There will be blood

I bought a cross trainer.


I had done tons of research.  Once I picked one, I got the best price I could find, and it arrived on Thursday in a giant box that had to be delivered by two guys.


I had read on the internet that putting it together was really not a big deal, everyone went on and on about the great instructions.  Regardless, I tried to buy it from the manufacturer because they had a platinum service where for 74 GBP, they will put it together for you and take away the packing.  Unfortunately, they do not provide that service to Thurso.


I thought about it and decided I would give it a go, bound to make a good post, and if I wasn't done after 4 hours, I would call Jason.  I read the instruction and saw it could be done in 4 steps.

The beginning

It took me a while to find the instructions and I was a little concerned that many of the pieces were difficult to move as they were really heavy, but I kept after it and laid out the parts.

The pieces - pointing labrador tail for scale

Step 1


Step 1 was a pain for a couple of reasons.  First, the diagram for step 1 was on one page, the written instruction were on the previous page and the parts diagrams were two pages before.  So, this required a lot of flipping around.  


The second issue is that this step really involved the heaviest pieces and all of the wiring to make the computer work.  I got the front connect to the back and completed the wiring.  I moved the pedal legs forward to makes this easier for me - classic foreshadowing here.


Then I ran the wires up the mast and connected computer.  The wires were fiddly, and there were lots of warning about kinking the wires and shorting them out.  Once I had them in the mast, I had trouble getting the computer on because there didn't seem to be enough room for the wires, but I finally sorted it out.

Step 1 done!

So I was a bit pleased with myself.  I was bleeding from a nasty cut on my hand and I had a big bruise growing on the same hand from a wrench incident, but it was done and I'd managed step 1 in 60 minutes, I was definitely going to make my 4 hour quota.


It was at this point that I tried to pull the feet petal back onto the track and noticed that this was impossible because the mast was in the way.  I tried many things.  I tried loosening the feet, the mast, wiggling and pushing but it wasn't going to happen.

Humph!

My brain went, that's it, I quit, but then I thought come on Dyan, so I took it all apart and put it back together and that took me 30 minutes - I can feel the learning and on-the-job experience paying off.


Step 2


Step 2 was a cakewalk compared with Step 1, I just had to connect the mobile arms.  They were marked right and left, and it was no big deal.  Took me 30 minutes, with no rework.

Step 2 - done, once!

Step 3


Step 3 was even easier, I just had to connect the mobile arms to the foot pedals.  Took me 15 minutes, and it was looking like a cross trainer.


Step 4


Step 4 had many substeps, and there were lots of piece left to go, but this was confusing to me because it already looked like a cross trainer, but these were all of the plastic pieces and covers.  All of these were very fiddly and involved all different kind of screws, but I went from one to another.  When I got frustrated, I skipped it and came back to the piece after finishing another.


I got to the step that said I had to plug it in and incline the deck for the last piece.  I moved it near the plug - the wheels made it easish and plugged it in.  


It came on!  It took me a few minutes to figure out how to incline the deck, but I did and last piece installed.  Step 4: 60 minutes and done.

The End - Sweet Success

All told, the project took me about 3.5 hours and 2 Paydays.  I only got 1 cut and 2 bruises.  I lucked out when the wrench flew out of my hand and straight up in the air and didn't land on me or Maggie.  


Maggie was a big help throughout.  She was most impressed that I spent that amount of time on the floor in the garage, in fact, I think she'd probably call it heaven.


I got on the trainer and did a short work out - although honestly I'd felt like I'd already had one.

Shorewatch

Everyone here asks are you going to join something - which sometimes I think is a test for are you going to get involved, be committed, set down roots.  You see there are lots of clubs and activities to the point that many people have something on every evening.  


I have put some thought into it and after thinking I would go for something like Rotary Club, I found a flyer on Shorewatch.  Shorewatch is part of the Whale and Dolphin Conservation group, and they train people to collect data to be used for legislation on the protection of cetaceans (that whales and dolphins to you and I).


They were having a training class on Sunday, and I thought what the heck, I like whales and dolphins, how often am I going to live by the sea?  Added bonus: when Jason's wife, Lynitia, heard about it, she said she wanted to give it a go too.


