Great Glen Way Log #5

We leave the hostel to have a nice breakfast in a café. It seems closed when we get there, but as if by magic they're opening right in front of us. With an egg roll and a scone we watch the action in the locks. Today is going to be a good day.

We're taking the high route to Invermoriston. It is pretty, and most importantly, varying in landscape and views. We pause by a little waterfall on a meadow in a forest. We continue up the hillls until we cross the treeline and have wide views over Loch Ness, Fort Augustus and all the way back along the Great Glen where we've come from. And even the sun comes out in-between showers.

We break for lunch in a dry stone shelter. After walking through the hills west of Loch Ness for a while we descend steeply to Invermoriston which has another picturesque old bridge ruin. At the only café in town, the family-run Glen Rowan café, I decide that today is a two-scone day and sample the home baking. The couple who run the place have come up from Glasgow to escape the city. They took it over in March, and her parents help run the place.

Our B&B for the night, Darroch View, is cosy and has nice views. The owner explains in detail how to operate doors and the telly.

It is Friday. Tomorrow, there is a big marathon along Loch Ness. Sightings of lycra-clad athletes have become frequent. At the pub, we are joined by Joerg and Eva, Kat's friends from Aberdeen. They weren't able to get accommodation, possibly due to the marathon. When we retreat to our warm and cosy B&B, they return to the parking lot next to the public toilets to spend the night in their car.

Lock action in Fort Augustus

Spidernet masterpiece

Looking back at Fort Augustus

Loch Ness views

Loch Ness views

Loch Ness views

Sterling Boy

Not everything is fun and games in online dating! Here's one specimen who verbally abused me, a first!

Thankfully we never actually met in person. We just chatted for a bit, disagreed fundamentally on a topic I care a lot about (climate change) after which I told him that I didn't think we would get along.

So far so good, no harm done. But then he unnecessarily called me narrow-minded, an embarrassment and probably other things I've forgotten because I deleted the conversation right away. Such an unhappy person! Now I know for sure that we would not get along and I'm glad I figured that out quickly.

What I liked about him: He wrote me a limerick.

I mentioned in my dating profile that I liked to get serenaded. Since then, I've had offers of ukulele-accompanied serenading on Calton Hill, one guy wrote me a poem, and this one a limerick. Maybe I should publish these things here as well.

So this is just to say that people are generally lovely, but every once in a while there is someone who doesn't take rejection well.

Number of dates had: 0. Overall experience: 1/10.

Great Glen Way Log #4

Spaghetti for breakfast on day three. The night before, we overheard the teenagers make plans for breakfast at half nine, so we make sure to be gone well before that.

We walk past Invergarry Station project, a former railway station which is going to be a museum. We follow the new railway bed along the shore of Loch Oich.

And follow it.

And follow it.

And eventually get really bored by it.

Luckily we find a way down to the original path closer by the water which is rather nice and reminds of the Loch Lomond shore.

It starts to rain and we are looking forward to reaching the Tea Garden at Aberchander Bridge to dry off and warm up and find some motivation for walking another few tedious miles along the canal. But when reaching the bridge there is no tea room to be seen! I ask the lock operator and he doesn't know of any tea room nearby - what a disappointment! This is the low point of the Great Glen Way.

We have our lunch in a short rain break and continue the slog to Fort Augustus. Fort Augustus is a pleasant surprise - quaint and charming. Until we see the huge bus parking lot behind the visitor information and bus loads of visitors streaming towards the three pubs.

We check out the hostel, Stravaigers Lodge, where we chill for a bit until a noisy bunch of workers joins us and we retreat to our room for an early night.

Huggy Boy

This one's a hugger. I do like a good hug, but it was a bit strange to get hugged mid-conversation on our first date. He didn't find me funny, I didn't find him funny. Dealbreaker.

Best thing about Huggy Boy was that he liked to read and had read many books I like.

Number of dates had: 1. Overall experience: 4/10.

Cat Boy

Well, I didn't actually go on a date with this one. In fact, he has no idea I exist.

This guy's cat has an extremely popular Twitter account, "Why My Cat Is Sad" (*click*) which I follow. He also writes a blog and books. If you like good writing, romance, and the countryside please go ahead and read one of his excellent blogs for life-changing advice: Top Tips for Countryside Dating (*click*).
Number of dates had: 0. Overall experience: 8/10.

Autumn: Longstone in Colour

Great Glen Way Log #3

Back on the road to Gairlochy it starts to rain and it takes us a while to stop a car. The guy in the huge SUV seems almost apologetic when all he can offer is a short lift as he lives only a few miles down the road. But that is further than we need to go to get ourselves back on the trail.

Friends and Weddings

A lovely wedding last weekend. It had everything: Lovely food and excellent service, witches and magic mirrors, ties tied around heads, obscene drawings, serious hangovers, bad dancing, and best of all: Almost all my uni friends in one place!

Has anyone taken photos? I feel like I remember cameras. And can we please do this again soon? Another wedding anyone?

Potter Boy

This one is a postdoc, quite quick, quite cheerful and active. Learns Japanese and pottery in his free time. He was 20 min late for our first date and didn't have a good excuse. He seemed nice but the date was a bit rushed as I had other plans after. A second date never happened because I met Jacuzzi Man (*click*) and went off online dating for a while.

I didn't get a proper impression of him as we didn't spend enough time together.

Number of dates had: 1. Overall experience: 5/10.

Great Glen Way Log #2

On day two of the walk we call Al, the only taxi service in town, to see whether he can get us back on the trail. Unfortunately, Al is on his way to Glasgow, so no taxi for us. We'll have to walk the 4 miles to Gairlochy and hope for someone to take pity on us and give us a lift.

Happy World Statistics Day!

It's World Statistics Day.


