A week in Kylesku – Day 2: Lochinver

Today was our first full day up here. The north west highlands is pretty remote but it's a beautiful place and an ideal spot for a bit of R&R. There are plenty of places to visit outside of Kylesku and its relatively well placed so that they can be reached within an hour or two's drive. They're not actually that far in terms of miles but it takes a while to navigate the windy single track roads.

The lodge we're staying in is great. Not too fancy on the outside (it’s your basic A-frame timber cabin) but it’s nicely furnished and there’s an amazing view from the living room / dining room / kitchen out across the loch, with the mountains behind. It’s quite stunning. We were told by the owner, Andre, that we might be able to spot all sorts of wildlife; including otters, porpoises and deer – though our only sighting so far, of a deer in the distance, turned out to be some lichen on a rock … so we’ll see.

Our lodge - No. 6

The view from our lodge

In the morning we took a walk down to the centre of Kylesku. There's actually not a lot to the place, not even a shop, just a few houses along a main road that leads to a small hotel and a boat jetty, where you can take a couple of mini boat cruises.

We found a cute cat that lived in the hotel. After showing it some affection (Laura loves cats) it followed us along a path – bounding giddily along the way. The end of the path took us to the foot of the ‘new’ road bridge, actually built in 1984. It’s a great little bridge though. Lovely and curved – rather than just straight and boring. It replaced the ferry service that used to leave from Kylesku across to the other side of the loch.

Kylesku Hotel

Me and Seren at the jetty

Don't look now but I think we're being followed

Kylesku Bridge

By coincidence, some friends of ours, Barbara and Dave, were also up in the area on holiday, staying a bit further south than us. We’d arranged to meet up in Lochinver, a small village about 30 mins drive south of Kylesku, at its well know pie shop – the Lochinver Larder. We got there a little late, though we would have been on time had we not walked in the wrong direction from the car park. The pies were indeed impressive. Apparently you can order them over the internet and they’ll send them by post – testament to their popularity perhaps.

After lunch we took a walk through along the water front to the harbour. Barbara and I used to work together in the same architect’s office some years ago and there happened to be a building – a sports centre – which Barbara had worked on just in behind the harbour. (I’d done some initial work on the designs while I was in the office but it had had to change substantially since then to add in new rooms etc.) Looked pretty good.

We had a stroll back to our respective cars and said our cheerios. This was the end of their week-long break so they were heading back down to Edinburgh the following day. We weren’t in any hurry to get back so we decided to take the alternative scenic road back to Kylesku, around the coast and past a pretty beach, which took about an hour. In the evening we cooked, watched a little telly and had an early night.

A week in Kylesku – Day 1: The journey north

We’re in the second week of our two-week vacation. Last week we took the train down to Laura’s folks in Scarborough for 4 days. (See the pics in my flickr site). The weather was glorious and Seren had a blast. We came back up to Edinburgh for a couple of days before starting the second part of our holiday.

Earlier this year we booked a lodge in Strathyre, about 2 hours north of Edinburgh. We fancied doing something similar again but couldn’t decide on where to go. We’re trying to stay relatively local for the moment until Seren’s a little older. Some friends of Laura’s recommended some cabins in the far North West of Scotland, in a little village called Kylesku.

It took around 8 hours, with a two hour stop in Culloden, just outside Inverness. Culloden is well known for the historic battle that took place there in the 1700s between the British Government and the Jacobites (kind of like the Empire and the Rebel Forces – but without the light sabres and ‘the Force’). Although I’d driven past the battlefield before, I knew they had a new visitors' centre there and was keen to take a look – to see the new building and to brush up on my Scottish history, of which I’m shamefully ignorant.

The building’s pretty well done. It’s contemporary but it's still respectful to the history of the site. It has a shop, a restaurant and a walk-through exhibition that takes you through the building and out onto the battlefield itself. First off we had some lunch (I had a haggis and cheese Panini – ever since I’d had an amazing ‘haggis cheese melt’ in the Applecross Inn a few years ago I’ve never been able to pass up the haggis – cheese combination. The local food shop around the corner sell frozen haggis pizzas. It’s amazing. But I digress…).

After lunch we decided to check out the exhibition. It was a little steep, £10 each, but it was worth it. Well laid out and informative. The surround screen film of the battle was suitably graphic. The highlight for me, though, had to be the huge 'bird's eye view' video game-like re-enactment of the hour-long battle between the two sides, compressed into about 10 minutes. Impressive and effective. Some disturbing and gruesome facts about the battle - within the space of an hour the British Government suffered 50 casualties – the Jacobites lost 1500. 700 of those were in the space of a few minutes towards the end of the battle - and it was mostly hand to hand / close range combat at that stage.

Laura had done the first half of driving up to that point so we switched over for the second leg of the trip. The rest of the drive was fairly uneventful and we pulled into the lodge at 6:30. After settling in and getting Seren off to bed we had some dinner and hit the sack.

Shopping with Seren

Shopping trolley cam

A bird of prey in the back garden

One night last week Laura spotted what we think was a Sparrow Hawk, (below) sitting on a bench in one of the back gardens behind our flat.

Bit rare to find a bird of prey in the centre of Edinburgh. It's a bit like seeing a Bald Eagle in downtown Manhattan. Okay, maybe not quite, but it's pretty unusual.

It sat there for ages and we thought it might be injured, but eventually it flew away. No doubt to, uh, kill a sparrow.

We think it must have been a female because it had brown feathers.

We could see it a lot more clearly through our binoculars, but unfortunately my camera doesn't zoom in that close with a clear picture. Damn...I should have used our camcorder! It has a 32 X Zoom lens ! Oh well.

The Mela Festival

Today we went to a South Asian festival they have every year in Edinburgh called the Mela. It's as you'd imagine any festival - full of tents with food, music, markets etc, but with a South Asian theme.

It used to be held in a park just up the street, but for some reason this year they moved it to a car park opposite a big shopping centre. Luckily for us it's also just about 10 mins walk away from our flat, albeit in the opposite direction. Bit of a shame with the change in venue though, it was a bit soulless. But what it lacked in atmosphere it made up for in choice and quality of food on offer. Our bellies were hurtin'.

South Queensferry

We took a drive up to South Queensferry yesterday, just to the north of Edinburgh on the south shore of the Firth of Forth. It's a pretty little village, sandwiched between the famous Forth Rail Bridge, built in 1890, and the Forth Road Bridge, built in 1964. They're actually planning a third bridge, the other side of the road bridge.

It was a nice sunny day. We had some ice cream and went for a nice walk. One of the reasons I was keen to go there though was to see one of the projects that I'd worked on as Project Architect at my last practice - some 'sustainable housing' - about 60 units. I worked on it for about two years and it's taken this long to get out of the ground (I left almost 3 years ago!) Anyway, it's looking pretty good. Much as I'd imagined it. When it's finished it'll be clad in a mixture of brick and timber. One of the blocks is pretty much finished. The timber frames are up for the rest, but the timber and brick outer skins are still to be done.

The blocks are set around a central community garden, which is till a big pile of mud at the moment. It should be a good scheme when it's finished I hope.

Pittenweem Arts Festival

Pittenweem High Street

This past Sunday we took a drive about an hour and a half north of Edinburgh, to a sweet little coastal village called Pittenweem. They hold a week long arts festival there every year and Sunday was the last day. We lucked out with the weather, it'd been raining heavily all week or 'pissing it down' as we Scots like to say - but Sunday was a beautiful day. It's a beautiful village. Stunning views along the coast.

The harbour

The festival is unusual in that the exhibiting artists - some local, some invited, some just there to exhibit - hire space in the local houses, sheds, gardens and garages to exhibit their work: paintings; sculptures; jewelry and photographs. So instead of being exhibited in galleries the works are exhibited in local residents' living rooms, temporarily turned into miniature galleries. Pretty cool idea.


Laura has a friend, Georgie Young, who has recently moved out there and who was exhibiting her paintings. We really like her stuff. We've been thinking about getting something for a blank wall behind our couch and we might buy one of hers. We also saw some cool mixed media type paintings which we really liked. This was one of our favourites, created by an artist we have affectionately called The Puffin Man. (He does more than just puffins by the way).

We didn't get any paintings on the day, but we did buy a couple of contemporary ceramics by a company called Make. We can't quite figure out where to put them yet though.

Seren and Laura down at the harbour front

Cycling with Seren in Strathyre

Another little video clip from our trip to Strathyre in May. We hired bikes one day with a little trailer for Seren in the back and rode along an old railway line to the nearest village. Great fun, though she slept most of the way. We were worried we'd jiggled her unconscious!


Cycling with Seren in Strathyre from Steve Malone on Vimeo.

Squint Opera

Read about a company called Squint Opera in an architectural magazine today. Really interesting stuff - great images / montages, ideas and short movies / animations.

The image above is taken from a series – collectively dubbed Flooded London - which show how London's population in 2090 has adapted to the consequences of global warming. This particular picture shows a man who has rowed into St Paul's and is preparing to dive off the ledge of the Whispering Gallery into a dimly lit 'swimming pool' below. Check them out.

'Untooned'

Stumbled across a website called Pixeloo. It's a guy who adds real skin tones and textures to cartoon characters to make them look real, using pictures of famous actors. Pretty amazing.

Jessica Rabbit (made mostly from Angelina Joli's face)

Here's how he does it.

GarageBand

I've wanted to own my own multi-track recorder for some time. Ever since my friends and I formed a band in high school and bought our own 4-track recorder I've enjoyed recording songs.

When I moved back to the UK I bought a stereo which had a 'mixing mic'. It allowed me to mix in a track via a line in whilst recording from one tape deck to the other. It was a straight forward process, though the end results sounded a little crude. With each new track the overall sound quality would degrade and slow down due to the drag of the tape. But I recorded a lot of songs that way, and even sent some back and forth to my old band mate Wayne to add in his own tracks. Great fun.

I wanted to buy another 4-track recorder but I could never bring myself to part with the cash. Then, somewhere along the line, computers started taking over from antiquated tape machines, and I became aware that there were programs on the market that you could buy to turn your computer into a sort of home recording studio. However, they seemed a little daunting and complicated, and cost prohibitive. Not long after I bought my iMac I downloaded a 'lite' version of Cakewalk, a well know piece of recording software. But I didn't really have great instructions with it, or the patience, to really understand how it worked, so I never really used it.

Time passed and I'd heard that Apple had brought out a new program called 'GarageBand'. Now this seemed to be the ticket. Apple programs are know for their user-friendliness, intuitiveness and nice interfaces. Best of all it came free with the operating system as part of the new iLife package (which rolled iTunes, iMovie and iDVD into one package with GarageBand). The trouble was that my old iMac didn't have the capacity to run it. So I was stuck.


Then, when I started my current job, I was given a mac. One of the better aluminum tower G5 models - and sure enough, it had GarageBand on it. I used to check it out from time to time, but there was no way I could really use it at work. It's not like I could bring my guitar into the office or anything (unlike Dom's work where it seems to be commonplace). They key came when I was told that I also had a mac laptop. An older model, a G4 iBook, but a better model than my iMac - and it had GarageBand. So I was in business. Of course I used the computer mainly for work stuff, writing reports etc., but it seemed a shame to have this program and not use it!

Over the years I'd built up a small arsenal of instruments and recording equipment: a steel string acoustic; an amp; a drum machine, which was a 21st birthday present from my parents; a classical guitar from Costa Rica, a gift from my friend and former bandmate Wayne when he and his family came to visit one summer; a second hand bass guitar bought off a friend; a guitar FX unit; a Wah-Wah pedal, and a harmonica. Unfortunately, I'd sold my beloved electric guitar when I finished University as a broke student for £100. A difficult but nevertheless necessary sale. To do some real recording I really needed a couple more items.

About a year and a half ago I saw a review of an electric guitar called an iAxe in an electronics magazine. This was a Fender Strat-style electric guitar that you could use as normal, but crucially also had a USB connection to allow you to hook it up to a computer. Perfect! I added it to my birthday wish list that year and sure enough Laura got it for me! :) It's great, even came with its own FX simulator program.

GarageBand allows you to record in one of two ways: real or software instruments. 'Real' meaning something which you plug into the input, like a guitar, or a mic for vocals, and 'software' meaning a MIDI device, like a keyboard. Either way Garageband has an impressive array of preset and modifiable effects that you can use to modify the sound of whatever you record.

I started to try and get to grips with the program, but never really gave it my full effort. There were so many features that you could only really tap into with a MIDI controller. But last Xmas Laura got me just that - a MIDI keyboard. So I was ready to go!

I downloaded a very helpful video tutorial to help me get to grips with the program. Pretty quickly I was up and running and started working on a song. One of the great things about recording electronically is the ability to easily see, access and edit just about anything. It really is lightyears ahead of recording by tape. And, best of all, it's digital! So you know you're going to get great quality at the end of the day.

I spent a few months working on a track, adding bits here and there when I could, getting to know the program better. I'd even add working versions onto my iPod to listen to on the way to work. It got to the point to where I was just about finished my first song. Then, a few months ago, disaster struck. For some reason my work laptop crashed...and wouldn't wake up. Luckily, I'd backed up the Garageband track onto an external drive, but it was at an early stage. Always backup. I must remember that.

