ABOUT ME

I live in a camper van with a West Highland Terrier for company.
My passion is creating images but it is a work in progress.
I am always willing to share what knowledge I have and can be contacted through the comments on this post or e-mail ADRIAN
ALL IMAGES WILL ENLARGE WITH A LEFT CLICK

Monday 3 February 2014

WIND. (03/02/14)

I am still suffering from severe wind. It’s not too bad down in the bottom of the glen but it increases exponentially the higher one goes. I think it’s called heart burn. It’s a fine day here but not fit for walking. Tomorrow still looks like a good day so I’ll pray the buses are running up the mountain and that we can have a good walk down. the company that run Cairngorm Mountain are really struggling. They have only been open for about three days in the last fortnight.

Today the dogs and I caught the bus into Aviemore. Another cockup. It’s a Bank Holiday here but the shops were open. The buses only run a Saturday service so I had to adopt hurry up mode or would be left stranded again.

_MG_2893  This signal box is out of all proportion to the traffic on the main line. I suspect half of it is redundant now. The tracks in the foreground lead to the steam engine shed. There wasn’t anyone around but there looks to be a few coal bunkers and lots of scrap this and that.

_MG_2894 This is the area Douglas pointed me at. I’ll be back for half term when the steam trains are running. There is a wonderful old engine shed on the far right behind the old bridge. I would have walked to it but some clown and left a crane in front of it. It is a bit of a tip but then even tips have possibilities.

_MG_2891

_MG_2895 This is the underpass under the railway. It could be much better with a bit of tidying or none at all.

_MG_2889Aviemore is just a necessity. It’s not a town to enjoy but it has shops for food and dozens more for outdoor clothing. It has a wonderful station and bus services to everywhere. I will be back because it’s great to walk the dogs for half an hour in an area so beautiful.

Now I read an article which I found a little difficult to comprehend. The Scots or some of them would like to be self governing. Whatever your views on this it matters little to England. We still tick over, we still eat and some of us still wade, paddle or boat through flood water. If London had been inundated things would have happened. London enjoys 60GB/s internet I enjoy 1MB/h. Sod HS2 just roll out cable. No-one would need trains except for fun and nostalgia.

All Alex Salmond wants is to be a proper Prime Minister. It’s what Dithery wants as well, fat chance. Alex met Mark Carney last week to discuss Scottish Independence and fiscal or fishing matters or summat. Alex wants to have his new independent Groats, Sheckles, Haggises, Salmons, whatever, tied to the pound Sterling. Mark said this is unworkable.

Bugger me! Are all bankers daft? Is it a requisite for the job, that one has no foresight and no hindsight? The Irish Punt was tied to the pound for donkeys years. It worked fine Bostonians donated dollars that were converted to punts and then used to purchase semtex to blow us English twats to bits. All the Caribbean, but for the French bits, and half of Latin America are tied to the dollar. Is it me? Or have we hired another half witted ignoramus. We used to send all our head bangers to Canada and Australia. I suspect our chickens are coming home. 

It is possible that Mark with a good Irish name like Carney is just having a laugh, taking the piss a bit. I wish he’d stop. We hired him to run the Bank of England and not as a stand up comic. We already have six hundred and odd of them in Westminster.

Have fun.

 

34 comments:

  1. Adrian you decline it nicely portrayed.

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  2. Hi Adrian I just wanted to ask you how is the weather today ... on TV it's to see big storms in your area... you are saying there is stark wind ... stay safe!

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    1. Laura, it is not good. The wind is steady at 40kph. It will get much worse and then go away. We will be fine. No rain or snow.

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  3. Well it's good you found a soapbox there in Aviemore. Everywhere you go is beautiful, but this is particularly unspoilt beauty.

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    1. Carol, I have barely started. Gove on education is next on my rant list. I am back early from the pub as half a dozen forty something Londoners were first trying to tell the locals the finer points of snowboard technique, Then when everyone had listened politely to their braying rubbish they decided that anal intercourse was a suitable subject for discussion. The bar lass asked them to calm down. I told them to. Londoners need a good smack. They have gone now but it put me off my pre tea pint.

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    2. Adrian, speaking as a casualty of the Alabama educational system, I would be interested in hearing this "Gove on education" rant. Here, we seem to pride ourselves on being only the 49th worst State in terms of educational standards. Having fallen in love with the intricacies of language at a young age, I have time and time again bemoaned the native ignorance that the people around me appear to wield as their sword and buckler against the scourge of enlightenment. I apologize in advance if I sound pedantic; I'm feeling my way through the language barrier that has always separated we colonists from you Brits. The mere fact that you prize education is encouragement enough for a struggling instructor of English like myself!

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  4. It's a while since you have had such a good rant. I almost forgot to go and look at the pics again. I had no idea that there was a steam train at Aviemore. Given the amount of time I've spent there (unavoidably for the most part) over the last 40 years that's quite an oversight.

