The Jumbled Box

Port de Pollença, Mallorca

2009-07-12T10:11:00.007Z

We recently went on holiday to Mallorca, one of the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean Sea. For anyone thinking "doesn't he mean Majorca?" Well, yes you can call it that if you want but the locals speak Catalan and that what they call it. The island is Spanish so both Catalan and the more commonly Castilian Spanish are spoken but all the official notices and road signs are in Catalan so you might as well get used to it.

Port de Pollença Harbour

The town is pretty much a tourist resort but a good bit quieter than nearby Port d'Alcúdia, one of the most popular resorts on the island. We stayed in the Oro Playa aparthotel in Port de Pollença (Puerto Pollensa) in the North of the island. The accommodation was good but, like most places we stay when on holiday, we almost never partake of the laid-on entertainments or restaurants so can't say much more than that. It was clean and well kept and the staff were very friendly., which is pretty much all we wanted The only downside was its proximity to the Puerto Azul hotel, which blasted out endless holiday songs at high volume for its kids club. Seriously, if you don't have kids, then don't ever consider going to the Puerto Azul, you'll be suicidal in a week.

As for the resort itself, the town is centred around the harbour area and the main square, where there are loads of restaurants and snack bars. There's also a very good beach stretching down from the South side of the town and around the bay. As for the eateries themselves, most are very good quality quality and I don't think we had a bad experience in the two weeks we were there. As ever, the Indian restaurants are woeful compared to those at home but we've gotten used to that by now and expectations of a decent curry abroad were set aside long ago. The nightlife is another issue though - there's very little of it. The resort is obviously more aligned to family or elderly tourists so if you're looking for a wild nightlife go to Alcúdia instead.

Port de Pollença Beach

It's not completely bar-free though and we did find a couple of decent ones near the main square, one Australian and two Irish-themed ones. Not that they'd ever seen a real Aussie or Son of Eire behind the bar but they were lively enough and had some live music most nights. We ended up in Mulligan's most nights as the area's only decent rock band, and the only one we could find in the resort, called The Hustlers played there several times a week. The downside was there are also two Elvis impersonators doing the rounds. One, a young fit-looking guy, was really bad and seemed to sing anything but Elvis numbers and the other looked like he'd lived the Elvis lifestyle and was close to expiring at any minute. I'm sure he also had a Glasgow accent.

There's not a lot else to do in Port de Pollença. I did find a little nature reserve called l'Espai Humit de la Gola. If you walk along the front, you'll notice a little bridge over a stream that's pretty full of fish. and always attarcts a few tourits. If take the road leading off on either side of this, you can get down into the reserve. It's not large but it's a pleasant stroll through a butterfly and bird infested wetland area. There appeared to be a resident Little Egret that was always worth watching as it pranced around catching who knows what in the shallows.

l'Espai Humit de la Gola

So, to sum it up - good beach and good food but not the best of night-life although Alcúdia isn't far away. If you want to get out of Port de Pollença for the day, there a decent walk though the Boquer valley to Cala Boquer, you can also walk over to Cala San Vicente but that's a bit more strenuous. Getting to the little town of Pollença or Alcúdia is easy by bus too and there's always car hire if you want to go further afield.

A Cold Afternoon At Castle Semple Loch

2009-02-15T21:00:00.006Z

Sunday again and the weather isn't great but still decent enough for a stroll by Castle Semple Loch near Lochwinnoch.

Castle Semple Loch, looking towards Kenmuir Hill Temple

It's still cold so the loch was partially frozen over with a thin film of ice but that didn't stop the usual gamut of over-wintering waterfowl from enjoying the day.

A Frozen Castle Semple Loch

There were plenty of birds in evidence - mallards, mute swans, tufted ducks and goldeneye as well as the ever-present gulls. The wind was whipping over the loch surface and where it hit the edge of the ice, it produced a really strange tinkling sound. Anyway a few hours wandering in the cold here was enough and we headed back home for a warm fireside.

Tufted Duck

Mute Swan

Ardardan and Balloch

2009-02-08T21:49:00.003Z

It was a cold and potentially snowy Sunday and we'd wanted to go for a walk up Ben Lomond as it looked spectacular on the Saturday, all cloaked in white. Unfortunately, it was completely hidden from view by low and freezing clouds and snow was forecast so, being sensible folks, we opted to stay closer to the ground and go for a wander along the shore at Ardmore Point, a privately owned peninsula with a nature trail laid by the Scottish Wildlife Trust, near Cardross on the Firth of Clyde.

Nosey Toffee Coo

Unfortunately, my navigational skills were lacking on the day and I took the earlier turn off, missing Ardmore and ending up at Ardardan Estate instead. Ardardan is set in a little walled garden between Cardross and Ardmore and comprises a farm shop, garden nursery and tearoom. Not quite what we were looking for but we had a nose around anyway to pass the time. The farm shop was a bit upmarket for us, selling atrociously priced grocery items more frequently seen in the likes of Harrods or Fortnum and Mason's. The only positive thing was the fact that they sold Stornoway Black Pudding.

Of more interest to us at the time was a short woodland walk around, well a small wood. The path basically led off from one end of Ardardan, circled a small wood and came back round to the farm again. It was probably no more than quarter of a mile round but it had started snowing and seemed interesting enough at the time. On the way round we got to say hello to some inquistive Highland Cows and their calves. It's not a bad place to take kids for a few hours as they can see some farmyard animals like chickens, pigs and the "Toffee Coos" while mum and dad can edge them towards the tearoom. It also has a spectacular fountain with leaping dolphins, which looks a bit out of place among the farmyard clutter.

