Day one at Phantassie

What a brilliant first day.

We are totally inspired again! We started the day harvesting the pumpkin patch. Pumpkins of all sizes and shapes - wish I got a photo of it. Its definitely the quintissential autumny thing to do on a farm isnt it? Just feels so good doing real proper farm work again. Working on a big area, breaking our backs, knowing that this delicious food is going into someone's contented belly.

Phantassie is a really nice, chill place with lotsa perm staff working along side wwoofers. We eat together during lunch and have tons of break during the day. Good stuff. Their walled garden is sooo quaint really. Apparently its 150 years old! and here's a picture of farmers then:

We have our own little private caravan and its thefirst place we make our own supper - a nice change, and we can get our rice and noodles / asian food fix as often as we like :)))

Moving on again

Updates!

Last Friday we left Fraoch Lodge after almost 3 weeks and moving on again...

Stayed in Edinburgh for the weekend as I had to do my IELTS test (stupid english test that cost me 100 pounds to validate my standard of english for our aussie PR application). We stayed with Eric and Alison at his cool pad in Muirhouse - apparently the film and novel Trainspotting was based in that exact building in Edinburgh! Have to watch it again. Anyway... it was a great weekend, staying with our first ever Scottish friends being showed the local ways. Lovely.

Our camera is busted. Sand or soil got into it and it couldnt zoom in or out. So bjorn took the whole thing apart and now the screen doesnt work! So its like taking photos in the old days now, just pointing and shooting and only when we go back and slot the card into our PC, we will see what the hell we took. Quite fun. But sometimes it just doesnt work. ARGH.

Arrived in Phantassie yesterday and it was a very positive welcome! People actually knew our names already when we arrived and everyone was so friendly. We have our very own very clean and comfortable caravan and icing on the cake - every wwoofer has their frst day off! So here we are, just woken up not too long ago and wondering where shall we wonder about on our first day...

Will try to update some more later this week.

OH! Before we forget, we got mentioned in the Wwoof independent's enewsletter! Check it out here - the link might change next month when they archive september's issue but for now it should work. :)

Snaps from Edinburgh:

Eric's pad in Muirhouse...

Old statues

Old buildings

Us halfway up that hill in edinburgh

My 29th year, our first munro!

For my birthday today, we took the day off and 'bagged our first munro'! A munro is a term for a Scottish mountain above 3000 ft. And the one we went up today, Cairngorm, is about4000ft! But we started quite high already so it was not that long. Still, it was a bloody windy day, a tough climb to top, but once again, well worth it!


Me doing a model pose about 10 min into the hike. Still looking fresh and ready to take on the munro!

Bjorn precariously balancing in the wind!

The painful last bit to the summit!

Finally! Munro number one!

Having a well deserved birthday lunch of a can of tomato sardines and a bun.

So many things to do, so MUCH time!

Not being employed, not working in the office 5 days a week, 10 hours a day plus 2 hours of commuting, does wonders for the brain and spirit to think and consider other pursuits in life.

When I was employed and being remunerated each month, I didnt feel compelled to 'improve' my life with other skills. Since starting work after university, I have not done any language courses, crafts courses, picked up any new sport (dabbled in wake boarding a bit once, which was where bjorn and i met!), or learnt anything new. All 15 days of my annual leave was preciously reserved for beach holidays where I could veg by the beach/pool, work on a tan and be mentally retarded for X number of days. Weekends were spent just recuperating from usually a 'big' Friday or Saturday - which meant lotsa comfort food, aircon, naps and TV. It was almost like, slaving away in the office & being paid for it is enough to validate my short temporary existence on this planet. Employment filled my life with stuff so I didn't have to bother need to think about what I reeeeaaally wanna do in this life.

Of course, this is just me and that part of my life. There are plenty of people in this world that have good work life balance. That participate in non-work activities like sport and volunteering etc. And I am only making a generalisation based on me.

But now... we have so so many things on our to do list! And we have to prioritise!

1. First aid course - being alone on ben resipol made me realise how ignorant and foolish of us to think that we were capable of taking care of ourselves when we didnt know the first thing about first aid.

2. Bushcraft/Survival skills - If we want to do more outdoor/camping we need to learn basic things like making a fire, building shelter, wild food foraging etc. Think Bear Grylls!

3. Cooking classes - Hopefully cheap and good ones in the neighbourhood comminuty centres. I want to see how people teach cooking, so maybe in the future when we set up our small holding somewhere in australia, we can grow our own organic asian veg and i can hold asian cooking classes from our farm

4. Knitting / Sewing - A lady who stayed at Fraoch lodge was knitting woollen socks and they were gorgeous! And apparently really easy to do. Definitely want to learn this one real soon!

5. Pottery - I love food. And recently, after staying with Tyr who is a super potter and eating off pottery at her place and some other places we've been to, makes me reeeeally keen on finding out more about how to do this. Apparently its not that easy, and u need lots of kit/room. But we'll see!