So off we went to Wick for 6 hours of training.  The class and the volunteers are pretty much what you would expect.  Everyone was pretty crunchy with some dreadlocks, ponchos and flips flops - even though Lynitia and I had like 4 layers on.


First, we talked about the different species that frequent the waters in Scotland - there are lots; this is apparently one of the best places to see whales and dolphins - like in the world.  After we were trained on the different types and how to differentiate them when only parts are showing - they taught us how to collect the data.  

We learned that this is a dolphin - not a whale!

This involved a little field trip outside to use their binoculars with a compass and measure hash marks built right in.  Once we learned that, they taught us about wildlife crime.  This is about the point that the group started to degrade.  There was a guy in the back that was at the very least strange and he definitely wanted everyone to know he was quite clever.  This resulted in Lynitia and I looking at each other frequently and mouthing words or shrugging shoulders.


There was a bit of chat about how they think that killing whales and dolphins is unacceptable because you cannot kill them humanly - which means without pain.  Well, I don't know about you, but I think everything we eat with a beating heart probably experiences some pain when we kill it - not that I think that's a reason to kill whales and dolphins, I don't, I just don't like flawed arguments.


Thankfully, the class wound down and we were released.  Once we have our on-the-job training, we are good to do watches on our own, and I am sure that will be material for a future post. 


We are also considering taking the cetacean emergency response class - I know, exciting...

Wick Harbourfest

Last weekend was Wick Harbourfest.  It was billed as part of the diamond jubilee, but it was held a couple of weeks later.  We are a sponsor of the Harbourfest, and there had been a call for a volunteer to represent us at the event.  I waited 10 days, and I checked to see if anyone had volunteered - nope, so I did -- major sigh.

I didn't really know what to expect, but was told where to be, that I would need to be on stage and I was asked to judge the best dressed boat - sounded fun. 

I was late, primarily because I couldn't figure out what smart casual meant, but I did make it just in time to be introduced to the court and my fellow sponsor and line up to our 'piping' to the stage.

The queen and her court had been crowned in the morning, and they were 3 lovely girls that were mature, poised and outgoing.  The queen had this really unfortunate cape that she had to wear over her gorgeous white dress.  

The queen and her court leave the stage

She also got up and made a speech and officially opened the Harbourfest by ringing the harbor bell. She grabbed that rope and gave it a tug nearly pulling the whole thing over, but she was not deterred and kept at it until someone rushed over to hold it in place so she could get a good few rings.  At her age, I would have died, but she was so cool.

She was pretty amazing - in spite of her cape.  The whole thing had this Scottish style Kass Kounty King Korn Karnival vibe, which resulted in me having a fairly goofy look on my face all morning.

After the speeches and a piping off of the stage, we had a quick sandwich lunch and were given the brief on how we were to do the judging.  We were to be given a clipboard with all of the boats, and we were to talk to the people on the boats to verify whether they were local or visitors as there would be a winner in each category.  After lunch, my fellow sponsor said, let's go, but I was like wait what about the clipboard...

Off we went without the clipboard.  My fellow sponsor quickly realized that I don't know anything about boats - like nothing.  He was very nice and patient, but I think he got a bit tired of me going that one is nice, I like that one, how can you tell they are local again - I mean, we had no clipboard.

Wick Harbour - festive!

He clearly wanted to do one round and be done with it, but since we had deviated from the prescribed process, we had no information on the boats - all the ones I liked seemed to be locals.  So up and down the floating docks we went.  


Well, I had just eaten sausage rolls - the sandwiches were too mysterious for me and the bobbing of the dock was nauseating and our quick once round turned into a second and a third and a fourth.   I was thinking about puking when we started to narrow in.

We agreed to choose the Wee Chance as the local winner.  Apparently, his dad won last year and this 5 year old really goes out in the Scrabster Harbour in the boat - shudder the thought.  He is expecting a sibling and the boat was a pre-sibling gift - all of this information was picked up while walking around from various people we ran into.

Local Winner, The Wee Chance!

