Wot, no Dolphins?

Weather watch - 19 degrees, cloudy with sunny intervals.

No more ghostly happenings in the house so far.  The girls did come down yesterday saying "The picture's on the floor again!" but no-one heard anything, no-one seemed bothered and no-one rose to the bait so I suspect on that occasion they were playing around.

Incidentally, has anyone noticed the recent trend, especially during the Olympics, to use nouns as verbs?  Various commentators have referred to so-and-so athlete as "I'm sure he'll medal" or "She should podium in this event". With this in mind, reference has been made to the time I spend writing this blog as "geeking". Has Dawn invented a new word here? In future, will we see PC World adopt "The Geeking store" as a marketing phrase?  Unlikely I feel.  And when she needed to check something on the internet yesterday, she was relieved I'd brought my geeking iPad with me!

Anyway, onto the main story for the blogpost on what was a slow news day.  The opportunity to do anything major was scuppered by the girls inability to get up before lunchtime which severely limits the choice.  Dawn and her Dad, David, decided to take the girls to the Dolphin centre at Inverness, where apparently it is an absolute hotbed for land based dolphin spotting.  Not yesterday it wasn't.  Even with the free binoculars provided, there wasn't a sight of anything remotely dolphin shaped.  Slightly disappointed, they went to the cafe there for some light refreshments and discovered that a portion of chips and a sandwich was £9.75. Unsurprisingly perhaps, they didn't hang around too long but they did take in some beautiful scenery though - check out the pictures below.

I stayed back at the house with Moira and Mark, chilling, reading and taking part in one of the activities I find most therapeutic - cooking - and prepared a Mexican feast for everyone's evening meal.

Tomorrow we will actually be searching for Nessie in a glass bottomed boat with sonar radar.  The captain of the ship is George Edwards, the same chap who claimed to have already found the beast (see earlier blogpost - Normal service has been resumed) and he has spent 26 years looking for him so no doubt will have a tale to tell.

Big Brother has a point...

Weather watch - 17 degrees, cloudy with sunny intervals.

<Geordie accent on>

Day 3 in the holiday house. Today, Moira and David are staying at home whilst the other residents go to Eilean Donan Castle and the Isle of Skye.  Tonight there is an unexpected eviction and all the girls have received nominations...

<Geordie accent off>

Sorry, sorry, sorry.  I said I was going to focus on the positives so I won't mention the fact that within a minute of getting up one of the girls was moaning about us going out today.  Neither will I mention the fact that all four were so hyperactive at the Castle that they attracted the attention of the entire gift shop and cafe before treating the place like a playground and I definitely won't recount that as a result the horse riding and canoeing has been cancelled until the behaviour improves.  That also scuppers the story about one of them having a major strop after dinner and leaving the house, vowing not to return (until the midges started biting her after approximately 15 minutes when she came back).

However, what I will refer to is that we have had the best day yet - a wonderful trip to the most romantic and photographed castle in Scotland followed by a nice hour or two in the Isle of Skye, skimming stones (we'll ignore Anna accidentally hitting Megan in the shoulder), supping single malt whisky and watching the kids finally get down to enjoying themselves on the beach and taking a rather curious enjoyment in dissecting dead crabs and jellyfish that had been washed up on the shore.

A full blown weekday afternoon on Skye has less activity than Leigh-on-Sea at 4am on a Wednesday morning.  I don't think I have ever visited such a quiet and tranquil place.  There is an eerie, horror movie style silence but the scenery is incredible... I've seen  nothing like it anywhere else in the world and I'm fortunate enough to have visited Kauai, the Hawaiian island once voted the most beautiful place on the planet. And when everything isn't handed to the children on a plate and they have to use their imagination a bit, they find a way to stop being bored, start amusing themselves and then, lo and behold, they behave better.

I can't expect them to enjoy the beauty of Eilean Donan Castle or the incredible Highland scenery - I remember being bored stiff by such things as a child and only finding appreciation for them once I'd got into my 30's - but I think children should show a level of respect for others in public places and it annoys the hell out of me when they don't.  Manners and consideration cost nothing and are often overlooked or ignored by parents who simply claim "But they're just being children!"  That's no excuse in my book.

I don't know what's on the agenda for tomorrow but I am hoping that we continue in the same vein, wherever we end up going.  Weather permitting, we may end up on Loch Ness, searching for Nessie.  We shall see.

In the meantime, enjoy these beautiful photographs from today.