Drumkinnon Bay

Deciding the weather wasn't even up to a shoreline walk at Ardmore, we drove on to Helensburgh and then up and over the hill to Loch Lomond to see what was going on at Drumkinnon Bay at the Balloch end of the loch. Loch Lomond Shores is yet another pretentious, upmarket tourist trap but it does have a coffee shop and some potentially spectacular views of Ben Lomond. Not today though as it was snowing and the Ben was completely obscured from view.

Gulls On Ice

With an almost grey backdrop to the loch, there wasn't much to see except some stark contrast images of snow, ice and frost and a tied-up Maid of the Loch. Oh and some gulls wandering around on an ice-floe on the water. After a suitably hot coffee and a bun, we headed home for the warmth of the fireside and the telly - brrrrr!

Robert Burns 250th Anniversary

2009-01-27T18:38:00.001Z

As the weather was pretty naff on Sunday, we wandered into Glasgow town centre to do a bit of shopping. It's my birthday soon and Lorna was trying to squeeze some gift ideas out of me. Anyway, that aside, after we'd wandered all over the place and were thinking of heading home we took a detour past George Square as there were some live acts on during the Robert Burns 250th Anniversary celebrations.

The "Shortbread Tin" View Of The City Chambers

I'd been in town on Wednesday on a Glasgow Flickr Social Club meetup and had caught a few photos of the projection system setup and fancied seeing the full show as it did look very good. What they had were three projectors throwing images onto the facade of the Glasgow City Chambers building and then images could scroll up and down or left and right so they played a sequence of images accompanied by a voice-over, giving us a summarized life story of the bard along with some of his songs and poetry.

There was also a stage set up and music suppied by the likes of the Phoenix Honda Glasgow Skye Pipe Band and the Red Hot Chilli Pipers to keep the decent sized crowd entertained. Pity we couldn't have stayed a bit longer but it was freezing and we had a haggis to cook for our tea.

Photos were taken during the setup as the crowd would have blocked the view.

Quantum Of Solace

2009-01-05T19:24:00.004Z

We went to see the latest James Bond movie at the weekend - Quantum Of Solace. Despite the odd title, it's the sequel to Casino Royale (the second one) and starts off from where that finished up. If you haven't seen Casino Royale, then I wouldn't read any further but here's a short description of the plot…

With Vesper gone and the mysterious Mr. White captured, the British Secret Service learns that a previously unknown organization called Quantum has insinuated itself into almost every layer of business and government on the planet, including themselves.

When all the evidence points at Dominic Greene (Mathieu Amalric) as the face of Quantum, Bond (Daniel Craig) goes on a mission of vengeance and even alienates himself from the service and M (Judi Dench).

With Quantum gaining control of seemingly worthless tracts of land around the globe, Bond teams up with a Bolivian girl called Camille (Olga Kurylenko) to try and solve the mystery behind their operation.

The Bond character has definitely changed. Gone is the debonair spy of Connory or Moore's time and in is the licensed thug that is Daniel Craig. Also gone is Q and that is a pity as a visit to the quartermaster always added a little lighter moment to the story. What we have now in these two movies is a much harder, probably more realistic, storyline. There's also a serious lack of sex here as well and, while it was never explicit in previous movies, it was always a given that Bond would get more than his fair share of seduction along the way.

On top of all that there is no really evil arch villain of the piece either. Dominic Greene is more like a corporate leech and he has no huge thug of a henchman to back him up either. He is a pretty cold fish but just lacks that element of seeking global domination that should be the raison d'etre of any Bond villain. Not that all of this is bad, it's just different but it doesn't really seem like a Bond movie so much. To offset this uneasy situation, there's loads of action - roof chases, car chases, boat chases, hand-to-hand fighting, explosions, etc.

Quantum Of Solace is a reasonable sequel to Casino Royale and finished off the story well enough although I suspect they could have squeezed it into one movie easily enough.

Genre: Action, Adventure, Thriller
My Rating: 7/10

Seven Things About Me

2009-01-04T13:18:00.008Z

I got tagged by my boss's boss's boss in the chain blog meme about listing seven unknown things about yourself that's doing the rounds of the blogging circle. So, here's my seven…

I don't really like football much. For a Scot that can seem pretty unusual but it's a fact and I suppose I'm not really into team sports of any kind. My dad played for Keith when he was younger but I never caught the bug. He took me to the only two football matches that I've been to in my life (Scotland vs Austria and Partick Thistle vs Celtic) and quickly realized that I wasn't that interested. Frankly, standing at one point on the edge of a live match, one sees so little of the gameplay that I didn't see the point of going.
Another notch in the Scottish sports coffin - I'm not a golfer. I'm with Mark Twain on this one - "A good walk ruined". Golfing equipment was simply too expensive when I was a lad and I'm far happier walking over the hills and glens of this marvellous country but anyone that reads this blog will know that already.
I was "Dux Litterarum" of my primary school but never went to university. I've done a few of those online IQ tests and I'm hitting over 140 so I suppose I must be bright enough!
I used to work as an electron microscopy technician in Glasgow University. It was my first job after leaving school at 17.
I like fishing but I'm allergic to fish. I suppose it was all part of that getting outdoors stuff as a kid and I was a pretty good angler but anything I caught and brought home always went on someone else's plate.
I practised Shotokan Karate for a few years and got as far as fourth Kyu but again my anti-competative streak put me off going for higher grades and then marriage and kids kyboshed it completely.
I like watching motorsports - Formula One, Moto GP, WRC, Touring Cars, World Superbikes, etc.

Well that's it for seven things. However, I hate the very concept of chain letters or chain anything so this tag ends here!

Happy New Year 2009

2009-01-01T13:54:00.005Z

Another year dawns and we're all that wee bit older although probably not that wiser. We spent last night in George Square in the centre of Glasgow at the Winterfest Hogmanay celebrations.

