Sunday
Oct092005
An Intersting weekend
Sunday, October 9, 2005 at 9:28PM
Well that is another weekend over (they just do not seem to last long enough really) and the wind and rain outside seems to reflect my mood when considering that I have to go back to work tomorrow.
Anyhow this weekend has been another relaxing one - which is really nice as work is kinda busy and it is good to just sit and chill for a while. Anyhow since my last blogging session I have been on a massive readathon and have chewed through a large number of books, some good and others not so good. Currently I am reading the new Neil Gainman one - Anansi boys and it is good if not a little slow. I will let you know what I think when I have finished it.
Old friends
Anyhow last weekend we had an unexpected outing. Friends of mine who I had not seen in about 5 years, were up here in Glasgow and we all met up for dinner. It was wierd and cool all at the same time. There was that whole getting to know them thing that you have to do - but we soon slipped into the same old routine which was cool. I have decided to endeavour to keep in touch more - though I am not always so good at that - but I shall try my best.
We ended up going for diner at Oko, one of the many Japanese eateries that are in Glasgow. I had never been there before - preferring ichiban and wagamamas but they were pretty good and they have a sushi train which is always interesting. Check out their website if you are interested OKO
Learning something new
This weekend we decided to use one of Roberts Christmas present - a half day of falconry. We drove up to Braco and were met by Adrain Hallgarth - our tutor for the afternoon who then drove us onto the estate to meet the birds. Adrian, as it turns out is the only master falconer in Scotland, so we were learning from one of the best.
We were in a group of 10 people all of whom had not done this before so we were not too nervous. After seeing the birds as we came in we went into the office to begin our training which started with how to tie the falconers knot. Now I have issues with keeping my shoes laces tied and so was more than a little nervous, especially when I realised that I had to be able to tied it one handed, with a bird on the other one. Adrian was cool and was really patient as we all tried to grasp what it was we had to do, and in 10 minutes I had is sussed (more or less). By this stage we were all used to wearing our gauntlets and tying the knots (and had large stickers with out names on them displayed in prominent places - makes it easier for them to tell you when to duck) so we went out to meet our first birds - the Harris Hawks.
Harris hawks are one of the few birds of prey that hunt in packs, and that are somewhat daunting to look at what with the large prominent beaks and scary looking talons. This is not helped when later we are told that (a) that they can exert enough pressure with their talons to kill a man (b) the one that I was holding had attempted to take a dog one day. It emerges that the birds like humans as that is where they get their food from, however small children who hold hands look like humans holding food for them, and dogs on leads look like food on a lure. Anyhow, test one was go to you hawk, get them onto you glove, untie the jess from the perch, tie to your glove (trying not to scare the bird or trip them upside down) then walk with them around the area. This was somewhat nerve wracking but was actually not as hard as you may think. It all went smoothly and my biggest concern was to not let go because the birds will kill each other and they are very precious. Anyhow there were no such incidents, though I think we looked at Adrian like he was mad when he said to try and kiss them on the beak to demonstrate the fact that they will not peck or bite you (most of the time) - again we managed to escape unscathed.
The rest of the afternoon we spent flying different birds to the glove. We started with a juvenile Harris Hawk called Ajax (who at one stage decided myt head was a good place to land - it being the highest vantage point to the food) and then progressed though an owl and a Battleur eagle. Adrian also flew a couple of other falcons to demonstrate the different types of birds but as they required lures - we could not, though having a falcon scream past your head at eye level at about 90 miles an hour is pretty exhilarating I can tell you.
The hardest part of the day was not touching their feathers (it removes the waterproof coating from them) as they are so soft and beautiful. Learning that owls have offset ears above and blow their eyes, hawks dribble and falcons are one of the most intelligent and fast animals on the earth are only some of the highlights. Also having the opportunity to touch and interact with these wonderful animals was totally priceless. Even the Battleur eagle was happy enough to have its beak touched. The day was a total blast and I can well recommend it to anyone. Check them out at Pheonix Falconry
Oh and in case you are wondering - we did not get pooed on even once (which is a good thing as they can shoot it for about6ft - and I do not care what anyone says - it is not lucky)
Anyhow this weekend has been another relaxing one - which is really nice as work is kinda busy and it is good to just sit and chill for a while. Anyhow since my last blogging session I have been on a massive readathon and have chewed through a large number of books, some good and others not so good. Currently I am reading the new Neil Gainman one - Anansi boys and it is good if not a little slow. I will let you know what I think when I have finished it.
