Caro Ramsay's Blog, page 3

The friendly games, the friendly city

On Friday night  we took a brief tour on foot of my home town. And very proud I was too. The friendly city for the friendly games. This is Glasgow, with its best pants on!


The train on the way in, sunshine over the Clyde
A deserted street, no traffic!
Outdoor eating!


Buchanan Precinct, busy with street theatre
Bring it on. Indeed!
He sat very carefully, knees together
These are the beautiful but effective anti terrorism barricades over entrances to stations etc.
And if you get lost, just follow the lines
In George Sq now, a disrespectful pigeon 
James Watt,  the steam engine man
paramedics on bikes, a Glasgow cop
We are here, in the big G
George Sq ticket centre
The queue for this bus was round the block
Robert Peel ( we are fond of our statues!)
George Sq looking at the City Chambers
The Hotel where I do all my interviews! It's right next to Queen St station where the Edinburgh train comes in.
Just to remind you! It's an offence in public.
George Sq looking NE, this was where they filmed World War Z.This building was American for a fortnight.
A bottle of Buckie..... an empty bottle of Buckie(an alcoholic delicacy....) 


The Cenotaph



There were loads of these....
And these


Burns!
The big G
The shop had loads of these left
But few of these
The slightly 'faster than the bike' response squad
Clyde the mascot
Street Theatre
interested spectator
uninterested spectator
Glasgow Central, bedecked in the Commonwealth colours
Going home
Caro

The Commonwealth Of Nations!!

In less than a fortnight’s time Glasgow welcomes the Commonwealth Games. They were formally called the ‘British Empire Games’, then the British Empire and Commonwealth Games and then the British Commonwealth Games but it dropped the British bit in 1978 to become just The Commonwealth Games.I hope you followed that!
71 teams are participating. Six countries have been at every games - Australia, Canada, England, New Zealand, Scotland, and Wales. Australia have the best record so far.

Reading Wikipedia about the games and their history is well… history. Here are some highlights -“Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe competed from 1958–1962 as part of Rhodesia and Nyasaland.  Malaya, North Borneo, Sarawak and Singapore federated as Malaysia in 1963, then Singapore left in 1965. Newfoundland joined Canada in 1949. Ascension Island and Tristan da Cunha were dependencies of Saint Helena, so the territory was officially called "Saint Helena and Dependencies" until 2009. Saint Helena, Ascension Island and Tristan da Cunha became equal parts of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha in 2009. Western Samoa was renamed Samoa in 1997. Zanzibar and Tanganyika federated to form Tanzania in 1964. Zimbabwe withdrew from the Commonwealth in 2003.”
I hope you got that.

Others eligible include Christmas Island and the Cocos (Keeling) Islands (territories of Australia), Nevis (a federal entity of the Federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis), Rodrigues (outer islands of Mauritius), and Zanzibar (a semi-autonomous part of Tanzania).

And Cornwall are now arguing that they should have separate representation.  The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus and south Sudan have now made applications to send teams. The Pitcairn Islands' are discriminated against due to their tiny population- about 54. Lack of permanent population seems to prevent South Georgia, South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory, the New Zealand territory of Ross Dependency and the Australian external territories of Australian Antarctic Territory, Ashmore and Cartier Islands, Coral Sea Islands and Heard Island and McDonald Islands from competing.                                      
                                                            Nauru

But then Nauruan weightlifter Marcus Stephen who won twelve medals between 1990 and 2002 ( 7 golds) ended up being elected President of Nauru in 2007. Nauru is the smallest independent state in the Commonwealth, 21 sq k yet it is 19th on the all-time Commonwealth Games medal table.                                      
                                                         I had to look it up

This week, the outfit to be worn by the Scottish athletes was unveiled. They shouldn’t have bothered. The first medal to be awarded is for the worst outfit. Scotland and Australia are battling it out – we are winning.It is awful.
This is Australia's and ours is much worse..
                                 

The blue shirt has white speckles on it which looks as though a pigeon with a bowel issue has flown overhead. The tartan is supposed to represent heather at dusk, I presume this is a woman called heather, not the plant, and that heather is suffering from  homeochromocytosis. And the colour of the socks? Wit? Scottish sports presenter Dougie Donnelly said: “Team_Scotland Seriously ? The team are going OUT like that ? !!”Others have commented the miracle of inventing a colour that clashes with itself.Others speculate that Chris Hoy got wind of it and retired.“Somewhere in Aucherader a tea room is missing its curtains," wrote Stephen Daisley at STV. "The shirts and dresses are not blue, not quite lapis lazuli, but the psycho-cerulean hue of a particularly vivid Smurfs doll. The kilts and shawls carry an amber, fuchsia, and aquamarine tartan, a curious mixture of the psychedelic and the twee. This is what the Sixties must have looked like in Ecclefechan."People have described it as  "humiliating", "embarrassing" and "truly horrific "wrong on so many levels" and "the worst kit ever".I liked the comment that ‘those Scotland uniforms look like something from the Eurovision Song Contest-1980.’ Simon Ricketts said ‘They look like they're in a fancy dress episode of a Spanish soap opera.’                                 
We say that Irn Bru is made from girders.The new uniform, is made from curtains.
All getting a bit plaid out!  So I had better show you, don't say you were not warned...
                               
It is officially described as a  vibrant blue shirt  with a  pink, caramel and blue tartan kilt for men. The women  are just as bad- a blue wraparound dress with a tartan shawl. The uniform for women was made complete with a stone-coloured leather bag.  The bag might serve the same purpose as the wee bag you find in the netted compartment of the seat in front of you on a long and bumpy flight. Rugby 7s player Lee Jones described the outfit as “very comfortable and eye-catching”.Is that the rugby seven’s for the visually impaired… The designer Jilli Blackwood , a  graduate of Glasgow School of Art said: “There will be no mistaking that this is the Scottish Team as they proudly step out at the opening ceremony.”Indeed.

However the games have given us great moments
                                       

The 'Miracle Mile' in Vancouver 1954  England’s Roger Bannister and Australia’s John Landy.  The only two sub-four-minute milers in history at the time. They were under the four minute barrier again, Bannister won by a narrow margin. He said that last lap was ‘one of most intense and exciting moments of my life.’

                               
                                  And that famous piece of film of Jim Peters collapsing in the marathon, same year. He had lead by three miles earlier in the race, pushing himself to heat exhaustion and then collapsed time and again. Eventually his masseur  managed to hold onto him and stop him mid stagger 200 yards short of the finish.He had actually covered the marathon distance, the course was later measured at 27 miles!

                         

                           
                              And in Christchurch 1974, that famous 1,500m. maybe the greatest  ever at that distance.  Filbert Bayi  ran three minutes, 32.16 seconds. He was 12 metres clear at the halfway stage, however on the last lap local stars Rod Dixon and John Walker – the two black shadows   closed down forcing him to kick away.  Nearly everybody who crossed the line that day broke a record of some sort, it was so fast.

 


In Edmonton 1978, the  17 year old Clones Cyclone ‘Barry McGuigan boxed to victory in the bantamweight class, aged just 17. He  could not stop crying as he received his medal.


                            

Edmonton 1978 I have no idea why my granddad was a fan of ‘Precious McKenzie’ but he was.   The queen was too!She was late for an official function because she wanted  to witness him get his third gold medal for weight lifting. He was only 4' 9".




                      

And the dead heat? Allan Wells and Mike McFarlane tying in the 200m, Brisbane 1982. Not an inch between them, it remains the only time a dead-heat for a gold medal has been ratified in a major championship.


                             

In Kuala Lumpur 1998 a 15 year old swimmer called Ian Thorpe won four gold medals! The Australian coach famously said  “You can't believe he's 15. It's genetics gone bloody crazy!”
I am not too chuffed at the games, the road race cycling coincides with my book launch. Crime writers in lyrca? Anybody?Caro      

The Beasts from the East

Just to let you know that the righteous prevailed and the Best from the west beat the beasts from the east 460 points to 310 last night...
Loser!!!
The sexiest Man in crime fiction
He claimed to be bi-coastal


Matt Of the Magical Mic
                                                    Claimed he had culture.  Should have seen his shirt...


