Trains, Planes & Delays

Over the past month I have been up and down to Oxford and London 3 times for work. I prefer to get the train when I can for my green conscience. On one trip I did resort to the plane for fear of Sunday engineering works on the railways but it would have taken the same time to get the train - since the plane was delayed 2 hours - and would've been less hassle!

I get really peed off with the cost of trains mind you. It cost £48 for a single flight from Edinburgh to Birmingham- but a return train ticket from Oxford to London was £50 - it's ridiculous! The trains are too expensive and the planes are too cheap. Why would people spend £100s on a train when they could get to the same destination faster for less by air?

I had 2 days in London and walked my feet off going round the shops on Oxford street before I had to run a focus group in the evening. My boss Sally flew down to run the group with me - (having twice forgotten her purse, borrowing 40 quid off a taxi driver and finally making it from Edinburgh) then afterwards, before getting our train, we went to a nice wee Indian restaurant near Euston which has been there since the 80s. But, as we ate a fight broke out in the restaurant- not between diners or a diner and staff but between 2 staff!

I took the sleeper train for the first time that night- misnomer extraordinaire - sleep is the last thing you do! It was like a small garden shed with a bed and sink and a window. I wasn't sure what to expect. In first class you get a cabin to yourself rather than sharing the same cabin with a stranger. You put in your breakfast order as you board the train where a nice lady asks you what you want and at what time. In your cabin you get a complimentary toiletry bag and a clean towel - I got a new eye mask in my bag, a mini deodorant, toothbrush, face cream etc. I had just bought some travel toiletries and needn’t have bothered! No ear plugs but I had my own anyway - even so the sound of metal grinding on metal is not conducive to sleep.

Some strange/ worrying things I encountered on my various trips included a young woman under the influence of I'm not sure what lighting up in the seats next to me on the train then passing out, ciggie still in hand burning the plastic interior of the carriage...(she did eventually get removed, shoes on the wrong feet, by traffic cops). At Edinburgh airport I was bemused to see 'organs for transplant' being checked in at the usual check-in desks in what looked like a small plastic pet carrier and a large young woman at check-in bending over in a short dress to sort her bag only to reveal enormous white knickers (think Bridget Jones tummy control pants) and sheer purple tights with enormous holes in them around the crotch...ooh nice! I didn't have the heart to tell her what she'd just shared with the entire check-in queue!

Sun, rain & scary mountains

Aberfoyle July 08
The summer hasn't been good anywhere in the UK this year but now and again we get a lovely sunny day so we make the most of it. Mind you, even if it rains we go out walking! When we want a nice gentle walk Michael and I often go to Aberfoyle and just do one of the marked trails through the forest park- we rarely meet anyone on them, most people stick to the car park and lodge area and the adventure park 'Go Ape' thing with death slides and things.

A hot sunny day near Aberfoyle

Scary mountain - Ben Lawers, 2nd Aug 08
Our friend from near Barcelona, Toni, who's a really keen mountaineer and climber, often suggests a weekend walk and he has the maps and leads the walk for us. This time we went up to Ben Lawers national park near Killin with 2 new friends - Alexandra from France and Rosalia another Catalan so there were 5 of us including me and Nicki.

Toni drove and as usual the drive up was wonderfully scenic - we even saw a golden eagle near Ben Ledi balancing on a telegraph wire - another first for me! We came scarily close to the many enormous tour coaches on the narrow, twisty Scottish roads, it being full tourist season. Killin was the busiest I’ve seen it with many tourists admiring the white waters of the 'Falls of Dochart' and the village main street.

Another day, another mountain. Looking pretty wet as we near the summit and peaks of Ben Lawers - Nicki, Toni, Alexandra (in Michael's old jacket) & me

The girls Alex and Rosalia, who are only here working at the uni for the summer, had only brought fashion jackets and jumpers to walk in but with heavy rain forecast I offered to lend them a couple of coats (they certainly needed them)– when they suggested just using an umbrella I realised perhaps they weren’t expecting a mountain walk but a ramble!

We started around 12 noon from the car park at Ben Lawers- there was heavy rain and it rained for the entire ascent, more or less, then typically there was gorgeous sunshine for much of the descent! I was cautious not to go too fast as I had a sore hip- I thought perhaps I had jarred it on a previous hill walk but now remember pulling a muscle when messing about in the swimming pool with my nephews in York (a visit to the doctor since then confirmed it's probably just a strain, but possibly a hernia which will reveal itself through a swelling and severe pain in a few weeks... ouch!). So I was taking it slowly to avoid aggravating the pain and Alex also went at a slow pace to enjoy the views.

