Part of the Weekend Never Dies

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OK, 6 months since I last did an entry in this blog. It’s time I updated it with a few pictures from the last wee while.

 

I have been spending a lot of my time offshore, but at the time of writing I am sitting at pretty much exactly 50% of 2009 on oil rigs. Lately it has been the super-drillship Stena Carron, with a couple of visits to the Scott Platform and one to the Alba Platform.

 

The first highlight of my year was going to dinner at Boath House, I drove up straight off the helicopter from Scott. It is the latest place in Scotland to get a Michelin Star, offering a taster menu with all sorts of sorbets, foams and contrasting tastes. It was very, very good, I highly recommend a visit there if you are in the Inverness area.

 

 

I drove back to Aberdeen the next day via Grantown on Spey which was a perfect beginning to that period of time off. There was still snow around and I got a chance to play in it.

 

 

 

 

 

Soon after that I was invited down to Edinburgh for some karting for Mike’s birthday. Greig and I managed to get lost in Edinburgh on the way home, but we climbed Craigmore in The Trossachs after; I got some good pics from the top:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Later that week Tom and I were at a loose end, so we took a drive to the West Coast.We took the road up to Inverness and out towards Ullapool. We then took the loop through Gairloch and Ardnamurichan then down to Aviemore. There was lots of snow in some areas, and despite the misty weather the scenery was stunning.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After a night in Aviemore we went skiing on Cairngorm. The snow was apparently the best in years and years. This was combined with beautiful weather while we were there, it was the best day’s skiing I’ve had yet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

After that period of time off I spent a lot of time aboard the Stena Carron.

 

 

 

I was there for much of February, March and April. By the end of April I had spent 8 of the previous 10 weeks onboard. Between the first and second trips I went up to Inverness and played on the boat Jim had just got, he has branched out into surveying harbours and coastal locations. After some time out at sea we got our Indian takeaway before a night out in Inverness. It was the usual banter in Love2Love, I do like a night out in Inverness.

 

 

 

Later that week I took a trip down to Glasgow (via the Duke’s Pass in The Trossachs – ace road) to see dad at the Scott Hot show at the SECC. The next day Tom and I got to Octopussy, where the hot tub on the dance floor was back. We stayed in the Athol Hotel and I came back to Aberdeen the next day.

 

Between the second and third trips during this time I flew straight down to London to see dad at the Best of Britain and Ireland show at Excel. It was a lot of fun helping out at the Seafood Trail stand, I was taking orders and helping to promote the food of the West Coast. After that I hung around in Glasgow until it was time for Octopussy, in which time I manged to meet up with Joe in his brand new Lotus:

 

 

 

 

I then went down to Carradale and chilled. On the way back  to Aberdeen for my chopper back to the Carron I stopped in Carrick Castle to do some offroading. Graham and Gavin had bought an old Range Rover to drive to Turkmenistan. We had a morning of playing around in the mud. The V8 still sounded fantastic despite how battered the car looks. Our play was stopped by a leaking fuel pipe, but I got some good pictures of us getting it very dirty before hand:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I then went offshore for another bumper trip to the Stena Carron. On my return Beth and I took a drive down to An Lochan’s place near Gleneagles which is highly recommended. We took the route via Glenshee through Blairgowrie and Crieff, coming back up the Coastal route through Dundee.

 

I spent a couple of days in Aberdeen before visiting the parents in Edinburgh. I went to the ‘Turner in Italy’ exhibition on Prince’s Street before dinner at Rod and Lindsay’s place. I stayed the night in Paisley before an early start to meet Pete at Glenshee. We climbed Glas Moal with Pete’s dog Nell who runs rings around us the whole time we’re doing the mountain. The mountain was a good one, the weather was kind to us. We could see a huge heard of deer in the valley below as we descended, it was amazing how they appeared to flow as there were so many of them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And on the way back we stopped off at The Vat:

 

 

That night, back in Aberdeen, I managed to convince Pete to come out for a couple of beers. He wasn’t very keen but came out on the condition that if we weren’t speaking to girls by 9:30, we would go straight home. We hit a couple of bars in town but nothing was happening, so we decided to head for home. On the way back, however, we were passing a relatively new place called Sin. Pete suggested we pop in for a couple to see what it was like. What greeted us were three stunning barmaids in an otherwise empty place. We sat down for a drink and Pete had soon engaged the girls in conversation. They accepted our offer of a drink and were soon having shot for shot with us. The place began to fill up and by midnight was packed. We spent the night at the bar speaking to the barmaids and having banter with the other folk there. It all ended in a haze, I don’t remember losing Pete but we both woke up in our flats the next morning wondering what had happened the night before.

