Just realised I haven’t blogged about my jaunt up Ben Lomond last year. Well I did but a couple of short paragraphs doesn’t really cover it. It was a crazy day after all.

It started with the seven of us planning the trip and gradually realising the weather was going to possibly scupper all our plans. Alex ended up pulling out due to a case of the lurgy and one of Willie’s mates gave up as well. In all honesty we possibly should have as well with hind sight.

I guess the first sign that the day wasn’t going to go we the way we planned appeared when we started driving up the east bank of Loch Lomond. Forget the rain we encountered on the way up there. It was definitely the fallen trees on the road that gave the biggest hint.

The rain held off as we got our gear together but thanks to a few errors in the layout of the roads and land *cough* I couldn’t read my map */cough* it took us five minutes which included a walk up a forest road that went nowhere near the summit before we realised we had to head back to the car park to find the real path.

The initial going was good. The weather was a bit crap though. One minute it rained the next it stopped but the wind just didn’t let up. We would get completely soaked by the rain and then by the time it stopped and started again we would have been blown dry. As we started to reach about a third of the way up we really started to struggle with the wind. It gets a little steep at this point and as the hillside is completely exposed once you get pass the tree line at the beginning it started to take it’s toll. Mark decided he just couldn’t go any further. I don’t know if it was the wind or just his body telling him that despite the energy drinks he was stupid to go any further but he was the first to head back and with hindsight I think that’s when we all should have turned back.

The wind didn’t let up at all throughout the climb and in fact just got worse. I read the weather reports when we got back and for most of the climb the wind was gusting at up to 50 miles per hour. Dave and Stoo were determined to at least make it to the half way point which to there credit they did. There is a well about halfway up on the map which they made it passed before they turned back. I don’t know why but I stood for a few minutes shouting to Dave to make sure he knew what to do if something was to happen to them on the way down. I guess it was because although we all had radios with us the mobile phone reception up there is sporadic at best and almost all the survival and first aid gear was either in my own bag or Willie’s ruck sack.

So we pressed on. At times the wind would just hit us constantly for a few minutes and we’d just stand there leaning into it hoping for it to let up long enough for us to walk another couple of hundred yards before the next gust. It was round about this point that we started to meet a few other climbers as they caught up with us. We’d only seen one other person on the hill up until then and he had shot ahead with his dog and you could see his outline as he made a break for the summit. They all seemed nuts if truth be told. We stopped for a quick rest just as it starts to get really steep and rocky just before you turn back around and start the last leg up to the summit. Willie stopped for a breather and I carried on to see how far I could get before I stopped for a bite to eat to let him catch up.

That’s when I bumped into they guy with the dog again. He was on his way back down after reaching the summit and said it was insane up there. As I found out later it was gusting at up to 90 miles an hour up there. He waited until the wind died down before running between rocks and then holding on until the wind died down again. He almost lost his dog three times thanks to the wind apparently. I pushed on and got to within what I thought at the time was about 400 yards from the summit but after looking again at the map it was probably twice that I turned back. It was just stupid to carry on. I took my last picture looking out over the lochs behind the mountain and the camera’s battery died. It’s was definitely a sign.

It turned out Willie had actually decided just to wait where he had stopped hoping that I’d turn back as well. I eventually made it back down to him and just like when I climbed Ben Nevis there was a spring in my step on the way back down. Where we struggled to walk up the damn hill we were almost running down the thing. The worst bit was still to come however.

When we reached the bottom we found out that the hotel was without power. A tree had been blown over and took out both the power and phone lines. Normally that wouldn’t be a problem except all the way back down the hill all we could think about was a nice warm meal and a pint of beer. The kitchen was shut and the beer pumps wouldn’t work without power. We were stuck with warm bottled beer or cans of soft drinks and a scone.

We will be back to do it again when the weather gets better and there are plans afoot to hit The Cobbler in March in preparation. Fingers crossed the weather works out for us next time!

Tags: Ben Lomond, Dave Hogg, hills, Mark, outdoors, rain, Scotland, Stoo, walking, weather, Willie, wind

Originally published at The Apochrypha. Please leave any comments there.

So the weddings almost here and despite setbacks with the airsoft day we settled on going on a subcrawl. Not a lot of planning is required other than turn up on time which as you’ll see is where we went wrong from the get go.

