Buachaille Etive Mor

Saturday we left at 5.30am to go scrambling "hillwalking/climbing" up on Buachaille Etive Mor just up at Glen Coe.


I have done this mountain quite a few times but always with the so called tourist route which is fairly easy and a brilliant walk, our proposed route for today was to take us up what is called curved ridge which is a moderate scramble up the face of the mountain.

The day was very wet and miserable, with visibility being very poor so we set off me, the father in law and my cousin up towards curved ridge "see photo" once we got up to the base of the mountain it became clear we could not see the distinguishing feature we were looking for to start the ascent, so we kept walking until we seen something that resembled where we were to start.

We got to a bit which looked right we checked our reference books and also met up with 3 other climbers who were about to do the same climb and they also said that this looked like the start.

Off we went up the scree "loose rocks" towards the first face, we started to climb up "now remember we don't have ropes as its a scramble and no ropes are needed" it was clear that this was going to be a different kind of scramble due to the slippery nature of the rocks, and to make matters worse those little shits the midge's were in mass and biting like mad "nightmare".

We managed to get up the first part alright but it was pretty treacherous and dangerous, but we have done things like this in the past and this was no different to some, we kept going and quickly realised we were not in the correct area, so we decided to keep going until we seen "bear in mind we were in cloud at this point" something that resembled our route.

Up we went higher and higher and at this point we were slipping and finding it really hard to get up the rock face, we all had slips that could have easily have left us to our death "and I'm not kidding" which is when one of our party took a panic attack and his legs went to jelly. I quickly took hold of the situation and calmed him down whilst trying to get him moving across some of the gully and rock we were on, not just so he was safer, but because the bloody midges were having a feast on my eyes.

We continued to go on until one of our guys took another panic attack and freezed on the side of the rock. It was clear that we could not and should not go any further, but a general rule of scrambling or climbing is that what you go up is not really what you should go down as its very hard and very dangerous. But that's what we had to do before we were in real trouble.

Luckily the father in law brought some slings with him, which could help our descent, the other three guys went first and steadily went down with us following.

I tell you it was a nightmare, any little slide and you were gone, and trust me we were all sliding like mad, so we decided to come down mainly on our bums to steady us and be able to see where we were going in places, not the easiest.

Half way down and the Father in law goes over on his ankle and has major problems continuing as he cant put weight on his ankle, we continue slowly down the mountain.

and the last part was a flat wall which we had to use the slings to down climb, because i was experienced and was the only able one i had to climb down first to make sure there were no problems that we should encounter, our first route which i rekied "not sure of the spelling" was a sheer drop so i found another area to go down. it took us a good bit to get down and an hour to get back to the car. i have include a picture to show you our route and believe me where we were was pretty high up and very exposed... nightmare day but one that was thoroughly enjoyable, better than sitting in front of the computer lol

First day at School

It was my wee guys first day at school this morning and how proud are me and the wife, there are no words to say to convey how proud we are of him, he took everything in his stride and looked to be enjoying himself.

 

He has all his nice new clothes on, “all the kids looked very smart indeed” and had his hair all spiked and cut, sorry I can’t post any pictures to show you as I don’t think its appropriate for minors to be put online.. protect the innocent I say..

 

Wont be long before we get the call for me to go up to school to see the teacher because he has been up to some mischief lol time is a ticking…

 

Poor teacher left alone with my son….

 

Anniversary

It was my 2^nd Anniversary yesterday 2 long years lol

 

We have been together now for 11 years and we decided to get married well after our son was born so we were a proper family and not just by common law. We were married in Paisley Abbey had a lovely ceremony and a brilliant day. I couldn’t have met a more grumpier woman If I had tried he he eherm I mean I couldn’t have met a more brilliant woman if I tried.

 

So we had a nice relaxing meal and had a lovely evening, its not the same when things fall on a Monday especially since it was my first day back at work and boy did I have a pile of emails sitting waiting for me, it took me all day to answer them..

 

I am also working on my new website which will supersede squiro online it is www.itresource.org I tried messing with it last year to see how it would work out and it worked a treat..

 

So shortly Squiro Online will grow up and become no more which will be quite sad but it’s a necessary deed..

 

Scottish Weather - Camping

Wednesday 16th: Ahh the Glorious Scottish weather, its sunny at the moment what can i do?? I have a few days off left and i know lets go camping..