Round 4, we noticed that there was this guy sitting in his boat working on his paraffin lamp.  He sails around by himself and had recently returned from Orkney.  Like most people that spend a lot of time by themselves, he had a lot to say - about everything.  His boat was decorated, but he was the prize.  

Visitor Winner, Shy Talk! - Seriously, how cute is he - so, old man of the sea

Another thing ticked off my bucket list.

It's all about the animals

The castle stops try to provide something for the entire family.  At Castle May, they had a barn with several different kind of animals.  The Queen Mum apparently was the supporter of the Aberdeen Angus.  It's lambing season and they had some set aside for petting.  Lambs are really soft - I know that may seem obvious, but I was still surprised.

Lambs Lunching at Castle Mey

When the guy asked if someone wanted to help feed the lambs, I dropped my purse and shouted I DO!  This made my brother laugh, but I did, I really did want to do it, so I did.  


Castle Mey also has some pretty fantastic chickens.  They have some called silkies that don't even look like chickens, but when I said that out loud one of them started crowing just to prove they are in fact chickens.  They also had these enormous chickens.  The rooster was so big he seemed to have trouble getting to his feet.

Giant Chicken at Castle Mey

At Dunrobin Castle, they have a falconry display at 1130 and 1430.  I love birds, and Andy the falconer also loves birds.  All the birds he has are domesticated or came to him because they were hurt.  He does a running commentary about falconry while he let's a couple of them get their exercise.

Eagle Owl at Dunrobin Castle

He flew different birds each time I went, and I was really excited when I saw the owl swoop in - love owls.  He was huge and full of personality.

Ooh, Eagle Owl at Dunrobin Castle

Factoid: 50% of the Harris Hawks in America do not make it to their 1st birthday.  Only 30% of the remaining 50% make it to there 3rd birthday.  This hawk was 12 year old, and she was a show off!

Harris Hawk at Dunrobin Castle

Each time I left the display I thought - I wonder if Andy - the falconer - needs an apprentice.  

On the way back from Dunrobin we saw these great highlands.  We back tracked to get some photos and I am loving these pictures because I was in the shade and they were not, so the color is fabulous!

Highland Cattle in Caithness

Going to a castle(s)

We all went to two castles.  Castle Mey right up the road from Thurso and Dunrobin Castle down a bit from Thurso in Golspie.  These two castles are about as different as they can be - Castle Mey belonged to the Queen Mum, and it's pretty much 'normal'.  By that, I mean, she furnished it with thrift store finds and everything is a little threadbare.  There are stuffed animals balanced on the tapestry that her grandchildren placed, that she thought was very funny so she left them.  


The thought that Prince Charles comes to this castle for a month every year in its current condition - to relax - makes a really obvious point that they are just people.

Castle Mey from it's walled gardens

The locals love the Queen Mum and even though for the most part the Scots are not royalists, there seems to be an appreciation for the fact that the royals love Caithness as much as the locals love Caithness.  The people that provide information throughout the tour worked for the Queen Mum and are working in the castle when it's closed for royal visits. They like to tell stories, which makes it seems like you are seeing inside a very private world.

Dave and Charlie at the overlook at Castle Mey - I know, they are both so cute!

Dunrobin Castle is the longest continuously occupied castle in Scotland.  It looks exactly like you would think a castle would look like inside and out.  There are some pretty fantastic gardens, an outbuilding to house their stuffed animal collection from all of their safaris, including a duck billed platypus - a very different stuffed animal collection from Castle Mey.

Dunrobin Castle from it unwalled gardens

It was a trip to Dunrobin that convinced Queen Victoria that Scotland was cool and so they went and purchased Balmoral.  They had a bed made special for her visit, and it has gold doves on the pillars all in a different positions  There are 189 rooms in the castle, and the tour let's you see 20 of them.  The most interesting part is how additions were made to the castle making very interesting rooms and passages.


Most Americans that come to England say I want to go to a castle - I assume that is because we don't have any castles.  They are interesting, but it's about the same level of interesting as going to someone's house for the first time and seeing how they've put it together and what they have surrounded themselves with - and let's admit it, that is always interesting.


One of my favorite things about these visits are the tea house and the extras.  The extras are a topic for another post.  But the teahouses...

