Euan Semple's Blog, page 36

Off on another adventure

This photo of me was taken the last time my friend Edwin van de Bospoort and I met up in Scotland for some walking. He’s over from Holland next week and we’re meeting up again so, despite the grim weather forecast, I am heading north today and who knows what adventures are in store.

I am enjoying packing up the van and planning where I might stay. I got my copy of Brit Stops 2022 just in time and it was great fun looking through the options last night.

It works the same way France Passion does which we used a few years ago. Various businesses offer free overnight parking in the hope that you will buy something while you are there. The scheme features mostly pubs but also includes things like garden centres, farms, and vineyards.

From the photos on the related Facebook group we are going to have fun visiting new places this year and eating some nice meals!

Write for yourself

Interesting quote in the context of what happened to social media…

“Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self.”

​​Cyril Connolly [The New Statesman, February 25, 1933]

Life immitating art

I thought these shadows looked like some sort of animated modern artwork.

Journal nerdery

If, like me, you like journaling, pens, notebooks, and quantified self stuff then this long post by Dave Gauer will bring you a lot of joy.

Connie the campervan to the rescue

We had a power cut this afternoon and the poor mobile signal at home meant Penny was wondering how to take part in an important online meeting. So we drove to the nearest strong 4G signal in the van!

Alby making the most of the underfloor heating

Wasting life

It is so easy to waste time and energy projecting fears into the future. To build elaborate stories about things that will never happen and in doing so to miss the present moment.

For the sake of some made up stories we disrupt the peace and contentment that is our current experience.

It’s a fine line

I find violent films or TV series increasingly upsetting and troubling. Why write something that dwells on our darker side? Why show suffering in graphic detail?

I understand that we have a fascination with our inhumanity to our fellow man and there has always been a desire to poke at society’s open sores.

I understand the power of the violence in The Sopranos to make us face and deal with testosterone fuelled machismo and what we do with it when it surfaces.

But the sick series of deaths and the titillation of a manipulative story line in Trigger Point is on the other side, the wrong side, of that fine line.

What do you think?

The Electric Life Of Louis Wain

Wonderful film. And not just because one of the lead characters is the spitting image of Alby.

Windy weather

I love weather. I love being in all sorts of weather from lying on beaches in intense heat, to kicking steps in snow on mountains. I even love spending whole days in driving rain.

I am currently sitting in my office watching the predicted storm build up in front of me and can hear the dull roar as the wind pushes its way past the many trees that surround us. The sunlight is flashing through the gaps in the dark clouds as they hurlte across the sky. It is thrilling and part of me wants to be out in it.

But the one thing I am very wary of is high winds.

I have often hunkered behind rocks on mountains enjoying the perfect stillness as the grass only feet from me is battered flat. I have worn ski goggles as I stared down into corries with snow being driven vertically towards me like something out of Star Wars. I have skittered around on ice, desparately leaning in at what felt like forty five degrees into the teeth of winds gusting to 50mph.

But I have also seen a schoolboy picked up and thrown like a ragdoll across a hillside by a gusting wind on The Cuillin on Skye.

There is nothing quite like these sort of strong winds to make you feel powerless and insignificant in the grand scheme of things. That is a frightening and salutory lesson.

Be careful out there today.