Canadian Canoe.

Inspired by Mungo's canoe trip into the wilderness

last year I decided to see what it's like for myself.

Sandra bought this for me as a Christmas present.

It's a wee bit too cold just now and some of the lochs

are still frozen, but if its not too windy I will definitely

try it out this weekend.

Have to practice my J stroke....I'll report back;-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5tEUqU0SL0&eurl=http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=big+forklift&emb=0&feature=player_embedded

Merry Christmas.

My oldest son, Gordon, his fiancee Mel, Josh and Oliver (pictured), and my daughter Laurie came over for Christmas dinner today. We had for starters Chinese crispy duck with pancakes, spring onions and cucumber salad, and hoi sin sauce, then a hearty lentil soup with home baked bread. Entree was a barbecued fillet steak with pepper sauce, mashed potatoe with roasted sweet potatoe and caramelised red onion and a medley of spring/winter vegetables. Dessert was a Baileys Irish Cream cheesecake. Before they arrived Sandra, Meggy and I went for a walk along the farm road. It was cold and misty, the trees bare, not the nicest day for a walk but Meggy loved it. I dont mind this time of year because we are half way through the winter.
Santa Claus was good to me this year. Two bottles of Malt, a Cragganmore and a 18 year old Glenlivet. Lots of chocolate. Thermal socks, some shirts, a new jacket and chino's, but best of all, a Canadian canoe. Have'nt got it yet but the cash is there. I'll see what deals are on the go in January. Deliverance trips this spring/summer. I'll report back.........

Wood burning stove.

Its rather cold here in Scotland at the moment. Most mornings I am travelling to work on icy roads with temperatures of -5c. Whether I'm working or fishing its always nice to come home to a warm house. The stove has been on constantly for about 3 months now, and we have used three layers of logs from the woodstore. The cottage has a central heating system which runs on kerosene, but it's very expensive to run, so for the most part we only use the boiler for hot water. First pic is of the stove with Salem, our cat close by. She thinks she's a ferral cat I'm sure because she never comes in the house during summer. Between you and me she's a fair weather ferral cat. Salem was 13 last month and still very fit and healthy. She's well capable of taking small rabbits and birds, I think that her diet consists of the food we put down to her, animals and birds she hunts, and more than likely another couple of families who thing Salem, Blackie, Tiddles is actually their cat.

Second pic as a basket of dried beech logs. Hardwoods such as ash and beech are best for a wood burning stove as they give out lots of heat, but still burn for much longer than soft wood.

Nice car.

This nice old "49" Chevy was waiting in the queue for the ferry at Dunquerke. It was one of the nicest custom cars I have ever seen. A lowrider with all the hydraulics, and the roof chopped by about 6inches. The owner said he spent more time fixing her than driving her but thats the breaks..........

Bruges.

Sandra and I went to the cinema a few weeks ago and watched "In Bruges" with Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson and Ralph Fiennes. The movie was a bit dreary but the city of Bruges looked great, so we decided to pay it a visit. Its a beautiful city with lots of museums, churches and canals. It also has a very difficult one way system and some very long street names. We were to be staying at the Ensor Hotel, named after the famous Belgian painter, James Ensor. The Ensor is on a street called Speelmansrei but Sandra navigated us to Speelmanstrasse, nowhere near the Ensor. We were so tired and stressed by the time we got to the hotel that all we wanted was a long, cold beer see above. A few of these and we were ready for some food. It was very late by this time so we found some street food in the form of shawarma kebabs. This is thick, crusty Belgian bread filled with barbecued chicken, salad and very spicy chilli mayo. Hot on the way in, hot on the way out next morning.

The first place of interest was the Chocolate Museum.







Dogs only cock their leg to pee, not to poo, but they had the right idea.


The sculptures are made of fine belgian chocolate. The Easter Egg is aprox 6 ft tall.

Sculptures in white chocolate that looked like fine percelain.

This is the steeple that poor old Brendan Gleeson had to chuck himself out of in the movie, and the bell mechanism. In truth, the bell tower is jump proof due to the stainless steel mesh.

This is the view from our hotel balcony. There were pike and carp present, should have taken a rod....

Bruges.

Sandra and I are off to Bruges this weekend, for some Christmas shopping. We are also going to stock up on wine, beer and probably some nice stinky cheese, pates etc. I've been very busy of late, and regretfully neglecting my blog. I'll take some nice pics when we are in Belgium, and post them up next week. Watch this space...........