I'm back after a week in sunny (yes sunny) Scotland. Whilst England was being miserably doused in rain, we never saw a bloody drop all week, and in fact on Wednesday through till leaving on Saturday everyday was glorious. The above picture was taken on Thursday morning at about 9:30 in the morning. My digital camera is new and tiny, but with 5 million pixels and I haven't worked out quite how manually set things to take best advantage of various lighting conditions. My old digital camera (A Casio EV3000) might have been bulky but it was bloody efficient and was more like a proper 35mm jobbie. I haven't chucked it away beause it might be useful if I ever decide to do more than just take "snaps". Anyway, the shot is on the B852 just on the south side of Loch Ness and is a view along the Loch. As you can see, we were above the mist resting over the loch and the scene was quite stunning. The Loch itself is spectacular from this peak when you can see the water, but this "flying above the clouds" view even had Teenager almost interested. Yes, she almost dragged herself away from the Portable DVD player in the car to look at this. Overall on Thursday we basked in relative warmth of 18C, Friday at 17C and Saturday it peaked at around 19C near Ben Nevis. We don't go to Scotland for the weather but when it's like this it is simply the most picturesque place on the planet that I have seen. The A87 to Kyle of Lochalsh and then Skye simply has to be driven to be believed. For a moment I could have been driving through the Alps or Pyrenees. Any complaints? Well, the Scots really need to sort out eating places. In England we have glorious country pubs serving good pub grub, whereas in Scotland it appears to be all "tea rooms" and restaurants...or "hotels" which look like pubs until you go in them and find you've walked into the Scottish equivalent of "The Slaughtered Lamb" from the ever marvellous American Werewolf in London. All the bars appear to be public bars, many don't seem kid friendly, and some didn't even appear to be very tourist friendly. Not a big issue, but when compared to other tourist beauty spots such as Devon/Cornwall and Yorkshire it seems to be stuck somewhere back in the 40's when it comes to pubs and food. Anyway, its a small complaint when everything else was so spot on and once again I can't help wondering if this is what I want when I see the alternatives. I suppose its nothing more than the usual PHD (post holiday depression), but when I saw the caravan site in Glen Affric that is now run by my first shift leader at The Company, who jacked it all in after the still birth of his last child, and saw what a hard, but rewarding and comparatively stress and bullshit free life he now leads, it does make me wonder if this is really it for me. More to follow as the gloom of reality lifts. Nice to be back, GrocerJack