Favorite dessert: Lavender Meringue - it's at Castle Mey teahouse

I sometimes just drive out to Mey for this - it is always slightly different, but always fabulous!  Thankfully, I took this photo to send to Jason who was at work while I was eating tea...

Check it out Charlie, those birds are doing the nasty

Hi Ya!

Nope, nobody is looking

Yes!

After boink Chicken dance by Razor Bills

Her highness has had some little ones

I know she doesn't have her crown up, but it's her alright - same nest

Orkney

Going to Orkney is real treat.  Bo had been wanted to go for weeks, but I held off for my company.  There are two ways to go.  You can get on a bus that will take the ferry over and then they will show you around and provide commentary as you go.   All the feedback from those that had gone was that this is a must do for the first time.  But when Dave and Charlie arrived, we agreed we would go it alone, which means we drove to Gills Bay and took the Ferry over to St. Margaret's Hope at South Ronaldsay Island.  


This island is connected to the mainland island by some causeways that were built by Italian prisoners of war by throwing rocks in the ocean and then placing concrete blocks.  This was to protect the British fleet that often anchored in Scapa Flow.  It also makes it a lot easier to get from one place to another.


Orkney is one giant history lessons.  We started out at Scara Brae, which is a 5000 year old stone age village.  It was discovered in the 1800s after a major storm.  There are two villages underneath Scara Brae, which they believe means people lived in this particular location for 700+ years.  There were a couple of things that struck me:  each dwelling was exactly like the other in size and layout; each home had a door for privacy and a places to display their possessions; and there were no real common areas.

Scara Brae: dresser for storage, fire pit in the middle of the house and bed with storage nook

After Scara Brae, we hit the Ring of Brogar and Standing Stones of Stenness.  These two sites are so close that you can see one from another, and they are really early versions of stonehenge - like 2000 years older.  They are about the same age as Scara Brae - you can imagine that the people of Scara Brae could maybe come here occasionally - solstices - for rituals or whatever - even though it would have been a long long walk.

Ring of Brogar - with some pretty fantastic cloudage

With mom and dad, we were able to hit some of the craft places on the island.  It seems like Orkney is populated by nothing but artists and farmers.   There are all sorts of jewelers, weavers, painters and wood workers - this is the birthplace of the Orkney chair.  

We also went to Kirkwall, which is the biggest town in Orkney.  St. Magnus Cathedral is in the center of town and it has to be in my top 5 cathedrals of all time.  It is very narrow and retains it medieval feel better than most.  St. Magnus had this cousin, and they never got along.  They agreed to meet on an island and try and work out their difference, but the cousin brought a lot of backup.  Magnus tried to spare the cousin from killing him by offering these other alternatives like banishment or blinding and maiming him, but in the end the cousin had the cook chop off his head.  

All these miracles occurred when people visited his bones, so they built a cathedral in Kirkwall in his honor in the 12th century.  His bones are in a main pillar of the church.  Photos of St. Magnus really don't do it justice, so I am not even going to try.

St. Olaf in St. Magnus Cathedral - a gift from the Norwegians for the cathedral's 800 year old birthday - St. Olaf was a pagan!!

Much of Orkney history is related to Norway as St. Magnus and his cousin were Norwegian.  Many places still maintain their Norwegian heritage and apparently Thorfin is still a popular name in Orkney - can you imagine?  There are also some ruined 'palaces' right next to the cathedral, that must have been fairly impressive in their time.

Earl Patrick's Palace - Can you see Charlie in the 'window'?

The final stop on our way back to the ferry was the Italian chapel built by the prisoners that made the causeways.  It is very touching for a whole bunch of reasons that they were given the time to create the chapel; that having a place to worship was so important to them; that the Orcadians are committed to maintaining it and have maintained a relationship with the men that built it, even though they were prisoners.  

Inside the Italian Chapel

Orkney is places you could come back to time and time again because so much of it is hard to wrap your feeble mind around. How lucky for me that it is only a ferry ride away...

Spring (Summer) has arrived in Caithness

This post is sort of a sham or at the very least a shameless show of some of my favorite flower photos - also my mom said, oh Dy, you have to send these to my sisters...sigh...