One of our friends has all the gear and will lend us everything for me, the wife, the son and our niece to go camping.

Our friend suggests a lovely spot not far from Dunoon "I’m not telling you exactly where its a secret, so if you want to know email me" she gives us sketchy directions so say the least but since i am very good with directions I’m sure i can find the place..

Off we go with a car load of stuff which beggars belief, when i was in the army we had a sleeping bag and a poncho and a spade not forgetting our lovely ration packs.. but Civilian camping you need, seats, a table, washing up stuff which includes a basin, ground sheets, BLOW UP BEDS, sleeping bags, PILLOWS, cool box, night lights, torches, stoves, pots, pans, frying pan, and the list goes on... we also took enough clothes to keep everyone going for a week..

I took 2 pairs of shorts, two t shirts, a pair of boots and something to keep me warm and dry that was it lol

anyways where was i .. oh yes Christine’s directions "named and shamed" go along this road and you will see an entrance into a field next to a stream .. that was it lol

as we got there, there were hundreds of fields, with streams in one out of five Shit....

and as we are in the middle of nowhere our phones don’t work lol

anyways after much driving back and forward to dunoon to get a reception we find the place, right next to the beach, and a fresh water stream and its got the best scenery ever.. well done Christine your off the hook "i might still kill you though just for being daft".

Now have you ever set up a tent without instructions?? no!! Well its not the easiest i can tell you, after much swearing and cursing i get the tent up, get my beers firmly planked into the stream to cool down "the fridge as i called it" we sit down make a fire and chill out for the night, the kids absolutely loved it. The weather was great...

After a good night’s sleep we wake up roasting as the weather is great again, so we decide to get ready and head to Dunoon for a wee drive.

As we get closer to Dunoon we drive straight into a rain storm, what is going on?? SCOTTISH WEATHER, we decide to head back and discover the rains just as bad where we were camped?? how can this be we left it basking in the sun...

Now as i am fetching some firewood i can hear the thunder coming over the hills "what’s that coming over the hill is it a monster, lol" and it was a monster a monster downpour..

what a miserable couple of hours we had huddled in the tent, bloody terrible, then the lighting sounds as if it’s going to strike the tent literally so we clamber in to the car and decide enough is enough, so we de-camp in the middle of a torrential downpour and head home.. bloody rubbish...

BLOODY SCOTTISH WEATHER.... CRAP

The Dash

I’ve been to a lot of Funerals, but there is none more touching than the Humanist ceremonies which actually speak and celebrate the persons life. The guy who does the humanist funerals at Woodside is great, very touching but yet very funny as you hear about how the person spent their life, not going on about some person we have never met and telling us to idolise something we will never see.

 

The reason we are there at the funeral is for that person and that person’s family.

 

There is always a wee poem that he reads out which always touches me and I’m sure everyone else in the chapel, its called the Dash its very emotional.

 

It was sent to me by someone who themselves is having such a torrid time in their life at the moment, so please reflect on the changes you could possibly make once you have seen this small movie.

 

http://www.thedashmovie.com

 

cheers

 

Brian

Hillwalking Beinn Eich

Sunday morning we set off about 7am up towards Luss se could go hill walking with Junior squiro, niece squiro, The wife and her friend... and the father in law who is a very experienced hill walker.

We decided to walk round a horse shoe shaped mountain/hill called Beinn Eich which is about 734 metres above sea level so fairly high. It was a lovely day with the sun beating down quite hard especially so early in the morning.

It was a fairly hard ascent to the top and then a nice leisurely walk around the horse shoe shaped hill. 6 hours later we strolled back into Luss which is a gorgeous wee village just off Ben Lomond had an ice cream and then drove back home.

The 2 kids done brilliant once again and could put most adults to shame with their determination and strength.. well done ;-)

Sealife Centre Loch Lomond

We went to the new Sea life Centre at Loch Lomond Shores http://www.sealifeeurope.com/ on Friday with me the wife, junior squiro, niece squiro and nephew squiro, cost us £22 for the family ticket and went into start our "Journey".

I think your supposed to have a guide but it was pretty busy so we decided to go alone and discover the underwater world alone.

