Friday 24 December 2010

Wednesday 22 December 2010

Wednesday 15 December 2010

"Sex by surprise"

The international manhunt for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in a sex-crime investigation in Sweden apparently stems from a condom malfunction.
Assange's London attorney, Mark Stephens, told AOL News today that Swedish prosecutors told him that Assange is wanted not for allegations of rape, as previously reported, but for something called "sex by surprise," which he said involves a fine of 5,000 kronor or about $715.


Assange is the subject of an international manhunt, as a result of Interpol issuing a "red notice," a warrant indicating the person should be arrested with a view to extradition.

"We don't even know what 'sex by surprise' even means, and they haven't told us," Stephens said, just hours after Sweden's Supreme Court rejected Assange's bid to prevent an arrest order from being issued against him on allegations of sex crimes.
"Whatever 'sex by surprise' is, it's only a offense in Sweden -- not in the U.K. or the U.S. or even Ibiza," Stephens said. "I feel as if I'm in a surreal Swedish movie being threatened by bizarre trolls. The prosecutor has not asked to see Julian, never asked to interview him, and he hasn't been charged with anything. He's been told he's wanted for questioning, but he doesn't know the nature of the allegations against him."

(Taken from AOL news)


"Sex by surprise"?...............what's all that about?

Monday 13 December 2010

Sunday 12 December 2010

Hallelujah!

I just loved this.

Friday 10 December 2010

Photohunt - Funny

I have known my good friend Fiona (with me in this picture) for over 30 years.
We are renowned for finding things funny that no one else does!
I have no idea what we were laughing at here :-D

Monday 6 December 2010

Saturday 4 December 2010

Thursday 2 December 2010

Decisions......

I'm suposed to be working in Stirling again this weekend............ :-/

Wednesday 1 December 2010

Winter wonderland

I battled into work today.
It was a good opportunity to take some pictures :-)

Tuesday 30 November 2010

Snow much fun.......

I was working again last weekend.
It went like this -
drove to Stirling Friday evening, weather fine...
woke up Saturday morning, snow......
worked all day Saturday, more snow......
woke up Sunday morning, more snow.....
left Stirling 12.10pm Sunday, had to be pushed out of hotel car park in thick snow, roads horrendous......
got to Dunblane (about 8 miles up the A9), roads even worse......
police closed A9 and diverted all cars into Dunblane 1.20pm.......
managed to slither car into shopping centre car park in Dunblane 1.30pm.....
to Dunblane station to wait for 2.17pm train to Perth......
more than an hour on freezing platform in the snow......
shoehorned onto VERY packed train 3.20pm......
Perth station 4.18pm....
walk half mile home in a foot of snow.......!!!!!!

P.S. finally returned to Dunblane this morning to dig car out and crawl along snowy road home...phew :-)
P.P.S. still a foot of snow all over and it's snowing again.

Tuesday 23 November 2010

Thursday 11 November 2010

Adversity

The friend in my adversity I shall always cherish most. I can better trust those who helped to relieve the gloom of my dark hours than those who are so ready to enjoy with me the sunshine of my prosperity.


Ulysses S Grant

Friday 5 November 2010

Photohunt - Alive

Our resident hen blackbird was feeding two chicks in my garden for most of this summer, then for several days I didn't see either of them, although she was still around. Finally on a sunny morning I spotted her feeding one of them on the grass.

Unfortunately I didn't see the other one again, but at least this one survived.

Monday 1 November 2010

Autumn in Perth

Yesterday was my first day off in two weeks.
After a long lie (well by my standards anyway) we headed off to the park for a run (5km in 26 mins, not great, but not bad either) and then a wander round to take some piccies in the beautiful autumn sunshine.
It reminded me what a lovely town I live in :-)


Friday 22 October 2010

Photohunt - Orange

Maybe someone can tell me what this lovely orange flower is?
The picture was taken on Alcatraz island.


Love in a coffee cup!

Saturday 16 October 2010

Glas Maol and Creag Leacach

A late start (!) but still managed 2 munros today....

Photohunt - miniature

A bit of a cheat this week!
I've posted this picture of Goatfell across Brodick bay on the Island of Arran, the reason being that Arran is sometimes referred to as "Scotland in miniature" :-)

Thursday 14 October 2010

I wonder.......

The kids are off to their dad's for the weekend, and the weather forecast looks good for Saturday.
Where should we go?
Up another hill?
A coastal walk for a change?
Hmmmmm........................?

Tuesday 12 October 2010

Ben Chonzie revisited

We set off today in cold grey cloud, and burst into beautiful sunshine at around 2000ft.
A lovely day out.




Monday 11 October 2010

How did that happen?