 

We met up for a good ol’ breakfast at the Sand Dollar on the beach. We decided we had to see there barmaids again but didn’t want to come across as loosers too much, so instead of returning to the bar that night we elected to wait until the following Wednesday. We took a trip out to Westhill to walk the dog and I met up with Beth for a couple of drinks later on.

 

The next morning I drove out to meet Pete in Westhill, we were heading over to Glencoe to meet up with Greig and Eddie as were going to do the Aonach Eagach ridge together. After a lunch in Aviemore we were in Glencoe well before the guys, found our crib for the night and waited for them to arrive. When they finally did (they had to work that day) we popped round to Clachaig Inn for dinner and a few pints.

 

It wasn’t too early a start, but when we arrived at the base of the first hill it was a pretty steep climb up, but once we were up we were up, and we stayed up on the ridge between Am Bodach and Stob Coire Leitch. The ridge itself was a lot harder than we expected. Some parts were pretty knife-edge, and in others the safest way to go was not always clear. The scenery was incredible, dramatic and exposed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back in Fort William we found our hostel and in our usual style hit the drinks far, far too hard before we had even eaten (more than one sambuca on an empty stomach is not recommended). Fort Bill always promises a good night out and this one did deliver. We visited the usual places, but the Saturday night disco is currently in Ossians Hotel in the main street. We were all dancing away to some random tunes, and I was encouraged when a remix of the Soulwax version of Justice’s immense tune Phantom Pt II was played! None of us got any sleep that night.

 

The next morning it was off to McDonalds for a hungover breakfast. Glasgow was calling Greig and Eddie, but Pete and I had nowhere to be. We decided it would be the perfect hangover cure to head to the Peanmeanach Bothy which lies between Fort William and Mallaig right on the coast. It is a fantastic spot, and only an hour and a half walk from the road. It was the ideal place to chill. We were there for around 4 hours by ourselves before we were joined by a guy with his three kids. He turns out to be very good chat and we stay up well into the night. Waking up in a bothy when you have no where to be is a great feeling, We got the fire going and soon had breakfast on the go. We collected firewood, cleaned the place, and set off back to the car, and on to Aberdeen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I spent the following day in Aberdeen. I met Beth and Andy for lunch in Dyce, taking Andy back to town with me where we bought lots of ingredients for a great meal back at Beths where we were joined by her and James. We were soon in the Braided Fig and then in Espionage the nighclub.

 

The next morning I was walking into town to pick up my car when Pete called, he was in town anyway and picked me up, where we drove straight to pick up Tom who’s chopper had just come in. We met Andy at TGI’s on the beach, where we ate far too much. Tom, Pete and I organized a canoe trip for the next day, where we would spend a couple of days on the River Spey. Then that was the night we returned to Sin to see our barmaids. We had built it up in our heads over the previous week, but they weren’t working that night, and we found out they were all attached anyways…

 

Tom stayed on my sofa that night, and an early start followed as we had to be in Laggan to meet JC, who regular readers of this blog would recognise. He is the guide we use for a lot of our stuff, and he was going to take us down the Spey as far as Aviemore. We packed all our gear into the canoes at Laggan and set off. It wasn’t long before Pete fell in, luckily not taking me with him. There was a little porterage (bits one has to carry the canoe over) at the beginning, but it was soon into the open waters. We camped at Loch Inch after canoeing 22 miles. We had experienced some rapids which Pete and I, who were sharing a canoe, managed to get the hang of after a while. Much of it was fairly calm, with so many drowned animals we began to know it as The River of Death. It was very wet and windy, but camping is always fun anyway. The second day was quite a bit shorter; we got to Aviemore in good time where we were staying in a hostel.

