Skye

At 4pm on Friday a week ago I decide to forgo a bank holiday weekend at my desk in favour of a hastily-arranged trip to the Isle of Skye. Liz needed to find her study species, an innocuous rock cress (Arabis) related to Arabidopsis, and had room for a few extras in the car, so Sigrun, Charlotte and I tagged along. We had great weather for the long drive west. We took the scenic and less busy, but possibly slower and certainly hillier route, up Deeside, through the Cairgorms and over the Lecht to Inverness. From there we headed up the Ness to Loch Ness (no monsters on this, my first visit, but I was driving and am not sure the others were really paying enough attention to the dark, ripling sufaces). Halfway along the loch, we headed west, through more mountains and along Glen Shiel and eventually to Kyle of Lochalsh, where we crossed the Skye bridge.

We stopped for a coffee in Port Righ, before heading north to Storr on the Trottenish Peninsula, where the plant was to be found. By this stage the weather was closing in a bit and by the time we climbed through the forest to the spectacular baslat rock formations known as needle rock and the Old Man of Storr, at the foot of Storr, things were getting nasty - wind, rain and cold. Worthwhile nonetheless, as we found the first plants within minutes and then found plenty more around the bases of the cliffs, some even in flower.


We stayed in a youth hostel on the west side of the Trottenish Peninsula, in a very small village called Uig. The dorms were smelly but adequate. We dined at a hotel near to the hostel, myself on a fine venison haggis, washed down with some local ales and whiskey. Sunday's weather started equally miserably, with a howling wind, but things improved through the course of the day, but changing dramatically every few minutes. We drove back to Storr around the north of the peninsula, stopping for some iron-age Pictish ruins and castles etc. I was pretty amazed and (pleasantly surprised of course) to receive a call from Jane on my mobile as I emerged from an underground Pictish dairy storehouse, on a windswept clifftop, surrounded by a lot of nothingness and facing west only towards the outer Hebrides. Weird. I didn't get reception anywhere else on the island.


Later that day, we drove further south, down Glen Brittle along the west side of the spectacular mountain range known as the black Cuillin, in awe of the knife-edge ridges which are strangely popular with hillwalkers and climbers who are presumably less bothered by heights than me. We visited a beach at the end of Glen Brittle in a brief gap between showers and then headed back towards Uig via Dunvegan and its (expensive and closed, anyway) castle. Had a nice stroll through the woods there. Another night at another small hotel/pub in Uig and then a slow start on Monday before the long drive back, this time via an almost-too-cute village called Plockton. Weather conditions weren't the best for photography, but here's a few (some courtesy of Charlotte). Click on the photos to look at bigger versions.


Other highlights of the last weeks include the Lemonheads last Wednesday - a good-sized crowd from the Macaulay turned up to see Evan Dando looking and sounding much the same as ever. A good gig, a fact emphasised by a hilariously bad support act. To be fair, it was probably their first gig in public rather than in front of a mirror.

I've spent the last week as the guest of the very hospitable Colin and Victoria, nearby to work and will move into my new flat this week.

...and oi, leave some comments on my blog so I know someone's looking at it!

Balmoral 10km

Sorry for the long interval between posts, I guess the most obvious excuse is that I haven't been doing too much, or taking many photos. At any rate, the highlights of my last few weeks have been 1. an amazing gig last week 2. surviving the Balmoral 10km race and 3. finding a flat to move into.

The amazing gig was Micah P. Hinson and the Opera circuit at the Tunnels in Aberdeen, a week ago. I'd already been tipped off that Micah Hinson was good live, and had coaxed Richard, Keith and Rocio along with this promise and a listen to Micah P. Hinson and the Gospel of Progress. Richard was obviously already convinced as he went out and bought two albums before the gig. For those of you who don't know Hinson's music, well it's not exactly happy, but it's certainly sincere. he has a pretty amazing life story, especially given that he's on 23 years old. You can read a bit about him on Wikipedia, an interview here and more importantly you can hear a bit of his music at his myspace site. If you ever get a chance to see him live, make sure you don't miss it. Even if the genres he gets put in (usually Americana or alt-country, or even alt country/punk) sound unappealing, I don't think there's many people who wouldn't be impressed at his live performances. He and a bass/banjo/lapsteel player and a drummer played for 2 1/2 hours, stopping only for a quick cigarette in the doorway (smoking is banned in all venues in Scotland) at one stage. And they played hard. Any of you who have spoken to me (or Keith, Richard or Rocio) have probably heard enough about this already, but wow.

Last Saturday I took part in my first running race for years. This was the 10km Balmoral run, in the grounds of Balmoral Castle. The weather was perfect (in fact I got sunburnt) and with 1500 or so people running in the main race, with still others in the 5km and kids' races and plenty of friends and family around the atmosphere was pretty cheery too. As usual, I made it to the starting line just in time and lined up next to Alan and then was off almost straight away. The first 3.5 km was flat, followed by a really pretty steep hill for 1.5km or so and then downhill and flat all the way home. I thought I was taking it pretty easy on the flat, but then did push things a bit harder (but not too hard) up the hill, which is usually my strength. I did overtake the most people while I was heading uphill, but then a lot of people really don't cope too well with hills! I passed the pipers playing on the hilltop and then found I didn't have too much left to give. I don't like running downhill, but even once I got to the flat I wasn't feeling too wonderful. The course is cunningly designed so you can see the finish line for about the last 2 km of the race. Eventually I found the energy to accelerate slightly towards the finish line, and would have gone a bit harder if I'd known that Alan's wife Ruth was only 4 place ahead of me. I was pretty pleased to finish in 47.22 - anything under 50 mins would have satisfied me, anything over 1hr would have disappointed. Except for the freakish Mark, who despite a lack of training and a heavy smoking habit finished in 11th place, I finished ahead of all my workmates, and if I was competing against anyone I guess it was them. You can check out the results here if you're interested. Here's a photo after the finish. Don't look at my skinny legs.


The final highlight I guess was finding a place to live! It's a great flat near the city and near the beach. I won't be moving in for a week or two, so after moving out from the Cunningham Building on Sunday, I'll be couch surfing for a bit. Jane arrives on the 25th, hopefully to a welcoming flat.

It's a bank holiday weekend here and I've decided at the last minute to join some friends for a trip to the Isle of Skye! Back on Monday.