Cow Hill-abunga, Dudes

In the afternoon after we got to Fort William I decided to leave everyone else to get on with cooking tea and go for a run as part of my training for the Aviemore Half Marathon (despite my good intentions, this turned out to be the last run I managed to do for a whole week which is a bit of a set back but shouldn't be a major problem). I decided to follow the track up Cow Hill which sits between the town and Ben/Glen Nevis. It's a tough wee hill for a run but it felt good after being stuck in the car for so long.
The next day, we decided to all go up to the top and see the views which were pretty good although partially obscured by low cloud. Unfortunately, it was a last minute sort of thing and we didn't take any bribes for the kids, so they moaned a lot - even lots of splashy puddles didn't cheer them up that much.
Anyway, here are the photos - some of them are from my run and some from the walk. The smaller ones are from my phone so the quality's a bit iffy.

Another Holiday In The Highlands

Fear not - this blog has not been hit by a general malaise and neither have its authors been abducted by aliens. In fact, we've been away gathering new material for the blog or, in other words, having a holiday. For the last two years we've stayed in Scotland and been relatively lucky with the weather. Last week we were in Fort William (at this house which is here) and our luck ran out; it rained every day except two and was generally dreich for most of the time. We still had a lot of fun and took full advantage of the few spells of nice weather. I'll add more details and photos later but for now please enjoy the views from Dalaraban House:

The picture above is our view of Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in Scotland. Most of the time, it was shrouded in (or completely obscured by) cloud so this was a rare glimpse of the summit.

This autostitch panorama shows the view looking over Loch Linnhe. The hill on the left is Meall an t-Slamain. The towns of Corpach and Caol occupy the centre and Cow Hill is the one on the far right with the communications mast.

One for the ladies

My dear husband bought me a present last week which may be of use especially since he insists on dragging me up hills every weekend. It's a SheWee. I've got to say I do recommend it! I've tried it while in the shower, and I know I should try it with clothes on but I can't bring myself to do that yet. It will come in handy up Ben Nevis I'm sure since I can't keep it in for 7 hours like I did before now that Shanks #3 is getting bigger. Everything is going well so far with the pregnancy and the bump is surprisingly small so far. People keep saying it must be a girl because of this. I think it's more likely that I'm smaller because I started from a size 10 rather than a 14, it does make a difference! It's bound to be a boy. So now I'm going on our first holiday with my parents, sister, her boyf, (and Iain & the boys of course) without the aid of alcohol. Wish me luck...

Who needs campsites?

Another fun weekend. I'd mentioned camping to the boys which they thought was a great idea (Father Of The Year Points: +1) but I didn't fancy a long drive or going to the effort of finding a campsite (FOTY -1). So I said we could camp in the back garden on Friday night (FOTY +1) which also meant no car sickness, not forgetting anything and no cold toilet blocks (FOTY +1). We even managed to have hot chocolate cooked on the stove (FOTY +1) and persuaded mummy to come out and join us (after Big Brother). It was all good fun but Calum woke us all up at half past one to go to the toilet (Husband of the Year -10).

Saturday was a fairly lazy day (after an early morning run). We went for a wee walk down the town to get the boys some school shoes (Calum's first ever pair) and a school bag for Calum. After much mucking about, they both ended up getting Clarks shoes with toy cars hidden under the insole (no, I didn't really believe it either but check it out here if you're interested).

Today, we were down at Mugdock Country Park near Glasgow for the Albinism Fellowship barbecue. Calum was car sick about five minutes before we got to the car park but it was a nice day out for all.

Stonehaven in Sunshine Shocker

Yesterday evening, it was nice and sunny so we decided to take a wee stroll down to the harbour. I thought it would be a nice idea so that the boys could have an ice cream and a play in the sand.....

...Vikki could get a bit of sunshine....

...and I could enjoy a little (ahem) fresh air! Very refreshing.

Spot the Mistakes

Vikki reckons I shouldn't bother but this has been annoying me for a while and I feel I need to get it out. Across the road from my office there's a fairly nice wee sandwich place. Every day, I pass this place and I see the sign in the window which reads:

Fresh Ground Coffee's

To

Take-Away

My attention was grabbed by one error in the sign straight away and since then I've decided there are at least two more. It shouldn't bother me, but it does. Or at least it has been bothering me but my mind will now be purged by the power of the blob.

The Sun Has Got His Hat On

Today, in Stonehaven, it was a warm sunny day (honest). I was running at 7:30am (honest) with some of the jogScotland folk which was a good start to the day. Since the weather was nice, we decided to go to the outdoor pool, despite Calum's protestations. As it turned out, we all enjoyed ourselves so much we had lunch at the cafe there and stayed for a few hours. Lachlan absolutely loved it and wants to go back as soon as possible.
Afterwards, we softened the blow of having to go to the supermarket with some really nice ice creams.
There's a good chance we all got a bit too much sun, but it's easy to get carried away after several weeks of crap weather.