Reynard

It's the best time to do it I reckon. Absolutely no danger to anyone.

That's my ideal woman.

Finding one of Ina Baxters grey pubes in your leek and potato soup.

Call Me Animal - MC5

You'd see what I mean about the view though, especially on a day like yesterday. If you had just waked up and back down the Loch Sloy way it would be a bit dull. At least you wear pants. You're a credit to your parents.

Superb! There's something quite nice about coming off a hill you've slogged your way up for hours on end to pass a couple of guys in white trainers old firm tops and a cairy oot heading off in the general direction of where you just came from. Sticking two fingers up at walking snobs everywhere.

The Cobbler summit is alright. I didn't make it to the true summit the first time I walked up there because the weather was too horrendous. Theres plenty of good hillwalking outwith the Munros. Lots of folk won't bother with a hill unless it's over 3000ft. Their loss.

The walk along the Cononish to Ben Lui is long. Especially on the way back to the car. The three of us were practically in tears as it just seemed to go on and on and on. The banter had stopped completely by that point as we traipsed back in complete silence. The view of the hill is stunning form there though but most folk seem to do it the short(sensible) route.

I want to cut straight across at that wee dam thing and head up over the long ridge. I see a few folk doing it that way. I like the Cobbler because it's a cool looking mountain and I want to see it from a few different angles. Ben Lui was another one that we wanted to try from the Cononish river way as the view of the mountain is so much better. There's quicker ways to do most mountains but that's ok if you are just ticking off Munros or whatever. I don't get out that often so I try to make it an event

The route from the farm takes you over the little hills. You come in at the top side of the corrie there. We came in from roughly the south side. It looked quite a good wal from that other side too but we had parked elsewhere. I wanted to get Ben Vane walked on Sunday but was outvoted. So that's the only Munro left in that area for us. There's other decent looking mountains in that area too that looked like a good climb. And I want to try the Cobbler from a different way too.

Do that one either from the farm(I can't remember the name of) or from the south side(no path) but you get the best view of it's brilliant big corrie from there and you get brilliant views across the other hills on the way up. The path from the Loch Sloy side is rubbish and the views are rubbish that side too. All the action is from the other side. It was one of my favourite hills.

Walked up Ben Narnain and Ben Ime on Sunday. Great day for walking and some tremendous views at the tops of them. And an added "bonus" of bumping into Fred McAulay at the top of Narnain. I wanted to try for Ben Vane as well as the weather was so good but we had a new guy with us and he wasn't realy up for three hills, he did well to walk up two though and he got great weather and great views for his first ever walks. And then we went to the Drovers for a couple of pints and some Haggis

Del Potro is a good player and he will get better with experience. But last night Murray just stopped him dominating rallies by slowing the play right up and stopping him from generating the huge power he normally uses to blow away his opponents. Murray worked him out pretty well. The reason Del Potro took the second set is because he was really going for it with his service and he was getting a much higher percentage in. He broke Murray from the unlikely situation of being 0-40 down. I don't doubt the big guy was a bit jaded after his last match but not so much that he crumbled apart like that. The guy is only 20 FFS! I normally like watching Del Potro but he just wasn't being allowed to play the way he wanted to against Murray. You could see how frustrated he was getting simply because Murray had out thought him. Murray did much the same thing to Verdasco, who plays a similar sort of game to Del Potro. It's all based on heavy groundstrokes and big hitting. Murray is brilliant at taking the pace off the ball and keeping it low with his slice. Lots of these types of players hate that. Federer also hates it, which is why he struggles a bit moire than he maybe should do against Murray.

Murray is in good nick going into this final. Probably playing the best out of anyone in the game at the moment. Del Potro got his arse handed to him in that one. He actually did really well to hold it together enough and take the second set. But Murray just broke the guys mojo and gave him virtually nothing to get his teeth into. It was another impressive performance.

Thank heavens for longitude though.

Fucking hell

Verdasco was blown away. Murray had him contemplating why he was even playing tennis for a living by the end of the first set Verdascos injury is one of those ones that if he had been winning he wouldn't even have thought about it. Murray stamped on him last night. Should be interesting to see how he handles another big hitting galoot in Del Potro. Murray seems to be able to outwit most of these clugger type guys. Hopefully he will serve well enough and do the job on Del Potro. Murrays reading of other players serves is awesome BTW. Unless they are serving utterly magnificently they pretty much know that it's coming back over the net awkwardly to them. He must be an incredibly annoying player to play against, he grinds away until they make a mistake.

Verdasco looks like a beast. I take it he has been on some sort of fitness bulking thing liek Murray was? He absolutelt twats the ball about the court as well and has looked impressive all season so far. Murray will need to be in good form to beat this guy, he is more than decent.

Murray started badly and gradually got to grips with the guy. He was serving really badly in the first set but still had enough to see him off. Massu had some forehand on him though, he was ripping it most of the game. I don't think Murray really had to dig all that deep though to get through. He will need to serve a lot better than that though. He didn't serve all that well in the first tie either.

I was sitting on a bench with my daughter this morning down the beach watching my son throw sand at passers by. Next to us an older couple parked up and out they got and unleashed this knackered looking border collie. It was one of those nervous dogs that looks as if it had been thrashed to within an inch of its life. So the dug wanders over to the sea wall and sort of waits for its master to come along and put its lead on. The wifie then glances skyward and declares that there is a kite flying in the sky.(about a mile away) So the man then says "no we have to leave. She just won't enjoy herself knowing it's there". So he opens the back door and the ancient dog scuttles in. Then the wifie says I wonder why she wont go for walks when there are kites flying. And the bloke says, it's probably some instinct thing from 2 million years ago when dinosaurs were flying in the sky. I don't know. It just pissed me off. I wish my son had thrown sand in his face instead of the nice sensible couples he was doing it to.

Into My Arms - Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

Tenpole Tudor - Swords of a Thousand Men. magic stuff.

Tenpole Tudor - Wunderbar!

Mentally he had chucked it late in the second set. He was struggling badly with the wind and Nadal was horsing him. A bit like Federer in the semi really. I agree though. Murray is competitive and has a bit of rage about him. He reminds me a bit of McEnroe that way. Not as mental as that obviously but he lets it out now and again. Murray WILL keep getting better. Physically he is pretty much there with the likes of Nadal and the rest but he will fanny around with different parts of his game. His second serve is asking to be twatted fairly regularly, and his forehand could be worked on. He reads the situation on court really well though and he is good at working out opponents too. That's a good part of the game to have, not all the top pros have that ability.

He got a royal pumping last night but it was still another good week for Murray. He has started the season in really good nick. He has shown that he can deal with Federer and he has beaten Nadal a couple of times too. Nadal is the guy he really needs to work out though to get where he wants to be in the game. Nadal on form is a magnificent player and showed yesterday he can deal with shit conditions as well. Murray seemed to lose his focus completely and eventually chucked it. I still think there is more to come from Murray. Nadal is maybe at the height of his powers though.