This being what I call the "silly season" at work, I have been doing a fair bit of travelling around. As you might have seen from the update on my pictures section, I've been in Kirkwall and Aberdeen. Both lovely places, with great vibes and fresh sea air. I keep telling myself I am going to do a holiday in Orkney one day, and see more than just Kirkwall town centre, the college and the airport.
Although Kirkwall itself is lovely, with stunning medieval and Victorian architecture and a breathtaking 12th century cathedral, you cannot go anywhere in the rest of Orkney without tripping over some famous 10,000 year-old archaeological remain. However, I've not found anything like a Mulletsgard, Mulletsay or Mullet Voe there yet, so I guess it will have to wait. Until about 2010 at this rate.
Thursday is Stornoway, on the Isle of Lewis, which reminds me of a book sitting on my "to read" pile – The Stornoway Way by Kevin MacNeil. I met Kevin first at the writing weekend I won a place on when I entered the whole mullet malarky into Ideas Factory's Write Away travel-writing competition (on which Kevin was a judge/tutor), and he gave me some good advice and encouragement. Then I randomly bumped into him in Inverness this weekend past, and he told me he's doing a reading tour around the west coast, with a reading in Inverness later this year. I will have to make sure I make it to that.
But closer to the present, I really should stop faffing online and tidy the flat. I have a couple of freeloaders coming to stay tomorrow, so must get things straightened for their arrival. They're Belgians, so I expect they'll be up for a pint or two…