This jolly chap is the Rev Scott Rennie from Aberdeen. He is well liked by his congregation and can, by all accounts, do his "job" very well.

So why have The Church of Scotland got their knickers in twist about him?

Because, (sharp intake of breath, and mumbling behind my hand) he's gay.

Due to horrendous weather including, but not limited to, gale force winds, sleet, hail, torrential rain, low temperatures, the abominable snowman and fog, my walking partner and I have had to postpone any plans for a follow-up to Ben Lomond. Considering neither of us are members of parliament and have to work for a living through the week, confining our escapes to the great outdoors to a Saturday when our better halves are either shopping, or socialising, or both, our window of opportunity/weather is somewhat restricted.

I'm not a big lover of nostalgia, it's not what it used to be, so I shall tread warily when I say the words, "Kids these days, they don't know they're born".

I'm fully aware that times have changed, society as a whole is getting wealthier and nobody, in Newarthill anyway as I'm sure we'd smell it, uses an outside bog any more. But even I, who tries to keep abreast of all things technical, tries to stay ahead of the curve, tries to be up with the larks and down wiv da homies, whatever that means, am sometimes astonished at today's youth.

As I said the last time, I was setting my sights at something a little larger than the Campsie Hills. So here I am at the top of Ben Lomond that my pal Stewart and I climbed last Saturday. (Click on the photos for a bigger version)

When I was in my early teens I joined my local Boys Brigade. I could never be bothered with the churchy side of it, but there were two things that they taught me that I really enjoyed. One was playing the bugle, and the other was hill-walking. I became an accomplished bugle player in no time and played at the start and end of every BB meeting, although this also meant I had to be up first in the morning at BB camp to sound reveille.

So what happens now? You've got all your precious photos and music backed up and everything's fine. But suddenly, your anti-virus software detects a threat and warns you that there's a "Trojan" on your system. It could have come from an infected website, from a disk or memory stick you've received or most likely from a contaminated e-mail and attachment that you've opened.

My sister in law phoned the other night in a panic. Her daughter, my niece, had called her mobile while she was out to tell her that a virus warning had come up on her computer. Now, my sister in law hasn't really got the foggiest about computers and didn't know what to do, so she phoned someone who does have the foggiest, that would be me.

Is it just me, or is this not the creepiest advert on Scottish TV at the moment. I'm pretty sure there must have been some other way of conveying the same message.

"Och, I've dropped the soap again"

New technology comes along all the time. Just 20 years ago, the idea that there would be a computer in almost every home and they'd all be connected via something called the Internet would have been bizarre and crazy talk to most people. The invention of the Internet and all the technologies associated with it over the past 2 decades has driven the advancement of technology at a pace never seen since the steam engine gave rise to the industrial revolution.

You may remember some time ago I described how I had conspired along others to buy my Mum a sightseeing ride in a helicopter over Glasgow, not realising at the time that she was in fact terrified of flying, especially in small flimsy looking helicopters. It had been postponed at first attempt back in January because of bad weather and rearranged for last Saturday, this time, the weather was good.