Miscellaneous Musings

We spent the day blogging mostly. Here are a series of things that I have been meaning to write about but that don't fit under any particular adventure.

Scottish/British Dialect

Today's term is DIY- (pronounced simply D I Y): A term used commonly for "Do-it-Yourself".

Television

Big Brother is an absolute national obsession here. It isn't new, this is like the fourth season. Each season is 10 weeks long (74 days exactly). We will have seen about half the season by the time we go back home. Next week is the last week. The premise of Big Brother is simple. In all, there were 13 characters live in a completely secluded compound on a studio lot and the whole nation watches everythign they do, and I mean everything! The only contact they have with the outside world is through "Big Brother" who is an omniscient voice (sometimes male and sometimes female) that tells them what to do and sometimes talks to them in the Diary room. Throughout the 10 weeks "characters" are evicted until a winner is chosen. As in the Highlander, there can be only one.

Not all 13 were in the house at the Big Brother house at the same time. Some came in late in the game to replace other characters that were "evicted". Each week someone is "evicted" and goes on to a life of minor celebrity. Every paper and tabloid has something about Big Brother in it. Normally two or three are nominated by the people in the house and then the entire nation votes on who goes. Voting is a money making scheme that costs 25p to vote by calling on your mobile or text messaging. Text-messaging is used to vote on lots of things here, always with a small fee (20p). This is not surprising since the whole thing is sponsored by TalkTalk, a telecommunications company that offers both land and wireless service as well as broadband. In addition to the voting scheme, of course there are ad revenues and Big Brother gets a huge viewership, from the web site itself, and broadband service. Now neither Laurie or I have ever been into Reality shows, but we have become a bit hooked on Big Brother. I should explain that Big Brother is not a one trick pony. Not only is there the prime time Big Brother which is basically the day's highlights , but there is a "Big Brother Live" which shows them getting ready for bed, sleeping, and if you are lucky, something more exciting like someone taking a shower. This is usually about as interesting as watching a piece of lint float through the air. There is also a talk show hosted by a young MTV-like VJ who discusses the latest happenings, politics, and events of all that is Big Brother. Next is a panel of psychologists, nutritionists, and other experts who talk about the effect that things may be having on the Big Brother residents. And lastly, there is a special every Friday after someone is evicted where they come back out into the real world after weeks of isolation from the world.

Once a week Big Brother gives the "characters" a task. Sometimes they are individual tasks and sometimes they are team based tasks. Some are physical challenges and others are more intellectual. Some designed to test the patience of the "characters" by making them do things that are particularly frustrating for them, or make them work with people we know they don't like. Frequently, the "characters" talk to us through Big Brother to confide their strategy, blow off steam, complain, sing, dance, or anything else they like. No one can enter the room or interrupt them when they are in the Diary room talking to Big Brother.

Sometimes one person leaves in a week and sometimes several are chosen. The whole thing is like a psychology experiment gone slightly wrong where most of the rules are changed in what must feel like an arbitrary manor designed to test the "characters".

Big Brother is such a phenomenon that large amounts of money are bet on the outcome. The odds of a given character being evicted or winning are discussed daily. The current favorite is Nadia.

"Nadia is the eldest of six children. She was born in Portugal but moved to England eight years ago. She has previously worked on a perfume counter in a department store and managed a children's bookshop. Nadia has had a sex change."

Part of the fun is that the other characters don't know about Nadia's sex change. Frankly, I am surprised that Nadia is in the lead. First, I think she's a bit obnoxious personally, but moreover, I can't picture a transgender character being so popular in the US. In that sense, I am happily surprised that people here are so accepting.

Big brother is full of language and images that puritanical Americans couldn't tolerate including full nudity at times.

Big Brother isn't the only reality show. The British public love their reality shows. Another is Car Booty where people sell off their attic clutter at Swap meets. Almost exactly the same is Cash in the Attic. I found both fun to watch. Completely different, except that it also appeals to people who appreciate antiques is Restoration Nation. Here's the official description.

Across the UK, thousands of historic buildings are in danger of being lost to the nation forever. This summer BBC TWO features a call to action in the fight to save our heritage. With comedian and active conservationist Griff Rhys Jones at the helm, viewers will be asked to vote for and help save one of our 21 most endangered buildings.

