"Sun Arise" by Rolf Harris

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE



Another year gone! And what a year it has been. Good and bad. Good holidays with friends and family. Expanding my voluntary work in the community. New mountain bike. Big stock crash and everyone wondering when the bottom will be reached.

The last day of the year saw me taking an early walk up Benachie with my friend Harry R. The sun was just rising as we neared the summit with lovely views of the Garioch. Nice way to end 2008.

Yes, HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE

"Thank God It's Christmas" by Queen

Nearly Christmas already!

Where does the time go? Nearly Christmas and here we at the shortest day of the year. I managed to get a good walk up Benachie on the 9th December with my friends, John and Esmae.

I have been to a few Christmas Lunch parties too. Here we are at the TOTAL Pensioners Association party in Aberdeen. Santa looks pleased to see me.





On the 13th December the MCP01 boys got together for our annual bash at the Prince of Wales bar in Aberdeen follwed by a curry. Always a great event. Not everyone can make it every year but there is always a good turn out.

I cooked a special meal last week.. Slow cooked Leg of Lamb with butter beans. It was so good I am cooking it for New Year's dinner.










I also baked some Tipsy Cake and Sticky Toffee Pudding ready for the BIG FEED at Christmas. Here is a photo of the Sticky Toffee Pudding just coming out of the oven.



Nearly forgot to mention my new Bicycle.. a Cannondale F4. It will take the place of my trusted Marin that has taken me far and wide over the past ten years without fault.
The weather has been so poor I have only been out in it once since I bought it in October!
Remember -- you can always check my photo updates at Flickr... and there is a link to my Flickr web site on the right hand side of this page.

"Frosty the Snowman! by The Jackson Five

Well, I know its a bit early for Christmas stuff but the song fits with the theme.

First of all its 30th November so its St Andrew's Day in Scotland. CLICK here to read more about St Andrews Day.

Secondly, my good friend, Harry R and I took a walk in the Glen Tanar area in what was a very frosty, cold but sunny day. We walked about 15 miles is some beautiful scenery and we only met people near the end of our walk. Here is a slide show of our photos. PLEASE CLICK ON THE SPEAKER ICON TO HEAR THE MUSIC

Third place goes to last weeks weather when we were engulfed in about 30cm of snow here in Ellon. Here are a couple of photos to show what it was like. A few cars got stuck on the hill outside our house and I helped to unstick tone and send it on its way.



Lastly, We were in Glasgow on a short break to see our son Bruce and Aunt Jackie along with some shopping. The Glasgow Christmas Lights were switched on during our time there so here is a photo of them.

"Flower of Scotland" by the Corries

Scotland 41 - Canada 0.

A great day for all of us in Scotland!

On a bitterly cold day I went to the match at Pittodrie, Aberdeen and what a game. See review here by Mark Palmer of the Sunday Times.

Here I am with my friend Alan enjoying the spectacle.



To PLAY the Music from this slide show click on the speaker ICON to the left.

"Whiskey in the Jar" by Metallica

Two weeks ago we visited friends at Aberlour on the River Spey. This area is famous for its Whisky making with many distilleries in the area. Needless to say we stopped off at the Aberlour Distillery for a wee dram or two during our stay. Hence the music by Metallica although they are singing about American whiskey!

The weather was good with lots of sunshine.

Here are a few photos of the weekend.

"In a Big Country" by Big Country

Credit Crunch crimes

We have all "tightening our belts" recently mainly due to the fear of where to put your well earned money. I saw this on Yahoo News this morning and wondered that there must be an awful lot of LARGE people in the UK who are keen to loose a few kilograms but cannot afford to eat less! -- if you know what I mean... It certainly is bizar as Sarah Modlock writes in her article.

Here is what she writes:

"Even more bizarrely, the latest 'must-have' for shoplifters is Slim Fast shakes. Yes, really. The £7 six packs of the meal replacement drinks have been security-tagged after disappearing en masse from supermarket shelves."

Here are the Crimes that are on the increase:
Supermarket theft, Employee fraud,Allotment theft, Car insurance fraud, Petrol Diesel theft, Mortgage fraud, Travel insurance fraud & Burglaries.

Here is her article in full >> CLICK HERE <<
So be careful and don't be conned.

"That's Amore" by Dean Martin

Just back from a fab holiday in our Boxster travelling to the Italian Lakes. 3,200 miles return trip. Weather was changeable so some of the excursions on the road passes over the Alps had to be cancelled. Maybe next year?? The car ran all the way and back without missing a beat.

Link here to go to my Boxster BLOG. for many more photos and information.

From Italian Lakes

From Italian Lakes

"There's a Place" The Beatles

When cycling from Edzell to Aboyne in the North East of Scotland I came across this hamlet called Finzean. Well, how would you pronounce it? Is it as in Finzeen or Fintseen or maybe Finyeen. No, it is pronounced as FING-IN, as in sing-in. Here is an explanation of how the area got its name and pronunciation.