 

 

 

Sorry to say but the usual story follows; we hit it pretty hard in Aviemore that night. A good meal in Café Mamba and as big a pub crawl Aviemore can offer. We were soon back to Café Mamba where a live band had set up who we watched for a while before hitting The Vault night club. Tom, being the more sensible among us, retired to the hostel long before Pete and I did. I remained on the dance floor in my new bright yellow puffa jacket for some time, while Pete was at the bar downing shots.

 

We were feeling rough the next morning, and bid farewell to Tom who got the train to Aberdeen in time for his flight down to London. Pete and I chilled in Café Mamba with lots of food for a while, until we got restless and decided to check out the Wildlife Park at Kingussie. Pete was sick out of the car half way round the safari, but we got to see monkeys, a tiger, wolves, bison and wild boar.

 

 

 

 

 

We parted back in Avimore, Pete back to Aberdeen, but I was heading up to Inverness for another Saturday night out. Jim and I start to have a barbecue but it begins to rain. We decide to order a curry instead, and are soon in town and meet Andrew. Another great night in Love2Love followed.

 

The next morning we have a barbecue for breakfast:

 

 

I then made my way down to Glasgow, I was meeting up with Adam and his girlfriend Jen for dinner. I hang out with the siblings in Dennistoun after before returning to Paisley for bed. The next day I chilled in Glasgow, lunch with Greig, coffee with Muriel, smoothies with Diain and Emma, dinner with the family in Red Chilies on Renfield Street (highly recommended). I drove back up to Aberdeen that night, having dinner with Beth, Andy and Tyler the following night – toad in the hole! The next couple of days were spend in Aberdeen, including a drive out the SDR with Andy, a couple of nights out, meeting up with Marj a couple of times, a visit to granny and a visit the office. I was soon back on the Stena Carron for a 3 week trip.

 

When I returned I pretty much went straight to Carradale from the heliport, stopping for dinner in Callendar with Greig and Sylvia on the way. My visit to Carradale was pretty much purely spent building an observatory for dad. This was to accommodate the huge telescope he and mum had recently purchased, which currently they have to drag out of the house whenever they want to use it. This is a less than ideal setup which us kids elected to rectify with dad’s birthday present, an observatory. It was to be built from a normal B&Q shed, modified to our specifications in the back garden.

 

The first job was to dig a 4’ radius hole, which was filled with concrete:

 

 

 

We allowed this to set while we built the shed, modifying one end so that it hinged:

 

 

 

 

I went ahead and drilled the holes for, and nailed in, 99 casters so that the observatory could spin on its axis:

 

 

 

 

Here is Diain in the observatory once we had placed it on its axle, we had to modify the roof a lot so that we could hinge it at the sides.

 

 

 

 

I wasn’t long in Carradale before taking the drive up to Inverness for Rock Ness. I camped with Tich and his girlfriend Cat. I saw the Flaming Lips on the Friday night, Pete Tong and Busy P while hanging with Jim all day Saturday, and was at the front for Soulwax on the Sunday.

 

 

 

I stopped in Nairn on my way home for a much needed shower. I was to be in the office the following week but was taken to go off to the Scott Platform for a few days.

 

When I returned from the Scott I gave Andy a call – they were just heading out to Strathisla distillery for a visit. I joined them, we did the tour after lunch in Huntley. After the distillery tour we picked a point on the map. We chose Cruden Bay, it had a great beach:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After a few days in Aberdeen, an everning waterskiing and a day at Nick Nairn’s cookery school followed.

 

Graham and Greig on the speedboat on Loch Goil for the waterskiing:

 

 

 

It was time for Greig’s stag weekend. We went to Perthshire Offroad Centre for some fun in Land Rovers, Quads, an 8×8 ATV and a reverse-steer Discovery. After this we all drove up to Inverness for a huge barbecue at Jim’s before a night out in Inverness. We then had a few hour’s paintballing after as a hangover cure.

 

Pics of the offroading:

And finally:

And that’s about it. Some random pics: