ramblings, rumblings & pictures

October 13, 2008

abeera

abeer gupta... student, fashionista, erstwhile e.p., traveller, bangali boy,
whose kind hospitality in his spare digs made my london stay possible...

seen here trying on vintage adidas jackets in a shop on portobello road.
much of my shopping in london happened under his able guidance
and much of the time we spent together was spent in trying on different jackets!

click on photo to see it larger.

October 12, 2008

portobello road

October 8, 2008

inverness

the loch ness or maybe its the river ness?

the bang on boogie band

some dubious street fashion

October 4, 2008

munro misadventure

a munro is a scottish mountain with a height of over 3000 ft. a very anal person, sir hugh munro, first compiled a catalogue of all these hills in 1891. there are 283 munros in scotland. 'munro-baggers' refers to people who try to climb all of them so they can tick them off on their list. though the objects of their foibles vary, people are the same everywhere! since i like ticking things off on lists and i like climbing i decided i must climb at least one munro since i was in scotland. as it turned out....

....this was a minor misadventure. i set out to climb the munro stob coire raineach. i had no map or compass, went off trail and reached a ridge which had a line of little peaks. walking up and down the ridge i reached the base of the highest of these peaks imagining it was the munro when the mist came in and i couldn't see 5 metres in front of my nose. much panic, prompt about turn and a desperate hunt for a banana peel which marked the place where i had reached the ridge ensued. banana peel found i slid all the way down on my backside. the jeans i was wearing were abandoned at the youth hostel.

later consultations with experienced munro climber, stuart mackenzie (see earlier post), revealed that i had reached the ridge of beinn fhada and though i had reached a point higher than stob coire raineach i still hadn't made it to the top of the munro on that ridge... stob coire sgreamaich. so inspite of my best efforts my munro count remains 0. the list remains unticked.

on the summit / pap of glen coe

where u are high enough to see the planes flying below u!
absolutely stunning views of glen coe and the lochs

October 2, 2008

self portrait, 13aug08

September 28, 2008

oban syha

the scottish youth hostels are a budget traveller's dream. fantastic locations, great staff.
you can book online or on the telephone. http://www.syha.org.uk

September 27, 2008

scottish horse!

September 24, 2008

islay rooftops

September 23, 2008

bruichladdich distillery

the bruichladdich distillery on the isle of islay... one of the few "independent" distilleries in scotland. which means that its still owned by a bunch of scots. most of the distilleries in scotland are owned by multinational f&b conglomerates. for example, the italian giant DIAGEO owns the caol ila, cardhu, clynelish, cragganmore, dalwhinnie, glen elgin, glen ord, glenkinchie, knockando, lagavulin, oban, royal lochnager, and talisker distilleries... all famous for their single malts!!

so the bruichladdich is the source of much local pride! the "we're not like them, we do our own thing" syndrome. which, admittedly they do. they are forever trying new expressions of whiskey.