bitsofbobs

I love camping! not going to lie…been waiting so long for the opportunity but the weather had been so awful. As a note, this post should have been written nearly a month ago but busyness and lazyness got the better of me so i’m stepping up. The occasion was maccas birthday and the location was originally going to be Gullane beach just outside Edinburgh towards north berwick. Macca started off his saturday like any other playing a bit of football only to end up in hospital on his birthday getting stitches in his heel…HAPPY BIRTHDAY. Eventually our little Glasgow convoy arrived at Gullane only to discover the car park was no overnight stays and no camp fires…uh oh…not so good. Up the road to the next location yellowcraigs…same story…panic. Not to worry as we had an insider who knew another place just a bit further up the road Tyninghame to be precise, a lovely little place in dunbar to be exact. We got parked as close to the beach as we could and headed down the cliffs towards the beach to setup camp in this lovely spot.

We picked up a proper BBQ on the way rather than those rubbish disposable ones along with steaks, burgers and sausages. Just over a wee ridge that protected us from the wind was the beach itself. A lovely stretch of proper east coast beach where frisbee and kite flying was top of the todo.

Back round the campsite to get a proper fire on the go. All the time our campsite acted as a through road for a lot of people carrying drums and tents further up the beach. We had to ask to find out what was going on. It turned out just 10 mins up the beach from us about 80 people celebrating the beltane (basically a fire festival) were having a massive party. Sat round our fire the rain started, about midnight we made the decision to go investigate. Walking down the beach in the dark we could hear the drums, also out of the darkness a massive orange glow casting some seriously weird shadows onto the beach. We turned the corner and there it was…a huge fire with loads of people dancing semi naked round it. All up the cliffside candle lanterns flickered, it looked amazing. Anyone who’s seen the big lebowski, imagine that bit where he goes to jackie treehorns back garden to meet him. Was amazing all playing drums and dancing. We were welcomed and shown where we could recycle our cans and bottles (of course) and only one rule, please don’t take any photos…fair enough. Was great fun, had to take my top off…seemed rude not to, even had a shot playing the drums…turns out…I’m rubbish. Was really starting to chuck it down but all you had to do was sqeeze up next to the fire for 5 mins to dry off. I’d never seen anything like it and doubt anything like that will ever randomly happen again. I got brave and disappeared down the beach into the darkness to take a picture…knowing you couldn’t make anything out..otherwise..who’d believe me?

Happy birthday macca..was magic!

HAPPY NEW YEAR ALL! Hope it was awesome and everyone started 2010 as they meant to go on? I’m not assuming everyone is going to be drunk all year round. I had a great festive period, travelled about between Stonehaven, St andrews and Glasgow. I had a magic Christmas haul including a great book on making stupid sock creatures, ALL the where’s wally books and a SEWING MACHINE! Not been blogging much just been taking it easy and generally sitting about in my pjs constantly eating, drinking, drawing, watching films and playing board games.

First day back at work today and it is very much a shock to the system, breakfast…not a time I’ve celebrated much in the past few weeks. Need to get back into routine, 3 meals a day instead of just constant snacking. Lots of things to look forward to this year, biggest one is getting married. Not long either…April…zoiks. Is it wrong to be looking at holidays on your first day back?

Summer holidays are indeed awesome.We booked this hotel for 3 nights in newquay. I’ve been wanting to get to cornwall for ages.The hotel made the trip. It only has 7 rooms each with their own balcony over looking the harbour. To add to the awesomeness it has a secret entrance only accesssible at low tide. The food was amazing, all locally caught fish…nom nom nom. Our original plan was to go up and down the coast for day trips..st Ives etc but the weather was so good and the hotel so good we never ventured too far. Loved it.

The actual centre of newquay was pretty tacky and filled with touristy shops and expensive surfer boutiques, however round by the harbour all is quiet and tourists never really ventured further than the main busy beach. The hotel sits on a cliff overlooking the harbour and it’s only about 20 mins walk from train station. The hotel backed onto a coastal walk which took you round the cliffs to fistral bay where all the surfers hung out. The last night the weather turned which resulted in thunder & lightning which was amazing to watch from the balcony as well as that I woke up a few mornings for sunrise. Loved everything about it…can’t recommend it enough.

My summer holidays officially kicked off last friday and my word did it kick off with a bang. Was straight on the train after work on friday down to London. Thought we’d give the train a bash instead of flying. Works out as cheap and by the time you’ve messed about at airports probably as quick. So Saturday we’re up relatively early grabbed a massive breakfast and headed into hard rock calling at hyde park. Bit of a random line-up which I was looking forward to. Highlight was definitely seasick steve…some great banter and really got everyone going. No-one else really matched it the rest of the day. Other acts we watched: the pretenders…pretty good, ben harper…average, lyre birds…liked them, fleet foxes…awesome and finally headlined with neil young. I’m not a huge neil young fan but it was pretty awesome…He is old…almost troll like old but he can still most definately rock out. He finished with the beatles “a day in the life” then paul mcCartney turned up to join in. My fisrt beatle. The weather was scorching all day with a slight break for some thunder and lightning which was pretty spectacular. All in all a fun/cider fueled day of awesome..ness.