We had a few drinks beforehand in O'Neill's bar in Queen Street and then headed into the square via a tortuous route of closed off roads that had everyone enter from the East side. We got in in time for Idlewild kicking off on stage and they were pretty good. Following them was the headline act, Paolo Nutini, who arrived on-stage slightly early and performed all the way through until about 00:30 with a wee break over the bells so everyone could watch the fireworks over the city chambers and do the needful cheering and handshaking anyone that's close stuff.

I'm not sure I'm quite into Paolo Nutini's music, a kind of mix of blues and cajun rhythms with a rock feel, but he gave us a solid performance and had everyone bouncing up and down. The only downside was the fact that the video on the big screen they had up was slightly out of sync with the sound so it looked a bit odd but we were close enough to see the stage so it didn't matter much. He was followed by Blondie tribute band Bleachie who took us up to 1:30 and that's when it all came to an end. It was a pretty good night and everyone seems to have had a good time except for one ejjit we spotted on top of one of the buildings surrounding the square. I think he must have scaled the scaffolding that covered the front of the block to get up there and prance around but the police had spotted him as well so I expect they were waiting when he came down.

It was a ticket-only do as in previous years but this time they ripped us off for £15 each and with an estimated 10,000 attending, someone made an awful lot of money. Not bad for an event that used to be free.

Time To Get Back To Blogging

2008-12-29T14:24:00.002Z

I've been diverted recently from blogging by the likes of Twitter, FriendFeed, a real life, etc. but I quite fancy getting back to jotting down some thoughts again. Mind you I also bought myself a Playstation 3 recently so that could be difficult. That said, I'll try and do a bit more regular posting from now on, knowing that it all gets syndicated out to Twitter and FriendFeed anyway.

Ross Hall Park

2008-11-18T17:34:00.010Z

On our way down to Crookston Castle on Sunday we passed by the entrance to Ross Hall Park, yet another place we'd never been before. It's one of over 90 public parks and gardens in Glasgow and isn't listed on the Glasgow City Council site so it's no wonder a lot of these places go unnoticed. So, on the way back from the castle, we followed the river and detoured through the park for a visit.

Ross Hall Park

With it being adjacent to the Ross Hall Hospital, then I suspect that it's likely that the grounds once belonged to Ross Hall House, which is now part of the hospital. It isn't a big park by any means but it does have a hidden gem - a grotto and rock garden dating back to 1895. The whole thing is category B listed with it described as…

Garden structures constructed at intervals around 3 sides of open lawn built in partly natural and partly artificial Pulhamite stone, including grotto, rock garden and rock flanked narrow passage, low wall, subterranean boat house and ornamental paths, all designed to appear as natural outcrops.

Phew!, what all means is that there is a pretty surreal area of twisty and turny paths and bridges going over and around ponds and weird rock formations. The grotto is a rock-walled enclosure constructed around a sunken pool (now filled-in) with "rockery" masonry, bridges arched over water features, plant troughs in hollowed boulders and rock wall and shelter areas under overhanging rock.

Pulhamite, the artificial rock used in the grotto, is the legacy of James Pulham & Sons, landscape designers in the late 19^th and early 20^thcenturies who were responsible for working on garden designs in Sandringham and Buckingham palaces and the RHS Gardens Wisley among others.

Ross Hall Park Pond

The rest of the park is pretty unremarkable but it does have a decent lawned area running down from Ross Hall House to a pond in which there were a few ducks and moorhens splashing around. Just adjacent to that area is a more formal garden section overlooked by the ruin of what appears to be an old boiler house with a large and ornamental chimney stack (see top picture).

Maybe we'll go back next Summer to see it all in a better light so to speak.

Crookston Castle

2008-11-16T23:45:00.007Z

Another sunny Sunday but I had a bit of a headache, which I suspect was caused by a toxic Domino's pizza from the night before. So, unwilling to drive far with a sore head, we decided to stroll down to Crookston Castle. At least I'd get some fresh air or what passes for it in Glasgow.

Crookston Castle

Crookston Castle is basically a 15^th century ruin only a few miles from our doorstep but, for some reason, we've never ventured near it before now. It sits atop a small hill in the heart of a residential area and is flanked by some fairly busy roads and the Levern Water. The weather was pretty good for the time of year; sunny but a bit cold, which probably accounted for the fact that we met absolutely no-one in or around the castle.

Crookston Castle

Crookston Castle was named after Sir Robert de Croc, who built the first castle here in the 12th century and you can still see the remains of the old bank and ditch defences from that time surrounding the site This present castle was built around 1400 by the Stewarts of Darnley. A popular story concering it is that Henry Stuart , Lord Darnley, proposed to Mary, Queen of Scots, under a yew tree here. The castle suffered severe damage at the hands of James IV in 1489 when he used the the cannon Mons Meg from Edinburgh to suppress a rebellion by the Earl of Lennox.

Today, it's managed by Historic Scotland and is open to the public so you can wander though what's left of the halls and climb all the way to the top of the North-East tower for some excellent views out over Glasgow.

We were quite surprised that the place was wide open to explore; no sign of any wardens or anyone looking for cash for admittance. It's also really clean and well kept inside; none of the usual detritus of inner-city living such as coke cans, old bottles or even the odd jakey. The interior has been restored a bit so you can easily walk around what's left of the place and can even climb all the way to the top of the North-East tower, albeit by three flights of open-rung ladders from the first floor. Lorna isn't one for heights or at least not heights she can see directly below her feet so she didn't go for the ladders. I hauled my somewhat bulky frame all the up though and was rewarded by some excellent views out over the city.

