As those of you who are my faithful readers may have noticed, I stopped doing the blog for a while. Although I loved doing it, it does take an enormous amount of time and I began to think of it as a chore. I would spend hours and hours on an entry and then feel as though I was posting it into the ether as I very seldom got any feedback on it. In the past couple of months, however, I have received several messages and emails from people (some of whom I don't even know) asking me to start it up again. So, here we go again. It seemed appropriate to start it off with a weekend away with friends. My friend Alex moved to Budapest about six months ago and we deemed it only ... read more

A few weeks ago, I was talking to some of my friends (one of whom is Scottish) and telling them how excited I was to be going to Scotland to see the Highland Games. I told them that I had always wanted to see the men “throw the big stick”. “What are you on about, mate?” “You know, that thing where they throw that stick that looks like a telephone pole.” “For the love of God, Bohner. It’s called tossing the caber. Please promise us that you’ll get the terminology right before you turn up.” I promised that I wouldn’t embarrass them. Up with the birds as I did not want to miss a minute, I had to stop for petrol. I went into a town called Ballater, the next one over from my hotel. What ... read more

"Could ... an undiscovered animal as large as the Loch Ness monster possibly exist? The answer is yes. Animals previously unknown to science have been found more than once in the past hundred years. For instance, there's the megamouth shark (megachasma pelagios), a fifteen-foot-long creature weighing nearly a ton. The first specimen was discovered on November 15, 1976, when it was found entangled in the drag anchor of a U.S. Navy ship. The new creature wasn't described scientifically until 1983 ... The megamouth remains the only species in its genus, and the only genus in its order." -- Martin Delrio, "The Loch Ness Monster" I awake this morning and realise that something is wrong. Still half asleep, I keep trying to figure it out. Finally it hits me - no sound of rain! Thinking this is ... read more

“O ye'll tak' the high road and I'll tak' the low road, An' I'll be in Scotland afore ye' But me and my true love will never meet again On the bonnie, bonnie banks O' Loch Lomond." - Old Scottish Folk Tune Up far too early. Can't imagine why I can't sleep. So, I turn on the BBC who are promising a beautiful day, fire up the old laptop and wait for the coffee arrive. It does; I kill more time; I eventually get to the point where the tourist things will be open. I wander down the lobby only to discover a group of men gathering together for a business meeting. They are all in their kilts, talking on the mobiles. That vision cheered me up immensely! It's so weird how not in the mood ... read more

I woke up this morning unable to believe that we had come to the last day of this trip. The weekend simply flew by and, as I finished up the packing, it felt as though we had just arrived. What a difference the leaving was from the arriving! After breakfast, we all went down to the coach and climbed aboard for the relatively quick journey to Padua. We drove through the less historic and less beautiful parts of Verona and then out into the countryside. We passed the Soave vineyards, from which a lot of the copious amounts of wine we had drunk this weekend came from. Eventually, we arrived into Padua - another beautiful Italian city. We walked into the main square to take a look at the Basilica di Sant'Antonio. Unfortunately, some of the ... read more