Snow Go!

Since it seems I'm going to be thwarted in my attempts to do any hill-walking this weekend and because I promised you some photos, here they are;

This is the Spey Bay to Fochabers road, the river Spey is about 10m to the right just behind the trees and bushes.

Here is the river, looking downstream. I believe it's the fastest flowing river in the UK.

Elgin town centre with St. Giles church at the rear.

This is the back road into Elgin. The building at the end of the road is a distillery.

This is Buckpool, where I live. I took this picture looking out over the Moray Firth, about 150m for my house.

No Entry For Drunks!

Back for my second day at Uni today. I left early so that I could hand in my application form for a Young Person's Railcard, at Keith station. On both accounts, I failed my mission. Firstly, the road to Keith was closed because there had been an accident (unfortunately fatal, I found out later). So, I had to go round by Fochabers, and any extra time I had gained by leaving early was lost. Secondly, the guy in the ticket-office refused to process my application because it would hold up the queue. Meh!

The bus part of the journey went much smoother than on Monday though. As I came out of the train station, I saw a bus at stand 10 of the bus station, which is the one I want. So I hurried over, got straight on, and the bus left right away, exiting the station without a hitch this time. The upshot being, I arrived at the Uni 20 minutes earlier than I did on Monday.

Today we were learning about multi-culturalism and specifically social inclusion. Skipping that quickly to the homeward journey, it seems like I'm some sort of drunk magnet. This time the guy opposite me across the table on the train was absolutely paralytic. Fortunately however, he slept for most of the journey, waking occasionally to mumble some gibberish or to type a couple letters into his mobile. I think he was trying to text his wife saying he was on his way home, but he never finished it. He managed to get off at some point anyway, which was a relief. Back again tomorrow. This time I must make a conscious effort to avoid attracting drunkards.

Close Encounters of My Kind!

Alright, this is the first part of a double-header about UFOs and Ghosts, or more precisely my limited experience with both of those! Firstly, I've had perhaps 3 experiences in my life which you might consider encounters with UFOs, although no single encounter could be strictly defined as a UFO encounter, because on each occasion all I saw was a light. Well, this is Scotland and usually it's dark, so even lights can possess strange properties.

The first encounter was, when myself and a few mates went for a wander in the countryside in late October aged 18-19, pitch dark, and probably with a drink in. We were heading into the hills (walking) near Arradoul, when we saw a light (seemingly) in a nearby field. Initally it looked as though it was a bicycle light, but then the light stopped and started shining up into some nearby trees. Very odd we thought, and as we discussed it, the light suddenly turend and shone towards us. The next thing this light, and whatever object it was attached to, took off, up towards the hills, and at a fair speed too, ceratinly faster than a bike could go. Our puzzlement only increased when we moved closer to where we had first seen the light, and realised it was a newly ploughed field, all the fields there had been ploughed, and there was no road, yet the light had moved across the field with no wobbling motion, which indicated to us, that whatever the object with the light had been, it couldn't have been on the ground, or it would have been alll over the place.

That first encounter as odd as it was, in no way prepared me for the other 2 encounters I had, almost exactly a year apart from each other. In my early 20's ,say around 1995, I was working at a sawmill in the Woods near Fochabers, and each morning I had to get off the bus and walk about a mile through the woods and a farmyard to get there (in the very dark, with big cats wandering around (but, that's for another time)). So, on this morning, I get to the farmyard and strangely (more exciting than scary), there was what appeared to be a massive spotlight shining down from above this row of trees, near the stream (like those ones you see in war films, that bright). The light was shing here and there and then it shone on me, so I just stood looking at it for a while, it was very close, and there was absolute silence. Then, just like that it disappeared, without a sound.

Then, perhaps a year to the day later ( I surmise), almost the same thing again, except this time I arrived at the sawmill, to see a light (identical to the first) panning around by the stream, about 50 yards from the mill. I wanted to go closer, but I couldn't do it, because I realised that whatever it was I was looking at, it was definitely unnatural. As before, the light disappeared in an instant. I later thought, as cows are abducted by aliens (apparently), that both lights had been over the stream, in spots where deer would cross, or come out of the woods to drink, perhaps they had been after deer. I offer no explanation for what I saw, alien or not, I recount what I saw faithfully, and leave the cause open to interpretation. Tomorrow, my most singular ghostly encounter laid bare!