Back to Achmelvich

After a splendid night's sleep and a really good breakfast we decided that we would go to one of our favourite beaches at Achmelvich to enjoy the sunshine. It was quite breezy and lots of yellow leaves had fallen overnight on the balcony outside our room; it was as if autumn has arrived all at once. 

We had a brilliant walk on the beach and over to the neighbouring smaller beach. The sea was dark blue further out, then became a beautiful green colour as it became shallower, and then almost as pale as the white sand beach as the small waves lapped on the shore. 

We drove to Ullapool to another of our favourite places - the Ceilidh Place, where we had lunch before heading home.

It has been a very good weekend; I love the North West of Scotland particularly the part from Ullapool northwards, and I feel that it nourishes my soul. 

Stac Pollaidh

In a burst of enthusiasm this morning I announced to James that I would have a go at climbing the small but steep Stac Pollaidh on our way to Lochinver. First we said our goodbyes to our friends who would be remaining in Torridon, most of whom were planning to climb Ben Alligan. Steven and Hilary however had just received a phone call to tell them that their daughter had gone into labour with their second grandchild, so they were setting off home a day early.*

We arrived at Stac Pollaidh and it looked much bigger than I remembered. I was soon regretting my earlier optimism about the walk; I'm fitter than I used to be but steep hills always make me overheat. It was a lovely sunny and warm day so I overheated extra quickly and half way up I announced to James that I could go no further. However after some coffee and a Picnic Bar I gave it another try and soon we were on the saddle of the hill. The views were absolutely amazing - turquoise blue lochs, Suilven and lots of other mountains. I scrambled the last few feet to the east top and had a lie down in the sunshine. Walking down was steep but not a problem. 

We continued on to Lochinver and checked into the Albannach Hotel. Our room was gorgeous and after a jacuzzi bath I got ready for dinner, which was a delicious six course tasting menu; we enjoyed identifying all the combinations of flavours. Although each course was appropriately small it all added up to a very substantial meal, and we felt very full as we relaxed with coffee and petit fours in the lounge.

* Abigail Lily was indeed born later in the day! 

Diabeg to Craig

It has been a brilliant weekend so far. After a jolly evening at the pub I slept well in my girls' dormitory. I had just one roomie; a lovely girl called Lynsey who is also on a hill-walking weekend with a different walking club. On Saturday morning there was much discussion about routes; Steven, Hilary and I decided to go on an 8 km coastal walk from picturesque Diabeg to the bothy at Craig and back. Steven kindly drove us over the Goat's Pass to Diabeg - the views of mountains and sea were stunning. We set off in grey weather which gradually brightened to a warm and sunny afternoon. Steven and Hilary are such pleasant company; we chatted merrily as we walked along and had a good laugh. When we arrived at Craig we explored the bothy, which has clearly seen better days. I enjoyed swinging on a buoy which was suspended from a tree outside it, although I couldn't get Hilary onto it despite both of our best efforts and much hilarity. We had a few rests on our way back, basking in the sunshine. 

Everyone else had enjoyed a great afternoon too and after our showers it was time for the traditional communal meal. 

This was a veritable feast! The starter was James' pea and mint soup - the ingredients are from our garden. Then we had Hilary's home made lasagne with garlic bread, which was both delicious and plentiful. Then arrived Bob's apple and bramble pie, followed by Kenny's cheese board. A pleasant and convivial evening.  

Separate Rooms

We are driving north up the A9 towards Inverness and then on to Torridon. We have been having a nice chat in the car about the amazing summer we have had, both the excellent weather and the fascinating places we have visited. Let's hope that as a result we are full of energy and Vitamin D ready to face the winter ahead of us! 

Just James and I are heading north, because Ally and Davie are on their way to Dundee where Jamie is having a party tonight. Then Davie is going to the University of Dundee open day tomorrow, and they are all planning to go hill-walking in Glenshee on Sunday. I spent most of this morning buying them rail cards, train tickets and food.

So it's just the two of us going to Torridon, which could have been quite romantic except that James was too late to book one of the twin rooms in the hostel so we will be sleeping in separate boys' and girls' dormitories! 

