what a great day mid-day

Well, not being hungry thanks to my porridge and toblerone breakfast, I decided to make use of the beautiful weather and go for a walk through the town I work at, where I've never been before, it's actually really beautiful. so, here's a link to google maps (in case the map doesn't load) where you will see the walk I've done, it took me about 1 hour.

http://maps.google.fr/maps/ms?hl=fr&source=hp&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=107589477263041319348.000478b88a73f69fa854f&ll=48.058291,-1.514418&spn=0.011144,0.027874&t=h&z=16


Afficher my mid-day walk sur une carte plus grande


so, as you can tell, it was a good wee walk.

The first photos I took were of the approaching bridge and then the view at either side.

Very pretty, I'm sure you'll agree. Then, just five mins before getting back to work (you'll see the little forest bitty just to the left of the start) I saw one of my all time favourite animals. A RED SQUIREL. So, I have taken a few pictures, but it is still very small, as it ran up the tree as soon as it heard the velcro camera pouch opening. here are a couple

and in this one, I'll let you see if you can spot it, I'll give you a clue, it's in the centre of the pic. lol.

AND to finish off, here are some pics of the mushrooms and the omellete we made with them. From last week.

 

 

Ok well, if I'm going to start uploading a lot of pics, I will probably start making picasa slideshows so that the blog page doesn't take so long for you folks with a slow connection.

Take care everyone.

another cold

So, I woke up today, and have yet another cold, the type that blogs your nose even though you believe it is constantly running, which is azll in the head, as well as having that acid-sore throat (not heart burn, but similar, think of the pain when you get bile in your throat, well, that's it, constantly). So, I don't really mind going to work with a cold, it's a little annoying to have, but at the end of the day, it is just a cold. However, I am starting to record my own voice for the tutorial video's that I am creating for my company's software, and the difference between my voice from yesterday (when I started recording) and today is quite clear, moreover, anybody listening to this tutorial will realise that I have a cold. So, I kinda believe in karma and what goes around comes aroundf, blah blah dee blah, and I think this is my work karma catching up on me, becaus eI've been a little work lazy recently and could have recorded my voice about a week or two ago, but didn't, and now, I'll have to re-record my voice next week when I'm not all clogged up. HOWEVER, not is all lost, because I have written my script, so that's easy to re-record, and also, even if my voice is clogged up at the moment, I will be able to edit the video to be synchronized with the audio, which is not the smallest of tasks, so I have enough to be doing.

SO, enough about work/cold.

Last night, I called my bro for him to remind me whic B&B not to stay with in his town, I called the other one and booked it, so my firend and I will be staying for 2 nights in my bro's town. can't wait. The plan is surely falling into place nicely, After the B&B, we'll head to Aberdeen for 5 days and nights then head back down to Edinburgh. Cannot Wait. It's gonna be excellent. Scotland, beware, Ross is coming home and he's gonna paint the town redder than you've ever seen before. :p

I had to put this up

My friend (yes, I have friends) sent me an email with lots of pictures of animals with captions. I'm not a huge fan of these types, but this picture completely cracked me up for about 5 mins, tears trickling down my cheeks and everything. ENJOY

long relaxing weekend

Well, back to work, and realizing that this long weekend has really brough back my motivation as I've been working solidly since I got in this morning, and seem to be back "en forme".
I didn't do too much over my long weekend, went mushroom picking, will upload pics soon, with the shrooms I picked and the omeltte we made with them. I bought a big pan to make soup in, I know, highlight of the century. I finally sold my hamster cage for 20 quid, not much but better than nowt.  strolled through some shops in town, didn't buy anything, but just getting idea's for the next big thing I'll buy, which'll either be a big TV, or a really good, high quality digital camera (the ones that are about 700 euro's).
got a migraine on saturday morning, my second, my first was back in May. Like the first, my language skills went out the window, which wasn't great coz I had a bank meeting, but it ma,naged to clear up enough half way through for me to string a sentence together; then just the throbbing background headache lasting til last night. Maybe the few Irish Coffee's helped, normally Whisky gives me headaches but I feel great today. watched a few films, all off which were not that great. "funny peopel"= shite, "satanic panic" = merde, "2012 (made for TV film, not the blockbuster)" = shitzer, "zombieland" = pretty good, could have been better, "district 9" = not as good as expecting, but I still liked it, fresh idea for an alien film and I love soutgh african accents.
well, that's about all for me, gonna go for a cig now with my coffee (not irish)
Hope y'all had a good weekend.

trumpet of death

Last night, I just ate one of my favourite mushrooms, the name being les trompette de la mort, nice name, huh, well, they are actually oneof the tastiest that you can buy/pick though I've been going to the wrong types of forest for this particular species. I just sautéed them in some butter and fried some potatoes and had a porc chop each on the side, the mushrooms certainly made it better. Will buy some more for another meal this week but this time I'll add some echalotes in with them. Ah the beauty of echalotes, garlic is too over powering when mixed with mushrooms, but echalotes just add to the flavour, ooops, I'm salivating again.