View From Crookston Castle Tower

Glasgow's Fireworks Display 2008

2008-11-08T08:44:00.007Z

We went along to the Glasgow annual Guy Fawkes Night fireworks display at Glasgow Green on Thursday night, which was the 6^th of November and not the 5^th as is traditional. It was delayed a day to avoid a clash with a Celtic vs Manchester United football game in the city, which probably meant that the police couldn't be in two places at once.

Anyway, we finished work around six, had a quick burger meal and wandered along to Glasgow Green. I say wandered but we really just followed the growing throng of people doing the very same and all heading for the fireworks do. By the time we got to the entrance the crowds converging on the place were huge and it was pretty busy on-site already as the entertainments had begun about 6:30. There were some large screens set up and some Radio Clyde DJs were keeping the crow amused, if not entirely entertained, with some inane waffle. I mean just how enthusiastic can anyone with more grey matter than a spoonful of porridge get about winning X Factor tickets?

Nearing the 7:30 startup time for the fireworks we had the Lord Provost do his bit and then somebody they picked to press the big button did just that and the show began. This year, the event had a West End musical theme with all the sing-along favorites from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat throughout! Still with us and stopped vomiting? Okay it wasn't quite that bad! They'd done a decent job of choreographing the music and munitions together and with some 3,000 fireworks going off over about 30 minutes it was a pretty good show.

My only complaint was that the smoke from some of the fireworks got so thick at some points it obscured the ones following. Luckily for everyone the rain had held off, unlike last night or it'd have been a complete washout. Anyway the night was over after 30 minutes worth of music and explosions so everyone either trudged back into town or headed for the nearby sideshows or sausage-on-stick vans that had turned up to help them appreciate the joy of long queues and then relieve them of their cash. Still, there's always next year!

A Walk In The Forest

2008-11-02T23:43:00.006Z

With the weather looking reasonable and it being a Sunday, we hopped in the car and headed for the Trossachs for a wander in the forest, specifically around the David Marshall Lodge near Aberfoyle.

A Shady Path

The lodge is actually a Forestry Commision visitor centre in the Achray Forest, which itself lies in the Queen Elizabeth Forest Park. The Achray Forest straddles the Duke's Pass between Loch Achray and the Trossachs to the North and Aberfoyle to the South while the larger Queen Elizabeth Forest Park runs from the East shore of Loch Lomond to Strathyre and of course all of that lies within the new Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park. If all of that doesn't confuse the tourists, then we're not trying hard enough!

There are about eight well maintained and signed forest walks around the lodge area and, along with the latest attraction, the Go Ape High Wire Adventure course, it's a good place for youngsters to spend a day in the outdoors. The one downside we discovered was that the tearoom, which was always good for a tea and a scone after a solid day's walking the trails, has been changed. They've obviously sold out to a what appears to be a team of foreign migrant workers and they're trying to turn it into a table service only place. What a horror - we couldn't just nip in for a simple snack lunch but had to order from a menu and then wait about 20 minutes until we sere served. Whatever happened to the home baking and large urns of hot soup or rolls to go? I can't fault the food though and we had a couple of bowls of steaming hot soup before heading out but it'll never fly as a table-service only restaurant.

Ben Lomond To Ben Ledi

The surrounding forest is a mix of oak, birch, larch and conifers so there's plenty of variety in the woodland and lots of birdlife around as well. We usually wander around almost all of the path trails and end up on top of the little hill that at one time sported a radio mast as the views out from it excellent. You can see all the way over to Ben Lomond in the East, North to Ben More and Stobinnean, Ben Ledi to the West(ish) and South to Dumgoyne and the Campsie Fells.

South to Dumgoyne and the Campsie Fells

All of that usually takes us about three hours or so of ambling along the trails and then it's time for a laze, sitting having a snack on the hilltop, and then wandering back down by a different route. Of course by the time we got back down to the lodge the new tearoom/restaurant had closed at four in the afternoon. Now that's enterprising of them, not!

So, no tea or scones to be had, we set off home somewhat disgruntled but not unhappy!

A Hundred Million Suns

2008-10-28T18:28:00.002Z

Got a hold of a copy of Snow Patrol album - A Hundred Million Suns today. I've already got some of their earlier work such as Eyes Open and Final Straw and quite liked both of those so I'm hopeful that this one will prove to be worth the same investment in time listening to it.

At first play through it seems a bit raunchier than earlier albums at the beginning but it's still Snow Patrol and there are some more familiar sounding tracks through the course of the album to appease those that don't like change. The final track, The Lightning Strike, lasts for over 16 minutes and is definitely a bit of a change. It might take a few listens to grow on me but I think it will and it may prove even more popular than their previous offerings.

If you like songs with lyrics you can actually hear and some very nicely arranged acoustic guitar music backed by some amazing orchestrated themes, then you may very well find A Hundred Million Suns is your cup of tea.

Genre: Alternative
My Rating: 7/10

Fuerteventura - Corralejo

2008-10-26T19:35:00.006Z

We're not long back from a couple of weeks on Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands, hence the lack of posts here lately. Following right on from that I got hit with a pretty bad cold and throat infection so that more or less stopped the posting too. Anyway, I'm almost back to normal, well at least as normal as usual so I thought I'd better start scribbling again.

Corralejo Bay

Corralejo is the main tourist resort on Fuerteventura. We chose the holiday at pretty much the last minute and, as we'd never been to Fuerteventura before, it was somewhere different to go. We'd heard that the island was pretty quiet compared to the better known islands of Tenerife, Gran Canaria and Lanzarote so needed somewhere with a bit of life to it, which is what made us choose Corralejo over some of the smaller resorts.

