Tax return I

Every April, I get a huge tax return. This is because HMRC got my tax code wrong. I have now taken steps to get it fixed, but that means the end of my annual cash surprise.

This year, I treated myself to something special. It arrived last week in this funnily shaped parcel. Can you guess what it is?

At the library

At the library, I asked to have my book extended. The guy grabbed it on both ends, pulled hard, and told me it just wouldn't extend, as hard as he tried.

Now, a British person would have politely laughed at that joke and that would have been the end of it. But of course me being me, I called him out on it, accused him of recycling that joke, making it obvious that I was German. So, naturally, he told me a German joke.

A young German soldier, newly drafted, is sent to a training camp for the first time. There, he acts very strangely. Over and over, he picks up leaves and rocks from the ground. He looks at them, shakes his head and says: "This is not it." "This is not it." Inside, he picks up pieces of paper lying around. He looks at them, shakes his head and says: "This is not it." "This is not it." The commander watches this behaviour for a while and then decides that this young man is not fit for service. He decides to discharge him. So back in his office, he hands him the discharge papers. The soldier takes the papers, looks at them and says: "This is it!"

I don't quite get it - what's German about this? Well, you'll be glad to hear that I wasn't mean enough to make the librarian explain the joke. Instead I politely laughed, thanked him and left.

Easter 4

Easter Sunday starts with pancakes, but not much else happens today. I am in a lot of pain from the first day's two munroes, and the rain has got worse. It even snowed last night! The hills look extra pretty with the fresh dusting, and we take lots of pictures during the five minutes that the sun is out.

We attempt a short, but extremely scenic walk into the Lost Valley, a beautiful gorge with steep drops, waterfalls, some scrambling, and a river crossing. But once this is done, the rest of the day is spent back in the cottage, drinking wine and working on the jigsaw puzzles.

On our last day in Glencoe we almost climb Glas Beinn Mhòr.

The hardest bit is to decide which walk to do - Beinn a' Chrùlaiste which is boring-looking and boggy, but possibly less steep and offering nice views of less boring hills. Or, staying low, and walking through the two valleys on each side of Buachaille Etive Beag, Lairig Eilde and Lairig Gartain. This would mean walking around the mountain we climbed on the first day. Or, driving on a single track road through Glen Etive all the way to the end and climbing Glas Beinn Mhòr, another munro.

Glas Beinn Mhòr is the winner, and Glen Etive is beautiful. Full of canoes and people parking in passing places on the single track road. After 15 miles we get to the end, park, and start walking, with a good view of the mountain we are going to climb.

Actually, the mere thought of climbing up 1050 m to a snowy top which is partly hidden in the clouds is daunting. My motivation is as low as the hill is high. Yes, my motivation is 1050 m low.

We follow the river which goes all the way up to the bealach we are aiming for. There are again great waterfalls and water slides on granite slabs - it looks like the water is having a lot of fun coming down here! The sun comes out occasionally, but my lack of motivation has spread and we decide we might not do the whole climb but just walk up the river for a bit longer. With this decision I'm suddenly much happier!

We split the group when Kat wants to go up a spur and Daniel wants to cross a river. Silke and I join Kat, climb a little bit, and then sit on the rocks and watch the others cross rivers from a mile away. Very entertaining. Once they have crossed all the rivers that needed crossing we meet up again by a footbridge and return to the cars.

Back in Glencoe Village we stop for a coffee and a scone in the lovely Glencoe Café. We finish the day with a pub meal, more jigsaw puzzles and a film - "Local Hero", a Scottish classic. And with a nice glas of whisky we finish off another lovely Easter weekend.

Glencoe with a fresh icing

Glen Etive

First stag of the day

  

 

 The top on the left is Glas Beinn Mhòr - the ascent follows the river up to the bealach, passing the smaller, snowless top on the right and following the ridge. I'll save this walk for another day.

Easter 3

Today's theme is water.

It is Easter Saturday and the weather is shite. So we go for a lovely low level walk, the Kinlochleven - Blackwater circuit (*click*). It is a slow climb over 5 miles up to the Blackwater dam, across the dam, and back on the other side of the river. The glen was dammed over a hundred years ago, combining three lochs into one huge reservoir, to provide hydro-energy for Kinlochleven's aluminium smelter.

Walking out of Kinlochleven I get us lost right away, but not for long. We follow Glen Leven on a wet path in light rain alongside the river Leven, and we see huge pipes on the other side of the glen coming down the hill to Kinlochleven, and waterfall after waterfall. We stop by the most beautiful waterfall of them all for a rainy lunch. A few streams need to be crossed - usually not a problem, but on a watery day like today at least one of us loses her boots. For some reason the moods are high, and we find ourselves singing, jumping between earworms, catchy songs about rain, umbrellas, boots, bridges. We cross a very dodgy foot bridge.

Most of us are quite soaked when we reach a boggier bit. We finally see the dam, but it is oh so far away! When we finally reach it we climb over the gate to walk across it, ignoring the signs that prohibit it. Our Scottish friends seem to enjoy the rare sight of Germans breaking the rules immensely.

The dam is almost one kilometer long, and walking on it I can almost feel the weight of the water to my left, only held back by a bit of concrete. I wonder where I would rather be if the dam broke. On it, or below in the glen.

On the other side of the glen we follow the path back towards Kinlochleven for a bit, but then we decide to walk on the covered concrete aqueduct, a conduit which takes the water from the dam all the way to the top of the big pipes we saw earlier, above the village. Every once in a while, there is a little gap in the cover and we see the water rushing very fast under our feet. The conduit follows the shape of the hills and is quite exposed at times, giving us great views across the glen, and onto the waterfalls under which we walked just a few hours ago.

