The week (and a bit) that was....

Yeah, so, I have been a bit slack with the ol' blogspot lately. I'd get used to it though if I were you. I mean, I did warn you that this would happen. I have just been too busy to keep posting regularly. Sorry! I keep I thinking "Bugger. I should really write a blog today. But its been days, weeks even, since I last posted, so much has happened, I've got so much to say, how will I start?!" And then I come to the sensible conclusion that the best thing to do is ignore it and hope it goes away. But then the guilty feeling comes back. And so consider yourselves lucky that I can't deal with guilt.

In brief then:

...dad's visit was a phenomenal success, the smiley-happiness of which was not even brought down by Scotland losing (again) in the rugby. The atmosphere was electric at the match, and we had The Best Seats Ever. My dad was so made up by the whole weekend, and we loved having him visit. There was lots of exploring and chatting and drinking and clippity-clopping around Doune Castle ..which Monty Python aficianados might recognise from Holy Grail "I-fart-in-your-general-direction" fame. But then, the weekend ended (Boo Hiss!), and he had to leave. And we missed him.




...but then we got Cathy, one of Sarah's mates from uni, as a replacement. That was fun too. We did stuff. Fun stuff. Important stuff even. We went to an ani-war demo in Glasgow. It marked two years to the day since the bombs started dropping on the thousands of innocent civillians in Iraq. I felt it was important to go along to show my digust for what our "benevolent" leaders have created. This young scally complete in tracksuit and dangly earings got up to give a talk. She turned out to be a 14 year old Maxine Gentle, and she gave a very moving speech. Maxine's older brother, Gordon, was a Black Watch soldier, who was killed at the age of just 19, by a roadside bomb in Basra. You might think, "Well, that's what the risks are of joining the army". I am sure his family would agree with you too ..IF his death had been for a noble cause and not because of an illegal war over oil ...or IF he had recieved more than a few month's basic training before being sent to the front line ...or IF in Pollok (the deprived part of Glasgow that he grew up in) there were more opportunities for young folk other than to sign on the dole or sign up to the armed forces.

Anyway, crashing on, there weren't too many people at the protest, and a disappointing number of students and young people. The majority of the crowd was made up of OAPs (complete with improvised drums, bongos and bizarre instruments involving pipes and tubing) and families with young children. They certainly put my "enlightened", "outspoken" generation to shame. But I found it quite encouraging that the little kids (and little old ladies for that matter) were enjoying singing and chanting with such vigour and enthusiasm, particularly a little nursery rhyme to the tune of 'This Old Man':

#Tony Blair,
you are scum,
you took money off my mum,
and you spent it on your bloody war,
we don't want you anymore.#

Ah! Bless!

...In 160 minutes of pint-spillingly-exciting rugby: Wales won the 6 Nations championship. France didn't. *coughs* HA HA! *coughs* And Scotland were beaten (yet again) by England. I came over a bit Daffydd Thomas for the day, and was genuinely pleased for the boyos. And hey, at least they now include Italy in the contest, so Scotland didn't come at the very bottom of the table overall. Just second to last. Quite amusingly, Wales now ranks above England in the world rankings *sniggers*

...We also went for a jolly around the bonnie banks of Loch Lomond. On the way there we passed by the lesser-known-yet-in-my-opinion-equally-bonnie banks of Loch Arklet. Look! Aren't they bonnie?



...Finally, I have just spent the last two days out in the woods of Morangie Forest. Which was very interesting, but is the reason why I am not really writing much coherent sense, or anything remotely interesting, because I am very, very tired now. I didn't see any pine martens yet, but I was ambushed by a female capercaillie. Now I know that they employ guerilla tactics I shall be on my guard from now on.