The Cuillin View Cafe

 

 

Elgol has one tiny shop and one cafe ... but an excellent one!  Or maybe we were just very hungry.  Managed to get Marion to pause from eating her toastie long enough for this picture.

View From Elgol

 

Elgol is a tiny fishing village on the West of Skye at the end of 14 miles of single-track road.  From there, you look out onto the Cuillin Mountain Range to the north and the island of Rum to the South.

Misty Glen

 

This is three photos stitched together to make a panorama of the middle of Glencoe.  You might need to click on it to see it properly.  

Over The Sea To Skye

The day after Boxing Day is our wedding anniversary.  To mark the occasion we are going to the Duisdale Hotel on the island of Skye.  This should show where it is on Google Maps.  Our route takes up one side of Loch Lomond and then on through Glencoe (where they filmed the end of Skyfall) to Fort William.  From there we head to the fishing port of Mallaig and get the car ferry over to Skye.  We'll be back home by Saturday night.

Boxing Day

 

By the time we got to Dany Metzstein's house, her son Mark's new baby boy had fallen asleep upstairs so we couldn't get to see him at all.  Had to make do with iPhone photos of him.

From there, we walked down the hill to Louise's house.  There was a bit of a commotion because Tommy Gormley the film director (Star Trek etc) had been standing too near a shelf with lit candles on it and the back of his shirt had gone on fire!  While they were finding him a new shirt to wear, they kept smelling something burning and thought it was from his shirt.  Finally, Louise remembered that she had bought pizza for us, put it in the oven to cook and had forgotten about it.  As you can see, it was pretty well cooked.

Weird Japanese Toilet

 

A Glimpse Of Sun

 

Sunday 23 December: the days are getting longer now and it has stopped raining.  For a few brief moments, we even had sunshine in the West End of Glasgow.

Red Stockings

Drove over to Film City near the Science Centre to meet John.  He is up in Glasgow working on a new TV programme with comedian Victoria Wood.  Rachel had given him presents for Jess & Izzy and I had a parcel to go to Alfie so we exchanged gifts at the door.  We now have two large red Xmas stockings waiting for you.

Japanese Garden

Albert Kahn was a very rich man who lived at the start of the 20th century & wanted to create a photo record of the world of his time.  For the first time ever, it was possible to take good photos in colour.  He used his fortune to fund expeditions all over the world.

We went to the museum in Paris that holds his huge archive of 100,000 photos.  Next to it was his gigantic garden.  More like a small park, really.  He had created a Japanese Garden using Japanese designers and materials.  He went so far as to import real Japanese houses.  Even in winter when everything is bare, they looked amazing.  Must go back there when everything is in flower.

Tuilleries, Paris

You can see how cold, wet and misty it was on the Friday.  The reason that bird is walking on water is because there is a sheet of ice just below the surface.

This is also where I took the photo of the man feeding the little birds outhis hand.
     

Notre Dame, Paris

When we arrived in Paris, we had a ten-minute walk from the train station to our hotel.  The route took us right past Notre Dame cathedral which was swarming with police. We thought there must have been a bad accident or a terrorist attack -- there were so many police.  Not only that, they would not let us pass by the cathedral to get to the hotel.  Then we noticed all the huge signs about Notre Dame being 850 years old and all the security fencing etc ... every important person in Paris was about to turn up for the grand birthday ceremony.

It is very difficult to get an idea of how huge Notre Dame is.  Here are a few photos in my web album.  The first four are of Notre Dame.  After that, we went to the Sainte Chapelle  nearby, which is quite small and the walls are nearly all stained glass windows which are being restored at vast expense.  You can see there are some bits temporarily missing from the round window.

Bird Man

Jardin des Tuilleries, Paris.

This man was feeding the little birds that live in the bushes.

From the look of things, he must do this all the time because the birds seemed to recognise him

Paris Window Displays

This is the giant fashion store 'Au Printemps' in Paris which is famous for its Christmas windows   This year, the theme was Dior Fashion and the marionettes all wore beautiful miniature copies of real Dior evening dresses.  This video clip is just one window ... there must have been about ten of them in all, every one different.

