Shadows and Light

Pictures with my new Nikon D60 at Snowdonia, Wales this Easter.

Dinner and drinks - Scotland Day 2 part 2

7.30 pm: Where the weary travellers finally arrive.
We reached the Bayfield Backpackers at around a quarter to eight, and were shown to our rooms by the friendly owner. The hostel was quite decent, and was full of Chinese, surprisingly. He recommended a restaurant nearby for dinner, where we proceeded and made a booking for later.

Portree is a tiny little town, with nothing much going for it, except a gale force wind which nearly lifted us off our feet. The wind blew straight in from the sea bringing with it a smattering of rain with each gust. Since we had about an hour to kill, we made our way in to the nearest pub with a pool table, where Gupta proceeded to comprehensively wipe the floor first with Kumar, and then with the locals. Meanwhile I and George enjoyed a smooth drink of Tallisker whiskey (the only whiskey produced on the island itself – at the Tallisker distillery) on rocks.


9.00 pm : Dinner and drinks.
We then headed to the restaurant, which was rather posh with a steep menu. The ambiance however, quite made up for the prices, and the food was delightful. I had the beefsteak with pepper sauce accompanied with haggis on the side with mountains of steamed vegetables. A red wine was ordered which quite complimented the food, and amidst happy chatter, we dug into the food.

Full and sated, and mildly intoxicated with the whisky and wine, we made our way back to the hostel, and into the common room, which was quite deserted at that time of night. The Bacardi and Morgan’s Spiced we brought out, and we rummaged through a stack of board games to play.

10.30 pm : A Trivial Pursuit indeed.
We finally settled on Trivial Pursuit, a game that none of us had played before, and consequently had to interpret the rules as best as we could, which in our inebriated state, led to quite a surreal game. We shuffled the deck of cards meant for adults, and started off.

I mean started off figuratively, as 15 minutes later we were all still in the exact same starting questions, scratching our heads over questions like 'Who won the 1980 Women’s Ping Pong championships in Bournemouth', or 'What significance does the phrase 'want bitty' mean to Harvey from Little Britain?'. Apparently, British trivia was much too complicated for our feeble brains, so we switched to the children’s pack of cards.

At the Children’s level, the advantage of still being in my first childhood became quickly apparent, as I started fielding question left and right such as –

Q. How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?
A. He would chuck, he would, as much as he could, if a woodchuck could chuck wood.
Also Acceptable - It might depend on how many female woodchucks were present. Or, it could depend on whether the woodchuck's mother-in-law was around or not. If she was, he'd be chucking all day. If not, he'd be watching the football game.

Q. What colour were the Little Mermaid's knickers
A. Trick question! She never wore any.

We all were soon moving our counters round the board, except George, who had the bad luck of being stuck with some real mind-bending stumpers; including 'Complete the name of this famous fashion house- Ralph ____?', 'Would you find an orang-u-tan in a) A Forest b)The Kitchen or c) Your girlfriends pants' (though even I had to admit that there was no SINGLE correct answer here), and 'Spell your name backwards'.

11.30 pm: Ruin and Destitution.
Well, my prodigious brainpower ensured I won the game, followed by Kuruvilla as a close second, leaving George at the end to mutter and curse gnaw at the board. He soon had his revenge however, as we moved on to monopoly next where my generous and giving nature soon left me bankrupt, and I was forced to steal money from Kumar by distracting him by pretending nude Scots girls were frolicking outside the window behind us.

12.15 am: Nightime Chills.
By that time we had pretty much demolished most of the alcohol we had brought in, and when I had to bring my face about 5 centimetres from the notes to read their denomination, I decided it was time to give up and turn in. The only problem was, when we reached our room it was freezing cold; colder than a witch's tits; to be colourful about it. Apparently, the lodge keeper had forgotten to turn up the heating in our room, as Kuruvilla, who was sleeping in a different dorm reported back that it was all toasty warm over there. After trying the 'panic' button on the counter several times with no luck, we resigned ourselves to dying from hypothermia that night.

12.45 am: A Romantic interlude thwarted.
Gupta and I immediately took the opportunity to announce that we would share the same bunk in the interest of 'sharing body heat', but that proposal was squashed immediately by the other homophobic prudes in our party. And that is INSPITE of the fact that we insisted we would be sharing ONLY body heat and nothing else. Apparently, getting frostbitten privates is infinitely preferable to doing anything vaguely 'gay'.

1.15 am: Dream Time.
Well, that was the end of the of a must enjoyable day 2, and I slowly dropped off into insensibility, with only my nose peeking out of the bedclothes.

More than what is.

Arthur C Clarke passed away today. He saw more than what is.