6. Hill-walking / Trekking - Bring it on! After a couple of hills we have done in Scotland, we're hooked BIG time. Love the exercise, fresh air, nature, stunning views, the streams, the solitude and mostly, the time Bjorn and I get to spend talking and chatting and enjoying each others company while being all alone in the 'wild', one with nature. According to Trail magazine, 'Walking does wonders for the mind, gives people a sense of betterment, and uplifting sense of achievement when you reach a summit and the chance to marvel at the sheer raw beauty of our natural hills and mountains.' - So true lor...

7. Language courses - I feel silly and awful that we're going to be in Spain for about 6 weeks and we hardly know any spanish besides 'Hola' and 'Gracias' and 'Paella' and 'Mi casa su casa'. If theres a way I could do a crash course before we go... hmmmm I'll need to check it out.

8. Travelling..... Oh oh oh, to go to someplace new, to try new cuisine for the first time, speak to locals about their homes, their land, their lives. I find it hard to find words to describe how important I think travel is to build character, expand our views, and humble ourselves at the same time. More more more please!

9. Read more and write more - Have been quite pleased at the number of books I've managed to read in the past couple of weeks. All completely life-enriching books, I'll name a few here that has been particularly good:

- The Omnivore's Dillemma - Michael Pollan
- Life Inc - Douglas Rushkloff
- Confessions of an Eco Sinner - Fred Pearce
- The Ultimate Heresay - John Seymour
- A Brave new world - Aldous Huxley
- No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency - Alexander McCall Smith
- The God Delusion - Richard Dawkins

Alrighty, I think there's more to add on this list, but my shower is calling and I say this to those who are employed.... Have a lovely weekend! :) Coz you're going to need it.

Peace out...

Exciting Spain ahead with HelpX!

Oh so exciting! We just got a reply from a Helpx host (www.helpx.net) that we can come to his farm near Barcelona in early December for Olive harvesting before we head home to Singapore! Olive harvesting!! Always wanted to do that in the mediterranian somewhere but didnt expect we'd get a chance this year! WOW!

Here's a link to the description of the farm: http://www.helpx.net/host.asp?hostID=904&network=3

Unfortunately u can only see photos if you are a member of Helpx. Its a wonderful online community we were recommended by a lady we met in wales that lists volunteer work all around the world! A membership of 18 pounds give u access for 2 years to the whole world's network! Certainly cheaper than wwoof that only lets you get access per country. Even better, you get to read all the reviews of people who've been to these places so basically you can get a sense of whether a place is good or not.

Shroomin' & Walking in the Highlands!

We've been here at Fraoch Lodge/ Mountain Innovations, in Boat of Garten, Inverness-shire for one week now and its been quite good so far! Highlights have been:

Mushroom Foraging! Andy, our host whose a mountain guide cum mushroom enthusiast took us on our first even into the nearby woods to collect a giant cauliflower fungus thats located in a secret place at the foot of a pine tree! What we discovered is how many varieties there are in these woods! Some are so beautiful fairy tale like toad stools, some just yummy looking and the definitely edible ones we've picked - porcini & chanterelles. Yummeeeeee...

While we didnt pick EVERYTHING we saw, I definitely went on a photo hunt with my camera! To europeans who live in the countryside all their lives, its probably no big deal, but to us, this is WOW amazing!

Edible chanterelles!

Another highlight so far, is on our off day, we got to join in on a hill-walking in the cairngorn highlands! It was a briiiiilliant day. Almost too hot actually. Super blue skies and fantastic views. The ascent wasnt too bad, decent was a little harder, but overall, great day, great group as well!

A group photo at the summit. From left to right.. Bjorn, Andy (our host and guide), Andy (yes another one), Kris, Gee, Amanda, Sheila)

View of Loch Alvie in the background

Being spoilt at Ardna Mushrooms!

When you move around so much and you leave just when you get to know people, everything feels so brief, without continuity almost. The thing about wwoofing is that you get thrown into the unknown pretty much every couple of weeks. And you learn to adapt. But the most beautiful part of it is that you get the chance to collect so many precious experiences to remember for life.

And that's definitely what our experience at Ardna Mushrooms was to us. For almost 2 weeks, we lived with the quirky & coolest Dunn family (though they will argue that they are not that cool lol) in the most amazing spot on this island so far - the west coast of Scotland. We've been quite spoilt as well, coz we were only allowed to work 4 hours a day! Not a minute more. Sweet eh? So most afternoons we just tinkered around here and there, go for a walk with Marmite (the Dunns black labrador), cycle up and down the loch etc...

Robert and Justine almost live the good life, so to speak (I say almost because we would have pigs not just hens, which they used to but not recently). They have a beautiful house which they restored themselves in a remote beautiful part of scotand, and bringing up 4 children the best possible way they can. From the moment they said that when the children all grow up and leave the house, they want to start becoming more fuller time activists and their passion lie in non-violence protesting. And would happily go to jail in pursuit of justice and equality. It was then, we knew that these 2 nutters and us probably had quite a few things in common :)

Here are some excerpts of our time in Strontian... its so excruciatingly beautiful, with people in the village, equally lovely, we'd definitely go back there again in a heartbeat.

Bjorn harvesting Shitake from 'loafs' of 'logs'. A daily task we do every morning! The aroma of the shitakes is just incredible!

