Wandering Scotsman

Well it’s been a very quiet time on the blogging front for me…but I have been busy. I’ve just redeveloped and relaunched my new personal website.

If anyone has any leads on photography or writing work I’d be happy to receive them! I’m very keen to get out in the sticks again and off the beaten track. I miss expedition life, and being around different communities. Mind you, Edinburgh gets a bit different during the Edinburgh Festival! A lot of unusual characters – even more so than I see every day around the streets of Leith!
You can view my site at darrencraig.com for samples. Enjoy!

I’ve spent the last few days on and off organising all my data after my year away and realised I took over 15,000 photographs during my trip. Just over 5000 during my Raleigh Expedition (which I find hard to believe!) and over 10,000 during the rest of my travels! This was just a quick search but I think it’s feasible. It definitely means there’s a lot of editing in there though as it’s the first time I’ve had all my images in the same place.

I managed to make it up to the mountains of Scotland this weekend with my mate and his Mitsubishi Bongo van – an absolute delight. We did the two classic scrambles/walks in Glencoe – Aonach Eagach and Curved Ridge and some indoor climbing. It was great to get out and about again but it really made me realise I’m back home and I wasn’t sure how much I liked that thought!

I’m still looking into things to do and my excuses will run out next week as I get broadband installed in my mate’s flat……. and no doubt the blogging will start, and I’ll get a few pics up here too. Aaaaah, I’ll get away from dial-up internet – yaaaa!

I’m off to the Torridon area this weekend if the weather behaves and no doubt I’ll have a harsh realisation that my money is not endless very soon after….

I’m still without my own laptop though as Sony has lived up to their reputation of ever so slow after sales support with my insurance repairers…for the third ‘it should be next week’ timescale I’ve got my fingers crossed.

14 days without a blog post. Does this mean life has been boring?

In a way yes, but in a way no. I’m still waiting for Sony to deliver a part for my laptop. I caught the cable on my foot in the Philippines, dragged it off a 1 foot high table and caused £600 damage to it. It’s quite unbelievable as it worked fine apart from the speakers but apparently it required a new system board and some bits of new casing…..

So what have I been up to? Not very much. No broadband access is killing me, but providing a grand excuse for not trying out any of my ideas (lazy git) and I have been helping a friend putting in a kitchen. This is quite funny as I’m so against DIY normally but it’s been quite interesting putting together cabinets, putting up false walls and ‘playing’ with nail guns (jeeez they’re deadly!).

I’m still a very long way from reality and looking for real work which will become an issue when I want to do things that cost money…..like getting a mode of transport (which is really frustrating not having). Luckily a mate is taking me up the hills this weekend for some adventure which is long overdue. I’ve been back over a month, and I’ve done no outdoor climbing or mountaineering and have not been out of Edinburgh or Aberdeen overnight…..so some combination of mountain biking, camping, climbing and adventure will be great.

Last weekend I volunteered as a marshall for the Rat Race Adventure which is an urban adventure race set in Edinburgh (they also do other cities). This was great laugh as I was sent to the waterfront in Edinburgh to create a challenge using some cobbles leading down to the sea, three Raleigh Chopper bikes and some borrowed Police cones. The fun race lasted three hours with all sorts of wacky challenges. On Sunday the real race was on and I was sent to marshall at the first real challenge on an Edinburgh riverbank…. as the teams of three approached, we sent one of them into the river to swim 200m while the others in the team had to get the three mountain bikes over a big set of steps leading over the riverbank. Other stages had them drytooling (ice axes climbing on wood), abseiling from a bridge and a stadium and more….check out the preview videos at the Rat Race website.

I’m back in Aberdeen for a night before my sister leaves to foreign lands for another year, so I better go and utilise my broadband connection!

More soon as I *hope* to get it in my mates place soonish….I’ll try to get some pics up from the Rat Race too.

I cannot believe that I have almost been back as long as the time period I spent in Japan. In comparison, I’ve achieved diddly squat….nada….nothing. When I was away it usually seemed that what I did last week seemed like ages away, yet now back in a ‘normal’ environment time seems to fly by. I must confess I haven’t been as productive as I thought I would have been by now but it’s bound to take a while to
settle back in. I’ve only really seen a few of my mates so far as I’ve been dealing with other things, getting my head back into it, and moving between Aberdeen and Edinburgh. Luckily a mate has put me up at the moment (Ta John, but no, I haven’t cleaned up your flat that much…and the oven just scared me!).

It’s unbelievable how hard I have found not having a regular internet connection – not only for keeping touch (hey Pay as you Go mobile calls are expensive here) but for investigating stuff to do like work, volunteering, writing etc – maybe it’s a bit of an excuse, but at £1.50 an hour to access the net at a net cafe it would easily mount up. One thing that hasn’t helped is that the weather has been appalling since I came back – constant rain showers for the last few weeks, only easing the last couple of days.

