Highlands, Scotland

The divine natural beauty of Scotland will never cease to impress me.

During the last few days we've traveled across the Highlands and every day there was something new and different for us, something that we've never experienced before. Like a crystal lake hidden between the rocky folds of Glen Coe just about a mile or so from the main road and yet invisible and accidentally discovered by us when looking for a ... mobile phone lost somewhere on the way and found by another tourist who bothered to call us from there!!!

Or, like feeding a wild reindeer at Black Mount - he liked nuts and raisins but also chewed on some apple:

Or me get caught on the Ben Nevis path in darkness and walking a few miles back to Fort William through the forest. That was quite an experience for me, as I'd realised too late that I'd forgotten to ask at hotel whether there were any wild animals in the area (like wolves, bears etc.)...

I've also made hundreds of pictures of the most adorable Scottish sheep who've proved to be really cute and very intelligent as they kept on standing still and looking at camera while being photographed!!

I love this country.

For more photos look here.

LES MILLS FESTIVAL IN CYPRUS (15-16/11/2008)

Last weekend I’ve attended the annual Les Mills festival in Cyprus, and that was fantastic!

First of all, the location. Coral Beach Hotel and Resort in Paphos is a beautiful place to visit and stay for a couple of days or more. From my room balcony I could enjoy a view of the picturesque landscape where the sea looked more like a placid lake surrounded by the rich green frame of tropic trees and cypresses. The sun was shining, the weather was really nice and summer-like, and that was a good start for a really impressive and exciting two-days sport event.

Yes, the spirit of festival was all over the place. I could not imagine how many people would come and join the fascinating program made of a range of various fitness classes and presentations, including Body Attack, Body Combat, Body Jam, Body Pump, Body Step, Body Vive and, of course, my favorite Body Balance! And you shouldn’t be a very well trained and perfectly fit person to enjoy a great fun of this event – all sort of people of all ages and body shapes were rubbing shoulders at a huge hall designed for training sessions and sharing a genuine joy of being together and doing sport together.








And, of course, our instructors were great! I believe that 50% percent of the success in doing exercises belongs to the quality of the coaching and the understanding of people’s needs. We come to classes to get fit, to lose some fat but also to have fun and get a real change from our everyday routine at work. And our instructors were the best! They made us feeling involved and engaged, they’d never forgotten to praise our good performance and cheer up our spirit during the exhausting training sessions. Sometimes, I felt like a real professional, and that experience was unforgettable.



I will definitely go to Les Mills festival next year, because this is a great chance to feel myself involved and being the part of a big community, to meet new friends, to share experience and have fun and happiness which last much longer than just a weekend.

Images of the day

Sunday noon. Fellow motorists on the motorway (that was a BMW!!! unfortunately I've failed to capture a frontal image):

Later on. Fellow drinkers at Chester's share their views on the meaning of life, Universe and everything:

A little philosopher pondering on the eternity of beauty and quality cat food: