Monday 20 August 2018

In Denmark in the war against the machines.






          I travelled to see my nephew Liam and nephew Neil with their families in Trige, Denmark. You have to get to Copenhagen and then get on a train to Aarhus, and it's decades since I travelled on my own. It's not the travelling that bothers me. Not at all. It's the machines.

           I was in the queue at the bank when the woman told me I didn't have to inform the bank that I was going abroad. This reminded me of  Poisonous telling me the cards worked in Ecuador. Well, after trying many banks, yes, the cards worked. So when I got off the plane in Denmark, I tried the first machine and it said bugger off. Well, I'd taken £300 out in Scotland and that's why it probably didn't work, but I was not surprised.

          Getting the ticket for the train was okay and this Danish machine was really user friendly and even I had not trouble with that machine. On the way back, it took me four goes to get the self service check-in to work. Trouble scanning the passport. But a wee boy helped me with that and it finally worked. Then the automatic passport control couldn't scan my passport either, and that took five minutes more than it should have.

           All the time I'm coming home, I'm thinking that I really don't want to go to India this November. I'm booked to fly to Heathrow from Brussels after flying from India. Nightmare.  Hopefully,  by the autumn I'll have forgotten how horrible air travel is.

           What I saw and heard about Denmark left a very good impression. Same population as Scotland, but no foodbanks and no beggars in the streets. The social services are apparently excellent. My nephew's daughter was doing hatha yoga out the back garden. She gets taught it in primary school. Makes one wonder why Scotland can't be just like that.

            The first photie is of a cabin where I slept. Perfect spot for meditating. Windows, heater and bed. What more could a meditater ask for?

Tuesday 14 August 2018

Treading water.










          Last weekend we were out on Saturday, and went to see Craignethan Castle as well as stopping at a very dry looking reservoir on the Lang Whang. We also went to a glen somewhere, one of the Woodland Trust places that Heather somehow manages to find scattered here and there. The bottom photie might was taken to show the drop into the gorge, but it doesn't look so good. One of the photies is of the view I tend to have when I waken up at the weekend.

         The Festival has been on for a couple of weeks, but I haven't noticed it yet.

       

       

Saturday 4 August 2018

Arthur's Seat and Rain Bomb







                    I read about rain bombs. This is like a tropical storm, maybe the kind you get in West Australia, which happens after a hot spell. Well, I was waiting for the bus on Thursday around five o clock when the heavens opened for about fifteen minutes.

                   Today we were up Arthur's seat. The sky was very interesting. I lay flat on the grass and looked up for a while. This is a kind of Nyingma meditation, I think, though I suspect that's really for starry nights.  Mind like space.