You start off at the ground floor "there are 7 floors" and you see the otter enclosure some fish in the aquarium and some more fish, nice but nothing amazing. Then you are led up to the 2nd floor where there is a lecture about fish "1 video and telly" not so amazing considering the age of the children we had with us, so the next stop was level 6 and the cafe/cinema where we asked the girl who served us, excuse me we came in seen a couple of fish and we got to this point following your directions, she said well that’s basically it..... What £22 and we have seen a couple of otters lol......

Anyways we decided to get the lift back down and came out into an abundance of sea life "the other side of the ground floor aquarium... now your talking it was amazing, touch pools for the kids a massive pool with glass so you could see all sorts of Rays, sharks, cray fish etc etc.. the kids loved it then you seen other pools and aquariums full of allsorts "nemo" seahorses jelly fish crabs, etc etc and then a spectacular underwater tunnel with sharks and fish above you.. now this was worth the money and quite amazing.

thankfully we found our way as at first it looked very disappointing..

i would recommend you visit this if you have the time especially with young kids.. brilliant..
--
We then went to the Loch Lomond shores shopping centre which is really nice, we had a browse about then i decided to take the two older kids on a canoe into the Loch "you can hire them £15 for the hour" the two kids were a bit unsure at first but after five minutes on the open water they loved it...

we then went on a wee train drive around the complex seen millions of midges "local wildlife" and then back to the car.. the kids loved the whole day experience and i would go back again...

lots for the kids to do and for adults alike...

Edinburgh Zoo

Went to the zoo last week with the Family, a nice fun day out, the zoo was busy as, so we had to park a million miles away.

we arrived in the afternoon so all the animals had had their lunch and were all busy trying to hide and sleep so all we seen mainly were trees, lol i kept saying to Juniour squiro "look theres a tree" seriously though Edinburgh zoo is great and it doesnt matter how many times you go its still as good.

here is a picture of me in the mirror. http://www.edinburghzoo.org.uk/

Terrorist Plot

What news we all woke up to this morning, The Terrorist scum are threatining to destroy inoccent lives across the British sky's by blowing up planes en-route to America and with many towns and villages "locherbie" being below the flighpath including Paisley who knows what we could have woken up to if the security forces "well done lads" hadnt found out about it overnight from America.

We should all be vigilant against this threat to society and protect our family's.

It was also good to see Douglas Alexander a local polotician sitting on such a high stage at todays conference with John Reid, Im sure he has done the country proud withhis actions too.

Paisley Active

So much for being on holiday, ive been stuck in front of the machine all day getting my new section Paisley Active up and running for the paisley.org.uk website, I received some donations last week and decided to get things moving on the website, I have always imagined the site to be accesible and functional, well so far its functional "the accesible part will be next" i used to have different sections of software thrown together "im was learning" so people had to log in to this and then to that.

No more anyways i think its great have a look and see what you think, www.paisley.org.uk/active/ its still got a lot to go in but this should be the dogs....

its great when your head isnt getting clogged up with work and you can just get things done...

Its the zoo tomorrow .. the zoo tomorrow .. were all going to the zoo tomorrow la la la... ta dum

DONATE THE EASYWAY

Thanks to Rayleen for this one, this text is taken from Rayleen's website, all for the Anthony Nolan Trust cause.

http://www.rayleenkelly.org.uk/

"Here is not the place to give commercial business a free plug but in this case I am making an exception, Easyjet have a new charity of the year, this year I am delighted to say is the year of Anthony Nolan trust a charity very close to my heart. If you click on the link below you will be taken to the Easyjet webpage charity section where it explains, click on the Anthony Nolan Logo and Easyjet will donate 25p to the Trust at no extra cost to you! SO Donate the Easyway and get click happy!
http://www.easyjet.co.uk/EN/About/charity.html
Spread the word!"

Holidays - Falkirk Wheel

Well started my fortnight off today, thank goodness..

I am just going to spend the time with family travelling around the place and visiting places where you dont normally go or dont have the time to go to normally...

Day 1 we had a right good long lie in and then i decided to go to the falkirk wheel, which due to good fortune we bumped into one of the local boat captains on the way to the Falkirk Wheel visitor centre http://www.thefalkirkwheel.co.uk/ who asked us if we had booked a trip "which we hadnt " so he said he had some room and was going for a wee trip down the canal to lock 16 then back up then up the wheel itself..

a nice relaxing cruise in the Bonny Barge with Billy Mason http://www.sustainable-scotland.com/bonnybarge.htm which was excellent, i took the wife and junior squiro and they thouroughly enjoyed themselves.

