Aberlady & Abba

Coastal walk North Berwick to Aberlady Bay - 19 April 08

On Saturday I went on a walk with the ‘Gruff’ group from North Berwick to Aberlady Bay nature reserve (apparently Britain’s first local nature reserve) – see http://www.aberlady.org/Nature%20reserve.html. I got the train there via Edinburgh with Malcolm the driving instructor from Alloa & met all of the Glasgow contingent at Waverley station - it took about 2 hours of travelling in all to get there.

The GRUFF walking group on beautiful North Berwick beach

The coastal walk is about 9 miles along the beach and through the dunes and passes the small towns of Dirlston and Gullane. We did a bit of bird spotting as we went - I saw a gannet sleeping on a rock on the shore (first real life one I’ve seen), a heron fishing (didn’t know they fished in salt water too) and lots of eider ducks in small flocks a few metres out to sea from the coast. There were beautiful, white beaches with soft sand – wanted to take my boots off and feel it under my toes. There was a strong, cold wind at first but as we got further north along the coast it was more sheltered and got pretty warm- I had to take off my jacket and fleece and even needed suntan lotion and sun specs! There were gorgeous dunes with silver grasses blowing in the wind. The coast reminded me a bit of Suffolk where we used to live – places like Minsmere nature reserve which is coastal.

Gorgeous beaches between North Berwick and Aberlady on the east coast

There was an annoying woman who turned up on the walk unannounced (as I later found out) who kept rushing on ahead and getting impatient when we stopped to admire the view or take pictures…! She then rushed everyone to catch an earlier bus so she could get home cos she ‘had things to do’. Me and another girl were trailing behind the others at the end of the walk having queued for the loos then saw the rest of the group far ahead running for the earlier bus- we ran as far as we could with sore legs, tired feet, heavy boots and a big ruck sack (my new boots were very comfy though). If I had been leading the walk I would have had words with her!

Rickety foot bridge at Aberlady Bay Nature Reserve - the end of the walk.

The bus took us through various small towns in the suburbs of Edinburgh which I’ve never been to before including Musselburgh and Portobello. An hour later we arrived in Edinburgh’s Rose Street where we stopped off in a pub for a nice cold pear cider - very refreshing - and then home on the train to Stirling. I got home by 8pm having left from Stirling at 8.45am to catch the train – a long day out! I didn’t feel much like going to Alloa to a party after such a long day out so just vegged out in front of TV.

Queuing for luxury public conveniences at Aberlady- better than the thorny bushes near the golf course!

The next walk is going to be 2 munros so I’m giving that one a miss since there will still be snow near the summit and I don’t fancy freezing my backside off eating lunch in the snow and hail like the last time! I have since had an email to inform me the group have kicked me off the invitee list cos I haven’t officially joined the Rambler’s yet – damn! Was hoping I’d get away with it for a bit longer! Suppose I’ll have to cough up!

Mama Mia! - 20 April 08

On Sunday I went to see the matinee of Mama Mia, the Abba musical, at the Armadillo (otherwise known as the Clyde Auditorium) in Glasgow with my mum, Kate & Sarah – dad’s treat. Needless to say Michael didn’t come! There were loads of Abba songs in it including our favourites – Dancing Queen, Gimme Gimme etc. The audience was mostly older women with the odd husband, boyfriend and some kids. There was a bloke sitting next to me who hummed through some of the songs! The basic story is that there’s a wedding in Greece where the young bride-to-be invites her 3 possible dads from the UK to attend – pretty tongue in cheek. The whole show including the songs was also translated into deaf sign language.

Mama mia! Glasgow - mum and Kate (Sarah was queuing for the loos)!

Kate was delighted when she realised there would be some muscley male torso on show – an unexpected bonus (can’t say I was disappointed about it either)! Was a good cheesy day out and we all stood up at the end clapping and singing along. Only criticism would be that there are never enough ladies loos – enormous queues!

Spring & Latin American Party

Gillies hill

Michael and I went another bike ride on my week off through the woods at Gillies Hill - a lovely woodland behind the village Cambusbarron where we first lived when we moved to Stirling. We ended up carrying our bikes up an almost sheer muddy hill trying to find a way up it in the woods. They used to quarry here and now they want to re-open the quarry which would mean that a large part of the woodland would be blasted into oblivion along wth all the wildlife including red squirrels and badgers. If you want to support the campaign to save it go to http://www.savegillieshill.org.uk/

Taking a rest on bike ride in Gillies Hill woods - it's a cycle helmet, not hat!