Each programme will focus on three endangered properties in one area, then offer viewers the chance to vote for the building they would most like to see restored. Each of the regional winners will go forward to the Live Final, a spectacular celebration of the nation's heritage, and the moment when one property is voted as the most worthy of Restoration.

Every historic building has a wealth of tales to tell, and, with the help of two experts, conservation architect Ptolemy Dean, and historic buildings surveyor Marianne Suhr, the series will bring the buildings back to life and depict them in their prime.

I think this is a great show and a fabulous way to learn about history as well as preserve important sites.

There are several DIY shows like a garden make over show and one where a couple are taken house shopping with some experts. There is also a show where a family tries moving to another country and setting up a new life.

Another great show is SuperNanny where an experienced Nanny helps families work things out with children who have behavior challenges. Of course, often these are due just as much to how the parents have trained the children, as with the children themselves. The Nanny is no Mary Poppins. She's fairly tough but very effective.

I've already written about wife swap which is sometimes interesting. The other day we saw a show were the women who switched were opposite extremes of physical fitness. And, of course the occasional American show is on there such as Sex and the City and Nip/Tuck.
Note that in the UK you have to have a "TV license" which costs about £10 per month! That is required for any device that can receive TV including a computer with a tuner card. Note, this is in addition to any cable service you may wish to have. Licenses can be purchased at the Post Office, but more on the Post Office later.

Inverary Castle, At last!

I enjoyed the little room we stayed in, very much. We got up to another nice breakfast and got on our way before 10. Not bad for us. We walked over to the Castle and I was keen to see if the cows were around to say hello. I was quite taken with them on our first visit. The parking lot was pretty full when we got there and the cows were seeking refuge from the tourists by staying far back in their field. Since they were uninterested in welcoming us, we headed into the Castle, which was just opening when we arrived. After only three attempts, we were going to see the castle!

From the outside the castle looks like something out of a fairy tale. It had no real fortifications like moat, or places to put cannon for real use although for aesthetic value, there are a couple of French cannon in front of the castle. There was no explanation of how French cannon got to the Castle, unfortunately.

Inside was a different story though. There isn't a "Great Hall" as in Sterling or Edinburgh, but in the Central Hall Inverary Castle has one of the biggest collections we saw of antique weaponry including swords, guns, bayonets, halbrads, etc. It was all beautifully presented. The room is stunning! The weapons are in excellent condition, and the ceiling is over 68 feet tall!

The Campbells go back a long time in Scottish history and are an active, proud group to this day. Part of the history is the legendary feud with the MacGregor family (and their leader, Rob Roy) which lead to the very banning of the MacGregor name. The MacGregors became Jacobites (supporters of the Stuart dynasty of Kings James. His defense of Stuart line made Rob Roy either an English traitor or Scottish patriot, depending on your historical view. Ironically, Robert MacGregor's mother was a Campbell and at one time, the Duke of Argyll (head of the Campbell clan) gave him permission to use some of his land for his cattle business.

Again, not a lot of our own pictures because they were prohibited, but we got another souvenir book there too.

We walked around the gardens for a while afterwards and saw some of the cows again, but they stayed at a fair distance.

The ride home was uneventful because the GPS did a perfect job of navigating for us. We unpacked the minivan, started laundry, and got to work on the blog.

It is a long, long way to Inverary...

It rained a good part of the night and there was no sign that the clouds were going away. I had hopped we'd get at least a short hike in that morning, but the woman we'd met the night before said that she had to take off her hiking boots they sank so far into the muck yesterday. Now, the ground had several more inches of water. We'd be really dirty and have to spend a lot of time cleaning up before we could get into the Lacey's minivan so we had to give up. I definitely want to come back and do some hiking and/or climbing here sometime. It is a wonderful spot.

We repacked the car and set out to retrace our steps back much of the same roads that we'd been on. Not surprising since there aren't that many roads on the island. The only problem was that the GPS batteries were dead. I had left on the GPS the night before. Ugh, boy did I feel pretty stupid. I gave it a quick charge in the bathroom while I washed up, but I knew that wouldn't last long so I only turned it on for brief periods when we needed to know where we were, and then used the iPAQ to get the next direction.

