for a much more comical version of the trip and pictures of me peeing....
read val's latest blog posting!
6.24.2008
6.23.2008
ben nevis
last tuesday, davoud, val, paul and i headed for the lake district for a night of camping in pooley bridge (and a couple of pints at the pub) before heading north to scotland. our first stop was the town of oban on the west coast of scotland known as the gateway to the islands. it was a lovely little place and also home to a distillery, so we made sure to go on a wee tour before we left town.
our days of camping in the highlands were constantly plagued by two things: irregular weather and midges. midges are these little bugs that swarm, bite, get everywhere, but in my mind aren't nearly as bad as black flies. i somehow escaped without any bites!
our site in oban was very picturesque and overlooked the sea and isle of mull. we went for a walk down a dead end road from the campsite towards gallanach and discovered this weird building that was built sometime in 1955. from what i have discovered on wikipedia it was home to the first transatlantic telephone cable that was laid between oban and newfoundland between 1955 and 1956. apparently it was important during the cold war providing a hot line between us and ussr presidents. you can read more about it here.
we packed up camp the next morning and made our way to fort william - via the oban distillery - to set up camp before our hike up ben nevis. weather was incredibly changeable whilst we were here because weather from the atlantic ocean gets dumped on the valley, glen nevis, in between the mountains. we did, however, luck out with the weather for our hike up the mountain, which was quite sunny to start out with, snowy at the top and then rainy on the way down. i seem to be able to hike up forever, but i absolutely hate coming down the mountain. it's too hard on ankles, knees and feet.
since weather wasn't on our side indefinitely, despite the sun the morning after our hike, we drove down to camp on the shores of loch lomond. i love loch lomond, probably because it's the closest to feeling like being in northern ontario i've been since moving to the uk. all looked to being going well so we decided to bbq. as soon as we got back to the sit it started to rain, but then let up a bit so we started up the grill. rain, rain and more rain fell from the sky but in true british fashion we sat there in our coats eating our heavily chargrilled burgers because no one believes in propane ;)
eventually we gave up and headed indoors to drink some wine, have our salad course and play euchre- that is after val and i remembered the rules.
the weather did not improve so we came home a day early amongst really heavy rain and gales across the lake district. everything is still drying and airing out, but life should be back to normal soon. still a really great trip despite all of the rain.
oh, and i should probably say that i had to pee halfway down the mountain. now i'm not afraid to squat, but it is a very exposed mountain so i had to squat behind this little wall. a couple of people walked past, but not in the direction we were expecting them too! so there may have been a little show for them. wooops. val took a picture which i'm sure she'll post on her blog and i've now been christened 'wild pee lauren.'
our days of camping in the highlands were constantly plagued by two things: irregular weather and midges. midges are these little bugs that swarm, bite, get everywhere, but in my mind aren't nearly as bad as black flies. i somehow escaped without any bites!
our site in oban was very picturesque and overlooked the sea and isle of mull. we went for a walk down a dead end road from the campsite towards gallanach and discovered this weird building that was built sometime in 1955. from what i have discovered on wikipedia it was home to the first transatlantic telephone cable that was laid between oban and newfoundland between 1955 and 1956. apparently it was important during the cold war providing a hot line between us and ussr presidents. you can read more about it here.
we packed up camp the next morning and made our way to fort william - via the oban distillery - to set up camp before our hike up ben nevis. weather was incredibly changeable whilst we were here because weather from the atlantic ocean gets dumped on the valley, glen nevis, in between the mountains. we did, however, luck out with the weather for our hike up the mountain, which was quite sunny to start out with, snowy at the top and then rainy on the way down. i seem to be able to hike up forever, but i absolutely hate coming down the mountain. it's too hard on ankles, knees and feet.
since weather wasn't on our side indefinitely, despite the sun the morning after our hike, we drove down to camp on the shores of loch lomond. i love loch lomond, probably because it's the closest to feeling like being in northern ontario i've been since moving to the uk. all looked to being going well so we decided to bbq. as soon as we got back to the sit it started to rain, but then let up a bit so we started up the grill. rain, rain and more rain fell from the sky but in true british fashion we sat there in our coats eating our heavily chargrilled burgers because no one believes in propane ;)
eventually we gave up and headed indoors to drink some wine, have our salad course and play euchre- that is after val and i remembered the rules.
