So long, and no thanks for the fish

After a long journey up the motorway from the west country, we felt that a stay at the Westmorland would be a little bit of comfort. We'd always been impressed by the associated Tebay service area, so felt okay about staying at the hotel.
A bit surprised at the price requested for a double room - £98 - but felt like indulging ourselves. Climbed the stairs past the buckets catching the drips and providing the musty smell to our room. Although it's been repainted in the recent past, the bathroom is very tired and in need of re-fitting. Having paid for the "executive" room, disappointed to find only one bathrobe and that wasn't in the requisite fat bastard size that would have fitted this author. Scaffolding outside the window, so felt obliged to close the curtains, which don't, quite, in case any morning cuddles were overlooked by Cumbrian builders.
Duvet not quite large enough, so when partner was curled up in it, nothing much left for me. All in all, a moderate night for the money.
However, the greatest offence occurred at breakfast when I ordered the scrambled eggs and smoked salmon. This arrive in the shape of a bombe of salmon enclosing the scrambled egg and with three peeled segments of lemon on the plate. A surprisingly unappetising presentation, to be sure, but hey ho, chefs will have their little jokes. What was more alarming was the fact that there was an off odour which arrived at the table with the food and close inspection revealed that the fat part of the salmon was very brown, soft and not as one would have expected. The worst fears were confirmed when I took a mouthful and found that the salmon was rancid. In fact, it was enough to make me gag, which is not something I do easily. Clearly, the fish had been badly stored or was way beyond its use by date and even more clearly than that, there was no way any self-respecting chef should have let it out of the kitchen, let alone try to conceal the obviously-discoloured parts under the scrambled eggs.
I called the restaurant supervisor, who was fairly unconcerned about the whole business, but not as much as the deputy manager, who assured me that there was nothing wrong with the storage procedures in the kitchen. Having read an earlier review, I think she's kidding herself.
The final insult, when I could not take anything else for breakfast for fear of returning it swiftly to the plate partially-digested, was that the same deputy manager considered that, since I'd paid the night before for the room, that no discount or recompense was appropriate.
This is one customer who won't use this hotel under the same management.

This blog has moved

This blog will now appear at http://patthechooks.wordpress.com/.

There is no guarantee that'll I'll be adding much to it, but you never know.

Big Five

Big Five Test Results

Extroversion (26%) low which suggests you are very reclusive, quiet, unassertive, and private. Accommodation (62%) moderately high which suggests you are, at times, overly kind natured, trusting, and helpful at the expense of your own individual development (martyr complex). Orderliness (40%) moderately low which suggests you are, at times, overly flexible, random, scattered, and fun seeking at the expense of structure, reliability, work ethic, and long term accomplishment. Emotional Stability (24%) low which suggests you are very worrying, insecure, emotional, and anxious. Inquisitiveness (74%) high which suggests you are very intellectual, curious, imaginative but possibly not very practical.

Take Free Big Five Personality Test
personality tests by similarminds.com

An unfortunate news summary

Courtesy of the BBC News Website ...

Ballcuffs and a couple of birds

Oh you have got a salacious mind, haven't you, clicking on that exciting link title to see what I've been up to. It's all about a trip to Islay yesterday where, for a change, just about everyone I wanted to see was in and I got all my business done.
Work took me up to the vicinity of the RSPB reserve at Loch Gruinart, where I saw a grey wagtail, the first of the two interesting birds of the day. It was hopping around on the ground and, when my car approached, hopped up onto a gatepost and gave a dismissive display of tail-wagging before doing an effective impersonation of a bird disappearing into the undergrowth. Don't recall having seen one before, and it's a pretty wee thing, so quite enjoyed that encounter.
Took time out in the middle of the day to go to the Kilchoman Distillery Visitor Centre and Cafe for lunch, because it's got some great food and the best coffee on the island. Approaching the distillery along the access track I had a great view of a female hen harrier shooting around, diving down to the ground and swooping around in loops. Lovely birds these, and several to be seen on Islay. (Some toggies from around the distillery here.)
Oh, yes, the ballcuffs. As I paid for lunch, I spotted a notice which caught my eye advertising some natty little accessories for the smart gent. Great idea, but the name did make me cross my legs a little ... Here's a piccy, nabbed from the Modern Gent's website.

Help and Support

Okay, explain this one away:

A Reading List

It's been a while since I added any content to this little-visited corner of blogspace, so I thought I'd list the reading I've been doing since the last visit. In order of those I've read:


Bill Bryson The Life and Times of The Thunderbolt Kid
Richard Dawkins The God Delusion


Inspired by the latter, I bought and read:
Richard Dawkins The Selfish Gene
Richard Dawkins The Blind Watchmaker
Richard Dawkins Climbing Mount Improbable
Currently reading:
Daniel C Dennett Darwin's Dangerous Idea


On the new book pile:
Edward O. Wilson Consilience
Richard Dawkins Unweaving the Rainbow
Jon McGregor So May Ways to Begin (Sorry, BondWoman; got distracted ...)
Elaine Morgan The Aquatic Ape
John Mortimer Murderers and Other Friends

Steaming on Loch Fyne

After a long drive into Glasgow yesterday, a short trip to Tarbert was the plan to catch the Waverley on one of her summer Clyde cruises. In the season, she calls into Tarbert on Tuesdays and takes a short turn up Loch Fyne before returning to the Clyde. We made it to Tarbert in good time for her 1445 sailing, only to find that she'd never yet docked at the East Pier before 1505 - apparently due to a conflict over berthing at Rothesay with the CalMac ferry.
It was blowing half a gale when she eventually appeared in sight, making the pier only ten minutes after coming into view. Although we'd seen her sailing down the Clyde the previous day en route to the Burrell Collection, seeing her coming up Loch Fyne was like standing back one hundred years to the hey-day of the Clyde steamers. She was a visual anachronism, moving at a speed that would shame a modern ferry.