We got off Skye without too much incident. The only other stop we made was at a shop we saw on the way in to get some whiskey glasses for my friend Jeff back home. After we got off the island, I turned the GPS back on. For some reason, it was confused and kept wanting us to go back to Skye! Since it hadn't lead us wrong yet I thought it might know something I didn't. Since we were under some time pressure, I didn't want to drive out of the way. First I drove down the road a bit but it kept asking me to make a U turn. I finally gave in and did a U turn at a gas station. Soon as I did, it told me to do another U turn. As we thought, we needed to go away from Skye, not toward it!

It is about a three and a half hour drive from Skye to Inverary. I tried to keep the GPS off as much as possible since I knew there were a couple of roads that might be confusing. Unfortunately, I couldn't conserve enough and soon we were without the aid of technology. After a couple of hours we got hungry and looked for a place to eat. It took a while, because once again, bars and taverns--much less restaurants were a rare commodity. Frantically we found a place which was okay but not speedy. A side observation--not only do you not get coke refills here, but tea is a one serving beverage as well. I really don't get that, but it is just about the only complaint I have so far so I guess that's okay.

After lunch we continued the drive to Inverary Castle which we tried to visit once before, but got there too late. Laurie was doing her best to help navigate with the various free maps we had picked up along the way but she can't read for very long while passengering because it makes her sick. She was very good at remembering the names of some of the places we'd been to the first time we tried to go to Inverary Castle and used that to guide us most of the way there. Unfortunately, we got lost though and ended up about 40 minutes on the wrong side of things! What to do? Time was running short. We could give up and go home or we could press on and give it a try. I got the impression that Laurie wanted to see the inside of the castle and I did too. We weren't sure if the castle closed at 17:00 or 17:30. We also didn't know if they stopped letting people in 45 minutes prior to closing as many castles do. Without the GPS, it took me a few minutes to get oriented and determine how to get where we wanted to go. That wasn't easy as I'd lost track of where we actually were at this point. First thing you need to know is where you are before you can worry about where you want to be. That critical bit is one thing the GPS is really good for, but because of my mistake we didn't have it handy. We sorted things out though and on we went.

With a few quick stops along the way to verify that we were going the right way, we made it to the castle! Yeah!

Ineverary, finally

Another GPS sidebar
It turns out it is a lot easier to read the GPS while driving than a map. The GPS has large letters, speaks to you, and has giant arrows to point you in the right direction. It also eliminates useless information. Paper maps just don't do all of that, but they don't run out of batteries, either. Pros and cons I guess.
Ironically, there is a persistent license in the Destinator software that makes you agree not to use the GPS while driving, but I've never seen a map with such a requirement. Needless to say the fact you have to click on that extra button when you start the Destinator software makes it more hazardous than if they didn't bother to warn you. Go figure!

Unfortunately, the castle was closed by the time we got there. By this point I was really tired of driving. Though it was rainy by the mountains on Skye, it was humid near Inverary. We hadn't showered and we'd been driving franticly to reach the castle. To my surprise, Laurie was up for camping nearby and trying the castle tomorrow. I'm usually more anxious to camp than she is, but we were already wearing dirty clothes because we hadn't bought enough, we hadn't showered, I was tired, and a little hungry. We decided to see if we could find a reasonable B&B for the night and we got lucky. Right across from the main road there was a nice place with a bit of a view of the Loch. We dropped off our stuff and walked around for a while and then grabbed dinner at a very cute little place. I had another steak pie if I recall, and Apple pie for dessert!

Inverary is a cute little town, but one of the mour touristy places we visited. This is probably a virtue of it being closer to Glasgow and Edinburgh, having a decent castle, and a beautiful Loch. There are many shops that happily cater to the many tourists that come to Castle. As an aside, one of the things I've noticed is that unlike many other places I visit, you don't see the same items for sale at every tourist spot in Scotland. There really are regional differences, and the shops generally cater specifically to the area or attraction, not generic "Scotland" junk. The only exception was a few books on Scotland and Scottish history which appeared at several locations.