The day before Vonnie had managed to secure us babysitters as the original plan was I went out on my stag night the previous weekend while she went on her hen night on Saturday night. This meant Vonnie was on the go from quite early on but it meant we both got to go out. And then on Friday night something happened that meant our babysitters couldn’t look after the kids. This left us with a problem as they were our last hope. I managed to get my parents to look after the kids from the afternoon onwards but we needed someone to cover the first few hours and we just couldn’t get anyone. Vonnie kept trying right up until I was due to leave without success.

So anyway the girls came round to start off the hen night at our house while I packed up the kids and waited to hear from my mum. The original plans were for my mum to come and pick them up and my brother and I could head off into Glasgow straight away but when she phoned and Vonnie passed on what was happening I picked her up wrong. I was actually supposed to take them down to my parents but instead I ran about the place stressed because my mum hadn’t turned up yet. It turned out that I didn’t have the kids ready anyway until we did actually leave so the delays were my fault entirely.

So anyway on to the day. Mark and Dave had headed in to town early on to get breakfast with the idea of meeting us at 12 noon. I think we actually ended up getting into Fat Boab’s Ale House in St Enoch Square for 3pm. There goes the day right from the beginning. We had a choice to make. Scrap the subcrawl and just make it a normal pub crawl, attempt the subcrawl anyway knowing there was noway we’d actually finish it as the subway shuts at 11pm or jump ahead a few stations and just continue as if we’d started at noon as planned.

The last option won out and it wasn’t until we were actually on the train that it was decided to start at Ibrox. It was actually in the Stadium Bar that I came up with the idea on how i could record the night. I was going to review the toilets of every pub we went into that night. Not the best idea I’ll grant you but it was fun whilst I could make out the text on my phone as I typed them up as we left.

So anyway here goes on what I remember.

St. Enoch - Started of at Fat Boabs for the first pint of the day. We wandered in and I almost died. I wanted to by this place so I wouldn’t have to change the name back when I was a student and they were playing really crap 70’s pop music. My heart actually bled.

Ibrox - The Stadium bar was the pub of choice seeing as we were to busy trying to get indoors and away from the multitude of police that were about. This was where I thought of the toilet reviews as when I went in it was like any normal Southside pub I’ve been in except there was literally an inch of mould on the pipes under the urinals and it came out a good foot onto the floor. Ick. Nice enough place despite it looking like a cowshed inside.

Govan - Next stop was Brechan’s. It was quiet when we went in but by the time we were almost finished it was full of pissed old men. As for the toilets, the sign said mind the step. What it didn’t say was mind the step and oh by the way is bloody sloped as well so you might want to watch that. I almost ended up face first in a pool of piss on the floor.

Partick - Hayburn Vaults. What can I say about this place other than two guys tried to accost me when I went to the toilet because one of them wanted me to back him in a fight with the other one and the other wanted the same. They were at least 70! Oh and the toilets smelt like a colostomy bag.

Kelvinhall - The Three Judges. Small but bus. This was where I was given my Groucho-style fake nose and glasses. One of the other subcrawl groups going about found it hilarious that I had one on my t-shirt so made me wear it for photos. The bogs smelt of flowers but were absolutely tiny. This was Willie’s first pub of the crawl.

Hillhead - We ended up in Vodka Wodka on Ashton Lane. Not the busiest place on a Saturday night. There was about 9 folk in there and most of them were us. Still…at least the toilets were interesting. The disabled toilet opens up into the guys toilet for some reason and some girl was in there trying to sneek peeks just as we left.

Kelvinbridge - This is where it starts to go a little fuzzy for me. I haven’t a clue what the pub was called and all that I remember about it was there was an elephant skull thing hanging from one of the walls. The toilets were huge though!

St George Cross - This one took a bit of finding but we managed to find The Royalty. The regulars were a good laugh and despite the look of the pub the toilets were sparkling :p I think this was the place where Willie fell down the hole. Walking back to the tube station he just dropped by a few foot as he went down the hole in the street. Was ery surreal and something that only ever happens to Willie.

Cowcaddens - I believe we were in MacIntoshes and I say that because I’ve only got my phone as proof. This was the second one we had to hunt for. Its also where Barry joined us but it involved me running around to Trader Joes to get him which in itself was a feat. Firstly I could still run and secondly I could remember where it was despite only ever being there once. And lastly and more importantly I managed to find the pub we were in on the way back!