We spent a while carreening through the trees and then headed off down country lanes through farmland eventually coming out south of the city in the Whins of Milton. We then returned home on the roads since it was a downhill ride taking that route, although not as scenic.

Latin American party 11 April

Don't remember what we were laughing about but the food was great!

Roser hosted another party at her flat but this time the chefs were Jennifer and Jairo from Venezuela and Nicki who lived in Guatemala. Some of the guests provided a few extra dishes like nachos. I had a yummy vegetarian rice dish made with coconut milk and kidney beans- there was even some left so I took a bug tub home and ate it for lunch and dinner for the next 2 days!

The menu included:

arepas - fried corn bread
caraotas negras (black beans)
carne molida (mince meat)
pepian de pollo (chicken dumplings)
Caribbean rice and beans with coconut milk
guacamole chapin
platanos fritos (fried plantains)
quesillo (dessert similar to a flan)
mojitos & wine

Yummy Latin American flan - 'quesillo'

After stuffing ourselves I'm surprised that anyone was able to move let alone dance but dance they did - salsa and merengue. We also had an impromptu poetry recital in Spanish from Jairo of a famous Latin American poem which has hundreds of verses - thankfully he didn't recite them all, just the first one or two.

Merengue dancing Ailsa, Jenny, Sergi & Jairo

Salsa dancing Latin American style

Holidays & birthday bike ride

29 March 08

I took a week off work and have been on hols since Friday 28th March- yes! Amazing how tired you can get sitting at a desk! A good friend Rachel from Herts was up visiting old friends –she use to live in and around Stirling including in Dunblane & Bridge of Allan . We’ve known each other for around 12 years now since we used to share an office together at Glasgow uni when I was a PhD student and a Rachel a research assistant - we always had lots of hilarity particularly around 3pm for some reason!

So on Saturday night Rachel and I went out on the town starting with a lovely meal in ‘Mediterranéa’ a, not surprisingly, Mediterranean-influenced restaurant in Stirling. We each had a lovely sea bass – very reasonably priced and very decent house wine too – at last have found a restaurant worth going to in Stirling! Even though it was Saturday night and was pay day it wasn’t very busy - at 11pm we were the only customers and the last ones to leave (how I used to hate those people when I was a waitress!)

Rachel in Stirling restaurant Mediterranea - it's not her guitar.

We then tried to find a decent bar in town – we tried Pivo’s a Polish or Czech bar but we were wearing too many clothes and the music was too loud (a sign that we are now quite old and rather boring). We ended up in the rather more sedate older persons’ haven the City Walls which I don’t particularly like but it has lots of seats and the music’s fairly quiet! Pity I have yet to find a particularly nice local bar for a Saturday night out.

30 March 08 - Wallace Monument

Rachel stayed over with us as Michael, kind soul, offered to kip on the sofa so that Rachel could share the bed with me. The next day we took our time over breakfast then we strolled to the Wallace monument to look at the lovely views of the snowy mountain peaks. We then stopped at Corrieri’s café for a light lunch (delicious fresh pizza – 7 inches for £3.60! No rude jokes please!) and coffee before taking Rachel back to Alloa where she is staying with a friend who has a house bigger than ours! (Corrieri’s is a bit of a local institution – an Italian café with good food but can’t say I was impressed with the coffee last time I tried it).

Rachel admiring view from Wallace Monument

31 March 08 - Happy Birthday Michael!
Nature was kind on Michael’s birthday – it was a beautiful spring day, warm sun, gentle breeze. We got the bikes out for my first outing of the season and rode through the small village of Cambuskenneth (one pub, no shops and a ruined Abbey), through Bridge of Allan (old spa town) to Dunblane (quaint ‘village’) using the Darn Road path through the woods. The Darn Road is now a public footpath which runs along the Allan Water river through mature woodland – apparently it used to link up 10 mills along the river including paper mills, meal mills and sawmills. There were also copper mines and salmon fishing along this stretch of water. Kate will be delighted to hear that I was wearing my socks and sandals - perhaps not such a good idea bearing in mind how muddy and wet the forest path was…