The Last Wall comes down in Paris

Paris is full of music! Last night we went to our concert and I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would. We took the train to the Stade de France and walked round to our designated entrance. Going through security took AGES and we were worried that we would miss the start of the concert - so were the rest of the people in the queue, who whistled and shouted angrily as we all moved through very slowly. Eventually we got in to the stadium and we squeezed through the crowd to a prime position with an excellent view of the stage. I was not looking forward to standing for ages; I booked the tickets as James' Christmas present but chose the standing area because the seats were unfeasibly expensive. I did find that my back got sore by the end of the concert but there was so much to look at as well as to listen to, that I didn't really mind standing. On the stage there was a partially built wall which was added to throughout the concert until it went right across the stage. Roger Waters and his group sang their hearts out and I enjoyed the music and all of the amazing images projected onto the wall. Needless to say James loved it and sang along with every song. It was quite a spectacle; at the beginning a plane crashed into the stage and towards the end a giant pig floated above the crowd! Some of it was quite moving as tributes were paid to all the people who have died in wars or because of terrorism. It was the last "The Wall" of the long 2010 to 2013 tour and perhaps the last ever - Roger Waters could be seen wiping a little tear from his cheek as he left the stage, At the end of the concert we turned the wrong way out of the stadium (my fault!) and had to retrace our steps for quite a long way, but eventually we arrived back in St Germain where we had a drink sitting outside at one of the many pavement cafés. It was a lovely evening, in fact rather romantic.

And today the music continued as we walked around Paris. It was a warm and sunny morning so after a leisurely breakfast we decided to walk to Montmartre via Notre Dame and Beaubourg. A jazz band were playing at the corner of our street, an accordionist was playing La Vie en Rose on the bridge to Ile de la Cité, an old man was playing the fiddle at the Place du Tertre. The whole of Paris seemed to be full of music. It was also full of smoke - the Parisians love to share their cigarette smoke with unsuspecting passers by. I know that smokers do this in Glasgow too but the French seem to take it to a new level! However this did not spoil our lovely day; we had lunch sitting outside in Montmartre and later on we had a coffee at Les Deux Magots before making our way to the airport. A brilliant weekend. 

It's still summer in Paris!

James and I flew to Paris this morning and found it to be a good twelve degrees warmer than Glasgow! It's sunny and more like summer than autumn so after divesting ourselves of our jackets and fleeces at the hotel we went straight back out for an afternoon walk. We headed to the Luxembourg gardens which were busy with families engaging in wholesome activities such as tennis, cycling or sailing boats on the pond. Lots of people were sitting around on benches and chairs reading in the sunshine. We had drinks in a nearby café and watched the world go by - including a protest march about Syria. The marchers were shouting "Non à la guerre, oui à la paix" I have no idea which side they were on. We got chatting to a pleasant American couple who are on a tour of Europe, and I have noticed that Paris seems to be particularly full of Americans this weekend. We are now back at the hotel for a brief rest before going to our concert this evening; tickets for Roger Waters' The Wall at the Stade de France were my Christmas present to James, and that's why we are in Paris this weekend. 

Raspberries

I'm not long back from FitStep and I felt as if I was fitter this week - but for some reason less coordinated! I enjoyed it and I like the music. I also followed Deborah's advice to eat a couple of slices of toast and jam for tea to give me energy, which worked. I have been thinking of Mum on her birthday today. Now I'm eating raspberries and drinking camomile tea while watching Lara Croft Tomb Raider with James, Ally and Davie. Nice evening. 

Shopping and Lunching

The rest of the weekend continued to be very pleasant. The weather on Sunday was intermittently rainy so, having had our sunny walk the day before, we spent Sunday in town shopping and lunching. I would like to be able to say that we had planned it this way according to the forecast, but in fact we had made our arrangements weeks ago, so we were just lucky!

James and I are not big shoppers but this turned out to be a useful and pleasant trip. The secret of a good shopping trip for us lies in planning, decisiveness, and speed. We both had items to exchange in different shops, then we met up and chose a pretty blouse and matching scarf in John Lewis for Grandma's birthday.

By the time we had achieved this mission it was time to go for lunch with Heather and Ewan; a very nice way to end our shopping trip. We all met up in Prezzo and had a good chat and a delicious lunch. I chose the chicken, bacon and avocado salad and it was gorgeous - but more calorific than I expected! 630 calories to be precise! I cannot regret it because I enjoyed it mightily.

As a result I awarded myself only a very small portion of the Chinese meal that we ordered in later to celebrate Grandma's 84th birthday. Grandma seemed to enjoy herself and we of course had birthday cake and sang Happy Birthday. It was a nice occasion. After tea we all looked at some of Ally's holiday photos. He and Cat have organised them into sections which is useful because they have more than 4000 in total. We looked at the first two sections; Dubai and Bangkok. Two very different cities but both looked fascinating. 

A juicy pear

We had a lovely walk in Dumfriesshire today of about 12 km in the countryside around Drumlanrig Castle. We were in the area to checkpoint a D of E Gold Group and we planned our own walk so that we could meet them during the day and then later at the camp site. 

