Oddity is a commodity

Conical comical
Originally uploaded by Lidwit.

You better believe it!

One of our first conversations on the island took place while we stood by the side of the road. A van pulled up and with a grin as wide as the Clyde the man inside asked "are you waiting for a bus?" We nodded in assent, "that's right." To which he replied, "Aye well there might be one. You just never know. Remember you're on an island now!"

Fortunately our bus did arrive at that point but little did we realise how prophetic his words of wisdom would be.



Incidently, this has to be the most bizarre and confusing bus timetable I've had the misfortune to cross eyes on. And just when we thought we had it sussed we noticed the box telling us that actually there probably wouldn't be a bus until the ferries were running from Port Askaig again!!! Taxi!!



The result was we walked everywhere, which was good as it was kinda the point of the weekend. We are after all just six weeks away from the Moonwalk. Doesn't time fly? We had to revise our original plan to walk over to the west coast as it was just too far for us to get there and back on foot. We did consider hitching a ride on a quad bike being kept ticking over by a dog. No really - and that was without alcohol. But in the end we made the decision to walk from Ballygrant to Bruichladdich - a very respectable 11miles - and then back again... hobble hobble ow!



Luckily while we were in Bruichladdich the girls in the shop took pity and handed us tasters of some very yummy 12yr old whisky. For purely medicinal purposes you understand. If it wasn't for the fact we were walking and would have to carry the extra weight we would most definitely have bought more than a couple of miniatures to take back with us.



Ironically as we tramped our way around Loch Indaal and along the road to Ballygrant we were approached not once but twice by well meaning locals offering to give us a lift to our destination. Now where else on earth do you find people offering lifts to total strangers??? Not only that but every other car that passed waved at us as we plodded on.



This has got to be the friendliest place I've yet encountered. It was particularly good because after all the waving back with our left hands we had an excuse to raise our right hands in the evening complete with compensatory weight in the shape of an Islay Ale in a toast to the local pirate... honest!



Slainte!

Reflecting on last weekend

Ardgarten, Gare Loch
Originally uploaded by Lidwit.

We couldn't have had a better start to the weekend. Yes it finally arrived, and what a weekend it was too. It's hard to believe it's all over now but the good news is we had a wonderful time and the weather was perfect. Oh yes and we took photos... lots and lots of photos. In fact there is a good chance we have somewhere in the region of about 600 lurking on our memory cards which is pretty obscene when you consider we were only away for three days.

That said it was difficult to avoid ooohing and aaahhing at all the scenery as we headed round to Kennacraig for the ferry. In the interests of posting some of those images here I'm going to split the blog over the next few days. Trust me. The scenery is well worth the wait.

www. hic

Islay
Originally uploaded by Lidwit.

Less than a week to go and are we excited... oh hell yes! Why??

It's time for our Whisky Walking Weekend hence the www.
We're dumping the rugrats on the Daddies and we're off for a girly weekend tramping round Scotland's tropical Isle ostensibly to train for the Moonwalk... oh who are we kidding? We're off on a freedom ride to Whisky World. Point of interest - have you ever noticed how Walt Disney sounds remarkably like Malt Whisky?

Now obviously, as we are raising awareness of Breast Cancer and the ways it can be detected or even to some extent avoided, we have to point out that alcohol is a known risk factor. With that in mind we are clearly not going to be silly about this. Everything in moderation, as my Gran was always fond of saying. So we will be considering the potential hazards of over indulgence and imbibing only on what is medically necessary to anaesthetise our poor, aching, blistered feet. We will have a moderate amount of Bruichladdich, a moderate amount of Laphroaig, a moderate.... you get the picture.

So we had another 9k stroll around Broadwood in the rain this morning where we discussed the mutual humiliation experienced at our respective job interviews through the week before getting down to the business of planning the minutiae of next weeks jolly. After our interviews we were both in need of some retail therapy to ease our stress with the result Red has invested in some new trainers and I in a pair of lightweight breeks that fold into their own pocket for traveling. Unfortunately they don't iron themselves when they emerge from said pocket but what did I expect for £40?