We'll see where the wind takes me

Out my usual midweek walk tonight and thankfully the rain stayed off. There are some sights you see on the road walking past minding your own business. Take the well over middle aged lady with her lycra outfit and coordinating red trainers and sunglasses combo. That would be fine but in women of a certain age lycra is not a good look. Don't get me wrong she looks good for her age (I imagine late 40's, early 50's) but the bleach blonde hair doesn't suit her. Then there's the pensioners in the Allan Water Cafe getting their fish tea's. 5.30pm on the dot. I bet they've been doing that for years. There's the commuters getting off the train at Bridge of Allan not giving you a second glance because aye what's on their iPod's is much more interesting than being friendly and saying hi! Don't bother then.

Aye I like wandering along watching the people and the world go by - people watching. It's the me time where I get away from the usual surroundings of work, home and even friends and family. Company would be good but you know what sometimes it's just nice to be out, on your own, with your own company and your own thoughts. You get the peace to think things through, and it's where I get some inspiration for certain things. And also I love taking pictures of things but since I've taken a lot quite recently of this same walk there's nothing really fresh or new to take so I'm leaving it for a week and I'll see if there's any new flowers blooming to capture or if the view changes next week.

Not sure if I should be admitting this too but... I find myself wandering along writing new blog posts or cool wee stories in my head, then when I get home I try to remember them so I can reproduce them with the same vibrancy and clarity that they came to me in. I must get inspiration from being outdoors. I've a fair few wee bits and bobs of half finished tales stored here on the 'puter but they'll likely never see the light of day - one has though! However the blog posts often appear here. I decided a few weeks ago that I'd buy a new wee notebook to take outdoors with me, whether it be visiting new places or walking on the hills. I found a couple of leather CIAK & Cartesio notebooks online here and chose the yellow and blue ones. They're small enough to take with me on the hills (and not that heavy either!) so that I can jot down my thoughts, wee stories or even draw nice pictures of the scenery that might inspire me. I got a plain notebook and a couple of lined ones. I was going to stick with the Moleskine notebooks but opted for the more colourful ones that were on offer.

I still have my large Moleksine book I took on the trek and it now holds all of the little mementos I picked up on that journey - Yeti airlines sweet wrappers & boarding passes, Gulf Air baggage tickets and not forgetting the little cards and notes that Linda made me for each day of the trek, numbered days 1 to 17. Oh it was so hard opening these each day as she had written things according to the itinerary which by that time had quickly went out the window after the weather delays. One day I just sat in the tent and opened them all up. And yes the tears were flowing but you know what? it was great that she'd gone to all that effort to prepare them and I'd rather have that kind of memento to cherish forever than a huge grand gesture present. Oh... that was a rather large tangent there - sorry!

Back to the notebooks, yeah I hope to record some writings in them. Perhaps they won't be any good because I do tend to go on and on but conceivably they could be worth reading! Well, whatever, it'll be for my eyes only.. just now anyways. First outing will be this weekend, not sure where the destination is yet but I'm going to just get in the car and drive. Have you ever done that? I quite fancy doing that, see where the wind takes me... we'll see...

Ange xx