I did find the first 30 minutes of the walk the hardest, as is often the case, and think that eating a big banana just before starting the walk certainly didn't help! Toni is a pretty fast walker - although he describes his pace as moderate - so when I can keep up I am pleased with myself! This time I definitely wasn't keeping up!

The ridge- wet, misty & very steep - urgh!

The ridge, which runs along a number of adjacent munro peaks, was in thick mist and was narrow, as you'll see in the photos - not something I'd fancy trying in the snow. As we started the descent we came across a very steep, rocky and muddy section. As I was trying to work out which route down was the safest I froze as I heard a women screaming for a full 30 seconds. I looked down the very steep moutain side in horror fully expecting to see a woman tumbling down the slope, then lying limp and broken. Toni, Nicki and Rosali were ahead of Alex and I and Toni could see what had happened- he called back to reassure us the person was ok but it gave me a fright and the danger of the rocky section became very real.

At last, the sun comes out on the descent - Rosalia (in one of my jackets!) admiring the view. The man who fell down the rocks is walking in the distance.

Alex and I decided we'd rather go back the way we had come but Toni assured us that this was the only steep and rocky section from now on- I couldn't see a way down and had visions of slipping. After a long time glued to one spot, Toni helped me to manouevre my way down safely, mostly shuffling on my bum, but I was worried about falling and taking him with me. The rocks were wet, the muddy sections were sodden and loose and my boots' soles do not bend to grip to rocks. The girl behind me was only wearing trainers so I was worried about her too.

As we came round the bend we saw a man sitting with his head in his hands and a woman standing near him - it was the man who had slipped and fallen and his friend who had screamed having seen him fall and 'land on his head' as she described it (the person who falls rarely has time to scream). He wasn't bleeding or unconscious and luckily was able to walk so we accompanied them the long walk back to the car park where his female friend took him off to the hopsital for a check over. You do get a bit blase when you do a lot of walking but it brought back to me how things can go easily wrong- I didn't have a first aid kit or a survival bag with me and mobiles do not work up these hills. We felt very relieved that the acccident hadn't been worse.

When we got back to the car the rain had gone and it was beautifully sunny - we could now see the peaks we'd climbed. Purple heather in the foreground.

When we got back to the car, the sun was glorious and the views amazing so we ate our packed lunches, took some photos and enjoyed the views. It certainly didn't look dangerous now. Luckily I had a change of clothes as my backside was very wet and muddy. We headed off to one of the hotel pub's in Killin afterwards for tea/ beer and finally got home by around 7pm.

Summer travels

York Summer hols, July 08
I was so looking forward to a holiday after a busy, stressful time at work and had planned to have a family holiday near York with mum, dad, Kate and her 2 kids for a week. We drove down in 2 cars- Kate and I with the boys and mum and dad in his new Audi which he is ‘breaking in’. As the kids are only 6 and 3 we needed to break up the journey for them so stopped twice on the way there, taking our time and letting them run around and use the play parks. One of the places, a farm shop and café had a trampoline in the grounds that was incredibly popular with all the kids who were there – we hadn’t realised it was wet so they all came off with soggy socks!

Holiday cottage near Claxton, York - Dad, Ruben & Mum

Dad had found a holiday cottage near Claxton about 6 miles from York in grounds with 12 cottages and a small indoor heated pool, outdoor tennis courts and a play park. The countryside around the cottages was flat fields which was strange to me after the hills I am now used to around Stirling. We had a nest of 5 baby swallows in the eaves outside the kitchen and dining room and spent time every day watching which chick was getting fed, whether any had perished (none did but one greddy one got very fat), and being amazed at how often and for how long the parents fed them- apparently it tots up to 7000 insects a day which they catch on the wing!


Video clip of swallow family taken by dad on his camera

We barely saw any of the other families staying there for the entire week and only once had to share the pool with another family- who got out pretty soon after we got in (one advantage of having small kids with you!). There was only 1 day when we didn’t use the pool as we were late home after visiting my mum’s sister Janet at the campsite she and Byron were staying on not far from us (they have got a spanking new campervan with all mod cons- I am jealous. Byron even tows his smart car behind it).

The Shambles in York- Mum & Dan by Chocolate shop

Although there were a few downpours we mostly had good and sunny weather and had a glorious hot day on Scarborough beach where I and my sisters had spent some happy childhood hols with mum, dad and our grandparents. It hasn’t changed and I have a memory from when I was only 3 of the steep hill going from the beach up to the hotel we stayed in – sadly the fountain where we used to wash the sand off our feet was no longer there but the hill was just the same as I remembered. Strange that you can have such clear memories from such a young age - it obviously left an impression on me!