The whell itself is a catelever system and is as smooth as anything, you dont even feel as if your moving when its going...

i would recommend you go for a day out and give Billy a wee shout..


Captain Billy Mason "picture taken by Junior squiro"

St Mirren

Top of the league whoo hoo ..

I took my son to his first football game yesterday he is 5 years old and daft about football.. So I thought first game of the season at love street, flag unfurling of the div 1 champs.. Why not...

I used to be a very loyal Saints fan when I was 15,16,17 before I joined the army so I was no stranger to Love street. I gave up supporting them though when David Hay signed Chic Charnley.. boy was that the last straw

Anyways I took Juniour squiro along and he loved it the crowd was great, the football was great and a great result which took the saints to the top of the SPL not bad eh "alright I know there has only been 2 games"

We sat in the Reid Kerr East stand which is family based, the pie and bovril was spot on and the weather was pretty hot so Lewis now wants a St Mirren top and wants to go every week.. Spot on...

So keep it up St Mirren do Paisley proud...

The Anthony Nolan Trust

I have been on the Anthony Nolan Trust list for about a year or so, i registered via the website http://www.anthonynolan.org.uk/ and it was a fairly straight forward exercise, involving a wee trip to the doctors for a blood sample.

I was prompted to do so by a young girl who lived in Bishopton dying of Lukemia and it saddened me to think there was nothing you could do to help, until a heard about the Anthony Nolan Trust Bone marrow stem cell donors that actually can make a difference to peoples lives or saving their lives..

Anyway i dont know if its good news or not, good news that i am suitable but bad news that someone is in dire need...

I am a match for someone and I have started the stage 2 process which involves more blood samples to check for definite that i am a match, and then possibly a trip to London to do the business and give someone a chance of life...

Please register for the Trust by visiting their website http://www.anthonynolan.org.uk/ and help someone "possibly" in the future...


please!

Downtrodden Paisley Toon

read this post by GOMMER spot on i say

http://gommer.blogspot.com/2006/08/paisley-in-herald.html

NTHell

What a nightmare week, due to the incompetent people of NTL. First on Monday afternoon there is a strange noise from my modem then all of a sudden it stops working.

I phone up NTL and they say they cant help me as my account is now the 10mb service so they will have to change my account details and then get an engineer out to fit a new modem. Which will take 3 days ...

now I have never been without the internet for more than a few hours never mind three days..

anyways he arrives checks my existing modem says its alright and sends a text and voila he says its alright...

OH NO IT ISNT

he concedes and fits a new modem... he checks it and says right that's you sorted..

thanks my man... Lets surf..

whoops no internet...

I phone up the ntl number where you get some guy from Newcastle who talks for about an hour before saying whoops this number no longer exists please dial blah blah.. Then the line goes dead,......


arrrrggghhh

phone it again listen for an hour then get through to some technical foreigner who cant bloody understand me.. Anyway I have the wrong pin and I should call customer services

right customer services it is... Automated guy again .. 1 hour later.. Hello welcome to NTHELL how cant I help you...

I answer my name - account - pass - address - date of birth - my last jobee and then he says sorry sir you will have to call back in an hour as we "wish to piss you off some more" are having problems with our systems.. No kidding...

---

1 hour later to the second

right automated guy piss off and let me talk to a human from preferably this country..

I answer all the questions and ask for my pin number to be changed which the guy does, he then says when you put in the disk it will ask you for your pin...

what disk???? I ask

oh you should have received a disk through the post since your a new customer...

arrrggghhh im not a new customer I have been one for years just get me online ya futwit

sorry sir I will send you through the disk it should arrive with you within 3 to 4 days ...

aaaaarrrrrrrggggghhhhh

I hang up and borrow a neighbours disk and then it gives me error after error.. bloody NThell I hate them, I hate them, I hate them,

anyways since I am an IT genius I thought I would share this info with you and show you that sometimes or more the case most times its not your fault but the Futwits at NTHELL


if you can make a choice "which I cant because its the only cable provider" then I suggest going with someone else and done let NTHell darken your door...

but im back online thanks to my superior genius lol