Swan Lake

Chinese acrobats do amazing things with this famous ballet scene.

Paris? You Must Be In Seine!

This Wednesday, we are flying to Paris for a few days.  The hotel we've booked is on an island in the river Seine as you can see from the Google map.  Right next to it is the island with the world-famous Notre Dame Cathedral on it.

What? No deer?

 















Making up the collection areTwitch the raccoon, Grind the rabbit, Splodge the hedgehog and Smudge the squirrel. Each has met a sticky end on their way across the road (and has the tyre marks to prove it). A zip on either side lets you pack their spilled organs back in, but sadly no amount of roadside assistance is going to bring them back from teddy heaven – each one comes already zipped in its own clear plastic body bag. 

Two Photos By Jess at Loch Lomond

   

Luss Legs

 

Photograph of the extremely rare 8-legged seagull at Luss, Loch Lomond

Hell Freezes Over

Today - Thursday - was forecast to be foggy and cold.  Instead, it turned out to be sunny and very cold.  Earlier in the week we had set out to drive to Loch Fyne and then had changed our minds and stopped at Balloch on Loch Lomond.  This time, we were going to keep going!  Even inside the car, we had to wear hat, gloves, and scarf to keep warm.

The roads were quiet so we could go at 60 mph most of the way.  The road takes you up a long slow hill called the 'Rest And Be Thankful' which is often closed by landslides.  At the top, a tiny road veers off and takes you back down into Hell's Glen.  The temperature never rose much above zero so anywhere that didn't get the sun was all white and frosty.

As an experiment, I've put some of the photos into a web album which you should be able to see by clicking on this link.   If it doesn't work, let me know.

It was a very magical place.  A it further on, at the top of Loch Fyne, there is a Garden Centre with a good little cafe.  That's where I saw the black crow sitting on the graveyard sign.  We were starving: we ordered one cheese toastie to share, gobbled it up and then ordered a second one!

Balmaha

This was last Friday.  OK ... it's nothing like the flooding in England but it was astonishing to see anyway.  The top two photos are of heavy iron drains in the road at Balmaha Bay.  There is so much water running off the hills that it is forcing its way UP out of the drains!

The water in the Loch is very high for this time of year too.  We took some bread for the ducks and not one showed up.
   

Loch Tay and The Sma' Glen

There's a hotel on Loch Tay that is famous for its food.  It used to be run by South Africans and they built five circular cottages with pointy thatched roofs in the African style, called 'rondavels'.  These ones are very luxurious and warm inside.  It was cold, with snow on the hills.  We got there not long before sunset.  The first photo is taken from the pier at the hotel.  I have tried to add captions but it is very tricky because the photos keep jumping around!

The next day wasn't so nice so we drove to Aberfeldy and found a newly restored water-mill which had been made into a bookshop, art gallery, gift shop and a cafe.  From there, the route home took us through the Sma' Glen (Sma' = Small because it is a perfect miniature glen) to Crieff then Stirling and Glasgow ... about two hours' drive.  As we got near Stirling, there was an amazing view of clear skies and setting sun with long clouds of white mist clinging to all the trees.  There are few places where you can safely stop so we did not get the best pictures if it.

Most of the sheep were very muddy.  This is the only clean one we saw.

     

Coming home, Sunday.  Mist rolling up the valley.

Streaker Fail

Here's a funny video which proves that you should always look where you are going, especially when stark naked.

WARDROBE

That's it finally finished, at long last. Five doors, 20 hinges, 80 hinge-screws, 5 handles with 10 holes to drill and hours and hours of painting.

Two Sold!

Tuesday - another dull wet day.  Fed up painting wardrobe doors so we drove out past the airport to the Macmillan Art Fair.  This is one of the biggest Art shows which raises a lot of money for a cancer charity.  It opened a week ago.  Even on a rainy afternoon, there were people in buying stuff.  