Scarborough beach where we spent childhood holidays - it hasn't changed!

We tried to do things that would appeal to the kids- the Transport Museum and large ‘Ferris wheel’, the beach, a miniature steam railway ride and so on. They are easily amused anyway and loved the pool and the beach which is enormous and sandy with loads of sun-warmed rock pools to explore and sit in - many near the shore had anenomes in them.

The traditional British deck chairs - Mum with spa in background

On another day trip to Scarborough to Peasholm park (they were closing early to prepare for their annual naval battle re-enactment on the pond - I was worried about what would happen to all the ducks) and the railway, we were in fog all day- the ‘har’ - and it was quite cold although only 10 miles away from the coast was warm sun and no fog to be seen! The town centre was pretty much like Blackpool with amusement arcades, tourist shops, pubs and neon.

We went to York as well for a look around and looked at the wee, cobbled back streets, York Minster, the half-timbered houses and the nice park. On Friday morning I also took a bit of time out to do a bit of clothes shopping in the town- not very successfully, mind you. Evenings were spent playing yahtzee and drinking wine after the kids had gone to bed.

Shame that the return journey to Glasgow took around 8 hours due to an accident on the A66 and the need to stop to give the boys a break. But with only 1 minor squabble in a week (that's the adults - not the kids who squabbled every day), it was a success and a great distraction from work (only dreamt of focus groups once) and a nice change of scene. I didn't touch a computer all week - a miracle for me!

New car & Ben Vane

Hill walk up Ben Vane, 12 July 08

Last weekend we had picked up our new car from my dad, who very kindly gave us his old one - a very nice Audi - and had sold our old Rover to a dealer. Mic was really keen to get out on a walk today– I think he just wanted to give the car a good run! I checked the Met Office for the weather report, then we filled up the tank of our new car and were shocked to see it was £61! Per litre we are now being charged £1.18 to £1.20!

Michael putting his boots on in Iveruglas car park - Sloy Power station in the background

We headed for Inveruglas, a village on Loch Lomond about 60 miles from Stirling, intending to climb Ben Vane, one of the mountains in the ‘Arrochar Alps’. On the way we stopped off in Callander to check out the outdoor wear discount shop but it was disappointing –no new boots for Mic and no trousers for either of us. I was also disgusted at being charged 20p to use the public toilets in the village and £1.80 to park the car for an hour – I tend to agree with Michael that it’s a bit of a tourist trap.

This was a supposedly an ‘easy walk’ according to one Callander walks website– I think they rather exaggerated (I think Michael thougth I had been fibbing!) – it was really quite hard with very steep rocky sections, loose rocks and steep drops. The directions to find the route weren’t that accurate either- we were lucky to find the start of the path! On the plus side we had good weather – sun and cloud – no rain all day, a miracle. Mic even got a bit sunburnt. It was a pleasant temperature for walking - about 14c with a nice breeze.

'Don't take my picture' - Michael avoiding the lens. Ben Vane in background.

On the way up we passed the Sloy hydro-electric power station (largest in Scotland) and the sub-station which was buzzing ominously. We were a bit disappointed that there were so many huge pylons ruining parts of the view – could be why the walk was pretty quiet when there are so many unspoilt ones to choose from.

View of Loch Lomond and beyond from Ben Vane

Mic found it hard going and decided to call it quits at a cave on the way up (although he did well to get as far as he did considering he’s had little practice). He amused himself there while I decided to carry on and see how far I could get alone, but after 2 false summits and encountering a steep rocky section with no path I decided that I didn’t want to see the view from the top that much and what looked like the summit was in a cloud anyway! It had already been a bit hairy with lots of loose rock on the track. I had seen some good views anyway and seen the huge hydro-electric dam.

The old Cat boots Mic was wearing hurt his feet as usual and he was disgusted to hear that my feet felt absolutely fine after the walk. I can thoroughly recommend the pair I bought – Raichle in leather – just like slippers and need no breaking in.

The lone ascent - avoiding looking back at how steep it was while taking a self-portrait

One of the other 'Bens' next to Ben Vane

On the return journey, we stopped off at the Lade Inn near Callander so Michael could experience the real ale and I had a tea with shortbread. We had thought about having fish and chips here but at £9.50 each we decided not to bother (even the starters were a fiver)- the food might be nice but it’s very over-priced for a wee Scottish village!

Mic was very pleased with the new car and enjoyed driving it on the country roads so much so that he turned down the offer of a pint at the inn and stuck with a half so that he could finish the drive home. I can see I’m not going to get a look in here!