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    1. Graham, I think they hire them in. Mark sent me the details, leaving out no details so I've no excuse if I don't find them.
      Glenmore is great but Aviemore is a necessity for the weekly shop. I wandered the other side of the tracks today and it's fine for a ten minute walk. Go down the steps past the Subsomething Smelly Sandwich shop and you find this tunnel and a little fairy pool. It's okay here. I was tempted to stay a while but the last bus was calling and I still had to raid Tesco.

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  5. I always enjoy your rants, even if I have no appreciation of your politics. I .like the underpasses.

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    1. Pauline, the underpass is the route to normality. Aviemore is a dump, a one horse town, There is beauty all about it and it supplies the necessities of life.

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  6. HI Adrian Yes I was wondering what the next rant would happen. I think you must be following in my tracks of last week when I was birding in Scotland!! Love the shot with the dog in it and the snow capped mountain.

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    1. Nay Lass. You are following me I've been in Scotland for six weeks now. Let us know when you are over again and I'll teach you what birding with dogs is all about. It's hard Douglas does it that's why all his birds are flying.

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  7. It looks like you are in a very attractive area.
    Don't worry about Mark Carney. He was our chief banker and did a hell of a good job. He's not a stuffed shirt like most bankers. You'll like him.

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    1. Red, we will see. I know he came highly recommended.

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  8. I like the pictures of the tracks and tunnels. We have nothing like that here. I like the picture with Alf or Molly (can't tell which) because it is beautiful.

    Here, sometimes people have to borrow money or have too much to carry in their sock so we need bankers. That means they can be daft or evil or anything they want because they're needed. Damned thing.

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    1. David, It's Alf.
      I am coming back up here so will have a good look round the railway on a steam train day.

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  9. Nathaniel C. Oliver has left a new comment on your post "WIND. (03/02/14)":

    Adrian, speaking as a casualty of the Alabama educational system, I would be interested in hearing this "Gove on education" rant. Here, we seem to pride ourselves on being only the 49th worst State in terms of educational standards. Having fallen in love with the intricacies of language at a young age, I have time and time again bemoaned the native ignorance that the people around me appear to wield as their sword and buckler against the scourge of enlightenment. I apologize in advance if I sound pedantic; I'm feeling my way through the language barrier that has always separated we colonists from you Brits. The mere fact that you prize education is encouragement enough for a struggling instructor of English like myself!

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    1. Nathaniel, it may be a while. Ranting is hard work.
      I understand most American.
      This comment didn't publish so i copied it across from my e-mail in box.

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    2. Adrian, it published up under my comment thread. But that's OK. Nathaniel deserves his own thread :)

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    3. Carol, watch him he's a getting married man or was.

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    4. Thank you for fixing my comment; I am learning all the time! Sometimes I can get "too big for my breeches" as they say around here.

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    5. Nathaniel, it's not a problem. Many blogs don't have threads enabled.

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  10. I had to chuckle at your description of Aviemore it was the town that ignuted my birding passion, my dad and I were fishing without success when an Osprey dived bombed the area we were fishing and left the pair of us in shock "do birds that size fish" is a polite version of what we said.
    However it always remided me of one of those towns you see in a western, beautiful countryside and a dusty ol' town and as it got bigger it got worse rather then better, though I spent a lot of time under that bridge as a kid when the weather was warmer skimming for minnows, the steam train is brilliant though you WILL love it, trust me.
    If you're stuck for a walk, if it's still possible we used to go up to the back of the golf course at Dalfaber past the time share buildings (they uesd to be circular in shape) there's a wild section of river behind the time share homes.

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    1. Douglas, yes I've always thought it would benefit from a few balls of tumble weed blowing down the street.
      I saw the timeshares in the distance. I'll keep the walk in mind.

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  11. If you are so smart Adrian - why not stand for parliament yourself? After all with that wind you were talking about you'd be eminently qualified. Why don't we English get to vote ahead of the Scots referendum? Question - Do you want Scotland in the United Kingdom? Yes/No. After all, we have been subsidising them for three hundred years. Surely it's time to cut them free. They're like the adult child that never left home.

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    1. Bit ruff King YP. Thank goodness you don't view us Aussies as subsidised adult children. They say here in AUS that the average age children now leave home is 26.

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    2. YP, If I had my time over I would be an MP. Smart is not an attribute that I've noticed in the breed. Avaricious, disseminating, lazy, fat all spring to mind but smart no.
      There seem to be a majority in Westminster that would like to keep the Union. Maybe they just want somewhere to moor Trident

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  12. Only you could make an overcast day look vibrant and beautiful.

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    1. Hilary, I shoot a good stop under exposed then pull the shadows that stop back with the adjustment brush. The n PS i just boost Vibrance and check levels.
      Anyone can do it.

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  13. That station is better than ours!
    Good photos of the bridge
    a hug.

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    1. Laura, it's better than most of ours too.

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