The Drive to Skye - Scotland Day 2 part 1

5.00 am: Coffee and Conversation at dawn.
I woke up around 5 am the next day, quite a bit woozy and disoriented, but driven out of bed by the realization that we had to leave as early as possible, and that none of the others would be up on time unless I woke them. In this, however, I was wrong, as Kuruvilla's bed was empty, and I saw her lying half comatose in the hall, having being awakened by a phone call from India. We felt much better once we got some caffeine in us, and we watched the spectacular sunrise over the harbour as we slowly sipped our coffee.

6.30 am: Where they were rudely awakened
The next challenge was waking up the other narcoleptic three. Gupta was up without too much of a fuss, but both George and Kumar, deeply dreaming of the women they could never get in real life, absolutely refused to get up. So I got Kuruvilla and Gupta to use the bathrooms (there were only two) first, while I woke the remaining too. I started work on George first. After a dint of much poking and prodding and guilt-trips, he finally sat up. My sigh of relief was premature however, as he saw Kumar snug under the duvet, and said - Wake him up first, and dropped straight back into his pillow. Okay, so I'll wake up Kumar, I thought. This was easier said than done as, for a skinny little skeleton; Kumar was surprisingly resistant to being woken up, clinging to his duvet and blanket and perverted dreams like a cross between a mule and a limpet.

7.00 am: Where I am tortured.
Oh, hang it all, I thought, and since one of the bathrooms were free by then, I in to start my toilet. Ahh, what could be more relaxing than a hot shower, especially when the climate is a bit nippy. I all but melted under the soothing jets of hot H2O, but quickly and rudely awakened when within five minutes the pleasant stream of water, became a FRIGID STREAM OF LIQUID ICE. Well, I should have seen that happening.

Remember guys, when there is a limited size boiler in the house, DO NOT LET THE GIRL TAKE THE FIRST BATH. Well, you can imagine the scene - me nekked and all soaped up cowering in the far corner, as far away from the stream of water which is so cold that it BURNED. From the other bathroom, a scream of pure anguish fell on my ears. I smiled sourly; apparently George had found the hot water had run out too.

I don’t want to recount how I managed to shower off the remaining soap off me, but I still dream about it sometimes. It haunts me. Kumar of course, having been the last person to get up did not have to suffer the agony of the temperature of the shower dropping from a pleasant 40 C to around 0 Kelvin. He simply opted not to have a bath, which worked out well for him, but forced the rest of us to spend that day travelling with our heads sticking out of the car window.

10 am: Last Moment Leaving Panic
After a hurried breakfast and a careful packing of the car, by which I mean throwing everything we had in the house in the back of the car, Kumar with great skill and resource lost the car keys. He made it seem so easy. Well, after a frantic ten minutes, where he panicked and jumped around like a castrated cockroach, we found the keys in his pocket, and checked out, and were off on our way, with Gupta at the wheel.

We found our way very easily this time, mostly due to my amazing memory and map reading skill, and were soon on our way to Fort William.

10.45 am: Loch, Stock and four smoking tyres.
We avoided the A90, and the bridge, which was apparently heavily crowded, but went west on the Glasgow road and merged onto the M9, which we left at Kildean to go on the A84.The A84/A82 is an amazingly scenic route, especially after Callander, after which we drove through several well wooded areas, and passed several Lochs with fascinating names like Loch Lubnaig, Loch Earn, Loch Tulla (with a turnoff to the ominous sounding Black Mountain), Lock Nah-Achlaise and Lock Ba.

We stopped at one of these lochs to take a few photographs and stretch our legs, and then we were off again. And here they are -

Remember, click on the slideshow to view them in detail. It's quite worth it, I promise you.

At Glencoe, we turned off our route to circle Loch Leven, passing Kinlochleven (a picturesque small town with amazing views), to reach the A82 again at North Ballachulish, after which we were on the Great Western Way, driving along the HUGE Loch Linhe, till we reached Fort William.

3.00 pm: Hunger Pangs

By this time I was trying to subdue a rebellion in the car, as except for Gupta and me, the remaining three were clamouring for their food. The worst was Kumar, who could hardly go an hour without shovelling some sort of sustenance into his gaping maw.

The trend went like this – about 15 minutes from the previous stop where Kumar had demolished a couple of burgers, he’d start to look uneasy. Twenty minutes in, and he’d be darting shifty sidelong glances at the rest of us, looking more starving coyote than human. Thirty minutes was usually the breaking point, at which point he would turn around and ask if anyone else was feeling hungry. Not that HE was feeling hungry, of course, he declares emphatically; but he just likes to be considerate. At which point I usually squelch him by pointing out that if we stopped as often as he would like, we would still be around the outskirts of Norfolk.

