Wednesday, May 04, 2005
Relaxed, Refreshed, Revitalised
Thanks to everyone who came up to Scotland with me this weekend. I hope you all had as much fun as I did - I had a brilliant time. Particular thanks to everyone who was involved in the meal on Saturday night (Jaqs, Flic, Tsuki, Dom and Lint that I know about - I'm sure I've missed people out of that list, so I might as well say thanks to everyone else too!)
I was really pleased with the house. The facilities were great - snooker, table tennis, normal tennis, golf, jigsaws, piano, jacuzzi bath, bugle... Bit disappointed I forgot the frisbee. It would have been slightly improved had we been able to join the two houses together, rather than having to walk around the garden to get from one to the other, and I think this created a bit of a psychological "us and them" thing. Unfortunate, but nothing's perfect.
I think I may have prevented quite a few conversations by bringing my Sudoku puzzle books! Still, I also finished the one that's been bothering me for weeks. (I'm sure there must be a better way of solving it than the one I used - not elegant at all.)
It was kind of fun having almost 2 holidays in one. It was a little sad seeing nearly everyone leave on Monday, but Colm, Iasonas and I then had a very different few days. We went to Bladnoch whisky distillery on Tuesday, where I didn't taste any (probably just as well, since the others felt drunk off the single shot they tasted), and then to clay pigeon shooting, at which I surprised myself both by doing a lot better than expected, and by also enjoying. I was particularly pleased with my 2-shot get - pigeons coming from left and right, and I got them both.
We didn't do very much today beyond tidying the house, and a walk up to Loch Eldrig along the riverside and through fields of sheep. The weather was vastly improved yesterday and today over the first part of the weekend - I've got some pretty gorgeous photos of the place we stayed in sunshine.
Other memorable moments from the weekend :
"Pull!" (Verbal, the new name for Iasonas - having previously been scared by several things he's said, this has to be the new title-holder for most spine-chilling!)
"There may be quite a lot of footage of the rabbit." (Colm. Speaks for itself really!)
"A66 Please" (Sign on the A66.)
"So what's the name of this river, again?" (Irritating guy in Bladnoch distillery, named after the river, asked of tour guide who was wearing a coat saying "Bladnoch" on it and holding 2 bottles of Bladnoch whisky.)
"Do you take American Express?" (Guess who, at the same distillery.)
"The character from Peter Pan." (Iasonas, trying to get us to guess Christopher Robin.)
"Yes." (Colm, emphatically, in reply to someone asking him if he was filming Bert climbing over and in the process breaking a stile.)
Lint refusing to vault said stile, breaking a sacred promise he'd made to me and Helen a few days before.
D-Something, the new name for GeeDee.
D-Something's bizarre new fog-based hairstyle, featuring droplets of water at the end of every hair. |(Photo to follow.)
"Dalek", the Dr Who episode on Saturday - both better and worse than I expected, and very unlike traditional Dr Who (in a good way).
Being stalked by a "pheasant" in the forest near the Wells of the Rees.
Tom and Helen's version of Video Killed the Radio Star.
Dom's dancing to I Think We're Alone Now.
The lunch at the Harbour Inn at Garlieston.
Breakfast in Girvan, which I think is the most northerly place I've ever been to. It's not the best place to get a cup of coffee at 7.15am, and not the best place to get a 7.05am train to Glasgow either!
(There are, I'm sure, lots more, and I'll probably add to this as I think of more over the next few days.)
The whole weekend turned out probably a little better than I'd hoped for - definitely glad I went for somewhere much further south than originally planned, as I think an extra 3 or 4 hours journey would have killed us all. Considering how much hard work it was to get myself organised enough to do anything over the last few weeks, I think it turned out OK. I would, however, like to be excused from having to arrange anything again, ever :)
I'll stick a few pictures up tomorrow night when I've found my camera somewhere (I hope!) in all the bags.
I was really pleased with the house. The facilities were great - snooker, table tennis, normal tennis, golf, jigsaws, piano, jacuzzi bath, bugle... Bit disappointed I forgot the frisbee. It would have been slightly improved had we been able to join the two houses together, rather than having to walk around the garden to get from one to the other, and I think this created a bit of a psychological "us and them" thing. Unfortunate, but nothing's perfect.
I think I may have prevented quite a few conversations by bringing my Sudoku puzzle books! Still, I also finished the one that's been bothering me for weeks. (I'm sure there must be a better way of solving it than the one I used - not elegant at all.)
It was kind of fun having almost 2 holidays in one. It was a little sad seeing nearly everyone leave on Monday, but Colm, Iasonas and I then had a very different few days. We went to Bladnoch whisky distillery on Tuesday, where I didn't taste any (probably just as well, since the others felt drunk off the single shot they tasted), and then to clay pigeon shooting, at which I surprised myself both by doing a lot better than expected, and by also enjoying. I was particularly pleased with my 2-shot get - pigeons coming from left and right, and I got them both.
We didn't do very much today beyond tidying the house, and a walk up to Loch Eldrig along the riverside and through fields of sheep. The weather was vastly improved yesterday and today over the first part of the weekend - I've got some pretty gorgeous photos of the place we stayed in sunshine.
Other memorable moments from the weekend :
(There are, I'm sure, lots more, and I'll probably add to this as I think of more over the next few days.)
The whole weekend turned out probably a little better than I'd hoped for - definitely glad I went for somewhere much further south than originally planned, as I think an extra 3 or 4 hours journey would have killed us all. Considering how much hard work it was to get myself organised enough to do anything over the last few weeks, I think it turned out OK. I would, however, like to be excused from having to arrange anything again, ever :)
I'll stick a few pictures up tomorrow night when I've found my camera somewhere (I hope!) in all the bags.
posted by Chip : 21:49
3 comments
Comments:
Yeah, thank you. It was a great weekend! You're welcome to be my Girvan breakfast date anyday (I'll do the arranging since you're exempt).
Jaq and Lint, glad you had a good time. Not sure I'd pick Girvan for a breakfast date again, though! (Forgot to take a photo of the Free Parking unfortunately.)
Badfriend, got it in one. After you said you weren't free, you were henceforth classified under "out of sight, out of mind" and I thought nothing further of you. I wonder if that's going to start you *crying* again...
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Badfriend, got it in one. After you said you weren't free, you were henceforth classified under "out of sight, out of mind" and I thought nothing further of you. I wonder if that's going to start you *crying* again...
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