Fact: Dave, Charles and I are all camera freaks.  We took hundreds (thousands) of photos together and then passed them around to one another going hmm, ooh, like that...  

Spring really has sprung in Caithness. We've also had amazing weather.  We also have approximately 18+ hours of daylight a day right now.  

Wild flowers at Whaligoe Steps

All of these factors meant there were lots of things to take photos of and that the sites we went to experienced radical change in the 6-7 days between my two visits.

Wild flowers at Whaligoe - ooh purple pollen

At Whaligoe, there was a whole different set of wildflowers out when I went with mom and dad versus Dave and Charlie.  Also, there was no seaweed in the water the first visit, but with mom and dad, it was like a seaweed forest in the water.

Chives at Castle Mey

Yellow tulip at Dunrobin Castle

Biggest tulips EVER at Dunrobin castle.

White tulip at Dunrobin Castle

The rhubarb was pretty big too.  This picture is a bit like Alice in Wonderland to me.

Brother with Giant Rhubarb

With everything in bloom, it was sometimes difficult to know where to look.  I feel pretty lucky that I got to go to these sites twice in a short period of time

The Grey Cairns of Camster

MThM2S blog readers know all the stats on Whaligoe steps, but Camster Cairns is right up the road.  The cairns are these really amazing, can't-wrap-your-mind-around old pile of stones that are actually these carefully crafted structures that were probably used for rituals and maybe burials like 5000 years ago. 


The cool thing is you can actually crawl in them and everyone did, except for mom, and she had a pass.

Charles goes first - he was the youngest!

Once you crawl in this narrow little passage, there is a room with a skylight.  From the outside the cairns really do look like a random pile of stones, but from the inside you can see that they are engineered with large carefully placed rocks at the base and entrance to hold up the tunnel, entrance and room.  There was a long house with two separate rooms and a single cairn.

Long Cairn - you can just make out little passages on the right - they look square because of the sign on the gate

They found human bones and animal bones in the tunnels, and the cairns rooms and rock piles, but generally we have no idea why they spent some much care on the structures - there use or significance.  But you have to imagine that they are important or why would they go to all of the effort.

Inside the single round cairn

We all had fairly deep discussions about the cairns and Skara Brae, which we saw on Orkney.  The general topic of discussion was, 'damn, I thought they'd be too busy feeding themselves to make these really complicated structure, stone circles and homes.'  


Dave said it best when he said, 'I just can't relate to this...'

They've been here, done it, got the t-shirt

You might ask yourself...what the heck has been been going on in Scotland.

You see, I have had a lot of company.  It's one of those typical things where everyone comes to see you at once.  


When you live on the top of the world, you just have to be grateful when people make the effort - even though all my company in 2012 came to see me only 7 days apart.

Dave and Charlie arrived after driving straight from London to Thurso and arriving at 3 am.  Thatcher was very excited about someone - anyone - coming to the door at that time of the morning.

Waiting for the chicken to cook never was so easy

I used this opportunity as a tourist practice for mom and dad's arrival the following week.   We had a week of freak weather.  It was sunny and warm - very warm by Scottish standards - and lukewarm by Texas standards.

We went to Whaligoe steps and Camster Cairns; we went to Dunrobin castle: we went to Orkney; we went to Castle Mey and the most northerly part of mainland Britain.  


We ate, we slept, we chilled.  It was good.  Dave also took some time to straighten out the clock at the local pub, which was great because it's been driving me crazy.

Clock straightener

When mom and dad came, we essentially hit the same places.  We did them in a slightly different order and with some new and improved transportation routes.  

Orkney's South Ronaldsay Island Overlook

Bo got to meet everyone as he went to dinner with Dave and Charlie and drove all the way to Inverness to pick up mom and dad.  I hope all blog readers are getting the impression that Bo is awesome!!


I tried to get some guest posts for the blog, but got no takers, which I completely understand.  Blogging is hard work, and they were all on vacation.

Father and daughter with eagle owl

I enjoyed the company.  Margaret and Thatcher enjoyed the company. 3 Duncan Street performed perfectly and Scotland well, it's spectacular.