Scotland part 2

Thursday saw a beautiful clear sky and warm sun. Today we had book to go to the Isles of Mull and Iona. After Breakfast we boarded the ferry to Mull. While on this trip we weren’t going got go and see Duart castle I did get a chance to take photos of it from the ferry.

Once we got to Mull itself we were met by the coach and were soon on a nice trip towards Iona. The driver was very knowledgeable and gave lots of information about the island and what we were seeing around the coach.

Mull is beautiful rugged place, and there are a number of old ruined houses. These mainly date back to the times of the highland clearances, when many of the local population were shipped overseas. This has led to the population of Mull dropping to around 3000. At its height there were around 10000 people on the island.

While we didn’t see any eagles we did see a couple of red dear.

Once we got to Fionnphort we crossed to the Isle of Iona. The isle houses an abbey originally founded my Saint Columba in the 4th or 5th century, and it is only in the last 40 years that the island has passed from private ownership. Iona was also beautiful and we passed the time looking at the old nunnery, abbey and by hiking to the top of Dun 1. From there we got superb views across the western isles of Scotland.

Scotland

While on my trip home mum had arranged for a trip to Scotland for a few days.

So Tuesday Morning we went to Stanstead to catch a flight to Glasgow. The flight was with Ryan Air. I hear people give them a hard time for hidden costs and poor service but really as a budget airline I found them fairly good. I mean you do have to pay for everything, and i mean everything including checking in to your flight, but it still cheaper than flying with some of the other airlines.

The trip up was pretty smooth and once in Glasgow, we pick up a car and headed towards Oban.

Scotland being Scotland had fairly changeable weather. We arrived to over cast skies, by the time we reached the bottom of Loch Lomond it was raining, but after stopping for some food it cleared.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I spent a bit of time taking photos and then carried on up the side of the Loch, stopping at Tarbet to take some more shots. The weather stayed fine. 

As we headed on again slowly the rain came back on the drive but again by the time we got to Oban it had cleared.

Went for a walk around the town to get information on what else to do while here and have some dinner. While we were eating the rain came back, but fairly quickly passed.

In the evening we went to McCaig’s Tower. Built in the last years of the 1800’s , it was commissioned by John Stuart McCaig. He was an esteemed banker and land owner in Oban. He had seen that a good number of he local masons had very little work over the winter months so he commission a memorial to be built for his family. It was only worked on in the winter months and took 7 years to build. It offers splendid views over the town and nearby Isle’s

Holiday Time

Every couple of years I try to get back to the UK to see family and friends. I was last home in 2008 so it was time for another trip.

2010 also sees my eldest son turn 18, how time passes. This was used an an excuse to have a big family get together. I got to talk to some of my cousins that I haven’t seen in 8 years. Some had changed, some where still very much the same.

It is always nice to catch up with family, and it’s something I don’t do very often, so I’d like to say congratulations to all of my cousins that have gotten engaged, married or had kids since I last got to see you. Hopefully it won’t be 8 years before the next time.

Update Time

OK so I have been slack. Just realised its been over 8 months since I posted.

So what's happened in all that time?

Work wise I now have the grand title of Practice Lead Dynamics Solutions Northern Region, and have been busy with projects and trying to get stuff in place with my new practice.

Intergen were in the finals for Best Places to Work again, although we didn’t win our category we did improve on previous years.

We have 4 solutions in the Microsoft best solutions awards, find out on Thursday if any have won.

Aside from that we have been busy busy busy.

 

Away from work I still haven’t managed to get out and dive, something i really must get back into.

Been doing more on the re-enactment front, but still would like to be doing even more.

Currently on a well earned break in Aussie.

 

Current goals:

Blog more

Dive more

Train more, I need to get fit and loose a few kg’s

Sort through all my photos and get rid of those that aren’t any good

Long overdue up-date

Ok so the last time I posted I was on my way home for a holiday. That seams such a long time ago now. I did do some updates to my website but I have since undone them. I have gotten out and done moe photography. In addition to my Deviantart account, where I put my favourite pieces, I have set up a flickr account where I am to put more stuff up, I'll still be using my7 own site for mass uploads as time allows.

Also with the announced closure of MSN groups the group I have belonged to for ages has migrated to Multiply, so I now have an account there as well as my Facebook, Bebo, Tagged, LinkedIn and MySpace accounts. I have also setup a twitter account.

That said I really only check Facebook and Multiply daily although I am trying to make an effort to check them all daily. If anyone knows any good apps for uploading to all this lot easily that would make like a lot easier lol. If you want to get hold of me through Socail Networking then I suggest Facebook or Multiply

Holiday Time

Having not really had a break from work since the Taupo bash, and that wasn't exactly sitting around relaxing either, I got round to my mid winter break. This year I am going back home to catch up with friends and family.

Caught the late flight out of Auckland heading for Singapore. And by late I mean midnight. The last couple of times I have been home the airports have been a bit manic with security risks. This time it was a breeze checking in. I had decided to check in on line so when I showed up at the airport all I had to do was find the pre-checked line, which had no-one in it and wonder up. It certainly beats standing in the usual queues.

Decided that I would get a new MP3 player. The last one I bought was in about 2002 and has long since died. Not being a major fan of ipods I decided to get a Sony Walkman, so picked one up duty free, and then had the mad scramble trying to get it charged and synched before getting on the plane. Think I may need to read the manual at some stage as it decided to sync all my photos as well as music, not something i really wanted it to do but never mind.

Got to Singapore and was pleasantly pleased to find that all the power plugs in the lounges are international. They can accept a plug from just about anywhere, so no messing around getting adaptors that I'd only use for a few hours.

So with power, free wireless Internet and 4 hours to kill I figured I'd update my blog. And with time on my hands I may even post more than one update every few months, and might even spend a bit of time updating the website and playing with some stuff that I have been putting off for ages.

Website Update

I have had a good play with e107 although I haven't had as much time to try stuff as I would like.

Recently I found a new site builder called SliverStripe. It was designed by a team here in NZ. Given there is a general push for us to support all things Kiwi I decided to install a copy and see what it can do.

The current aim is to load new content to both the e107 based site and the SilverStripe based on to evaluate each. Eventually I'll decide on which to keep and decommission the other.

The e107 site can be found at www.shadownet.org.uk the SilverStripe one at www.shadownet.org.uk/silvestripe

Feel free to take a look and post me any suggestions or comments.

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