Saturday 9th Feb:
The thing I learned today is that the former Soviet republic of Georgia uses a completely different alphabet to other ex-Soviet states, such as Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan, who all use the Cyrillic alphabet. I discovered this from reading the back of a packet of toothpaste, in the toilet of a Travelodge near Wigan at 2.30am. It may be a long two weeks. Have now arrived in Scotland, haven't learnt much else so far; it's prettier and friendlier than England, but then I knew that already.
Sunday 10th Feb:
Claire informed me over breakfast that the tannin in tea inhibits any iron that you take in from food. Also, drinks with high Vitamin C content, such as orange juice, increase the effectiveness of any ingested iron. The effect of IRN-BRU on iron absorption has yet to be investigated.
Monday 11th Feb:
We accidentally found a place called Doune Castle today, whilst trying to find a town with decent shops. We looked it up on our phones like the city idiots we are, only to discover that it features prominently in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. The French guard "farts in your general direction" from atop it, and it is used for virtually every exterior castle shot in the film. It's become a tourist attraction for Python fans; the gift shop even has Monty Python books and memorabilia (nice touch) and a replica Holy Grail (too far).
Tuesday 12th Feb:
Today walked up some hills and looked down from the top at Loch Venachar, surrounded by misty, far-off mountains. It was almost pretty enough to make me weep like a baby, but didn't offer up any useless information - perhaps they should introduce a Trivia Trail leading up to the vista. In the end, I turned to a Puzzler book we had in the lodge, which quite pointlessly informed me that the word 'blunder' comes from the Old Norse 'blundra', which means to shut your eyes.
Wednesday 13th Feb:
Whilst watching the sun set over the lake tonight (sorry, trying not to be smug) we wondered what made the sunset all pink and purple. I was amazed to discover that sunsets produce vivid colours because the sunlight reflects off dust and other airborne particles. This doesn't happen during the day because the sun isn't low enough in the sky, and also because dust rises from near the ground to higher in the atmosphere when the sun goes down. Or something. This effect is known as Mie Scattering, and has been demonstrated by increasingly colourful sunsets, although this argument loses credibility by mentioning Krakatoa. How would they know? Did someone find a diary featuring the words: "Family dead. Village destroyed. All is lost. P.S. Sunset a delight"? It seems unlikely.
Thursday 14th Feb:
We've been on the trail of waterfalls so far on our holiday, but were wondering where the biggest ones could be found. Turns out that the biggest waterfall in the UK is Eas a' Chial Aluinn, in the Scottish Highlands. There is some debate about this apparently, and this chart is taken by measuring the longest single waterfall, as opposed to a series of falls. The second and third highest are also in Scotland - Steall and the Falls of Glennoch respectively, though none of the top three are anyway near where we are. Anyway, I could go on but I'm trying to watch Ashes to Ashes.
Friday 15th Feb:
Claire's birthday today - we went to Glencoe and stopped at the worst Visitor Centre ever. If you ever want to know about how they built the Glencoe Visitor Centre, but require no information on Glencoe itself, I suggest you pay it a visit. Whilst taking pictures of the scenery, I got a picture of the sun, but with a black spot in the centre. I looked up why this was happening, and it appears that when you take a photo of the sun on a digital camera, a black spot can come out in the centre of the sun, as the camera cannot process the image due to it's brightness. I thought I'd discovered the solid core of our sun - turns out the only thing I discovered is that my phone needs an upgrade.
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