Buchanan Street - I believe we went in to Waxy OConners despite me meaning to go to The Vale. I believe this is my fault because someone asked where we should go and I stumbled in the back door.

‘Closing the Circle’ - Although we didn’t do the full crawl we still felt as though we had to go back to where we started. This involved braving Fat Boabs again. They had Kareoke on. I hate Kareoke. I refuse to sing Kareoke. After about 3 drinks in there Willie and Barry dragged me up with barely a struggle from me. I couldn’t tell you what we sang. I don’t think I could tell you when we were singing it what we sang.

I have to say I had a great night but feeling sick before you head home never mind when your in your bed sets you up for a bad hangover.

No tag for this post.

Tags: ale, Barry, Buchanan Street, Dave, Enoch Square, Glasgow, Mark, Southside pub, St Enoch Square, Stadium Bar, Willie

Originally published at The Apochrypha. Please leave any comments there.

I did something on Saturday night that I said I would never do and had never done before. I played Guitar Hero III.

I’ve always seen these games and though they looked that cheap and tacky and really had no game play worth commenting on. So much so that I’ve actually in the past been dumbfounded as its popularity.

So I was tricked into going over to Dave’s on Saturday night under the illusion that we would be playing xbox games. I’ve no idea why I thought it would be the Xbox though rather than the 360 Dave has. Anyway we all went over beforehand to hand wedding invites to Dave, Lynn, Mark and Clare and by the we’d got home, put the kids/Vonnie to bed, walked the dog and got back over they were already firing through GH III on co-op.

I reckon i picked it up not badly on easy once I’d had a few songs under my belt but to get a bit of competition going on we ended up going head to head on the hard setting I think. I didn’t have a chance bearing in mind I was just getting used to the three buttons never mind all five!

And do you know what? I loved it. Nothing much to do with the music or the game but its frustrating enough that it wants to drag you back again and again until you get it right. If it didn’t cost so much I’d have went to the shops on Sunday morning and bought a copy for my Wii!

No tag for this post.

Tags: Clare, Dave, Guitar Hero III, Lynn, Mark

Originally published at The Apochrypha. Please leave any comments there.

I hope, HOPE, to get the grouting finished enough tonight that over the weekend we can get the showercurtain up and actually use the shower we’ve had installed.

Seriously, I’ve never been in a situation where I couldnt get an hour to do something becuase theres so much else going on that generally I don’t get to sit down, relax and do something I want to do until 9pm. This manifested itself in my building of paper airplanes for the kids last night at 8.30pm. I think I promised them I’d make them more tonight if the weather was nice.

In other news *touches wood* Erica seems to be settling down a bit better now. Shes occasionally sleeping for more than an hour at a time and is actually getting up to 5 hours sleep without a feed on occasion. With her record thats amazing. Add in to that she seems to be generally happier in herself these days as well. Fair enough when she screams it usually goes on for a bit but generally this is because shes like Nairn and just doesnt want to miss anything and ends up overtired. Shes been great for Vonnie these past few days so I’m led to believe.

In other baby news belated congrats to Mark and Clare on the birth of Beth on Monday!

No tag for this post.

Tags: Clare, Mark

We were due to get up early to tidy the flat and be in a state to go get Mark and Clares couch early doors. A mix up with Vonnie’s mum however meant that she couldnt get that van and we had to wangle her dad’s huge van from him. This meant we were running late for that and Mark and Clare decided to go through to Airsoft Scotland to pickup some gas and shooting glasses earlier than planned and sort the couches out later on.

Mark had pilfered a sat nav from work so we follwed that rather than start off the journey ourselves. It ened up taking us through Cambuslang and onto the M74 only to get us stuck in roadworks at Bothwell services for 2 and a half hours. Clare wasnt happy and by the time we nicked out at the services and got out of Bothwell she was ready to launch the thing out of the window under a passing artic. Eventually got to the shop which appears to be the only shop in the town and purchased the things were were through for then headed home. It was about 6.30 by the time we hit EK I think when we should have been back by 3.30pm!

Vonnie went and got the van and it took about 10 minutes to get teh couches out of Mark and Clares house and we were expecting 20-30 minutes to get them into the flat. The bloody things wouldnt fit through the living room door!
In the end it took 2 hours to get them in and it involved takeing the door and half the doorframe off. Clare kindly looked after Nairn during this time and I think its drove her to never want a kid ever. I can only thank you guys for your help and we’re really sorry everything took so long and ruined everyones night.

