Like Father, like Daughter!

This a bit off the wall but I have a thing about numbers and in particular when listening to the car radio or watching the TV I adjust the volume so that it sits on either an even number or one divisible by 5.  I just can’t leave it on any other odd number.  This has led to Elaina suggesting that I have OCD tendencies!  What was really funny though was when we were discussing it today and my daughter admitted that she would do the same thing!  Now I’m wondering if it could be hereditary!  On the other hand my son is as perplexed as Elaina so maybe not!

Another thing I do is when I get interest added to a savings account I just have to make a deposit in order to even up the amount to a round figure!

Now surely other folk do this also…don’t they?!

Beinn a’ Ghlo

The weather forecast was promising so we needed a plan…the east looked best so we decided to head for Blair Atholl to do the three Munros on Beinn a’ Ghlo.  The only downside being that it meant a trip up my least favourite road in Scotland, the A9!  Eventually we arrived at the small (very busy!) car park just before 11am and set off for the eroded path up the first Munro, Carn Liath.

Carn Liath

Surprisingly good progress found us on the summit at 12.30pm.  We then headed for Braigh Coire Chruinn-bhalgain and found ourselves on the second Munro at 2pm.

Looking towards Braigh Coire Chruinn-bhalgain

This was good even accounting for the fact that the car park had given us a 300m start!  So on to the third and final Munro Carn nan Gabhar including a “short cut” which turned out to be no such thing – Elaina sensibly stuck to the path – latest score…Ayrshire Tiger 0 Path 1!  Arrived on the summit at 3.10pm.  Now this was getting silly…three Munros in just over 4 hours…but we still had to get down, but it couldn’t take that long …could it?

Looking south from Carn nan Gabhar

Now we could have dropped back down to the beallach and skirted our way around Airgiod Bheinn, but we decided to go over this last top.  The ridge itself was fine but the descent off its southwest slope was tortuous and slowed our progress somewhat!  We eventually got to the bottom and picked up the track back to the car park, which included a comedy moment worthy of “You’ve Been Framed” when I decided to do a somersault and finished up stuck in a clump of heather unable to move!  As you would expect from a nurse, Elaina was very sympathetic to my plight and burst out laughing!  At least she didn’t have her camera to hand!

So eventually we arrived back at the car at 7.20pm, so that was 4 hours 10 minutes up and 4 hours 10 minutes down!  But for once we were not the last car in the car park!

A rare site indeed, another car in the car park at the end of the day!

Now I couldn’t fact the prospect of the A9 so we went back back across country via Aberfeldy, Killin and Crianlarich.  For some reason the car wouldn’t take a left turn at Crianlarich so we somehow finished up at the Real Food Cafe in Tyndrum! 

Absolutely cracking day made all the better on hearing the sporting news that the Tigers had scraped a win and the Aussies were well and truly on the ropes in the Ashes!

Edit to add a couple of photos takne by Elaina…

Summit of Carn nan Gabhar

Looking towards Braigh Coire Chruinn-bhalgain

Played two, lost two…

Oh dear, looks like it’s going to be a long season.  After starting off so well by going into the lead against Chelsea on Saturday only to lose to a goal in the third minute of injury time we were well and truly beaten 5-1 last night by Spurs!  Not panicking just yet though as both Chelsea (as expected) and Spurs (perhaps not so expectedly!) look like very good sides.  It would be good to get a win under our belts though – hopefully Bolton will oblige on Saturday!

Weather forecast not looking too bad for the weekend (Saturday better than Sunday) so hopefully I’ll be up a hill somewhere and will get back to the car to find out we’ve got our first three points of the season!  Just need to decide which hill…

Prophesies sometimes do come true…

I was working my way through the blog putting categories and tags against old posts and came across the following:

17th December 2007. “Well on Saturday the mighty Tigers got back to winning ways with a 2-0 win over Leicester.  So one game from the half way point of the season and we have 30 points and are mid-table, which is a lot better than the same stage last season!  You never know we might even be in with a chance of a play-off place!”

6th January 2008. “Still, at least we can concentrate on the League.  Oh aye, that was another thing we used to say but at least this year we’re not concentrating on avoiding relegation…we’re only a point of a play-off place…and the Final is at Wembley…maybe, just maybe…”

For the non-footie fans later that year the Tigers did in fact make the play-off final at Wembley and went on to win promotion to the top flight f.or the first time ever.

Pity I’m not as good at predicting the lottery numbers!

Change of Design

I thought I would have a wee play about with the appearance of the blog and found  a version where I could include a photo.  Of course I still wanted to have a black and amber colour scheme so my choice was a bit limited.  Hope folk like it.  Please feel free to comment!

