I'm going to ask a totally OT travel advice question because everyone would rather talk about coffee machines and a very personal argument I'm not really following or basically anything except Andy Burnham.
I've got a week free in Europe in September, Berlin at one end and Amsterdam at the other and just need to hang out somewhere in between. I'll mostly be working instead of running around committing tourism but I want somewhere that's just an interesting place to be for a week or so, preferably a single flight up to 3/4 hours long from both Berlin and Amsterdam and a few hours travel max from the airport (train or rentacar or whatever). UK/France/Belgium/Holland/Germany are out because I've been to them too much before. Somewhere that's kind of a bargain because it's a little bit out-of-season is also good.
Where to go?
Bled (Slovenia) if you like chilling by a lake and/or a bit of walking - easy to get out of the main touristy bit, even on foot. Cheap transfer from Ljubljana.
Aeolian islands, but likely too much faff to get to - don't know whether there are diect flights to Sicily, but you still have to cross Sicily and then get a boat.
Edit: And second? Love and peaceful thoughts to all
How recent is the Slovenia tip? Cos tourism there just exploded 2016-18
Personally I am going riding in Sicily for a week in June and then want to spend a week there with a car. If I want to start in Syracuse and end up at Palermo do PBers recommend driving round the bottom, round the top or across the middle? bearing in mind I will have seen a bit of the interior (Madonie to Etna) from my horse.
On a similar question, by youngest daughter has recently got a real bee in her bonnet about going to Scotland. She wants to see a mountain and a castle and a Highland Cow. Which is all very nice, but she is only seven and too small for munro bagging or too much history all in one go. Still, I'd like to take her (and her sisters, 10 and 12, and my wife) to Scotland in October. Somewhere with things to do for moderately active pre-teen girls, and somewhere where they can take in the scale of the place and be suitably awestruck. Any thoughts?
I would suggest Glencoe. It has an excellent castle, the hidden valley is not too strenuous a walk and the countryside is probably the best in the UK (if you like mountains). The visitor centre is quite good too.
And if you stay at Kingshouse, she can have the best experience of Scottish midges!
(I think they've renovated the Kingshouse Hotel in the last few years; anyone know if it's lost its (ahem) character?
When I have been over there in recent years I have stayed at the Isles of Glencoe hotel which is good and has a brilliant location. When I was much younger and into hillwalking we once camped out in the glen in late summer. I am not sure what the bastards ate before I came along.
What is it with Scotland and midges? I’ve been to Denmark, Sweden, Ireland etc in summer and not really experienced anything similar yet they share latitud and climate (or maybe I just got lucky)
If you want a truly shocking insect experience Siberia in summer is up there, or the tsetse flies of Kafue, Zambia. Special
I always hear people talking about the midge problem, but honestly in all my travels to the west coast I have NEVER experienced it. I don't know what you are all eating, but you're all obviously much sweeter than me.
I used to say the same. And I’ve been to the Hebrides many many times
Then one day they spotted me. They’ve never let me go since. Strange
I once met an Englishwoman living in a beautiful house in an amazing location on Skye (near dunvegan). She had a full on midge cope cage
She absolutely hated Skye. The loneliness, the darkness, the drizzle, the people turning to sodomy in the winter out of sheer boredom. And the midges. Lord, she hated the midges
One of the most unhappy people I’ve ever met. It really matters - where you live
What a shame, since Skye is a beautiful place. The issue I have with it is the sheer number of tourists. The opposite problem: not lonely enough.
I think she and her husband made the classic mistake
Went there for a summer holiday, hit nice weather, fell in love with the beauty - checked property prices (as they were) - and thought Yes! Perfect place to retire!! Sold their southern English home etc
He still loved it. She loathed it with a vengeance as I say. She’s probably killed him by now
Never ever move somewhere without experiencing it at its WORST - not best
I’ve done a winter week on Skye. Nothing could induce me to move there permanently, despite the amazingness. Of course many would say the same about london…
We had a near-midsummer holiday on Shetland, all over the place (including meeting up with my colleague who is a native). Okay, almost light all day and most of the night, but in winter? You'd need a hobby like building those model ships with about five million miniature blocks to be rove.
And this was a little after the disastrous storm-stranding of the Braer, whose wreck was still there in the bat to the west. I remember walking down the southern headland parallel to Sumburgh Head and noting the houses spaced out along the road. Every single one had a great sector of its roof in completely new tiles. I was thinking, what's it like in the mostly dark in winter, having your roof ripped off and being sprayed with a mix of sea water and crude oil?
Shetland needs trees. Those rooves wouldn't fly away if there's a bank of trees acting as a windbreak. But where are all the trees?
In Orkney, it's the rooves that act as the windbreak. I remember only two woods in the whole archipelago - both centuries old.
This one, it's worse than a C of E school catchment in bird nesting season - I have never seen a wood so crowded
Are there plans to increase that (would seen to be a good idea), given wider programmes, or has someone in authority decided that being windswept is the essential heritage character of the place?
Dunno, sorry.
It’s a good question tho. Are the tree-less wastes of Scotland meant to be like that?
The Caledonian forest suggests not. But then again, the endless, mournful winds on Shetland and Orkney …
Samuel Johnson commented more than 250 years ago that "A tree might be a show in Scotland as a horse in Venice." In fairness though, he was never very nice about Scotland.
He was very surprised the locals were so nice to him ...
I'm going to ask a totally OT travel advice question because everyone would rather talk about coffee machines and a very personal argument I'm not really following or basically anything except Andy Burnham.
I've got a week free in Europe in September, Berlin at one end and Amsterdam at the other and just need to hang out somewhere in between. I'll mostly be working instead of running around committing tourism but I want somewhere that's just an interesting place to be for a week or so, preferably a single flight up to 3/4 hours long from both Berlin and Amsterdam and a few hours travel max from the airport (train or rentacar or whatever). UK/France/Belgium/Holland/Germany are out because I've been to them too much before. Somewhere that's kind of a bargain because it's a little bit out-of-season is also good.
Where to go?
Bled (Slovenia) if you like chilling by a lake and/or a bit of walking - easy to get out of the main touristy bit, even on foot. Cheap transfer from Ljubljana.
Aeolian islands, but likely too much faff to get to - don't know whether there are diect flights to Sicily, but you still have to cross Sicily and then get a boat.
Edit: And second? Love and peaceful thoughts to all
How recent is the Slovenia tip? Cos tourism there just exploded 2016-18
Personally I am going riding in Sicily for a week in June and then want to spend a week there with a car. If I want to start in Syracuse and end up at Palermo do PBers recommend driving round the bottom, round the top or across the middle? bearing in mind I will have seen a bit of the interior (Madonie to Etna) from my horse.
On a similar question, by youngest daughter has recently got a real bee in her bonnet about going to Scotland. She wants to see a mountain and a castle and a Highland Cow. Which is all very nice, but she is only seven and too small for munro bagging or too much history all in one go. Still, I'd like to take her (and her sisters, 10 and 12, and my wife) to Scotland in October. Somewhere with things to do for moderately active pre-teen girls, and somewhere where they can take in the scale of the place and be suitably awestruck. Any thoughts?
I would suggest Glencoe. It has an excellent castle, the hidden valley is not too strenuous a walk and the countryside is probably the best in the UK (if you like mountains). The visitor centre is quite good too.
And if you stay at Kingshouse, she can have the best experience of Scottish midges!
(I think they've renovated the Kingshouse Hotel in the last few years; anyone know if it's lost its (ahem) character?
When I have been over there in recent years I have stayed at the Isles of Glencoe hotel which is good and has a brilliant location. When I was much younger and into hillwalking we once camped out in the glen in late summer. I am not sure what the bastards ate before I came along.
What is it with Scotland and midges? I’ve been to Denmark, Sweden, Ireland etc in summer and not really experienced anything similar yet they share latitud and climate (or maybe I just got lucky)
If you want a truly shocking insect experience Siberia in summer is up there, or the tsetse flies of Kafue, Zambia. Special
I always hear people talking about the midge problem, but honestly in all my travels to the west coast I have NEVER experienced it. I don't know what you are all eating, but you're all obviously much sweeter than me.
I used to say the same. And I’ve been to the Hebrides many many times
Then one day they spotted me. They’ve never let me go since. Strange
I once met an Englishwoman living in a beautiful house in an amazing location on Skye (near dunvegan). She had a full on midge cope cage
She absolutely hated Skye. The loneliness, the darkness, the drizzle, the people turning to sodomy in the winter out of sheer boredom. And the midges. Lord, she hated the midges
One of the most unhappy people I’ve ever met. It really matters - where you live
What a shame, since Skye is a beautiful place. The issue I have with it is the sheer number of tourists. The opposite problem: not lonely enough.
I think she and her husband made the classic mistake
Went there for a summer holiday, hit nice weather, fell in love with the beauty - checked property prices (as they were) - and thought Yes! Perfect place to retire!! Sold their southern English home etc
He still loved it. She loathed it with a vengeance as I say. She’s probably killed him by now
Never ever move somewhere without experiencing it at its WORST - not best
I’ve done a winter week on Skye. Nothing could induce me to move there permanently, despite the amazingness. Of course many would say the same about london…
We had a near-midsummer holiday on Shetland, all over the place (including meeting up with my colleague who is a native). Okay, almost light all day and most of the night, but in winter? You'd need a hobby like building those model ships with about five million miniature blocks to be rove.
And this was a little after the disastrous storm-stranding of the Braer, whose wreck was still there in the bat to the west. I remember walking down the southern headland parallel to Sumburgh Head and noting the houses spaced out along the road. Every single one had a great sector of its roof in completely new tiles. I was thinking, what's it like in the mostly dark in winter, having your roof ripped off and being sprayed with a mix of sea water and crude oil?
Shetland needs trees. Those rooves wouldn't fly away if there's a bank of trees acting as a windbreak. But where are all the trees?
In Orkney, it's the rooves that act as the windbreak. I remember only two woods in the whole archipelago - both centuries old.
This one, it's worse than a C of E school catchment in bird nesting season - I have never seen a wood so crowded
Are there plans to increase that (would seen to be a good idea), given wider programmes, or has someone in authority decided that being windswept is the essential heritage character of the place?
Dunno, sorry.
It’s a good question tho. Are the tree-less wastes of Scotland meant to be like that?
The Caledonian forest suggests not. But then again, the endless, mournful winds on Shetland and Orkney …
Areas of South Uist, last time we visited, had tree-planting schemes. Deer fences and signs up saying this was the natural state fom years back and being re-forested for biodiversity. Looked like there had been little follow through after initial planting, saplings looked in a sorry state and we saw deer wandering around. But suggestion that the lack of trees was a human thing.
Trying to remember exactly where this was. Somewhere on the east side of S Uist, I'm pretty sure. I can picture it perfectly, but I cannot place it. There is at least one coniferous wood on N Uist. Which always seem to look a bit alien in the landscape, given how the rest of it is.
I’ve been over mailonline twice, it must be there somewhere 🤷♀️ Isn’t this the week Starmer gets hounded everywhere “are you going to resign if you get a FPN you fucking hypocrite?”
What’s going on? Do you think the police would investigate a missing Beergate?
I'm going to ask a totally OT travel advice question because everyone would rather talk about coffee machines and a very personal argument I'm not really following or basically anything except Andy Burnham.
I've got a week free in Europe in September, Berlin at one end and Amsterdam at the other and just need to hang out somewhere in between. I'll mostly be working instead of running around committing tourism but I want somewhere that's just an interesting place to be for a week or so, preferably a single flight up to 3/4 hours long from both Berlin and Amsterdam and a few hours travel max from the airport (train or rentacar or whatever). UK/France/Belgium/Holland/Germany are out because I've been to them too much before. Somewhere that's kind of a bargain because it's a little bit out-of-season is also good.
Where to go?
Bled (Slovenia) if you like chilling by a lake and/or a bit of walking - easy to get out of the main touristy bit, even on foot. Cheap transfer from Ljubljana.
Aeolian islands, but likely too much faff to get to - don't know whether there are diect flights to Sicily, but you still have to cross Sicily and then get a boat.
Edit: And second? Love and peaceful thoughts to all
How recent is the Slovenia tip? Cos tourism there just exploded 2016-18
Personally I am going riding in Sicily for a week in June and then want to spend a week there with a car. If I want to start in Syracuse and end up at Palermo do PBers recommend driving round the bottom, round the top or across the middle? bearing in mind I will have seen a bit of the interior (Madonie to Etna) from my horse.
On a similar question, by youngest daughter has recently got a real bee in her bonnet about going to Scotland. She wants to see a mountain and a castle and a Highland Cow. Which is all very nice, but she is only seven and too small for munro bagging or too much history all in one go. Still, I'd like to take her (and her sisters, 10 and 12, and my wife) to Scotland in October. Somewhere with things to do for moderately active pre-teen girls, and somewhere where they can take in the scale of the place and be suitably awestruck. Any thoughts?
I would suggest Glencoe. It has an excellent castle, the hidden valley is not too strenuous a walk and the countryside is probably the best in the UK (if you like mountains). The visitor centre is quite good too.
And if you stay at Kingshouse, she can have the best experience of Scottish midges!
(I think they've renovated the Kingshouse Hotel in the last few years; anyone know if it's lost its (ahem) character?
When I have been over there in recent years I have stayed at the Isles of Glencoe hotel which is good and has a brilliant location. When I was much younger and into hillwalking we once camped out in the glen in late summer. I am not sure what the bastards ate before I came along.
What is it with Scotland and midges? I’ve been to Denmark, Sweden, Ireland etc in summer and not really experienced anything similar yet they share latitud and climate (or maybe I just got lucky)
If you want a truly shocking insect experience Siberia in summer is up there, or the tsetse flies of Kafue, Zambia. Special
I always hear people talking about the midge problem, but honestly in all my travels to the west coast I have NEVER experienced it. I don't know what you are all eating, but you're all obviously much sweeter than me.
I used to say the same. And I’ve been to the Hebrides many many times
Then one day they spotted me. They’ve never let me go since. Strange
I once met an Englishwoman living in a beautiful house in an amazing location on Skye (near dunvegan). She had a full on midge cope cage
She absolutely hated Skye. The loneliness, the darkness, the drizzle, the people turning to sodomy in the winter out of sheer boredom. And the midges. Lord, she hated the midges
One of the most unhappy people I’ve ever met. It really matters - where you live
What a shame, since Skye is a beautiful place. The issue I have with it is the sheer number of tourists. The opposite problem: not lonely enough.
I think she and her husband made the classic mistake
Went there for a summer holiday, hit nice weather, fell in love with the beauty - checked property prices (as they were) - and thought Yes! Perfect place to retire!! Sold their southern English home etc
He still loved it. She loathed it with a vengeance as I say. She’s probably killed him by now
Never ever move somewhere without experiencing it at its WORST - not best
I’ve done a winter week on Skye. Nothing could induce me to move there permanently, despite the amazingness. Of course many would say the same about london…
We had a near-midsummer holiday on Shetland, all over the place (including meeting up with my colleague who is a native). Okay, almost light all day and most of the night, but in winter? You'd need a hobby like building those model ships with about five million miniature blocks to be rove.
And this was a little after the disastrous storm-stranding of the Braer, whose wreck was still there in the bat to the west. I remember walking down the southern headland parallel to Sumburgh Head and noting the houses spaced out along the road. Every single one had a great sector of its roof in completely new tiles. I was thinking, what's it like in the mostly dark in winter, having your roof ripped off and being sprayed with a mix of sea water and crude oil?
Shetland needs trees. Those rooves wouldn't fly away if there's a bank of trees acting as a windbreak. But where are all the trees?
In Orkney, it's the rooves that act as the windbreak. I remember only two woods in the whole archipelago - both centuries old.
This one, it's worse than a C of E school catchment in bird nesting season - I have never seen a wood so crowded
Are there plans to increase that (would seen to be a good idea), given wider programmes, or has someone in authority decided that being windswept is the essential heritage character of the place?
Dunno, sorry.
It’s a good question tho. Are the tree-less wastes of Scotland meant to be like that?
The Caledonian forest suggests not. But then again, the endless, mournful winds on Shetland and Orkney …
Areas of South Uist, last time we visited, had tree-planting schemes. Deer fences and signs up saying this was the natural state fom years back and being re-forested for biodiversity. Looked like there had been little follow through after initial planting, saplings looked in a sorry state and we saw deer wandering around. But suggestion that the lack of trees was a human thing.
Trying to remember exactly where this was. Somewhere on the east side of S Uist, I'm pretty sure. I can picture it perfectly, but I cannot place it. There is at least one coniferous wood on N Uist. Which always seem to look a bit alien in the landscape, given how the rest of it is.
Rum's been steadily replanted since I got to know it in the 1970s, and it's as much of a wet desert as anywhere else - (c) Frank Fraser Darling of course.
I'm going to ask a totally OT travel advice question because everyone would rather talk about coffee machines and a very personal argument I'm not really following or basically anything except Andy Burnham.
I've got a week free in Europe in September, Berlin at one end and Amsterdam at the other and just need to hang out somewhere in between. I'll mostly be working instead of running around committing tourism but I want somewhere that's just an interesting place to be for a week or so, preferably a single flight up to 3/4 hours long from both Berlin and Amsterdam and a few hours travel max from the airport (train or rentacar or whatever). UK/France/Belgium/Holland/Germany are out because I've been to them too much before. Somewhere that's kind of a bargain because it's a little bit out-of-season is also good.
Where to go?
Bled (Slovenia) if you like chilling by a lake and/or a bit of walking - easy to get out of the main touristy bit, even on foot. Cheap transfer from Ljubljana.
Aeolian islands, but likely too much faff to get to - don't know whether there are diect flights to Sicily, but you still have to cross Sicily and then get a boat.
Edit: And second? Love and peaceful thoughts to all
How recent is the Slovenia tip? Cos tourism there just exploded 2016-18
Personally I am going riding in Sicily for a week in June and then want to spend a week there with a car. If I want to start in Syracuse and end up at Palermo do PBers recommend driving round the bottom, round the top or across the middle? bearing in mind I will have seen a bit of the interior (Madonie to Etna) from my horse.
On a similar question, by youngest daughter has recently got a real bee in her bonnet about going to Scotland. She wants to see a mountain and a castle and a Highland Cow. Which is all very nice, but she is only seven and too small for munro bagging or too much history all in one go. Still, I'd like to take her (and her sisters, 10 and 12, and my wife) to Scotland in October. Somewhere with things to do for moderately active pre-teen girls, and somewhere where they can take in the scale of the place and be suitably awestruck. Any thoughts?
I would suggest Glencoe. It has an excellent castle, the hidden valley is not too strenuous a walk and the countryside is probably the best in the UK (if you like mountains). The visitor centre is quite good too.
And if you stay at Kingshouse, she can have the best experience of Scottish midges!
(I think they've renovated the Kingshouse Hotel in the last few years; anyone know if it's lost its (ahem) character?
When I have been over there in recent years I have stayed at the Isles of Glencoe hotel which is good and has a brilliant location. When I was much younger and into hillwalking we once camped out in the glen in late summer. I am not sure what the bastards ate before I came along.
What is it with Scotland and midges? I’ve been to Denmark, Sweden, Ireland etc in summer and not really experienced anything similar yet they share latitud and climate (or maybe I just got lucky)
If you want a truly shocking insect experience Siberia in summer is up there, or the tsetse flies of Kafue, Zambia. Special
I always hear people talking about the midge problem, but honestly in all my travels to the west coast I have NEVER experienced it. I don't know what you are all eating, but you're all obviously much sweeter than me.
I used to say the same. And I’ve been to the Hebrides many many times
Then one day they spotted me. They’ve never let me go since. Strange
I once met an Englishwoman living in a beautiful house in an amazing location on Skye (near dunvegan). She had a full on midge cope cage
She absolutely hated Skye. The loneliness, the darkness, the drizzle, the people turning to sodomy in the winter out of sheer boredom. And the midges. Lord, she hated the midges
One of the most unhappy people I’ve ever met. It really matters - where you live
What a shame, since Skye is a beautiful place. The issue I have with it is the sheer number of tourists. The opposite problem: not lonely enough.