Marion had entered three paintings and did not expect to sell any.  The first one we found hadn't been sold.  Then we found the second one and it had a red dot on it.  Sold!  We looked everywhere for the third one and couldn't find it.  Eventually, we asked the organisers where it was and they said it had been sold and taken away already.

Brown Toothpaste - YUK!!

South Koreans are crazy ...   toothpaste in poop-shaped tubes for kids

Glencoe

 

Thursday started out sunny and dry so we decided to drive up to Bridge of Orchy  - which is well beyond the top of Loch Lomond - to take some photographs.   By the time we got there it was getting cloudy but there was still some sunshine so we carried on up towards the Glencoe ski lift.  This photo is on the Rannoch Moor which is unique watery wilderness you have to cross to get to Glencoe and Glen Etive.

Not Very PC Joke

I saw my mate Charlie this morning; he's only got one arm, bless him. 

I shouted: “Where are you off to Charlie?”

He said “I'm off to change a light bulb.”

Well I just cracked up ... couldn't stop laughing. … then said:

“That's gonna be a bit awkward, init?”

“Not really,” he said,  “I still have the receipt, you insensitive *****.”

Deer Miss

After Rachel and Alfie left to catch the train back to Manchester, we took Robin for a drive down to Balmaha.  It was pretty cold by four o'clock and there was a fierce wind from the north.  However, the sun found a gap in the clouds and all the fresh new snow on the hills was brilliantly white.  This is Ben Lomond.

We went for a snack in the pub and it was dark by the time we began the drive home.  As we getting near the Drymen village, a deer walked across the road right in front of me.  I couldn't believe it!  It is only three weeks since I got the damage to the bumper etc all repaired.  I had to brake quite hard to avoid hitting it.

Thursday 1st

It's November and it feels cold and chilly.  John is working on Glasgow so Rachel and Alfie are coming up by train to stay the night here.  As well as that, my friend Robin is in Glasgow this week.  I thought it was to avoid the hurricane in New York but that was just good fortune.  She has to fly over her to go to the American Embassy in London to sort out her visa.  You see, she is still a British citizen and she has to get a permit to work in America, even though she has got a job in New York (paid by the state) running a Montessori school for under-privileged kids. 

Les Trois Chats

Now there are three orange cats being fed by the Cahours.  One is the mpother of the other two ... don't know which is which.  They all look identical!

Albi Damned!

By Thursday it had got so hot that we were running into the shadows to escape the heat.  We drove to Albi, which is about 2 hours away, to see the cathedral.  It is probably one of the most famous in the whole world.  Behind the altar is a gigantic fresco showing the Day of Judgement with all the bad people being sent down into Hell.  The idea was to remind people of the kind of terrible fate that awaited them if they led a sinful life. This photo is just one tiny bit of the whole thing.

Mardi

For some reason, I am having no luck adding photographs from here in France.  Maybe the internet is too slow.

It has been a beautiful hot sunny day today.  Went to market and met a lot of our friends there, then John and Eileen came for drinks at six.  They were only going to stay an hour but they went home at ten so we had a very late dinner.  Off for a walk in the moonlight.

At Moissac Market

Giant gourds for sale at Moissac

Off To France

This Saturday we're going to Edinburgh airport to get a cheap Ryanair flight to Bordeaux and then drive down to Montjoi.  It takes less than two hours on the motorway.  The house will be quite cold at first so we might just stop at Pizza La Mama on the way for something to eat.

The forecast for Sunday dull and rainy but that is a good thing because it will let us see if there are any problems with the new roof.  They only finished the work on Thursday.  By Monday it should be sunny and warm again and we'll have a log fire going to warm the house.

A Splash In The Pan

Jess and Izzy really liked this YouTube video of a cat that does not need a litter tray.

Drink This, Buddy!

 

Sculpture/ fountain by Edwin Wurm

Thumb Thing Different

Fingertips made to look like famous people.  Is this digital art?

