Fab Day at Glen Shiel

On Monday the wife and I drove down to Glen Shiel to climb the four Eastern most Munros on the South Glen Shiel ridge. Given a fantastic forecast, with sunshine and no wind predicted, we were hopeful of a good day out. On the drive down it was quite foggy and when we got there the cloud was very low. As soon as we started walking though, we saw an eagle. A good omen?

The cloud persisted for a long time. We had to walk most of the way around the first Munro to reach the stalkers path which would take us to the top. At about 600m we started to climb out of the cloud. Was a cloud inversion on the cards?

What an amazing feeling being up above the clouds. We were loving it. If you wonder why people go hill-walking, it's for days like this.

It took us three hours to reach the top of the first Munro: Creag a'Mhaim. From there it took about 45 minutes to reach the top of the next Munro: Druim Shionnach.

An hour later we reached the top of highest Munro of the day: Aonach Air Chrith.

We were doing quite well at this point. Just over another hour later we reached the top of Maol Chinn-dearg, our final Munro of the day. We then started our long descent to the road.

We had to walk about 4km back along the road to the Cluanie Inn where we had parked. We decided to go in for a meal which was very good!

Our Summer!

I've decided to revitalise this blog to some extent. I always seem to be busy nowadays, busy decorating the bedroom today, off to do some hillwalking during the week. I have two weeks off, but still no time. I'm also putting some effort into my two new forums, so kindly pay a visit and if you like it, join in.

I have no climbed 82 Munros out of a total 283. I want to make 100 by the end of the year. I don't know if it's achievable. This Summer was a bit of a washout just like last Summer and the rest of the time work takes precedence it seems.

We went to Crete in July, visited Knossos and Spinalonga etc. It was very hot, here are a couple of photos I took:

Arnassis

Knossos

Spinalonga

Aghios Nikolaos

Back to the Future

Where have I been for the last two years? I wasn't abducted by aliens. I wasn't in hibernation. I was in fact busy trying to flog a dead horse... trying to build a career in education. I probably couldn't have chosen a worse time and circumstances haven't been entirely kind to me either.

Anyway, let's not make this fresh post too morose. I have created two shiny new forums, where I'm still in the early stages of trying to establish a membership. I have however built them around subjects which are very close to my heart and they look quite nice too, so I'm hopeful that they will spring to life.

My first forum is called "ancientstuff" and the main theme is the probablility that planet Earth has seen the rise and fall of advanced civilizations in the distant past. The evidence is fairly substantial and you don't have to believe in Atlantis to make this hypothesis work.

This is the URL: http://ancientstuff.maxforum.org/



The other forum I have created is for people with an interest in UFOs or alien lifeforms in general. It's called "iSAWaUFO" and it is a place to share personal stories of sightings, theories about UFOs and evidence including images and video.

This is the URL: http://isawaufo.lefora.com/

I would be more than happy for anyone of you to drop by my forums and participate freely, if either of these subjects are of interest to you.

In the Monadh Liath's!

On Sunday morning we travelled to Newtonmore to walk up 2 Munros there; A' Chailleach and Carn Sgulain. It was a beautiful day, but the terrain became a nightmare, especially after we passed the bothy, below!

When we reached the summit of A' Chailleach we could easily see across to nearby Carn Sgulain, surely one of the most unassuming Munros around. You would never have guessed it was a Munro, just looking at it!

Below, looking back at A' Chailleach from Carn Sgulain!

Unfortunately, by this time we were eaily 7 or 8 kilometres form the car-park and had to walk back along a stream, the Allt a'Chaorainn, across a testing landscape, and despite how straight-forward it looked, this part of the journey was a real slog!

Future All Mapped Out!

That's me passed everything I need to pass to start teaching. Inevitable, but certain factors were out of my hands, until now. I have 2 weeks back at Uni, just tidying up paperwork and rounding things off, then that's me through till August. One small thing, to pay a visit to the school where I'll be teaching, meet the Rector, scope out my classroom and evaluate the teaching resources and equipment, see what I need! There are of course several unknown variables; who will be my mentor, which courses I'll be teaching and what level of support I will get, as a newly qualified teacher. I am looking forward to it, but of course there's a sense of trepidation. A visit next week should hopefully address my primary concerns.

