Anthrax and the SPL

Nicole and I spent our first Saturday afternoon since getting back from holiday on a wee expedition to Gruinard Bay, a lovely little beach – well, two adjacent beaches, really – on the Wester Ross coast. Sheltered from the road by a small, thick forest and then a longish walk over dunes, it presents a…

Inversnecky

For a little over four years, I led a secret double life. I ran, unknown to anyone, the local news satire site “Inversnecky“. Basically something like The Onion or The Daily Mash but for Inverness, it was a satirical look at local news, giving more than the occasional ribbing to those responsible for the city…

My life as an actor

I don’t think I’ve ever blogged about the pinnacle of my acting career.  It happened towards the end of my time at university. Well, I say “pinnacle”; “totality” would be more accurate. A group of friends of mine were active in a drama society during my last year at Aberdeen University, when I was undertaking…

What would you write?

What would you say to the world if you had the opportunity? Well, if not to the world then at least to several thousand strangers. That’s the idea behind The Listserve – an email list where one person each day is randomly selected to send an email to everyone else. I heard about it a…

Fields in motion

You know you’re in a unique place when you’re watching an exploration of gay experiences of spirituality told through the mediums of poetry and dance, and where one of the poems has the quite magnificent title of: “The visit of the Queen of the Lesbians to the gay men’s prayer group in West Belfast”. Not…

Solas Festival – the details

Well, I’m all packed up and ready to go to the Solas Festival – camping gear, clothes, waterproofs (the weather forecast looks miserable) and a pile of books that hopefully people will be interested in buying.  As you can see in the photo, it’s been quite a test of compact packing. My long train journey…

Tourist in my own land

It’s easy to be complacent about where you live, as you see it through the prism of everyday life.  That’s a shame, especially when the place you live is as lovely as the area around Inverness. It was one of the things I enjoyed about hosting Couchsurfers regularly until a few years ago, in that…

Ben Wyvis, at last

Given it sits among comparatively flat landscape (by Highlands standards), it doesn’t take much for Inverness to be towered over. That’s why Ben Wyvis, over half an hour’s drive away, is a dominant feature in Inverness, especially in the popular views across town to the north from the castle. There, seemingly just at the mouth of…

Photos from Skye

Nicole and I were in Skye this weekend, for a few days of seeing family, walking and exploring. In a refreshing break from the drizzle and grey skies we’ve been experiencing in Inverness of late, it was near-unbroken sunshine out west.  This was good news for photographs, and I’ve uploaded a bundle to Flickr.

Competition experiment

Out of a modicum of boredom more than anything else, I conducted a little experiment last week. I have a pile of copies of my first book, Up The Creek Without a Mullet (I may have mentioned it here once or twice), and decided to run little competitions on each of the social media platforms…

Ormond Castle

In another piece of local history I knew nothing about until I visited its site, here are some photos from Ormond Castle, which I walked around the other weekend. It’s not really a castle any more – in fact, not even “not really”, more “not at all”.  It’s just a hill, flat at the top,…

Tomislav

It doesn’t take much for my mind to wander to faraway lands and past travel experiences, and one such moment was prompted by having some friends to stay a couple of weekends ago. As a present, they kindly gave us a box of beer from the Black Isle Brewery, one of the Highlands’ many producers…

Update on the West Link

I blogged nearly a month ago about the terrible decision being put to Highland Council to drive the final part of the western end of Inverness’s bypass through a lovely park.  As you’ll read in that post, I’d written to my four local councillors, the city’s provost and my MSP about some of the issues…

Planning the next adventure

I’ve got two trips for this year bubbling away in the planning stage, and they’re both rail-based. The second one, scheduled for the summer, is the bigger of the two.  Nicole and I will be travelling Europe by train, overlapping with the southern France leg of Niall’s world wonder hunting and taking in a total of six countries.…

Reelig Glen

We went for a walk this past weekend around Reelig Glen, a wonderful gem of a walk just a short drive from Inverness. I’d been there before, but on this occasion the time of day allowed for great winter afternoon sunlight penetrating the deep, thick forests.  The trees in Reelig Glen are tall – one…

My review of 2012

Looking back over the last twelve months of 2012, it’s safe to say it has been a good year. No, I didn’t win anything at the London Olympics and nor was my glee due to the SNP’s sweeping gains in the May local authority elections or the news of Justin Timberlake’s assassination or Tony Blair’s…

A weekend up west

Nicole and I celebrated our second wedding anniversary this past weekend (it’s a great fortitude that our anniversaries are on the same day, really).  We’ve set a pattern of taking it in turns to organise a surprise for each other, and last year I took us to Austria.  This year was Nicole’s turn and she…

The sequel – a progress update

The (self-imposed) deadline looms. As is all too depressingly obvious, it’s not long until Christmas and that is my deadline for finishing off my second book.  This will, as I may have mentioned before, run on from UTCWAM, chart my adventures in England, Canada, New Zealand and the western USA, and effectively bring the mission…