The BF and I have been together for 3 years!
That wasn't the plan.
Let me explain. We met a few months after my 17 year marriage had ended. I was persuaded to go on a date with him. I was dubious. I didn't want to leap into another relationship (and neither, as it turned out, did he). But we went out, we had fun, we laughed a lot (something that had been missing in both of our lives for quite a while), and we carried on going out, having fun, and laughing. He met my boys and I met his daughter and his mum. We all got on. We started spending more time together and going on holidays......and so it went on.
And three years later, here we are!
What was supposed to be "just a bit of fun" has turned into "a relationship".
We both still have our own space. We spend more time apart than together. But it seems to work.
I have had so much fun in the last 3 years.....I think I might stick with him a while longer............;-)

Friday 8 October 2010

Photohunt - stripes

I haven't posted much recently, but this was an easy one :-)

My eldest son playing rugby in the black and white stripes of Perthshire rugby club.

Friday 1 October 2010

The circle of life.

Apologies to Sir Elton, but I had to steal his lyrics for the title.
The reason is, that on Wednesday afternoon I went to Dundee University open day with No.1 P&J, almost exactly 31 years since I started my degree there!


He is interested in a completely different subjects to the ones I studied, but as it is such a compact University, we passed many of the places I used to frequent in my youth.
Much has changed, however. The halls of residence I stayed in when I was in first year are now offices, there are swish new buildings with state of the art facilities, and the lecturing staff seem so much more human (or is it just that I am 31 years older?).

He fancies a joint honours degree in History and American Studies, and I must say it sounded great, including the option of a semester in the US in the 3rd year.
I wonder if they take (very) mature students...............................

Tuesday 28 September 2010

An audience with a rottweiler.

After months of frustration with my solicitor (male, pompous, overweight and coasting to retirement), I have taken the plunge and moved to a new one (young, petite, female, Glaswegian and scary as hell!).
I spent 90 minutes with her this afternoon (that's £225 worth by the way) and left with a completely different impression of my position.
Now that I have a rottweiler on my side maybe things will look up............

Friday 24 September 2010

Photohunt - natural (curls!)

I haven't posted a photohunt for a couple of weeks, mainly because I've been so busy.
I had to rack my brains to come up with something for this week, but I like these less obvious themes :-)

I decided to go for this picture of my teenage sons because their expressions are very natural and it shows the younger one's beautiful natural curls!

A Grand Day Out

Last Friday, on my first day off after working 11 days on the trot, I had a day out with an old pal.
We met at Kinross, at the edge of Loch Leven, and walked 4 miles round the loch to the fabulous Loch Leven's Larder where we ate a yummy lunch rounded off with very refined cup of Earl Grey tea, then 4 miles back again.
Unlike Andrew I'm a little too shy to take pictures of my food in cafes so you'll have to make do with the pictures I took of the beautiful scenery.......


The weather was glorious, the food was delicious and the company was great.

Monday 20 September 2010

Sunday 12 September 2010

Exhausted!

I'm going to have a moan!
It's exam setting season again and I've been working all weekend. Yesterday I started at 9.30am down at Stirling Uni, finished there at 7.30pm then came home and carried on until 11.15pm. Then up at 7 this morning, at Stirling for 9am and finished at 2.30pm. Home in time to do about an hour of associated paper work.
I could almost cope with that, if I wasn't then faced with a mountain of ironing.

I would really just like to sleep for a couple of days, but tomorrow morning it's back to college and start the week all over again.

Anybody want to trade places?

Monday 6 September 2010

The Tarmachan Ridge

Yesterday the BF and I decided to tackle a slightly more challanging climb than our last effort.
The aim for the day was the Tarmachan Ridge.
My guidebook describes it as "an entertaining ridge walk".  It says it "curves in an S-shape above the blue expanse of Loch Tay, at some points narrow and rocky, at others broad and grassy. The traverse of its four tops provides a scramble which is unfailingly entertaining"
The weather was lovely in Perth when we left, but by the time we got to the starting point at 10.30am it was dull with low cloud and mist obscuring the tops.
Undeterred we headed off up the first summit - Meall nan Tarmachan at 3421ft.


The cloud was unrelenting, and as we traversed from east to west reaching the summits of Meall Garbh (3366ft) and Ben nan Eachan (3264ft) we saw precisely nothing except the ground 3 feet in front of us!
The first part of the ridge (between the first 2 peaks) is broad and straightforward, but between the second and third peaks is narrow, rocky and requires some fairly extreme scrambling. I will confess to being shit scared at times, especially since the wind got up considerably and we estimated was gusting to 40-45mph at times!

With no sign of the weather clearing we bailed out without attempting the fourth peak.
True to form, as we descended, the clouds began to clear and by the time we were only 1km from the car, the sun was out and 3 of the 4 peaks were clear of cloud...I think that's what they call "sods law"!!!

We also got a beautiful view of Loch Tay in the sun .......
So, we'll be back to do it again....in better weather.

Saturday 4 September 2010

Photohunt - Hot

My youngest son cooling down on a very hot day at the beach (yes we do get those very occasionally in Scotland!)

Friday 3 September 2010

Growing old

"Nobody grows old merely by living a number of years.
We grow old by deserting our ideals.
Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul." - Samuel Ullman

Thursday 2 September 2010

Creativity

Tonight, from this -


and this.......



I created these......

and these......