I am very wet now. And cold. While I am enjoying this walk very much I am looking forward to a hot shower and a cup of tea. When we reach the pipes, the conduit ends and we join the track again. Four and a half years ago, Kat and I came down here on our last leg of the West Highland Way (*klick and klick*).

Back at the cottage someone makes pizza - not me, I do nothing. We turn on all the heaters to dry our things and after dinner we check out the pub again.

Today's wet walk. Also Buachaille Etive Beag at the bottom, and our cottage in Glencoe (red triangle)

A little birch wood

A very good waterfall. One of the best.

River crossings

Glen Leven

A dodgy footbridge

The Clachaig Inn, seen from our cottage

Easter 2

After a leisurely morning at home, Colin picks me up and we drive to Glencoe. Our cottage is right next to the Clachaig Inn, so we leave a note on the door and go to the pub. The pub has two bars, the Boot Bar for dirty hikers and the Lounge. I'm inclined to go to the dirty bar, but Colin is already going for the other one, so that's where we're waiting for the Germans.

Of course, knowing me they look for us in the dirty place first.

The next day, we decide to climb Buachaille Etive Beag, a straightforward walk on a good path, but steep. There is also quite a narrow snowy ridge from a bealach to the first top, which makes the walk more adventurous in the blustery winds. Too adventurous for some. Ice axes and crampons might be a good idea today but of course we don't have any.

When no one gets blown off the ridge or the top we slide down the snowy slope on our bums, back to the bealach. There is really no reason to walk down a hill when you can slide it down on your bum. Especially when you have an audience. We climb the other top - the wind is getting stronger and helping us up. I have a vision of the first of our group arriving at the top and, caught by a gale, flying over it. This doesn't happen. We take a quick break to enjoy the views of Ben Nevis in a cloud, the Blackwater reservoir, glacial features everywhere, and hills and snow. Walking down again I get a premonition of the muscle pain to come.

At night, Colin cooks up a lovely curry and we make a start on the puppy puzzle.

The U-shape that makes the geologist happy - a glacier came through here

On yer bum!

The top on the right was this day's first munro

 

Ben Nevis in the cloud

Wombat

Have you googled a wombat lately? I highly recommend it: *click*

Easter 1

Just back from my Easter holiday, so here comes a teaser with more to follow:

More Glen Affric Pics

While I'm away shooting more pics in Glencoe, here are some more pictures of Glen Affric from a few weeks ago.

One of the wilder burns we had to cross

The boys walking ahead

Caledonian Pine

 

 

Pentlands on a Sunday

So I made plans to go for a coffee with a friend and then the forecast looked good and he said we should do a walk and I thought ok, let's stroll across the Meadows or check out Arthur's Seat, but he was thinking bigger and said he'd pick me up and we're going to the Pentlands.

So nice to have friends with cars. And what a car!

Looking at Edinburgh and Arthur's Seat in the centre

 

I like a good fence in a photo

More fence

All my favourite Pentlands hills at sunset

My friend's car

Well, I don't approve of sports cars and I was a bit worried someone would see me in it, but I must admit it was pretty cool to get driven around in the countryside in a Porsche.

Neighbours

Today, I had a look at my list of things to do once I reduce hours or take a career break, kind of a bucket list. One thing on it was to meet the neighbours. (The other things are more glamourous, I promise! Like visiting the Montreal Jazz Festival, the big American National Parks, doing all the walks in Scotland, etc.)

I've lived in my flat for almost three years and I would recognise the people from only one of the 6 (or is it 8?) flats in my house if I met them on the street. And this is only because they have a big white hairy dog. And even with them I've never exchanged more than a "Hi" or a nod.

Apparently, there is one obese mystery guy living in the top flat, which he never leaves. And there's also a family with a girl of school age. Across the hall lives an old guy who is not very mobile and leaves his laundry to dry in the cupboard in the hall. Smells good. Downstairs lives another woman with a dog. In the other flat downstairs resides the local drug dealer. Judging by the clientele, I would guess coke but then what do I know.

So considering that I don't have very sociable neighbours, and that I haven't been very sociable with my neighbours either, it was quite a surprise when a neighbour rang at my door today to apologise for the noise they were making in the flat upstairs. He invited me up. I was a bit stunned - a neighbour is speaking to me! And I made excuses. But he was also very friendly, so I said I might come up later.

Just by listening from my flat I was able to follow the course of the party over most of the evening. There was football and then rugby and then just drinking. There was mostly blokes and they were getting drunk. After a long period of indecisiveness because I was feeling a bit shy, I decided at last to follow through and go up and say hi and introduce myself, which I had failed to do when he came down. It was on my bucket list after all!

People were quite drunk but still trying to make friendly conversation. German skills were tested. I got a good look around the flat and a drink, and I met the other half of the couple who had been living here since December. Nice guys, very polite, going to do the West Highland Way in June, so we have that in common. One thing to check off the bucket list.

Subversive Act #fail

My attempt at subverting the organisation was put a damper on. I was caught breaching security protocols and now have to lie low until I've passed my probation.


But my paper crusade is gaining traction - the issue was discussed at the senior leaders' meeting and  a consultation on preferred paper use is getting launched "in due course" (which is civil service speak for "whenever").

Test, test... ahem

I tested my fancy new ethical down sleeping bag (*click*) and my new mat (*click*) last weekend on a short trip to Glen Affric. I have walked there before (*click*), but I was hoping to see it in the sunshine this time around. This wasn't to be, but my walking company brightened up the walk alright.

We stayed in Camban bothy and got properly smoked by the coal fire, but I was toasty in my bed.