First we went to Thornhill to buy some meths (for the camp stoves), and we noticed that there was a film crew in the main street and I wondered if there might be some film stars about! However I was disappointed to learn (when we asked a lady in the hardware shop) that it was just an advertisement for Spar that was being filmed! It was very amusing though; the shop had displays of gorgeous shiny fruit outside it, the likes of which I have never seen either inside or outside our local Spar. Also standing outside the shop were an enthusiastic crowd of extras who were much younger, more attractive and more multi-cultural than the real residents of any Scottish town! 

We parked the car at Drumlanrig and noticed that there were lots of people there including police, various yellow-jacketed officials and some classy and healthy food stalls (for example home made soup, steak baguettes, hog roasts etc). We found out that the Tour of Britain cycle race will be coming through there tomorrow and that today there was an amateur cycling event.

We had a very pleasant walk through woods and rolling countryside. There were LOTS of pheasants running around in the fields; they ran away when they saw us but foolishly ran in the same direction as us instead of veering away! This meant that they got more and more agitated until they would launch themselves upwards, noisily and awkwardly with a great fluttering. We also saw lots of sheep, some donkeys and some Belted Galloway cows. The weather was beautiful and after our walk James and I had an idyllic coffee sitting on the grass outside Drumlanrig Castle looking at the views across the parkland with its ancient sycamore trees to the Lowther Hills beyond. I also ate a delicious and very juicy pear which I purchased from one of the healthy food stalls. The pupils did really well; it was a long walk for them of about 24 km but they were very good natured about it. We left them with their tents all set up at their campsite in Penpont and headed back to Glasgow for a curry. 

Fitness class

I have taken a fair amount of exercise over the summer although much less since I started back to work at the beginning of August. We have had brilliant weather this summer so most of this exercise has involved walking outdoors, which has been great. However I have been planning to go to some fitness classes this autumn as the nights "draw in" and when my lovely fitness instructor neighbour Christine told me yesterday about the new class she is teaching, I decided that the time was right.
This class is called FitStep and it's a bit like Zumba but with traditional dance steps such as the waltz, cha cha, paso doble, and the charleston among others. Apparently it was started by some dancers who have been on Strictly Come Dancing until recently. I found it to be great fun, I really enjoyed the dance steps and felt that I got the hang of it quite quickly. I was soon sweating buckets but I loved it and I will be back!
I am enjoying my weight loss and have now reached 9 stone 10 oz. James thinks I have lost enough weight (that's two and a half stones now because I was 12 stone 5 oz at the beginning of May!) I would like to lose just a little more but mainly tone up and get fitter. 

Reunions

Jamie and Ally are back from their travels!
The first to arrive was Jamie on Sunday afternoon. It was so great to see him all handsome and happy! He is such a positive person to be around. We had a steak dinner to celebrate his homecoming and Grandma was there too. He was telling us all about his adventures in Peru and showed us some of his photos, although we will have to see the rest at a later date because he headed back to Dundee in the evening to get ready for university which was to start on Monday. He gave us lovely presents from Peru - a brightly coloured scarf for me, gorgeous alpaca wool jumpers for Ally and Davie, and chocolates for James which he had made himself with strange ingredients, one of which is a herb nicknamed "The Chilean viagra!"
And Alasdair and Cat arrived back from South East Asia this evening. They flew in from Dubai where Cat's cousins had treated them to an amazing last night of their holiday at a boutique hotel. They looked really well, tanned and happy after their three and a half months of travel. Christine and Gerry were of course there too and instead of going straight home we all had an extended coffee at the airport while we all chatted and Ally and Cat told us more of their travels. Ally and Cat had also got us some great presents - a pair of slippers for me from Laos with elephants embroidered on them, and rice wine and a Vietnam t-shirt for James. For Davie they had got a pressed penny from the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, a pack of United Emirates playing cards, a pen from the Marina Bay Sands hotel, and best of all a collection of rocks from volcanoes they visited including Krakatoa! David was thrilled. They had also got a very interesting and bizarre present for Jamie; coffee beans that had been pooped by a civet! 

Relaxing at the Rainbow Room

Well we had a lovely time at the airshow! It stayed dry the whole day which was great although there was a chilly breeze in the afternoon. Jackie, her Dad, Finn, Noah and I waited for ages to get a tour of a big grey military plane but it was worth it and very interesting; it was a 10 squadron Voyager A330 aircraft which has only made 42 landings so far, it was very smart and new. It can refuel other planes mid air and is based at Brize Norton. I gave Jackie and the boys a lift back to Dundee late afternoon then collected James and David from Leuchars station because they had stayed to see the sunset ceremony at the very end. It was kind of sad driving away from Leuchars for the last time but such is life, and I'm sure we will find an airshow to go to next year - perhaps back to Fairford for the first time since our pre-children 1980s! 