I think she and her husband made the classic mistake
Went there for a summer holiday, hit nice weather, fell in love with the beauty - checked property prices (as they were) - and thought Yes! Perfect place to retire!! Sold their southern English home etc
He still loved it. She loathed it with a vengeance as I say. She’s probably killed him by now
Never ever move somewhere without experiencing it at its WORST - not best
I’ve done a winter week on Skye. Nothing could induce me to move there permanently, despite the amazingness. Of course many would say the same about london…
We had a near-midsummer holiday on Shetland, all over the place (including meeting up with my colleague who is a native). Okay, almost light all day and most of the night, but in winter? You'd need a hobby like building those model ships with about five million miniature blocks to be rove.
And this was a little after the disastrous storm-stranding of the Braer, whose wreck was still there in the bat to the west. I remember walking down the southern headland parallel to Sumburgh Head and noting the houses spaced out along the road. Every single one had a great sector of its roof in completely new tiles. I was thinking, what's it like in the mostly dark in winter, having your roof ripped off and being sprayed with a mix of sea water and crude oil?
Shetland needs trees. Those rooves wouldn't fly away if there's a bank of trees acting as a windbreak. But where are all the trees?
In Orkney, it's the rooves that act as the windbreak. I remember only two woods in the whole archipelago - both centuries old.
This one, it's worse than a C of E school catchment in bird nesting season - I have never seen a wood so crowded
Are there plans to increase that (would seen to be a good idea), given wider programmes, or has someone in authority decided that being windswept is the essential heritage character of the place?
Dunno, sorry.
It’s a good question tho. Are the tree-less wastes of Scotland meant to be like that?
The Caledonian forest suggests not. But then again, the endless, mournful winds on Shetland and Orkney …
Lots of factors determine whether trees will grow. Average temperature. Annual rainfall. Salt (sea spray). There is a tree line in mountains for a reason. Whether the treeless nature in Shetland etc is natural can be debated. However mans hand must be implicated - wood is just so damn useful, and annoyingly slow growing.
Most of it down to arsehole rich foreigners buying up land and using it for grouse and deer
Been struggling with my success rate on Quordle, so I got together a standard first 4 words covering 20 separate letters and that has been helping. (I don't necessarily have to use all 4).
I'll leave it at that, and let anyone interested imagine or come up with 4 such five letter words if they fancy.
I generally start Wordle with 'Early' and Quordle with 'Early, Pitch, Mound'. That covers the vowels and generally enough to get me going.
My 4 seed words are stage, drown, flick and humpy. I started from quick brown fox and adapted from there.
If anyone can manage 5 x 5 letter words covering 25 letters (not that it'd be an especially good Quordle strategy), if that is even possible, I'd be rather impressed.
SPOILER WARNING
This is quoted from Reddit, and imo it does slightly reduce the fun.
-------------- I'll only quote two lists of 5, but there are about 10.
This is normal English words:
CHUNK FJORD GYMPS VIBEX WALTZ (all standard English words)
I'm going to ask a totally OT travel advice question because everyone would rather talk about coffee machines and a very personal argument I'm not really following or basically anything except Andy Burnham.
I've got a week free in Europe in September, Berlin at one end and Amsterdam at the other and just need to hang out somewhere in between. I'll mostly be working instead of running around committing tourism but I want somewhere that's just an interesting place to be for a week or so, preferably a single flight up to 3/4 hours long from both Berlin and Amsterdam and a few hours travel max from the airport (train or rentacar or whatever). UK/France/Belgium/Holland/Germany are out because I've been to them too much before. Somewhere that's kind of a bargain because it's a little bit out-of-season is also good.
Where to go?
Bled (Slovenia) if you like chilling by a lake and/or a bit of walking - easy to get out of the main touristy bit, even on foot. Cheap transfer from Ljubljana.
Aeolian islands, but likely too much faff to get to - don't know whether there are diect flights to Sicily, but you still have to cross Sicily and then get a boat.
Edit: And second? Love and peaceful thoughts to all
How recent is the Slovenia tip? Cos tourism there just exploded 2016-18
Personally I am going riding in Sicily for a week in June and then want to spend a week there with a car. If I want to start in Syracuse and end up at Palermo do PBers recommend driving round the bottom, round the top or across the middle? bearing in mind I will have seen a bit of the interior (Madonie to Etna) from my horse.
On a similar question, by youngest daughter has recently got a real bee in her bonnet about going to Scotland. She wants to see a mountain and a castle and a Highland Cow. Which is all very nice, but she is only seven and too small for munro bagging or too much history all in one go. Still, I'd like to take her (and her sisters, 10 and 12, and my wife) to Scotland in October. Somewhere with things to do for moderately active pre-teen girls, and somewhere where they can take in the scale of the place and be suitably awestruck. Any thoughts?
I would suggest Glencoe. It has an excellent castle, the hidden valley is not too strenuous a walk and the countryside is probably the best in the UK (if you like mountains). The visitor centre is quite good too.
And if you stay at Kingshouse, she can have the best experience of Scottish midges!
(I think they've renovated the Kingshouse Hotel in the last few years; anyone know if it's lost its (ahem) character?
When I have been over there in recent years I have stayed at the Isles of Glencoe hotel which is good and has a brilliant location. When I was much younger and into hillwalking we once camped out in the glen in late summer. I am not sure what the bastards ate before I came along.
What is it with Scotland and midges? I’ve been to Denmark, Sweden, Ireland etc in summer and not really experienced anything similar yet they share latitud and climate (or maybe I just got lucky)
If you want a truly shocking insect experience Siberia in summer is up there, or the tsetse flies of Kafue, Zambia. Special
I always hear people talking about the midge problem, but honestly in all my travels to the west coast I have NEVER experienced it. I don't know what you are all eating, but you're all obviously much sweeter than me.
I used to say the same. And I’ve been to the Hebrides many many times
Then one day they spotted me. They’ve never let me go since. Strange
I once met an Englishwoman living in a beautiful house in an amazing location on Skye (near dunvegan). She had a full on midge cope cage
She absolutely hated Skye. The loneliness, the darkness, the drizzle, the people turning to sodomy in the winter out of sheer boredom. And the midges. Lord, she hated the midges
One of the most unhappy people I’ve ever met. It really matters - where you live
What a shame, since Skye is a beautiful place. The issue I have with it is the sheer number of tourists. The opposite problem: not lonely enough.
I think she and her husband made the classic mistake
Went there for a summer holiday, hit nice weather, fell in love with the beauty - checked property prices (as they were) - and thought Yes! Perfect place to retire!! Sold their southern English home etc
He still loved it. She loathed it with a vengeance as I say. She’s probably killed him by now
Never ever move somewhere without experiencing it at its WORST - not best
I’ve done a winter week on Skye. Nothing could induce me to move there permanently, despite the amazingness. Of course many would say the same about london…
We had a near-midsummer holiday on Shetland, all over the place (including meeting up with my colleague who is a native). Okay, almost light all day and most of the night, but in winter? You'd need a hobby like building those model ships with about five million miniature blocks to be rove.
And this was a little after the disastrous storm-stranding of the Braer, whose wreck was still there in the bat to the west. I remember walking down the southern headland parallel to Sumburgh Head and noting the houses spaced out along the road. Every single one had a great sector of its roof in completely new tiles. I was thinking, what's it like in the mostly dark in winter, having your roof ripped off and being sprayed with a mix of sea water and crude oil?
Shetland needs trees. Those rooves wouldn't fly away if there's a bank of trees acting as a windbreak. But where are all the trees?
In Orkney, it's the rooves that act as the windbreak. I remember only two woods in the whole archipelago - both centuries old.
This one, it's worse than a C of E school catchment in bird nesting season - I have never seen a wood so crowded
Are there plans to increase that (would seen to be a good idea), given wider programmes, or has someone in authority decided that being windswept is the essential heritage character of the place?
Dunno, sorry.
It’s a good question tho. Are the tree-less wastes of Scotland meant to be like that?
The Caledonian forest suggests not. But then again, the endless, mournful winds on Shetland and Orkney …
Lots of factors determine whether trees will grow. Average temperature. Annual rainfall. Salt (sea spray). There is a tree line in mountains for a reason. Whether the treeless nature in Shetland etc is natural can be debated. However mans hand must be implicated - wood is just so damn useful, and annoyingly slow growing.
Found a pine sapling above Loch Etchachan last year. Looks like the plateau could end up looking like the stunted forests on the tops of the hills in the US, Norway etc
@turbotubbs - this is exactly the reason why Remain lost the referendum - there is no counterbalance to free movement reducing wages between 2004 and 2016. Maybe Remainers would have felt different if we would have imported a better quality of MP between 2004 and 2016, a better quality of journalist - this is what Remainers cannot ever get their head around that free movement was the biggest transfer of wealth from poor to rich and you never hear the left squeal about this at all.
I have had 3 glasses of raki and I am looking at a beautiful woman who has just sloughed off the swimming pool and now she flops face down in the sun and the beads of poolwater on her firm, tanned buttocks look like silver beads of mercury on immortal bronze
I'm going to ask a totally OT travel advice question because everyone would rather talk about coffee machines and a very personal argument I'm not really following or basically anything except Andy Burnham.
I've got a week free in Europe in September, Berlin at one end and Amsterdam at the other and just need to hang out somewhere in between. I'll mostly be working instead of running around committing tourism but I want somewhere that's just an interesting place to be for a week or so, preferably a single flight up to 3/4 hours long from both Berlin and Amsterdam and a few hours travel max from the airport (train or rentacar or whatever). UK/France/Belgium/Holland/Germany are out because I've been to them too much before. Somewhere that's kind of a bargain because it's a little bit out-of-season is also good.
Where to go?
Bled (Slovenia) if you like chilling by a lake and/or a bit of walking - easy to get out of the main touristy bit, even on foot. Cheap transfer from Ljubljana.
Aeolian islands, but likely too much faff to get to - don't know whether there are diect flights to Sicily, but you still have to cross Sicily and then get a boat.
Edit: And second? Love and peaceful thoughts to all
How recent is the Slovenia tip? Cos tourism there just exploded 2016-18
Personally I am going riding in Sicily for a week in June and then want to spend a week there with a car. If I want to start in Syracuse and end up at Palermo do PBers recommend driving round the bottom, round the top or across the middle? bearing in mind I will have seen a bit of the interior (Madonie to Etna) from my horse.
On a similar question, by youngest daughter has recently got a real bee in her bonnet about going to Scotland. She wants to see a mountain and a castle and a Highland Cow. Which is all very nice, but she is only seven and too small for munro bagging or too much history all in one go. Still, I'd like to take her (and her sisters, 10 and 12, and my wife) to Scotland in October. Somewhere with things to do for moderately active pre-teen girls, and somewhere where they can take in the scale of the place and be suitably awestruck. Any thoughts?
I would suggest Glencoe. It has an excellent castle, the hidden valley is not too strenuous a walk and the countryside is probably the best in the UK (if you like mountains). The visitor centre is quite good too.
And if you stay at Kingshouse, she can have the best experience of Scottish midges!
(I think they've renovated the Kingshouse Hotel in the last few years; anyone know if it's lost its (ahem) character?
When I have been over there in recent years I have stayed at the Isles of Glencoe hotel which is good and has a brilliant location. When I was much younger and into hillwalking we once camped out in the glen in late summer. I am not sure what the bastards ate before I came along.
What is it with Scotland and midges? I’ve been to Denmark, Sweden, Ireland etc in summer and not really experienced anything similar yet they share latitud and climate (or maybe I just got lucky)
If you want a truly shocking insect experience Siberia in summer is up there, or the tsetse flies of Kafue, Zambia. Special
I always hear people talking about the midge problem, but honestly in all my travels to the west coast I have NEVER experienced it. I don't know what you are all eating, but you're all obviously much sweeter than me.
I used to say the same. And I’ve been to the Hebrides many many times
Then one day they spotted me. They’ve never let me go since. Strange
I once met an Englishwoman living in a beautiful house in an amazing location on Skye (near dunvegan). She had a full on midge cope cage
She absolutely hated Skye. The loneliness, the darkness, the drizzle, the people turning to sodomy in the winter out of sheer boredom. And the midges. Lord, she hated the midges
One of the most unhappy people I’ve ever met. It really matters - where you live
What a shame, since Skye is a beautiful place. The issue I have with it is the sheer number of tourists. The opposite problem: not lonely enough.
I think she and her husband made the classic mistake
Went there for a summer holiday, hit nice weather, fell in love with the beauty - checked property prices (as they were) - and thought Yes! Perfect place to retire!! Sold their southern English home etc
He still loved it. She loathed it with a vengeance as I say. She’s probably killed him by now
Never ever move somewhere without experiencing it at its WORST - not best
I’ve done a winter week on Skye. Nothing could induce me to move there permanently, despite the amazingness. Of course many would say the same about london…
We had a near-midsummer holiday on Shetland, all over the place (including meeting up with my colleague who is a native). Okay, almost light all day and most of the night, but in winter? You'd need a hobby like building those model ships with about five million miniature blocks to be rove.
And this was a little after the disastrous storm-stranding of the Braer, whose wreck was still there in the bat to the west. I remember walking down the southern headland parallel to Sumburgh Head and noting the houses spaced out along the road. Every single one had a great sector of its roof in completely new tiles. I was thinking, what's it like in the mostly dark in winter, having your roof ripped off and being sprayed with a mix of sea water and crude oil?
Shetland needs trees. Those rooves wouldn't fly away if there's a bank of trees acting as a windbreak. But where are all the trees?
In Orkney, it's the rooves that act as the windbreak. I remember only two woods in the whole archipelago - both centuries old.
This one, it's worse than a C of E school catchment in bird nesting season - I have never seen a wood so crowded
Are there plans to increase that (would seen to be a good idea), given wider programmes, or has someone in authority decided that being windswept is the essential heritage character of the place?
Dunno, sorry.
It’s a good question tho. Are the tree-less wastes of Scotland meant to be like that?
The Caledonian forest suggests not. But then again, the endless, mournful winds on Shetland and Orkney …
Samuel Johnson commented more than 250 years ago that "A tree might be a show in Scotland as a horse in Venice." In fairness though, he was never very nice about Scotland.
He was very surprised the locals were so nice to him ...
It needs to be quite systematic, I think - partially because of a high deer population in the UK, including Skye and W. Scotland as hot spots, which I think causes a lot of damage to young trees.
I am not clear whether sheep have a similar impact on young trees.
I have had 3 glasses of raki and I am looking at a beautiful woman who has just sloughed off the swimming pool and now she flops face down in the sun and the beads of poolwater on her firm, tanned buttocks look like silver beads of mercury on immortal bronze
@turbotubbs - this is exactly the reason why Remain lost the referendum - there is no counterbalance to free movement reducing wages between 2004 and 2016. Maybe Remainers would have felt different if we would have imported a better quality of MP between 2004 and 2016, a better quality of journalist - this is what Remainers cannot ever get their head around that free movement was the biggest transfer of wealth from poor to rich and you never hear the left squeal about this at all.
I think you may have linked me into a different conversation?
I have had 3 glasses of raki and I am looking at a beautiful woman who has just sloughed off the swimming pool and now she flops face down in the sun and the beads of poolwater on her firm, tanned buttocks look like silver beads of mercury on immortal bronze
Re Quordle: I don't think you need to get all the letters out in the first four goes. Frankly, a starting set of PRINT, MOUSE, CHALK usually enough (as today) to get the words on rounds 4, 5, 6, 7. Only occasionally does one need 8 or 9.
I have had 3 glasses of raki and I am looking at a beautiful woman who has just sloughed off the swimming pool and now she flops face down in the sun and the beads of poolwater on her firm, tanned buttocks look like silver beads of mercury on immortal bronze
@turbotubbs - this is exactly the reason why Remain lost the referendum - there is no counterbalance to free movement reducing wages between 2004 and 2016. Maybe Remainers would have felt different if we would have imported a better quality of MP between 2004 and 2016, a better quality of journalist - this is what Remainers cannot ever get their head around that free movement was the biggest transfer of wealth from poor to rich and you never hear the left squeal about this at all.
Remain lost for lots of reasons. Simplistically believing it was one hobbyhorse is well, simplistic.
I'm going to ask a totally OT travel advice question because everyone would rather talk about coffee machines and a very personal argument I'm not really following or basically anything except Andy Burnham.
I've got a week free in Europe in September, Berlin at one end and Amsterdam at the other and just need to hang out somewhere in between. I'll mostly be working instead of running around committing tourism but I want somewhere that's just an interesting place to be for a week or so, preferably a single flight up to 3/4 hours long from both Berlin and Amsterdam and a few hours travel max from the airport (train or rentacar or whatever). UK/France/Belgium/Holland/Germany are out because I've been to them too much before. Somewhere that's kind of a bargain because it's a little bit out-of-season is also good.
Where to go?
Bled (Slovenia) if you like chilling by a lake and/or a bit of walking - easy to get out of the main touristy bit, even on foot. Cheap transfer from Ljubljana.
Aeolian islands, but likely too much faff to get to - don't know whether there are diect flights to Sicily, but you still have to cross Sicily and then get a boat.
Edit: And second? Love and peaceful thoughts to all
How recent is the Slovenia tip? Cos tourism there just exploded 2016-18
Personally I am going riding in Sicily for a week in June and then want to spend a week there with a car. If I want to start in Syracuse and end up at Palermo do PBers recommend driving round the bottom, round the top or across the middle? bearing in mind I will have seen a bit of the interior (Madonie to Etna) from my horse.
On a similar question, by youngest daughter has recently got a real bee in her bonnet about going to Scotland. She wants to see a mountain and a castle and a Highland Cow. Which is all very nice, but she is only seven and too small for munro bagging or too much history all in one go. Still, I'd like to take her (and her sisters, 10 and 12, and my wife) to Scotland in October. Somewhere with things to do for moderately active pre-teen girls, and somewhere where they can take in the scale of the place and be suitably awestruck. Any thoughts?
I would suggest Glencoe. It has an excellent castle, the hidden valley is not too strenuous a walk and the countryside is probably the best in the UK (if you like mountains). The visitor centre is quite good too.
And if you stay at Kingshouse, she can have the best experience of Scottish midges!
(I think they've renovated the Kingshouse Hotel in the last few years; anyone know if it's lost its (ahem) character?
When I have been over there in recent years I have stayed at the Isles of Glencoe hotel which is good and has a brilliant location. When I was much younger and into hillwalking we once camped out in the glen in late summer. I am not sure what the bastards ate before I came along.
What is it with Scotland and midges? I’ve been to Denmark, Sweden, Ireland etc in summer and not really experienced anything similar yet they share latitud and climate (or maybe I just got lucky)
If you want a truly shocking insect experience Siberia in summer is up there, or the tsetse flies of Kafue, Zambia. Special
I always hear people talking about the midge problem, but honestly in all my travels to the west coast I have NEVER experienced it. I don't know what you are all eating, but you're all obviously much sweeter than me.
I used to say the same. And I’ve been to the Hebrides many many times
Then one day they spotted me. They’ve never let me go since. Strange
I once met an Englishwoman living in a beautiful house in an amazing location on Skye (near dunvegan). She had a full on midge cope cage
She absolutely hated Skye. The loneliness, the darkness, the drizzle, the people turning to sodomy in the winter out of sheer boredom. And the midges. Lord, she hated the midges
One of the most unhappy people I’ve ever met. It really matters - where you live
What a shame, since Skye is a beautiful place. The issue I have with it is the sheer number of tourists. The opposite problem: not lonely enough.
I think she and her husband made the classic mistake
Went there for a summer holiday, hit nice weather, fell in love with the beauty - checked property prices (as they were) - and thought Yes! Perfect place to retire!! Sold their southern English home etc
He still loved it. She loathed it with a vengeance as I say. She’s probably killed him by now
Never ever move somewhere without experiencing it at its WORST - not best
I’ve done a winter week on Skye. Nothing could induce me to move there permanently, despite the amazingness. Of course many would say the same about london…
We had a near-midsummer holiday on Shetland, all over the place (including meeting up with my colleague who is a native). Okay, almost light all day and most of the night, but in winter? You'd need a hobby like building those model ships with about five million miniature blocks to be rove.
