As far as Fife
Mr Stuart would have you think that Fife is some strange fantasy place, populated entirely by odd folk who say 'fish' a lot and roll their trousers up to the knees when the sun shines. I suppose he has a point.
In my travels I have met many people, short-trousered and long, who claim to be 'from Fife'. The one thing uniting them all is that they are no longer there. However, my parents decided almost twenty years ago that Fife was the place they wanted to live. They bought a farm in the arse end of nowhere and to this day eke out a living from the soil. Or to be more precise, eke out a living from renting the land out to idiots who want to eke out a living from the soil. Dad being within spitting distance of his seventieth birthday (eek) has decided that it is much easier to have someone else drive the tractor, so to speak, and the farm is run on an entirely contract basis now. Strangely enough it is also profitable, but that's a rant for another day.
Today being the day after my birthday, and the day before the week long family reunion gets off the ground, I drove all the way from Wales to Fife in my little white sports car, JulieD. To those naysayers who said the restoration would never be finished, I say 'pooh'. To those neerdowells who said she would never run the four hundred miles, I say 'pfah' and thumb my nose. Not only did she perform admirably, she even challenged my driving licence at times. Eighty miles an hour officer? Surely not in a car of this vintage.
But here I am in Fife bearing witness to the mechanical genius of those long-dead Italians.
And struggling with the delights of dial-up internet access.
Tomorrow I head further north. Further north even than Aberdeen. Is that possible? I hear you ask. And yes, it is. Technology regresses with each passing mile, however. So by the time I reach Altnaharra (you can find it on a map if you look hard enough) I will be using a piece of soft coloured rock on a cave wall. Blogging will most likely be non-existent to sporadic for the next week. But bear with me, please. I will have plenty to tell you all about when I get back to civilisation.
In the meantime, have a look at some stories I wrote recently. You have to register to download them, but you can put any old shite in there if you want. It's just me trying to look professional.
In my travels I have met many people, short-trousered and long, who claim to be 'from Fife'. The one thing uniting them all is that they are no longer there. However, my parents decided almost twenty years ago that Fife was the place they wanted to live. They bought a farm in the arse end of nowhere and to this day eke out a living from the soil. Or to be more precise, eke out a living from renting the land out to idiots who want to eke out a living from the soil. Dad being within spitting distance of his seventieth birthday (eek) has decided that it is much easier to have someone else drive the tractor, so to speak, and the farm is run on an entirely contract basis now. Strangely enough it is also profitable, but that's a rant for another day.
Today being the day after my birthday, and the day before the week long family reunion gets off the ground, I drove all the way from Wales to Fife in my little white sports car, JulieD. To those naysayers who said the restoration would never be finished, I say 'pooh'. To those neerdowells who said she would never run the four hundred miles, I say 'pfah' and thumb my nose. Not only did she perform admirably, she even challenged my driving licence at times. Eighty miles an hour officer? Surely not in a car of this vintage.
But here I am in Fife bearing witness to the mechanical genius of those long-dead Italians.
And struggling with the delights of dial-up internet access.
Tomorrow I head further north. Further north even than Aberdeen. Is that possible? I hear you ask. And yes, it is. Technology regresses with each passing mile, however. So by the time I reach Altnaharra (you can find it on a map if you look hard enough) I will be using a piece of soft coloured rock on a cave wall. Blogging will most likely be non-existent to sporadic for the next week. But bear with me, please. I will have plenty to tell you all about when I get back to civilisation.
In the meantime, have a look at some stories I wrote recently. You have to register to download them, but you can put any old shite in there if you want. It's just me trying to look professional.
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BTW Here's a blog from one of my writer buddies who likes climbing mountains in Wales: http://bregorzloth.blogspot.com/
Have fun! And good fishing.