                                           The totally unbiased ref, Craig who was on our side

Methinks there might be a rematch in the making.
Like that will make a difference.
Admit it you soft east coasters - you were outclassed, out witted and out of your depth.


Caro fae Govan - full of west coast charm or I'll chib ye.

And before the fabulous Partners in crime event on Sunday...

And before the fabulous Partners in crime event on Sunday, we are having the great debate of crime writers- The best in the west versus the beasts from the east.....
We are  going to win of course....
Waterstone's Arygll Street, 7pm......Friday 27th....
At the last event we even had sparkly wine...

You are warned.......

You are warned.......

Event- What Drives The Story

What Drives the StoryWed 18th June, Sauchiehall St, 6.30pm
A panel event with Caro Ramsay, Sara Sheridan, Will Jordan and Nicola White that will look at character/setting/plot and which of these elements drives each author.

A free event in Waterstone's !   But they need numbers - we might even get a wee refreshment!
It should be a good one. 

Caro

Calgary

At Crimefest three years ago I was asked to do the Forgotten Authors panel. I had no hesitation in choosing Desmond Bagley and Duncan Kyle (whose Granddaughter emailed me after the event just to say it was nice to know that her Granddad's work was still being enjoyed by a new generation).
Both were natural choices for me, they had written the books I had grown up with. I went from Enid Blyton ( Famous Five. Not the Secret Seven – they were for  wimps) to Agatha Christie to Desmond Bagley/ Duncan Kyle. Much to my English teachers’ dismay I never read a classic and was only ever really interested in Shakespeare when he got round to murdering somebody – none of that Romeo Romeo stuff.
The books of Desmond Bagley made a huge impact on me, taking me to places in my head that I thought I would never see. I can still quote facts from Bagley’s books. England can fit into Canada over 40 times. And  7 and a bit times into British Columbia. That was from the book Landslide set in BC. where the hero Boyd has lost his memory but still strides around and ‘Puts things right!’
                                                                                             A friendly Calgarian

                                                                                     Downtown  So I was very excited to go to Calgary – which I know is in Alberta not BC but I’m not letting facts spoil this blog.Calgary, called after Calgary on the the Isle of Mull. Everywhere is very ‘Scottish’ in Alberta. I saw this in the Glenbow Museum.
                                          
                                                                                So Bagpipes are an instrument of war.                                      (The noise has driven many to violence.)
 Most of the  suburbs are also Scottish  places; Strathmore  Springbank and this place must be fantastic…                                  
I think Bearspaw and Okotoks might have more traditional roots though..
There are 1 million citizens with 200 ethic origins in Calgary. Scots being the most common claimed ancestry. But then they would tell me that, wouldn’t they.
                                
Calgary itself is now in the top ten of travel hotspots according to one British newspaper. It lies snugly into the confluence of the Bow River and the Elbow River on the edge of the  prairie and just before the Rockies start.                                                                                                         The ducks were getting the shade,                                           the crime writer was getting the sun.
Calgarians are very pleasant, friendly folk. I always go by dog walkers in the park. If they talk to you and have the dog on the ground, it is a good place. If they don’t say hello and have their dog in a handbag – move on. They are also very politically correct. What I would call, in my ignorance ‘Native Canadians’ they call ‘First Nations.’. Usually Blackfoot, Blood, Peigan and the Tsuu T'ina in the region around Calgary.
In Alberta and the adjoining part of British Columbia there was a population  of around 100 000 in 1890. In the next ten years that  figure increased by over 70%. Not all of that was egalitarian and the Chinese immigrants suffered more than most. This  statue is surrounded by plaques donated by Chinese families 'In memory of...' Their story is very much that of the rail road, exhaustion and exploitation.                                                                    
  In Calgary itself many migrated from the UK and Italy, attracted by the offer of free "homestead" land. That  established the pre oil economy of the area and of course, the Calgary Stampede. The Stampede itself attracts over 2 million visitors and another million on top of that are now visiting Calgary then going up to Banff, Lake Louise and Canmore as we did, on the Rocky Mountaineer.
                                                                                         some Calgarian artwork                                  
                                                                    the damming and re direction of some flood waters is ongoing
Calgary is still showing the scars of the terrible flooding on June 21st 2013 when both rivers burst their banks and over 75 000 people were evacuated. At the Zoo, they have signs up showing how close the water came to endangering the animals,just a few linear feet.

                                                                Much as I respect them, I don't think this timberwolf                             would be too pleased if he had to be relocated                              on a dark stormy night because of rising flood water.
The zoo houses the infamously cuddly looking bear 16. He was attracted to the bins and food waste of a Calgary suburb- probably because some doity thinking citizen thought it was good to put food out for the 'nice grizzly'. Not matter what they did, bear 16 came back to his own wee picnic area, scaring the wits out of everyone. He was darted, relocated, relocated again, then taken miles away and set free. Peace reigned for a few months until his natural sat nav kicked in and he wondered back into his home town again.  He was going to have to be shot. But public outcry got him a place in the zoo where he will live his life in captivity just because somebody thought he was cute. As the guide book said, they look cuddly but have no wish to be cuddled.                                                                                 Calgary at rush hour. 8AM.
                                                                        The eating plaza of the skywalk
The city has a extensive skyway network, called the plus 15 as they are 15 feet above the ground. Great for avoiding the traffic but very confusing for homosapiens scoticus without a grizzly bear sat nav.
                             

                              Scotiabank Saddledome in the distance with the stampede ground beyond. Taken from the Calgary Tower. Without looking down
Calgary has a low crime rate. Unfortunately the worst of its murder history is very recent.  On April 15th this year a young man stabbed five people to death at an end of school house party in the Brentwood area. The suspect, Matthew de Grood has been found mentally fit to stand trial and he remains in the secure psychiatric  facility. By all accounts de Grood was a nice lad, he attended the University of Calgary planning on doing law.  He was the son of a respected city police officer. It seems both his parents and friends had noticed a change in his behaviour in the weeks leading up to the murders and he had began posting more and more bizarre updates on his Facebook page.As we flew home reports were coming in of a similar type of killing near Santa Barbara, another 22 year old man, seven victims in all.

But to end this blog on a cheery note, here is a wild female sheep with her week old sheeplets.  Do you know what the sequel to Silence of the Lambs was going to be called?  Shut up Ewes!


 Caro Ramsay (Temporary Canadian)

It's no joke

Yesterday a strange thing happened.  Something appeared in the sky.This…….
                                 

It went away again quite quickly.  Anybody any ideas?It was 3 degrees this morning but we live in hope of  a return at some point before Christmas.
Then I realised that the first of May is here and that means there is a deadline approaching faster than the proverbial speeding bullet.
                                         
So the writing bit of the blog is brief, but to make up there are some fabby photies  from the Scottish Avalanche Information Service. They published the final forecast of the season – the season being December to mid April – last week.                                        

As you would expect they assess the risk of snow slides in six areas of the highlands for skiers, climbers and hill walkers. There was a record number of avalanches this year.  350 recorded but a few sneaky ones might have been on a slippery slope when no one was watching. or should that be listening?

                                                                                            Before the jaggy bit falls off....
                                                                                        And after....
 The higher incidence of snow slides was due to  long periods of stormy weather  with high temperature spikes.  We noticed the stormy weather here on ground level but the temperature spikes passed us by. The wind was so strong at times in Lochaber that steams of water could be seen going uphill.
                                  
Unusually for Scotland the large amount of snow accumulated led to far travelling avalanches. Mercifully there were no deaths on the mountains this year, after a record number of fatalities the year before. The absence of any fatalities suggests that climbers, skiers, snow boarders and walkers have paid greater attention  to the weather and been careful about what day to go to the hills. It might be frustrating but at least it is safe.
                                   