And this was a little after the disastrous storm-stranding of the Braer, whose wreck was still there in the bat to the west. I remember walking down the southern headland parallel to Sumburgh Head and noting the houses spaced out along the road. Every single one had a great sector of its roof in completely new tiles. I was thinking, what's it like in the mostly dark in winter, having your roof ripped off and being sprayed with a mix of sea water and crude oil?
Shetland needs trees. Those rooves wouldn't fly away if there's a bank of trees acting as a windbreak. But where are all the trees?
In Orkney, it's the rooves that act as the windbreak. I remember only two woods in the whole archipelago - both centuries old.
This one, it's worse than a C of E school catchment in bird nesting season - I have never seen a wood so crowded
Are there plans to increase that (would seen to be a good idea), given wider programmes, or has someone in authority decided that being windswept is the essential heritage character of the place?
Dunno, sorry.
It’s a good question tho. Are the tree-less wastes of Scotland meant to be like that?
The Caledonian forest suggests not. But then again, the endless, mournful winds on Shetland and Orkney …
Samuel Johnson commented more than 250 years ago that "A tree might be a show in Scotland as a horse in Venice." In fairness though, he was never very nice about Scotland.
He was very surprised the locals were so nice to him ...
When you go to Iona it makes you think when you reflect that not only has Columba been there, but so has Samuel Johnson and John Keats.
I have had 3 glasses of raki and I am looking at a beautiful woman who has just sloughed off the swimming pool and now she flops face down in the sun and the beads of poolwater on her firm, tanned buttocks look like silver beads of mercury on immortal bronze
I'm going to ask a totally OT travel advice question because everyone would rather talk about coffee machines and a very personal argument I'm not really following or basically anything except Andy Burnham.
I've got a week free in Europe in September, Berlin at one end and Amsterdam at the other and just need to hang out somewhere in between. I'll mostly be working instead of running around committing tourism but I want somewhere that's just an interesting place to be for a week or so, preferably a single flight up to 3/4 hours long from both Berlin and Amsterdam and a few hours travel max from the airport (train or rentacar or whatever). UK/France/Belgium/Holland/Germany are out because I've been to them too much before. Somewhere that's kind of a bargain because it's a little bit out-of-season is also good.
Where to go?
Bled (Slovenia) if you like chilling by a lake and/or a bit of walking - easy to get out of the main touristy bit, even on foot. Cheap transfer from Ljubljana.
Aeolian islands, but likely too much faff to get to - don't know whether there are diect flights to Sicily, but you still have to cross Sicily and then get a boat.
Edit: And second? Love and peaceful thoughts to all
How recent is the Slovenia tip? Cos tourism there just exploded 2016-18
Personally I am going riding in Sicily for a week in June and then want to spend a week there with a car. If I want to start in Syracuse and end up at Palermo do PBers recommend driving round the bottom, round the top or across the middle? bearing in mind I will have seen a bit of the interior (Madonie to Etna) from my horse.
On a similar question, by youngest daughter has recently got a real bee in her bonnet about going to Scotland. She wants to see a mountain and a castle and a Highland Cow. Which is all very nice, but she is only seven and too small for munro bagging or too much history all in one go. Still, I'd like to take her (and her sisters, 10 and 12, and my wife) to Scotland in October. Somewhere with things to do for moderately active pre-teen girls, and somewhere where they can take in the scale of the place and be suitably awestruck. Any thoughts?
I would suggest Glencoe. It has an excellent castle, the hidden valley is not too strenuous a walk and the countryside is probably the best in the UK (if you like mountains). The visitor centre is quite good too.
And if you stay at Kingshouse, she can have the best experience of Scottish midges!
(I think they've renovated the Kingshouse Hotel in the last few years; anyone know if it's lost its (ahem) character?
When I have been over there in recent years I have stayed at the Isles of Glencoe hotel which is good and has a brilliant location. When I was much younger and into hillwalking we once camped out in the glen in late summer. I am not sure what the bastards ate before I came along.
What is it with Scotland and midges? I’ve been to Denmark, Sweden, Ireland etc in summer and not really experienced anything similar yet they share latitud and climate (or maybe I just got lucky)
If you want a truly shocking insect experience Siberia in summer is up there, or the tsetse flies of Kafue, Zambia. Special
I always hear people talking about the midge problem, but honestly in all my travels to the west coast I have NEVER experienced it. I don't know what you are all eating, but you're all obviously much sweeter than me.
I used to say the same. And I’ve been to the Hebrides many many times
Then one day they spotted me. They’ve never let me go since. Strange
I once met an Englishwoman living in a beautiful house in an amazing location on Skye (near dunvegan). She had a full on midge cope cage
She absolutely hated Skye. The loneliness, the darkness, the drizzle, the people turning to sodomy in the winter out of sheer boredom. And the midges. Lord, she hated the midges
One of the most unhappy people I’ve ever met. It really matters - where you live
What a shame, since Skye is a beautiful place. The issue I have with it is the sheer number of tourists. The opposite problem: not lonely enough.
I think she and her husband made the classic mistake
Went there for a summer holiday, hit nice weather, fell in love with the beauty - checked property prices (as they were) - and thought Yes! Perfect place to retire!! Sold their southern English home etc
He still loved it. She loathed it with a vengeance as I say. She’s probably killed him by now
Never ever move somewhere without experiencing it at its WORST - not best
I’ve done a winter week on Skye. Nothing could induce me to move there permanently, despite the amazingness. Of course many would say the same about london…
In my view, London is at its worst under a high pressure system in summer. The choking heat, the grime that greases everything. I can take London when it's cool or when the wind blows, but those hot, still days you want to get out to a riverside pub upwind of all the cars. Marlow. Wokingham. Oxford.
I know exactly what you mean but you can always escape to the many marvellous parks
For me it is at its worst from mid January to late February
The darkness. The sense that winter will never end. The damp spiteful cold as you walk home from the pub. A night bus coughs fumes. The litter blows in a frigid wind and the junkies shout in their desperation
This is probably why I have fled london and the UK in winter for the last 15 years without fail. Apart from lockdown 3 - when I nearly killed myself
In all seriousness that sounds very like Seasonal Affective Disorder or SADs which my daughter suffers from. She needs winter sun as well or she becomes seriously ill. A blue ultraviolet light is supposed to help.
Oh, I’m sure I have SAD. It’s a real thing.
I bought one of those lamps in lockdown 3. If it helped it was marginal
The only “cure” is actual warm sunshine. Or heroin
Ha, you have my sympathy. (Or not - since you're now able to evade it by going to a more forgiving latitude). I think I get SAD, a bit - the only way I have dealt with it is to approach it head on. Embrace the bleakness. Celebrate that we live at such an improbably northerly latitude (and hence improbably seasonal) - less than 2% of the world's population live north of Manchester. Goggle in amazement at weather forecasts which show an unchanging four degrees, overcast, for every hour for the next three days. And tick the days of January off as imperceptibly dawn edges back before 8am. The first thing I do at work every day in January is check the sunrise time, in the same way that through coronavirus I would obsessively check the figures. A reassurance through the darkest days that things are getting brighter. To misquote the tramp under the railway bridge in 24 Hour Party People, quoting Boethius, It's my belief that the English year is a wheel. "Inconsistency is my very essence" -says the wheel- "Rise up on my spokes if you like, but don't complain when you are cast back down into the depths. Good times pass away, but then so do the bad. Mutability is our tragedy, but it is also our hope. The worst of times, like the best, are always passing away".
If humans can marvel at the pitiless bleakness of the Flow Country they can marvel at the pitiless bleakness of an English January.
This is probably my favourite comment of the year
Superbly eloquent. Dude, you can WRITE
Thank you. From you, I'm genuinely flattered. I always fancied being a writer. Though in reality while I can string a few words together I have neither the ideas (an oddly undervalued talent in a writer, having something to say) nor the self-motivation, and the parlous nature of the work would terrify me. Still, writing has won be a bigger prize in life; for complicated reasons, much of the early courtship with my wife was carried out in lengthy emails. We'd written three quarters of a million words to each other before we met. And for my part, I still remember the frisson of excitement in seeing a potential romantic interest using the word 'whom' correctly.
I have had 3 glasses of raki and I am looking at a beautiful woman who has just sloughed off the swimming pool and now she flops face down in the sun and the beads of poolwater on her firm, tanned buttocks look like silver beads of mercury on immortal bronze
Has her husband come on to you yet?
A different couple, *sadly*
The first guy is definitely gay. Earlier I spied him flirting OUTRAGEOUSLY with a handsome Turkish waiter. I signalled to him desperately - like a lonely firefly on Hampstead Heath - that I am a lonely ageing Hetero man who still likes the flattery of gay attention and he is welcome to continue his earnest weird smiling, but for some reason he ignored me
He also has perfect American-white teeth, despite being British. Always a sign
I'm going to ask a totally OT travel advice question because everyone would rather talk about coffee machines and a very personal argument I'm not really following or basically anything except Andy Burnham.
I've got a week free in Europe in September, Berlin at one end and Amsterdam at the other and just need to hang out somewhere in between. I'll mostly be working instead of running around committing tourism but I want somewhere that's just an interesting place to be for a week or so, preferably a single flight up to 3/4 hours long from both Berlin and Amsterdam and a few hours travel max from the airport (train or rentacar or whatever). UK/France/Belgium/Holland/Germany are out because I've been to them too much before. Somewhere that's kind of a bargain because it's a little bit out-of-season is also good.
Where to go?
Bled (Slovenia) if you like chilling by a lake and/or a bit of walking - easy to get out of the main touristy bit, even on foot. Cheap transfer from Ljubljana.
Aeolian islands, but likely too much faff to get to - don't know whether there are diect flights to Sicily, but you still have to cross Sicily and then get a boat.
Edit: And second? Love and peaceful thoughts to all
How recent is the Slovenia tip? Cos tourism there just exploded 2016-18
Personally I am going riding in Sicily for a week in June and then want to spend a week there with a car. If I want to start in Syracuse and end up at Palermo do PBers recommend driving round the bottom, round the top or across the middle? bearing in mind I will have seen a bit of the interior (Madonie to Etna) from my horse.
On a similar question, by youngest daughter has recently got a real bee in her bonnet about going to Scotland. She wants to see a mountain and a castle and a Highland Cow. Which is all very nice, but she is only seven and too small for munro bagging or too much history all in one go. Still, I'd like to take her (and her sisters, 10 and 12, and my wife) to Scotland in October. Somewhere with things to do for moderately active pre-teen girls, and somewhere where they can take in the scale of the place and be suitably awestruck. Any thoughts?
Mull, taking in Iona and Staffa depending on time of year and disposition of children. Ours have loved it from earliest years. Mountain - yes. Castle - less good. Cow - yes. Wildlife; history of Iona is awe inspiring.
Mull is beautiful, and I'm sure Cookie's daughter would be impressed by Staffa and Fingal's Cave. Skye is probably the best of the islands that are easy to get to, although in October the weather might already have turned. On a good day a walk around the Quirain could be a good choice - spectacular scenery but not too challenging. The area around Loch Lomond is beautiful and easily accessible, and Ben Lomond is a good entry level Munro so Cookie's daughter could even bag her first one - my daughter got to the top aged 7 and she is not a particularly well-practiced walker. The view from the top will be something that no 7 year old would ever forget. In general I would suggest going to Scotland in the summer though, if you can push the trip back from October. Never underestimate how horrible it is when it is cold and raining.
I'm going to ask a totally OT travel advice question because everyone would rather talk about coffee machines and a very personal argument I'm not really following or basically anything except Andy Burnham.
I've got a week free in Europe in September, Berlin at one end and Amsterdam at the other and just need to hang out somewhere in between. I'll mostly be working instead of running around committing tourism but I want somewhere that's just an interesting place to be for a week or so, preferably a single flight up to 3/4 hours long from both Berlin and Amsterdam and a few hours travel max from the airport (train or rentacar or whatever). UK/France/Belgium/Holland/Germany are out because I've been to them too much before. Somewhere that's kind of a bargain because it's a little bit out-of-season is also good.
Where to go?
Bled (Slovenia) if you like chilling by a lake and/or a bit of walking - easy to get out of the main touristy bit, even on foot. Cheap transfer from Ljubljana.
Aeolian islands, but likely too much faff to get to - don't know whether there are diect flights to Sicily, but you still have to cross Sicily and then get a boat.
Edit: And second? Love and peaceful thoughts to all
How recent is the Slovenia tip? Cos tourism there just exploded 2016-18
Personally I am going riding in Sicily for a week in June and then want to spend a week there with a car. If I want to start in Syracuse and end up at Palermo do PBers recommend driving round the bottom, round the top or across the middle? bearing in mind I will have seen a bit of the interior (Madonie to Etna) from my horse.
On a similar question, by youngest daughter has recently got a real bee in her bonnet about going to Scotland. She wants to see a mountain and a castle and a Highland Cow. Which is all very nice, but she is only seven and too small for munro bagging or too much history all in one go. Still, I'd like to take her (and her sisters, 10 and 12, and my wife) to Scotland in October. Somewhere with things to do for moderately active pre-teen girls, and somewhere where they can take in the scale of the place and be suitably awestruck. Any thoughts?
I would suggest Glencoe. It has an excellent castle, the hidden valley is not too strenuous a walk and the countryside is probably the best in the UK (if you like mountains). The visitor centre is quite good too.
And if you stay at Kingshouse, she can have the best experience of Scottish midges!
(I think they've renovated the Kingshouse Hotel in the last few years; anyone know if it's lost its (ahem) character?
When I have been over there in recent years I have stayed at the Isles of Glencoe hotel which is good and has a brilliant location. When I was much younger and into hillwalking we once camped out in the glen in late summer. I am not sure what the bastards ate before I came along.
What is it with Scotland and midges? I’ve been to Denmark, Sweden, Ireland etc in summer and not really experienced anything similar yet they share latitud and climate (or maybe I just got lucky)
If you want a truly shocking insect experience Siberia in summer is up there, or the tsetse flies of Kafue, Zambia. Special
I always hear people talking about the midge problem, but honestly in all my travels to the west coast I have NEVER experienced it. I don't know what you are all eating, but you're all obviously much sweeter than me.
I used to say the same. And I’ve been to the Hebrides many many times
Then one day they spotted me. They’ve never let me go since. Strange
I once met an Englishwoman living in a beautiful house in an amazing location on Skye (near dunvegan). She had a full on midge cope cage
She absolutely hated Skye. The loneliness, the darkness, the drizzle, the people turning to sodomy in the winter out of sheer boredom. And the midges. Lord, she hated the midges
One of the most unhappy people I’ve ever met. It really matters - where you live
What a shame, since Skye is a beautiful place. The issue I have with it is the sheer number of tourists. The opposite problem: not lonely enough.
I think she and her husband made the classic mistake
Went there for a summer holiday, hit nice weather, fell in love with the beauty - checked property prices (as they were) - and thought Yes! Perfect place to retire!! Sold their southern English home etc
He still loved it. She loathed it with a vengeance as I say. She’s probably killed him by now
Never ever move somewhere without experiencing it at its WORST - not best
I’ve done a winter week on Skye. Nothing could induce me to move there permanently, despite the amazingness. Of course many would say the same about london…
We had a near-midsummer holiday on Shetland, all over the place (including meeting up with my colleague who is a native). Okay, almost light all day and most of the night, but in winter? You'd need a hobby like building those model ships with about five million miniature blocks to be rove.
And this was a little after the disastrous storm-stranding of the Braer, whose wreck was still there in the bat to the west. I remember walking down the southern headland parallel to Sumburgh Head and noting the houses spaced out along the road. Every single one had a great sector of its roof in completely new tiles. I was thinking, what's it like in the mostly dark in winter, having your roof ripped off and being sprayed with a mix of sea water and crude oil?
Shetland needs trees. Those rooves wouldn't fly away if there's a bank of trees acting as a windbreak. But where are all the trees?
In Orkney, it's the rooves that act as the windbreak. I remember only two woods in the whole archipelago - both centuries old.
This one, it's worse than a C of E school catchment in bird nesting season - I have never seen a wood so crowded
Are there plans to increase that (would seen to be a good idea), given wider programmes, or has someone in authority decided that being windswept is the essential heritage character of the place?
Dunno, sorry.
It’s a good question tho. Are the tree-less wastes of Scotland meant to be like that?
The Caledonian forest suggests not. But then again, the endless, mournful winds on Shetland and Orkney …
Samuel Johnson commented more than 250 years ago that "A tree might be a show in Scotland as a horse in Venice." In fairness though, he was never very nice about Scotland.
He was very surprised the locals were so nice to him ...
When you go to Iona it makes you think when you reflect that not only has Columba been there, but so has Samuel Johnson and John Keats.
The answer here is very simple: if you put an island in a loch, you get trees on it, unless you also put sheep or deer or cattle on the island. All there is to it. Same if you fence off a small square.
I have had 3 glasses of raki and I am looking at a beautiful woman who has just sloughed off the swimming pool and now she flops face down in the sun and the beads of poolwater on her firm, tanned buttocks look like silver beads of mercury on immortal bronze
There we go, Bitcoin under $30k just as the US markets wake up. Gonna be a long day for cryptocurrencies.
Those of us that bought between $3 and $8 are not panicking yet.
For what it's worth I do believe Bitcoin, Ethereum and Monero have worth, albeit all for different reasons. But I would want to see Bitcoin below $6,000 before I started buying it myself.
I'm going to ask a totally OT travel advice question because everyone would rather talk about coffee machines and a very personal argument I'm not really following or basically anything except Andy Burnham.
I've got a week free in Europe in September, Berlin at one end and Amsterdam at the other and just need to hang out somewhere in between. I'll mostly be working instead of running around committing tourism but I want somewhere that's just an interesting place to be for a week or so, preferably a single flight up to 3/4 hours long from both Berlin and Amsterdam and a few hours travel max from the airport (train or rentacar or whatever). UK/France/Belgium/Holland/Germany are out because I've been to them too much before. Somewhere that's kind of a bargain because it's a little bit out-of-season is also good.
Where to go?
Bled (Slovenia) if you like chilling by a lake and/or a bit of walking - easy to get out of the main touristy bit, even on foot. Cheap transfer from Ljubljana.
Aeolian islands, but likely too much faff to get to - don't know whether there are diect flights to Sicily, but you still have to cross Sicily and then get a boat.
Edit: And second? Love and peaceful thoughts to all
How recent is the Slovenia tip? Cos tourism there just exploded 2016-18
Personally I am going riding in Sicily for a week in June and then want to spend a week there with a car. If I want to start in Syracuse and end up at Palermo do PBers recommend driving round the bottom, round the top or across the middle? bearing in mind I will have seen a bit of the interior (Madonie to Etna) from my horse.
On a similar question, by youngest daughter has recently got a real bee in her bonnet about going to Scotland. She wants to see a mountain and a castle and a Highland Cow. Which is all very nice, but she is only seven and too small for munro bagging or too much history all in one go. Still, I'd like to take her (and her sisters, 10 and 12, and my wife) to Scotland in October. Somewhere with things to do for moderately active pre-teen girls, and somewhere where they can take in the scale of the place and be suitably awestruck. Any thoughts?
I would suggest Glencoe. It has an excellent castle, the hidden valley is not too strenuous a walk and the countryside is probably the best in the UK (if you like mountains). The visitor centre is quite good too.
And if you stay at Kingshouse, she can have the best experience of Scottish midges!
(I think they've renovated the Kingshouse Hotel in the last few years; anyone know if it's lost its (ahem) character?
When I have been over there in recent years I have stayed at the Isles of Glencoe hotel which is good and has a brilliant location. When I was much younger and into hillwalking we once camped out in the glen in late summer. I am not sure what the bastards ate before I came along.
What is it with Scotland and midges? I’ve been to Denmark, Sweden, Ireland etc in summer and not really experienced anything similar yet they share latitud and climate (or maybe I just got lucky)
If you want a truly shocking insect experience Siberia in summer is up there, or the tsetse flies of Kafue, Zambia. Special
I always hear people talking about the midge problem, but honestly in all my travels to the west coast I have NEVER experienced it. I don't know what you are all eating, but you're all obviously much sweeter than me.
I used to say the same. And I’ve been to the Hebrides many many times
Then one day they spotted me. They’ve never let me go since. Strange
I once met an Englishwoman living in a beautiful house in an amazing location on Skye (near dunvegan). She had a full on midge cope cage
She absolutely hated Skye. The loneliness, the darkness, the drizzle, the people turning to sodomy in the winter out of sheer boredom. And the midges. Lord, she hated the midges
One of the most unhappy people I’ve ever met. It really matters - where you live
What a shame, since Skye is a beautiful place. The issue I have with it is the sheer number of tourists. The opposite problem: not lonely enough.
I think she and her husband made the classic mistake
Went there for a summer holiday, hit nice weather, fell in love with the beauty - checked property prices (as they were) - and thought Yes! Perfect place to retire!! Sold their southern English home etc
He still loved it. She loathed it with a vengeance as I say. She’s probably killed him by now
Never ever move somewhere without experiencing it at its WORST - not best
I’ve done a winter week on Skye. Nothing could induce me to move there permanently, despite the amazingness. Of course many would say the same about london…
We had a near-midsummer holiday on Shetland, all over the place (including meeting up with my colleague who is a native). Okay, almost light all day and most of the night, but in winter? You'd need a hobby like building those model ships with about five million miniature blocks to be rove.
And this was a little after the disastrous storm-stranding of the Braer, whose wreck was still there in the bat to the west. I remember walking down the southern headland parallel to Sumburgh Head and noting the houses spaced out along the road. Every single one had a great sector of its roof in completely new tiles. I was thinking, what's it like in the mostly dark in winter, having your roof ripped off and being sprayed with a mix of sea water and crude oil?
Shetland needs trees. Those rooves wouldn't fly away if there's a bank of trees acting as a windbreak. But where are all the trees?
In Orkney, it's the rooves that act as the windbreak. I remember only two woods in the whole archipelago - both centuries old.
This one, it's worse than a C of E school catchment in bird nesting season - I have never seen a wood so crowded
Are there plans to increase that (would seen to be a good idea), given wider programmes, or has someone in authority decided that being windswept is the essential heritage character of the place?
Dunno, sorry.
It’s a good question tho. Are the tree-less wastes of Scotland meant to be like that?
The Caledonian forest suggests not. But then again, the endless, mournful winds on Shetland and Orkney …
Samuel Johnson commented more than 250 years ago that "A tree might be a show in Scotland as a horse in Venice." In fairness though, he was never very nice about Scotland.
He was very surprised the locals were so nice to him ...
When you go to Iona it makes you think when you reflect that not only has Columba been there, but so has Samuel Johnson and John Keats.
The answer here is very simple: if you put an island in a loch, you get trees on it, unless you also put sheep or deer or cattle on the island. All there is to it. Same if you fence off a small square.
I have had 3 glasses of raki and I am looking at a beautiful woman who has just sloughed off the swimming pool and now she flops face down in the sun and the beads of poolwater on her firm, tanned buttocks look like silver beads of mercury on immortal bronze
I'm going to ask a totally OT travel advice question because everyone would rather talk about coffee machines and a very personal argument I'm not really following or basically anything except Andy Burnham.
I've got a week free in Europe in September, Berlin at one end and Amsterdam at the other and just need to hang out somewhere in between. I'll mostly be working instead of running around committing tourism but I want somewhere that's just an interesting place to be for a week or so, preferably a single flight up to 3/4 hours long from both Berlin and Amsterdam and a few hours travel max from the airport (train or rentacar or whatever). UK/France/Belgium/Holland/Germany are out because I've been to them too much before. Somewhere that's kind of a bargain because it's a little bit out-of-season is also good.
Where to go?
Bled (Slovenia) if you like chilling by a lake and/or a bit of walking - easy to get out of the main touristy bit, even on foot. Cheap transfer from Ljubljana.
Aeolian islands, but likely too much faff to get to - don't know whether there are diect flights to Sicily, but you still have to cross Sicily and then get a boat.
Edit: And second? Love and peaceful thoughts to all
How recent is the Slovenia tip? Cos tourism there just exploded 2016-18
Personally I am going riding in Sicily for a week in June and then want to spend a week there with a car. If I want to start in Syracuse and end up at Palermo do PBers recommend driving round the bottom, round the top or across the middle? bearing in mind I will have seen a bit of the interior (Madonie to Etna) from my horse.
On a similar question, by youngest daughter has recently got a real bee in her bonnet about going to Scotland. She wants to see a mountain and a castle and a Highland Cow. Which is all very nice, but she is only seven and too small for munro bagging or too much history all in one go. Still, I'd like to take her (and her sisters, 10 and 12, and my wife) to Scotland in October. Somewhere with things to do for moderately active pre-teen girls, and somewhere where they can take in the scale of the place and be suitably awestruck. Any thoughts?
I would suggest Glencoe. It has an excellent castle, the hidden valley is not too strenuous a walk and the countryside is probably the best in the UK (if you like mountains). The visitor centre is quite good too.
And if you stay at Kingshouse, she can have the best experience of Scottish midges!
(I think they've renovated the Kingshouse Hotel in the last few years; anyone know if it's lost its (ahem) character?
When I have been over there in recent years I have stayed at the Isles of Glencoe hotel which is good and has a brilliant location. When I was much younger and into hillwalking we once camped out in the glen in late summer. I am not sure what the bastards ate before I came along.
What is it with Scotland and midges? I’ve been to Denmark, Sweden, Ireland etc in summer and not really experienced anything similar yet they share latitud and climate (or maybe I just got lucky)
If you want a truly shocking insect experience Siberia in summer is up there, or the tsetse flies of Kafue, Zambia. Special
I always hear people talking about the midge problem, but honestly in all my travels to the west coast I have NEVER experienced it. I don't know what you are all eating, but you're all obviously much sweeter than me.
I used to say the same. And I’ve been to the Hebrides many many times
Then one day they spotted me. They’ve never let me go since. Strange
I once met an Englishwoman living in a beautiful house in an amazing location on Skye (near dunvegan). She had a full on midge cope cage
She absolutely hated Skye. The loneliness, the darkness, the drizzle, the people turning to sodomy in the winter out of sheer boredom. And the midges. Lord, she hated the midges
One of the most unhappy people I’ve ever met. It really matters - where you live
What a shame, since Skye is a beautiful place. The issue I have with it is the sheer number of tourists. The opposite problem: not lonely enough.
I think she and her husband made the classic mistake
Went there for a summer holiday, hit nice weather, fell in love with the beauty - checked property prices (as they were) - and thought Yes! Perfect place to retire!! Sold their southern English home etc
He still loved it. She loathed it with a vengeance as I say. She’s probably killed him by now
Never ever move somewhere without experiencing it at its WORST - not best
I’ve done a winter week on Skye. Nothing could induce me to move there permanently, despite the amazingness. Of course many would say the same about london…
We had a near-midsummer holiday on Shetland, all over the place (including meeting up with my colleague who is a native). Okay, almost light all day and most of the night, but in winter? You'd need a hobby like building those model ships with about five million miniature blocks to be rove.
And this was a little after the disastrous storm-stranding of the Braer, whose wreck was still there in the bat to the west. I remember walking down the southern headland parallel to Sumburgh Head and noting the houses spaced out along the road. Every single one had a great sector of its roof in completely new tiles. I was thinking, what's it like in the mostly dark in winter, having your roof ripped off and being sprayed with a mix of sea water and crude oil?
Shetland needs trees. Those rooves wouldn't fly away if there's a bank of trees acting as a windbreak. But where are all the trees?
In Orkney, it's the rooves that act as the windbreak. I remember only two woods in the whole archipelago - both centuries old.
This one, it's worse than a C of E school catchment in bird nesting season - I have never seen a wood so crowded
Are there plans to increase that (would seen to be a good idea), given wider programmes, or has someone in authority decided that being windswept is the essential heritage character of the place?
Dunno, sorry.
It’s a good question tho. Are the tree-less wastes of Scotland meant to be like that?
The Caledonian forest suggests not. But then again, the endless, mournful winds on Shetland and Orkney …
Samuel Johnson commented more than 250 years ago that "A tree might be a show in Scotland as a horse in Venice." In fairness though, he was never very nice about Scotland.
He was very surprised the locals were so nice to him ...
When you go to Iona it makes you think when you reflect that not only has Columba been there, but so has Samuel Johnson and John Keats.
The answer here is very simple: if you put an island in a loch, you get trees on it, unless you also put sheep or deer or cattle on the island. All there is to it. Same if you fence off a small square.
I'm going to ask a totally OT travel advice question because everyone would rather talk about coffee machines and a very personal argument I'm not really following or basically anything except Andy Burnham.
I've got a week free in Europe in September, Berlin at one end and Amsterdam at the other and just need to hang out somewhere in between. I'll mostly be working instead of running around committing tourism but I want somewhere that's just an interesting place to be for a week or so, preferably a single flight up to 3/4 hours long from both Berlin and Amsterdam and a few hours travel max from the airport (train or rentacar or whatever). UK/France/Belgium/Holland/Germany are out because I've been to them too much before. Somewhere that's kind of a bargain because it's a little bit out-of-season is also good.
Where to go?
Bled (Slovenia) if you like chilling by a lake and/or a bit of walking - easy to get out of the main touristy bit, even on foot. Cheap transfer from Ljubljana.
Aeolian islands, but likely too much faff to get to - don't know whether there are diect flights to Sicily, but you still have to cross Sicily and then get a boat.
Edit: And second? Love and peaceful thoughts to all
How recent is the Slovenia tip? Cos tourism there just exploded 2016-18
Personally I am going riding in Sicily for a week in June and then want to spend a week there with a car. If I want to start in Syracuse and end up at Palermo do PBers recommend driving round the bottom, round the top or across the middle? bearing in mind I will have seen a bit of the interior (Madonie to Etna) from my horse.
On a similar question, by youngest daughter has recently got a real bee in her bonnet about going to Scotland. She wants to see a mountain and a castle and a Highland Cow. Which is all very nice, but she is only seven and too small for munro bagging or too much history all in one go. Still, I'd like to take her (and her sisters, 10 and 12, and my wife) to Scotland in October. Somewhere with things to do for moderately active pre-teen girls, and somewhere where they can take in the scale of the place and be suitably awestruck. Any thoughts?
I would suggest Glencoe. It has an excellent castle, the hidden valley is not too strenuous a walk and the countryside is probably the best in the UK (if you like mountains). The visitor centre is quite good too.
And if you stay at Kingshouse, she can have the best experience of Scottish midges!
(I think they've renovated the Kingshouse Hotel in the last few years; anyone know if it's lost its (ahem) character?
When I have been over there in recent years I have stayed at the Isles of Glencoe hotel which is good and has a brilliant location. When I was much younger and into hillwalking we once camped out in the glen in late summer. I am not sure what the bastards ate before I came along.
What is it with Scotland and midges? I’ve been to Denmark, Sweden, Ireland etc in summer and not really experienced anything similar yet they share latitud and climate (or maybe I just got lucky)
If you want a truly shocking insect experience Siberia in summer is up there, or the tsetse flies of Kafue, Zambia. Special
I always hear people talking about the midge problem, but honestly in all my travels to the west coast I have NEVER experienced it. I don't know what you are all eating, but you're all obviously much sweeter than me.
I used to say the same. And I’ve been to the Hebrides many many times
Then one day they spotted me. They’ve never let me go since. Strange
I once met an Englishwoman living in a beautiful house in an amazing location on Skye (near dunvegan). She had a full on midge cope cage
She absolutely hated Skye. The loneliness, the darkness, the drizzle, the people turning to sodomy in the winter out of sheer boredom. And the midges. Lord, she hated the midges
One of the most unhappy people I’ve ever met. It really matters - where you live
What a shame, since Skye is a beautiful place. The issue I have with it is the sheer number of tourists. The opposite problem: not lonely enough.
I think she and her husband made the classic mistake
Went there for a summer holiday, hit nice weather, fell in love with the beauty - checked property prices (as they were) - and thought Yes! Perfect place to retire!! Sold their southern English home etc
He still loved it. She loathed it with a vengeance as I say. She’s probably killed him by now
Never ever move somewhere without experiencing it at its WORST - not best
I’ve done a winter week on Skye. Nothing could induce me to move there permanently, despite the amazingness. Of course many would say the same about london…
We had a near-midsummer holiday on Shetland, all over the place (including meeting up with my colleague who is a native). Okay, almost light all day and most of the night, but in winter? You'd need a hobby like building those model ships with about five million miniature blocks to be rove.
And this was a little after the disastrous storm-stranding of the Braer, whose wreck was still there in the bat to the west. I remember walking down the southern headland parallel to Sumburgh Head and noting the houses spaced out along the road. Every single one had a great sector of its roof in completely new tiles. I was thinking, what's it like in the mostly dark in winter, having your roof ripped off and being sprayed with a mix of sea water and crude oil?
Shetland needs trees. Those rooves wouldn't fly away if there's a bank of trees acting as a windbreak. But where are all the trees?
In Orkney, it's the rooves that act as the windbreak. I remember only two woods in the whole archipelago - both centuries old.
This one, it's worse than a C of E school catchment in bird nesting season - I have never seen a wood so crowded
Are there plans to increase that (would seen to be a good idea), given wider programmes, or has someone in authority decided that being windswept is the essential heritage character of the place?
Dunno, sorry.
It’s a good question tho. Are the tree-less wastes of Scotland meant to be like that?
The Caledonian forest suggests not. But then again, the endless, mournful winds on Shetland and Orkney …
Samuel Johnson commented more than 250 years ago that "A tree might be a show in Scotland as a horse in Venice." In fairness though, he was never very nice about Scotland.
He was very surprised the locals were so nice to him ...
It needs to be quite systematic, I think - partially because of a high deer population in the UK, including Skye and W. Scotland as hot spots, which I think causes a lot of damage to young trees.
I am not clear whether sheep have a similar impact on young trees.
It also needs careful succession / multi-decade planning.
The National Forest in Leics / Derbys / Staffs is a very good model - a smallish project consistently pursued since 1995, which is now heading towards 10 million trees planted, and has taken forest cover from 6% to 20% across 200 sqm. Aiming for 33%.
I have had 3 glasses of raki and I am looking at a beautiful woman who has just sloughed off the swimming pool and now she flops face down in the sun and the beads of poolwater on her firm, tanned buttocks look like silver beads of mercury on immortal bronze
Speaking of which I learned last night, there were THREE Riace bronzes when they were discovered. The third was spirited away instantaneously and sold to a collector. It remains completely undocumented and unphotographed.
I know OGH dislikes the C word, but nothing else really fits the bill for anyone involved in this event.
@turbotubbs - this is exactly the reason why Remain lost the referendum - there is no counterbalance to free movement reducing wages between 2004 and 2016. Maybe Remainers would have felt different if we would have imported a better quality of MP between 2004 and 2016, a better quality of journalist - this is what Remainers cannot ever get their head around that free movement was the biggest transfer of wealth from poor to rich and you never hear the left squeal about this at all.
Remain lost for lots of reasons. Simplistically believing it was one hobbyhorse is well, simplistic.
Agreed - like the idea that all leavers just hated foreigners..
@turbotubbs - this is exactly the reason why Remain lost the referendum - there is no counterbalance to free movement reducing wages between 2004 and 2016. Maybe Remainers would have felt different if we would have imported a better quality of MP between 2004 and 2016, a better quality of journalist - this is what Remainers cannot ever get their head around that free movement was the biggest transfer of wealth from poor to rich and you never hear the left squeal about this at all.
Remain lost for lots of reasons. Simplistically believing it was one hobbyhorse is well, simplistic.
Agreed - like the idea that all leavers just hated foreigners..
Re Quordle: I don't think you need to get all the letters out in the first four goes. Frankly, a starting set of PRINT, MOUSE, CHALK usually enough (as today) to get the words on rounds 4, 5, 6, 7. Only occasionally does one need 8 or 9.
I just use the days Wordle solution as my Quordle starting word, and play the Quordle version of 'hard' (ie every entry has to be a potentially valid solution given what's currently known). Keeps it interesting at least as you have to think of different words for 2, 3, etc...
I'm going to ask a totally OT travel advice question because everyone would rather talk about coffee machines and a very personal argument I'm not really following or basically anything except Andy Burnham.
I've got a week free in Europe in September, Berlin at one end and Amsterdam at the other and just need to hang out somewhere in between. I'll mostly be working instead of running around committing tourism but I want somewhere that's just an interesting place to be for a week or so, preferably a single flight up to 3/4 hours long from both Berlin and Amsterdam and a few hours travel max from the airport (train or rentacar or whatever). UK/France/Belgium/Holland/Germany are out because I've been to them too much before. Somewhere that's kind of a bargain because it's a little bit out-of-season is also good.
Where to go?
Bled (Slovenia) if you like chilling by a lake and/or a bit of walking - easy to get out of the main touristy bit, even on foot. Cheap transfer from Ljubljana.
Aeolian islands, but likely too much faff to get to - don't know whether there are diect flights to Sicily, but you still have to cross Sicily and then get a boat.
Edit: And second? Love and peaceful thoughts to all
How recent is the Slovenia tip? Cos tourism there just exploded 2016-18
Personally I am going riding in Sicily for a week in June and then want to spend a week there with a car. If I want to start in Syracuse and end up at Palermo do PBers recommend driving round the bottom, round the top or across the middle? bearing in mind I will have seen a bit of the interior (Madonie to Etna) from my horse.
On a similar question, by youngest daughter has recently got a real bee in her bonnet about going to Scotland. She wants to see a mountain and a castle and a Highland Cow. Which is all very nice, but she is only seven and too small for munro bagging or too much history all in one go. Still, I'd like to take her (and her sisters, 10 and 12, and my wife) to Scotland in October. Somewhere with things to do for moderately active pre-teen girls, and somewhere where they can take in the scale of the place and be suitably awestruck. Any thoughts?
I would suggest Glencoe. It has an excellent castle, the hidden valley is not too strenuous a walk and the countryside is probably the best in the UK (if you like mountains). The visitor centre is quite good too.
And if you stay at Kingshouse, she can have the best experience of Scottish midges!
(I think they've renovated the Kingshouse Hotel in the last few years; anyone know if it's lost its (ahem) character?
When I have been over there in recent years I have stayed at the Isles of Glencoe hotel which is good and has a brilliant location. When I was much younger and into hillwalking we once camped out in the glen in late summer. I am not sure what the bastards ate before I came along.
What is it with Scotland and midges? I’ve been to Denmark, Sweden, Ireland etc in summer and not really experienced anything similar yet they share latitud and climate (or maybe I just got lucky)
If you want a truly shocking insect experience Siberia in summer is up there, or the tsetse flies of Kafue, Zambia. Special
I always hear people talking about the midge problem, but honestly in all my travels to the west coast I have NEVER experienced it. I don't know what you are all eating, but you're all obviously much sweeter than me.
I used to say the same. And I’ve been to the Hebrides many many times
Then one day they spotted me. They’ve never let me go since. Strange
I once met an Englishwoman living in a beautiful house in an amazing location on Skye (near dunvegan). She had a full on midge cope cage
She absolutely hated Skye. The loneliness, the darkness, the drizzle, the people turning to sodomy in the winter out of sheer boredom. And the midges. Lord, she hated the midges
One of the most unhappy people I’ve ever met. It really matters - where you live
What a shame, since Skye is a beautiful place. The issue I have with it is the sheer number of tourists. The opposite problem: not lonely enough.
I think she and her husband made the classic mistake
Went there for a summer holiday, hit nice weather, fell in love with the beauty - checked property prices (as they were) - and thought Yes! Perfect place to retire!! Sold their southern English home etc
He still loved it. She loathed it with a vengeance as I say. She’s probably killed him by now
Never ever move somewhere without experiencing it at its WORST - not best
I’ve done a winter week on Skye. Nothing could induce me to move there permanently, despite the amazingness. Of course many would say the same about london…
We had a near-midsummer holiday on Shetland, all over the place (including meeting up with my colleague who is a native). Okay, almost light all day and most of the night, but in winter? You'd need a hobby like building those model ships with about five million miniature blocks to be rove.
And this was a little after the disastrous storm-stranding of the Braer, whose wreck was still there in the bat to the west. I remember walking down the southern headland parallel to Sumburgh Head and noting the houses spaced out along the road. Every single one had a great sector of its roof in completely new tiles. I was thinking, what's it like in the mostly dark in winter, having your roof ripped off and being sprayed with a mix of sea water and crude oil?
