Jarkko Lehmus Diary

The Rough Guide to Inverness

How to really get to know a town The Rough Guide way: get hold of a digs list one day before traveling, close your eyes, open it on a random page, put your finger on the page, open your eyes, call the number nearest to your finger, book a room, arrive the next day, invite a friend over, get slightly tipsy, make too much noise and get chucked out by your two-foot-tall teatotaller landlady at midnight courtesy of your friend's drunken behaviour, refuse an offer to go to your friend's place, go walkies, sleep in a bush.

Especially interesting technique when executed in a town that's absolutely dead even during the daytime let alone at 2am on a Wednesday night.

Since the joys of my days in the army sleeping rough wasn't anything new but I still managed to learn a few new things and reinforce already acquired knowledge: Any fir-related trees, such as juniper and larch, growing close together offer a good cover from the weather and a soft underfoliage to have a kip on, however rhododendron bushes offer superior shelter from both the environment and the passers by, is easier to get in and out of and has more space within the bush but doesn't have any underfgrowth because of lack of sunshine; The last two hours before sunrise are the coldest; Public toilet hand driers are very effective at raising the body temperature and thus fending off hypothermia; Hot chocolate is heavenly; Nightingale's song is beautiful but disturbingly loud when too close, namely in the same bush.

I more than made up for the first night and spent the next two nights in my favourite digs with a full, six course Highland breakfast and a double-sized, heated, fourposter waterbed.

The last shows are done and dusted and the touring is over until September. Next week we're back in the office with the Forsythe people coming over to rework Artefacts II and IV for us. I quiver in anticip-p-p-p-p-pation!!!

Posted by Jarkko at May 2, 2004 08:41 PM