Girls and Guns...

Moved out of the maids quarters last night as getting far too hot being above the Aga and we are now in the main house.  Noticed the difference in temperature straight away so no doubt will move back in the winter! Stupidly I forgot to tell Milo which room I was in and as he had eaten the contents of the left over party food out of the bin, he had a rather gruesome accident on the hall carpet during the night.  Thankfully it had been all cleared up by Mr P by the time I woke up.

This afternoon we all got to do some rifle shooting. Mr P spent what felt like three hours setting it all up whilst Missy L and I watched from the comfort of couch.  We were given our instructions by Mr P and also chastised for behaving like school children on a field trip. I think we thought we would black our faces, poke twigs in our hair and run rampage through the woods killing anything that moved.  But no, we laid a picnic blanket on the lawn and shot at some rather cute little silver ducks on a stand.    Neither Missy L or I had ever shot a gun so it was really good fun and I managed to knock one of those cute little ducks off the stand :)

Milo had to watch all this from the van due to  health and safety (crazy gun girls possibly shooting him accidentally) so I've just spent the last hour sitting in the van with him blasting out some tunes and pretending we were on a road trip...

Taking instruction from Mr P

Shooting the duck

Falkeners dinner ending in dog basket...

Yesterday morning began early. The Big house had to be prepared for the Falkeners dinner of 20. Sadly our guest the chef left the Big house due to a family emergency and that left me, Mr P, Mr R and Missy L to cook the meal! None of us with any experience cooking for that quantity. So we decided to keep it simple. Cold pate starter, roast pork main and mini pavlova dessert, and of course a cheese board.  Laying the table was left to Mr P, him being one who knows! Mr R was in charge of fires and silver polishing. Missy L and I took on board the pavlova mwhaha! Oh and the champagne on arrival!

The day was a bit of organised chaos but somehow we managed to get everything ready for the arrival of our dinner guests. Milo obviously greeted everyone with his guard dog barking and then hid in the van.  Our first guest couldn't find the front door and somehow arrived through the back door amidst the kitchen chaos.  We had guests from Holland, France, England and local.  A good mixture indeed. There was lots of 'bird' talk so I kept busy in the kitchen making gravy. I must admit I did feel quite out my depth most of the evening, probably not helped by my rather short dress.  I did eventually pass out in the dogs basket with Milo and was found and comforted by Missy L.

Today was an extremely lazy day, or rather it was after a mountain of washing up, luckily we have two dishwashers. This evening we fed on leftover pork and pavlova :) and took photos of the full moon...

Ready for dinner

Mr P's tripod

Melted wellies...

This morning Mr P and I built a washing line, well we assembled one with some rather dodgy instructions with help from others.  In total it took four of us about an hour but we are all now rather pleased with ourselves. We even, for some unknown reason, have a viewing chair for said washing line!

Then this afternoon I had the great pleasure of going onto the moors to hawk.  A first for me and my female companion, and no doubt we won't be asked to return! It was an intriguing experience and I was rather kindly (or not) supplied with a midgy hat.

Basically for those who don't know (me included) we drive for miles over rugged moorland until we find a suitable spot then we all get out the vehicles and let the dogs off.  They run around looking rather excited and then stop and point, literally, hence Pointer dogs :) Then we let the Hawk off the glove, hopefully with a fully functioning transmitor, and watch it fly off and above. Then the hawking man jumps up and down shouting out loud until the grouse jump up out of the heather. And that's when the hawk swoops down to catch the grouse.  I do apologise for my rather ignorant description of this process! But it was really interesting, until I fell over in the bog, nearly lost a welly and got soaked in a downpour of rain.

We then all returned to the cottage and had beer and chocolate biscuits.  But I stood too close to the fire and sadly melted my wellies.  Off to bed now, big day tomorrow preparing to host the annual hawking dinner tomorrow evening at the Big house, alcohol included...!

A lot of cutlery...

Not sleeping very well at the moment, have moved into a room (maids quarters!) above the kitchen/Aga so like a little oven up there. Thought I would have a little siesta this afternoon to catch up and just as I was drifting off two bloomin big blue bottles decided to join me, so now I feel even more tired!