Shetland needs trees. Those rooves wouldn't fly away if there's a bank of trees acting as a windbreak. But where are all the trees?
In Orkney, it's the rooves that act as the windbreak. I remember only two woods in the whole archipelago - both centuries old.
This one, it's worse than a C of E school catchment in bird nesting season - I have never seen a wood so crowded
Are there plans to increase that (would seen to be a good idea), given wider programmes, or has someone in authority decided that being windswept is the essential heritage character of the place?
Dunno, sorry.
It’s a good question tho. Are the tree-less wastes of Scotland meant to be like that?
The Caledonian forest suggests not. But then again, the endless, mournful winds on Shetland and Orkney …
Samuel Johnson commented more than 250 years ago that "A tree might be a show in Scotland as a horse in Venice." In fairness though, he was never very nice about Scotland.
He was very surprised the locals were so nice to him ...
It needs to be quite systematic, I think - partially because of a high deer population in the UK, including Skye and W. Scotland as hot spots, which I think causes a lot of damage to young trees.
I am not clear whether sheep have a similar impact on young trees.
It also needs careful succession / multi-decade planning.
The National Forest in Leics / Derbys / Staffs is a very good model - a smallish project consistently pursued since 1995, which is now heading towards 10 million trees planted, and has taken forest cover from 6% to 20% across 200 sqm. Aiming for 33%.
Far better than splurges and panics.
Just remembered - the problem AIUI was that unless you have mature trees the forest doesn't regenerate (red deer are primitively a forest animal, actually). So the Rum project fenced off and planted chunks till the trees grew to a decent size and the deer could be allowed in.
I have had 3 glasses of raki and I am looking at a beautiful woman who has just sloughed off the swimming pool and now she flops face down in the sun and the beads of poolwater on her firm, tanned buttocks look like silver beads of mercury on immortal bronze
Has her husband come on to you yet?
A different couple, *sadly*
The first guy is definitely gay. Earlier I spied him flirting OUTRAGEOUSLY with a handsome Turkish waiter. I signalled to him desperately - like a lonely firefly on Hampstead Heath - that I am a lonely ageing Hetero man who still likes the flattery of gay attention and he is welcome to continue his earnest weird smiling, but for some reason he ignored me
He also has perfect American-white teeth, despite being British. Always a sign
This world of flirtation is a complete mystery to me - if anyone has ever come on to me, straight or gay, I have never noticed.
I'm going to ask a totally OT travel advice question because everyone would rather talk about coffee machines and a very personal argument I'm not really following or basically anything except Andy Burnham.
I've got a week free in Europe in September, Berlin at one end and Amsterdam at the other and just need to hang out somewhere in between. I'll mostly be working instead of running around committing tourism but I want somewhere that's just an interesting place to be for a week or so, preferably a single flight up to 3/4 hours long from both Berlin and Amsterdam and a few hours travel max from the airport (train or rentacar or whatever). UK/France/Belgium/Holland/Germany are out because I've been to them too much before. Somewhere that's kind of a bargain because it's a little bit out-of-season is also good.
Where to go?
Bled (Slovenia) if you like chilling by a lake and/or a bit of walking - easy to get out of the main touristy bit, even on foot. Cheap transfer from Ljubljana.
Aeolian islands, but likely too much faff to get to - don't know whether there are diect flights to Sicily, but you still have to cross Sicily and then get a boat.
Edit: And second? Love and peaceful thoughts to all
How recent is the Slovenia tip? Cos tourism there just exploded 2016-18
Personally I am going riding in Sicily for a week in June and then want to spend a week there with a car. If I want to start in Syracuse and end up at Palermo do PBers recommend driving round the bottom, round the top or across the middle? bearing in mind I will have seen a bit of the interior (Madonie to Etna) from my horse.
On a similar question, by youngest daughter has recently got a real bee in her bonnet about going to Scotland. She wants to see a mountain and a castle and a Highland Cow. Which is all very nice, but she is only seven and too small for munro bagging or too much history all in one go. Still, I'd like to take her (and her sisters, 10 and 12, and my wife) to Scotland in October. Somewhere with things to do for moderately active pre-teen girls, and somewhere where they can take in the scale of the place and be suitably awestruck. Any thoughts?
May seem obvious but Edinburgh is a lovely city to visit. Got the zoo, the Royal Mile, the castle, parks, lots of sites and plenty of hills for active walking but nothings too far if you need to carry her on your shoulders if she gets tired.
Providing Nicola sorts out the ferry situation, Arran ('Scotland in Minature') might fit your bill, including
I have had 3 glasses of raki and I am looking at a beautiful woman who has just sloughed off the swimming pool and now she flops face down in the sun and the beads of poolwater on her firm, tanned buttocks look like silver beads of mercury on immortal bronze
I have had 3 glasses of raki and I am looking at a beautiful woman who has just sloughed off the swimming pool and now she flops face down in the sun and the beads of poolwater on her firm, tanned buttocks look like silver beads of mercury on immortal bronze
Has her husband come on to you yet?
A different couple, *sadly*
The first guy is definitely gay. Earlier I spied him flirting OUTRAGEOUSLY with a handsome Turkish waiter. I signalled to him desperately - like a lonely firefly on Hampstead Heath - that I am a lonely ageing Hetero man who still likes the flattery of gay attention and he is welcome to continue his earnest weird smiling, but for some reason he ignored me
He also has perfect American-white teeth, despite being British. Always a sign
This world of flirtation is a complete mystery to me - if anyone has ever come on to me, straight or gay, I have never noticed.
You seem to have forgotten that occasion in those toilets in St Pancras...oh sorry I did promise I wouldn't mention that
I'm going to ask a totally OT travel advice question because everyone would rather talk about coffee machines and a very personal argument I'm not really following or basically anything except Andy Burnham.
I've got a week free in Europe in September, Berlin at one end and Amsterdam at the other and just need to hang out somewhere in between. I'll mostly be working instead of running around committing tourism but I want somewhere that's just an interesting place to be for a week or so, preferably a single flight up to 3/4 hours long from both Berlin and Amsterdam and a few hours travel max from the airport (train or rentacar or whatever). UK/France/Belgium/Holland/Germany are out because I've been to them too much before. Somewhere that's kind of a bargain because it's a little bit out-of-season is also good.
Where to go?
Bled (Slovenia) if you like chilling by a lake and/or a bit of walking - easy to get out of the main touristy bit, even on foot. Cheap transfer from Ljubljana.
Aeolian islands, but likely too much faff to get to - don't know whether there are diect flights to Sicily, but you still have to cross Sicily and then get a boat.
Edit: And second? Love and peaceful thoughts to all
How recent is the Slovenia tip? Cos tourism there just exploded 2016-18
Personally I am going riding in Sicily for a week in June and then want to spend a week there with a car. If I want to start in Syracuse and end up at Palermo do PBers recommend driving round the bottom, round the top or across the middle? bearing in mind I will have seen a bit of the interior (Madonie to Etna) from my horse.
On a similar question, by youngest daughter has recently got a real bee in her bonnet about going to Scotland. She wants to see a mountain and a castle and a Highland Cow. Which is all very nice, but she is only seven and too small for munro bagging or too much history all in one go. Still, I'd like to take her (and her sisters, 10 and 12, and my wife) to Scotland in October. Somewhere with things to do for moderately active pre-teen girls, and somewhere where they can take in the scale of the place and be suitably awestruck. Any thoughts?
I would suggest Glencoe. It has an excellent castle, the hidden valley is not too strenuous a walk and the countryside is probably the best in the UK (if you like mountains). The visitor centre is quite good too.
And if you stay at Kingshouse, she can have the best experience of Scottish midges!
(I think they've renovated the Kingshouse Hotel in the last few years; anyone know if it's lost its (ahem) character?
When I have been over there in recent years I have stayed at the Isles of Glencoe hotel which is good and has a brilliant location. When I was much younger and into hillwalking we once camped out in the glen in late summer. I am not sure what the bastards ate before I came along.
What is it with Scotland and midges? I’ve been to Denmark, Sweden, Ireland etc in summer and not really experienced anything similar yet they share latitud and climate (or maybe I just got lucky)
If you want a truly shocking insect experience Siberia in summer is up there, or the tsetse flies of Kafue, Zambia. Special
I always hear people talking about the midge problem, but honestly in all my travels to the west coast I have NEVER experienced it. I don't know what you are all eating, but you're all obviously much sweeter than me.
I used to say the same. And I’ve been to the Hebrides many many times
Then one day they spotted me. They’ve never let me go since. Strange
I once met an Englishwoman living in a beautiful house in an amazing location on Skye (near dunvegan). She had a full on midge cope cage
She absolutely hated Skye. The loneliness, the darkness, the drizzle, the people turning to sodomy in the winter out of sheer boredom. And the midges. Lord, she hated the midges
One of the most unhappy people I’ve ever met. It really matters - where you live
What a shame, since Skye is a beautiful place. The issue I have with it is the sheer number of tourists. The opposite problem: not lonely enough.
I think she and her husband made the classic mistake
Went there for a summer holiday, hit nice weather, fell in love with the beauty - checked property prices (as they were) - and thought Yes! Perfect place to retire!! Sold their southern English home etc
He still loved it. She loathed it with a vengeance as I say. She’s probably killed him by now
Never ever move somewhere without experiencing it at its WORST - not best
I’ve done a winter week on Skye. Nothing could induce me to move there permanently, despite the amazingness. Of course many would say the same about london…
We had a near-midsummer holiday on Shetland, all over the place (including meeting up with my colleague who is a native). Okay, almost light all day and most of the night, but in winter? You'd need a hobby like building those model ships with about five million miniature blocks to be rove.
And this was a little after the disastrous storm-stranding of the Braer, whose wreck was still there in the bat to the west. I remember walking down the southern headland parallel to Sumburgh Head and noting the houses spaced out along the road. Every single one had a great sector of its roof in completely new tiles. I was thinking, what's it like in the mostly dark in winter, having your roof ripped off and being sprayed with a mix of sea water and crude oil?
Shetland needs trees. Those rooves wouldn't fly away if there's a bank of trees acting as a windbreak. But where are all the trees?
In Orkney, it's the rooves that act as the windbreak. I remember only two woods in the whole archipelago - both centuries old.
This one, it's worse than a C of E school catchment in bird nesting season - I have never seen a wood so crowded
Are there plans to increase that (would seen to be a good idea), given wider programmes, or has someone in authority decided that being windswept is the essential heritage character of the place?
Dunno, sorry.
It’s a good question tho. Are the tree-less wastes of Scotland meant to be like that?
The Caledonian forest suggests not. But then again, the endless, mournful winds on Shetland and Orkney …
Samuel Johnson commented more than 250 years ago that "A tree might be a show in Scotland as a horse in Venice." In fairness though, he was never very nice about Scotland.
He was very surprised the locals were so nice to him ...
It needs to be quite systematic, I think - partially because of a high deer population in the UK, including Skye and W. Scotland as hot spots, which I think causes a lot of damage to young trees.
I am not clear whether sheep have a similar impact on young trees.
It also needs careful succession / multi-decade planning.
The National Forest in Leics / Derbys / Staffs is a very good model - a smallish project consistently pursued since 1995, which is now heading towards 10 million trees planted, and has taken forest cover from 6% to 20% across 200 sqm. Aiming for 33%.
Far better than splurges and panics.
Just remembered - the problem AIUI was that unless you have mature trees the forest doesn't regenerate (red deer are primitively a forest animal, actually). So the Rum project fenced off and planted chunks till the trees grew to a decent size.
I'm going to ask a totally OT travel advice question because everyone would rather talk about coffee machines and a very personal argument I'm not really following or basically anything except Andy Burnham.
I've got a week free in Europe in September, Berlin at one end and Amsterdam at the other and just need to hang out somewhere in between. I'll mostly be working instead of running around committing tourism but I want somewhere that's just an interesting place to be for a week or so, preferably a single flight up to 3/4 hours long from both Berlin and Amsterdam and a few hours travel max from the airport (train or rentacar or whatever). UK/France/Belgium/Holland/Germany are out because I've been to them too much before. Somewhere that's kind of a bargain because it's a little bit out-of-season is also good.
Where to go?
Bled (Slovenia) if you like chilling by a lake and/or a bit of walking - easy to get out of the main touristy bit, even on foot. Cheap transfer from Ljubljana.
Aeolian islands, but likely too much faff to get to - don't know whether there are diect flights to Sicily, but you still have to cross Sicily and then get a boat.
Edit: And second? Love and peaceful thoughts to all
How recent is the Slovenia tip? Cos tourism there just exploded 2016-18
Personally I am going riding in Sicily for a week in June and then want to spend a week there with a car. If I want to start in Syracuse and end up at Palermo do PBers recommend driving round the bottom, round the top or across the middle? bearing in mind I will have seen a bit of the interior (Madonie to Etna) from my horse.
On a similar question, by youngest daughter has recently got a real bee in her bonnet about going to Scotland. She wants to see a mountain and a castle and a Highland Cow. Which is all very nice, but she is only seven and too small for munro bagging or too much history all in one go. Still, I'd like to take her (and her sisters, 10 and 12, and my wife) to Scotland in October. Somewhere with things to do for moderately active pre-teen girls, and somewhere where they can take in the scale of the place and be suitably awestruck. Any thoughts?
I would suggest Glencoe. It has an excellent castle, the hidden valley is not too strenuous a walk and the countryside is probably the best in the UK (if you like mountains). The visitor centre is quite good too.
And if you stay at Kingshouse, she can have the best experience of Scottish midges!
(I think they've renovated the Kingshouse Hotel in the last few years; anyone know if it's lost its (ahem) character?
When I have been over there in recent years I have stayed at the Isles of Glencoe hotel which is good and has a brilliant location. When I was much younger and into hillwalking we once camped out in the glen in late summer. I am not sure what the bastards ate before I came along.
What is it with Scotland and midges? I’ve been to Denmark, Sweden, Ireland etc in summer and not really experienced anything similar yet they share latitud and climate (or maybe I just got lucky)
If you want a truly shocking insect experience Siberia in summer is up there, or the tsetse flies of Kafue, Zambia. Special
I always hear people talking about the midge problem, but honestly in all my travels to the west coast I have NEVER experienced it. I don't know what you are all eating, but you're all obviously much sweeter than me.
I used to say the same. And I’ve been to the Hebrides many many times
Then one day they spotted me. They’ve never let me go since. Strange
I once met an Englishwoman living in a beautiful house in an amazing location on Skye (near dunvegan). She had a full on midge cope cage
She absolutely hated Skye. The loneliness, the darkness, the drizzle, the people turning to sodomy in the winter out of sheer boredom. And the midges. Lord, she hated the midges
One of the most unhappy people I’ve ever met. It really matters - where you live
What a shame, since Skye is a beautiful place. The issue I have with it is the sheer number of tourists. The opposite problem: not lonely enough.
I think she and her husband made the classic mistake
Went there for a summer holiday, hit nice weather, fell in love with the beauty - checked property prices (as they were) - and thought Yes! Perfect place to retire!! Sold their southern English home etc
He still loved it. She loathed it with a vengeance as I say. She’s probably killed him by now
Never ever move somewhere without experiencing it at its WORST - not best
I’ve done a winter week on Skye. Nothing could induce me to move there permanently, despite the amazingness. Of course many would say the same about london…
We had a near-midsummer holiday on Shetland, all over the place (including meeting up with my colleague who is a native). Okay, almost light all day and most of the night, but in winter? You'd need a hobby like building those model ships with about five million miniature blocks to be rove.
And this was a little after the disastrous storm-stranding of the Braer, whose wreck was still there in the bat to the west. I remember walking down the southern headland parallel to Sumburgh Head and noting the houses spaced out along the road. Every single one had a great sector of its roof in completely new tiles. I was thinking, what's it like in the mostly dark in winter, having your roof ripped off and being sprayed with a mix of sea water and crude oil?
Shetland needs trees. Those rooves wouldn't fly away if there's a bank of trees acting as a windbreak. But where are all the trees?
In Orkney, it's the rooves that act as the windbreak. I remember only two woods in the whole archipelago - both centuries old.
This one, it's worse than a C of E school catchment in bird nesting season - I have never seen a wood so crowded
Are there plans to increase that (would seen to be a good idea), given wider programmes, or has someone in authority decided that being windswept is the essential heritage character of the place?
Dunno, sorry.
It’s a good question tho. Are the tree-less wastes of Scotland meant to be like that?
The Caledonian forest suggests not. But then again, the endless, mournful winds on Shetland and Orkney …
Samuel Johnson commented more than 250 years ago that "A tree might be a show in Scotland as a horse in Venice." In fairness though, he was never very nice about Scotland.
He was very surprised the locals were so nice to him ...
It needs to be quite systematic, I think - partially because of a high deer population in the UK, including Skye and W. Scotland as hot spots, which I think causes a lot of damage to young trees.
I am not clear whether sheep have a similar impact on young trees.
It also needs careful succession / multi-decade planning.
The National Forest in Leics / Derbys / Staffs is a very good model - a smallish project consistently pursued since 1995, which is now heading towards 10 million trees planted, and has taken forest cover from 6% to 20% across 200 sqm. Aiming for 33%.
Far better than splurges and panics.
Just remembered - the problem AIUI was that unless you have mature trees the forest doesn't regenerate (red deer are primitively a forest animal, actually). So the Rum project fenced off and planted chunks till the trees grew to a decent size and the deer could be allowed in.
Grey squirrels don't help, either. They just reach higher than deer.
I'm going to ask a totally OT travel advice question because everyone would rather talk about coffee machines and a very personal argument I'm not really following or basically anything except Andy Burnham.
I've got a week free in Europe in September, Berlin at one end and Amsterdam at the other and just need to hang out somewhere in between. I'll mostly be working instead of running around committing tourism but I want somewhere that's just an interesting place to be for a week or so, preferably a single flight up to 3/4 hours long from both Berlin and Amsterdam and a few hours travel max from the airport (train or rentacar or whatever). UK/France/Belgium/Holland/Germany are out because I've been to them too much before. Somewhere that's kind of a bargain because it's a little bit out-of-season is also good.
Where to go?
Bled (Slovenia) if you like chilling by a lake and/or a bit of walking - easy to get out of the main touristy bit, even on foot. Cheap transfer from Ljubljana.
Aeolian islands, but likely too much faff to get to - don't know whether there are diect flights to Sicily, but you still have to cross Sicily and then get a boat.
Edit: And second? Love and peaceful thoughts to all
How recent is the Slovenia tip? Cos tourism there just exploded 2016-18
Personally I am going riding in Sicily for a week in June and then want to spend a week there with a car. If I want to start in Syracuse and end up at Palermo do PBers recommend driving round the bottom, round the top or across the middle? bearing in mind I will have seen a bit of the interior (Madonie to Etna) from my horse.
On a similar question, by youngest daughter has recently got a real bee in her bonnet about going to Scotland. She wants to see a mountain and a castle and a Highland Cow. Which is all very nice, but she is only seven and too small for munro bagging or too much history all in one go. Still, I'd like to take her (and her sisters, 10 and 12, and my wife) to Scotland in October. Somewhere with things to do for moderately active pre-teen girls, and somewhere where they can take in the scale of the place and be suitably awestruck. Any thoughts?
May seem obvious but Edinburgh is a lovely city to visit. Got the zoo, the Royal Mile, the castle, parks, lots of sites and plenty of hills for active walking but nothings too far if you need to carry her on your shoulders if she gets tired.
Providing Nicola sorts out the ferry situation, Arran ('Scotland in Minature') might fit your bill, including
great mountains and secluded beachcombing, cycling hire and a neat new distillery.
Day ferry to Kintyre for more nature and even quieter countryside
I've considered Arran, actually. Scene of my own childhood summer holidays, up to the age of 5. I like the idea of going to an island, but it's quite a commitment - you're there for the duration. But there's a lot to recommend it.
I'm going to ask a totally OT travel advice question because everyone would rather talk about coffee machines and a very personal argument I'm not really following or basically anything except Andy Burnham.
I've got a week free in Europe in September, Berlin at one end and Amsterdam at the other and just need to hang out somewhere in between. I'll mostly be working instead of running around committing tourism but I want somewhere that's just an interesting place to be for a week or so, preferably a single flight up to 3/4 hours long from both Berlin and Amsterdam and a few hours travel max from the airport (train or rentacar or whatever). UK/France/Belgium/Holland/Germany are out because I've been to them too much before. Somewhere that's kind of a bargain because it's a little bit out-of-season is also good.
Where to go?
Bled (Slovenia) if you like chilling by a lake and/or a bit of walking - easy to get out of the main touristy bit, even on foot. Cheap transfer from Ljubljana.
Aeolian islands, but likely too much faff to get to - don't know whether there are diect flights to Sicily, but you still have to cross Sicily and then get a boat.
Edit: And second? Love and peaceful thoughts to all
How recent is the Slovenia tip? Cos tourism there just exploded 2016-18
Personally I am going riding in Sicily for a week in June and then want to spend a week there with a car. If I want to start in Syracuse and end up at Palermo do PBers recommend driving round the bottom, round the top or across the middle? bearing in mind I will have seen a bit of the interior (Madonie to Etna) from my horse.
On a similar question, by youngest daughter has recently got a real bee in her bonnet about going to Scotland. She wants to see a mountain and a castle and a Highland Cow. Which is all very nice, but she is only seven and too small for munro bagging or too much history all in one go. Still, I'd like to take her (and her sisters, 10 and 12, and my wife) to Scotland in October. Somewhere with things to do for moderately active pre-teen girls, and somewhere where they can take in the scale of the place and be suitably awestruck. Any thoughts?
May seem obvious but Edinburgh is a lovely city to visit. Got the zoo, the Royal Mile, the castle, parks, lots of sites and plenty of hills for active walking but nothings too far if you need to carry her on your shoulders if she gets tired.
Providing Nicola sorts out the ferry situation, Arran ('Scotland in Minature') might fit your bill, including
great mountains and secluded beachcombing, cycling hire and a neat new distillery.
Day ferry to Kintyre for more nature and even quieter countryside
I've considered Arran, actually. Scene of my own childhood summer holidays, up to the age of 5. I like the idea of going to an island, but it's quite a commitment - you're there for the duration. But there's a lot to recommend it.
I have had 3 glasses of raki and I am looking at a beautiful woman who has just sloughed off the swimming pool and now she flops face down in the sun and the beads of poolwater on her firm, tanned buttocks look like silver beads of mercury on immortal bronze
Has her husband come on to you yet?
A different couple, *sadly*
The first guy is definitely gay. Earlier I spied him flirting OUTRAGEOUSLY with a handsome Turkish waiter. I signalled to him desperately - like a lonely firefly on Hampstead Heath - that I am a lonely ageing Hetero man who still likes the flattery of gay attention and he is welcome to continue his earnest weird smiling, but for some reason he ignored me
He also has perfect American-white teeth, despite being British. Always a sign
This world of flirtation is a complete mystery to me - if anyone has ever come on to me, straight or gay, I have never noticed.
You seem to have forgotten that occasion in those toilets in St Pancras...oh sorry I did promise I wouldn't mention that
Would you describe that as flirtation? Or did that happen in the back of the police van afterwards?
Well Trump is coming back to Tweetverse and he is box office. As a comparison surely Man City shares rose when they made their star signing yesterday?
Earring Hagland? My other half follows footy more than me, and she wanted Arsenal to sign him.
I’m going to watch the Arsenal game with her tomorrow, I haven’t watched the last couple with her because it’s hard watching your partner go through such trauma and anguish, and unable to help them, apart from saying oh dear, there’s always next season. 😆
The really big games tonight, just down the way in York
I had to ban my wife from watching football with me. She gets upset when I get upset, not understanding that 10 minutes after the final whistle I'll be just fine and looking forward to the next game...
Lucky you - my mood is damaged for a couple of days afterwards.
Me too. Or that USED to be the case
I was so over-invested in England as a football team their defeat could send me into pits of despair, and the infamous semi penalties defeat at euros 96 put me back into heroin addiction - I went out to score the moment Waddle missed - which seriously blighted my 30s and has tainted my life ever since
I’m not joking.
From the moment I quit drugs, I resolved never to get that emotionally involved in sport ever again. And it has worked (tho it diminishes my enjoyment of sport).
Thank god we won the 2005 ashes. I’d probably have hung myself otherwise
I'm going to ask a totally OT travel advice question because everyone would rather talk about coffee machines and a very personal argument I'm not really following or basically anything except Andy Burnham.
I've got a week free in Europe in September, Berlin at one end and Amsterdam at the other and just need to hang out somewhere in between. I'll mostly be working instead of running around committing tourism but I want somewhere that's just an interesting place to be for a week or so, preferably a single flight up to 3/4 hours long from both Berlin and Amsterdam and a few hours travel max from the airport (train or rentacar or whatever). UK/France/Belgium/Holland/Germany are out because I've been to them too much before. Somewhere that's kind of a bargain because it's a little bit out-of-season is also good.
Where to go?
Bled (Slovenia) if you like chilling by a lake and/or a bit of walking - easy to get out of the main touristy bit, even on foot. Cheap transfer from Ljubljana.
Aeolian islands, but likely too much faff to get to - don't know whether there are diect flights to Sicily, but you still have to cross Sicily and then get a boat.
Edit: And second? Love and peaceful thoughts to all
How recent is the Slovenia tip? Cos tourism there just exploded 2016-18
Personally I am going riding in Sicily for a week in June and then want to spend a week there with a car. If I want to start in Syracuse and end up at Palermo do PBers recommend driving round the bottom, round the top or across the middle? bearing in mind I will have seen a bit of the interior (Madonie to Etna) from my horse.
On a similar question, by youngest daughter has recently got a real bee in her bonnet about going to Scotland. She wants to see a mountain and a castle and a Highland Cow. Which is all very nice, but she is only seven and too small for munro bagging or too much history all in one go. Still, I'd like to take her (and her sisters, 10 and 12, and my wife) to Scotland in October. Somewhere with things to do for moderately active pre-teen girls, and somewhere where they can take in the scale of the place and be suitably awestruck. Any thoughts?
Mull, taking in Iona and Staffa depending on time of year and disposition of children. Ours have loved it from earliest years. Mountain - yes. Castle - less good. Cow - yes. Wildlife; history of Iona is awe inspiring.
Mull is beautiful, and I'm sure Cookie's daughter would be impressed by Staffa and Fingal's Cave. Skye is probably the best of the islands that are easy to get to, although in October the weather might already have turned. On a good day a walk around the Quirain could be a good choice - spectacular scenery but not too challenging. The area around Loch Lomond is beautiful and easily accessible, and Ben Lomond is a good entry level Munro so Cookie's daughter could even bag her first one - my daughter got to the top aged 7 and she is not a particularly well-practiced walker. The view from the top will be something that no 7 year old would ever forget. In general I would suggest going to Scotland in the summer though, if you can push the trip back from October. Never underestimate how horrible it is when it is cold and raining.
Yes, I once was on Mull in October and wondered if I would have to stay for the whole winter because of storms.
I'm going to ask a totally OT travel advice question because everyone would rather talk about coffee machines and a very personal argument I'm not really following or basically anything except Andy Burnham.
I've got a week free in Europe in September, Berlin at one end and Amsterdam at the other and just need to hang out somewhere in between. I'll mostly be working instead of running around committing tourism but I want somewhere that's just an interesting place to be for a week or so, preferably a single flight up to 3/4 hours long from both Berlin and Amsterdam and a few hours travel max from the airport (train or rentacar or whatever). UK/France/Belgium/Holland/Germany are out because I've been to them too much before. Somewhere that's kind of a bargain because it's a little bit out-of-season is also good.
Where to go?
Bled (Slovenia) if you like chilling by a lake and/or a bit of walking - easy to get out of the main touristy bit, even on foot. Cheap transfer from Ljubljana.
Aeolian islands, but likely too much faff to get to - don't know whether there are diect flights to Sicily, but you still have to cross Sicily and then get a boat.
Edit: And second? Love and peaceful thoughts to all
How recent is the Slovenia tip? Cos tourism there just exploded 2016-18
Personally I am going riding in Sicily for a week in June and then want to spend a week there with a car. If I want to start in Syracuse and end up at Palermo do PBers recommend driving round the bottom, round the top or across the middle? bearing in mind I will have seen a bit of the interior (Madonie to Etna) from my horse.
On a similar question, by youngest daughter has recently got a real bee in her bonnet about going to Scotland. She wants to see a mountain and a castle and a Highland Cow. Which is all very nice, but she is only seven and too small for munro bagging or too much history all in one go. Still, I'd like to take her (and her sisters, 10 and 12, and my wife) to Scotland in October. Somewhere with things to do for moderately active pre-teen girls, and somewhere where they can take in the scale of the place and be suitably awestruck. Any thoughts?
I would suggest Glencoe. It has an excellent castle, the hidden valley is not too strenuous a walk and the countryside is probably the best in the UK (if you like mountains). The visitor centre is quite good too.
And if you stay at Kingshouse, she can have the best experience of Scottish midges!
(I think they've renovated the Kingshouse Hotel in the last few years; anyone know if it's lost its (ahem) character?
When I have been over there in recent years I have stayed at the Isles of Glencoe hotel which is good and has a brilliant location. When I was much younger and into hillwalking we once camped out in the glen in late summer. I am not sure what the bastards ate before I came along.
What is it with Scotland and midges? I’ve been to Denmark, Sweden, Ireland etc in summer and not really experienced anything similar yet they share latitud and climate (or maybe I just got lucky)
If you want a truly shocking insect experience Siberia in summer is up there, or the tsetse flies of Kafue, Zambia. Special
I always hear people talking about the midge problem, but honestly in all my travels to the west coast I have NEVER experienced it. I don't know what you are all eating, but you're all obviously much sweeter than me.
I used to say the same. And I’ve been to the Hebrides many many times
Then one day they spotted me. They’ve never let me go since. Strange
I once met an Englishwoman living in a beautiful house in an amazing location on Skye (near dunvegan). She had a full on midge cope cage
She absolutely hated Skye. The loneliness, the darkness, the drizzle, the people turning to sodomy in the winter out of sheer boredom. And the midges. Lord, she hated the midges
One of the most unhappy people I’ve ever met. It really matters - where you live
What a shame, since Skye is a beautiful place. The issue I have with it is the sheer number of tourists. The opposite problem: not lonely enough.
I think she and her husband made the classic mistake
Went there for a summer holiday, hit nice weather, fell in love with the beauty - checked property prices (as they were) - and thought Yes! Perfect place to retire!! Sold their southern English home etc
He still loved it. She loathed it with a vengeance as I say. She’s probably killed him by now
Never ever move somewhere without experiencing it at its WORST - not best
I’ve done a winter week on Skye. Nothing could induce me to move there permanently, despite the amazingness. Of course many would say the same about london…
We had a near-midsummer holiday on Shetland, all over the place (including meeting up with my colleague who is a native). Okay, almost light all day and most of the night, but in winter? You'd need a hobby like building those model ships with about five million miniature blocks to be rove.
And this was a little after the disastrous storm-stranding of the Braer, whose wreck was still there in the bat to the west. I remember walking down the southern headland parallel to Sumburgh Head and noting the houses spaced out along the road. Every single one had a great sector of its roof in completely new tiles. I was thinking, what's it like in the mostly dark in winter, having your roof ripped off and being sprayed with a mix of sea water and crude oil?
Shetland needs trees. Those rooves wouldn't fly away if there's a bank of trees acting as a windbreak. But where are all the trees?
In Orkney, it's the rooves that act as the windbreak. I remember only two woods in the whole archipelago - both centuries old.
This one, it's worse than a C of E school catchment in bird nesting season - I have never seen a wood so crowded
Are there plans to increase that (would seen to be a good idea), given wider programmes, or has someone in authority decided that being windswept is the essential heritage character of the place?
Dunno, sorry.
It’s a good question tho. Are the tree-less wastes of Scotland meant to be like that?
The Caledonian forest suggests not. But then again, the endless, mournful winds on Shetland and Orkney …
I've thought a little about this and have come to a bit of an uninformed notion. In Robert Caro's Years of Lyndon Johnson, he talks about the deceptive fecundity of the Hill Country for the early settlers. Abundant trees, lush vegetation and ample fauna promised great farmland for those who wanted it.
The bounty of the Hill Country proved to be a mirage. The complexity and richness of the eco system belied it's shallow roots in stony soil and as soon as any pressure was put on the land, the whole thing washed away. I wonder if the same happened to the Caledonian Forest, in that the ancient land wasn't suited to forest, but one nonetheless grew. When the land began to be used more intensively, the unsuitability of the foundations showed.
Well Trump is coming back to Tweetverse and he is box office. As a comparison surely Man City shares rose when they made their star signing yesterday?
Earring Hagland? My other half follows footy more than me, and she wanted Arsenal to sign him.
I’m going to watch the Arsenal game with her tomorrow, I haven’t watched the last couple with her because it’s hard watching your partner go through such trauma and anguish, and unable to help them, apart from saying oh dear, there’s always next season. 😆
The really big games tonight, just down the way in York
I had to ban my wife from watching football with me. She gets upset when I get upset, not understanding that 10 minutes after the final whistle I'll be just fine and looking forward to the next game...
Lucky you - my mood is damaged for a couple of days afterwards.
Me too. Or that USED to be the case
I was so over-invested in England as a football team their defeat could send me into pits of despair, and the infamous semi penalties defeat at euros 96 put me back into heroin addiction - I went out to score the moment Waddle missed - which seriously blighted my 30s and has tainted my life ever since
I’m not joking.
From the moment I quit drugs, I resolved never to get that emotionally involved in sport ever again. And it has worked (tho it diminishes my enjoyment of sport).
Thank god we won the 2005 ashes. I’d probably have hung myself otherwise
Whoosh? Waddle missed in 1990, not 96
After we put away the first five, Southgate missed the sixth.
I'm going to ask a totally OT travel advice question because everyone would rather talk about coffee machines and a very personal argument I'm not really following or basically anything except Andy Burnham.
I've got a week free in Europe in September, Berlin at one end and Amsterdam at the other and just need to hang out somewhere in between. I'll mostly be working instead of running around committing tourism but I want somewhere that's just an interesting place to be for a week or so, preferably a single flight up to 3/4 hours long from both Berlin and Amsterdam and a few hours travel max from the airport (train or rentacar or whatever). UK/France/Belgium/Holland/Germany are out because I've been to them too much before. Somewhere that's kind of a bargain because it's a little bit out-of-season is also good.
Where to go?
Bled (Slovenia) if you like chilling by a lake and/or a bit of walking - easy to get out of the main touristy bit, even on foot. Cheap transfer from Ljubljana.
Aeolian islands, but likely too much faff to get to - don't know whether there are diect flights to Sicily, but you still have to cross Sicily and then get a boat.
Edit: And second? Love and peaceful thoughts to all
How recent is the Slovenia tip? Cos tourism there just exploded 2016-18
Personally I am going riding in Sicily for a week in June and then want to spend a week there with a car. If I want to start in Syracuse and end up at Palermo do PBers recommend driving round the bottom, round the top or across the middle? bearing in mind I will have seen a bit of the interior (Madonie to Etna) from my horse.
On a similar question, by youngest daughter has recently got a real bee in her bonnet about going to Scotland. She wants to see a mountain and a castle and a Highland Cow. Which is all very nice, but she is only seven and too small for munro bagging or too much history all in one go. Still, I'd like to take her (and her sisters, 10 and 12, and my wife) to Scotland in October. Somewhere with things to do for moderately active pre-teen girls, and somewhere where they can take in the scale of the place and be suitably awestruck. Any thoughts?
Mull, taking in Iona and Staffa depending on time of year and disposition of children. Ours have loved it from earliest years. Mountain - yes. Castle - less good. Cow - yes. Wildlife; history of Iona is awe inspiring.
Mull is beautiful, and I'm sure Cookie's daughter would be impressed by Staffa and Fingal's Cave. Skye is probably the best of the islands that are easy to get to, although in October the weather might already have turned. On a good day a walk around the Quirain could be a good choice - spectacular scenery but not too challenging. The area around Loch Lomond is beautiful and easily accessible, and Ben Lomond is a good entry level Munro so Cookie's daughter could even bag her first one - my daughter got to the top aged 7 and she is not a particularly well-practiced walker. The view from the top will be something that no 7 year old would ever forget. In general I would suggest going to Scotland in the summer though, if you can push the trip back from October. Never underestimate how horrible it is when it is cold and raining.
Yes, I once was on Mull in October and wondered if I would have to stay for the whole winter because of storms.
Sprsing and early autumn for me - outside midges/peak tourists, inside the weather window.
I'm going to ask a totally OT travel advice question because everyone would rather talk about coffee machines and a very personal argument I'm not really following or basically anything except Andy Burnham.
I've got a week free in Europe in September, Berlin at one end and Amsterdam at the other and just need to hang out somewhere in between. I'll mostly be working instead of running around committing tourism but I want somewhere that's just an interesting place to be for a week or so, preferably a single flight up to 3/4 hours long from both Berlin and Amsterdam and a few hours travel max from the airport (train or rentacar or whatever). UK/France/Belgium/Holland/Germany are out because I've been to them too much before. Somewhere that's kind of a bargain because it's a little bit out-of-season is also good.
Where to go?
Bled (Slovenia) if you like chilling by a lake and/or a bit of walking - easy to get out of the main touristy bit, even on foot. Cheap transfer from Ljubljana.
Aeolian islands, but likely too much faff to get to - don't know whether there are diect flights to Sicily, but you still have to cross Sicily and then get a boat.
Edit: And second? Love and peaceful thoughts to all
How recent is the Slovenia tip? Cos tourism there just exploded 2016-18
Personally I am going riding in Sicily for a week in June and then want to spend a week there with a car. If I want to start in Syracuse and end up at Palermo do PBers recommend driving round the bottom, round the top or across the middle? bearing in mind I will have seen a bit of the interior (Madonie to Etna) from my horse.
On a similar question, by youngest daughter has recently got a real bee in her bonnet about going to Scotland. She wants to see a mountain and a castle and a Highland Cow. Which is all very nice, but she is only seven and too small for munro bagging or too much history all in one go. Still, I'd like to take her (and her sisters, 10 and 12, and my wife) to Scotland in October. Somewhere with things to do for moderately active pre-teen girls, and somewhere where they can take in the scale of the place and be suitably awestruck. Any thoughts?
I would suggest Glencoe. It has an excellent castle, the hidden valley is not too strenuous a walk and the countryside is probably the best in the UK (if you like mountains). The visitor centre is quite good too.
And if you stay at Kingshouse, she can have the best experience of Scottish midges!
(I think they've renovated the Kingshouse Hotel in the last few years; anyone know if it's lost its (ahem) character?
When I have been over there in recent years I have stayed at the Isles of Glencoe hotel which is good and has a brilliant location. When I was much younger and into hillwalking we once camped out in the glen in late summer. I am not sure what the bastards ate before I came along.
What is it with Scotland and midges? I’ve been to Denmark, Sweden, Ireland etc in summer and not really experienced anything similar yet they share latitud and climate (or maybe I just got lucky)
If you want a truly shocking insect experience Siberia in summer is up there, or the tsetse flies of Kafue, Zambia. Special
I always hear people talking about the midge problem, but honestly in all my travels to the west coast I have NEVER experienced it. I don't know what you are all eating, but you're all obviously much sweeter than me.
I used to say the same. And I’ve been to the Hebrides many many times
Then one day they spotted me. They’ve never let me go since. Strange
I once met an Englishwoman living in a beautiful house in an amazing location on Skye (near dunvegan). She had a full on midge cope cage
She absolutely hated Skye. The loneliness, the darkness, the drizzle, the people turning to sodomy in the winter out of sheer boredom. And the midges. Lord, she hated the midges
One of the most unhappy people I’ve ever met. It really matters - where you live
No, it's the person. She'd be the same whereever she lived.
I'm going to ask a totally OT travel advice question because everyone would rather talk about coffee machines and a very personal argument I'm not really following or basically anything except Andy Burnham.
