Weekend away with Carmen Miranda

Pineapple head

Fiona and I got back from a weekend away in Stirling last night.

It wa a rare alignment - both Ayrshire and my work choose the same long weekend, and Ciaran was at his mum's so we were able to get away Saturday morning.

Almost didn't though. We booked a castle from LateRooms but some sort of screw up meant the hotel didn't accept the booking (I'm still arguing) but we did finally manage to book somewhere else and despite my head cold we headed off.

The weather on Saturday was lovely so we headed up to the Wallace monument in Stirling.
The views from the top were breathtaking, especially since it was clear - though there was an unusual yellow object in the sky.

Dinner was at The Hollybank. The food and service was great. Fiona even managed to compete a massive dessert.

Sunday was a bit more overcast so we headed off to Culross, pronounced Cure-oss, (why? I don't know). On the way we passed The Pineapple. This is one of those weird things that rich people liked to spend their money on - a building shaped like a pineapple. It set the tone for the day.

Culross was a centre of industry 400 and 500 years ago, exporting coal, salt and iron griddles. During the good times there was a lot of investment by the main merchant and he managed to build himself a nice house. In looking after his interests the town prospered.  Over the next 200 years it fell on hard times when the mines flooded and their other industries couldn't compete. The final straw was the Americans rebelling and not buying their shoes (or English tea, but thats another story) anymore.  Basically since 1780 the town has been static - the original buildings and roads were kept and the town existed in a time warp. In the 1930's the National trust started buying buildings and by the start of WW2 the trust owned over 20 properties and over the next 30 years acquired more. This has saved many of these building from demolition.

Now the village is still as it was in the late 18th century - narrow cobbled streets, but since these are leased out, there are cars and electricity. The electrical substation is in one of the original houses.

There are odd contrasts between old and new - the Palace looks out over where the salt pans were and across the Forth towards the Grangemouth refinery. Houses with lintels dated with 1669 have wheelie bins parked outside.
At first it seems a shame but then you realise that there always was industry. The salt pans worked by burning cheap coal and boiling the sea water off, so clouds of steam and smoke see appropriate.

Sadly my cold was getting worse. After the nice dinner the night before we tried another restaurant, Brea,this one recommended by a friend of Fiona. Unfortunately I could not taste anything at all so I couldn't really appreciate it.

Monday morning was a bit of a rush. Our plan to be at breakfast early was foiled by the alarm not going off, so in  a bit of a panic we headed for breakfast just after 0930 to find no food left. It seems that, even if the alarm did go off as planned, we would have missed breakfast as it finished at 0900. Kindly they did cook us something.

After checking out we headed over to the Battle of Bannockburn site which was literally next door to the hotel. They are currently in the process of rebuilding in preparation for the 700th anniversary of the battle. This means the visitor centre has been demolished, a new building is currently being finished, the site is a building site, and there is only a portacabin where they are trialing the new branded merchandise.

I asked the National Trust staff where the battle site actually was and was surprised by her answer of "Not sure. No one actually knows".
It totally deflated my plans for a photo captioned "On this site, 700 years ago, nothing much happened. But over there..."
She went on to explain that their 'offical' site would have been a staging area, and may have seen fighting, but there has been a lack of artifacts. But artifacts have been found in the entire area. There are theories which include that the local school sits on the battlefield. I guess the serfs didn't care too much about history when life was so difficult. The redevelopment included a lot of archeology, including finding a neolithic fire pit, which was a disappointment as it didn't tie with the battle.There are a lot of plans to get the community digging.

As it was raining we decided not to walk out to the site and headed to the car to consult the guide books. Alloa Tower is nearby and indoors so that was our target. When we got to Alloa, parked and walked to the tower we found that closer inspection of the guide book would have shown that it didn't open until 1300. With 90 minutes to kill we did some shopping and tea drinking before heading back to see this oddly placed tower.

This is another legacy of medieval money, but unlike Culross time has not stood still. It sits in the middle of the village, with a Tesco occupying the site of the original stables. (long association with horsemeat). Again, fantastic staff with great knowledge and interesting anecdotes. We finished our tour on the ramparts where the rain came on again.

Then it was back home, a trip to the cinema to finish the weekend.

Good food, good times, and good company.

Karma and Just bloody Typical

We decided to go out for a walk yesterday to Millport. This was after deciding that the effort of transporting the three of us with bikes all the way wasn't worth the time. After alternative cycles were rejected we all agreed on a walk around Millport.

On our way there is a short stretch of the A78 where it goes into 3 lanes each way (obviously a very successful local politician when the road was being built) to allow for the volumes (?) of traffic. This is implemented by the slip road simply not merging. It continues alongside for the mile or so and then becomes the off slip at the next junction. Most people who are not coming off and know the road do not move into this lane as they know they have to come back out.
Fiona knows the road and was driving down what became the temporary middle lane at about 70mph when she commented on the idiot coming up the inside. This twat was doing over 80mph, one hand behind his head, to show how in control he was, and undertook us. Once he got a few car lengths ahead of us we could see smoke coming form his rear wheel arch. By the time the smell of burning rubber invaded the car he had slowed to about our speed and we could see the tyre was flat. Of course, since there is a special filter lane, there is no hard shoulder so he had to continue, which he did at about 60mph, until a lay by when he did pull over. By that time the smug grin was gone, and the female passenger looked less than impressed. Schadenfreude.

Since I have now convinced Fiona to install the MapMyRun app onto her phone so she can track her 10km training (no giggling) we both powered up before heading out.

It was a really peaceful walk. Millport (or rather Cumbrae) is really good for walking and cycling as there is little traffic and few hills (none if you keep to the coast) Since you have to leave by ferry, it is convenient to lap from the ferry terminal, with a lap almost exactly 10 miles.
I have never walked there before, having only cycled before. Its amazing what else you get to see and hear form the different perspective.