We could see the bluebells everywhere (not yet in flower but will be gorgeous when in bloom in May) and smell the wild garlic leaves. We then met up with the tarmac-ed section of the road which is a steep hill down into Dunblane – I whizzed down the hill into the village so fast I scared myself and had to brake (not like that adrenalin junkie Michael who put his head down to go faster)! I realised why Michael advised me to keep my mouth tight shut on the downhill stretch cos all the wet mud that had accumulated in my tyre treads flew up and hit me in the face! I looked most fetching cycling around Dunblane with mud streaks all over my face, in my hair, on my fleece….

The ghost of Robert Louis Stevenson's cave, Darn Road - ha ha!

We cycled round the beautiful cathedral and down the main street of Dunblane past lots of wee independent shops and cafes. It still has real character unlike many towns and villages that have been overrun with chain stores (although there is an ugly Tesco in the centre now). Dunblane is tiny with a population of 10,000 but is actually classed as a city (who knows why?)!

The route back took a different path for the first mile or so and passes by a small cave called Stevenson’s Cave after Robert Louis Stevenson who used to holiday in Bridge of Allan. It’s said to have been where he was inspired to write 'Treasure Island', although it wasn’t very impressive or pretty, just wet and muddy!

Michael about to set off on the next leg of the ride - Darn Road between Bridge of Allan & Dunblane

In all it was about a 15 mile round trip, very muddy in my socks and sandals. We had lovely views, away from the traffic on country lanes, and met very few people being a Monday. I’ve got a sore bum now. It’s the first time I’ve been out on my bike this year. I am now ready to cycle to work – but only when the weather’s nice!

Easter Snow & Cakes

Easter weekend

On Thursday I did my 3 hours of yoga and have hurt my shoulder and neck (only just improving a week later) - have been waking in the small hours in agony. Think it was when Lynn yanked my feet in shoulder stand, as Kate said, I was ‘sagging’ so she pulled me straight! Was glad I had decided not to do the walking group Pentlands hill walk on Saturday - I would have struggled to carry my rucksack.

At last- a long weekend off! On Good Friday we went to Dundee – Michael had to hand in his draft diploma assignment to uni and I went along for the shopping! I did find a very lovely pair of hiking boots to replace the aged and knackered ones, although I haven’t christened them yet. They have some interesting street sculptures in the city centre including the dragon, Desperate Dan and a parade of wee penguins!

Dundee Dragon

We had a light flurry of snow and it was very, very cold so we didn’t linger outside for long. We found a wee Italian café by chance and were told on arrival by a customer that it was the best coffee in Dundee, which is exactly what we were looking for (well spotted Michael)! We warmed up in there until the clientele started to make Michael feel like we didn’t belong (I think they had a lunch special for pensioners on) – I hadn’t even noticed!

Sarah & David with Tamagotchi-parents love 'em!

Saturday was a non-event since my shoulder was hurting but we went over to see my folks on Sunday for Easter and had lunch and chocolate eggs. Mum had bought the grandsons the new Tamagotchi keyrings – electronic pets which demand attention, food, love - even holidays! My sisters end up looking after the ‘pets’ – just like real life (I think they secretly enjoy it)!

Catalan Easter cakes & UK contribution of crispy cakes, mini eggs & hot X buns!

Monday we had been invited to an Easter cake eating party at the house of a Catalan friend Roser- well why not! So I went armed with coffee and a bottle of rum for Jamaican coffee and ate 4 different kinds of Easter cake then could barely move…. The Catalan cake is called ‘La mona’, regardless of how it is cooked, and means ‘female monkey’! One of the ‘monas’ was a ring of pastry with a boiled egg in its shell baked into it – apparently a traditional gift from a godfather to his godson with a boiled egg for each year of the godson’s life up to age 12.

Best coffee in Stirling-Michael in Cisco's cafe

I was feeling re-energised on Easter Monday and the sun came out so we wandered into town, had a coffee in our favourite wee café Cisco’s (best coffee in Stirling!) and then wandered through the very wealthy and pretty part of the town called King’s Park where the daffies were out. We even went as far as Cambusbarron, the village where we first lived when we moved here and popped in on our old neighbours to catch up on the gossip.

Easter daffodils in King's Park area of Stirling

Have discovered Facebook this week so have been spending far to much time browsing friends’ photos and writing messages on people’s ‘walls’!

Killin' Time

On Friday afternoon I took an hour off work and went to see a short French film ‘Squash’ by the French director and script writer Lionel Bailliu. The film was good – amusing, thought-provoking, if a bit contrived. It was, as the title suggests, set during a squash game in a single squash court. It’s about the psychological harassment on an employee by has manager. He’s since brought out a full length film based on Squash called ‘Fair Play’ which I haven’t seen.

The director attended and took questions afterwards, mostly in English. I wasn’t particularly impressed when he said that squash was a man’s game which is why the 2 protagonists were male (I play squash every week, as do many women!) and that if he were to do a similar film with 2 female leads then he’d have to choose a more feminine sport! Mm, not being a bit sexist there, are you Lionel?

Killin hill walk
On Saturday I went on an impromptu hill walk with some friends from work (I was supposed to meet up with an old friend in Glasgow for a film and dinner but she couldn’t make it at the last minute - I forgave her though since she had to go to a funeral). There was gorgeous scenery on the drive up (which took rather longer than expected since the driver was a bit nervous and drove mostly at 40 mph so it should have taken 1 hour but took 1.5).

Climbing the stile: me, Sergi, Toni, Ailsa and Nicki

It was a short walk at 2 hours starting at Killin followed by a late pub lunch of fish and chips to replace all the calories. We climbed a small hill called ‘Sron Na Clachan’ (Nose of the Village) just behind the village. We were lucky with the weather – sun, a bit of cold wind at the top – and had beautiful views of snow-covered mountains and a buzzard soaring on the updrafts. Michael was glued to the Formula 1 qualifier at home which is a shame cos he would’ve enjoyed the scenery (if not the bizarre and surreal conversations over lunch)!

Killin is on the edge of Loch Tay and is surrounded by stunning mountain scenery - it's about 35 miles north of here. There was barely anyone about in the village – the streets were empty (but there was rugby on and anyway, it can’t have a big population). You can see a live webcam of Killin at http://www.killin.co.uk/ although it mostly shows the main road through the village (there is usually also an unflattering photo of some locals too - ah, village life)!

View of Loch Tay from the peak of Sron Na Clachan

Michael and I got up early (for us) for a game of badminton on Sunday morning (we were expecting a plumber at 11am who, of course, turned up an hour late after we’d purposely changed our court booking from 10am to 9.30am in order to be back on time) and then remembered quickly why we stopped playing at the uni. We were sharing the hall with 30 or so small boys practising their football skills and wandering across our court whenever they were led by an adult or wanted to go out for a pee/ drink/ snack. It was the adults’ fault since they had told them to come around our side of the curtain and walk past our court rather than walk past the other boys who were doing their training because it would disrupt their training! Never mind our game of badminton! As you can imagine after the 7th or 8th time of someone wandering across our court I lost my temper at their arrogance! I think we’ll go back to just playing squash- at least you get the court to yourself!

How many landlords does it take to change a washer?
The plumber was coming to change a washer- yes a washer!- cos our landlord insisted he’d do it himself in order to save money but then admitted he didn’t know how. He then made us wait 2 days and through 2 missed appointments with a tap leaking litres of water by the hour (and it would’ve been hot water if we hadn’t turned down the thermostat) before it was finally fixed! We couldn’t even turn the water off at the mains cos the tap was too stiff. Such is the life of a tenant…

Almost there! Sergi, me, Toni, Ailsa & Cath - all in red!

I then spent the rest of Sunday, which was a beautifully sunny day, preparing a presentation for work – not my preferred use of a lovely Sunday but it had to be done –at least it’s over with now. I presented today (Tuesday) to people at Stirling and 3 video conferencing sites –I had more audience members via video than I did in the room! It was about antenatal screening and termination. I spoke for almost an hour so it was quite long! I hope I didn't bore them - they were too polite to say if I did!

Rain!