The Cobbler

Wet, wet walk - The Cobbler 29 June 08

Only three of us out of the usual group were brave (?daft) enough to go for a hill walk that day- shortly after we started walking we got absolutely soaked - the rain poured down. However, there were lots of other people doing the same walk - a group of young English people with a guide all dressed in navy blue Helly Hansen waterproofs (a dead give away that they wer eon a guided walk!) and a couple with a young son of about 7 or 8 years old - all wearing welly boots- yes wellies! - to climb up the steep rocky bits and the boggy bits. It was pretty hard work for us with our proper walking shoes to get to the summit but this wee lad in his rubber boots made it to the top! They must have had some serious blisters by the time they got back down.

The distinctive outline of the Cobbler's 2 peaks - it looked like this before and after we reached the summit

At the top, we could see nothing of the view- only mist since we were in the rain cloud. We stopped only long enough to eat a banana, take a few piccies and congratulate the 7 year old boy on getting to the top! For a few brief seconds the clouds parted and we caught a tantalizing glimpse of the view we might have seen if only our timing had been better. Oh, and we talked to some of the Helly Hansen youths who were very disappointed that Sergi wasn't Scottish despite his Scottish accent as they were desperate to meet some real Scottish people (not sure why they hadn't encountered any in Scotland so far!). They then insulted the only Scot amongst us by asking why anyone would want to move from Barcelona to Scotland! Perhaps for the same reason they had come here on holiday ...!

Sergi & Toni at the summit- the view was of mist, mist and more mist (we were actually in the rain clouds)!

The Cobbler looked pretty much like this when we were at the top.

Sergi & Emma getting very wet and cold on the summit in the rain - we didn't linger there for long

We took a slightly different route down- recommended by the welly boot family - which seemed harder and steeper but was apparently a short cut. I was glad we did because as we came round a corner, Toni spotted a brown and white bird with a red spot on its head, smaller than a hen with a small brown chick -a ptarmigan! I wasn't quick enough with the camera but just enjoyed watching them since I have never seen one in the wild before and certainly wasn't expecting to see one this far south. I thought they were only found further north in the Cairngorms and similar places. I even filled out an RSPB viewing record when I got home!

Munros & midgies

Cruach Ardrain, 21 June 08
Near Crianlarich 5 of us went on a hill walk up Cruach Ardrain (one translation from the Gaelic is ‘Stack of the High Part’- catchy, eh?) which is one of the mountains that stand in Glen Falloch - a few of us have been doing quite a few walks recently and are getting quite fit but we had a newbie with us who really struggled up the first slope meaning it took us much longer than expected with lots of stops. It was a long walk anyway with lots of up and downs and very steep sections - 12 miles of walking! It took us 5 ½ hours.

Lunch stop - Romain, Cath, Roser & me

There were beautiful wild flowers including pink and white spotted orchids, butterflies, and drifts of stems with soft cotton wool-like seeds. There were lots of scruffy, pooey sheep and lambs very near the summits where it was cold and windy– they seemed a bit pissed off to see us and baahed at us loudly for ages! We saw a couple of dead sheep on way up - poor things.

Lunch with the midgies & mountains for miles around

There were paths on the mountains worn by humans and sheep which also use the paths. I was a bit surprised that there were actually paths to follow on the mountains but some routes are so popular that it’s fairly easy to follow the way without a map (as long as it’s not cloudy/ rainy when you could fall off the mountain).

When we stopped for lunch we were hassled by insects- I wasn’t sure if they were midgies or not as they were very small, looked innocuous and it’s been a long time since I’ve been attacked by any (we got mozzies down south!). The next day I knew for sure by the itchy, swollen lumps on my arms, legs, ears, and neck that, yes, they were definitely midgies! 3 day’s later they were still driving me mad itching (even woke me up in the night) and now I have scars!

Top of the world!

The summit, called Stob Garbh is 959 m (3146 ft) high (I don’t quite understand why a mountain has a different name for its summit…). As it’s over 3000ft it’s classified as a ‘Munro’ named after Sir Hugh Munro who was the Scottish mountaineer who created a list of mountains in Scotland over 3,000 feet (914.4 metres). A popular activity among some (sad) hill walkers is ‘Munro bagging’ basically climbing as many munros as you can just to say you’ve done it!

The obligatory summit shot - left to right Roser, me, Toni & Cath

White cotton flower seed-heads in foreground & Toni & Romain descending

When I got down the mountain my legs were like jelly and were trembling when I stretched them – later my thighs felt bruised after such a hard climb.

The weather was good until we got back to the car when it finally rained. On the return journey we stopped off in the Lade Inn (har, har) by Callander for real ale – I’d never been before and it was really nice - one of the Spanish guys knew of it. I didn’t get home till 8.45 pm - Michael had been worried as had not expecting it to be such a late one and I’d had no phone reception all day.