I think we got lucky on the lodging because a lot of tourists come up for the day on a bus and go back in the evening. While it is only 90 minutes from Glasgow, I was glad we had a more leisurely time of it--even though we had planned to be "home" in Glasgow that night. I took a rally nice, long, hot shower and settled in for the night after I read 30-40 pages more of Clinton's My Life.

Another day, another Skye

Our Kilmur house was simple and cozy. We got up, had a nice shower, and Sam made us a nice breakfast. He then spent at least 30-45 minutes telling us about things we could do while on the island. He asked what our plans were, and I hated to tell him we were going to spend another night at the island--but not with them, as we'd planned to camp out since we'd missed our first opportunity in Inverness. He was very gracious and gave us some great suggestions.

The first thing we did was see Dunvegan Castle. We don't have a lot of pictures as they prohibit photography in the castle. We did get a nice souvenir book to remember our visit. Just a couple of observations.

• Dunvegan castle is the centre of the clan MacLeod. Skye and Dunvegan has more norse influence because it was an opportune spot for the Vikings to invade.
• I know nothing about preservation, but there is remarkably little done in many sights we visited to preserve the artifacts they house. At Dunvegan Castle, windows were open, without screens and with no UV protection. I have to say that Dunvegan was one of the only sights that seemed to have a very visible security system including motion detectors.
• Like many of the sites we visited, there was no live or audio tour available. They did provide laminated sheets to provide some history, which was very nice.

Dunvegan wasn't my favorite castle, but the gardens were very nice. It was interesting to see the range of fortifications of castles. Dunvegan was the home of a chieftain, not a king so there were never as many armaments built around it as say, Sterling or Edinburgh.

Onward from Dunvegan...

We took some time to cover the north west of the island. There wasn't a lot to see, but it was a nice drive. More sheep, grass, and slightly flatter than the south west or south east. We stopped by a few shops and by the famous Three Chimneys Restaurant. This place has quite the reputation in the UK. Apparently some people have even been known to helicopter in for a weekend visit and dinner at the restaurant! We weren't able to get in on this visit--it is very small and books up well in advance. Perhaps next visit.

We headed to the South west of the island to locate a camp site. There was a campsite and a convenient cross roads at Sligachan. It had a nice view of the Cullin mountains but it was a bit close to the road. I had my eye further down south to the Glenbrittle area. It also had a view of the mountains, but also the Sea. We made our way down the long, one lane rode with "passing areas" for about 25 minute drive through even more nice country side. The island is filled with these small roads so driving is even more challenging than the goats, minivan, and right-side would be otherwise. The only downside was it was very grey, soppy as we drove down. It was rather majestic though to see the clouds hanging so low on the 3,166' mountain range. When we got to the end of the road (literally) there was a gate to a camp site, right where the GPS said it would be. Excellent! We parked and went for a walk on the beach. There was something very desolate and solitary about the place even though there were a reasonable number of people in the campground. People were quiet and unusually respectful. How could you not be? The beach was about 600 yards deep; that is, the water travels between the high and low tide marks. I'd never seen a beach like this. The sand was highly compacted and so was easy to walk on. it was a graphite colour and filled with all kinds of life since we were now at a low-tide point. Unfortunately, there was a sheep laying in the sand that was no longer full of life. Something had happened to the poor guy and he passed on. I could think of worse places to spend your last minutes, but it was sad, but peaceful.

As we walked along the beach, we met a young woman from Bristol. Until ten years ago, she had been coming to that spot with her parents every year since she was a little girl. She knowingly pointed out the landmarks like the island of Canna--one of the several in Inner Hebrides the way someone would show you around a house they had lived in all their lives. Some of the other islands--Rum Island, Mull, Eigg weren't visible from our standpoint. She told us about some of the good hikes and climbing that were to be had just up the path at the other end of the campsite, just past the bathrooms. She also shared the important news that there was a family of otters at the end of the shoreline earlier that day. Now that's important! Perspective. We had a pleasant conversation where she shared her passion for this place with us. Somehow, I was moved by what it meant to her. Later, I found myself wishing I knew why she'd been away from it for ten years, but I didn't get a chance to ask her.