A Load Of Bad Puns

I changed my i Pod name to Titanic:  it's syncing now. I tried to catch some Fog, I mist. When chemists die, they barium. Jokes about German sausage are the wurst. A soldier who survived mustard gas and pepper spray is now a seasoned veteran. I know a guy who's addicted to brake fluid. He says he can stop any time. How does Moses make his tea? Hebrews it. I stayed up all night to see where the sun went. Then it dawned on me. This girl said she recognized me from the vegetarian club, but I'd never met herbivore. I'm reading a book about anti-gravity, I can't put it down. I did a theatrical performance about puns, It was a play on words . They told me I had type A blood, but it was a Type-O. A dyslexic man walks into a bra . PMS jokes aren't funny, period. Why were the Indians here first? They had reservations. I didn't like my beard at first. Then it grew on me. How do you make holy water? Boil the hell out of it! Did you hear about the cross eyed teacher who lost her job because she couldn't control her pupils? When you get a bladder infection, urine trouble. What does a clock do when it's hungry? It goes back four seconds. I wondered why the baseball was getting bigger. Then it hit me! Broken pencils are pointless. What do you call a dinosaur with a extensive vocabulary? A thesaurus. England has no kidney bank, but it does have a Liverpool . I used to be a banker, but then I lost interest. I dropped out of communism class because of lousy Marx. All the toilets in New York 's police stations have been stolen. Police have nothing to go on. I got a job at a bakery because I kneaded dough. Haunted French pancakes give me the crepes. Velcro - what a rip off! Cartoonist found dead in home. Details are sketchy. Venison for dinner? Oh deer! Earthquake in Washington obviously government's fault. I used to think I was indecisive, but now I'm not so sure.

Zombie Experiment

If you don't like Zombies, do not watch this movie on YouTube!!!

Car Fixed

Beautiful sunny day today, but very cold.  Feels like the beginning of winter.Took a whole load of stuff to the dump and went for a walk in Dawsholm park.  You feel like a weirdo there if you haven't got three or four dogs with you.  The middle of the field is all fenced off because the ground start to collapse into an old mine. After that, we went to Ikea to return a few things and then went to pick up our car from the garage.

The repair to the bumper is terrific - you would never know it had been damaged.  Tonight I am going to have a go at puting up a curtain rail in Jess's room.

Panda Dogs

Have you seen this latest craze from China?

More Chinese Signs

Hoping For Sunshine in France

The men are going to start work on our house in Montjoi today, so it is very important that they get some dry weather.  Firstly they will have to lift all the tiles off the roof, throw away the bad ones and keep the good ones.  Then they will cover the roof with a fabric membrane to make it more waterproof and then nail lots of strips of wood across the roof.  The under-tiles have little legs that catch onto these strips to stop them sliding down the roof.

The skylight window in our bedroom will have to be taken out and raised higher because the new roof will be a bit 'thicker' than the old one.  Lastly, all the old top tiles get put back on.  If there are not enough, they'll have to go and buy some more old tiles.  Montjoi is a protected village which means you are not allowed to have brand new tiles showing on your roof.

We think they'll get it all done in 3-4 days.  We'll be flying out on the last of the cheap flights from Edinburgh to Bordeaux on the 20th October the work and clean up the mess.

Citroen Bumper

My car is in the garage having its bumper repaired.  I will not get it back until maybe Tuesday.  They ordered a new fog-light and black trim piece but when they took the bumper off, they found that there was another support piece broken which will have to be ordered.  All in all, it will cost even more than I thought o get it repaired.

Don't Try This At Home

This is rather gross.  So maybe just don't try it anywhere?

Warning Signs

Birthday Treat

Marion had to get up early on her birthday today for her birthday  treat - a trip to the dentist at nine o'clock to get a new tooth socket fitted in.  So no sticky toffee presents, please!

Unfortunate Names

Two Disaster Clips from BBC

First one ... a plane trying to land in Spain in high winds.   Very scary!

Second one ... a car is blown into the air by flood water

Good Morning

 

Deer Repair

Took the car to Citroen garage to see what had been damaged when we hit that deer in France.  They said they could patch the bumper and  that the fog light mounting was broken.  It was the light that was causing the rattle.  Estimated cost for the job is £350!  Oh dear.

Dumb Animals