eBothy Blog

The Pig and The Poke

Alistair — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 11:57:38 +0000

I’ve decided to take on the Creative Writing OU course and reading the partial online chapter, it urges you to keep a writer’s diary to jot down stuff and all that. Now, quite often old brain doesn’t want to go to sleep. The old machinery just won’t shut down but this time I recorded its [...]

The snow is coming!

Alistair — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 16:27:50 +0000

I was wondering what this winter would be like. Is it going to be snowy/windy or like last winter, no wind at all? Normally the snow arrives around October but it’s forecast down to 950m up here on Sunday! 1050m further south but snow in August? Wonder what indeed the winter will be like.

The GPS Conundrum and the “vi effect”

Alistair — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 09:25:27 +0000

The other day Dawn and I were trying to remember the name of a restaurant in Glasgow that we’ve been to and neither of us had the foggiest what it was. So I fired up the phone and courtesy of a Vodafone Femto Cell which gives 3G coverage in the middle of nowhere, we used [...]

Salomon Exit Aero #2 : Loch na Sguabaidh

Alistair — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 12:52:55 +0000

It was a wild night last night, with Force 11 gales forecast though it didn’t seem to be as bad as that. However, these winds normally arrive in November and this is the second big storm of the summer so I don’t know what the weather is doing these days. After last winter’s lack of [...]

Whither summer?

Alistair — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 15:15:55 +0000

Last night we went for a walk down to the pier as it was very calm and sunny with just enough of a gentle breeze to blow away the midges. Today it’s blowing Force 11. You normally only get those winds in the winter but this is the second big storm we’ve had this summer.

Salomon Exit Aero #1 : First impressions

Alistair — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 18:16:51 +0000

Fitness Footwear have kindly provided a pair of Salomon Exit Aero shoes for me to try out and review. They didn’t arrive in time for the Cairngorms trip, where I wore the Merrell Chameleon Wrap Slams but I’ll give them an airing at the weekend. The Exit Aeros are part of Fitness Footwear’s Salomon trainers [...]

The new tick list : The Munro Society tries spiritual

Alistair — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 12:32:28 +0000

It seems these days that most things must be categorised. The mystery is being slowly bled from life to solidify in digital repositories such as Facebook and Twitter as bland and lifeless black pudding. The Munros List is a prime example but whereas is has merely been a list of mountains above 3000 feet, increasingly [...]

Cairngorms high camping

Alistair — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 10:31:57 +0000

At long last our mutual diaries were clear and I met up with my oldest and bestest friend Allan, aka The Penguin, at the wee car park on the ski road and headed off into the wilds for a high camp on Braeriach. So it was down to the river, swollen with the interminable summer [...]

The best tune ever?

Alistair — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 12:40:09 +0000

I just love this tune. I’m currently three quarters through learning it, just getting into the gnarly stuff at the end. Such a beautiful piece, especially for a wild camp at sunset. Finish off your dehydrated delicacy and do the Walking Pole Waltz! You need to a flashplayer enabled browser to view this YouTube video [...]

Denizens of the hills, then and now

Alistair — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 08:29:06 +0000

Martin Rye has a good post on his recent Lakes camping trip, where he stumbled across lots and lots of lost walkers just wandering around aimlessly in the bad weather. But it could be worse I suppose. Hermit’s Thatch has an essay on Japanese mountain philosophy which enumerates the types you would be likely to [...]