Now, since I hadn't expected to be out walking my phone wasn't fully charged and the app draws a lot of power. When pausing for a rest I noticed I was into the yellow and was concerned that the charge wouldn't last the full lap. Thus started the final charge to the ferry. I was literally within sight of the ferry (which was gone, but we never thought we would get it anyway) when the phone beep a low power warning. As that last little bit wasn't going to affect anything I decided to shut down the app to save the workout. Sadly the act of the phone coming out of sleep and presumably trying to re-sync killed the battery. Bloody typical but at least Fiona's is still running ad I may be able to recover the files when I get home.

All in all we were impressed with our walk. We started at 1330 and were waiting for the ferry by 1710. We stopped for for a breather on the route, and ice cream in Millport, and a drink in Fintry Bay (at 1605 - the tea room was closed at 1600). The walking took 3 hours exactly.

We got the next ferry, made it home and I started the phone charging. After dinner I decided to see if anything as salvageable. To my surprise when I opened up the app it had the route paused and asked if I wanted to resume, cancel or save. I quickly chose save and let it upload. It was only then that I realised that I had been allocated the journey home as a single step.
So the first 3 hours of our walk covered 10 miles at an average pace of 3.3 mph. In the next 2 hours I did another 20 miles, direct from the ferry terminal to the house, at a fast jog pace of 10 mph

Unusual Sight

I've always liked airplanes and helicopters so living near Prestwick airport and the connected HMS Gannet Search and Rescue means that there are often interesting aircraft around.

Just last week we had a military Dauphin and Merlin helicopters and over the years I have seen some pretty unusual planes.


I have seen Hercules, TriStars and a Gulfstream that does not exist. We have seen Tornadoes and Hornets and Chinooks. I've seen the Police EC135, a Lynx, a Boeing E3 Sentry.

These are just what I see when I'm not in the office!




I have a bad phone photo taken while driving past Prestwick of the world's largest airplane, the Antonov AN-225.

When that one takes off you can feel it in your chest. It has 6 engines! One year it took off during the Loans Gala - the entire place stopped to look.

I've also seen the next largest plane, the AN-124. This was a regular visitor to Prestwick but I haven't seen it recently.






On Tuesday we had another rare visitor - one of the 4 remaining Vickers VC10s.

These planes are used for inflight refueling and are due to be retired by the end of the year.

Not sure what he was actually doing, but he was pulling some tight curves over the house.

New Wheels

I am now almost 2 weeks into my new car. The garage made an offer I couldn't refuse.

I wasn't really looking for a new car, but was thinking of changing. I had received a voice message from the garage on the day the BBC reported an air bag recall on some Japanese cars. With no details other than to contact the garage 'as soon as I can' I feared the worst. If there was nothing to worry about then that's what the message would have been, right?

I returned their call only to be informed it was a prospecting call as they had some great deals. Wary of deals only available for a short time I asked if I could come in the following week, 10 days later and an appointment was made.

Ciaran and I then headed into the garage and had a look-see. After the test drive I was impressed. I had been told it was the same sized engine and felt it had a lot more oomph but when we got back we realised it was the larger sized engine. The only one with my engine size on the lot was already sold so I couldn't test that one.

Then the paperwork starts and the prices looked really good, but still more than I was paying for my current car. It was pointed out that it wasn't much more a month but I countered with the fact that over the year it would add up to 2 extra months. I said I would need to think about it and could I take the paperwork away with me.

Then the hard sell started, but he was upfront - he said that if I walked away then he hadn't managed to make the sale so he would check what else could be offered.

After some time, and a test drive of the sold car, we finally agreed on a price which was what I was already paying, a down payment of less than 1 month's payment, no first payment for a month and 2 years free servicing. In effect I was able to replace my car 3.5 years old car with over 48 thousand on the clock with a brand new upgrade for essentially less in 1 month. I save on my servicing and MOT and since it was pre-registered I can also claim back my tax disc. A real no brainer.

So what do I think of it? Its always nice to have something new, especially new for old. Also since my spin in Feb 2011 I was uneasy in the car. Won't know how that goes until the winter so watch this space. At least this new car doesn't have the scratches from that any more. Its got a smaller tank but seems to get the same mileage but its too early to know about that yet. This is a 5 door but the three of haven't had cause to use them yet.
The white colour may mean washing it more often (more often than never anyway). I also no longer have alloy wheels but that's no hardship.

April's Report

As I feared, April was not a good month on the overall campaign to lessen myself.

Don't really know what happened to my weight, apart from it not reducing!
There are a few pointers - Dublin meant more eating and less care, other issues meant less weekend sports but I am a bit disillusioned with it.
There is the notion that lean muscle weighs more than fat, though takes up less volume. That may account for it but not the steep angle change during April - I don't think the muscle appears overnight!
It could be the Easter debris - the end of Lent, the availability of eggs etc. I need to keep an eye on it as my trend line has now crossed my target line. I'm now not expected to hit my target weight until next March. Thats ot bad, but I would have liked to hit it on time. I will have to be stricter. Hopefully with the longer evenings there will be more opportunity to get out and about.

Fitness wise I'm on an upper. There is definitely an improvement. My times for my lunchtime cycle are dropping, both on individual cycles and on the monthly averages. With what has been going on, I actually managed more of my lunchtime cycles but only 1 weekend cycle. Those 16 workouts though are a bit of a hack. One trip has been counted as 3 separate workouts, so the real total is only 14.  But still, 25 more km in about the same total time. Something is looking better.

I certainly feel better. Since the start of May I have increased what I do at the gym as part fo the jump start. May will need to be better otherwise I'm not sure what the next step will need to be.