Grant Hutchison's Blog, page 50

Levison Wood: Walking The Himalayas

“You come all this way to see the views and get out of breath? What a strange people you are.” This is the successor volume to Levison Wood‘s Walking The Nile, which recorded his journey on foot from the source of the Nile to the Mediterranean. It’s a companion to his TV series of the … Continue reading Levison Wood: Walking The Himalayas →

Sidlaws: Ballo Hills

Ballo Hill (NO 263351, 301m) Southballo Hill (NO 256348, 303m) Northballo Hill (NO 251352, 319m) Hill of Dores (NO 257360, 268m) 6.7 kilometres 273m ascent A shorter excursion this time—four hills tucked into the space between the roads at Ballo Glack and Tullybaccart. Mainly chosen because it was the first outing for a new pair … Continue reading Sidlaws: Ballo Hills →

Airfix 1/72 Sikorsky SH-3D Sea King

Go to first post of this build log So there’s another weird, reclusive model-builder featuring in Fringe, season 5, episode 11. But, hey, he’s helping to save the world, so that’s all good. Here’s a good view of how the canopy turned out, after the blue glass paint: Things have gone a little slowly since … Continue reading Airfix 1/72 Sikorsky SH-3D Sea King →

Floccinaucinihilipilification

ˌflɒksɪˌnɔːsɪˌnɪhɪlɪˌpɪlɪfɪˈkeɪʃən Floccinaucinihilipilification: The act of estimating as worthless Flocci, nauci, nihili, pili, assis, hujus, teruncii, his verbis, aestimo, pendo, facio, peculiariter adduntur. Eton Latin Grammar (1758) What the sentence above was telling generations of Etonians is that the verbs aestimo (“to value”), pendo (“to weigh or consider”) and facio (“to make”) take certain objects irregularly in … Continue reading Floccinaucinihilipilification →

Sidlaws: Kinpurney to Craigowl

Kinpurney Hill (NO 322417, 345m) Henderston Hill (NO 338414, 369m) Auchterhouse Hill (NO 354397, 424m) Balkello Hill (NO 361394, 397m) Craigowl (NO 376399, 455m) 19 kilometres 720 metres ascent Back in 1971, I walked this part of the Sidlaws with my late friend Brian. We got the bus to Newtyle, and hiked across to Charleston … Continue reading Sidlaws: Kinpurney to Craigowl →

Forgo

fɔəˈɡəʊ forgo: To abstain from, go without, deny oneself If that word looks a little odd to you, it’s perhaps because you’ve seen it written “forego” more often than “forgo”. But forego is a different word, meaning “to go before, or in advance of”. At a Burns Supper, a few may be tempted to forgo … Continue reading Forgo →

Graeme Dingle & Peter Hillary: First Across The Roof Of The World

We’ve been watching Levison Wood‘s Channel 4 documentary Walking the Himalayas. The Boon Companion and I had to fight down a wave of nostalgia during the second episode, having spent a happy couple of weeks in Kashmir back in the early 80s, albeit followed by a brief admission to an Infectious Diseases hospital for The … Continue reading Graeme Dingle & Peter Hillary: First Across The Roof Of The World →

New Year / Resolution

Christmas Day’s full moon made me decide to make my first post of the New Year about a resolution—specifically, the resolution of the human eye. (See what I did, there?) We’re so used to images of the full moon like the one above, it’s difficult to remember that, until the invention of the telescope in … Continue reading New Year / Resolution →

Biggles FRCA

Of the research I’ve done, and the opinion pieces I’ve had published during my professional life, only one article seems to have had any lasting impact. It’s Biggles FRCA. I wrote it on a whim one Sunday afternoon in 1998, and sent it off to a free magazine that was then being distributed to my … Continue reading Biggles FRCA →

Mike Loades: Swords and Swordsmen

This is a gorgeous book. Pen & Sword have done Mike Loades proud with the production values—it’s nicely laid out, beautifully illustrated, and has a deeply satisfactory heft to it. Even if you don’t recognize his name, Loades may be familiar to you if you watch the occasional historical documentary. I most recently caught sight … Continue reading Mike Loades: Swords and Swordsmen →