On another note, I'm on holiday, well, a five day weekend, starting tomorrow, wooo hooo. Not much planned, got a couple things to do, but nothing of much importance.
On friday night, I have two couch-surfers staying over, two sisters from down south of France, they are doing a little tour of Brettany. they arrive at the train station at 19h30 and will leave early saturday morning, but I'm sure I will end up cooking for them then going into town for a couple of beers. should be good, the one that contacted me seems to be really nice, so I'm sure I'll have fun. Also, Vanessa reckons she'll go to the theatre on that night (shit, I bet that's the show I wanted to see, ah well, another day) then maybe meet up with us afterwards, not too sure tho'.

So, that's it from me, have a good week people.

good weekend

Well, I just passed a very nice weekend, didn't actually do that much, but then it's not necessary to have a good weekend. Yesterday, we went searching for mushrooms, went to one little forest (a wood if you will), nothing, nada, nowt, to wet and the wrong types of trees (pine) to find the edible ones, so we went to the forét de Rennes, and found 3 Cep, woop woop, THREE, TROIS, TRES, SUN, well, we'll eat them tonight, but not really that much, considering the last time we found between 15-20 and ate them all quite easily as an accompanyment to some rice and a nice big faux filet. Oh, talking of food, we ate Haggis last night, I re-discovered (I say re-discovered because somewher ein the back of my head I already knew this) that the Irish shop here actually sells cans of Haggis (at 5euros 70 a pop). Anyway, we just ate it with my famous purée pomme de terre (ah, mashed tatties sounds so exotic in french) and Vanessa loved it, so, we'll be eating that again. Also, on the tin, it says best before 2012 (a bit like me) so I thought we could stock up for the en,d of the world, find a bunker somewhere and just eat cans of Haggis. mmmm. The next time I will stuff chicken breasts with it and cook it in the oven, however, I first need to buy a new oven as mine is capute.
Got the water boiler replaced, but it doesn't seem to be working as well as the last one, can't figure out how to get the water hotter than the setting it's on.
finished a book I was reading, called Vathek, by William Beckford. Good book/novella, difficult to read, but good none the less. Vanessa aklso bought me a book in English by a french author, so I'm looking forward to reading it, can't remember the name of it though.
OK, well, I'm away off the noooo.
ciao

trip to Scotland idea's are slowly hatching into .......bliss

Well, after chatting with a friend and blog reader, I thought I would revert back to "proper" English for this post. If some of you never understood the last one, don't worry, was only about a broken boiler, so you didn't miss anything spec-tac-ular.


So, last night, I had a short (35mins) chat with my BIG brother and told him that whilst my friend and I are in Scotland, I was thinking of going to the west county to show my friend some more of Scotland. As I was saying this to him, an idea popped into my head, which was, why not go and stay at a bed and breakfast where he lives in Speyside for a day (if I was to have one free). Todya, I'm thinking, why go west at all, we could just spend 2 days in Speyside, go on the whisky trail and what not. the landscape is beautiful up there as well. Well, I'm still in the deliberating stage of the thought process, but so far, it seems like a good idea, and my friend said that he'll leave the plans up to me (pour gadge doesn't know what he's let himself infor).
I mean, just look at these pics of speyside.... well, the other plan could still stand, if there was easy enough transport to the west. maybe get a lift if a friends car is working. :p

As for the here and now, no real plans for this weekend, maybe go cep (Boletus edulis) mushroom picking, notice the underside of the mushrooms, this is what makes them so easy to distinguish from the rest that grow here. There are numerous delicious types that grow, but I only know this type and it's maybe not the right season for the others. wish me luck.

