A Good Day.

Today is a bank holiday for most of the UK, but not Scotland. Fortunately the air force take it as a day off. Most of the time recently I've wasted the extra days I've had, or got to the end of the day and thought "wow, I've done nothing." Okay, actually I think, "I've played a good amount of XBox and got a bit of exercise, which is not too bad." And then I've thought of the untold possibilities that each new day presented and realised that I've just walked down the same path I've been down countless times before. (For reference, yes I am paraphrasing the xkcd comic I've got hanging in my kitchen.)
Today was different; I'd told myself I'd use today and by gum I have! One of the guys in the mess recommended the mountain bike tracks at Fochabers so today I hitched my bike to the back of my car and headed over to the Fochabers Ring. I didn't know it was the Fochabers Ring until I got there, I just headed over and found a route. So off I went, along a nice gentle undulating track then hit the uphill section. I knew that I was following a route that had red or orange labels on the posts, followed it from the monument at the top of the hill and then turned back.
I have my limits, and when the route labels go from orange to black with a skull and cross-bones (seriously!), that's a good time to find the different route. Apart from a bit at New Year's, I haven't done much proper off-road biking for ages, used to do quite a bit in the summers with the activity camps so I wasn't sure what I could remember of the more technical side of biking. I reckoned I still had the basics but when the sign recommends expert biking, walking the route first and warns of tables, drops, jumps and moving see-saws; it becomes time for the better part of valour.
As it is, back up the hill to the monument and followed the long route through Rohan and into The Mirk Wood (yeah, there's a whole Lord of the Rings thing going on) and wow. It was absolutely wonderful, some lovely singletrack with nice flowing sections and some interesting bits that demanded concentration. Better, I think, than the bits we used to ride in the Forest of Dean. Aragon Alley was poorly signed and had a depressing amount of narrow uphill with lots of exposed routes which was much more difficult but in a rewarding kind of way.
So yeah, loved it. When I got back I looked up the route (and the page I linked to earlier) and found out that the route colour corresponds to difficulty, just like on the slopes. The red route I was on turns out to be graded difficult - for "proficient mountain bikers with good off-roading skills." Turns out I remembered more than I thought about biking. Will be going back (and if anyone fancies coming up with a bike, or wants to hire one, please feel free!), especially now I've found that map with the other routes in the area.
After that little adventure (mainly on hope, but with coffee for breakfast) I got home, cooked a very nice little chili (another major achievement), caught up with a friend's latest blog entry, did some more washing and watched some great TV (weather gadgets on The Gadget Show). Now I plan to read more of a good book (Xenocide in this case) and try to figure out how to write my next entry without quite so many phrases in parenthesis.
It feels great to look back on a day and think that I've done something different to my normal routine. Actually, yesterday wasn't a waste either, I tidied up and caught up with my ironing. Of the two, guess which day was better. Guess which one I'll be trying to do again.

Convergence

A lager advert on the TV has Violent Femmes as a sound-track, which made me pop onto iTunes and grab it, as it made me think about Grosse Point Blank, one of my 20 favourite films (come on! "I killed the president of Paraguay with a fork, how have you been?" Lines don't get much better). Riding back from Inverness today and the same tune came on my iPod, I think "must watch that film again soon" and lo and behold, right now on UKTV Gold, it's Grosse Point Blank.
*edit to add* just seen one of my favourite scenes on film. As a single guy I have a certain image to maintain as a climbing, boarding, kayaking, martial arts blokey bloke but the bit in the film with Robbie (at the reunion with Under Pressure in the background), it's just fantastic. If you've seen the film you'll know it. Just gets to me, you know. ;D */edit*
Score!
Tis a good day.

Also managed to get a few pictures of Scotland today as well, this is one of the better ones.

You know, I'm really lucky to live up here. I was faced with the dilemma of do I go snow-boarding, to the cinema, walking on the beach or walking on a snow covered mountain on my day off. Woosed out, went to the cinema, saw 21, not bad. Grosse Point Blank's better though. Mountains later, wine now.