In addition to the fog, we'd lost most the day light, so after a walk on the beach, we went back to the van and read for a while before calling it a night. Reading in the back of the van, with the back hatch open and the sea just beyond was very peaceful for a while. But soon I began to notice what I determined must be the famous Scottish Midges!

There are something like three dozen types of midges--all related to mosquitoes. The female midges byte, but do not sting. They are apparently more annoying than anything, but they have gotten under one too many kilts and the Scots have been working hard to deal with them. There is now a machine used to combat these pests that produces a scent the midges rather like--which is basically an artificial cow manure smell made of methane and some other things--to attract the midges. Once attracted, they are sucked into a giant vacuum cleaner. The machines are expensive for now, so they are used in beer gardens and other public places.

I hopped that the skies would clear the next day because we were right at the base of some beautiful mountains that were met by the Sea of Hebrides. Even with the bad weather, I was intrigued by the place. I knew what our neighbor in Glasgow, Phoebe meant when she said that people either love or hate the place--it feels desolate to some. On a clear day it must be absolutely amazing and I wanted to find out.

The road to Skye

I got up because we wanted to take advantage of the included breakfast and get a good start on the day. There was just a bath in the room, no shower. I really needed something to wake up a bit so I took a quick bath while Laurie caught a few more Z's. It looked like she really needed them. When I got out, we got dressed and I took the bags down to the minivan. We were both still really groggy and morning isn't my best time in any event so the comedy of errors that came next wasn't funny until lunch time. While I went down to the car through the main stairway, Laurie followed shortly after down the back stairs where we had come up the night before. I went to the lobby after dropping the bag and didn't see her so I went back to the room only to find her gone. Someone stole my wife! I checked the lobby and restaurant and didn't see her at first. This was a true farce...She slowly walked up from the side of the hotel where she had walked around the outside of the building...the only place I hadn't looked. Ah well...

We decided we should grab breakfast so we didn't have to stop later. Now I thought breakfast ended at 9 so the fact that it was deserted and the food was "bottom of the barrel didn't surprise me. There were some eggs, really nasty looking meats, cold cereal, some juice, and something I couldn't identify. There was some staff around, but they paid us no mind. They were too busy cleaning up after breakfast to see to us. Laurie seemed to need tea, so I chased the waitress down and asked her for some, which she brought fairly promptly. I had to find cups, some silverware, and napkins from various other tables— as there were no clean, completely set tables. I tried something that was apparently an oat cake which was sort of like layered uncooked oatmeal. It was as bland and dry as it sounds. I ended up eating enough, but it wasn't a memorable meal. The one exception was the waitress who continued to clear tables as we ate. She generally seemed to act as if no customers were in the room. She seemed to be exceptionally board or tired and cleared things in a strange order as if to kill time until the end of her shift. She also tossed one of the two tablecloths on each table on the ground in the middle of the room which sort of put me off.

Just as we were ready to leave, the waitress asked another table if they'd like toast. Apparently it was supposed to come with breakfast, but she'd never bothered to ask us if we wanted any. It also turned out that breakfast wasn't officially over until about 9:30, so there wasn't a good excuse for her inattention. Although the room was adequate, we were glad to be leaving.

Now we had a fully charged iPAQ and GPS so navigation wasn't going to be a problem. We headed out for Skye. The drive takes about 90 minutes or so. The weather was much nicer today and we stopped several times along the way to take pictures.

Along much of the way the road shadows an active rail track. It is possible to take a train almost all the way to Skye. The trip would have been really fantastic, I'm sure, but we would have had to rent a car when we got to Skye to get around anywhere.

I'd heard that the Highlands are amazing, and they are. There is open space that seems to go on forever, with a hundred shades of green, and mountains and streams that are stunning. The drive alone would have made the trip worthwhile. Now many of the residents of this paradise are fairly small manufacturing companies that are called sheep here. Much of the wool for tweed clothing and cashmere comes from the Highlands.