Facebook here I come…

I set up a Facebook account some time ago but never really got into using it properly.  However on Monday night I was at our mountaineering club monthly club night and Mark was saying how he’s just opened an account and would be sending friend invites out.  I jokingly told him not to bother as I’d just ignore it!  However curiosity got the better of me and I accepted his invite and subsequently had a wee nosy.  I have to admit it is quite interesting!  Anyway I finished up chatting to Neil, an old friend I knew when I worked in London in the mid eighties who emigrated to Australia over twenty years ago.   Was good to chat about the good times we had and I suspect this Facebook lark might be become quite addictive!

Fersit Munros

Had a very pleasant weekend camping at Glen Nevis Campsite where we met up with other members of Air Na Creagan Mountaineering Club.  We had great plans for Saturday but on seeing the weather we decided to take our time driving north stopping at the Real Food Cafe for a cuppa.  We then had dinner at the Ben Nevis Inn before joining the ten club members who had done Ben Nevis, some via the CMD arete, some by the tourist route.

On Sunday we made up for our lazy Saturday by doing the two Munros to the west of Loch Trieg, Stob a’ Choire Mheadhoin and Stob Coire Easain.  We had thought of doing a circuit but Coire Laire looked distinctly boggy so we decided to re-ascend Stob a’ Choire Mheadhoin and return the way we had come.

Looking northeast from the pillar at NN337767

Heading towards Stob Coire Easain

We were very lucky with the weather especially compared to the previous day, just getting caught in a heavy shower right at the end.

Heavy end of day shower over Loch Treig

The rain continued as we drove home but we broke the journey with a stop at the Real Food Cafe in Tyndrum which had its wood burning stove going full pelt…well it is August!

Thanks to Elaina for the photos ‘cos some numpty left his camera at home!

Yorkshire Day

Today is Yorkshire Day, a day to celebrate all things Yorkshire.  It’s a pity the cricket team are struggling against the Red Rose County! Maybe we should go back to the good old days when you had to be born in the county to play cricket for Yorkshire!

I was born in Driffield and brought up in Hornsea on the East Yorkshire coast.   It’s not a bad wee place especially looking back after recent events and remembering the good times we had as kids in the carefree 60s and 70s.

Old Boating Lakes, Hornsea Seafront circa 1970

Hornsea Mere

The East Riding tends to get forgotten about a bit when people think of Yorkshire.  A pity as it really is a lovely part of the country.  OK so some folk might think Holderness is a bit flat and boring but it has it’s own beauty even if it is falling into the sea at an alarming rate!  And the Yorkshire Wolds has some very pleasant walks and hidden gems such as Wharram Percy Deserted Medieval Village.

Wharram Percy Medieval Village

Wharram Percy Church

Talking of history I enjoy programmes like Who Do You Think You Are? and have been thinking about doing a bit of research myself.  I was back home a couple of weeks ago and had a chat with my mum and found out a couple of things I didn’t know about her side of the family.  I really will need to make the effort and see if I can find out who my ancestors are…maybe a Blackadder or Baldrick character from Wharram Percy!

It’s the weekend…

…so it must be raining!

Just hope it clears up tomorrow so that the cricket isn’t affected too much now that we are on top in the third Test!

I have difficulty explaining the rules of cricket to folk up here so I thought the following might be useful:

You have two sides, one out in the field and one in.  Each man that’s in the side that’s in goes out, and when he’s out he comes in and the next man goes in until he’s out.

When they are all out, the side that’s out comes in and the side thats been in goes out and tries to get those coming in, out.  Sometimes you get men still in and not out.

When a man goes out to go in, the men who are out try to get him out, and when he is out he goes in and the next man in goes out and goes in.  There are two men called umpires who stay all out all the time and they decide when the men who are in are out.

When both sides have been in and all the men have been out, and both sides have been out twice after all the men have been in, including those who are not out, that is the end of the game!

Simple!  Next…the lbw rule!

Sad News

A couple of weekends ago I made a visit back to Hornsea and met up with old school friends Ian, Roy and Paul.   We shared the inevitable memories and stories from the (good?) old days and parted promising to meet up more often than we have in recent times.  It was a shock to get a call from Ian saying that Roy had died  of a heart attack at the end of last week.  Can’t quite believe he’s gone.  I know folk say this sort of thing in these circumstances but Roy was genuinely one of the nicest blokes you could hope to meet and his brother’s blog sums it up with the phrase “I really liked him”.  As kids we both lived in the same street and had known each other from when we started primary school.  He’ll be greatly missed by his family and friends.