Corralejo lies at the North end of the island with good views over to the island of Lanzarote and just the South-East of the town is a huge area of about seven miles of sand dunes and beaches that have been designated as a nature park and is really popular with windsurfers and kitesurfers. It's essentially a resort built around the core of an old fishing village, which still has a pretty busy harbour what with the local boats, fishing trips for the tourists and two regular ferries to Lanzarote.

Kitesurfing at Flag Beach

We booked a self-catering apartment in the Playa Park complex. It's sited a bit further away from the main centre than I'd have liked but it wasn't too far and it was quite handy for walking out to the beaches. Playa Park itself was pretty good as a place to stay. The staff were friendly and the place was kept very clean and tidy. The apartment wasn't bad either. It had a lounge, bedroom, kitchen and bathroom along with a balcony so it catered for everything we needed. The ony gripe was that they charged extra for the TV but, since it only had the basic channels like CNN, Europsort, etc. it wasn't worth it so we didn't bother. Better things to do of an evening anyway.

Aside from lying in the sun by the pool or wandering out to the beaches, the Corralejo night life is reasonably good. There are loads of restaurants to choose from and most are pretty good, although avoid the Indian in the Plaza Centre as it was pretty poor. There are lots of Chinese places too and, even though they're almost all called Slow Boat something, they were reasonably good. For Italian cuisine, the La Mamma round the back of the karaoke abomination called the Atlantico Centre was very good and for a change, try 5th Avenue.

Corralejo Harbour

There are also lots of pubs, which was good, and we spent a fair number of nights in the Rock Island Bar listening to the live acoustic music sessions. The only down side was that they stopped playing live music at midnight. We also frequented the Aussie-themed Down Under Bar, which had a pretty good resident rock band and a few good guest artists on as well. The Down Under kept us up a lot longer, with the bands keeping going until 2:30 a.m.

Corralejo has a lot going for it as a decent tourist resort but it is still being developed pretty heavily so it may well eventually burst at the seams. On top of that, Fuerteventura is getting drier and drier every year and can no longer sustain the current population's water needs. Even with a desalination plant, it needs to import water so there has to come break point where it may well either prove too costly to keep afloat or it'll need to scale back a bit.

Some Apple II Nostalgia

2008-09-07T22:28:00.010Z

I've just come across a site called Virtual Apple ][ and that got me feeling nostalgic about playing some of the classic videogames from that era and how I got into computing in general. Back when I was working as a lab technician in Glasgow University in the 1970s, the department had its own DEC PDP-8 and PDP-11 mini-computers and I, keen to get on in the world and seeing this new technology as a possible means of rising above my current level, I jumped in head first.

Almost all of our programs back then were written in BASIC or FORTRAN back then with the real gurus producing machine code for the seriously low-level programming tasks so I taught myself both BASIC and FORTRAN as well as FOCAL-8 and got into the world of paper tape and keyboards. However, getting time on the machines was very difficult as everyone in the department and their dog wanted computer time since that was the "in thing" for research scientist types to do.

When we then bought another computer to analyse the data from our nice, new Japanese scanning electron microscope, I got lucky and got myself involved with that team. The microscope had an attachment that could give us a chemical breakdown of the target being scanned and I got roped into helping with the data analysis system a bit and my career in computing got a bit closer.

My next break came when microcomputers like the Commodore PET and the Apple II came along in the late 1970s. They were cheap enough that almost every research project needing a bit of data analysis wanted its own, dedicated computer to do the job; no more queuing for or fighting over session time on the bigger department machines. It also meant that I got more keyboard time as well and I ended up developing some pretty complex programs for research projects and even learned that esoteric art of machine code programming along the way.

We had a few PETs, and I'll never forgot the hours I spent at those wee calculator keyboards, but our first Apple computer was an Apple II with a huge 16K of memory and I was hooked. An Apple II Europlus soon followed and, with their own floppy disk systems, our department really started to use them in earnest.

That's when I discovered the world of Apple II games. Sure, I'd played Space Invaders on the PET but this was a brand new world; the Apple had a hi-res colour display and it came with game paddles. It was a huge leap forward from the text-based games like Collosal Cave that our scientist types played on the PDP-11. Computer-based video games had definitely landed and were on a roll; they just hadn't hit the home market yet or at least not many folk could afford their own home computer back then.

Anyway, back to Virtual Apple ][, which is a site with a collection of more than 1250 Apple II and IIgs games and you can play them all through your web browser. Games like Lode Runner, Tetris, Ultima, Wizardry and Zaxxon take me right back to that time and I remember playing some of these for hours and hours. It's a pity and even a bit ironic that they can't be played using a Macintosh but a Mac OS X-compatible version of the emulator is expected "soon".

A Damp Walk Up The Lang Crags

2008-08-24T23:11:00.003Z

It was a dull and cloudy Sunday afternoon but we decided to head out anyway and take a walk up in the Overtoun Estate above the town of Dumbarton. I lived in Dumbarton for about 12 years and never managed to visit the estate before now so it seemed like it needed ticked off the list once and for all. The estate was bequeathed to the people of Dumbarton by Douglas White, a London doctor, in 1939 and is now open to the public for general wandering around and rambling.

Overtoun House

We parked the car at the bottom of the estate's West Drive and walked up the hill towards the main part of the estate. We could have parked beside the house itslef but we were out for a bit of a walk so that seemed a wee bit like cheating. However, after plodding all the way up to the crags and back and it being so wet underfoot, I wish we'd done just that.

At the heart of the estate is Overtoun House, now a Christian centre and unfortunately not open to the public other than it has a wee tea-room open during the Summer but only on a Saturday. The house was built for wealthy Glasgow industrialist James White in 1860 as a family retreat from the grime and factories of Glasgow. It was an ideal location, having wonderful views out over the Firth of Clyde and the Kilpatrick Hills, and yet being within easy reach of his business in Glasgow. White was once one of Glasgow's most prominent citizens, well-known for his philanthropic works across the city and surrounding area so it must have rubbed off onto his descendant Douglas when he gave the place to the people.