Old friends
Anyhow last weekend we had an unexpected outing. Friends of mine who I had not seen in about 5 years, were up here in Glasgow and we all met up for dinner. It was wierd and cool all at the same time. There was that whole getting to know them thing that you have to do - but we soon slipped into the same old routine which was cool. I have decided to endeavour to keep in touch more - though I am not always so good at that - but I shall try my best.
We ended up going for diner at Oko, one of the many Japanese eateries that are in Glasgow. I had never been there before - preferring ichiban and wagamamas but they were pretty good and they have a sushi train which is always interesting. Check out their website if you are interested OKO
Learning something new
This weekend we decided to use one of Roberts Christmas present - a half day of falconry. We drove up to Braco and were met by Adrain Hallgarth - our tutor for the afternoon who then drove us onto the estate to meet the birds. Adrian, as it turns out is the only master falconer in Scotland, so we were learning from one of the best.
We were in a group of 10 people all of whom had not done this before so we were not too nervous. After seeing the birds as we came in we went into the office to begin our training which started with how to tie the falconers knot. Now I have issues with keeping my shoes laces tied and so was more than a little nervous, especially when I realised that I had to be able to tied it one handed, with a bird on the other one. Adrian was cool and was really patient as we all tried to grasp what it was we had to do, and in 10 minutes I had is sussed (more or less). By this stage we were all used to wearing our gauntlets and tying the knots (and had large stickers with out names on them displayed in prominent places - makes it easier for them to tell you when to duck) so we went out to meet our first birds - the Harris Hawks.
Harris hawks are one of the few birds of prey that hunt in packs, and that are somewhat daunting to look at what with the large prominent beaks and scary looking talons. This is not helped when later we are told that (a) that they can exert enough pressure with their talons to kill a man (b) the one that I was holding had attempted to take a dog one day. It emerges that the birds like humans as that is where they get their food from, however small children who hold hands look like humans holding food for them, and dogs on leads look like food on a lure. Anyhow, test one was go to you hawk, get them onto you glove, untie the jess from the perch, tie to your glove (trying not to scare the bird or trip them upside down) then walk with them around the area. This was somewhat nerve wracking but was actually not as hard as you may think. It all went smoothly and my biggest concern was to not let go because the birds will kill each other and they are very precious. Anyhow there were no such incidents, though I think we looked at Adrian like he was mad when he said to try and kiss them on the beak to demonstrate the fact that they will not peck or bite you (most of the time) - again we managed to escape unscathed.
The rest of the afternoon we spent flying different birds to the glove. We started with a juvenile Harris Hawk called Ajax (who at one stage decided myt head was a good place to land - it being the highest vantage point to the food) and then progressed though an owl and a Battleur eagle. Adrian also flew a couple of other falcons to demonstrate the different types of birds but as they required lures - we could not, though having a falcon scream past your head at eye level at about 90 miles an hour is pretty exhilarating I can tell you.
The hardest part of the day was not touching their feathers (it removes the waterproof coating from them) as they are so soft and beautiful. Learning that owls have offset ears above and blow their eyes, hawks dribble and falcons are one of the most intelligent and fast animals on the earth are only some of the highlights. Also having the opportunity to touch and interact with these wonderful animals was totally priceless. Even the Battleur eagle was happy enough to have its beak touched. The day was a total blast and I can well recommend it to anyone. Check them out at Pheonix Falconry
Oh and in case you are wondering - we did not get pooed on even once (which is a good thing as they can shoot it for about6ft - and I do not care what anyone says - it is not lucky)
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