Highland Fling!

June Highland weekend

My manager at work has a good friend who has the leasehold on a cottage on the Rothiemurchus estate near Aviemore that he rents out cheaply to friends and friends of friends. I suggested a weekend away to a bunch of friends and we organised for 10 of us to drive up there on Friday night and stay for 2 nights.

We had instructions on how to find the cottage, how to get in, how to work the electricity, stove etc and I was having anxious dreams worrying about how we’d manage with heating enough water for all of us to wash etc!

Our accommodation for 2 nights- Guislich cottage on the Rothiemurchus estate

The journey up was really quick with only a few delays due to slow-moving vehicles on single lane roads- only 2 hours from Stirling to Aviemore. I drove with 3 passengers. We’d left after lunch so had plenty of time to get some last minute shopping in Aviemore, explore the cottage and make dinner before the second car arrived with the other 4 people who were staying all weekend. The last 2 guests just stayed for 1 night arriving late on Saturday for birthday cake and cava since it was Jenny’s birthday that week.

In the garden of the cottage enjoying the gorgeous weather and amazing scenery after a hard day's hill walking

When we arrived with a lot of the food that needed to be refrigerated I was mortified to find no fridge but only a cold cupboard! We looked in all the kitchen cupboards in case it was disguised, in the hallway, all the big cupboards in the living room until eventually I found it in the cupboard under the stairs along with a microwave- bonus! It then took us another 20 minutes to work out how to turn on the electricity!

A rare photo of the whole group in front of Loch Morlich and the Cairngorms, Sunday

To heat the water we had to use the wood burning Quebb stove which meant a toasty hot living room all weekend which in the hot sun did make it a bit uncomfortable in the evening - the insects were out in force so we had to shut the windows too.

The setting was lovely- incredibly peaceful and smelt amazing with the trees, grasses and flowers. On arriving we saw a deer skipping off into the trees – great excitement for city boy Sergi!

The ‘country girls’ had the job of lighting the stove while Sergi and I were responsible for bringing in the fire wood from the shed – we did try to chop some. I hadn’t realised how heavy an axe is – I couldn’t even hit the piece of wood!

The Quebb stove and kettles

We stayed in the house in the evening with our well-stocked wine/ beer cellar, loads of food and some board games. I learnt some new ones including ‘Mafia’ a game relying on your abilities to deceive and also to concentrate hard (now we know who’s a good liar and who’s terrible at it) and ‘Cranium’ a board game involving various creative tasks like modelling with Play-doh and drawing with your eyes shut as well as trivia questions.

Despite the large amounts of alcohol almost everyone kept their dignity apart from one person (naming no names) who, on Saturday night, passed out behind the armchair having already had a near miss by falling off the back of another armchair almost hitting the cast iron stove. Sergi discreetly put the person to bed while we carried on with our game of Cranium!

One of the amazing views from the cottage

There was a swing on a large oak tree outside the cottage- we had great fun swinging on it while admiring the wonderful view of the mountains – until one of the bigger blokes had a go on it and broke it!

On Saturday we did a hill walk up Cairn Gorm starting from the car park by the ski slopes – we had fantastic weather and even got sunburnt. It was very rocky and barren – the only wildlife I saw were beetles! There were lots of people out walking although not all of them took the steep rocky route we took to ascend. Ailsa got a bad attack of fear on the way up –it was very steep with lots of loose rocks and I was scared too but we spent about 20 minutes with her frozen to one spot before she calmed down enough to keep going. Chunks of rock kept getting dislodged and falling in my general direction- I was worried about losing a tooth or an eye! Going down the way we’d come up would’ve been harder than continuing up the slope.

Anyway, we made it to the summit and then on the way down there were rocky stairs that had been created so it was much easier to descend although by that time my legs were tired and it was hard on the knees. When we got back to the cottage we lay on a rug in the garden, chatted, had wine and admired the scenery.

On the ridge on our way up Cairn gorm- despite the hot sun there were large pockets of snow near the peaks

The summit of Cairngorm- my first munro (2 previous attempts in winter resulted in me turning back before the top when the option seemed like 'die or go back down')

The last 2 guests, Jenny and Jason had also been on the mountain but later in the day than us and they had been rock climbing close to where we had gone up the scary slope. That must've been even scarier although they did have safety ropes etc.

The only down side of the cottage was that it isn’t serviced so we had to do a big tidy up on Sunday morning before leaving- almost everyone helped and we then had the day to chill out and have a picnic by Loch Morlich, then wander round Aviemore before driving home.