Every once in a while we decided to stop to stretch our legs. We came across a sign for a stained glass studio. That sounded pretty interesting so we turned off to take a look. As we drove, we saw a sign for "stained glass and bees-wax paintings". Now I was really interested because I'd never heard of that. As we pulled up, I figured the small building would house a small, but respectable sized gallery. There was a small leanto in front which seemed to be the entrance. As it turns out, that leanto was the studio. We had a look and while we weren't excited by the stained glass work, the bees-wax paintings were sort of interesting so we picked up a couple. The artist was a very chatty bloke who told us about his neighbors musical endeavors, and a bit about his life. Like many people we've met, he doesn't travel far from home. He told us that on Sundays he often just leaves an "Honestly" box and goes drinking. Even though there's been upwards of a £130 in the box, he's never had anyone steal from him. It was refreshing to hear about such honestly. It reminded me of the stands we ran into on the Hawaiian islands where people sell flowers, fruit, and nuts through the same honestly policy. I'm not sure if the natural beauty is the cause of such honesty but paradise in these places is far deeper than just the natural beauty.

Back on the road, we saw some lovely horses and captured some more pastoral scenes. Soon enough we were at the controversial Skye bridge. What could possibly be so controversial about a bridge? Well from what we gather from the discussions, there are several issues. The bridge is privately run and the toll for an auto is £5.80 each way, £2.90 for a bicycle, and trucks are a great deal more. The majority of ferry service were discontinued after the bridge was completed, making it the only way for residents to get on and off the island. You can walk across for free, but it isn't illuminated at night so locals complain it can be dangerous if they bike or walk across. There were also some environmental concerns about the bridge and the extra traffic the bridge brings to Skye.

Soon after we got over the bridge, we saw some sheep on the shore of the Loch. Not often you see unshorn sheep at the sea shore! We had to check it out. Soon, the Cullin mountains and the Old Man of Storr came into view. With mountains and water come waterfalls. Skye had many of them. It also has a lot of wildflowers.

We continued on around the north of Skye toward where we thought our B&B was. (Do you sense a story coming on? Good.) I had fun collecting wool that the sheep had shed around when we stopped for pictures. I figure if I find enough, Susan will make me a sweater when we get home. Man, I can't wait! We also got to see some really funny sights like a cow with a great sense of self-esteem.

Did I mention the sheep? There are a lot of sheep on the Isle of Skye. They are fearless. Unfaised by speeding cars or steep cliffs where they enjoy their meals. Just over the cliff from these guys, we saw a really nice cove where there were unusual rock formations that extended from the beach out into the water. " Now the sheep are really cute, but the local paper included the following warning:

Let's be clear on this one--they are not to be regarded as cuddly, friendly, woolly jumpers with a magnetic attraction for car bumpers. Treat them as devious, plotting, assassins hired by some crooked breakdown merchant to force cars off the road. In short, they are a menace.

We had no problems, but I kept my eye on those little guys! We stopped at a place named, the Aros Experience which is kind of a combination of local entertainment and community center (including movie theatre), shopping for tourists and locals, and restaurant. Now this is not a giant mall, it was a fairly small place, well laid out, packed full of interesting things. Lunch was a real surprise. I had a delicious lamb stew, the likes of which I have never had. It may have looked like a "cafeteria" but the food was superb.

Now back to that story I alluded to earlier.

I had entered the information Laurie gave me for the Kilmur house,where we'd booked a room, into our GPS. Now if you check these links carefully, you may notice that they do not refer to the same house. Oops. yes, we went to the wrong Kilmur house! We followed the GPS' directions drove up around the northern tip of the island which is quite stunning. When we reached the Kilmur house we knocked on the door and and told them we thought we had booked a room. Pretty quickly they realized we'd probably got the wrong one and called over for us to confirm. We weren't the first ones to have made this mistake. They were very nice people. Actually, since we wanted to see the north end of the island, nothing was really lost. But it did mean we didn't get to our Kilmur house until about 18:30. While it wasn't quite as fancy, the people were very nice here as well. They suggested we try a restaurant called, The Old School Restaurant just down the street. it was a very cozy place that still felt very much like it's namesake. We headed back to our place and spent an hour or so with our host family talking about everything from Shakespeare to Big Brother. The father of the family is a retired Finance guy who used to work in London near the Globe theater (more on that when we go to London.) When he got laid off a few years ago, he packed up the family and moved them to Skye. What a life! They were really great people and I enjoyed the conversation very much, but it was time to get some sleep. We have a big day ahead of us tomorrow!