Today I am at the hairdressers and then I will be collecting Jamie from the airport after his eight weeks in Peru so I'm very excited! After a coffee and a shiatsu head massage I feel nice and relaxed. I have always disliked going to the hairdressers but the Rainbow Room where I have been going for the last couple of years is very pleasant! 

The Last Leuchars air show

Well here we are at the last ever Leuchars air show. Despite a very mixed weather forecast, the sun is shining just now. It's the last air show here because RAF Leuchars will be closing next year and will become an army base. I feel surprisingly sentimental about this; despite being the least interested in planes in our family, I have many happy memories of coming to Leuchars with James and my tiny boys, who are now big tall boys. It has been a family tradition that we have all enjoyed. To me it has always been a pleasant and relaxing day out, especially as the toilet facilities have become more plentiful and civilised over the years. As well as the flying display there is a large static display and lots of stalls selling flying paraphernalia and also sunglasses, crafts and food. So after setting up camp beside the flight line we go for walks up and down the display. The boys of course take the plane aspect very seriously and pay attention to all the flying and technical details!! This year Jackie, her Dad, Finn and Noah, have joined us for the third time - I'm so glad that they enjoy it too! Last night we stayed over in Dundee and despite our late arrival (due to James' flight from London being delayed) Jackie and I were able to nip out to a nearby pub for a quick drink while David kindly babysat Finn and Noah.

Well I hope the final Leuchars air show is a good one - the flying display is about to start! 

Jack has a big face

James arrived home from his holiday in Austria very late on Sunday evening, and has had lots to tell us about his hill-walking. He keeps telling me how much I would enjoy going with him on a similar holiday, but then he mentions that he did 6000 metres of ascent over the week, which does not sound inviting to me! He has really enjoyed his holiday.
Although Jack has been fine in himself since his fight last week, we noticed over the last couple of days that the right hand side of his face has swollen up and under his fur there is a large lump. So I made an appointment at the vet's and I was glad that I had because by the time I got home from work the lump was so big that his right eye was half closed! James had arrived home just before me so he came with me to the vet's while David made the dinner.
Jack was not a happy cat when we got there and even less so when the vet stuck a large needle into the lump to try to draw out any liquid. This was unsuccessful so Jack had to get an anti-inflammatory injection and an antibiotic injection. During the second injection he went uncharacteristically berserk and lashed out with claws and teeth at the vet and at James, who was holding him. He scratched the back of James' hand really badly! He also yowled and lashed out when the vet put some ear drops in his ears - I suspect that he is getting a bit deaf so she was seeing if he has earwax. This was all too much for Jack, what a racket he made! James said fondly to him, "You were looking forward to a nice quiet evening weren't you?", however the vet thought that James was talking to her and said, "Yes I was!" which I thought was very funny. Jack gave the vet an absolutely filthy look.
When we got home we skyped Ally and Cat who are in Laos. Today they went tubing down a river; in the dry season it takes about four hours but in the rainy season (now) it only takes one hour. They stopped off at riverside bars on their way down river. Tomorrow they will go to Ventiane which is the capital of Laos. They are having such a wonderful holiday. 

Back to Guay

It has been a brilliant weekend. On Friday I had a lovely meal at Heather and Ewan's, and then, as I love Perthshire and I love Guay, I was delighted to be back there on Saturday for a D of E walk. I definitely feel fitter than I did six months ago and made good speed up to Loch Ordie. I had arrived before the rest of the group because I travelled straight from home, so I went up the hill by myself and it was very peaceful. I enjoyed looking at all the scenery (my favourite "The Shire" view!) and talking to the sheep. No matter how reassuring I tried to be they still ran off in a panic as I went up the path, and then stared at me reproachfully from a distance.
I relaxed at the Loch and then met up with Shona and Carolyn, and we check pointed the pupils. We had a fun chat, it was great to have time to sit down and catch up in the news because I have been so busy lately. John and Kenny had accidentally walked a much longer route than they intended and they were exhausted by the time we met them! When we got back to the lodge I had a refreshing shower and then we sat outside and chatted some more. Things got a bit too lively at the campsite and words had to be had with some of the pupils, but eventually everyone settled down and after a pleasant evening I had a great sleep. On the way south today I put on my music and sang all the way home!
David went to the new Cathkin Braes mountain bike track on Saturday with Stuart and his Dad and he loved it. It has been built for next year's Commonwealth Games and has recently opened to the public. He says that there are different grades of track and that the red routes are very tough. This evening we rounded off the weekend with dinner at - guess where? - yes of course it had to be TFI Fridays!