                                   
The six areas monitored by the SSIS are Creag Meagaidh, Glencoe, Lochaber, Northern Cairngorms, Southern Cairngorms and this year Torridon was added on a trial basis.

                                


This is Stanley, caught  in spindrift in the  Northern Cairngorms.  It only took 15 minutes to bury him to this extent and to give Jeff an opperchancity for some 'dog gone' jokes.  He is an avalanche dog  and was probably really enjoying himself. Probably.
Here are Chester, Bode and Stanley doing their stuff




You wouldn't get Mathilda doing that!Caro Ramsay 

The Island's of Loch Lomond

An island map
Oh, ye'll tak' the high road, and I'll tak' the low road,And I'll be in Scotland afore ye;But me and my true love will never meet againOn the bonnie, bonnie banks o' Loch Lomond.
The words of a very famous song, the identity of the author is long lost in the mist of time. As is its meaning.It might have been written by a soldier, waiting for death at the hands of the enemy.Or more popular is the version that it was written by a soldier returning north after the defeat of Bonnie Prince Charlie’s troops in the 1745 rebellion. Or it could refer to the Celtic belief that if you die away from home, the faeries will take you back via the 'low road', some kind of transport friendly underworld. Or it be that the high road means ‘hanging by the neck until dead’, the low road means ‘by foot’ i.e. the faithful will get home before the traitor.

The banks of Loch Lomond are indeed bonnie. The loch has many islands, about 60 in low water and about 20 at high water. With that lot on a loch 18 miles long and 4 miles wide you’d think I’d find one suitable for my new book.
But alas not, so I invented one.
The islands are dotted with religious buildings, follies, old ruins and castles and in my case, some dead bodies. There are also a fair amount of crannogs (also found in Scandanavia) where ancient types also had difficulty finding an island to suit them so they built some. Probably some ancestor of Ikea.  One upright stake sunk deep into the loch bed, then stones piled round it until it breaks the surface and hey presto - your own island. They were used as homes, status symbols, refuges, hunting and fishing stations. They date back 5000 years, some of them were still in use in the mid 1700s.
                                    
                         A member of the Moray Club took this picture, he blinked and the deer was gone.

As well as the famous wallabies, there are white deer that swim the loch looking very ghostly and rather magnificent.
Here’s a run through of the islands - 
Bucinch (island of goats)Has no goats.   
ClairinchUsed to be owned by the Earl of Lennox. In 1225 he gave it to his clerk ( a Buchanan ) for an annual rent of a pound of wax. The Buchanan’s became a very powerful family from this small start. This island has it’s own wee crannog, Keppinch or The Kitchen.
Ellanderroch (island of Oaks)Has oaks.  Very big ones, for a small island.  One oak was weakened by a big hollow in the trunk so the locals filled it with concrete. It was then struck by lightning leaving only the concrete. The loch has many squalls and this is the Island the fisherman head for safety.
Fraoch Island (Heather island)Covered in heather. Only 150 metres long and  12 metres high.  Has little soil to it dries quickly and autumn appears here a month before anywhere else on the loch. A 1792 map shows  the island as a prison. It is also said to have been used as a deposition site for nagging wives.

                                 
 Inchcailloch The island of the womanThe woman being St Kentigerna.  This is the most accessible of Loch Lomond’s islands. In the 13th century a church was built in her memory and the Buchanan family used to row across  for their  Sunday worship. The church was abandoned in 1670  but the graveyard was used until  1947.

                              
Inchconnachan (Colquhoun's Island)Although no real evidence of occupation remains, there are signs of a grain drying kiln and rumours abound of an illicit still closeby. This is the island of the walllabys. Rarely seen but the place is covered in their droppings seemingly. Or are the sightings of Australian wildlife and the production illegal hooch somehow related....

