Briefly a tourist
Jul. 10th, 2016 10:18 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mtbcYesterday I got to drive on the A85 across Scotland from Oban to Perth. It's a lovely single-carriageway road with twists and turns and varied views of features like waterfalls down into lochs. We happened to be pleasantly untroubled by
For celebratingmst3kmoxie's birthday we had very kindly been given money by her sister that we used for a little island hopping and by her mother that we used to eat nice food as we went. As a lead on American defense department projects I earned rather more than I do now as a software developer at a British university and, at least for me to a great extent, I find that money does buy happiness; thanks to family generosity we did briefly again get to live as if we had spare money and it was nice indeed. I even got to eat a bacon and egg roll on the first ferry. For me there were perhaps two highlights:
The church at Iona Abbey was pleasant to spend time inside. Having been restored it is now in good condition and blends ancient and modern very effectively. It's not Ely Cathedral but it is impressive in a subtler and more comforting way. It was also nice to experience a decent little cloister beside it, though it presented me with the awkward hat-related question of if it is indoors or outdoors. The site also exhibits various ancient stone sculpture. (I did however get the impression that the present Iona Community may be a little up themselves.)
In visiting ancient sites I enjoy imagining what it would be to have lived there when the site was first operating. With some religious sites I now can't help but also be reminded of works of fiction like Neal Stephenson's Anathem.
Dinner in Oban was most agreeable. I had good scallops and bass, with some salmon in the mashed potato, and I had half an eye on another's crab rillette too. The view from my seat, looking out over the bay, included everything from St Columba's* Cathedral to McCaig's Tower. The coffee was good too. The cheese platter as dessert wasn't the most impressive but it made a nice change to have such an option at all.
*an abbot not to be confused with the Columba (the Virgin) I knew from living in Cornwall
T in the Parkfestival traffic on the route.
For celebrating
mst3kmoxie's birthday we had very kindly been given money by her sister that we used for a little island hopping and by her mother that we used to eat nice food as we went. As a lead on American defense department projects I earned rather more than I do now as a software developer at a British university and, at least for me to a great extent, I find that money does buy happiness; thanks to family generosity we did briefly again get to live as if we had spare money and it was nice indeed. I even got to eat a bacon and egg roll on the first ferry. For me there were perhaps two highlights:The church at Iona Abbey was pleasant to spend time inside. Having been restored it is now in good condition and blends ancient and modern very effectively. It's not Ely Cathedral but it is impressive in a subtler and more comforting way. It was also nice to experience a decent little cloister beside it, though it presented me with the awkward hat-related question of if it is indoors or outdoors. The site also exhibits various ancient stone sculpture. (I did however get the impression that the present Iona Community may be a little up themselves.)
In visiting ancient sites I enjoy imagining what it would be to have lived there when the site was first operating. With some religious sites I now can't help but also be reminded of works of fiction like Neal Stephenson's Anathem.
Dinner in Oban was most agreeable. I had good scallops and bass, with some salmon in the mashed potato, and I had half an eye on another's crab rillette too. The view from my seat, looking out over the bay, included everything from St Columba's* Cathedral to McCaig's Tower. The coffee was good too. The cheese platter as dessert wasn't the most impressive but it made a nice change to have such an option at all.
*an abbot not to be confused with the Columba (the Virgin) I knew from living in Cornwall