Popped to local Tesco this morning with passengers in my van, they were actually quite impressed with the beast and not at all afraid! I hadn't been to a supermarket for so long I didn't quite know what to buy so ended up with multi packs of steak Macoys crisps and chocolate chip cookies.

Washed some dishes this morning and wondered if I would ever need so much cutlery after surviving in the van with one knive fork and spoon.
Milo is still living in the van, it is soul destroying seeing him sitting in the passenger seat looking out the window no doubt waiting for me to jump in and start the engine.  I took him out for a little drive this afternoon and we pulled up by a loch and he fell asleep quite content.  I took advantage and phoned my bestie Sue for a catch up, which made me miss her even more. MiloandMe are both possibly feeling a little lost just now.  Hopefully given time we will know where we belong...

Back to The Big House Milo...

Well I'm back in The Big House and Milo won't leave the van.  He stands at the van door, drops the ball out the door, fetches it and then returns to the van...I think he had such a crazy weekend he is a bit confused bless him.  The Saturday night Live Aid celebration did get a bit messy, there was lots of food and alcohol and plenty of bad dancing.  I banged my head twice, once falling off the coffe table whilst dancing with Sue and the second trying to climb the ladder to my bed in the van.  I just managed to reach the top of the ladder in my drunken stuper and then just hung there in mid air until the ladder slowly fell backwards throwing me on top of my sister below and then landed I on the floor just missing Milo!

So I'm back in the big house and we have lovely visitors.  One gentleman being the most amazing chef another gentleman full of crazy fun stories and a young boy who can spend hours throwing the ball for Milo.  Mr P has taken all the guests up to the moors hawking and I am having a lazy afternoon, or I was until the BT engineer turned up.  Asking me all sorts of technical questions about how many wires etc go out of the main box.  I don't even know how many rooms there are let alone how many wires travel to them!

Anyway he's gone now so back to my lazy afternoon for which I just don't know what to do.  Might have a sneaky nap, we all stayed up late last night having an extremely informative conversation about Prostate Cancer, definitely a conversation worth having as far as I am concerned...

Me my bestie and Jen x 

Good friends and catch ups...

Saturday morning now and I got my Pip and her boyfriend as guests in my van, tight squeeze but good fun.  We went to visit our good friend Sonya from our airhostessing days last night in Elie.  Was lovely to reminisce about our flying days and the antics we used to get up to.  How we got away with stuff back then! We were waited on hand and foot by husband Olav and daughter Maria, was a perfect evening.

Today we are off to Perth to visit my bestie friend Sue for another catch up and no doubt lots of wine.  We are celebrating Live Aid which was actually 30 years ago! Yikes I feel old.  I was even living in Wembley then and could hear it all from my flat window. We are going to be hearing all those tunes today and mixed with the alcohol it could get messy!

It's so lovely having guests in my van, I even got to paint my toe nails while they entertained Milo. It does feel a little strange being back in the van since moving into The Big House, but was lovely driving around like a trucker again! I am returning to The Big House on Monday and have a busy week ahead with various guests and entertaining.

Maltesers and dead bunnies...

It's been a busy weekend getting the big house ready for guests next week.  Mr P is hosting his annual Falconary Dinner and various people are staying over.  I have spent many hours up a ladder cleaning, I've lost count of how many, windows. And these are very old windows with big wooden shutters so you can imagine the dust.

This morning I took Milo round the big field and on the way back found two more dead rabbits.  We have an abundance of them here but they have been hit with mixamatotis.  Milo loves to chase them but if he ever catches up with them he does not know what to do with them.  Yesterday one of them was boxing him through a fence, so cute.

 I then drove Mr P to the airport for a business trip and came back an empty house.  Tried to find a tin opener for my baked beans but to no avail, but did find a box of maltesers so happy days! Then looking for shampoo I found six bottles of all the same flavour Alberto balsam and one volumising bottle.  Lesson learnt, people with thick hair shouldn't choose volumising shampoo.  Big hair day.

Tomorrow I am going to fire up the beast and take a trip to Perth for a few days.  My sister Pip and her partner are visiting me and my best friend Sue has invited us to visit her.  Should be a fun few days and then back to the big house next week.

Well off to sleep now.  Am sure I am more nervous sleeping alone in the big house than on the edge of a cliff in the beast! The grandfather clock chimes every fifteen minutes and every fifteen minutes Milo and Me jump out of our skin...