A while passed before I bought my new laptop and I couldn't do anything. But a couple of nights ago I copied the saved track off my hard drive and started to re-record what I'd done on my new mac book. I could actually use a copy I'd saved onto my iPod, but it's just not the same given I'd mixed all the tracks together - it just wasn't at that stage yet.

So, I'm sort of embarking on a little project. It's been over a year in the making so to speak, and it may take a while to finish yet, but it'll be fun making it. Watch this space.

Euro 2008 - Updated

I'm not a huge football (soccer) fan, but when international tournaments come along I get sucked in. We're nearing the end of Euro 2008. It's down to the semi-finals. Turkey are playing Germany tonight. It's 1-1, but Turkey are playing the better game I'd say. (Unfortunately something just went wrong with the transmission so there's no picture at the moment. They've switched it over to BBC Radio 5 for a better commentary! Oh, it's back.)

I'm also more interested in watching as I have a bit of a financial investment resting on the tournament. We run a, somewhat complicated, sweep in the office. It costs £6 to play. There are 8 of us playing, so the kitty is £48. That's split 2/3 to the winner and 1/3 to the runner up. I'm tied in first with 2 others - a nail biting finish to the tournament. I've bet on Germany to win tonight and Spain tomorrow. My gut told me Russia would win, but I ended up going with Spain. We shall see.

____________________

I won first place! Excellent.

Clouds

One of the cool features on our new camcorder is the time-lapse recording function. You can set it to take a shot a second long at various intervals over a long period. I wanted to try it out while we were up in Strathyre so I set the camera up on my tripod and filmed through the window for a few hours. Here's the result, called simply, Clouds. It features an original soundtrack I put together on garageband this morning. Enjoy!


Clouds from Steve Malone on Vimeo.

I'm a Mac

I've been an Apple fan for a long time. I think my first recollection of an Apple computer was in middle school. I can't remember when exactly, 6th or 7th grade maybe. It was the all-in-one kind (what other kind was there back then?) with the green on screen text and the colourful, stripey apple simple with a bite taken out of it.

Then somewhere along the line other models took over: Texas Instruments (a big favourite with my some of my friends); Commodore; and my own computer - the Atari 400 (which I basically used to play video games on).

Strangely I don't seem to remember much about computers during high school. I guess I was too busy playing guitar. But when I got to Architecture school I really started to use computers for stuff other than playing games - and we used apple macs. Thinking back to first year, 1992, the computers were incredibly basic - we used it for basic type setting, and some graphics. We were introduced to the world of 'scanning' in 2nd year. The computers were still all-in-one, and the screen were black and white - no colour.

Next door to the 'mac' suite we had the super-duper Sun Lab - unix based systems used for AutoCAD drawing - in full colour. It was in this room that I sent my first ever email to my friend Wayne, via a friend's account (I didn't even have one at that time).

Meanwhile, the macs were starting to catch up. They brought out 'Power PC's' which had full colour screens. They were kept in the new 'multi-media' suite. In fourth year I joined a graphic design class. We were given our own special room which had a big Power PC Mac with Quark Xpress, a professional desk top publishing application which I still use today.

I've used Macs in my professional life too. The first office I worked in in my year out in Dublin used Macs. Then an office in Edinburgh, where I started to draw on computer professionally on an iMac; then another in 2000 where I graduated to a slick G4. A year later I was having to spend a lot of time working on my professional exam and decided it was about time I invested in my own computer - my first since the Atari 400 in the 80's. I walked to my local Apple store, about 10 mins down the street, and financed my very own iMac, in indigo. An exciting moment.

I still have my trusty iMac. I've upgraded it many times over, used it to write hundreds / thousands of emails, produced 7 years worth of SEDA Magazines, even met my partner Laura on it! So I guess it has sentimental value. But it's a little old - and it has its limitations.

When I started working for my current employer they gave me a mac - a G5, and my very own mac laptop - a 14" iBook G4. With the laptop I was introduced to the world of remote working - and I don't think I ever looked back. When we moved into our new place we got a wireless router so we could both sit on the couch and be on line. It was great for a while. But disaster struck a few months ago when my iBook died on me. I was - laptopless.

Luckily I still had my trusty iMac next door. But, with the arrival of our daughter, the days of the spare bedroom being an office / store room were numbered. Last month she moved into her own room. I knew it was about time to bite the bullet and buy a new laptop. I knew I was due a one off back-payment from work and when that came through last month I went for it.

I now own my very own 13.3" 2.4 GHz Macbook. Nice! It's great. It's new and fast - and has lots of cool applications - like iLife. I've been trying to persuade Laura to get one too, and chuck her old noisy PC. Incredibly, her brother bought her one this past weekend as a present! So we now both have one. Sweet.

