Stealing Happiness

I'm in a much better mood today. Since my last post I have achieved a few things.

Steve and I bagged two more Munro's. Ben More and Stob Bineinn. It was a really good climb actually. Although a long slog in, and basically just trudging across the wilderness then up the steep slope onto the ridge, the rest of the climb was good. Peaked Ben More at around midday, down onto the Bealach and then up to Stob Bineinn for a quick bite to eat. Then basically a straight line to the forest. This allowed us to trudge through lots and lots of marshland, but along the way we picked a healthy bag of wild blueberries. Even quite tasty. It was about a 7-8 hour day, but well worth it. Some great views and the weather held out for the most part. Steve decided to do some training for his Pyrenees adventure and brought with him a full 65l rucksack full of, well, crap. But he soldiered on like a trooper, although not bringing enough food may have been his weakness.

Following on from that not much happened for about a week, just going into work and then coming home again. It's a bit of a depressing schedule. Work isn't that great either. Quiet and dull.

Then at the beginning of this week I was off on Monday. So I decided to load up the car with the bike and head to Glentress. It was a really nice warm day so it was all good. I initially wanted to session the freeride park and then maybe do Spooky Wood. So I sessioned the very fun blue run a few times just to get into the groove of jumping again, and then stepped up to the red run's. Now these are fun. Some nice hips, and they are all tabletops so easy to jump on. There was a photographer there as well, who may have snapped some photos of me, so I will see if I get any through to check if I want prints. But after two hours in the morning sun, I was ready for lunch. Grabbed some food then back up. By about 2 I was done. 29 degree heat, and I wasn't ready to hike up to the Spooky Wood. Next time. I was really pleased with my progress in only a few hours. I was clearing all the jumps fine, and really getting low and 4x style on the hips. And the blue run I was hitting hard. Lots of fun.

Couple more days at work and then today I was out to Cambusbarron to session the jumps there. Getting there I didn't feel like the jumps so I hiked up too the trailhead and bombed it down to the quarry. I love downhill singletrack. Amazing fun. The roots and drops and jumps.

So what for the future. Well. There are plans afoot to go to South Korea and teach English for a year. Pays well and it will be an awesome experience. Then move on to somewhere else. Canada is top of my list really. In the near future. Will be moving up to Glasgow soon for about 6 months and working at Apple. Try and get onto the Genius Grow Your Own program so I will be in a better position for a good job after Korea.

Anyway, the rain has started and dinner is soon. I'm also drawing a lot more so I'm off to do some of that as well.

o2. FAIL.

Jeez, o2 suck. So there was a new Apple product released last Friday. Have you heard anything about it? Well it's a 3G iPhone. Jeez, come on. If you haven't heard of this then pull your head out of your proverbial. Anyway. We tried to sell some of these phones on the day of release and due to a few technical glitches we were unable to do so. Too bad for the people who had queued all day and stayed in the store all day, only to go away empty handed. I mean come on, really. It's a phone. Get a grip. Sure it's a pretty nice device but there are more important things in the world surely. It's the same with Mobile Me which took an age to get going. But I would like to see you transfer and already popular service onto new servers and have it all go nice and smooth without any interruption to service. Anyway. Rant over.

Its been a pretty quiet week since I climbed Schiehallion. We are hoping to bag another couple of Munro's this weekend if the weather holds out. Speaking of the weather, it was nice today which meant my dad and I could finish off what we started last week. The outside decking. It looks pretty killer now, and just need to finish the step and treat it all.

So back into work tomorrow for more iPhone madness. I can't wait. Urgh.

Say Something, Say Anything

This is probably old news, but I have just discovered a really good band called Blood Red Shoes. I had their track 'Try Harder' for a while, but never really noticed it. But then I got the album 'Box Of Secrets' and its so raw and full of energy. Think of The Kills but catchier. Very good stuff. Look out for a review on my other blog.

In other news, I was at work today and it was pretty quiet. Oh yeah, Steve and I climbed Schiehallion yesterday. It was a pretty good climb really. Not really any crappy fire roads to walk in. Straight from the car park onto the mountain and then up, up and up. We got about half way and then the path ends and its just a rock garden till the top. Good stuff. And what a view at the top, as the mountain ends and a huge valley floor below opens up. Check out the photos in my gallery. It was a pretty quick climb in all. It got very busy so I'm glad we got there early.

Nadal won Wimbledon! Go Rafa.

Come Find Yourself

So I am back! It has been way too long. Like February was the last post and it's now July. 5 months. Well not too much really has happened in that time, so I'm not too disappointed that I haven't logged what I have been doing. Well relationships have changed and new friends made, and possibly some lost. Such is life. But I feel like I'm on a good track now. So in March I was just working really, working, working, working. I was home a couple of times and went biking. Same can be said for April! And then in May I decided it was time to come home. So I sorted out a transfer to the Glasgow Apple store. That took some time, but it finally all got sorted out. So I am now working there until I decide what I'm up to. I have been doing some traveling. New York City and North Carolina are the latest destinations I have been to. New York was quite amazing, and it was great going out there to see Greg Holden play a gig. He is going places, watch him! Then went down to North Carolina and spent some time seeing the sights, hitting up the mountains for camping and the beach for swimming in the surf. Good times. So I am now using my dot mac account for good (as opposed to evil?), anyway, I have added some photos to my gallery (here) and will be adding more. And I will try and get my website (probably a new one) over to my mac account. Still the same address though. And I will keep this more up to date. Ok, I think that is enough for now. I will no doubt be adding more and more when I think of something.