I think I collapsed about 10pm when my hangover stopped and sleep kicked in.

Tags: Clare, Mark

Woke up to head into work early to get the day over with. Couldnt find the cards from my parents so left them until I got home.

Had a shite day at work though made the mistake of telling Lesley it was my birthday and so by lunchtime I had a birthday card sitting on my keyboard when I came back from the walk I took in an effort to wake myself up.

Gave up just before 4 to go home and relax and have a quite night in. Couldnt think of anything I wanted more than an early night after being up all night with Finn.

Got home and took Nairn from Vonnie to give her a rest. Sat down on my PC and had a quick look at my regular sites then VOnnie had a go at me. She was very stressed and I had no real idea why. Eventually got it out of her that Mark and Clare were coming over to drop in a present and she was fedup with folk coming over to see our livingroom as a tip. So I cleared the living room for her and tidied a bit of the bathroom while she washed the dishes and stuff. Eventually she cracked again at my slowness and explained that a few folk were coming over for a couple of drinks later on which gave me a kick in the arse. We eventually got the place tidied and managed a shower each just before folk arrived.

Surprisingly I had a great night, might have been to do with the vodka jelly mind you, and thanks to everyone for coming along. Not seen a few of you guys in along while. And thanks to Vonnie and Clare for organising it.

Tags: Clare, Mark, Vonnie

OK..I promised Vonnie I’d update last night but other things cropped up and I forgot :S

So New Year…

Dave had planned his Hoggmany party for ages and Steve was trying to get us to go over to his seeing Kats pregnant as well and it would be a quiet night. If I was going anywhere it would have been the Hoggmeisters but as fate would have it both myself and Vonnie sat inthe living room wrapped in duvets struggling to stay awake to see the bells whilst Finn jumped about like crazy. Only an Excuse and Chewing the Fat were passable this year but that was about it. Turned the TV over to BBC2 to catch Jools Hollands New Year Hootinany or whatever he calls it for the bells. Always a good show that one although he always has the most famous unknowns you’ll ever see on British TV at some point in the show. Just as the bells hit fireworks started going off around our flat so we woke up a little and sat and watched them from the window for 20 mins before dragging Finn to bed and collapsing ourselves.

Saturday past was Mark’s birthday and so he held X-LAN 2 at his house for the lads to go around and have a laugh for the day.Thankfully we didnt touch HALO whilst I was there as I despise the game but Stoo talked Mark into running Splinter Cell which as a multiplayer game amongst us I really enjoyed. Not sure I fancy it as a single player game or an Xbox live game with folk I dont know in other parts of the world though.

After leaving Marks I headed into Glasgow with Vonnie to meet Papazeb for a few drinks as it was his last night out and Vonnie still hadnt met him yet. I’d intended to have a couple of drinks then have an early night but thanks to the range of bourbon on offer in Stavka I got slightly tipsy and vonnie handed me another 30 quid to keep going.

Ended up leaving about 30 mins after Vonnie left though as I really didnt want to go on to the Garage. Got some food, missed the ‘last’ 16, hada 30 min wait for the 18, gave up and phoned a taxi, just as the taxi turned up the 16 went past, got told when I got in the cab thatthe festive fares were still in operation and thought 1/3 onto 12 quid is still only 16 quid which I had on me, got out the taxi at Dunedin as it had hit 18 quid already on the meter which meant it would be at least 20 quid by the time I got to the flat, just as I got out the taxi the 66 went past and the heavens opened. Fuck that…I think someone was telling me I shouldnt have bothered going out at all!

Oh and I bought an Xbox. For those that know me and my hatred for the things…he made me do it! *Points at random person out the window*

Tags: food, Glasgow, Hoggmany party, LAN, Mark, New Year's Day, Oh and I, Vonnie

1)Was 2005 a good year for you?
Both good and bad. The good outweighs the bad though.

2) What was your favorite moment of the year?
Hearing my soon to be son’s heartbeat after rushing across glasgow for an emergency scan because the doc couldnt find it.

3) What was your least favorite moment of the year?
I’d have said the doc not finding the baby’s heartbeat but that lead to much happiness afterwards. It’s a toss up between seeing Vonnie crack up through not knowing what was happening with the flat and being unable to do anything about it and Susie telling me there was no friendship left. Neither were very good.

4) Where were you when 2005 began?
In a drunken heap on Mark and Clare’s floor txting Vonnie.

