Colour Separation Overlay

I should have been sitting here enthusing about a new tent I pitched while drinking a cuppa made on a new stove before slipping into a new sleeping bag that I carried in a new rucksack (which is purple by the way). No to all of that. Probably a shame considering the weather, but I’m happy enough with the way it turned out.
Friday was all wrong, it was bed time before I was even in a position to pack, the girls left to go away visiting for a few days, there was work stuff and also I missed a cuppa meet with a pal that I haven’t seen for months. Aye I could have packed in the early hours if I really wanted to, but I really couldn’t be arsed. Sometimes there is no greater pleasure than a couch, a cuppa and a Family Guy double bill.

No girls meant a Saturday morning lie-in, which is a strange experience. I suppose as a teenager it’s a stock approach to the weekend, but for an old bloke the effect was a headache and unsteady footsteps to the kitchen. Growing out of a long lie-in is a damned tragedy.
I did admin some kit, just in case, but as the day wore on and my headache dug in I accepted my fate, but not entirely because of a need to feel carpet under my feet all weekend. It was getting late and my original plan was to head up to Glen Coe, got some mag stuff to do around there anyway for next year and it would nice to get ahead a wee bit. But leaving late (as much as I like that) meant a more local venue and going just for fun, but as it was a Saturday night and I started thinking about leaving the motor overnight. My two thoughts were old favourites, a night on Ben Lomond or Beinn Narnain. Saturday night though, the Rowardennan car park could easiy be full of ne’erdowells as could Arrochar, and as Joycee was away in my motor I was leaving borrowed wheels to the mercy of who and what ever. It’s not something that I would think about once we’re into winter or if I’d been going midweek, but it just didn’t sit well with me. Would I have sat and worried all night in the tent? Excuses?!?

What actually happened was a curry and TV. And danish pastries, damn that shop for only selling them in a pack of three. Beautiful sunset across The Clyde too, must have been glorious from the tops.
I also watched The Manchurian Candidate which I’d had on the V+ box for ages and it was a joy. It was made in ’62 but it’s aged very well, don’t be put off by the narration at the start of it if you even catch it, it isn’t a stock American movie of the period at all. It twists, turns and while you might guess some of it, it takes brave moves with the story and the cast.
Frank Sinatra was actually a very good actor, he’s a wee bloke but he’s got a great presence and style, the more of his movies I see the more I’m impressed. I suppose it’s like all the big stars that were fading by the time I was growing up, you get an impression of them at the end of their careers and it stays with you until it gets dislodged by other input. The first I saw of Elvis was when he was all over the news in ’77 when he died, that fat sweaty face isn’t an image a 9 year old child wants to carry forever.

Anyway. This week will be a dead loss, got an against-the-clock installation to do once the kit arrives so I foresee some Lang Craigs and mountain biking at the most until a week on Tuesday which should see me back on the West Highland Way for a day. Looking forward to that.
I’ll get just have to get some more gear reviews done in the meantime.

I’ve probably said this already, but it’s great to be back, haven’t enjoyed punching words into these pages this much in a long time.

Time for the return of this stuff too…