So, have just come back from an awesome week of adventure up in the Highlands. Quite a journey from the valleys to the highlands! Especially at these petrol prices…

Had a few days of adventure planned with some good people, Angus n Rachel, Carrie n Nathan. Managed some biking and some walking around Inverness, and an amazing canoe/camping/hill walking trip to Knoydart.

Loaded down with kit and dog, me n the big man (Angus, not God), canoed in from Kinloch Hourn to Barrisdale Bay, where we set up camp before popping up Ladhar Bheinn. At 1020m, it’s not exactly like getting milk from the Spar. The canoe was a slog, the tide and wind seemed to always want a fight!

Climbing a Munro isn’t the easiest of pastimes, but starting an ascent after 6pm and after a few miles paddling didn’t improve the situation. The first part of the climb is pretty straightforward, but there is a section of 250m ascent at about 350m which is just a killer. I think I was over heating and my dodgy knee was giving me jip, but the mental battle was waging war. Turn round, stop here, you’ll never make it… the big man was marching away in front, the unstopable tank like force, but then a change happened. I asked to borrow a pole. Not a helpful worker from Poland but the carbon fibre type. What a difference. Maybe now that makes me old, but it helped so much.

Starting out at 6pm means you are a bit pushed for time on the descent! We managed to chase the sun down from the summit (it won), thank goodness for head torches…

Never has rice, tuna and corn tasted so good. The canoe back once more proved a bit of a slog, with tide and wind working against us, and a weather front threatening to ruin our day… more photos can be found here. Please leave a comment on your favourite!

North Wales offers loads of good stuff for those visiting. We were around Wrexham and also popped into Liverpool.

Nant Mill is a great place to go and chill by the river.

Speke Hall offers those little people who are obsessed with planes a great view of Liverpool airport, sorry John Lennon airport!

We also paid a little visit to The Bryn Howel Hotel, for a surprise x0th party for the Mother. A load of her friends and family had gathered secretly and somehow, just somehow, we managed to make it a surprise. Much fun and cake were had by all… photos up on flickr soon.

Coed Llandegla Forest offers a great place to walk or mountain bike. Blue, Red and Black trails offer a challenge for the committed and those who need to be… Mountain Biking Wales has links to loads of other gret centres around the North, so go do it!

New season has kicked off, with Irn-Bru Division 1 promising to be one of the most competitive divisions out there… anyone can beat anyone on their day…

Fergie still hasn’t bought a striker? Spurs seem to be buying anyone they can… but here’s hoping Gunter and Bale get a decent shot at it… Sparky has gone to City, hopefully he’ll take a few of his taffy pals with him!

In other news, The Profitable Group and Indian Firm Reliance Communications have both denied any interest in Newcastle United. Profitable and Reliance are not usually terms used in connection with Newcastle United!

… or summat… see what I did there? Not really that inspired by The Fringe or The Edge or The Side or whatever it is called… I’m sure there must be a wee gem tucked away there somewhere but nothing that jumps out… perhaps I am ignorant once more…

There seems to be some decent big names at the Festival, Bill Bailey being a highlight for me. Any recommend any serious chuckles?

Glastonbury came and went… perhaps because of Andy Murray it didn’t get the usual hype? Elbow looked fantastic and Band of Horses proved to be the ultimate in red-neck rock… but is it all an act?

So Spain were worthy winners in the end. They were the only consistent team and fully deserved their victory. I had thought that Germany would grind out a victory in their own unique style but they too seemed to fall to the inability to string two good performances together syndrome that struck all other teams.

The only issue with Spain’s victory was commentators jumping on the premiership player bandwagon, trying to make out that since they play in Ingerland, it’s almost as if Ingerland have won it! Two of the most talked about, Torres and Ronaldo had surprisingly poor performances, neither being as bad Luca-please make the goals bigger-Toni. Fergie should get silly money for Ronaldo and invest in both German wide players, a striker and a decent right back! He’d probably still have change too…

Overall a decent tournament. None of the home nations were missed, as the commentators liked to imply. The stadium could have held another 10k, but realistically which Swiss or Austrian league side needs a 40,000 seater?

