Let Me Through!

Why is it that whenever I have free time, the weather turns bad, and as soon as my free time is up, it becomes beautiful once again? And, it's not just the holiday times either, quite often it's beautiful here all week long, then come the weekend, wind and rain. I'm not usually one to moan about the weather, but all I want is a few days out on the hills over the next 3 weeks, and if the weather's rotten for that whole time, then both you and I will know that the big man's got it in for me!

I'm trying to join a forum for hillwalkers, not really because I want to feel as though I'm part of something, but mainly just to help me plan out routes up hills, because on more than one occasion recently, my navigational skills have been called into question, in fact 3 times if I'm going to be open about it. On all 3 occasions I was vindicated, by finding the correct path, but that's not the point. The point is, that many of the hills I intend to climb, don't really have what you might call paths, per se. What I need is information form the horse's mouth so to speak, as to the best route to take, in such circumsatances.

I actually would like to hit a couple of Corbetts this Easter break, gearing up to do some Munros, later in the year, probably at Summertime, because I'm a fair weather man to be honest, and Highland conditions can get really bad, particularly on high ground, and at any time of year, but in Winter and even Springtime people die out there. Ben Rinnes is my number one target this Easter, I don't know how many times I've seen that hill in the passing and never been up it. Well, all that's going to change!

Steer Well Clear!

I came across this picture in my travels. It was taken by someone with whom I'm acquainted, in a professional sense. As usual, I'm not giving away too much, because I always try to protect the innocent (and myself). Honestly, I just thought it was a nice picture of some deer playing near the lochside. You don't often see any photos of deer with water in the background, more often trees or mountain-side, so this photo seems unusual in that sense. These seemingly harmless creatures can leave a fairly nasty dent in your car, and I heard a story recently of someone who swerved to avoid hitting one, and ended up writing-off his car in the doing so, and the Insurance refused to pay up. They said that he should have hit it! Very odd position to adopt, I would say, what if it had been a child? What if there wasn't time to tell the difference?

That's all for today, I'm a very busy man!

Back to Basics!

This week has started like one of those weeks where you just can't be bothered! After all the tension, anxiety and effort I put in last week, this week feels like an anti-climax. I've done the job I came to do, and now I'm ready to move on to my next major goal, which takes the form of a written assessment. With that out of the way I'll be virtually home and dry!

It was the last in the series of "Lewis" last night, which is watchable, but lacks so much of what made "Morse" what it was. I could continue a previous rant I had on here, about the quality of script writing for television in general, and how I suspect that they're hiring young script writers who have next to nothing experience of the World, and therefore the scripts are shit! But, I'm not going to do that because I've done it before. Yes, the Americans have overtaken us as far as script writing goes, I've noticed that even just from clips of new shows that I've caught, and, I'm still watching "Lost" after 77 episodes and Im not bored yet!

Maybe it's just my age (I'm not old), but my expectations of what make good telly have either changed dramatically or the quality of the shows has declined dramtically, and I think I know which it is. Even the film industry seems to have lost it's way, so called big screen blockbusters, keep turning out to be fairly bog-standard. It's not like way back before I was even born, films like Spartacus, Dr. Zhivago and Lawrence of Arabia. Those films demonstrated the power of sweeping cinematography and brilliant storylines. That was without CGI. CGI should be used to enhance a film, but there seems to be an over-reliance upon it, if you ask me. It's time we brought back some of the traditional ideas, they'd probably rock the establishment, we've gone so far from what actually worked in the first place!

Beaten Back By Hail!

Today we attempted to walk up a hill called Little Conval, near Dufftown. It shouldn't have been too difficult, after all, we've already climbed it's bigger brother Meikle Conval, a few weeks back. However, there were two major obstacles; finding the path up (didn't seem to be one), and the weather. When we eventually made it up out of the tree-line, and had found some semblance of a path, the weather closed in, and about three quarters of the way up, in a mixture of hail, sleet and driving rain, I finally conceded defeat, and so we trudged disappointingly back down.

That's the first time I've been defeated by a hill. The photo above shows the hill, once we had plodded back down. The weather had improved a bit by that time, but it still wasn't that good. Anyway, I'll be back as Arnie says, and next time I will be victorious! This is not over, mark my words!

Into the Unknown!

I've been busy this week and so far this weekend as well, and it's not finished yet, so this might be brief. It's been a good and a bad week, but at least the things I wanted to go right, did so, and the bad parts were very much unforseen. So, in essence, that's me practically a teacher, while at the same time, I've had my real first taste of the sort of problems that come with being a teacher. It's such hard work, and everybody wants your blood. So, why do I want to do it? That's what everyone asks! But if nobody wanted to do it, there wouldn't be any teachers, would there?

