27.09.07
Posted in Uncategorized at 10:36 pm by Sophie
Especially if they are largely unexpected …
On Sunday, R and I got on a bus to Inverary (rather nice place), then another bus to Oban (which is bloody huge - no one told me it was a metropolis!), where we lurked by a slipway and got picked up by Kingfisher, a free ferry which takes one over to the marina at Kerrera. There, we joined R’s friends, Richard and Helen, on Hornpipe, a lovely 40 foot yacht, and spent a brilliant few days, which included just about the best meal I’ve ever eaten. You see, the marina has a seafood restaurant. Well, it has a couple of tents … in which they serve alcohol and ply one with fresh seafood. Oysters cooked in garlic. Prawns the size of your head. Salmon, still flapping. Mussels with muscles. If I ever end up on death row, I want my last meal to be at the Waypoint on Kerrera. And on Wednesday, the gales having died down, there was also sailing. And when I say it was worth getting up at 6.00am, in the dark, on a cold morning, you may realise how dashed wonderful it was! We sailed from Oban down to Gigha in glorious sunshine, and I can only add a link to the photos to show you how beautiful it all was. I will do that, honestly …
I then had to leave Hornpipe and its doughty crew in order to come back here and do some work, which involved getting the ferry to Tayinloan, and then a bus back up to Inverary, and then another bus to Dunoon, and to be frank I still have jetlag, so the photos will be uploaded soon … Lordy, but that was the best few days ever.
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12.09.07
Posted in Uncategorized at 3:56 pm by Sophie
I saw a robin in the garden yesterday evening.
Unless it was a severely embarrassed sparrow.
Look, don’t ask me about nature stuff. There’s palm trees here, and I know that’s not right, not in Scotland.
If I hadn’t used all that hairspray in the early 80s in an attempt to keep my hair in a vaguely vertical position, we wouldn’t be having all this global warming. Sorry about that.
I’ll get back to you on the robin situation.
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10.09.07
Posted in Uncategorized at 4:12 pm by Sophie
R. just picked up his nice old copy of the collected works of Mister Burns, and it fell open at a poem called - and I am not making this up - “Cock Up Your Beaver”. I’ve had spam emails that were less rude!
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07.09.07
Posted in Uncategorized at 4:33 pm by Sophie
… off to the cinema the other night to see the Simpsons Movie (which is ace, as everyone else probably knows by now). I now know the rules at Dunoon’s two-screen cinema, which are (a) don’t arrive late, the film starts exactly when it’s supposed to and there are a lot fewer ads and trailers than one is expecting and (b) don’t arrive early, as then you’ll have to stand outside for a bit until Man With The Key comes to open up. In a flash, he then becomes Man Who Sells Tickets. How cool is that?!
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04.09.07
Posted in Uncategorized at 4:46 pm by Sophie
As you will see from S’s blog, Elvis the Omnivorous Cat has finally gone to the great takeaway in the sky. Can’t believe I won’t get the chance to tickle his overstuffed tummy ever again. He was an equable and friendly puss (even if he did occasionally try to steal ice-cream from small children), and I’m so glad we adopted him (sorry, that should read “allowed him to commandeer the kitchen, bed and sofa in an insouciant fashion”). Strange how those four-legged buggers steal your heart …
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03.09.07
Posted in Uncategorized at 4:56 pm by Sophie
Meant to blog about last week’s truly wonderful trip on the Waverley up through the Kyles of Bute (she’s the last seagoing paddle steamer in the world, you know) and the joy of breathing in the scents of the engine room, but never got around to it - anyhoo, here’s some photies to entertain the multitude and to prove that the sun does occasionally shine in Dunoon!
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