I've got a week free in Europe in September, Berlin at one end and Amsterdam at the other and just need to hang out somewhere in between. I'll mostly be working instead of running around committing tourism but I want somewhere that's just an interesting place to be for a week or so, preferably a single flight up to 3/4 hours long from both Berlin and Amsterdam and a few hours travel max from the airport (train or rentacar or whatever). UK/France/Belgium/Holland/Germany are out because I've been to them too much before. Somewhere that's kind of a bargain because it's a little bit out-of-season is also good.
Where to go?
Bled (Slovenia) if you like chilling by a lake and/or a bit of walking - easy to get out of the main touristy bit, even on foot. Cheap transfer from Ljubljana.
Aeolian islands, but likely too much faff to get to - don't know whether there are diect flights to Sicily, but you still have to cross Sicily and then get a boat.
Edit: And second? Love and peaceful thoughts to all
How recent is the Slovenia tip? Cos tourism there just exploded 2016-18
Personally I am going riding in Sicily for a week in June and then want to spend a week there with a car. If I want to start in Syracuse and end up at Palermo do PBers recommend driving round the bottom, round the top or across the middle? bearing in mind I will have seen a bit of the interior (Madonie to Etna) from my horse.
On a similar question, by youngest daughter has recently got a real bee in her bonnet about going to Scotland. She wants to see a mountain and a castle and a Highland Cow. Which is all very nice, but she is only seven and too small for munro bagging or too much history all in one go. Still, I'd like to take her (and her sisters, 10 and 12, and my wife) to Scotland in October. Somewhere with things to do for moderately active pre-teen girls, and somewhere where they can take in the scale of the place and be suitably awestruck. Any thoughts?
May seem obvious but Edinburgh is a lovely city to visit. Got the zoo, the Royal Mile, the castle, parks, lots of sites and plenty of hills for active walking but nothings too far if you need to carry her on your shoulders if she gets tired.
Providing Nicola sorts out the ferry situation, Arran ('Scotland in Minature') might fit your bill, including
great mountains and secluded beachcombing, cycling hire and a neat new distillery.
Day ferry to Kintyre for more nature and even quieter countryside
I've considered Arran, actually. Scene of my own childhood summer holidays, up to the age of 5. I like the idea of going to an island, but it's quite a commitment - you're there for the duration. But there's a lot to recommend it.
I have had 3 glasses of raki and I am looking at a beautiful woman who has just sloughed off the swimming pool and now she flops face down in the sun and the beads of poolwater on her firm, tanned buttocks look like silver beads of mercury on immortal bronze
I just put in a comment I made about my gardening a couple of weeks ago. The returned text was a little worrying..
I entered
"I’m gardening to pay for my board and lodgings for a few days. I’m staying with an old mate and he needs to get things planted in his vegetable patch. I’m on my third 16ft potato trench of the evening, and planted 200 onions earlier. I’m unsure how many beers it’s taken to perform this endeavour. Probably nearing twenty miles worth."
And it continued
"I don’t usually get quite this drunk in the garden and I’m thinking it’s because my body is finally realising that it has been without water for a while. I drink water constantly and I’m generally trying to ensure I drink as much as possible. It’s good stuff here though. I need to get back for a couple of weeks but I can’t really stay much longer. I’m at a point in my life where I just don’t know how long I’m going to live. When I’m not working, I’m probably sleeping and doing as little as possible. So when I say that I don’t know how long I’m going to live, it’s quite a depressing feeling. I’m going to die. I’m going to live forever, and I’m not actually bothered whether I do."
I stayed at a B&B on Harris one summer eve many years ago. Awoke around 02:00 to the sound of distant Gaelic ululating over the croft. Mindful of 'The Wicker Man' I decided the clever course of action was to turn over and go back to sleep. I mentioned it at breakfast, though, and was told 'we were all out peat-cutting; it's so dark in winter we can't do anything, so in the summer we never sleep'.
"What was that sound like a very old motor bike?" I ventured.
"Ah, that would be Hamish. He's a Harris Tweed weaver. It's supposed to be hand-woven but he attaches an old petrol engine to his loom in the middle of the night when the inspectors aren't around."
I was amused by the idea of running a 'secret' petrol engine in the middle of the night, clearly audible 5 miles away.
I'm going to ask a totally OT travel advice question because everyone would rather talk about coffee machines and a very personal argument I'm not really following or basically anything except Andy Burnham.
I've got a week free in Europe in September, Berlin at one end and Amsterdam at the other and just need to hang out somewhere in between. I'll mostly be working instead of running around committing tourism but I want somewhere that's just an interesting place to be for a week or so, preferably a single flight up to 3/4 hours long from both Berlin and Amsterdam and a few hours travel max from the airport (train or rentacar or whatever). UK/France/Belgium/Holland/Germany are out because I've been to them too much before. Somewhere that's kind of a bargain because it's a little bit out-of-season is also good.
Where to go?
Bled (Slovenia) if you like chilling by a lake and/or a bit of walking - easy to get out of the main touristy bit, even on foot. Cheap transfer from Ljubljana.
Aeolian islands, but likely too much faff to get to - don't know whether there are diect flights to Sicily, but you still have to cross Sicily and then get a boat.
Edit: And second? Love and peaceful thoughts to all
How recent is the Slovenia tip? Cos tourism there just exploded 2016-18
Personally I am going riding in Sicily for a week in June and then want to spend a week there with a car. If I want to start in Syracuse and end up at Palermo do PBers recommend driving round the bottom, round the top or across the middle? bearing in mind I will have seen a bit of the interior (Madonie to Etna) from my horse.
On a similar question, by youngest daughter has recently got a real bee in her bonnet about going to Scotland. She wants to see a mountain and a castle and a Highland Cow. Which is all very nice, but she is only seven and too small for munro bagging or too much history all in one go. Still, I'd like to take her (and her sisters, 10 and 12, and my wife) to Scotland in October. Somewhere with things to do for moderately active pre-teen girls, and somewhere where they can take in the scale of the place and be suitably awestruck. Any thoughts?
I would suggest Glencoe. It has an excellent castle, the hidden valley is not too strenuous a walk and the countryside is probably the best in the UK (if you like mountains). The visitor centre is quite good too.
And if you stay at Kingshouse, she can have the best experience of Scottish midges!
(I think they've renovated the Kingshouse Hotel in the last few years; anyone know if it's lost its (ahem) character?
When I have been over there in recent years I have stayed at the Isles of Glencoe hotel which is good and has a brilliant location. When I was much younger and into hillwalking we once camped out in the glen in late summer. I am not sure what the bastards ate before I came along.
What is it with Scotland and midges? I’ve been to Denmark, Sweden, Ireland etc in summer and not really experienced anything similar yet they share latitud and climate (or maybe I just got lucky)
If you want a truly shocking insect experience Siberia in summer is up there, or the tsetse flies of Kafue, Zambia. Special
I always hear people talking about the midge problem, but honestly in all my travels to the west coast I have NEVER experienced it. I don't know what you are all eating, but you're all obviously much sweeter than me.
I used to say the same. And I’ve been to the Hebrides many many times
Then one day they spotted me. They’ve never let me go since. Strange
I once met an Englishwoman living in a beautiful house in an amazing location on Skye (near dunvegan). She had a full on midge cope cage
She absolutely hated Skye. The loneliness, the darkness, the drizzle, the people turning to sodomy in the winter out of sheer boredom. And the midges. Lord, she hated the midges
One of the most unhappy people I’ve ever met. It really matters - where you live
No, it's the person. She'd be the same whereever she lived.
I do not have the impression that Leon is always very happy?
Where you live may match personality types. Perhaps the lady on Skye was simply the wrong person to be there. I know people living in far away places who are very happy. Some love isolation and the wheel of nature through the seasons. I know others living in desert lands without seasons who are the unhappiest people I have ever met.
Try the Jutland peninsular for bleak. Søren Kierkegaard's father came from there and probably infected the young boy with his bleak, black, outlook borne of winters in those bitter wastelands.
What is the fucking matter with the man. He's at the 'I love you' stage of being drunk, chucking our overstretched military at anyone who'll have it like an unwanted beery hug.
Re Quordle: I don't think you need to get all the letters out in the first four goes. Frankly, a starting set of PRINT, MOUSE, CHALK usually enough (as today) to get the words on rounds 4, 5, 6, 7. Only occasionally does one need 8 or 9.
Y'all know you're playing hangman, right? Like we used to on wet playtimes aged 9 but we knew words that were even longer than 5 letters. Talented school I were at.
What is the fucking matter with the man. He's at the 'I love you' stage of being drunk, chucking our overstretched military at anyone who'll have it like an unwanted beery hug.
Increasing the size of the coalition, of those willing to take on the drunk and angry bear.
Well Trump is coming back to Tweetverse and he is box office. As a comparison surely Man City shares rose when they made their star signing yesterday?
Earring Hagland? My other half follows footy more than me, and she wanted Arsenal to sign him.
I’m going to watch the Arsenal game with her tomorrow, I haven’t watched the last couple with her because it’s hard watching your partner go through such trauma and anguish, and unable to help them, apart from saying oh dear, there’s always next season. 😆
The really big games tonight, just down the way in York
I had to ban my wife from watching football with me. She gets upset when I get upset, not understanding that 10 minutes after the final whistle I'll be just fine and looking forward to the next game...
Lucky you - my mood is damaged for a couple of days afterwards.
Me too. Or that USED to be the case
I was so over-invested in England as a football team their defeat could send me into pits of despair, and the infamous semi penalties defeat at euros 96 put me back into heroin addiction - I went out to score the moment Waddle missed - which seriously blighted my 30s and has tainted my life ever since
I’m not joking.
From the moment I quit drugs, I resolved never to get that emotionally involved in sport ever again. And it has worked (tho it diminishes my enjoyment of sport).
Thank god we won the 2005 ashes. I’d probably have hung myself otherwise
What is the fucking matter with the man. He's at the 'I love you' stage of being drunk, chucking our overstretched military at anyone who'll have it like an unwanted beery hug.
Increasing the size of the coalition, of those willing to take on the drunk and angry bear.
Tbf by the time Putin bothers with Sweden he will be waving over the channel at us from the Calais Oblast
Southgate deserves to be dispatched from a cannon along with Pearce and Waddle for their pizza hut advert cashing in on being unable to hit a target. At least Batty had the decency to dissapear and never return
I'm going to ask a totally OT travel advice question because everyone would rather talk about coffee machines and a very personal argument I'm not really following or basically anything except Andy Burnham.
I've got a week free in Europe in September, Berlin at one end and Amsterdam at the other and just need to hang out somewhere in between. I'll mostly be working instead of running around committing tourism but I want somewhere that's just an interesting place to be for a week or so, preferably a single flight up to 3/4 hours long from both Berlin and Amsterdam and a few hours travel max from the airport (train or rentacar or whatever). UK/France/Belgium/Holland/Germany are out because I've been to them too much before. Somewhere that's kind of a bargain because it's a little bit out-of-season is also good.
Where to go?
Bled (Slovenia) if you like chilling by a lake and/or a bit of walking - easy to get out of the main touristy bit, even on foot. Cheap transfer from Ljubljana.
Aeolian islands, but likely too much faff to get to - don't know whether there are diect flights to Sicily, but you still have to cross Sicily and then get a boat.
Edit: And second? Love and peaceful thoughts to all
How recent is the Slovenia tip? Cos tourism there just exploded 2016-18
Personally I am going riding in Sicily for a week in June and then want to spend a week there with a car. If I want to start in Syracuse and end up at Palermo do PBers recommend driving round the bottom, round the top or across the middle? bearing in mind I will have seen a bit of the interior (Madonie to Etna) from my horse.
On a similar question, by youngest daughter has recently got a real bee in her bonnet about going to Scotland. She wants to see a mountain and a castle and a Highland Cow. Which is all very nice, but she is only seven and too small for munro bagging or too much history all in one go. Still, I'd like to take her (and her sisters, 10 and 12, and my wife) to Scotland in October. Somewhere with things to do for moderately active pre-teen girls, and somewhere where they can take in the scale of the place and be suitably awestruck. Any thoughts?
I would suggest Glencoe. It has an excellent castle, the hidden valley is not too strenuous a walk and the countryside is probably the best in the UK (if you like mountains). The visitor centre is quite good too.
And if you stay at Kingshouse, she can have the best experience of Scottish midges!
(I think they've renovated the Kingshouse Hotel in the last few years; anyone know if it's lost its (ahem) character?
When I have been over there in recent years I have stayed at the Isles of Glencoe hotel which is good and has a brilliant location. When I was much younger and into hillwalking we once camped out in the glen in late summer. I am not sure what the bastards ate before I came along.
What is it with Scotland and midges? I’ve been to Denmark, Sweden, Ireland etc in summer and not really experienced anything similar yet they share latitud and climate (or maybe I just got lucky)
If you want a truly shocking insect experience Siberia in summer is up there, or the tsetse flies of Kafue, Zambia. Special
I always hear people talking about the midge problem, but honestly in all my travels to the west coast I have NEVER experienced it. I don't know what you are all eating, but you're all obviously much sweeter than me.
I used to say the same. And I’ve been to the Hebrides many many times
Then one day they spotted me. They’ve never let me go since. Strange
I once met an Englishwoman living in a beautiful house in an amazing location on Skye (near dunvegan). She had a full on midge cope cage
She absolutely hated Skye. The loneliness, the darkness, the drizzle, the people turning to sodomy in the winter out of sheer boredom. And the midges. Lord, she hated the midges
One of the most unhappy people I’ve ever met. It really matters - where you live
What a shame, since Skye is a beautiful place. The issue I have with it is the sheer number of tourists. The opposite problem: not lonely enough.
I think she and her husband made the classic mistake
Went there for a summer holiday, hit nice weather, fell in love with the beauty - checked property prices (as they were) - and thought Yes! Perfect place to retire!! Sold their southern English home etc
He still loved it. She loathed it with a vengeance as I say. She’s probably killed him by now
Never ever move somewhere without experiencing it at its WORST - not best
I’ve done a winter week on Skye. Nothing could induce me to move there permanently, despite the amazingness. Of course many would say the same about london…
We had a near-midsummer holiday on Shetland, all over the place (including meeting up with my colleague who is a native). Okay, almost light all day and most of the night, but in winter? You'd need a hobby like building those model ships with about five million miniature blocks to be rove.
And this was a little after the disastrous storm-stranding of the Braer, whose wreck was still there in the bat to the west. I remember walking down the southern headland parallel to Sumburgh Head and noting the houses spaced out along the road. Every single one had a great sector of its roof in completely new tiles. I was thinking, what's it like in the mostly dark in winter, having your roof ripped off and being sprayed with a mix of sea water and crude oil?
Shetland needs trees. Those rooves wouldn't fly away if there's a bank of trees acting as a windbreak. But where are all the trees?
In Orkney, it's the rooves that act as the windbreak. I remember only two woods in the whole archipelago - both centuries old.
This one, it's worse than a C of E school catchment in bird nesting season - I have never seen a wood so crowded
Are there plans to increase that (would seen to be a good idea), given wider programmes, or has someone in authority decided that being windswept is the essential heritage character of the place?
Dunno, sorry.
It’s a good question tho. Are the tree-less wastes of Scotland meant to be like that?
The Caledonian forest suggests not. But then again, the endless, mournful winds on Shetland and Orkney …
Samuel Johnson commented more than 250 years ago that "A tree might be a show in Scotland as a horse in Venice." In fairness though, he was never very nice about Scotland.
He was very surprised the locals were so nice to him ...
When you go to Iona it makes you think when you reflect that not only has Columba been there, but so has Samuel Johnson and John Keats.
The answer here is very simple: if you put an island in a loch, you get trees on it, unless you also put sheep or deer or cattle on the island. All there is to it. Same if you fence off a small square.
If you want trees, bring back wolves.
Or helicopter sniper teams.
That happens, allegedly. Plenty of Scotch landowners with army connections quite adequate to arranging a special ops training exercise.
I'm going to ask a totally OT travel advice question because everyone would rather talk about coffee machines and a very personal argument I'm not really following or basically anything except Andy Burnham.
I've got a week free in Europe in September, Berlin at one end and Amsterdam at the other and just need to hang out somewhere in between. I'll mostly be working instead of running around committing tourism but I want somewhere that's just an interesting place to be for a week or so, preferably a single flight up to 3/4 hours long from both Berlin and Amsterdam and a few hours travel max from the airport (train or rentacar or whatever). UK/France/Belgium/Holland/Germany are out because I've been to them too much before. Somewhere that's kind of a bargain because it's a little bit out-of-season is also good.
Where to go?
Bled (Slovenia) if you like chilling by a lake and/or a bit of walking - easy to get out of the main touristy bit, even on foot. Cheap transfer from Ljubljana.
Aeolian islands, but likely too much faff to get to - don't know whether there are diect flights to Sicily, but you still have to cross Sicily and then get a boat.
Edit: And second? Love and peaceful thoughts to all
How recent is the Slovenia tip? Cos tourism there just exploded 2016-18
Personally I am going riding in Sicily for a week in June and then want to spend a week there with a car. If I want to start in Syracuse and end up at Palermo do PBers recommend driving round the bottom, round the top or across the middle? bearing in mind I will have seen a bit of the interior (Madonie to Etna) from my horse.
On a similar question, by youngest daughter has recently got a real bee in her bonnet about going to Scotland. She wants to see a mountain and a castle and a Highland Cow. Which is all very nice, but she is only seven and too small for munro bagging or too much history all in one go. Still, I'd like to take her (and her sisters, 10 and 12, and my wife) to Scotland in October. Somewhere with things to do for moderately active pre-teen girls, and somewhere where they can take in the scale of the place and be suitably awestruck. Any thoughts?
I would suggest Glencoe. It has an excellent castle, the hidden valley is not too strenuous a walk and the countryside is probably the best in the UK (if you like mountains). The visitor centre is quite good too.
And if you stay at Kingshouse, she can have the best experience of Scottish midges!
(I think they've renovated the Kingshouse Hotel in the last few years; anyone know if it's lost its (ahem) character?
When I have been over there in recent years I have stayed at the Isles of Glencoe hotel which is good and has a brilliant location. When I was much younger and into hillwalking we once camped out in the glen in late summer. I am not sure what the bastards ate before I came along.
What is it with Scotland and midges? I’ve been to Denmark, Sweden, Ireland etc in summer and not really experienced anything similar yet they share latitud and climate (or maybe I just got lucky)
If you want a truly shocking insect experience Siberia in summer is up there, or the tsetse flies of Kafue, Zambia. Special
I always hear people talking about the midge problem, but honestly in all my travels to the west coast I have NEVER experienced it. I don't know what you are all eating, but you're all obviously much sweeter than me.
I used to say the same. And I’ve been to the Hebrides many many times
Then one day they spotted me. They’ve never let me go since. Strange
I once met an Englishwoman living in a beautiful house in an amazing location on Skye (near dunvegan). She had a full on midge cope cage
She absolutely hated Skye. The loneliness, the darkness, the drizzle, the people turning to sodomy in the winter out of sheer boredom. And the midges. Lord, she hated the midges
One of the most unhappy people I’ve ever met. It really matters - where you live
No, it's the person. She'd be the same whereever she lived.
I do not have the impression that Leon is always very happy?
Where you live may match personality types. Perhaps the lady on Skye was simply the wrong person to be there. I know people living in far away places who are very happy. Some love isolation and the wheel of nature through the seasons. I know others living in desert lands without seasons who are the unhappiest people I have ever met.
Try the Jutland peninsular for bleak. Søren Kierkegaard's father came from there and probably infected the young boy with his bleak, black, outlook borne of winters in those bitter wastelands.
It is all about horses for courses.
My father was there on munitions disposal in 1945, May-November. He quite liked it, but obviously he got out at the right time.
What is the fucking matter with the man. He's at the 'I love you' stage of being drunk, chucking our overstretched military at anyone who'll have it like an unwanted beery hug.
Uniting the Baltics against the war criminal that is Putin is just desserts for his foolish and miscalculated criminal attack on the sovereign nation of Ukraine
Southgate deserves to be dispatched from a cannon along with Pearce and Waddle for their pizza hut advert cashing in on being unable to hit a target. At least Batty had the decency to dissapear and never return
With respect to the fandango currently being danced by Elon Musk and POTUS 45, is the former's quest for financing to emerge as the Biggest Twit directly, closely & inherently connected to his praising, petting & fore-playing the latter?