Tiny bit tipsy

Watching Bones, the new season on Sky, and a couple of things strike me, aside from the fact I've had a very nice bottle of wine (thank you Tesco) and a bit of a Martini-type drink (I'm using more vermouth than is standard). The series has about 12 producers/executive/assistant producers, two of them are the main characters and one is Kathy Reichs, upon whose books and life the series is modelled, but even so, 12! That's a bit over the top!
The reason I've had a drink or two on a week night is that I've just finish a shift pattern from hell. From Sunday night until 8 o'clock this morning I've been on a nominal 12 on 12 off pattern, except the two shift where I had to do 14 or 15 hours when the next guy couldn't get in on time. Not his fault, illness and planned activities related. Now I'm relaxing and enjoying the new season. My next comment may be a bit controversial, but I prefer the series to the books, although I've only read the first book, maybe the later ones are better, I'll have to find out.
I'm rambling, but I'm happy.
BTW, weekend looks a bit grotty (just showers in the south) and Monday could see a return to wintry showers as far south as Birmingham, but don't tell anyone I told you so!

And I've just found out that Martini's aren't improved by using Rossi. Although American Dad is always good.

But more importantly I've just realised that I'm going to miss out on my niece's life. I'm her uncle and I'm not going to be there. I know her mum and dad will be there for anything she needs but I think an uncle near-by, or at least reachable, is important. When Ellen was born Matt seemed a bit hesitant about the fact I wouldn't be a god-parent, but as I said at the time, I'm faimily, and I believe that god-parents shouldn't be family; but we should be available for the child. So when she gets older, I'm going to have to have to make sure she's got my number, just in case something comes up that she's not happy talking to her mum and dad about.
Having said that, she's three now, so I've got a bit of time, I hope....

It depends on what you are expecting

I've been to see a few films recently, one major one on DVD and five on the big screen.
The DVD one was at work with Si, Blood Diamond. Not a comfortable film for anyone wearing a diamond that is anything less than certain about it's origin, but a truely excellent film. 92 %
Then we have:
Shrek 3: I liked it, there were a number of jokes about relating to a younger generation, and the characters didn't develop any stupid new traits. Nothing radical but if you liked the first two (and I'll assume you did) it's good fun. If you (or someone you know) has had kids recently, or is expecting, you'll find parts of it funny in a way that is impossible to explain to the other people in the audience. 70 %, rising to 88% if you know someone with young children.
Die Hard 4.0 (pointless .0 really, even if they release a directors cut as 4.1, is anyone going to be awed?), what can I say, it's a die hard. And it's fun, everything you'd expect from a good franchise, cheesey at times but great fun, and if the F35B can do what they suggest in the film the guys up here will have kittens of fun. 82 %
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix: Felt like someone had the plot explained to them while drunk and they were putting what they could remember on film, although they knew the characters and made the film with love for the original. If you haven't read the book, 85%, if you know the book like some obsessive fanboy (like me), 70 %
Transformers: Slammed by the critics, which is always a good start, it depends on what you're expecting. If you're looking for high art - WHY?!?!? It's TRANSFORMERS!!! If your childhood was formed by cars and planes and trucks that were more than meets the eye, you'll LOVE IT! Not a remake of the cartoon movie but there are moments of similarity. They get a couple of things wrong (It was ESA not NASA/JPL that sent Beagle 2, and there's the whole magnetic field thing), but great to watch. 82%
And finally,
The Simpsons
Okay, it's hard to describe, but it's not an extra long episode, there's things in the film that would NOT be in the series (such as gratuitous nudity), the story has more arc than a two part episode and the jokes are generally more grown up than the usual episode ones. Which is saying quite alot from me. 90% if you like the Simpsons, 88% if you don't (I refuse to believe that people exist that don't like it), I mean, Green Day doing the opening music and then a Titanic moment, it's genius!!
(For reference, Equilibrium was a 98%, Hot Fuzz a 94%, Merchant of Venice 88%, Gladiator 70% and Robin Hood Men in Tights 89%.