smash the pinata to get to the sweets

Pinata action!

Barbeque