Quackers

I got the ducks quacking on my walk around Birsemore Loch.

School View, Aboyne

All of us lucky enough to attend Aboyne Primary School and Aboyne Adademy have a great view to inspire us. You can never get bored of seeing this view every day on the walk home.

Free skiing mid Deeside review

I took a couple of hours out this afternoon to head to the hills around Mid Deeside to see where all the snow had been blown too. North facing slopes, the snow came in on a southerly gale, which stripped all the snow from all other aspects of the hill and dumped them all in the same place, best cover above 2000ft about 600m. Short video review

Glen Tanner Snowy Hills

Glen Tanner Snowy Hills, originally uploaded by ecotorch.

Winter is still hanging in there in and around Glen Tanner. Will it survive the mild days before the snow falls again?

SCB Gala 2007 What a splash

50m and 100m backcrawl events was where I picked up a couple of surprise bronze medals yesterday at the 2007 SilverCityBlues Masters Swim Club annual swimming gala. To the best of my memory, 20 years have passed since I entered a 100m backcrawl event. Yes, backcrawl is my least favourite of all the strokes. Breast stroke on the other hand is my favourite. (It's funny to note from my observations that breaststrokers are not big backcrawl fans). The 100m breast stroke was my second event, the first was the 50 metre's backcrawl and I was still recovering from that mad opening sprint when it was time to step on the blocks for the start of the race. Eighteen months had passed since I last swam competitively so it was a bit of a shock to the system the intense exertion of energy.

The starter blows on a whistle to get you on to the blocks then they will say, 'take your marks' and then it's a case of listening for the beep from the gun. my toes tucked around the front of the starting block, I tensed up in readiness for the beep. But this had also put a slight wobble on my balance. A wobble that grew with each passing milli-second but the beep, still did not come. I am off, splash.

But the beep had not been fired. A false start. I am not sure I have ever recorded a competitive false start ever in my life. I sat at the side of the pool, head shaking while the start procedure was restarted for the rest of the swimmers. Today, swimming rules are strict, one false start and you are out. As a child swimmer, you were allowed one false start. For some reason there were quite a few false starts yesterday.

Over my next 5 races of the afternoon I am pleased to report that I did make it to the finish. My times are listed below, but the 100IM (individual medley) was my best performance of the day, apart from a reasonable time, I also felt a good controlled swim. Overall, I was down (meaning more, worse) on my best times, 1 to 3 seconds on the sprints and 3-6 seconds down over the hundreds and over 200m freestyle I was 11 seconds down. My main goal was to get the times recorded and put on the board, I didn't train that well or at all for long periods of time in 2006 and colds over Christmas also dent times. Overall, I am encouraged, motived to train and to get those times heading south again. Thank you to all the SCB officials and volunteers that made the event and buffet a success.

Times to be confirmed.
50m backcrawl 36.75 seconds
100m breaststroke Disqualifed
100m IM 1.18.23
50m Butterfly 34.35 seconds
200m Freestyle 2.36.15
100m backcrawl 1.24.17
50m breaststroke 39.45 seconds

Fiddle Concert Banchory

Banchory Strathspey and Reel Society are hosting a concert on the evening of Thursday 15 February, East Church, Banchory is the venue. Beside both the Junior and Senior Orchestra's, Paul Anderson will perform a couple of solos. Should be great evening of foot tapp'n tunes, song and humour.