Close to the house is the fifty foot high Overtoun Bridge, built in 1895 and which crosses the Overtoun Burn and leads on to the West Drive and down into Dumbarton. The bridge attained a level of mystery a few years ago when it was reported that a number of dogs had apparently commited suicide by leaping to their deaths from it. A bit of digging by some reporters unearthed the grim fact that about 50 dogs had killed themselves in this way here since the 1950s. Maybe the dogs are supersensitive to atmospheric conditions in the area, maybe the topography is just confusing for them or maybe the place is haunted; no-one knows why they do it! All that aside, it's a very pleasant, if somewhat neglected looking bridge.

Dumbuck hill to Dumbarton Rock

Towering above the estate are the Lang Crags, a line of rugged cliffs that overlook the lands and skirt the summit of Brown Hill. The cliffs are possibly named after the Lang family that once owned the estate back in the 18^th century but it could just as easily mean "long" as they are quite ... long. The walk up the the crags is reasonably gentle, if a little long and boggy. The path follows the course of the Overtoun Burn and then turns uphill onto the hill from where you can wander out along the edge of the crags where the view out over Dumbarton and Firth of Clyde are amazing. You can also see all the way up to Loch Lomond and the hills beyond although it was pretty cloudy so we didn't get a great view of those.

A Slideshow of Images Taken At Overtoun

Sunday Afternoon In Mugdock Country Park

2008-08-18T22:15:00.005Z

Mugdock Loch and Castle

Lorna had checked the weather maps on Saturday night and predicted that there would be a hole in the cloud on Sunday afternoon over the Glasgow area so we might very well get out for a stroll before the rain we've been having returned. We didn't want to go too far as that hole didn't look like it was going to be that large or last that long so we opted to stay close to Glasgow and head out to Mugdock Country Park.

We haven't been to the park for a couple of years, I mentioned it here at the time, so it was a well due for a visit again. Amazingly it's still free to get in and, with the sun being so accommodating, it was pretty busy too and the ice-cream was going like hot cakes, although not literally or it'd have melted. Mugdock Country Park is an enormous place, with over 260 hectares of woodland, moorland and wetlands it's ideal for almost any length of walk you fancy. Add to that a couple of castles, several lochs, a visitor centre, a walled garden and quite a few other attractions, there's not much chance of getting bored for quite a long time.

We parked close to the visitor centre and had a wander around the walled garden for a bit as the sun was pretty warm, then strolled over to the 14^th century Mugdock Castle. The recently refurbished South-West tower was open for visitors but it was dark in there and the sun was still out so we gave it a miss. Wish we'd gone in now as you can get out onto the tower roof. From there we walked to nearby Mugdock Loch and wandered all the way round that, which gives some good views of the castle tower above the trees, before heading along to the anti-aircraft gun placements and then back round to Craigend Castle.

We ended things up in the wee garden centre restaurant for tea before heading back home for the evening. The sun had gone by then and it was getting very cloudy so we'd had the best of the day. We should really come here more often as there's an awful lot of ground we didn't cover.

Related Posts: Mugdock Country Park

The Darckr Side Of Flickr

2008-08-17T21:44:00.005Z

I've just discovered Darckr, a free web application for displaying and acting upon Flickr images. In essence, Darckr is a streaming Flickr viewer that will allow you to customize how you view your, and anyone else's, Flickr photostream. You can change the presentation options: size, number, number of columns, background, etc. and every option is available in a single-click. Darckr will even remember your preferences if you want it to.

Initially written so the author could view his contacts photos on a black background, Darckr can also automatically enhance the display of your photos by adding drop shadows and borders if you want. Another useful feature Darckr offers you is the possibility to view only your public photos, or only your non-private photos. That way you can see what your photostream looks like to everyone else without having to logout from Flickr.

Darckr's other aim is at saving you time in your Flickr life. You can post comments on your contacts photos or fave them much more easily than in the standard Flickr interface. You can even use this interface to comment on and tag your own photographs.

Darckr uses the Flickr API to retrieve data so cannot let other people view unauthorized content. By default Darckr displays photos at a size that cannot exceed "Small" (240 pixels) and, unlike other viewers, Darckr allows you to "opt-in" to grant others access to larger sizes. Darckr presents and in no case copies your pictures. They remain on Flickr and other users see only what they are entitled to.

If you're a Flickr user and have granted access to Darckr, then you can view your own photos, or a gallery of your contacts photos, and if you're a friend or family view full contents of other people streams. You can also share permalinks to your Darckr stream for instance to publish your most interesting photos as a Darckr gallery.

Where'd My Images Go?

2008-08-13T23:08:00.000Z

Well I finally did it! I managed to delete an entire photo-shoot from both my computer and the memory card they were on. It was one of those really easily done things; I'd just imported the photos off of the card and into iPhoto, deleting them off the card when it was done as I always do. Then, after working on the pics for an hour or two, I was careless and managed to drag the lot into the iPhoto trash and then, like a crazed loon, emptied it without thinking.

So there iIwas, thinking "Golly, that was most unfortunate!, I've been a very silly Billy!" and then I remembered that I'd posted an article about Recovering Lost or Corrupt Camera Images on my other blog a few years ago So, I immediately looked up my own blog and then started hunting out the software I'd mentioned back then. The card mounted fine on my Mac so I tried the Exif Untrasher utility but to no avail. It's pretty old and probably couldn't handle the Canon format on the card. It was time to move over to the PC, for which there are loads of free file recovery utiltities. However, the card wouldn't mount as a drive on the PC as it's not a recognized standard format and that stumped most the the file recovery utilities, like Recuva, that focus on recovering deleted files.

