Stuff the OS, try this instead 
Archive for September 2012
Aeeeyo iyaaannn?
I'm no musician but I like to think that I know class when I hear it:
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FWIW, it sounds much better when all three vids are running together.
Three black flies in my Chardonnay…
No. 1
Regarding online services, I spent years (and a small fortune) during the previous century on BT dial-up before switching to phone, email and broadband internet via Diamond Cable during their first month of service in our area. In time they were consumed by NTL who upped the ante by providing us with their digital telly service. In due course NTL were taken over by Virgin Media, they substituted a succession of their own digiboxes culminating in the temperamental VBox.
Tempted by their latest ads for their TiVo service, I phoned Virgin a few days ago in order to change my service to their "Essential Collection" - a 500 gig HD TiVo Box with more channels than you could shake a stick at, a wireless Super Hub, up to 30 meg fibre-optic broadband and a landline with weekend perks. Of course, this new bundle includes their email service. It took ages for them to agree to the correct price as advertised on their own webpage, mainly because I'd be getting more for less. Eventually they relented (after I mentioned the ASA) and a deal was struck.
Before hanging up the phone I asked them to send me an email detailing our agreement and the change of terms of our contract. Yeah, you've guessed it, they wouldn't send me one. Allegedly, they don't have the capability to email me from the sales department.
No. 2
Ella and her mates were mucking about with their mobiles, playing "guess the access code" with each other's handsets. As you'd expect, after her friend had tried too many incorrect codes Ella's phone kicked into lockout-mode and is now bricked. Well, technically that's not true... it's my phone as I'm the mug with his name on the contract, but the phone is still fcuked.
After wasting much time talking to the bewildered support folk at T-Mobile we resorted to the internet to see if we could find a working hard-reset procedure but it was all to no avail. Yesterday I took the handset to the nearest T-Mobile shop and explained all, they said it would need sending back to base for a repair and that it would take up to 28 days. I proffered my own mobile details so that they could inform me as to when the thing was ready to be collected but they declined, saying that they would let me know the outcome by text... to the affected handset.
No. 3
In a bizarre turn of events, a local careers service has closed with staff facing an uncertain future.
Don't talk to me about irony.
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Skye 2012 – a fair Friday
I was up and awake early on Friday morning - the previous evening the kids said that they wanted me to take them fishing. Ella managed to extract herself from her duvet but Anna was stuck fast to the bed, so it was just the two of us that went down to the rocks at An Laman.
Neither the tide nor the weather were favourable - high tide was three hours away and the water was almost flat-calm. Nevertheless we got tackled-up and were soon thrashing the water with our lures. As expected, we didn't get many takes and after a few hours our tally was just a single suicidal mackerel. The guys fly-fishing a few yards away were doing better, taking a fair few pollack. When we'd had enough and had packed away we went over for a chat and came away with the kind donation of a 4+ pounder for our evening meal. Thanks, guys!
We returned to the cottage just in time to meet Arthur, the gardener, with whom we had a delightful chat over a cup of tea while watching the birds soaring right above the cottage. One of the birds was bigger, tattier and less flappy than the others which were obviously buzzards, it's been suggested that the odd-one-out was an eagle but I'm not convinced. What say you?
Buzzagle
For all you die-hard bird fans, here's a clickthrough subset of 16 more.
After all that excitement Arthur was on his way and Chris was eager to be out for some fresh air. We went for a short drive down the coast, stopping at a few places for short strolls to the cliffs to see if we could spot any whales. The first stop was at BĂ gh nan Gunnaichean where there were fine views of Stacan Gobhlach and the mirror-flat waters northwards:
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We didn't see any whales there, so we drove a bit further south to the cliffs above Loch Sheanta. Chris and Ella went down to the loch while I stayed up top with Anna. We still didn't see any whales but we did see about a dozen large shoals of fish at the surface:
Two of the shoals
A couple of opportunist anglers tried their luck over one of the other shoals:
From there we nipped into the garage/shop on the main road at Stenscholl near Staffin, in order to stock up on sweets, cake and other essentials. We almost made it to the beach at Staffin but the heavens opened as we pulled into the car-park so we bailed and headed back northwards. The weather was still fine at BĂ gh nan Gunnaichean from where we could see the clouds building up over Harris and Lewis:
A long shot
After a fine meal of filleted donated pollack, served with whatever was left in the cupboard, we spent the rest of the evening packing so that we could be away on time the day after. We really didn't want to leave but we knew that there was interesting stuff to see on the way home.
To be continued...
What does âincompetentâ mean? What does âbaffledâ mean?
Yeah, sorry about the post-title. No doubt you all know where it's from.
Anyway, it's clear that at least one Tesco employee is both incompetent and baffled when it comes to using our official language:
Maybe a little education would help?
They may have been playing it fast and loose in the changing-rooms but they were hedging their bets in the Seasonal Goods aisle. Who can blame them for catering for a little latitude in the long-range weather forecast for the run-up to Christmas?
Up the aisle
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For good days
 For bad days
For Christmas Days
We didn't find the Easter eggs but I'm sure they must be hidden away somewhere at the back.
Skye 2012 – a Thursday around the Quiraing
After Wednesday's recce, an ass-assessment and a back-check we thought we'd see if I was up to carrying a daysack up and around The Quiraing. The day was forecast to be fair until late afternoon so we went for it. As usual, while waiting for the others I managed to get some pics from the front garden:
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Here's a snap of the northern end of the Quiraing picking up a bit of morning sunlight:
The last post
Here's the route that we would take:
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We were soon installed in the upper car-park and the walk-in to where we reached the day before was straightforward, I didn't take any pics during this stage. Beyond that, however, the scenery just kept getting better and better:
Waterfall
On the approach to the step
It's only when you're beyond the step that you really get a proper sense of the scale and proportions of the place. The further you go the smaller you feel, and without a distant horizon in sight it's hard to tell when you've got the camera level. It's a very disorientating place!
Approaching The Prison
Towers, spikes and buttresses
The Prison
The track to The Prison
Sheltering behind a dyke
Looking up
Here's a thing that'll play with your eyes... mouseover the following pic to see Ella on The Prison... twice:
Hide and seek
Needles
Beyond The Prison, looking across to Staffin
Those three allegedly-wise monkeys again
Camo Girl
Hangover
Eventually the path climbs out of the trough and gains the ridge via some mild zig-zags near Fir Bhreugach. We had a breather here in the fresh breeze. Here's the view from there northwards towards Kilmaluag:
Looking northwards
The path follows the escarpment as it rises to the shoulder of Meall na Suiramach (543m), and the views over the edge are immense:
The view towards DÚn Mòr and Staffin
The Table, viewed from the north
Sròn Vourlinn and Leac nan Fionn
Chris on the edge!
The southern end of The Table
Humps and hollows
 
The southern end of The Table again
Anna forging on ahead
The final leg was down the steepening grassy slope of Maoladh Mòr to join with the outbound path above the upper car-park. From there it was a short drive back to the cottage.
The rest of the afternoon was spent winding-down. Showers out at sea provided some odd rainbows...
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... and the hunting in the fields provided more opportunities for bird-watching:
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The back and the butt had held up well to the outing, I felt that I might be on the mend but I knew that I'd need a few more days like that. I certainly slept well that night.
To be continued...