Should have blogged this ages ago but i’ve not been very well and under the influence of ALOT of lemsip products. Last weekend Me and a few from work had some cheap flights to Dublin booked. Been pretty busy at work so only really decided what we were going to do a few days before we went really. Camping…It was the cheapest way to go. We found a wee campsite just outside a place called Rush which we could get to straight from the airport. We took lees massive tent as baggage. Ryan air fleeced me on the way in as I didn’t properly check-in on-line so had to pay £20 for some miserable women to stamp a piece of paper…nae chuffed. We found the campsite pretty easy once we had swapped a bus at a wee place called Swords. Instantly it hit us how expensive the trip was going to be. There wasn’t a great deal of difference between the euro and the pound. Everyday items seemed to cost a fortune…even in the quite clearly cheap places.

We eventually Arrived in Rush a lovely wee place with the campsite clearly marked straight from the bus. The campsite was magic, right on the beach and the weather was gorgeous. Tent up we went exploring and quickly found out eating out could be a tad pricey. Lee had a wee camping stove this turned out to be our saviour.

Between this an disposable BBQs we didn’t eat out once (had a cheeky chinese take away)…brilliant. The weather for the whole trip was amazing. Got sunburnt but damn was it cold at night…to the point where I went to the local shops and got some cardboard boxes to sleep on. Even with 2 jumpers, 2 trousers, shorts, gloves and a hat on I could still feel the chill. The town of Rush has plenty of shops, take aways and pubs. We tried to stay away from them as much as possible as everything was so expensive. Most days we walked along the coast to the wee villages along the coast on our way up to a place called Skerries. here was had more shops and it turned out to be a bit cheaper for supplies. Also here we found Bobs family entertainment centre. proper old skool amusements where we played what my Auntie calls the penny pingers. Also here they had operation wolf, outrun and afterburner…very geeky…very exciting.

The last day we decided we should go into Dublin itself…we’ve come this far. To the guiness factory we went. A bus runs straight from rush into Dublin, takes about an hour but you could get an all day bus pass for 6 euro which was pretty good as it covered all of Dublin. The momment I arrived in Dublin I didn’t like it. Think I had got used to the idea of having a whole beach to myself. We walked to the guiness factory It was a good walk. We didn’t hang around Dublin we did the guiness tour and left straight away. The guiness Tour was good. I’m not a huge fan of guiness but the tour was well put together and they had a section on all the design and advertising.

Back to the campsite to pack up tent and swim in the sea of course…we said we were going to do it when we arrived….stuck to our word. The result was I was off work for nearly a week…the others were fine…I’m just weak. Can’t recommend that campsite enough. Great location, Friendly people nice showers etc. All good…Ireland…tick. I’d maybe wait until the euro vs pound situation was a bit better though.

Just back from Poland for this mans stag. Loved it. The destination. Krakow. I made a bit of an arse of ooking my flights, ended up having to go a day earlier than the other 16. Bumped into some randoms on the flight over who I shared a taxi with into town. Dropped my stuff at my no frills hotel then ran over the other side of town to join the others for what turned into a pretty big night out. Up nice and early grabbed my breakfast then hit the town to get some photos before the rowdy bunch arrived. Krakow is great. I’d been there before so knew my way about. This time round I took my big camera with my new lens. The weather was great got loads of good snaps. Everyone arrived and we got to see our apartment. It was huge…and they gave us a second one for nothing…as big. Friday night we headed for the square for drinks. I headed back relatively early as me legs couldn’t stand anymore.

Saturday up bright and early for our superhero paintball. Brillaint fun. Big high fives all round for outfit efforts. The weather again was amazing. After this we headed up the road a wee bit into the nowhere to a wee pub where the paintball guys had a bbq for us. A wee park all to ourselves where we all played volleyball…like real men. Back to apartment then out again where we all ventured off on various nights out. I opted for dancing. Was great fun. The pubs and clubs in krakow stay open as long as there is still someone in…dangerous. back to the apartment to play human buckeroo with anyone who had passed out…mostly saunders.

Sunday came round after a heavy night out the last thing you want is an early morning. I got up jumped in the shower only for literally minutes later all the water to go off. Look out the balcony, big digger scooping massive buckets of water out of the huge whole in the road opposite. no water, no toilet flushing…16 men…not ideal. They all headed off and I was left on my tod due to another flight mishap. Went back met the guys from the first night and got back on the brew, slept all the way back to Edinburgh before jumping on the last bus to Glasgow pulled home at 0145 to get up and go to work later. An amazing weekend some great banter, fun had by all…brilliant.

My word, I’ve been off all last week…ON HOLIDAY…That’s right, a proper holiday all week. destination…Skye. My folks headed off on the saturday but I had a work collegues wedding to attend. Leaving me in a not so ideal state for travelling in on the sunday. My folks had found a cottage in the north end of Skye in a place called Greshornish. The road up from Glasgow was awesome…helped greatly by the fact nic had the roof off to aid my now somewhat legendary hangover.