And since I'm now officially a statistician, here comes a not-so-inspirational but still true quote by another statistician, W. Edwards Deming:

“Without data you’re just another person with an opinion”

Great Glen Way Log #1

A few weeks ago Katharina and I walked the Great Glen Way from Fort William to Inverness. Well actually, I started a few miles in, in Banavie instead of Fort William, and we didn't actually walk the last leg to Inverness because it was very long and we needed to pick up a rental car by 4 pm.

Whisky Boy

This one was interesting, although again not really my type. I liked that he had interests - but we didn't share many of them. He is a member of the members-only Whisky Society so I agreed to go on a date with him - to see the Whisky Society. The Whisky Society was a strange place. It felt a bit like an Old Man's club and I couldn't see any women who weren't accompanied by a man. The conversation was relatively lively, but we had opposing views on most things. Neither of us wished to go on a second date.

Best thing about Whisky Boy was that he had quit a well-paid job in financial services to start his own business as a photographer.

Number of dates had: 1. Overall experience: 5/10.

Daddy Boy

This one was a dad, a bit older than my target group, and didn't seem to lead an active lifestyle. More the sort of person who spends a lot of time watching telly. I wasn't interested but he sent a nice message and I didn't mind an evening out so I met him anyway. Also, I was still quite new to this and thought I shouldn't be so picky in the sifting phase, he might surprise me. (He didn't.)

Best thing about Daddy Boy was that I kept running into him in pubs in Leith, after I had told him I wouldn't care for a second date. Awkwardness is fun!

Number of dates had: 1. Overall experience: 3/10.

Campervan Boy

As a newbie in the online dating world I made a number of rookie mistakes. In my profile, I had a looong description of myself, my likes and dislikes, and my expectations. Turns out the more I shortenend it the more messages I got. Another thing only beginners (and very polite people) do is respond to any message that's more substantial than "Hi :)", "What's up?", or "U look gorgeous ;)". I did that. And if people were nice enough in their messages I would go on a date with them even when their profile (photos and self-description) didn't appeal to me. Unless they were in India or 22 years old.

Therefore, I was very relaxed on most first dates. I had no expectations and nothing to lose.
But this was different on my very first date that came out of online dating. This boy was promising. A musician with a proper job, well-read, well-traveled, funny, he liked the outdoors and a simple life. I was quite keen. His picture was a bit blurry though, and you never know if you find someone physically attractive until you meet them.

We had exchanged quite a few messages and agreed to meet in a pub. I was early. I was very, very nervous. This was the second scariest thing I had ever done in my life. The scariest thing was stand-up comedy (*click*).

When he came in I recognised him right away because he was nervous as well. The date went ok - we talked, there were no awkward silences, and I liked what I saw.

We met again a few times every once in a while - but he didn't seem too keen and after a while I had written him off. But then after a few months we ended up going on a trip in his campervan and there's little more romantic than a trip to the hills in a campervan. A few more trips followed, most notably the one to Argyll (*click*) - waking up in a campervan on a remote spot on the coast with a view over the island Jura, sunrise, coffee and a hug, one of my favourite moments in 2014. But then it slowly died - he got in touch less and less often, and I started to pine for the campervan and all the trips I still wanted to do, but the boy himself and I didn't really have much to say to each other. So no harm done!

The best thing about Campervan Boy was not the campervan, although that's a close call! No, I liked that he was really cheeky.

Number of dates had: 10+. Overall experience 7/10.

Result!

I don't think I've mentioned it here before, but I got a life sentence with the Scottish Government: they offered me a permanent post! Yay, well done me! This means I can stop writing about assessment centres and the likes and talk about more interesting things: Online dating!

I have alluded to giving this a try a while ago. Nearing my late thirties and watching all my friends get married, while not the marrying kind, I wouldn't mind some romance in my life. So off I went, signed up for the online dating, created a witty profile, and waited for the invitations to come.
The idea to blog about the experiences crossed my mind of course, but I had such a slow start with the online dating that I didn't expect it to lead to much material. However, while still not reaching two-digit numbers, I have now had my share of interesting encounters of the romantic and not so romantic kind and would like to share.

Awwww

Four years, four months and thirteen days ago I lived in a lovely little flat in downtown Princeton, sharing it with my lovely flatmate Sally, and just generally having a brilliant time. That night specifically, we went to the Spring Formal, a sort of semi-formal dance / party event organised by Princeton Uni. We got picked up by my gentleman friend and I wrote about the event in my blog post (*klick*) at the time.

What I didn't write then though was that on arrival at the pre-games there were only couples! And when Sally pointed that out to me I looked around and identified the only single guy in the room. "That guy's single" I think I said to her and pointed at him. She went for it and took him home with her.

Well, they are getting married next year, and I'm taking full credit for it!

Talking

Do you ever have this nightmare where you are asked to give a talk together with your boss and your boss agrees to do the main part and you're doing only a little bit at the end, and then on the day he doesn't show up and it's just you and you haven't prepared his bit and all you have is his cryptic slides without any notes or idea what he meant to say?

This is how I was introduced today at a seminar talk my boss and I were supposed to give.

We care, honest!

My boss and I are moving divisions next week. We are currently working in the centre of the Scottish Government, the Office of the Chief Statistician. This will change as we are getting moved away from the centre to a policy area, Communities Analytical Services, the poverty statisticians. This makes sense, since what my boss and I do is identify areas in Scotland that have concentrations of deprivation. It will be good to work near the people who know all about the different facets of poverty. This also means that we have to leave our nice office in the city centre and commute to Leith instead, 3 miles north.

Germany

I'm on holiday in Germany to recover from my stressful life in Edinburgh and to warm up. What I'm doing to spend my time:

• sleeping
• napping
• reading
• complaining about the heat
• eating wurst