Friends, girlfriends and driving. Not all at the same time.

Earlier this month my friend Swiral came to visit, which was brilliant, then a couple of weeks later my girlfriend Kate finally made it up to visit, which goes without saying as superb.
While she was visiting we went up Cairngorm - taking the train as there was still too much snow on the ground and Kate didn't have winter kit with her. That and it was blowing about 40 mph and was -2 C in the carpark, let alone 1000 FT higher up the mountain. We did wander outside the doors at the top, but it was gusting around 60 mph and dang cold there, so rather than walking up to the summit we went to have some (somewhat over priced but rather good) food.
Kate told me that she loves castles so I told her that we were going to go for a drive, without telling her where we were heading. Our destination, the most photographed castle in Scotland, Eilean Donan. Featured in Highlander, The World Is Not Enough and almost every other film made in Scotland in the last 50 years. And no, it's not on Loch Ness - that's Urquhart Castle.

Worth a visit if you're up here. Worth a trip if you're not, but I think next time I'm going to either get a bigger car beforehand or hire one for the duration.
It was more wonderful than I can say to see Kate again, and it felt like she went home far too soon, but hopefully she'll be back soon.
Just afterwards there was an IAM (local advanced motoring ground) fun day at the local skid pan and driver training centre. We did a bit of skid pan work (as I'd done some a few months before the instructor skipped the instruction part and went straight to the "I'm not going to tell you what sort of skid I'm going to use, just correct it." part. Great fun actually), a bit of HGV work and driving and reversing a trailer.

As I got my licence after 1997 (about 7 years after 1997..) I can't legally drive with a trailer so I have no experience of driving or reversing one. Turns out, I'm not bad at it. Or at least in the situation we were using I did OK. All I need now is to get someone to cough up the £300 for a trailer licence for me. One of the things that made the day a bit more difficult was the presence of a herd of cattle, wandering all across the driving area and generally licking the other cars.

So, apart from some great cartoons and some "stuff" at work, that's been about it. I might be posting more about what's going on there, but for now let's just say that I'm not a big fan of the government, especially the treasury...
In closing, I'd recommend the New York Times best seller Turn Coat, but do read the rest of the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher first. And listen to Invaders Must Die by the Prodigy. No, I'm not on commission. Yet.

Sunday Driver

As I've previously posted, I signed up with the local IAM group and we've got weekly lectures with observed drives every Saturday. Think of it as like taking your driving test every week for two and a half months. Yeah, that much fun.
Parallel parking, reversing round corners and turning in the road, well I'll get better at them. I've been getting good advice and am developing nicely but we're supposed to get as much practice as we can during the week and I normally cycle to work. I can easily do a week without driving under normal circumstances but now have to get more "wheel time."
With that in mind after last Saturday's drive I went for a bit of a spin on Sunday. My plan was to pootle through the Highlands and maybe find myself on a certain road I know. We've had, as you might have noticed, a bit of snow but I couldn't afford to hit the slopes (which is a shame as the guys on XV said they've never seen better snow in Scotland - gits) and the mountains were covered in a lovely layer.
Just south of Elgin I noticed something that made me stop and get out my camera (brought with me for just this reason):

Highlan' Coos!

At Cromdale there is a narrow bridge with traffic lights to stop people smashing into each other on the bridge, there was no one coming but the lights were just changing to red. I stopped (smoothly and controlled), waiting for the lights and then noticed that right in front of me was a tiny little rabbit that crossed in front of me. For the life of me it looked like the lights had changed to let a tiny little rabbit cross the road. Made I laugh it did!

Scooting through the Highlands (oh it was lovely!) I did make it to the road I'd been aiming for - the B9007. It's quite possibly the best road in the UK. Smooth corners and wonderful scenery. Don't believe me, well here we go:

In the summer it's a truly epic road, in the winter it's epic and snowy. The view is spectacular and the road curves and rolls and flows wonderfully. If anyone wants to try it, from Carrbridge (just north or Aviemore) head east and take the Forres road marked "B9007 - not gritted in evening." I think I might have another go on the road with the video camera mounted on the front of the car, any excuse basically.
And that's how I spent my weekend. This Sunday I've got work. So not so much chance to drive, but there's always Saturday.
Shame about the rugby though...