5) Who were you with?
Most folk…it was a party and M&C’s

6) Where will you be when 2005 ends?
Most likely it will be a quite one in the flat.

7) Who will you be with when 2005 ends?
Vonnie and Finn

Did you keep your new years resolution of 2005?
I dont make resolutions..i just make promises. I promised to sort my life out and I did. Never imagined it would turn out like it did but I’m not complaining

9) Do you have a new years resolution for 2006?
nope

10) Did you fall in love in 2005?
Quite simply, yes.

11) If yes, with who?
Vonnie

12) If yes, do they know?
Yes

13) Are you still in love with them?
yes.

14) Do regret it?
No.

15) Did you breakup with anyone in 2005?
Yes and No. I’d broke up with Susie way before the end of last year but I decided to stop trying to get back with her on New Years day.

16) Did you make any new friends in 2005?
A lot more than I thought I ever would.

17) Who are your favorite new friends?
Shug and Jen though I dont get to see them enough

18) What was your favorite month of 2005?
June…I had a great summer!

19) Did you travel outside of the UK in 2005?
Only in my head.

20) How many different states did you travel to in 2005?
2…awake and unconcious

21) Did you lose anybody close to you in 2005?
No.

Tags: Clare, Mark, United Kingdom

So…catch up again. Why do I always seem to be playing catch up?

Mark and Willie came round to the flat on friday night for a beer or two while Vonnie was out with her friends for what will probably be the last time before the baby appears. Had a good laugh but with Willie having to get a lift home it was quite an early night for all concerned. Think Mark got to see teh pilot of The A-Team for the first time ever as I dont think he was aware someone else played Face. Stag night plans were discussed along with possible travel arrangements. Turns out some places abroad are a hell of alot cheaper than heading to places in the UK!

Weekend plans were to do nothing. I had Barry’s 30th on saturday night which I was having trouble getting to as we were having trouble finding a babysitter for Finn. Vonnie had forgot this and had got 2 tickets to see the Bloodhound gang in the hope we could find a sitter as well. So…we managed to find a sitter and went to the gig. The idea being the gig finishes at 10 and we were only popping by Barry’s party to say hi anyway as we’re skint. Didn’t quite work out like that though. Gig was good despite missing the opening act because we got lost in Cranhill. Electric Eel Shock blew us away before the Bloodhound Gang did their usual on the stage. By the time the gig finished Barry hadnt got back to me with what was happening after his party so myself, Mark, Willie and Rev headed to the cathouse for a couple of hours. Between the 4 of us only one person paid thanks to guestlists and PIYP’s so a cheap night was had. Still didnt hear anything and have vague memories of my phone going at the back of 2 but I’ve no idea who it was as I’ve only just remembered about it and I havent touched my phone all weekend! In fact I forgot it this morning as well

Sunday was spent vegging on the PC, tidying the flat up alittle and ‘better’ organising the stuff in teh living room so we can acess it a bit easier to unpack as well as taking up less room…we have all our seats free again! I then spent the night sitting in front of the TV watching my Teachers Series 1 DVD’s.

And now if you’ll excuse me my lunchhour is finished so I’d better get back to the mess I left behind on my desk from before I went on leave. I’ve not stopped all day

Tags: Barry, Mark, possible travel arrangements, United Kingdom, Willie

Last night was good fun. Willie has to make a short film for his Uni course and after last years film was mostly done by Kev its his turn now to take charge.

He’d got so far with the planning of the film but got to a point last night where he’d ran out of ideas and basically said, “right…what do you guys want to do now”. We eventually came up with a few ideas that might work and filmed them and refilmed a couple of bits so theyd fit. Im curious to see how this works out as they want to film it over a few days so theyve got plenty of time to relax and edit it into something that looks good. Just as we finished though Willie let us into a secret about how he might reshoot the ending as he’s got a werewolf, zombie an police ending he’d like to do as well as one where Big Rab the Malkie gets to off Mark in a deserted street which should be good

Not had such a laugh in ages but I was really late getting home. Was hoping to be there about 9-10ish rather than the 11.30 that I ended up getting home at (I think) Took some pics last night as well and when I get round to uploading them they’ll be here if anyone cares to have a look

Also found out that the electrician Mark and Clare are using is a guy I used to go to school with, Andy Brown. Was a bit surreal to see him after all those years

Tags: Andy Brown, Clare, Mark