Now for July…. what to do? The Intertoto really isn’t that interesting… when does the season start again?

Nice to see the teams who played the best football top their groups. The Dutch especially have been outstanding, with Croatia also superb. Italy and Germany have sneaked through and I have a suspicion that they might just keep going… hope not, but they tend to do that!

Wales and Scotland are looking at making sure they reach the finals – by hosting it! How good would that be… with Scotland even trying to steal the next lot of Ukraine/Poland, if they don’t get round to being ready!

After the first round of matches, it seems that the big guns are firing on all cylinders… well most of them…

Germany, Netherlands and Spain all look good. It’s great to see the teams who have attacked reap the rewards. Russia, like in 2004, looked totally out of their depth… Sweden and Portugal also played to their respective strengths… a decent championship so far…

Would like to see the stadium for a Sweden v Netherlands game… nice and bright.

Once again the match is not the highlight, or main draw, of the trip. A fair game, very end of season, friendly in the sun. Lethargy on the pitch and in the stands. Drinking in the park, just happened to be a game on at the same time! The Dutch fans are well up for it though. Never seen so much orange, head to toe, wigs, clogs, pants, face paint… a very friendly, hospitable, fun place. Lots of bars, lots of chat, laughter…

Rotterdam was actually a decent place. Well set up fan zones in the centre. Very much a business city, being the biggest port in the world, but some good sites and basically taken over by orange!

We decided to escape Little Britain, i.e. Amsterdam, for Haarlem. It is only 15 or so minutes away on the very efficient, punctual, frequent Dutch train; but it is also worlds away from Amsterdam. It is pretty quiet, small and picturesque. A town with quite a few bars round a central market square. There’s a distinct lack of stag parties, which was excellent, and the locals knew how to enjoy themselves…

Amsterdam is a great city too. It is beautiful. If you can avoid or remove the stag parties, it would be even better. Guess that what happens when you have a good place with the particular draws it has.

It is a bit like Groundhog Day though – walking over a canal bridge as a tour boat cruises beneath; a lamp shop on the corner of the street! Being flat, everyone cycles. At stations and in the centre there are fields of bikes, racked up. Probably more bikes than there are legs to peddle them.

Holland is a good place. I like it. Everything just seems to work, and work well. Like a Honda advert! Efficient and quality, just darn good.

Oh, the Dutch won 2-0, through a mistake by Brother Phils favourite player Carl Robinson and then what looked like a really soft free kick… Being as we had 5 or 6 first team players missing and the average of our team was 14, thought we did well…

Ah, end of season… but wait the BBC are here to cheer up our summer… chants of the year and the like can be read here… including such classics as:

“You should have banked with The Woolwich!”
Derby fans to Northern Rock-sponsored Newcastle.

if you want to make the Euros more interesting, enter my compo, leave me a message or email it to me. rich at olyott dot co dot uk.

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I was at a not too busy Barrowlands on Friday night to watch the splendid Guillemots. Note I didn’t say listen to! That’s my moan here. This was probably the worst audience I have been part of … can I call them fans? A crowd?

Glasgow gigs can be notoriously bad for people talking through the music, this was the worst ever. A combination of the venue and of the band crossing over from the uber cool undercover indie seen to the mainstream charts, drew a crowd of music lovers, fans and randoms…

As a band they were immense. Fyfe Dangerfield (the best name ever for a frontman) is a superb musician with an awesome voice. I became captivated (like most [males]) with Arista during her performance of the there’s something strange about the way you say you’re sorry over and over again… song!

I’m also trying to listen to the new Death Cab album. So far it’s formed the backdrop to endless national assessment marking, but it seems to be very Death Cab with much more less single friendly sounds…

*(can i use your image lovely flickr person?)