Hope you all have a great weekend

weel weel, a richt scoats bloag fer yis

nae muckle tae sei yon folk. bit ah'll gee a wee go oneywei, yis niver ken whit ah'll be ga'an tae sei, in fact, ah dinnae hey a clue whit ah'll be a sein' an'aw. weel, ah'll start wee ma wee problem wee ma elec-truh-city. farn ah awoke the ither dey, joost past likes, ah herd a wee noise an oot gaws ma 'tricity. Ah wis jist leyin' thair thinking tae masel', whit noo, ken, and so ah goat masel' ootae ma nice an' cozy beed, mad ma wei tae thon fuse box, and chienged the fuse that wis needin' chienged. nae difference at aw, ah'm tellin ye, heer wis I, wee ma cliethes oan, awa tae hunf it doon tae the steytion but ye see, ma quine wis in ma beed at thon time, and she wisnae best pleased wee the fact that sheed be stuck in ma hoose wee nae 'tricity, ken, ah'n ah'm sure yis kin imagine, yis dinnae wahnt a fierce quine at ye in the moarnin' jist afore ga'an tae wirk, eh? weel, ah telt the wee lass, ah goes, (en français mind, nae in this scoats dialect, eh!!!) ah goes, "listen quine, ah've tried aw ah can, ah'n it's nae wirkin', nae ma fault ken, Ah'll gee a bell tae ma landloard farn ah'm heyin' ma lunch, aw-rite", weel, this is the thing, ah didnae jist gang an' firget ma mobile likes, hid tae hud back until the nicht afore ah cud caw the geezer likesay, weel, he's a comin' aroond the nicht, so, fingers are truly crossed in hoping he'll be able tae fix it. If no, ah'll be heyin' anither cauld shoower, an' if thirs wahn thing ah'm nae a great fan oaf, it's cauld shoowers farn it's cahl ootside, ken, disnae gang hun-d'in-hund like-sey.
awrichty 'en, ah s'pose ah'll gang an' dey sum wirk, efteraw, it's fit ah'm peid fer.
tak it eezy folks,

ppfpffttt

gggrrr, last night, I thought of something good to write about, but I have completely forgotten, so, unfortunately for you guys, it's just gonna be another ramble. However, I can tell you that I've started another blog that you can access from my profile page. This new blog is MY OPINION on films, as I'm getting annoyed with the reviews that I read and completely disagree with. Also, Hollywood is only moving into 2 directions, cgi films such as Ice age, toy story blah dee blah, which every now and then are actually funny, but in majority, not. and films with special effects, and the most expensive effects competiton that each film seems to be going by. where are the good old fashioned storytelling films that I love so much. How come that a film with great SE gets high scores when in actuality, the film est nul (rubbish). You'll see that my first review is on the latest star trejk film where I say exactly the same thing. At home, I have Paris, texas to watch, choit blanc chat noir, inland empire, all off which I can't wait to watch and I am already sure that they'll all be better than the films that are coming out at the moment. the only 2 films that I cannot wait to see which will be coming out relatively shortly is, Terry Gilliam's "the imaginarium of doctor parnassus" and next years Tim Burton's "Alice in Wonderland".I will watch other new films, however, I will watch them purely for action, or out of interest, but I don't really believe that these new films will be great (except for the aforementioned 2)
well, anyway, there's a little explanaition of why I've started this third blog.

take care everybody and if I remember what I wanted to write about, I'll make a new post.

easy friday question

What do you guys prefer. Autumn or Spring?

This started this mornign when I was talking to my friend, she says that spring is better and so far has 4 people defending her on a blog, where as I have zero defending me for Autumn. But, make up your own mind.
so, answers please. these will contribute to the overall (except for your Jim, as you've already voted, twice to be exact.) :p so again
Autumn or Spring?

L.Muck need not read this, it's basically a copy of an email she has already recieved.


hi all, here is a little sum up of the french test I had this morning. I arrived by a bus full of students, as was expected, but a very pleasant young woman was kind enough to tell me what stop to get off at after I hand-picked her from the many canditates to ask. :p
So, I got off, got lost in the campus, finally found it, was early by 15 mins, and the lady was late by 5. so I waited for 20 mins, which is nothing really, but I had no book with me. Met the lady, we only spoke french, her surname was "Campbell" and I said it's a scottish name, turns out she's scottish, though she won't be the one giving me the lessons.
Contrary to what I thought, there was just 10 mins of speaking and the rest was like a written test, I say "like", it was a written test.
So, I could say I think I flunked it, but that's the good point, it means they'll know exactly what level I'm at, she says that for my oral level, I'm a B1. so, the levels go from A1-A2-B1-B2-C1-C2. B1 is pre intermediate, but better than the A's. lol If onlky this applied to school, I got a few B's and even better, some C's.
So, that's basically it, I have to now wait until I hear back from them to tell me which morning the teacher will be free, and I think I'll be starting within a month, this is a guess and I have no such proof to back this up. :p

well, that's aboot aw fer the mo' likesay, you'll be cot up wee the news farn it arrives.

