So glam me - sure you'll agree

I can sense how achingly desperate you are to acquire a status report on my dainty foots like;) As such I'd like to reassure one and all that my ankibubbles remain in a weakened state. They are somehow flailing around at the bottom of my legs; I raise my leg to take a step and they just kinda rotate randomly until they meet the ground..very bambi-esque (no grace you see).

Am looking super-hot though, both ankles strapped up for support, too poorly for shoes so strutting around in flip flops...looks like a one-woman revival of legwarmers, terribly 80's....maybe I should audition for footloose or flashdance eh?

Looking down on Ardlui from Ben Vorlich (North end of Loch Lomond)

Ben Vorlich - am uber-high and quite scared taking this pic.

Ben Vane - rugged kind of a chap

Is this where the fairies live? Glen Loin

Misty Mornings

Whelk in the garden of Lochside Guesthouse - Loch Long (Arrachar)

Loch Lomond - looking moody

Thw walk from Tarbet to Arrochar - Loch Long

OUCH...my feet

Well a fleeting visit it may have been, but Whelk and I had a splendid few days up in the land o scots.

We stayed at a lovely guesthouse in Arrochar, Lochside Guesthouse, which much as the name suggests was located..ta-da...beside Loch Long. I've never stayed in a B&B before and I kind of liked it...found it to be a tad like staying at a super-friendly relative's house, the type of relative that makes you the hugest breakfast ever and chats away like they've known you for ages. In fact it was so like that, that the paying at the end was almost awkward...aah! Great place though, views over Loch Long to the Cobbler, and behind us Ben Lomond, none too shabby.

Walked a lo-hot! Thought we'd ease our way into it but did over 28 kms the first day, over to Tarbet, then to Inveruglas through a glen or two...Attempted Ben Vorlich the next day but a wee vertiginous experience befell my comrade and me, and at about 500metres we cowered behind a rock and agreed it was time to descend hahaha!!

Anyhoo, my muscles are fine, no aches...but my feet are poorly, they took a battering and my precious and so dainty lady ankibubbles are currently strapped up for some support...oh, and my blisters have blisters too!!!

The Bonnie Land...

It's all somewhat last minute but my favouritist whelk friend and I have in the last 24 hours decided it's time to hit some countryside and do the whole nature escape thang. So we're off up to Scotland this week...muchos excitement.

Gonna get the train up sometime monday (maybe do the sleeper thing) to glasgow and then head to Loch Lomond. We're thinking we'll stay in a B&B up Arrachar way with views over the loch, and do some hardcore hill walking...probably Ben Vorlich from Ardlui, get myself a munro before Gorse Fox does (sorry pa). Some rugged scenery, hills, mountains, forests, waterfalls and lochs sound all rather appealing - wo-hoo!

Thanks to the mighty superhighway/interweb I have buckets of information, maps, etc., all within less than a day. So impressed by this that here are a few quite amazing website links:

www.walkingworld.com

www.visitscotland.com (accomodation, general info., great walk pages...)


P.S. Iain - was gonna be a blonde and say lets grab a beer since I'm your end of the british isles, then looked it up and saw that Aberdeen is about 140 miles from where we're going... embarassingly appalling geographical knowledge of anywhere in the UK. Hehehe!

Spring...zebedee...sprung.

Crickey I'm good!! Obviously you're already conscious of this nugget of info., but it's always an idea to reinforce this once in a while eh? Am defo. feeling the spring buzz in the air...am thinking it's perhaps akin to a female cat being on heat, all the toms throwing themselves in their direction. It's all terribly flattering really, but I'm not having a bar of it.

Brief catch up on the week...am hooked to myspace, ridiculously, have acquired 50 friends this week! Altho to be honest my finger hovers somewhat ominously over the deny button whenever I check these days...there are some knuckleheadedsimpletonfreaks out there on this interweb eh?

Been super-busy at work...I love a good crisis and someone standing in front of you with a pair of open scissors against their throat, staring at you, whilst going rather red and bulgey-eyed makes the night fly by!!! As does a good old-fashioned arterial bleed from the neck a few nights later. Ok so I'm odd, defo. not one of those people who go wobbly at blood etc., (which is probably quite as well)...gorey stuff appears to bring out the best in me.

Also had a brief O.C.D. freak out when a numpty of a co-worker interfered with some obsessive clearing and cleaning out. If you want something doing properly do it yourslef, and certainly don't change, interfere with or change what I'm doing. Led to a moment of crying out of utter frustration, kicking a few shelves, silently screaming and clenching my jaw and fists. All very amusing to others no doubt, so many are not as anal about this as myself, but implosion was not far from the fore. Given which you can understand why an arterial spurter all over the floor and walls meant that to persuade the victim to accompany the paramedics I told him that if he liked me he'd go as I really had to clean!!!hehehe!! We also joked as I was applying a whole heap of kimi pressure to the wound how his jackson pollack-esque spray in red and my attempts to clean it would make a fantastic piece of collaborative art....aah the fun we had.

Incidentally, this is somewhat late now, but I watched the celebrity world cup anniversary match on channel 5 the other week, and must say how absolutely better than splendid Boris Johnson was in taking down one of the german players. Boris Rocks!!!

New addiction

So no doubt I am marginally behind in picking up on it, but I've finally discovered Myspace.com and am already hooked!!! So hey to my new myspace friends :)

Happy Meal...

http://mfunnypictures2.blogspot.com/2006/04/mac-happy.html

Iain - dangers whilst diving

So well recognised, phi phi is where the Beach was filmed, but no, the sharks that frequent the waters along the andaman coast aren't dangerous...I s'pose if you swam after one and started trying to hack it with your dive knife it could take umbrage but they are not what would be considered dangerous. Snakes, jellyfish, octopus, moray eels, lionfish, scorpionfish etc., yep get all of those but unless you go up and harrass or touch them they are no danger.

In fact I would say that some of the students I taught diving to were more dangerous than any of the marine life, especially the koreans, chinese and japanese!!! Often the students I had from those countries couldn't swim, yet decided they wanted to dive. I remember team teaching a group of 12 chinese, and part of the requirements on the course is treading water. Foolishly me and the other instructor were back to back in the sea near the boat with the group in a circle around us so we could see if any of them were having problems. Typically they all attempted to drown us, using our shoulders to help hike themselves higher out of the water - bastards!!! Problem with this is that when 6 or so peeps keep grabbing your shoulders you go under the water. Fortunately we both remembered our training as to how to dettach yourself from the leeches...but after a few mins of this instructors from other boats jumped in to help!!!

10 minutes where I work

Ok, so I work night shifts with homeless men who are either referred through probation as ex-offenders, through mental health teams, rough sleeper services etc., and the majority of whom have substance misuse problems. This often leads to some funny, as in odd moments. For instance in the last 10 minutes, I was chatting to a chap who told my coat to wake up, "you alright under there mate?", whilst dunking his key into a cup of tea and licking it as if it were a biscuit...

Someone once told me in their deluded state that they controlled the price of cheese...and I would know if he liked me and trusted me next time I was at the supermarket by monitoring the prices thereof...