I've started reading again as well after a prolonged period of book-abstinence. My choice of tome for re-entry into the World of literacy is "Spartan" by Valerio Massimo Manfredi, and Italian author, but translated into English obviously. I'm not that cultured! Of course I'm familiar with elements of the story of the Spartans and the book weaves in and out of the common legends. It's quite gripping, I've read a couple of his other books and he's fast becoming one of my favourite authors. I also have his "Alexander" trilogy, sitting patiently, awaiting my attention.

I'm planning bagging another couple of Munros tomorrow, but it's a bit up in the air at the moment, as the weather forecast keeps changing, and what was promised fine weather, may now well be low cloud and poor visibility. Can't have that, as I was intending to go off the beaten track, in which case I will be reliant on map and compass, but without visible landmarks a map would be no use. So, hopefully, the forecast will alter yet again, and I'll be able to have a grand day out tomorrow!

Descent Into Darkness!

Back to Uni again next week, it's been a while (5 weeks actually). It's always nice to meet up with folk again and hear their tales about their time in school. Everyone has a tale to tell, and not all of them happy ones. Working on the sharp edge of education is a dangerous business, and it's not only the pupils who pose a risk. Of course the risks are not merely physical, but mental and probably most susceptible to damage of all... reputation. If you can keep your reputation, physical, and mental health intact, then surviving school may be a distinct possibility.

I see the French are unhappy over the price of fuel again, but unlike our British truckers who blocked a lane into London, the French are blockading ports, roads and towns. That's how you get things done. We British are far too reserved and law-abiding. If the British truckers had blocked all of the roads into the capital for a few days, things might have got moving. Petrol here right now is £1.13 per litre (that's over $2 for US citizens). I've heard projections of over £1.80 per litre by August. The government is considering scrapping their proposed 2p increase on fuel duty in the next budget and think that that could stem the growing tide of resentment. Well think again, petrol is already going up more than 2p each week at present. Unless they drastically slash fuel duty, things might get ugly. Trouble is, the government has borrowed to the hilt, they don't have the financial reserves to prop up any such action. They've got themselves into a right sorry scrape, that's for sure.

In my mind, the Labour government should be kicked out on their ears when it all falls apart, but our British reseve won't let us push for that to happen. Instead, we'll more than likely be satisifed to see Gordon Brown step down. I say we, I mean the majority of Brits, my personal stance is that he should never have held office, neither him nor his predecessor, the man who dragged us into 2 seriosuly pointless wars, which cannot be won. Throw in, selling us down the river to Europe and opening the floodgates to immigration, and you have the makings of possibly the most inept and cowardly leadership that's ever held office, anywhere.

Life After Quibbles!

Yesterday morning we went to the cinema to see the new Indiana Jones movie, which we've had to wait a considerable time for. It was the first showing of the day, so the cinema was fairly empty, which I found really pleasant. The movie is fantastic in terms of action and effects, nothing hugely over-elaborate, which I believe was the intention, so that it fits together with the previous 3 films. The word is that there might be another one in the offing. I hope they get round to it quicker than this one, or I'll be Harrison Ford's age by the time it's released.

While I did enjoy the film, and it's great to see the format revived, there were a few minor quibbles; firstly I'd have liked to have seen a few more of the baddies meet nasty ends. There were some good ones, but there were so many opportunities for more, for instance, the cliff-top race scenario. A few trucks could easily have plummeted into the water. My second gripe was one which I've made over many recent films; the lack of real continuity and more particularly the lack of plot-line. Yes, there was a vague plot-line, but most of the movie had been and gone before it became clear what was happening. There was a distinct lack of set-up. I wouldn't be surprised if many viewers left the cinema not sue why Indie went to South America in the first place.

On to other matters. Following my previous post, and in no way intentional, Channel 4 showed a program last night called "The 11th Hour", with Leonardo di Caprio hosting, and many scientists basically saying that the human race is ****** ! It was stated that 99.9999 % of all creatures that have lived, have become extinct. We, the human race have a limited window in which we exist. The window would appear to be closing. That's to be followed tonight by a show called "Life After People", looking at how nature would quickly wipe away all traces of human existence, should we suddenly become extinct. I'm going to watch that it looks really interesting.

No Future For You!

There's something decidedly wrong with this image! What's that then you say? Well, I'm no sightseer, but I really cannot see a future for the car, or any road-borne vehicle. Not only is the use of oil-based fuels becoming untenable, but there is just way too much traffic on the roads, and no matter how expensive it becomes, it doesn't seem to deter families from having a second car, or even more than two cars.

What alternative do I envision. I don't. I'm afraid that my vision of the future is quite bleak, I try not to think about it, because I am actually an optimist, but my faith in humanity fades a little more everyday. When one thinks back on history, rapid population increase tends to be followed by terrible wars, pandemics, natural catastrophes, and before humanity was around, mass extinctions. It seems like the planet always has a mechanism for having a regular clear out. It seems unlikely that we can sustain the current level of pupoulation growth, and that inevitably, if we don't bring about a huge decline in the World poulation by ourselves, then some external factor will kick-in and do it for us.

There are already signs that the planet will wreak havoc on us all; melting ice-caps, magnetic poles shifting, huge increases in UV levels, freak weather, widespread extinctions of animal species, drought and famine. The upshot is, it can't go on. There's bound to be a point where the planet goes nuts and tries to shake off it's human opressors. That moment will be critical for the survival of the human race. Some few will survive to begin again, just like they did last time, and come crawling out of the hills once more, reduced to primitive survival techniques and reliant on base instinct and adaptability.

Raising Merry Hell!

It's not essential to have a sense of humour to be a teacher, but it sure as hell does help. I've met some wonderful people so far, with amazing comic wit, unbelievably witty. Some of these guys have a smart retort for everything, but you can't help but admire that. It's a sardonic sense of humour brewed from years of being under pressure. It's their coping mechanism. If they didn't have that, they'd probably have had breakdowns long ago. God knows the system heavily favours the pupil and their increasingly vociferous parent(s), who blame the teachers instantly for their wayward children's neddishness! Of course the kids are in no way responsible for their own actions, and the parents aren't going to blame themselves or take any responsibility for crafting a well-rounded little individual who thoroughly believes that the World owes him/her!

I've heard some unbelieveable stories, and the major gripes from teachers is not so much the behaviour of some kids, but the lack of support they get from senior management. Terms used to describe senior management; two-faced, back-stabbing, conniving, duplicitous, incompetent, sloping shoulders... the list goes on! Many teachers consider the qualities most desirable for progression to be those which most people would regard with contempt. And once in a position of power, those who have acquired it without just entitlement, will allegedly surround themselves with cronies, who will not only do their bidding, but will readily defend them out of some misguided sense of loyalty, having been promoted by them in the first instance.

Despite all of this, I'm not in the least perturbed. Oh yes, I've been stabbed in the back before, and double-crossed, but ultimately, those sort of people orchestrate their own spectacular downfall eventually, and a complete loss of integrity and trustworthiness must be utterly depressing. I don't have much trouble sleeping and that's the way I intend it to stay. I give everyone a chance, but betray me once and you've made an enemy for life!

The Slippery Slope!

OK, I found out today which school I'm going to be teaching at after the Summer, and it was just as I had expected! I don't have a problem with it, it's a half hour commute, but it could have been much worse. Unfortunately it's in a town with a fully spawned ned culture going on, but I guess I'm just going to have to go in their kicking ass right from the start, metaphorically speaking of course!

Just another 3 weeks and my course will be finished, so unless I get pushed into a job of some sort, I'm hoping to have some time to catch up on all the books I've been accumulating over the past year. I'm fairly certain I've got some good reads laid by and I've been sorely tempted to get stuck in on more than one occasion, but if I had it would have been to the detriment of my course. I'm fairly certain of that. I'm just not good at juggling several balls simultaneously, another metaphor dammit!

Think youseleves lucky if you're not Scottish, we now "officially" pay more tax than any other country in the World, and fuel prices here are now more expensive than any other country in the World. In other words, we're being right royally screwed! It's starting to feel like the early 1980's again, when the cost of living was out-stripping income. It's not so much the pinch, as a downright grab really. Gordon Brown is trying hard to stop things slipping, but everything he does just makes it worse. Blair stepped aside at the right time, perhaps he saw the way things were going and it was, "Over to you Gordon"!