It is notable that the UK is making friends and allies across the Baltics, Poland and Ukraine and augurs well for defence, security, and trade between these nations
Well Trump is coming back to Tweetverse and he is box office. As a comparison surely Man City shares rose when they made their star signing yesterday?
Earring Hagland? My other half follows footy more than me, and she wanted Arsenal to sign him.
I’m going to watch the Arsenal game with her tomorrow, I haven’t watched the last couple with her because it’s hard watching your partner go through such trauma and anguish, and unable to help them, apart from saying oh dear, there’s always next season. 😆
The really big games tonight, just down the way in York
I had to ban my wife from watching football with me. She gets upset when I get upset, not understanding that 10 minutes after the final whistle I'll be just fine and looking forward to the next game...
Lucky you - my mood is damaged for a couple of days afterwards.
Me too. Or that USED to be the case
I was so over-invested in England as a football team their defeat could send me into pits of despair, and the infamous semi penalties defeat at euros 96 put me back into heroin addiction - I went out to score the moment Waddle missed - which seriously blighted my 30s and has tainted my life ever since
I’m not joking.
From the moment I quit drugs, I resolved never to get that emotionally involved in sport ever again. And it has worked (tho it diminishes my enjoyment of sport).
Thank god we won the 2005 ashes. I’d probably have hung myself otherwise
Whoosh? Waddle missed in 1990, not 96
That’s how stoned I was
That you thought it was 1996 in 1990 or that you thought Southgate was Waddle?
What is the fucking matter with the man. He's at the 'I love you' stage of being drunk, chucking our overstretched military at anyone who'll have it like an unwanted beery hug.
He'll be in Finland next. Party girl Sanna Marin got in trouble for covid partying too. She immediately joined Ardern in being yesterday's face of modern politics. Now she just gads about in a 1990s style black leather jacket saying the Finns might join NATO one day.
It is notable that the UK is making friends and allies across the Baltics, Poland and Ukraine and augurs well for defence, security, and trade between these nations
It is notable that the UK is making friends and allies across the Baltics, Poland and Ukraine and augurs well for defence, security, and trade between these nations
@Leon have you done Cadiz? El Puerto Santa Maria, Jerez - The Sherry Triangle? Are they worth visiting or the other option is Monte Gordo/Ayamonte.
I am not Leon. Cadiz is a jewel, worth more than a day. A place to stay for at least a night, to experience in the dark. Excellent food at all price points. Jerez a little run down but pleasant enough. Excellent cathedral. Cathedrals in that part of Spain largely excellent. Sherry in the bars €1 a small glass. All doable by train - the one to Cadiz crosses the marshes which is rather fun. And you get to begin your holiday at Seville. Who could want more?
Southgate deserves to be dispatched from a cannon along with Pearce and Waddle for their pizza hut advert cashing in on being unable to hit a target. At least Batty had the decency to dissapear and never return
It is notable that the UK is making friends and allies across the Baltics, Poland and Ukraine and augurs well for defence, security, and trade between these nations
What is the fucking matter with the man. He's at the 'I love you' stage of being drunk, chucking our overstretched military at anyone who'll have it like an unwanted beery hug.
He'll be in Finland next. Party girl Sanna Marin got in trouble for covid partying too. She immediately joined Ardern in being yesterday's face of modern politics. Now she just gads about in a 1990s style black leather jacket saying the Finns might join NATO one day.
He already is.
This from Sky and I really doubt it but Sky has just reported from Italy that UK could win Eurovision this Saturday
PM signs security declarations with Sweden and Finland
Prime Minister Boris Johnson is signing mutual security assurances with the leaders of Sweden and Finland today amid increased threats in the region.
Mr Johnson signed the declaration with Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson in Sweden, and this afternoon he will travel to Finland to sign a similar security declaration with President Sauli Niinisto.
The declarations will see a change in defence and security cooperation between the UK and each country, intensifying intelligence sharing, accelerating joint military training, exercising and deployments, and bolstering security across all three countries and northern Europe.
They will also allow the UK to cooperate with Nordic partners and their armed forces, in all domains, including cyberspace.
Mr Johnson said: "We are steadfast and unequivocal in our support to both Sweden and Finland and the signing of these security declarations is a symbol of the everlasting assurance between our nations.
"These are not a short-term stop gap, but a long-term commitment to bolster military ties and global stability, and fortify Europe’s defences for generations to come."
Sweden and Finland are currently considering whether to apply for NATO membership in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Both the countries are expected to make decisions this month.
What is the fucking matter with the man. He's at the 'I love you' stage of being drunk, chucking our overstretched military at anyone who'll have it like an unwanted beery hug.
He'll be in Finland next. Party girl Sanna Marin got in trouble for covid partying too. She immediately joined Ardern in being yesterday's face of modern politics. Now she just gads about in a 1990s style black leather jacket saying the Finns might join NATO one day.
There is already a military alliance between the UK, Finland and Sweden (among others)
What is the fucking matter with the man. He's at the 'I love you' stage of being drunk, chucking our overstretched military at anyone who'll have it like an unwanted beery hug.
He'll be in Finland next. Party girl Sanna Marin got in trouble for covid partying too. She immediately joined Ardern in being yesterday's face of modern politics. Now she just gads about in a 1990s style black leather jacket saying the Finns might join NATO one day.
He already is.
This from Sky and I really doubt it but Sky has just reported from Italy that UK could win Eurovision this Saturday
PM signs security declarations with Sweden and Finland
Prime Minister Boris Johnson is signing mutual security assurances with the leaders of Sweden and Finland today amid increased threats in the region.
Mr Johnson signed the declaration with Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson in Sweden, and this afternoon he will travel to Finland to sign a similar security declaration with President Sauli Niinisto.
The declarations will see a change in defence and security cooperation between the UK and each country, intensifying intelligence sharing, accelerating joint military training, exercising and deployments, and bolstering security across all three countries and northern Europe.
They will also allow the UK to cooperate with Nordic partners and their armed forces, in all domains, including cyberspace.
Mr Johnson said: "We are steadfast and unequivocal in our support to both Sweden and Finland and the signing of these security declarations is a symbol of the everlasting assurance between our nations.
"These are not a short-term stop gap, but a long-term commitment to bolster military ties and global stability, and fortify Europe’s defences for generations to come."
Sweden and Finland are currently considering whether to apply for NATO membership in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Both the countries are expected to make decisions this month.
They are keeping him away from Sanna. Attractive if slightly fey looking young woman, likes to party. Big Dog would be beside himself!
It is notable that the UK is making friends and allies across the Baltics, Poland and Ukraine and augurs well for defence, security, and trade between these nations
And Eurovision.
But not this year. I have us in the sweepstake.
Not here either. I've heard our entry.
Bless, you actually think the song quality correlates with the voting?
It is notable that the UK is making friends and allies across the Baltics, Poland and Ukraine and augurs well for defence, security, and trade between these nations
And Eurovision.
But not this year. I have us in the sweepstake.
Not here either. I've heard our entry.
Chap used to run a veggie cafe not far from here. Rather strange place.
What is the fucking matter with the man. He's at the 'I love you' stage of being drunk, chucking our overstretched military at anyone who'll have it like an unwanted beery hug.
He'll be in Finland next. Party girl Sanna Marin got in trouble for covid partying too. She immediately joined Ardern in being yesterday's face of modern politics. Now she just gads about in a 1990s style black leather jacket saying the Finns might join NATO one day.
He already is.
This from Sky and I really doubt it but Sky has just reported from Italy that UK could win Eurovision this Saturday
PM signs security declarations with Sweden and Finland
Prime Minister Boris Johnson is signing mutual security assurances with the leaders of Sweden and Finland today amid increased threats in the region.
Mr Johnson signed the declaration with Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson in Sweden, and this afternoon he will travel to Finland to sign a similar security declaration with President Sauli Niinisto.
The declarations will see a change in defence and security cooperation between the UK and each country, intensifying intelligence sharing, accelerating joint military training, exercising and deployments, and bolstering security across all three countries and northern Europe.
They will also allow the UK to cooperate with Nordic partners and their armed forces, in all domains, including cyberspace.
Mr Johnson said: "We are steadfast and unequivocal in our support to both Sweden and Finland and the signing of these security declarations is a symbol of the everlasting assurance between our nations.
"These are not a short-term stop gap, but a long-term commitment to bolster military ties and global stability, and fortify Europe’s defences for generations to come."
Sweden and Finland are currently considering whether to apply for NATO membership in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Both the countries are expected to make decisions this month.
They are keeping him away from Sanna. Attractive if slightly fey looking young woman, likes to party. Big Dog would be beside himself!
It will be a very sad day when liking a party is looked down on
It is notable that the UK is making friends and allies across the Baltics, Poland and Ukraine and augurs well for defence, security, and trade between these nations
Not if Mr J screws up our relationships with the EU trade wise. Most of them are in the EU.
It is notable that the UK is making friends and allies across the Baltics, Poland and Ukraine and augurs well for defence, security, and trade between these nations
And Eurovision.
But not this year. I have us in the sweepstake.
Not here either. I've heard our entry.
Bless, you actually think the song quality correlates with the voting?
Oh, it does, to some extent. It's just that the musical tastes of Europeans are a little different from ours.
What is the fucking matter with the man. He's at the 'I love you' stage of being drunk, chucking our overstretched military at anyone who'll have it like an unwanted beery hug.
He'll be in Finland next. Party girl Sanna Marin got in trouble for covid partying too. She immediately joined Ardern in being yesterday's face of modern politics. Now she just gads about in a 1990s style black leather jacket saying the Finns might join NATO one day.
There is already a military alliance between the UK, Finland and Sweden (among others)
My being a plank and amusing myself aside, people generally don't know about these sorts of things when they scoff at the UK still wielding and projecting soft power globally
It is notable that the UK is making friends and allies across the Baltics, Poland and Ukraine and augurs well for defence, security, and trade between these nations
And Eurovision.
But not this year. I have us in the sweepstake.
Not here either. I've heard our entry.
Bless, you actually think the song quality correlates with the voting?
Oh, it does, to some extent. It's just that the musical tastes of Europeans are a little different from ours.
Re Quordle: I don't think you need to get all the letters out in the first four goes. Frankly, a starting set of PRINT, MOUSE, CHALK usually enough (as today) to get the words on rounds 4, 5, 6, 7. Only occasionally does one need 8 or 9.
Y'all know you're playing hangman, right? Like we used to on wet playtimes aged 9 but we knew words that were even longer than 5 letters. Talented school I were at.
That's a pretty dark game, when you think about it...
What is the fucking matter with the man. He's at the 'I love you' stage of being drunk, chucking our overstretched military at anyone who'll have it like an unwanted beery hug.
He'll be in Finland next. Party girl Sanna Marin got in trouble for covid partying too. She immediately joined Ardern in being yesterday's face of modern politics. Now she just gads about in a 1990s style black leather jacket saying the Finns might join NATO one day.
There is already a military alliance between the UK, Finland and Sweden (among others)
My being a plank and amusing myself aside, people generally don't know about these sorts of things when they scoff at the UK still wielding and projecting soft power globally
It certainly doesn't have as much military power as it used to. MoD planning what is it, 270 front line main battle tanks? (That was well before recent events, with their own pros and cons.)
It is notable that the UK is making friends and allies across the Baltics, Poland and Ukraine and augurs well for defence, security, and trade between these nations
Not if Mr J screws up our relationships with the EU trade wise. Most of them are in the EU.
I think you are missing an important point in as much as Boris and the UK are far and away liked more than France and Germany at present by these nations and cooperation between these nations benefits us all and creates a more collegiate relationships
What is the fucking matter with the man. He's at the 'I love you' stage of being drunk, chucking our overstretched military at anyone who'll have it like an unwanted beery hug.
He'll be in Finland next. Party girl Sanna Marin got in trouble for covid partying too. She immediately joined Ardern in being yesterday's face of modern politics. Now she just gads about in a 1990s style black leather jacket saying the Finns might join NATO one day.
He already is.
This from Sky and I really doubt it but Sky has just reported from Italy that UK could win Eurovision this Saturday
PM signs security declarations with Sweden and Finland
Prime Minister Boris Johnson is signing mutual security assurances with the leaders of Sweden and Finland today amid increased threats in the region.
Mr Johnson signed the declaration with Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson in Sweden, and this afternoon he will travel to Finland to sign a similar security declaration with President Sauli Niinisto.
The declarations will see a change in defence and security cooperation between the UK and each country, intensifying intelligence sharing, accelerating joint military training, exercising and deployments, and bolstering security across all three countries and northern Europe.
They will also allow the UK to cooperate with Nordic partners and their armed forces, in all domains, including cyberspace.
Mr Johnson said: "We are steadfast and unequivocal in our support to both Sweden and Finland and the signing of these security declarations is a symbol of the everlasting assurance between our nations.
"These are not a short-term stop gap, but a long-term commitment to bolster military ties and global stability, and fortify Europe’s defences for generations to come."
Sweden and Finland are currently considering whether to apply for NATO membership in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Both the countries are expected to make decisions this month.
They are keeping him away from Sanna. Attractive if slightly fey looking young woman, likes to party. Big Dog would be beside himself!
It will be a very sad day when liking a party is looked down on
Covid surely hasn't brought us to this
Sannas problem was clubbing when she was meant be isolating. She 'missed the text' She also had an expenses scandal. Top bird.
Comments
Trying to remember exactly where this was. Somewhere on the east side of S Uist, I'm pretty sure. I can picture it perfectly, but I cannot place it. There is at least one coniferous wood on N Uist. Which always seem to look a bit alien in the landscape, given how the rest of it is.
This is quoted from Reddit, and imo it does slightly reduce the fun.
--------------
I'll only quote two lists of 5, but there are about 10.
This is normal English words:
CHUNK FJORD GYMPS VIBEX WALTZ (all standard English words)
This has a couple of exotics:
BLING JUMPY TRECK VOZHD WAQFS
--------------
Most of the lists read like Klingon.
https://www.reddit.com/r/wordle/comments/t28x8u/five_5letter_words_that_all_contain_entirely/
This is a NIMBY charter.
Hopeless. We have no chance of solving the housing crisis with these jokers in charge.
I am not clear whether sheep have a similar impact on young trees.
I always fancied being a writer. Though in reality while I can string a few words together I have neither the ideas (an oddly undervalued talent in a writer, having something to say) nor the self-motivation, and the parlous nature of the work would terrify me.
Still, writing has won be a bigger prize in life; for complicated reasons, much of the early courtship with my wife was carried out in lengthy emails. We'd written three quarters of a million words to each other before we met. And for my part, I still remember the frisson of excitement in seeing a potential romantic interest using the word 'whom' correctly.
The first guy is definitely gay. Earlier I spied him flirting OUTRAGEOUSLY with a handsome Turkish waiter. I signalled to him desperately - like a lonely firefly on Hampstead Heath - that I am a lonely ageing Hetero man who still likes the flattery of gay attention and he is welcome to continue his earnest weird smiling, but for some reason he ignored me
He also has perfect American-white teeth, despite being British. Always a sign
Is Leon human?
All they needed to do was to offer investors at least some returns
@SamRamani2
BREAKING: Boris Johnson confirms that Britain will come to Sweden's assistance if it is attacked
https://twitter.com/SamRamani2/status/1524393730500931584
I am not clear whether sheep have a similar impact on young trees.
It also needs careful succession / multi-decade planning.
The National Forest in Leics / Derbys / Staffs is a very good model - a smallish project consistently pursued since 1995, which is now heading towards 10 million trees planted, and has taken forest cover from 6% to 20% across 200 sqm. Aiming for 33%.
Far better than splurges and panics.
I know OGH dislikes the C word, but nothing else really fits the bill for anyone involved in this event.
https://www.nts.org.uk/visit/places/brodick-castle-garden-country-park/planning-your-visit?lang=#opening-times
https://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/arran/ or even
https://scottishwildlifetrust.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/202108_Arran-Snorkel-Trail_02-ONLINE.pdf (wetsuit advised
great mountains and secluded beachcombing, cycling hire and a neat new distillery.
Day ferry to Kintyre for more nature and even quieter countryside
Hmmm. And various 1st Edition Biggles.
https://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/arran/coire-fhionn-lochan.shtml
You could spend a week on Arran without running out of things to do.
(And Gimlet. I'm rather fond of Gimlet myself.)
The bounty of the Hill Country proved to be a mirage. The complexity and richness of the eco system belied it's shallow roots in stony soil and as soon as any pressure was put on the land, the whole thing washed away. I wonder if the same happened to the Caledonian Forest, in that the ancient land wasn't suited to forest, but one nonetheless grew. When the land began to be used more intensively, the unsuitability of the foundations showed.
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@58.5677636,-3.2322499,3a,75y,289.8h,89.36t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1suEKcb-LshlnWdtojEznE-w!2e0!6shttps://streetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com/v1/thumbnail?panoid=uEKcb-LshlnWdtojEznE-w&cb_client=maps_sv.tactile.gps&w=203&h=100&yaw=28.971962&pitch=0&thumbfov=100!7i13312!8i6656
How in the holy hell do you not know you have them?
I entered
"I’m gardening to pay for my board and lodgings for a few days. I’m staying with an old mate and he needs to get things planted in his vegetable patch. I’m on my third 16ft potato trench of the evening, and planted 200 onions earlier. I’m unsure how many beers it’s taken to perform this endeavour. Probably nearing twenty miles worth."
And it continued
"I don’t usually get quite this drunk in the garden and I’m thinking it’s because my body is finally realising that it has been without water for a while. I drink water constantly and I’m generally trying to ensure I drink as much as possible. It’s good stuff here though. I need to get back for a couple of weeks but I can’t really stay much longer. I’m at a point in my life where I just don’t know how long I’m going to live. When I’m not working, I’m probably sleeping and doing as little as possible. So when I say that I don’t know how long I’m going to live, it’s quite a depressing feeling. I’m going to die. I’m going to live forever, and I’m not actually bothered whether I do."
"What was that sound like a very old motor bike?" I ventured.
"Ah, that would be Hamish. He's a Harris Tweed weaver. It's supposed to be hand-woven but he attaches an old petrol engine to his loom in the middle of the night when the inspectors aren't around."
I was amused by the idea of running a 'secret' petrol engine in the middle of the night, clearly audible 5 miles away.
Where you live may match personality types. Perhaps the lady on Skye was simply the wrong person to be there. I know people living in far away places who are very happy. Some love isolation and the wheel of nature through the seasons. I know others living in desert lands without seasons who are the unhappiest people I have ever met.
Try the Jutland peninsular for bleak. Søren Kierkegaard's father came from there and probably infected the young boy with his bleak, black, outlook borne of winters in those bitter wastelands.
It is all about horses for courses.
There was a story a couple of months ago, of a Russian that turned up in my part of the world trying to liquidate 125,000 BTC. https://www.reuters.com/business/exclusive-russians-liquidating-crypto-uae-seek-safe-havens-2022-03-11/
Or is that just me?
This from Sky and I really doubt it but Sky has just reported from Italy that UK could win Eurovision this Saturday
PM signs security declarations with Sweden and Finland
Prime Minister Boris Johnson is signing mutual security assurances with the leaders of Sweden and Finland today amid increased threats in the region.
Mr Johnson signed the declaration with Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson in Sweden, and this afternoon he will travel to Finland to sign a similar security declaration with President Sauli Niinisto.
The declarations will see a change in defence and security cooperation between the UK and each country, intensifying intelligence sharing, accelerating joint military training, exercising and deployments, and bolstering security across all three countries and northern Europe.
They will also allow the UK to cooperate with Nordic partners and their armed forces, in all domains, including cyberspace.
Mr Johnson said: "We are steadfast and unequivocal in our support to both Sweden and Finland and the signing of these security declarations is a symbol of the everlasting assurance between our nations.
"These are not a short-term stop gap, but a long-term commitment to bolster military ties and global stability, and fortify Europe’s defences for generations to come."
Sweden and Finland are currently considering whether to apply for NATO membership in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Both the countries are expected to make decisions this month.
Here's how. Still pretty unlikely, mind.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/61407180
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UK_Joint_Expeditionary_Force
Covid surely hasn't brought us to this
She also had an expenses scandal.
Top bird.