Deil's Caldron

I've started to download and edit some of the footage we took with our new camcorder while on holiday recently. Here's the first little 'movie' to come out of it. This is nothing special really, just a little waterfall we found one afternoon not too far from where we were staying. It has a creepy name though - Deil's Caldron (Devil's Kettle). In Gaelic it's Slocha'n Donish and legend has it that it was the favourite haunt of a brownie or water elf called Uris-chidh who enticed victims down into the huge natural pothole to their deaths.

Nice!


Deil's Caldron from Steve Malone on Vimeo.

Water Babies - Updated

We've been taking Seren to a swimming class called 'Water Babies' for about three or four weeks now. Well, I say we, but unfortunately the classes are on a Tuesday at 11am, not great for me, so I missed the first couple. But this week I managed to get a couple hours off work and was able to go along to take her into the pool.

She did really well, she even kicked her legs and arms a bit! She's a natural! (I suppose all babies are, given that they spent so long in the womb). Anyway, Laura took a couple of clips with her digital camera. I've spliced them together into a little movie using iMovie on my new laptop...but more on that in another blog.

Besides having a bit of fun and getting used to swimming in the water, you can get underwater pictures done when the baby is swimming well enough, just like on the cover of Nirvana's album Nevermind! Can't wait. Check out the website for examples of some other babies who have been photographed here. The quality is great!

Anyway, look out for that pic in a future blog. In the meantime, here's the movie clip. It's a little basic, but not bad considering I'm just learning how to edit.



Seren, Water Baby from Steve Malone on Vimeo.

Okay, I've adjusted the audio as Wayne suggested, which I think works much better. Thanks for the advice bud. I also took it into Vimeo, following Dom and Burt's lead. Not sure what the advantages are - I guess better quality and it gives you the option to increase the viewing size?

Portishead - Silence

New song off Portishead's new album, 'Third'. Just bought it yesterday, very cool.

A log cabin in Strathyre

We've got a week's vacation coming up in May. We booked a log cabin in Strathyre. Can't wait. It's a 2 bedroom so we've got some friends and family coming to stay for part of the week. Here's a bit of blurb about it...

Set amongst the scenic lochs and mountains of the Trossachs National Park, Strathyre lies at the foot of Ben Ledi waiting to welcome you to Scotland’s dramatic forest landscape. Experience the peace and stillness of an early morning by the loch shore or take up the challenge of this rugged and beautiful landscape.

Tree-clad slopes sweep down to the edge of Loch Lubnaig are truly breathtaking. The varied terrain of "Rob Roy country" is ideal for hill walking for all ages and abilities. A vigorous hike will bring you to the summit of Ben Ledi, nearly 3000 ft above your cabin.

There's more to do further afield too - visit the other lochs in the area such as Loch Katrine where you can take a trip on a steamship or nearby Loch Earn for sailing, windsurfing and water-skiing.

We'll be there during my birthday so we're heading over to a really nice hotel called Monachyle Mhor for lunch on the 10th. Hopefully the weather will hold up. Keep a look out for pics on flickr when we get back.

Innnnverness, Florida

My brother and his family flew to Florida for a week this past Easter. They stayed at Disney and spent most of their time there, but they did take a day trip up to our old home town of Inverness, where we grew up. (Not to be confused with Invernesssss, Scotland - where the emphasis is at the end of the word, not the start.)

While he was there he drove past our old house on Inverness Blvd. I was kind of half expecting it to have been bulldozed and replaced by a new house by now, but it's still there. He said it was pretty sad, the front porch was full of junk and it looked awful. Here's a picture he took from the woods across the road (I think he was afraid they might come out with a shotgun if they saw him taking photographs).

It was never the nicest house to be honest, but I grew up there and I have a lot of fond memories of the place. I can still imagine the old gold Chevy Malibu parked out front on the grass, and the basketball hoop and horseshoe pit in the back yard.

He also drove past the old Crown Hotel, where he and I and my Dad used to work, and where Dom, Wayne and I stayed in 2000 for our 10 year reunion. It still looks pretty good, although it's no longer the 'Crown Hotel'. It's now a retirement home called 'Crown Court'. Well, at least they kept part of the name, guess it made sense. I wonder if they still have the replica crown jewels in there. Hmm.

Tasty fingers

Seren's discovered her hands recently and her favorite pastime seems to be ramming them in her mouth. I guess she was hungry or something...hmm.