This mornings back door view...! ;)

And they lived Happily Ever After...

I am going off radar for a wee while... I can't/won't say too much just now as I don't want to jinx myself, but you'll never guess what?!... I believe I've met someone special :)

He will be reading this (hi x) so I will write accordingly!  I met him a few weeks ago, he read my story and invited us to visit him.  So we did.  Then we left and continued travelling.  But two days ago I realised I missed him terribly so drove all the way back. And I don't know at this point if we will ever leave...! And I know he doesn't want us to.

So that's my story so far.  'Approaching 50 Jobless Boyfriend less and Homeless' was my story so two out of four ain't bad.

Less than two months ago I decided to live out my dreams.  I was so scared and aware it could all go horribly wrong.  Some people believed I was crazy (they are probably not far off the mark) but I believed in myself for the first time in my life and I'm so glad I didn't change my mind. I would say to anyone that has a dream, go for it.  Don't worry about 'what if's' don't worry about what other people think and don't talk yourself out of it.

Maybe this is my Happy Ever After...

Be back very soon with update and any printable juicy gossip!

How to turn it on...

Seems to me that every house on The Isle of Skye is a bed and breakfast! Never seen so many, not that I'm a snob...but even some of the council houses ran b&b's. Didn't get to see much more due to the terrible rain and poor visibility, the sun shone for about an hour before we left. Had to flick the hair dryer back on the washing this morning, all still damp. Managed to even blow dry my hair, though kept hitting the ceiling with the brush, oh the struggles I have living in a tin box!

My midgy bites on my face are now making my eyes itch (SSS not working!) so we only drove for about an hour and are now camped in Morvich, on a site, oh boy more luxury! I actually feel happier back on mainland. I think I'm getting a dab hand at manovering the van.  Makes me smile when I see wives guiding their husbands into spaces making a meal of it, and all I do is launch myself out the driver window whilst reversing with one hand like a truck driver! Although I'm not sure what route to continue with tomorrow as I am terrified of taking the van up another mountain, and I bet even a grown man would have cried doing my last mountain experience!

Milo still has some travel issues.  He still cries when I use my bathroom.  He still can't figure out a kissing gate.  He still thinks he can cross a cattle grid.  He still wants to watch the whole journey over my shoulder. And he still jumps up on the bar at every pub.

For some unknown reason I seem to have attracted a fair amount of Twitter followers from the music industry and mainly from Canada?! I have no idea why, unless they think I'm some sort of Scottish pop star!
Well I am going to try and work out my TV tonight, only been over a month and I still haven't figured  out how to turn it on...

A87 Skye

Morvich campsite view

Join the dots :(

Campsite neighbours...

Funny, I used to think luxury was a five star hotel, nowadays it's a campsite with a half decent shower!  Having just spent the last 3 nights wild camping I'm splashing out tonight at the Torvaig site in Portree Isle of Skye. I've got electric, water, laundry, hot showers and wifi! Although I am may be regretting not paying for the tumble drier... (See photo!) but having got electric my hairdryer will run all night!

Having safely got off the mountain on Saturday I stupidly took a wrong turn and had to backtrack for an hour, then I seemed to be driving forever trying to find a 'non murderous' spot to wild camp. I eventually found a lovely quiet picnic spot near Kyle of Lochalsh (another cliff edge but plenty of trees to break my fall) and settled down.  During the evening many other people followed my example and I woke up to a make shift campsite! One large motorhome had blocked me in and I had to wait for him to leave.  We left our spot and headed for the bridge to Isle of Skye.  Just before we crossed the bridge I purchased petrol at £1.23 thinking it would be even dearer on Skye, no first garage on Skye was charging £1.15!

I'm pretty sure Skye is very scenic but sadly it has piddled down ever since we got here. We headed for a known campsite in Carbost and it was full, the lady recommended the whisky distillery car park or the cemetery.  We chose the latter.  You may be led to believe I would be scared of the dead people, but no, I was more scared of the big cows in the field next to me! They eyeballed me all night, mooing constantly.