 

"Pictures In My Head" by Westlife

I guess most have you have noted that I have not been blogging for some time. I have been meaning to blog but it's been a busy summer and our weather here has been reasonable so I have been outside enjoying it and not updating my Blog. I have had Pictures in My Head but no time to post them here until now.

So .... > Here is some of what I have been up to in recent months.

Wedding in London At Kylie and Mark's wedding



Isle of Skye weekend
Weekend in Isle of Skye courtesy of PCGB, Boxster Group who were on the Scotland tour with us. Thanks everyone, we had a lovely, free, weekend staying at the Duisdale House Hotel. Click on the photos to open them in a new window.




A day in the hills around Balmoral
A fabulous day in the Scottish Mountains



Cycle Trip
From Aboyne to Edzell via Mount Keen. About 86 miles and over 3,000 feet of ascent! Thanks Harry for the company and to Harry2 for letting us use his accommodation.

Flowers need water and you can plenty of that in Scotland and the flowers are beautiful.

"The Bonnie Banks o' Loch Lomond" by the Corries

I've done it! Or should I say, we've done it! We managed to walk the 96 miles from Milngavie (Glasgow) to Fort William in 7 wonderful days on the West Highland Way.

I was helped along the way by Edith, John, Esmae and Lorna. Big thanks to you all for your company along the way. I also mention Jeff and his son for accompanying us during the walk and on some of our evening EATING exploits.

Here are some of the 750 photos taken by us along the way.

Just click on the slideshow below to open the album in Picasa.



I also found this BLOG on the WEB placed by Quimby Melton and friends from the USA CLICK HERE decribing their walk through the WHW. Thanks Guys.


This is a video of the Corries singing The Bonnie Banks o' Loch Lomond

"Sky Pilot" The Animals

Some friends and I are preparing to walk the West Highland Way soon so we decided to get fit and get some walking down prior to the long walks. Here are Esmea, John and I on a beautiful day at Loch Muick heading up to Broad Cairn.

Two weeks earlier we also walked up Lochnaggar that is in the same area. Here are some of these photos too for your interest.



Why did I use SKY PILOT as the Title? Some of you will know that I always use a song title as the Title and use it to loosely describe the content of the Blog entry. I have used this title because during the walk there is part of the path where you do feel like a bird soaring high above the hills and loch. There was also quite a bit of RAF activity in the area during the walk so it was quite a co-incidence when the song came on in my car iPod as I drove away. I must admit the lyrics don't really match up too much! BUT the flying bit does.

CLICK on the PLAY icon to listen to the song.

"Proud" by Heather Small

Well here I am being the proud father... EDITED on 29th June

After 2 years hard work at Glasgow School of Art here is Bruce's final submission for his 2 year course on Motion Graphics and achieving a Master of Philosophy degree. He graduates next Friday - 18th June.

Just click on the Play icon to watch and listlen to it.


Wired from Bruce Cameron on Vimeo.
.
Watch Bruce's Graduation on YouTube here<

.
Bruce was also an EXTRA in the drama series TAGGART and he appeared in an episode last week. Here he is from an edit I put on YouTube. See if you can make him out. He has long red hair! ,, and he is in the background of each shot.



Grant, my other son also obtained his HND in computers along with being the "Student of the Year". SO we are very please for both of our boys.

AND here is the song by M People.....

"On the Road Again" by Deana Carter

Boxster Tour of Scotland 2008

TURN ON YOUR SPEAKERS


We had another great time this year with the Porsche Club on the West of Scotland Boxster Club tour. The weather was the best that I have ever seen for the full week. Up to 27C most days! Certainly "TOP DOWN" weather.

This is the third time I have organised this event and everyone enjoyed it so much they would like me to organise another one next year. Maybe.

For a slideshow of more photos link here

"Lazy Days" by Enya

Back to Nerja, Spain, again this year for the third time. Eight of us went this year and we had a fun time. Food was good, weather was best it has been and the company was great.

"Snow ((Hey Oh))" by the Red Hot Chilly Peppers

Another walk ... This week I walked up Ben Rinnes with friends, Esmae, John and Edith

Ben Rinnes is ... well, here is an extract from Wikipedia, "Ben Rinnes (Scottish Gaelic: Beinn Ruaidhneis) at (841m/2,759ft) is a mountain in the region of Moray, Scotland. The mountain is popular with hikers with the sight from the summit that is described as truly amazing. At the summit you can see 8 counties (Aberdeenshire, Banffshire, Moray, Nairnshire, Inverness-shire, Ross and Cromarty, Sutherland, and Caithness) and on a clear day even the Moray coast. Another draw for the hiker are the waterfalls from the many rivers that flow down the mountain such as Linn of Ruthie."

As you will see in my photos we could not see much of the surrounding counties as there was a lot of snow about but it was great fun.

For more information on Ben Rinnes visit Friends of Ben Rinnes by clicking here