So that left me with another couple of options to try - PC Inspector Smart Recovery and Zero Assumption Digital Image Recovery, both free tools. Luckily for me, both of them recognized the card, scanned through it and discovered all of those deleted images. PC Inspector threw up a few errors during the process and locked up while trying to recover the images in batches. I eventually had to recover them one by one to get the job done without it freezing on me. The other tool, the Zero Assumption thingy, was far better at it and got all of the images off the card in one go. Okay, it took a while to scan the card but it found everything that was deleted and sooked them all off onto my hard drive really quickly.

So, what have I learned?

Blogs are good for keeping useful information.
Dedicated photo recovery utilities can do the business and file recovery tools can't.
There are no reliable, free, Mac-based photo recovery tools.
To be more careful before deleting my iPhoto trash.
Don't stay up all night editing photos; life's too short.

Photo Aging Made Easy!

2008-08-12T18:03:00.002Z

If you've ever fancied making some of your photographs look like they were taken in a bygone age, then check out the Bakumatsu Koshashin Generator from Wanokoto Labs in Japan. This free web service will allow you to upload an image from your hard drive or supply a URL to an online image and they'll apply their aging algorythm to it.

For example, I took the above image I had taken of Eilean Donan castle and ran it through the generator to produce the one below…

It certainly gives it an old and very neglected appearance! There are lots of possibilities for using this site - old landscapes like the one above, aged family portraits, faded vases of flowers, etc. You could even give your web site a somewhat crumbly and ancient look.

A Wet Sunday Afternoon In Geilston Garden

2008-08-11T22:33:00.004Z

It was a Sunday that looked like rain and we couldn't risk going too far so we ended up driving over to Cardross to spend a few hours in whatever decent weather we had left of the day in Geilston Garden, a place we've been to a few times now.

The Geilston Burn

Geilston Garden lies just on the western edge of Cardross, on the road to Helensburgh, and is set in the 10 acres around the 15th century Geilston House. It was only opened to the public in 1998 by the National Trust for Scotland. Prior to that I assume it was privately owned as I used to fish in the little burn running though the grounds as a lad and had been chased off more than once; a great wee burn for brown trout and the occasional sea trout too.

The house isn't open to the public and the garden isn't that big but it's usually quite quiet and a nice place to sit in the sun when we get some. It's got a walled garden with an enormous Wellingtonia (Sequoiadendron giganteum or giant redwood) in the centre, a smallish formal garden, a decent sized kitchen garden and lots of little wooded paths around the burn. There's usually plenty of flowers in bloom in the garden so there's always some colour about the place too.

Wet Chocolate Cosmos

Today, however, we got rain from almost the moment we got there until we left. Not particularly heavy rain but enough to make us have to shelter under the huge leaf of a Gunnera plant down by the burn. What they need is a wee tea-room and scones, definitely scones...

There are more photos of Geilston Garden here.

Finding The Best Online Digital Photo Printing Service

2008-08-04T17:24:00.002Z

Given the financial insanity of buying a digital photo printer for occasional home use, I was hunting around for a price comparison site for photo printing services and found printRates.com. It's fairly simple to use - just enter the number of prints you want at what size and what shipping method and it returns a comparison table of results from a decent sized list of printers.

It's a primarily US-based site but does allow you to change the country to the UK and, while reviews of UK photo printing services are fairly thin on the site, hopefully that will improve as time goes by.

I saw a review of several of these sites in a magazine a while ago and, given the results of that on the quality of the printing, I've been using PhotoBox but I may well try a few of these others out now as well.

There are a few reviews of online photo processors out there worth checking out as well…

Buying DVDs No Longer Makes Sense

2008-07-23T21:58:00.011Z

Having recently signed up for a 30 day trial of DVD and games rental site LOVEFiLM, I have to admit that it's a very appealing service and one that will probably change the way we buy and watch DVD movies. They have over 65,000 titles available and you simply build yourself a list of the films you want to see or games you want to play and, based on what rental plan you're on, the discs get mailed to you by first-class post as soon as you have a rental slot available. You can even set the priority of the titles you want to get and you can then keep the disc as long as you want and then mail it back to them in a postage-paid envelope once you're done with it.

I chose the simplest option for the trial - unlimited rentals of one disc at a time, which I thought was enough to try it out and it works out at roughly two films a week assuming that we watch it the day it arrives and return it the next day. Frankly I doubt if we could watch more than that as we really don't want to turn into that kind of couch potato. There are lighter plans available that limit the number of rentals per month and heavier plans of unlimited rentals of up to three discs at a time. You can even add video games onto your rental plan if you want to.

Of course there'll always be discs that we'll want to buy and own for watching again and sometimes again or just for the loads of extras some of them come with but for the most part, once we've watched a disc, it gets stuffed away in a cupboard and will probably never be watched again. We've got over 300 DVDs at home now that adds up to quite a sum of money spent over the last few years. Sure, you can always sell them via eBay or Amazon, etc., and I have done quite a few times, but that's a lot of hassle for very little return and now that there's no Post Office near my work, it's simply not worth the bother.

The one disc at a time plan comes in at just under £10 a month, which equates to roughly £120 a year for about 90 discs and I'm factoring in a fair chunk of holidays there. Now think about how much it'd cost you to buy 90 DVDs and it works out at well over £120 doesn't it? Even if you wait until they're cheaper, say £7 each, then that's a massive £560! If we slowed the watching momentum to one movie a week, which I reckon we'll eventually get to once the novelty wears off a bit, it still works out that we're saving an awful lot of money renting instead of buying.