Scottish life
The students have been back for spring semester for 2 weeks now but even so the campus still seems empty; that was one of the first things that struck me when I started my new job - there was barely anyone around! I realised it’s just because London & the south-east are so heavily populated that I wasn’t used to so few people in that amount of space. Just to put it in perspective, Scotland has a population of around 5 million while London alone has 7.5 million meaning that in terms of density London has an average of 4,000 people per square kilometre, while Scotland only has 64! Stirling itself is a very small city with around 44,000 inhabitants (the same number as Inverness apparently).

We both seem to have spent a bit of time in ‘the big city’ (Glasgow and Edinburgh) this week. Michael had a visit to an animation company (called ‘Once were Farmers’, although I don’t think they ever were) in Glasgow where he is hoping to get some work experience as part of his course (but having seen his work they are interested in him doing some freelance work for them -result!). On Friday I had to go to Edinburgh for a seminar which happened to have a free wine reception afterwards (that wasn’t the only reason I wanted to go, of course)– it was nice to get out of Stirling for a change but it was very cold! Some of the girls were going out to a salsa club afterwards but I hadn't planned on going out so left them to it.

This weekend the weather has been so bad that we decided not to do any hill walks or outdoors stuff- every time we went out of the house we got soaked! Saturday we spent in Stirling then today we went into Glasgow to try and get us both some hiking boots and trousers (we got neither!) – the weather changed every 5 minutes but the torrential rain managed to coincide with whenever we left a shop!

Charlie in another of his favourite 'pogs', trying to stop me surfing the net.

The direct train to Glasgow from Stirling is really quick and only takes half an hour, whereas the Edinburgh train never seems to be direct and takes a whole hour. I’m not looking forward to my commute from November this year when my job changes over to be at Edinburgh university.

I was wrong when I said Scotland only had 2 official languages, apparently we now have a 3rd official language- added to English and Gaelic we have Scots – it’s a bit like speaking English with a broad Scottish accent sprinkled with some uniquely Scottish vocab – see this speech translated into Scots using phonetics http://scotslanguage.999design.com/articles/view/471

Here’s a short excerpt (see if you can make sense of it):
‘In the Scots Government, we'v heich hopes for the future o Scotland. Forby thon, we threap that sovereignty in oor kintrie belangs wi its fowk. As a sovereign fowk, the fowk o Scotland - an us oor lane - his the richt tae decide the wey we'r govern't.’

Speaking of languages, I went to see an excellent French film this week at the uni cinema– Le Scaphandre et Le Papillon (in English called ‘The diving bell & the butterfly’) which tells the story of the former editor of French Elle, Jean-Dominique Bauby who after a massive stroke was locked into a paralysed body. He could only blink his eyes and dictated an entire novel using this method. It was really moving but also frightening to think just how vulnerable you are to other people’s wishes when you can’t move or speak.

The French film festival is on just now across in Glasgow & Edinburgh so I’m hoping to see a few more films. We are also having a visit from a French film director Lionel Bailliu next week at the university – I’ve never heard of him but he’s screening one of his films for free so I’m going to go!

I'm part of the uni French Society that meets weekly to talk French and also goes to films, cultural events etc- Michael has dubbed me a nerd because that will make 2 clubs I'm a member of if I also officially join the hillwalking group (which is part of the Ramblers' Association, definitely not cool... - think Janet Street-Porter and red woolly socks)!

‘Twitcher’ France reports
We have a small resident flock of blue and great tits in our garden which keep pecking at the windows and doors – they do it so often that even the cat has given up running to watch them when he hears the tapping. Michael even spotted one tapping the car wing mirror! We thought they were being territorial by challenging their own reflections in the glass but that doesn’t explain why they would tap the unglazed front door! Maybe they’re trying to get in…. (Actually, I recently noticed that the door handle is reflective so it must be that)!
Cheeky blue tit pecking kitchen window from bird feeder.

I bought a Perspex bird feeder to attach to the kitchen window and it has proved a complete failure- the birds haven’t touched the seed in it (which is now wet and soggy cos of the rain)- they just use it as a convenient perch for tapping the window! It took me ages to get an in-focus photo of one of them!