We all stood back as the Harbour Master and his son took the lines ashore and made her fast.


One more from the detail of the funnel:


Because she was late and the trip up Loch Fyne was truncated, we paid a lesser fare than advertised, so I spent the savings in the bar.
The Waverley is a fantastic survivor, even if only 60 years old, she represents an older age and one deep-rooted in the traditions and folk-memories of the Glaswegians. And it's no struggle to see why: this vessel is a constant visual delight and very comfortable. With her wide beam to accommodate the paddles she is very stable even in a gale. It's possible to walk right around the huge cranks of the engines as they drive the shaft - she can go as fast astern as she can forward - and small viewports permit a glimpse of the paddles through the frothing water.

A visit to the Burrell Collection

Kat (#2 daughter) is up for the week to spend some time with her old man during the holidays. Since she's been studying art and design at college, this was a perfect excuse to go off into Glasgow to visit the Burrell Collection. This is a collection of around 9000 pieces of art ranging from the ancient Egyptian to modern paintings, gifted to the City of Glasgow by Sir William Burrell and his wife sixty years ago and housed in a purpose-built mueseum in Pollock Country Park.
I was amazed at the sheer variety of artefacts on display. Silverware, glassware, carpets, tapestries, pottery and porcelain, Chinese, Islamic, French, English and Dutch - more than can easily be seen at any one visit. There are many, many pieces of furniture and building elements on display as well, including, to Kat's surprise, a carved medieval ceiling from her home town in Somerset. I'd been staring up at it for ages, looking at the incredible detail on the carved bosses and thinking that it reminded me of the work of the monks of Muchelney, which I'd seen in places like the parish church in Somerton, when I read that the ceiling had come from Somerset at about the same time.
Other delights are almost too many to mention. It's occurred to me that I ahven't even mentioned the Rodin and Epstein bronzes. I much preferred the Epstein, although I was entranced by the sheer humanity and compassion of the model for one of the Burghers of Calais.
The French tapestries were a delight, with fascinating small details to be found on careful observation. These are all hung along a long gallery that links all the other galleries which project from it like the teeth of a comb.
But, and to my delight, there was a small gallery of paintings at mezzanine level which left me blown away. I'd already embarrassed myself to my daughter by failing to recognise a Rembrandt self-portrait at twenty paces, so to be surrounded by works of exquisite delight was wondrous. There are several Degas paintings, mainly from his Ballet Dancers series, a Cezanne, some medieval madonnas/ae, but the one that kept me fixed in place for a long time was a Whistler:


For me, it was worth driving 200 miles in the day just to see the paintings. Recommended to anyone visiting Glasgow.

Report from the fun day

The village held its annual Fun Day yesterday, which was opened with the usual flourish by the Mid Argyll Pipe Band:


This year they were joined by a pipe band from Poland, who, with the occasional borrowed drum, gave a fantastic performance in front of the village hall:


There was the usual fish race, although the event was run over the jumps for the first time, with the burn course being chosen in preference to the fast straight of the river. John can be seen entertaining the anxious crowd in the first picture as news from the upper reaches of the burn was anticipated; in the second picture he is gathering in the also-swams:



My personal favourite from the afternoon was the peregrine brought by the local falconer. Just admire her:


Local crafts were on display and the church held a television-themed flower show:



In the evening we had a ceilidh and the hall was, to use the local vernacular, mobbed. We'd sourced some scrumpy from Somerset and we strutted our stuff with the ceildih dances we'd been trying to learn over the summer, with more or less success.
The plan is to try to do something different next year and we are contemplating a local real ale (and imported cider) festival over two days, with local food and music. So far, all gathered opinion is favourable and, you never know, it might even come off!

And the winner is ...

My hobby website/activity, Geograph, runs a weekly competition for the "best" image submitted in the previous week. This week, much to my astonishment, my picture of two beasts pictured on my recent trip to Scarba, actually won the weekly contest. And here it is:

The Geograph of the Week competition is for fun, and the standard of entries is generally very high. A shortlist is compiled by a volunteer and the winner is chosen by the last week's winner, so I shall have to do duty next week, in between coming back from two days on Jura and Islay and going down to Somerset to see how that daughter of mine is getting on with the prosepects of teen maternity.
Oh, by the way, you have to register with Geograph to read the bulletin boards and see the GotY competitions, but everyone is welcome to get involved, no matter where you live in the world.

An early morning walk

Woke up this morning at about six o'clock and saw that it was a beautiful day with the sun beginning to climb above the hills. I decided to take my camera for a walk down beside the river - I haven't been down there for ages - and see what I could see. Some of the results are below.