the weather did not improve so we came home a day early amongst really heavy rain and gales across the lake district. everything is still drying and airing out, but life should be back to normal soon. still a really great trip despite all of the rain.
oh, and i should probably say that i had to pee halfway down the mountain. now i'm not afraid to squat, but it is a very exposed mountain so i had to squat behind this little wall. a couple of people walked past, but not in the direction we were expecting them too! so there may have been a little show for them. wooops. val took a picture which i'm sure she'll post on her blog and i've now been christened 'wild pee lauren.'
6.16.2008
my treehouse
davoud and i in our lovely massive kitchen
our whisky collection...well, most of it
davoud in the office/second bedroom. can you tell which desk is mine?
the bedroom
the tub for two
the lovely windows
the living area...take note in these photos of the *vast* amount of dvds and cds, all alphabetised by davoudlife in the canopy
many, many things have changed since the last blog posting but i guess that's not entirely surprising as it's been almost a month. but let's see what the round up looks like in list form:
1) i got a whole year older on 26 may so i'm officially past my champagne birthday and have reached the ripe ol' age of 27
2) i moved house. i'm now a resident of leafy aigburth - hence the blog post title - and feel like i'm living in a rain forest canopy. the first floor is surrounded by lovely trees and my seven glorious windows that make up the biggest bay window *ever*
3) a boy is squatting at my house. somehow, davoud thought that me moving meant he could move into the same flat and is now living here too. it's not so bad, i mean there is an impressively large living area, two bedrooms, a big tub for two and stairs down to the master bedroom, but where did all this stuff come from?
4) i've officially started work on my dissertation. subject area? why do people in the north west of england visit museums more than art galleries?
5) i have mastered the wii wheel whilst playing mariokart...and discovered i was good at golf
now looking forward to things to come:
1) leaving for a camping trip to scotland tomorrow with the boy squatter aka davoud, val and paul to hike ben nevis, the highest peak in scotland
2) canada day celebrations will need to be planned. maple syrup will be on the menu.
3) st jean baptiste celebrations will need to be planned. i will make a list of all the things that are unhealthy about living in montreal like poutine, chocolatines and pitchers of beer at copacabana
4) i will continue to work diligently on my dissertation
5) i will finish reading river themes as recommended by my dad and christine, which was shockingly on the shelves of liverpool central library
so wish me luck in my new branch of life. even though i'm a little green when it comes to co-habitation, things up here in the trees aren't so bad.
1) i got a whole year older on 26 may so i'm officially past my champagne birthday and have reached the ripe ol' age of 27
2) i moved house. i'm now a resident of leafy aigburth - hence the blog post title - and feel like i'm living in a rain forest canopy. the first floor is surrounded by lovely trees and my seven glorious windows that make up the biggest bay window *ever*
3) a boy is squatting at my house. somehow, davoud thought that me moving meant he could move into the same flat and is now living here too. it's not so bad, i mean there is an impressively large living area, two bedrooms, a big tub for two and stairs down to the master bedroom, but where did all this stuff come from?
4) i've officially started work on my dissertation. subject area? why do people in the north west of england visit museums more than art galleries?
5) i have mastered the wii wheel whilst playing mariokart...and discovered i was good at golf
now looking forward to things to come:
1) leaving for a camping trip to scotland tomorrow with the boy squatter aka davoud, val and paul to hike ben nevis, the highest peak in scotland
2) canada day celebrations will need to be planned. maple syrup will be on the menu.
3) st jean baptiste celebrations will need to be planned. i will make a list of all the things that are unhealthy about living in montreal like poutine, chocolatines and pitchers of beer at copacabana
4) i will continue to work diligently on my dissertation
5) i will finish reading river themes as recommended by my dad and christine, which was shockingly on the shelves of liverpool central library
so wish me luck in my new branch of life. even though i'm a little green when it comes to co-habitation, things up here in the trees aren't so bad.
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