Ben Vorlich & wet feet

Have been doing lots of exercise the past week. A couple of weeks ago I got up early to go to the uni sports centre to sign up at 8am (I never go in that early!) to get a place on the uni yoga classes I wanted – even then there was a queue, but guess what? No students in it! This week I clocked up 3 yoga classes, 2 games of squash, ‘salsacise’ and a swimming lesson (I’ve decided that it’s about time I learnt to do the front crawl so that if I ever get to use my diving qualification and get into trouble I’ll be able to make a quick getaway from any sharks (I am kidding myself))! They also do belly dancing classes which I have yet to try.

Salsacise is less of a dance lesson and more of an aerobics class with a few salsa steps–I am embarrassed at my lack of co-ordination (you have to watch yourself in the mirror which is rather off-putting)! It reminded me of dance classes when I was a wee girl (Miss Janice’s ballet & tap!) when I found it hard to remember all the steps – no change there!

After all that exercise I thought I'd be fit enough for a major hill walk. On Saturday I went up Ben Vorlich, a ‘munro’ (a mountain between 2500ft and 3000ft), with the walking group. I got up early to start the walk from Ardlui (top end of Loch Lomond) by 10am and drove up with Shona & Malcolm who are from Stirling and nearby Alloa, unlike most of the members who are from Glasgow. Michael didn’t fancy it and I don’t think he would’ve enjoyed it.

Four people, including the walk leader, who were coming by train from Glasgow, got stuck behind a landslide on the track but amazingly they were only 1.5 hours late. So 9 of us started the walk anyway with a last minute fill-in walk leader, Dave.

Above: A bit of a sun on the ascent - Janet, Shona, Malcolm and Dougie blowing his nose!

It started to rain as we set off so I had my snowboarding trousers on, which were too well insulated for most of the walk, and as a result I boiled in the bag all the way up the mountain until we reached the snow line when I actually did need them. With 2 layers of clothing underneath they were a bit tight (nothing to do with all that chocolate I eat) so were restricting my movement - this meant I knackered myself out and then my knee started to hurt on the ascent. It wasn’t the most enjoyable walk I’ve done!

It was hard going- steep, boggy, very wet and despite all the stinky polish I put on my boots they were letting in water (I feel a song coming on…). Well they are 17 years old, so I think I got my money’s worth! We had every type of weather you can imagine over the course of the walk- sun, rain, hail, sleet, snow, and strong winds! Just a typical Scottish day!

Once we got higher up the slope the view had disappeared behind mist and clouds – apparently from the summit of Ben Vorlich, which I didn’t reach, there was no view at all cos the weather had deteriorated so much.

Above: Looking up into the mist on our way back down the hill with no name.

We ate lunch sheltering from the wind and snow behind a large rock – I had bought an insulating mat for £2.50 from Tiso to sit on and it really worked – didn’t get a cold, wet bum. But unfortunately my wet feet started to get really cold now we’d stopped, as did my hands.

Four of us turned back at the summit of the first hill (name unknown) slightly short of Ben Vorlich’s summit because it was freezing with very strong winds. The hailstones were sandblasting our faces and the tag on my jacket zipper was flicking me painfully in the face – I could barely stay upright I was getting blown so much. It hasn't put me off but I think I'd prefer to do the munros in milder weather and maybe do some low level walks in winter!
I got back down the hill around 3.30pm after a 5 hour walk and went to the hotel bar for a pot of tea and a rest. The ones who’d gone right to the top didn’t get back till 5pm (meaning my dry clothes and shoes were locked in Malcolm’s car till then…). What amused me was Janet lighting up a cigarette on the way down the mountain – very healthy! The people I had come with then wanted to eat at the pub and didn’t finish till after 7pm (Malcolm is the slowest eater in Scotland) meaning I finally got home around 9pm to finally eat my veggie curry that Michael had kindly made me. It tasted so good!

Above: Hardy sheep and the snow-covered first summit (we had lunch somewhere up there in the snow)!

On the way home Shona drove (Malcolm is a driving instructor and has dual control car)- she hasn’t driven since she passed her test 10 years ago and so it was a bit of a scary ride home in the dark and rain on the winding country roads back to Stirling! (Not as scary as being driven by 80-something year old Soula in France, mind you). We spent a lot of time shouting ‘dip your lights, dip your lights’ and ‘mind the kerb!’ Actually the scariest part was going round the roundabouts in Stirling! She is from Islay and they don’t have roundabouts or traffic lights there, apparently!