Yes, it's true, teachers get flak from all sides. Every day teaching is like being a pilot with the RAF during WWII, leading a sortie over occupied France. Everybody wants to shoot you down; kids, parents, other teachers, guidance staff, management, and other external education staff. At least, that's how it seems. I'm sure there is a lot of co-operation and willingness to work together, but not always.

For some reason they want to make it harder to become a teacher, and also make it so that you need to have a Master's Degree in your subject area as well. All this despite there being a national shortage (allegedly) and as far as I'm concerned, certain huge debts for anyone silly enough to spend 4 years at Uni (would that be 7 for a Master's). You don't have to be crazy to want to become a teacher, but it obviously helps!

The Key To Success!

Nothing more to say really. Well Done Me!!!

Not That Budget!

I'm tired, I'm fairly stressed, and even worse I'm still waiting! Don't ask why I'm waiting, just read some recent posts, and you'll get the general idea. Almost 4 years of hard work, and it will all boil down to one hour of observation. I could handle the observation part, if I knew when to expect it, but I don't, and it's virtually impossible to be fully prepared for any random time. I'm actually at the stage of not caring when it happens, as long as it's soon, because the waiting is intolerable. It's like waiting for the hang-man, or a last minute reprieve. Either one might arrive first.

There's a hell of a lot of roadworks going on around here at the moment. They've got half the bloody town dug up. Not only are they laying broadband cables, the Gas have been digging up seemingly arbitrary areas since October, and pretty soon traffic calming measures will be started. Mind you, March always was a busy time on the roads, what with budgets having to be used up. Yes, that's right! If you don't know it, this is how it works; departments, such as Roads, get a budget for the ensuing financial year. At the end of the year, if they've used all of their budget, then they get an increased budget for next year. However, if they haven't spent all of the budget, it will get slashed for the following year. That's why the road gritters are out on beautiful days spraying salt everywhere. They have to use it all up before the end of the financial year.

It's amazing isn't it! That's why the local authorities are so hard-pressed financially. Every department is competing for cash, and in ordeer to secure that cash, they have to fritter away the cash they have. It's a peculiar system, and one which clearly doesn't work. Probably needs a total overhaul form top to bottom!

Judgement Day Looms!

This is about a mile along the coast from my house! At the location from which this photo was taken, there are rocks where seals commonly bask right on the shoreline. Yeah that is great isn't it? Isn't nature a wonderful thing? Except when it gets in the way of progress of course! That was, of course, a joke! Animals don't cause pollution (except for cows, and they're not doing it deliberately), man is to blame. Are we the dirtiest animal on the planet? I don't think anyone could dispute it?

As I said last week, I've been doing my bit to forward the green cause, and on Thursday I will be rewarding the efforts of those who carried the cause further, at my behest. I am of course, once again, being enigmatic. There's good reason for that, to protect the innocent, which would be those minions of mine, and of course so as not to draw too much attention to myself. I don't really like attention. People who like attention tend to be attention-seekers, and that's not me.

My big day is till to come unfortunately. I have been kept waiting for it. It should be before the end of this week and that suits me fine, my patience is wearing thin, and my high stress levels persist. I have invested so much time and effort, and it all comes down to this one occasion. It has to go smoothly, or else... well, I can't even go there. I'm sure it will be fine. If only it was just down to me, but there are about 20 other individuals who can tilt the blance in my favour, or in the opposite direction. Being reliant on others is never a good thing!

Pay To Play!

Here's the poster for the long-awaited Indiana Jones film (20 years), and oddly enough Harrison Ford looks the same as he did in the last one, although he was complaining about old age and infirmity for most of "The Last Crusade". I wish Connery was reprising his role as Indy's dad, wasn't that a great acting combo? That's a rhetorical question, the answer being "yes" obviously!

Am I right in thinking that Connery was invited to partake, but stuck firmly to his "I've given up acting" guns? Well, he's made a hell of a lot of films, and nobody will ever beat his 007, not ever! He does come back here to Scotland occassionally to stick his beak in, but he'd never come back here to live, the taxes would annihilate him.

Hey hey, just found my M.O.T. certificate and I've a week longer than I thought, which is handy because I wasn't going to have anytime to look at it, but now I will have, because I'm on holiday those extra days. Alternatively, I might do things the easier way and purchase some old banger with a years M.O.T. on it. Then buy myself something decent next year when I actually get paid for working, as opposed to having to pay to work. Yes, I do pay for the privilege of working, it sounds ridiculous, but I have petrol and lunch to pay for everyday, out of my own pocket, and occassionally materials as well, and instead of payment I get scutiny. Is it hard going financially? Absolutely!

Today I Have Mostly....

Today I went up the Balloch Hill.

The Balloch is near Keith.

This is Keith.