This morning my gas bottle ran out, before I had made my coffee! Anyone who knows me knows I 'need' my coffee! So at 8am we were driving around looking for gas.  I also had no idea how to purchase gas so had to drive miles out my way to a supplier to do it for me.  He then informed me my empty bottle was 'illegal' and couldn't be swopped. So I had to lay out nearly seventy pounds for a
new one and drive to a tip to dispose of the other!

Anyway we are fed, cleaned and dry so settling down for the night now and count my midgy bites...

Chinese laundry

Cliff site Kyle of Lochalsh

Bridge to Isle of Skye

Campsite neighbours

The Mountain Goat Beast...

Can't believe I've been travelling for over a month now.  I would recommend this experience to anyone.  I think I've only had a handful of down moments, which in my previous 'life' would have been so many more. And a down moment usually consists of spilt coffee or a wet dog, not too much to complain about!

Found a little second hand book shop in the village this morning and got myself two more reads.  My usual choice of a gruesome murder, keeping my imagination active when wild camping!

Above was written Friday morning, it is now Saturday afternoon.  (Alas no signal)
I spent the night in the middle of absolutely nowhere! Possibly near Ardheslaig? We shared the mountainside with some random sheep and just utter silence. I was actually a bit scared and started imagining all sorts of murder scenarios! So I decided to sleep 'downstairs' with Milo and the hammer, wearing my escape clothes under my dressing gown and pointing the van in escape mode getaway...!
I slept relatively well considering.  We hit the road about 9ish and just seemed to keep on driving.  We headed toward Applecross, and after checking the map and noting that the road ended after that (having been caught out at Redpoint yesterday and having to do a crazy three point turn) we hooked a left toward Loch Carron.

Sadly that left took us up the scariest mountain I've ever seen.  There were plenty of 'snow' warnings but none to the steepness and narrowness of the winding road. We basically crawled to the top in first gear and felt a bit like a mountain goat!  The worst bit was trying to pass other large motor vehicles on the cliff edge, pulling in wing mirror, breathing in and not looking down.  I swear Milo put his paws over his eyes! The top view was stunning if a bit windy, got blown over trying to photo.  I also managed to get some phone reception up there.  If I thought going up was scary it was worse going down! Never been so scared in my life and knowing the only alternative was to live on the top of the  mountain forever...!

The Ceilidh...

I am liking my campsite so staying another night.  I am still in Poolewe just on the shore and managed another time delay photo this morning in front of the van.  I have washed all my 'fishy' smell out of the van and had a good spring clean.  We walked to the local Mace shop earlier and cannot believe the rip off prices they charge! I even got charged £5 for a tiny bottle of Avon SSS, but well worth it to keep those little midgy sods at bay.

The Ceilidh was interesting to say the least.  A mass of people of all ages sitting around the edge of the local hall with another mass in the middle dancing to the live band.  Everyone was giving it their all, seemed to be organised chaos, but everyone seemed to be thoroughly enjoying themselves.  The only time I ever did a highland dance was one Hogmanay in Perth, very drunk, and got my high heel caught in the hem of my long dress.  Was therefore hopping about trying not to land on my backside and trying to inform my partner my heel was stuck.  Ended up looking like a scene from Airplane!

The local football team looked dapper in their football tops and kilts.  I stayed for a while and then kind of got squashed in the scram for the free buffet so made a discreet exit.

I am feeling rather chuffed, been writing my blog just over 2 months and seems over 7,000 people have read it! Can't wait to write the book 'What really happened to MiloandMe' mwhaha! ;)

Poolewe campsite, me behind tree!

The Ceilidh

The boys and me!

The fish van...

For anyone out there thinking my adventure is all a bed of roses... It ain't! Had a rather depressing 48 hours with one thing and another.

Sunday night in Kinlochbervie was scary, there was a terrible storm and I had stupidly parked 6 foot away from a cliff! Woke at 4 am rocking and rolling! And now realised what the sign 'storm refuge parking' meant!
Monday morning I decided to use the site shower and laundry facilities... Only 1 mile away in the fishing harbour, rather strong smell of fish and full of Captain Birdseye lookalikes! But needs must.

Continued our travels along the west coast picking up another hitchhiker, Martin from Germany.  He was a bit boring so we dumped him in Lochinver. We travelled for another few miles then decided to wild camp next to a beautiful fast flowing river.  That was fine until about 2 am at which point I wanted to scream 'turn that blooming river off'! We left that spot (which I don't actually know it's name, possibly near Inverkirkaid) early morning and took a rather scenic route on the A835 towards Ullapool, passing Martin the hitchhiker on the way! Gave him a friendly wave!