some deep questions for a tuesday

Ok, I know it's only Tuesday, but I have some thoughts that I want to throw out there and see what you people think. First of all is the abolishment of Capitalism

What are your views on the subject, do you agree, disagree, are you anti-capitalist but in the sense that you still want a government but radically changed? miniarchist if you will. How do you think we can go about changing the system. Do you agree with the abolishment of prisons, replacing it with different institutes for example. In America, there is 700 prisoners per 100 000 people, in Japan, there are only 40 pisoners per 100 000 people. This is not to say that there is less crime in Japan, rather that they deal with crimianals in a different manner. Not necessarilly better, that is for you guys to decide for yourselves. 70% of Brittish prisoners re-offend within 2 years of being released. Does prison spawn violence, I think so. Should drugs/prostitution be made legal, again, I think so, should thieves who steal just to survive be put into a prison with murderers, I think not.
My other question is, now think of the John Lennon song "imagine". Can you truly imagine what the world would be like without religion, I can't. I'm against religion, but I can't truly imagine a world without. This is due to the fact that religion is so deep-seeded into every knook and cranny of the world, in every society, in every decision been and being made, that a life truly without religion is uncomprehendable, to me. What are your views. I'm looking forward to a good debate on this comments page. :p
PS I'm in a good mood, but just started thinking about these things for no apparent reason.

fast weekend

PPpppffffttt, don't you just hate it when you work all week, looking forward to and needing the weekend to arrive, then it just passes as if you only had the one day. well, that's what it felt like for us. So, friday night, nice and relaxing at chez moi, made lots of phone calls, caught up with family and friends, watched a film (the tournament-if you like action, this was a good film). Saturda, woke up late, didn't do much until 6 pm when I rendezvous'ed at a bar, started the necessary drinking to be able to dance a few hours later, went to the club, danced me little rockers offf, pure punk, pushing etc. the group were fantastic, but I had the displeasure of speaking to them before the gig and realised that they were just self-absorbed (.....................insert curse words here.....................), which for me, kind of make them less enjoyable. I mean, here's a small (yet well known) group, yet they think they are gods gift to punk, where you have the Huge death metal group, my fav, Cannibal Corpse, and they speak to you as if you long lost friends. yup, I don't like pretentious people. Anyway, had fuin dancing and pushing people to the ground (only to pick them back up again). Then, after that, went to an old cinema where there was a private, secret and illegal (due to the fact that it's not an establishment where you are alowed to drink and smoke) party. I fell asleep. lol, well, I was only invited half-way through the punk concert, and so I had been working my drinking around having the balls to dance, expecting to go straight home afterwards, also, the film was in french, and by this point, I was completely knackered.
So, yesterday (sunday) we went mushroom picking in the nearby forrest. I found the most, hahaha, Ross, the shroom-hog oink oink. So, tonight, I'll be eating mushroom omelettes with Vanessa and 2 of her friends. should be mightily tasty.
And here I am, at work, knowing that it's only monday morning and that less than 1/10 of the week has passed. oh, well, at least there's coffee.
take care y'all.

A pic of me for L.Muck

Hi all, my girl just uploaded some pics of us onto her website, and this pic is defo for my mither.

Mon Dieu, I'm such a poser. :p

thanks Fox in detox

Thanks to fox for pointing this out, Here is a post from a couple of weeks ago, that I put on the wrong blog.


Some of you regulars, will remember that I bought a pair of Caterpillar boots in march or April. The theory behind this was that I was going through a pair of shoes every 3 months and decided to buy a pair of expensive boots that I hoped would last me at least a year. Well, 5 months on and the sole at the tip of my right foot (don't ask me why it's just one boot, I guess I must walk funnily) is completely worn down and within a couple of weeks, The thread will be worn off as well. So, I'm disappointed in Caterpillar at the moment, and me being me, too trustworthy and believing that I won't have a prob with "caterpillar" boots, threw away my reciept, so I can't even go in and claim a new pair and I have no idea how much it is to buy new soles. I think my next pair will be "doc martins" see if they work any better, they'll definitly go better with my slowly becoming a bit of a punk look, very slowly however, as money doesn't grow on trees (which is bull-poo actually as notes are made from paper, and where does paper come from, you guessed it, trees).
I watched "the boat that rocked" the other day, disappointed, however, I think it's the type of film that L.Muck is going to adore.
I woke up this morning with a new cold, only just had one last week, ggrrr, but, if you think I'd be resting this weekend, think again, I'm going to "drink" this cold out of me, if I die trying. :p
I forgot to take my photo's in, but I'll try and post them when I have a chance.
Have a great weekend everybody.