But it was late afternoon, by the time we reached Fort William, and I was afraid that forcing the troops any further without fuel would result in a lynch mob, so we pulled into the first parking we saw.

4.00 pm: Tourism = McDonalds.
Fort William was decent enough, but very touristy and commercial. Kuruvilla had been yearning for a McDonald’s burger for the past two hours, and Manish had to feed his pet tapeworm, so we went into the closest McDonalds. There were a large option of burgers with different kinds of meat, but unfortunately not the Haggis burger I had been hoping for. Surprisingly, there was not even one veggie option, so Gupta had to do with fries while he mumbled and cursed.

5.00 pm: A Drive at Dusk; The Isle of Skye.

It was mid-evening by the time we left Fort William, and we hurried along the Great Glen Way, another very scenic route, passing Loch Lochy, where we left the A82 at Invergarry to continue on the A87, Loch Garry and Loch Cluane. By this time it was getting pretty murky, and most of the occupants were comatose, twitching and muttering in their sleep. Loch Duch loomed out from the gloom, with the Eilean Donan castle eerily lighted up. This castle was where the Highlander movies were shot, and is as remote and beautiful as in the movies.

It was getting pretty dark by this time, and we finally reached the Kyle of Lochalsh, where we crossed a huge bridge and were finally on the Isle of Skye!

3004 and Counting

Wow. This has been the fastest 1000 hits; just took little over two months. The reason for that may be that I posted quite regularily in Jan, and consequently hit refresh on my blog a significant number of times. But anyways, for those of you who visited my blog: thanks a lot and do come again.

Well it's here - my 750 gig MyBook. People have read my last post and apparently I've come off greedy and avaricious. I don't know why; this latest purchase just brings the amount of storage space I travel with up to a measly 1.4 Tb. What I tell them, is that storage isn't everything - my old PC at home has a 2 Gb hdd. 2 Gb; phew, the RAM on my current laptop is double that size!

Well, all I can think of nowdays is my upcoming dSLR purchase. I've almost settled on the D60, and good news - Nikon has released a very affordable 55 - 200mm VR lens. And this makes me happy. Well, maybe I AM greedy.

Gadget Crazy!!

Have you ever experienced this? You're walking along the month, saving your money, investing prudently in stocks and IPOs, when suddenly you decide you need this gadget. The purchase is usually small, but suddenly it opens the floodgates and you find yourself buying more and more gadgets, till suddenly you find yourself friendless and left sitting in the bathtub in the dark and crooning to your gadgets while rocking softly.

It all started when my Seagate external 500 GB HDD began behaving weirdly. Rather than find the problem I decided this was the ideal time to buy that Western Digital MyBook I'd been yearning for. After some deliberation I settled on the 750 GB Home Edition which I deemed worthy to store my extensive and important data collection. The Home edition is similar to the basic Essential edition with the addition of a capacity gauge and a FireWire 400/ eSATA connection, which would help me when I connect it to my PC.

Okay so that was a mildly justifiable purchase. Not so the phone I'm now obsessed with buying. Am leaning v v heavily towards the N95 8GB. Now I know it looks like crap compared with it's older, sexier sibling, but the larger screen and improved battery life have sold me. But then the iPhone tries to steal me with its seductiveness. Or so my n00b friends would have me believe. But I have yet to consider other smart phones on the market. Or else hold out for that totally droolworthy N96. Yum. Of course it will probably cost me an arm and a leg and BOTH kidneys.

So the N95 8gig is the way to go. http://multimedia-cell-phone-review.toptenreviews.com/ bears me out. And if any of you think the iPhone is better plz to see the comparision here. And the comparision between the two models of the N95 is here.

But all this is just dross in front of my next planned purchase, as I just heard the Nikon D60 has finally come out which nearly caused me a technologically induced orgasm. And all of a sudden, the dSLR which I had always been planning to buy popped up bright and clear in my mind.

Now I am a total camera n00b, not knowing my f stops from my ISO setting. The only thing I DO know is that you haveta crouch down and take pics, so you LOOK professional, no matter that you dont know what you're doing ^_^. Anyways, this photographer friend of mine swears by Nikon, and shes pretty hot-shot, and this seems to bear her out. And of course the D60 adds a lot of stuff to its arsenal, not the least of which is the dust reduction system, white balance bracketing, and best of all it ships with a vibration reduction lens as standard, which will help a lot with those night shots. See what you get with the extra 50 quid over the D40x here.

Well, if you guys have some suggestions regarding the phone, or especially regarding the camera, please do comment. Is the D80 worth the exta money. Anything I haven't considered?