Ullapool seemed nice so we booked into a campsite on the shore.  Bad move.  Milo found some kind of dead animal on the beach and ate it :( even worse he brought it all back up some hours later on the carpet, twice!  I now have a van that stinks of rotten fish.  Oh and he rolled in the dead fish before he ate it so he stinks too! Also it rained all afternoon and we were stuck in the van most of the day, and I had bought fish cakes for my tea :(  The site had advertised wifi, but oh no, not where I happened to park. I walked to two local pubs last night and still couldn't get on the wifi so gave up and returned to van to read my book and absorb the aroma of fish...!

I am a little happier now, the sun is shining in Aultbea.  Am in the Aultbea hotel enjoying a coffee
with some new friends who have invited me to a ceilidh this evening...!

Shower facilities!

Too close to edge!

A835

New friends

Milo the robbers dog...

What a day... Woke up after a torrential downpour last night, always seeming worse hitting the van roof. Went for a stroll by the water and then packed up ready for our next destination.  Stopped off at Cocoa Mountain for another hot chocolate and went into craft shop and bought a little wooden highland cow.  In the craft shop was a young tattooed American boy cutting a ladies hair...random.

Decided to continue our journey to Kinlochbervie but took a pit stop at a quiet sandy beach.  Let Milo off his lead and strolled towards the cliff to catch him up.  That's when I spotted him way down on the beach below guzzling down a large cake he had just robbed off two poor ladies sitting on the beach having a picnic! I ran down that cliff, nearly breaking my neck, screaming at him to leave.  The ladies just sat there open mouthed! I eventually caught him and apologised profusely, they didn't seem amused so I offered to pay for the cake.  They declined my offer.  We wandered to the far corner of the beach to continue our walk. Not. Milo proceeded to charge back to the picnic to grab some more of that delicious cake.  I'm tearing after him on wet sand screaming out to leave! Finally caught him, more cake in mouth, and made a sharp exit.  We must have looked a right pair to the crowd on the cliff top!

We arrived at Kinlochbervie and pitched up at the site.  Our one and only neighbour pointed out the beautiful wild orchids growing next to my van.  She then recommended we visit Oldshoremore beach and am I glad she did!  It was the steepest road the beast had encountered so far, but so worth it.  It was so warm and sunny (and practically deserted) that I stripped down to my underwear and had a little sunbathe! Milo swam in all the lagoons and ran for miles on the sand.  We had a fab afternoon. I decided to take about 36 selfies hoping that potentially I would have one photo of me that I actually liked... I now have about 36 photos of me that I actually quite like! The beast did struggle back up the hill and could only manage in 1st gear...that is until I realised I still had the handbrake on!
We stopped off to photograph the most handsome highland cow I'd seen so far :)

I am now in a local pub having a bottle of  beer and using their wifi, the pub reminds me of the film American Wearwolf in London! Beware the moon Nicci...

Oldshoremore beach

Hotdog legs!

Rainbows and hot chocolate...

How lucky are Milo and Me?! Found an absolutely stunning location last night on The Kyle of Tongue.  A little spot just next to the water and no neighbours for miles.  It was next to a grave yard so very peaceful too. I think I sat on my back step for hours just taking in the scenery and absorbing the tranquility.  Then we had a rain shower followed by the most beautiful rainbow on the horizon.  Just chilled out for the evening reading my book and eating buttered crumpets.

This morning I awoke to the sound of the tide gently lapping the shore.  I opened the door and Milo jumped out and went for an early morning dip.  The sunrise was as stunning as the evening rainbow.  I didn't want to leave, I sat in the sunshine for a good two hours before I tore myself away to head for Durness.

I tell you, if you ever want a stunning drive then travel the A838 it's amazing territory.  The road is mostly one lane with an abundance of 'passing places' and the rugged coast line views are to die for! Every twist and turn in the road brought another 'wow Milo look at that'.  We arrived in Durness and took a walk on the beach in the pouring rain and now I am treating myself to a rather yummy hot chocolate at Cocoa Mountain :) then off to camp down for the night.