The only downside I can see to renting is the fact that rental copies often don't contain extra material or extended/director's editions and the discs themselves go through a lot of hands so can get a bit worn out. However, buying DVDs, for me, is now a thing of the past unless it's a very special disc that I simply couldn't rent or one that has enough interesting or entertaining extras on it to make it worth the purchase.

The standard trial period for LOVEFiLM is 14 days but if anyone wants a 30 day trial, then get in touch and I can send you a code for it. It gets me a month's free rental as well so even better!

Wanted

2008-07-05T22:51:00.008Z

We went to see Wanted on Saturday, after a bit of shopping in town. It was too early to get dinner so we had a coffee and a bun and headed in for an earlier show. Strange to go so early but it certainly was a bit quieter than normal. Probably due to the fact that the film was an 18 certificate and most of the film-goers in the ticket queue were taking their kids to see Kung-Fu Panda or Prince Caspian.

Wanted tells the story of Wesley Gibson (James McAvoy), a downtrodden accountant with a dead-end life. His overbearing boss treats him like crap and he won't stand up to her; he knows his girlfriend is cheating on him with his best friend but he won't do anything about it; his father ran out on him days after he was born; and he gets an anxiety attack at the slightest piece of excitement.

All this changes when he gets caught up in a gunfight at his local drugstore and is abducted by the beautiful Fox (Angelina Jolie) who tells him that his father had just been killed on the roof of an office block and that he was a member of The Fraternity, a secret society of assassins. Fox and her boss Sloan (Morgan Freeman) tell Wesley that a rogue agent is killing the members one by one and that he has the power within him to stop this killer and avenge his father's death. They also tell him that his anxiety attacks are a sign that he is one of them and that his body can operate at a much higher metabolic rate when required.

Wesley eventually accepts his destiny and joins The Fraternity, eschewing his past life, job and girlfriend, but things are not as straightforward as he thinks and perhaps Fate has played him a twisted hand!

Wanted is based on the comic books by Mark Millar and J.G. Jones and as such a certain amount of belief suspension has to be taken for granted. These assassins have what amounts to super powers and they do what they do at the orders of Fate itself. None of how all this is possible is explained so don't try to fathom it out as you never will.

As for the movie, it's a roller-coaster ride of high-speed action that delivers on pretty much everything it tries to be. MacAvoy is excellent as the anxiety-ridden, downtrodden and frustrated office worker character and just as believable as the super-charged assassin he gets turned into. Morgan Freeman is, as ever, the consumate manipulator and Angelina Jolie adds the much needed female touch to this testosterone enriched plot. Not that Fox is anyone's fluffy bunny and she's just as lethal as any of them.

Wanted has been compared to The Matrix and there are parallels between Wesley and Neo and those characters' path from ordinary Joe to super-hero as well as the link between Trinity and Fox. The special effects are very well done and there are some excellent shots of bullets curving through space and colliding in mid air, a traing crashing over a bridge and of course, the exploding rats.

Wanted is a brainless action romp that's very watchable. It has enough pace to keep you wanting to see where it's going and a bit of a twist in the tale as well. Worth catching if you like action movies.

Genre: Action, Thriller
My Rating: 7/10

Ardnamurchan - Kilchoan and Mingary Castle

2008-06-23T22:47:00.000Z

Kilchoan, the most Westerly village on mainland Great Britain, is the largest settlement on the Ardnamurchan peninsula and pretty much the closest thing to the city lights that you'll find for miles; I mean, it has a shop, a garage, a hotel and even a tourist information office. It also has a car-ferry terminal from where you can catch the boat over to Tobermory on Mull and, with seven crossings a day during the Summer months, it's obviously a popular route. The shop, a life-line to anyone staying in the area, is pretty well stocked and not over-priced and has a very decent range of beers and wines to pass away the solitude of cottage life.

Mingary Castle

We drove on down to the tourist information office, which lies on the road down to the ferry terminal, and had a bit of lunch in the small café in there. It wasn't bad either - home-made soup, rolls, buns, etc.; what else do you need for a quick snack to keep you going in the middle of the day? From there it's a short drive down to the pier where there are some good views out over the Sound of Mull and back over to the ruins of Mingary Castle, which lies about a mile round the bay from Kilchoan.

Built in the 13th century for the MacIains of Ardnamurchan, the castle sits atop a rocky outcrop in Kilchoan Bay overlooking the entrance to Loch Sunart and the Sound of Mull. Like most Scottish castles of that era, it's had a pretty eventful history from being used by James IV in the late 15th century to help him suppress the MacDonalds, the Lords of the Isles and in the early 16th century it was besieged and taken by the MacDonalds of Lochalsh.

Mingary Castle

In 1588 the Macleans of Duart on Mull captured the castle with some involvement from a ship of the Spanish Armada en-route back home after their failed invasion of England. In the 17th century the castle was captured during the Wars of the Covenant and during the 1745 Jacobite rebellion it served as a government garrison. Today, it's in pretty poor repair and access to the interior of the castle is restricted for fear of causing someone an injury.

Getting to the castle involves either a trek round the shore from the pier or you can drive out just East of the village where you'll find a small track leading down a place where you can park and then walk down to the castle. Needless to say, we chose the easy route as the weather wasn't that great and we fancied wandering further along towards Ben Hiant, which is the highest peak in the area.

Ben Hiant

After a bit of clamber down to the beach from the castle and pottering about a bit on the rocks, we did indeed wander further along the track towards Ben Hiant and the weather had brightened up a bit so we got some good views of the hill and across to the Island of Mull. It's a pity it wasn't as nice earlier or we'd have probably gone to the top of the hill as the views out over the Sound of Mull are supposed to be excellent.