My folks took the dog which also made me very happy. As well as taking the dog my folks also took a weeks supply of food from no other than mchardys butcher stonehaven…anyone from Stonehaven will appreciate this. Just down from the cottage me and my dad found a massive waterfall. Bit of fly fishing…didn’t catch anything. As well as the cottage we had access to a wee fishing loch with a wee boat. Done a good few days fishing. Both fly and spinning…I nearly had one (honest guv) other than that…not a sausage.

All week we went round the Island was great fun. Didn’t realise it was so big. Also the weather seemed to change every 20 miles. Did alot of the big touristy site, dunvegan castle etc that was cool. And went to the reptile house held a snake…as you do. Highly recommend it. Be warned where we where had no reception and none of that nonsense that is the internet. I loved it. Back to work..,.only for a few days…off on a stagger on Thursday…whoop.

AWESOME weekend. Booked up a hotel and headed for the highlands. Got nic some walking boots and got a proper map of the surrounding area. Took monday and tuesday off work as nic had them off. All set. Got the bus up on saturday where we arrived at the hotel. I loved it. We went down and had a 3 course meal in the hotel. Lush. Sunday morning we got up bright and early had breakfast and went out with the map looking for adventure. There was an awesome amount of snow on the ground and hills. Some amazing views at the top of the golf course. Following the map…I quickly got us lost…HA it’s easy to follow the paths…until they’re burried under 1ft of snow. That’s my excuse and i’m sticking to it. We soon ended up stranded between deer fences…classic and had to go crossing streams. I loved it. Eventually we ended up in the back garden of this massive lodge…which was quite clearly private ground. Brilliant. Back into town where we stopped at the tipsy laird a pub in town where we had awesome soup and sandwiches.

Back to the hotel our chef had done a runner so went to a filthy fish & chip shop (happy days) where we sat in and ate more than we probably should. Back to hotel for pints and scrabble. Great stuff. Had too much fresh air I think. Only had the 1 pint and felt quite tipsy.

Monday up early again for breakfast…full scottish of course. Headed out to ruthven barracks an old fort about 1 mile and a bit outside kingussie. A nice walk but all the snow had gone. Then into town to do a cafe crawl and eat cakes and drink coffee. Pams cafe. great cake. Bus home and back to Glasgow just in time to get in and order a dimaggios for delivery. Great stuff. Now it’s tuesday a proper day off celebrated by doing very little. Got to experience day time tv…first thing on this morning, A midget fashion show…I might take next week off

Last minute weekend just passed. Been busy it’s taken me this long to get round to it. Loved it. Me, Macca and Jamie smith headed north after work on friday. destination…Aviemore. So much snow had fallen and Macca was itching to ski. I love the snow so needed no persuasion. On the we pulled into asda and purchased meat, beer and a tiny childs sledge…safety first. I took my xbox up (now fixed, woohoo) so friday we basically sat drank and played games while it continued to snow outside.

On saturday we all headed out with sledge for an adventure. I’ve never seen so much snow in Scotland…was awesome. We started off on a path which quickly disappeared, so just made the rest up as we went. Got some ace photos on the way…they’re all on flickr. It was here we came to rest to build a snowman. As you can see…snowmen are nowhere near as funny as a snow bobby.

Eventually we did end up in the middle of a builders yard stuck inbetween 8ft high fences…hilarious. Ended up in pub…well deserved cider…ahhhhhhh. Picked up all the skiing gear for following day. More games and beer. Helen shows up keen for skiing.

Sunday up bright and early…wasn’t even bright. Straight up to the cairngorms where it was a bit of a squeeze in the motor. Me and Jamie snowboarding…and the two ladies skiing. On the first train to the summit brilliant. Jamie smith never snowboarded before…I’m not far off but been a couple of times. Ran through the basics then discovered jamie smith was riding wrong foot forward…uh oh. Things got technical we had a screwdriver started taking things to bits…only for someone to walk past and show us the wee quick release handles that do the job we over complicated…ha. That was us. Straight down the slopes. Alot of high fiving. Big up Jamie Smith just biting the bullet. Day one…CONQUER THE MOUNTAIN. Was amazing fun, going to get back on the lessons I think but I LOVED IT. definately getting better. Still suffering a bit just now mind. muscles I never knew I had…but now I can hear them screaming. High five Macca for hosting…loved it.

Well It’s that time of year again when you go to more festivals than you can afford to go to only to discover they’re all actually the same. I tell lies this is the only one I went to this year. Connect, if you’ve never been before is brilliant fun. The bands this year where not as good as last years but you always get some great food and good banter. This year I went down on the saturday morning…macca took my tent down on the friday so I could travel a bit lighter. A nice wee camping village setup. Great crowd down with this year. Also some quality randoms dotted about including an Australian man named toby who looked like where’s wally. Highlights this year included sigur ros, elbow, goldfrapp and a we gem from the beardyman…a beat boxer from brighton…amazing stuff. Here’s a selection of photos which may help sum up the weekend. Great weekend so much funny stuff happened that I’m too tired to even try and remember.