I have also noticed a few things around home that’s been good, and not so good. Everyone seems really stressed driving here. Both times I’ve been in taxi’s they’ve been shouting or moaning at people. I am still grudging spending money on things as they seem so expensive here (although not everything is….I was reassured when watching a couple on TV come home from Australia to see if they wanted to come back and they couldn’t believe how much of a range of stuff we had here and how cheap the supermarket was compared to Melbourne!!?!). Some of the tourism related stuff seems a bit more switched on than I remember – even things like trains announcing what all the destinations are – I guess I never noticed little things like that before as I wasn’t seeing things through the eyes of a traveller.
Mobile phones tarriffs don’t seem to be getting any cheaper here either which is ridiculous – all the main operators are looking at £30-35 a month to get any decent number of inclusive minutes, and for what is meant to be a leading country, if you want to use data related services like the web via your phone the charges are
prohibitively expensive – so much I am convinced it is holding back the country using great services like this.

I have been out for a couple of short runs to try and get some fitness back and maybe I’m not as bad as I thought (although the legs hurt a bit today). I had hoped to get into the hills this week in the hope it would sort my head out and make me realise I’m really back but that fell by the wayside as plans changed, and I have to sign on Friday morning.
And one of the worst things to happen this week? I’ve realised that I haven’t cast my eyes on my precious diving log books since coming home. I have looked everywhere and fear they may be kicking around Japan in some shape or form. They must have been the things I tried to look after the most, not even trusting them in the post I sent home. 65 of the most detailed logged dives you could ever have. Like before I lost my phone and had just thought about backing it up, I had though about
photocopying my log books in Japan but didn’t as I was almost home. I even dreamt of them the other night. I really hope they turn up somewhere but there is another book that was with them I haven’t seen either…it doesn’t look good.
Gutted.
On the upside, my initial submissions to a large picture library have passed the initial quality control check so I am free to submit as many as I like now. It probably won’t work out too well, but another avenue to look into.
I’m keen to try and get back into some of the stuff I used to do like climbing and getting up north, but all that it hard without transport.
On the upside, my initial submissions to a large picture library have passed the initial quality control check so I am free to submit as many as I like now. It probably won’t work out too well, but another avenue to look into.
I’m keen to try and get back into some of the stuff I used to do like climbing and getting up north, but all that is hard without transport.
Time will tell…..

After a short stint in Aberdeen that flew by far too quickly I am back in Edinburgh, where I stayed before I went travelling.
It is taking me quite some time to realise I’m back and get my head into doing things that will actually bring in some cash. Reality bites hard! I’ve also been slowly getting my head into dealing with some ‘real life’ stuff, but not very quickly! I’m also having a real lack of creativity and motivation in looking into alternative plans. I am however officially on ‘the dole’ (unemployment) as they call it here.
So, yes, this is a bit of a boring blog entry but I am using some free internet time in a library….oh I so much miss having free internet access as it makes everything I want to do much harder!
More soon I hope….

As expected its taken me ages to get into things this week – still haven’t done the tax, printed pictures, written articles or sorted out all the stuff at my mum and dad’s……and tomorrow I need to be sorted to take all my outdoors gear to Edinburgh!
My laptop is out of action for at least a few weeks which is a major blow, but on the plus side, I think I should be able to cover my travel debts from various sources – yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah.
One of the bad things to find out this week was a hidden folder on my webmail containing suspected Spam…and several real emails across many months. It turns out I had unintentionally put all emails from hotmail on my blacklist! So sorry for not getting in touch with people when that was the case, sorry for not being so supportive after friends had bad news on an expedition, sorry for thinking you hadn’t kept in touch Tracy, sorry for missing your 30th, sorry to Tom for quietly cursing him for not getting in touch with a date to meet in Wanaka, I’m gutted I missed out on the Wish Party and the couch offered to me in Tokyo and all the rest!
Anyway I’ve loads to do….

How is it that music you listen to seems to adapt to your life? You listen to albums you have listened for for ages, yet because something that has happened to you, you start to listen to, rather than just hear, words of songs you have heard over and over again, yet now the words seem to be about you? Favourite songs and albums now make you listen hard, or if it’s too meaningful you may just hit the button to move onto the next, and not want to listen to that favourite song for a while. Whole albums you have listened to over and over can’t be played because they start to mean things they never did before. On the other side, albums or tunes that in their own right are complete and utter gobsh!te but can instantly become brilliant as they remind you of some event or place, and you don’t even have to listen to the words?