Back outdoors

Last week I took Friday as a day off work, and we headed off to climb Dumgoyne.  It's a wee hill not far from Milngavie (just outside Glasgow), and while it's not very high, it's a steep wee bugger.
We'd started this hill before, but when we got the plateau that leads from Dumgoyne to Earls Seat, it was blowing a gale.  You could literally lean into the wind and not fall over, so on that occasion we decided that heading back down was the safest thing.
This time round, the weather was fine, and there was practically no wind.  We headed up, and when we came to a split in the path, opted to go right, along the path that wound gently and slowly up round the hill to the top, rather than taking the steeper direct route.

Karen had been suffering lately from a bad back, so we took it fairly slowly, and had a stop about half way up, so that she didn't come a cropper again.  On the plus side, this gave us plenty of time to enjoy the views.

Once we got to the top, we had a wee stop for a coffee and a sandwich before heading back, this time taking the steeper direct route, which turned out to be substantially shorter than the route we had taken.  Ah well, you live and learn.

Once back down at the bottom, I did the tour of the Glengoyne Distillery, and accidently bought a bottle of the 10yr old.  Nice wee reward to myself.

Ready for the off.

Top of the world

At the summit

Prize for getting to the top

Clip of that old fashioned organ from the Pollok Family Fun Day.

Is the Fringe dying out?

Took an afternoon off work on Tuesday, and headed through to Edinburgh, where the festival and Fringe had kicked off.

First thing that struck me was that despite all the bodies on the Royal Mile, it seemed unusually quiet for that time of year.  The wee square next to the church, that usually has lots of stalls, seemed to have less stalls than usual.

Someone joked that there was more people handing out flyers for shows, than there was people to give the flyers to.  It wasn't that bad, but it definitely looked like there was less bodies than in previous years.

Back at work I was talking to someone else who had been through on the Monday, and they said they had been thinking the same thing when they were through.

Anyway, numbers of bodies aside, it was a fun afternoon/evening.  Pics to follow.

So much for that idea

In a couple of weeks, my wife has a sign language course to do.  It's over a Saturday/Sunday, so, to amuse myself, I was planning on walking the first part of the West Highland Way, to Drymen, camp overnight, and get the bus back on the Sunday.

Found a campsite in Dymen that's only £5 per person per night.  Gets dodgy reviews on Trip adviser, but it's only for one night, so I thought what the hell.  Then it would just be a case of walking there, pitching the tent, and strolling into Drymen for food and beer.

The plans all went belly up, as I discovered that there's only one bus to Glasgow on a Sunday, and it leaves Drymen at 1915.  Seriously, I'd have to hang about Drymen for about 12 hours after packing up the tent, just to wait for a bus.  Not happening.

Looking for a Plan B now.  It may involve cycling somewhere.

Damn that was good

Bought some dvd's recently from a woman in work who was emigrating, and last night got round to watching Snatch, the Guy Ritchie movie.  That was tons of fun :-D