                                         
Inchcruin (Round Island)Inchcruin  has a couple of sandy beaches but is mostly rocky.  At low tide it touches Inchmoan island at a strait called  ‘the geggles’. Previous owners kept a ex-US army truck on the island. Handy as there are no roads.                                          Inchfad (the Long Island.)Boasts its own  canal. The canal gave access to a (legal ) distillery on the island. The grass is rich here and is thought to sustain the white deer.
InchgalbraithMiniscule. About 25 feet high. Probably an overgrown  crannog.  The surface is covered by the remains of a castle built by the Galbraiths of Glen Fruin.
Inchlonaig (Yew tree Island)Has Yew Trees! They were planted by Robert The Bruce. His army used up all the previous ones, using the yew for the bows of his archers
                          .Inchmoan (peat island)Locals used this island as a source of peat obviously. Has some splendid ruins.  Swimming here is relatively safe ( but never warm), but the interior is impassible due to  gorse and rhodedendrons.
                               
Inchmurrin (St Murrin's island)The largest island,  1½ miles long, 300 ft high. St Mirren, the saint not the football team, is said to have had a chapel here but no remains have ever been found. Inchmurrin was renowned for its whisky until the exciseman got a boat and put a stop to all the fun.
                                  
Inchtavannach (Island of Monks)Monks, not monkeys. ( some people have misheard it)   At Ton-Na-Clag  the monks used to toll their bells to call the faithful to worship.

Isle of Inveruglass'Island of the Black Stream', the Clan MacFarlane had a nice castle on the east side. Oliver Cromwell destroyed it.
Tarbet Isle (Isle of the Portage)Tarbert is a Gaelic word  meaning, literally  'to carry over' or 'portage'. Here it refers to boats being dragged over a narrow strip of land. In this case the land lies between the north ends of Loch Long and Loch Lomond where the Viking King Haakon's men dragged their longboats across to get access to Loch Lomond  where they  caused havoc.  Sweet justice was forthcoming  as they lost ten ships in a storm on Loch Fyne, as they sailed to join Haakon’s fleet at the Battle of Largs.
The loch and its islands are in the top ten of the greatest natural wonders in Britain.
English  writer, H.V. Morton wrote:What a large part of Loch Lomond's beauty is due to its islands, those beautiful green tangled islands, that lie like jewels upon on its surface.
I'm away now to design my own island, with an illegal still, monkeys, duck billed platypuses and ....sunshine
                Caro Ramsay 

The Writing Process Blog Chain

Here is my take on the writing process blog chain that is going around. Next week it will Frank Muir, the witty and wondrous crime writer, known in crime writing circles as Fruitie Frankie due to his contribution to the Killer Cookbook.  www.frankmuir.co.uk  is his website. It will be interesting to see what he has to say.But for the moment, here's my contribution.                                      
1)     What am I working on?At the moment I am completing the first draft of book six while sorting out some publicity for book five, The Night Hunter which is being published on the 31st of July. While walking the dog book seven is swirling round my head in some kind of confused state but if I leave it long enough it will sort itself out.               2)     How does my work differ from others of its genre?I don’t think it does, crime writing is very much Ronseal writing – it kinda does what it says on the tin. Although I am definitely moving from being a writer of police procedurals to being a thriller writer. So expect dead bodies, thrills and spills liberally dosed with dark Glaswegian humour.                                             3)     Why do I write what I do? If I didn’t write a book about murdering people I would probably be a murderer. Its very cathartic. That’s why most crime writers are nice people with a good sense of humour we get all our badness out on paper.                                                     
4)     How does my writing process work? I made the decision early on in my writing career to keep the day job so I don’t really have any time in my writing life to sit and wait for the muse to strike me. I just batter out words! I scribble out a plan on a page of A4 paper then I write 100,000 words then edit that twice. If I have time I will leave it for a while in between so that when the second edit comes I approach it fresh. I also eat a lot of chocolate.                                               
A lot. Here's a picture of Frank to keep you going until next week. No doubt he will keep us in touch with what is happening in the Andy Gilchrist series set in Bonnie St Andrews. Frank spends a lot of his time there - in the pub, researching.... or that it what he tells me!                                
Caro 14 04 2014