Dinner time with the Dunns! From left... (after bjorn and me) Sam, James, Angus, Justine and Robert - the 'crazy mushroom man'.

Our cozy little caravan.

Having a cuppa at with local compost community club members. We said we'd post this photo online so here it is! From left to right (hope i get this right)... Robert, Johnathan, Robert, Bill, Bjorn.

Taking Marmite for a walk just at the back of the house. Amazing views only 10 min walk away.

Robert showing us how he makes biodiesel from used vegetable oil which comes up to only 12p a litre!

Henry the barman, ex-wwoofer and guitar player entertaining us at the local hotel/pub - Ben View Hotel. We had really nice memories there as well as we visited it quite a few times during our stay!

Beinn Resipol

It's almost been a week since we climbed beinn resipol (2700 ft) and got lost on the way down.
WHat should have been an invigorating, challenging, yet pleasing 5 to 6 hour hike became 8 hours of grueling, spirit-testing, stomping through uneven peaty ground, bashing our way down a steep downhill through the woods.

Being in the wild, with nature, with no body else within miles radius except our townie selves, made us realise how incredibly vulnerable we are. I have never ever felt so alone and scared before. Other walks we've ever done in britian all had few but some people around or at least... sheep or cows!

The slightly scared and panicky feeling came about actually way before we got lst. It was when we were approaching the last steep cliffs up to the summit. It was pretty darn steep and we were climbing it like spiderman u know, using our hands and edge of our boots to grip the edge of the mountain.

The view of below started to fade away as we became enveloped by clouds. It started to become a little claustrophobic as I knew we were way up high on this mountain, but the cloud was so thick we couldnt see beyond 10 metres ahead. We were ecstatic of course, reaching the top, screaming at the top of my lungs yeahhhh!!

But also, I just felt so vulnerable that nobody else was around. No guard, no ranger, no other walkers. Just me, bjorn and marmite (our hosts 6 year old labrador). What if something happened? I kept obessing about. What if I fell and died?

The wind was also so strong and cold it was quite nuts. I even grabbed bjorn and gave him a huge hug and said how scared I was. Of which of course he thought was silly (but better to have one person scared than 2!)

Taking the wrong turn and getting lost increased my panic. My legs had no feelings anymore. At one point, when we faced a tall deer fence and not sure which way to go around it (plus we had a dog who couldnt climb fences), my heart couldnt stop pounding and my hands were shaking. All this I didnt tell Bjorn at that point coz I knew we needed to stay focused and calm. And of course, I was just getting all panicky for no reason. We knew, just going south will evnetually take us to the road.

What was most worrying, was how I became obessessed about the whole event for the next few nights. The first night, I was tossing and turning in bed for many hours before I tricked my self to go to sleep. The next night, I wouldnt stop talking about what we went through over and over again with Bjorn. Finally on the 3rdnight, I tried to write down why I was obssessing, and came to terms with it.

I couldnt sleep because I was coming up with excuses and reasons for making that wrong turn. Inexperience in the wild certainly was the main reason. Bad weather.. etc. Getting lost with such clear instructions, and with a map and compass seemed so foolish. So 'townie' and foolish. Proves how really useless we are with the real natural world and how we really dont know how to survive the easiest of highlands.

And realising how our transition to become country people still has such a long long way to go. Yet, we are too far from our original, previous world of consumerism. We're hanging in between. In between different paths in life. We havent fully left our old world of shopping and love for chemical food and not being great at recycling. We havent become fully fledged 'hippies' we thought we could be.

And getting lost in the mountains... man that was horrendously a slap in the face of how we might not be able to make it out here. What I was mostly freaked out about was how alone we were. I thought about falling and dying alot. That... was the true, Singaporean in me showing its true colours. I was afraid. Irrationally afraid perhaps. All our lives, we have safety nets everywhere we went. This time, we didnt really. And I shudder at that thought. Was I really ready for a life without safety nets?

Maybe its like how a coutry kid would come to a big city and be overwhelmed by crowd, sounds, people, lights, and fear of being hit by a car or something. Irrational as that. Being lost, all alone, with only my legs, my strength and will to carry me back to civilisation humbled me. Nature humiliated me, and humbled me. It has the power to swallow us whole, make us feel shit scared, cold, tired, hungry, at the same time could make u feel triumphant and incredible.

I didnt want this experience to put me off walking ever again. It had the potential too. But writing and reflecting on why I was feeling regretable and shitty about the whole thing helped. Its been one week now, and Bjorn and I are ready to take on Beinn Resipol again. Especially after watching Mel Gibson as William Wallace on dvd running freely on the very same ridges of the Scottish highlands, confidence came back. Whatever it is,... I have learnt even more now, that we, humans are not above nature. We need to be respectful of it, admire it, use it for our suvival but not to exploit it. We humans have come so far in evolution that one could go through life with never feeling this vulnerable, terrified, panicky feeling yet, instinct for survival once. I should be grateful for this opportunity to have shared an experience with what our hunter gatherer ancestors probably felt daily. We didnt have any luxury here for unesscesary complaining about hardship or tiredness. We just kept going, descpite my panic, so we could be home, safe. Survival instincts - I so know why they call it that now.