Claire Cobley, Isle of Mull, Peter Cobley
Peter Cobley
Oh, the grand old Duke of York, He had ten ...
Oh, the grand old Duke of York, He had ten thousand men..... Ben More
Tobermory, Peter Cobley
Peter Cobley
Deery me... it's the cheeky deer of Tobermory
Deery me... it's the cheeky deer of Tobermory
Peter Cobley
Peter Cobley
The making of a lovely day in Mull
The making of a lovely day in Mull
Peter Cobley
The Ranald Hotel - Oban
The Ranald Hotel - Oban
Claire Cobley, Peter Cobley
Peter Cobley
Cobley in an Isle of Mull winter
Cobley in an Isle of Mull winter

Isle of Mull

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Oban: day and night

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Sat in the Hostel at Oban, which if you’ve never stayed here is more like a hotel, and situated along the esplanade giving a pictures view of the curving harbour, and out to sea in the other direction taking in Lismore, Kerrera, and Mull.

I landed Thursday on a morning ferry to good weather, if but fresh, that has continued. My photo, heading into Oban Thursday night but looking out to the islands, was spectacular with an orange sunset atop the silhouetted islands.

I’ll soon pick up a scribble book for some planning whilst it is quiet here; mind you Gorillaz is playing on the radio. But I can put up with some background elevator noise.

Claire is home in Tobermory and I miss her, but it’s okay because I have a feeling I’ll be heading over on Monday or Tuesday.

It’s a special place here. I’m kinda a tourist but feel much more embedded as part of the landscape, more so than I’ve ever felt as an adult. I feel I blend in and do my business in Oban, hopefully not being mistaken as a tourist. And on the island of Mull I feel local, having an interest in things, and being settled. It’s a nice feeling. It is one of peace.

The sheer distance from all of England and the fact we are on an island gives us (Claire and I) a separation from Mossley, Macclesfield and other unlike any other I have felt, whether London, Lancaster, or any other location I’ve lived in. It’s a good feeling to have, a sense of belonging and being part of somewhere.

(And with someone you dearly love.)

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Oh, the grand old Duke of York, He had ten thousand men..... Ben More

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Saturday 1st March saw the A-Team head up, in unexpectedly lovely weather, Ben More, followed by a dip in the sea at Calgary Bay. Both were great. One was friggin freezing and it was not the one that involved a 961 meter high Munro.

Oh, the grand old Duke of York,
He had ten thousand men;
He marched them up to the top of the hill,
And he marched them down again.

When they were up, they were up,
And when they were down, they were down,
And when they were only halfway up,
They were neither up nor down.[2]

Courtesy of Wikipedia

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Loch Ba walk

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Desperate to get out of the house and enjoy the scenery here on Mull, we drove Minty to Knock near Ben More, parked up at Knock Farm and began a walk on the south west of the Loch - 2 miles out and 2 miles back in windy, icy, and cold conditions.

But what a walk! Bracing yes, but the views and atmosphere of being alone in the wild weather wonderful.

It turned out to be a nice 4 mile walk with great views and chatting. After the walk we drove alongside Loch Na Keal toward the “Burg” (Ardmeanach) with the intention of having lunch. But the wind was that wild and rotary that two doors of the campervan were snatched out of my hands; so we enjoyed the views and then drove home to Tobermory for lunch.

Full photos can be seen on Flickr.

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When suffering from serenity.

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And that is what I am suffering from, and boy am I happy to be in such a state. This is a culmination of really working on myself, help from others, and some quality reading. And lastly living on a beautiful island in the Inner Hebrides, which has made such an impact to my mental well being.

Crater Loch as known locally (which is not actually a crater and is instead a glacial feature.)

I now enter my 12th week of living full time on the Isle of Mull in Tobermory and that’s not a great deal of time when I think about it. Roughly two and a half months. And what a good two and a half months, with each day getting better and better. And what is better?

Better is a sense of peace, where I don’t miss the rush, the litter, the depravation, the claustrophobia, and behaviour of people in Tameside and Dukinfield where I last lived after we sold the house in Mossley. I don’t wish to slag off or critise Tameside, but the district of Manchester is a result of its governance and people.

It’s Council is Labour, and from my own experience is too long in power, untouchable, and pooly run with a number of Councillors riding a gravy train.

It’s residents seem for the most part not to have an interest in where they live, or the people around them. A crying shame for those that do care.

It is said that one should not do a geographical to escape unhappiness as you only take your head with you, but in some cases that is not the case and I can safely say the move out of all of the sh*t in both Mossley and Dukinfield was the most inspired and correct thing to do.

But it all comes down to change and the adage, “nothing changes, if nothing changes”. Embrace change as this is what I did. Is it frightening? Yes. Is it unpredicatable? Yes Can it go wrong? Yes.

My advice is do something of change that you have dreamed of, but never had the courage to carry out. Take that leap of faith.

Looking out over the sea toward Rum and Eigg.

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A second day of 2025 and what a walk

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Typing here in Oban in the YHA, nice and toasty, and enjoying the silence after the bedlam of a young family being rounded up for bed. It has been a rather good day. I was up early, reading away, spotted a group of female red deer using the garden, to then have a little lie down, followed by a lovely bracing costal walk near Glengorm Castle at Sorne Point by the ruined fort at Dun Ara, where we checked out the bathing pool, in fact a natural man made harbour of possible Norse origin that the fort guarded.

All the photos and videos for the day can be found online at Flickr.

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Turning on the Tobermory Christmas Lights

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Last night on Main Street, Tobermory, saw the turning on of the Christmas lights.

What a wonderful experience last night being part of the Isle of Mull community as we all saw the Christmas Tractor parade, children choir singing carols, the Tobermory Choir singing carols, Ukulele playing and singing of carols, a raffle, Banjo Beale judging shop fronts, then the countdown to the turning on of the lights.

Full photos and videos can be found at: https://www.flickr.com/gp/petercobley/0t5Cy5zpU1

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Day and night in Tobermory

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A post on Tobermory, a place of day and night in terms of living here. In a few mere hours we can see two very different Tobermory’s.

For me this is the delight of the island that is Mull. No one moment is the same visually, but then again is that not life?

Sunday morning of the 17th November 2024

The same view on the evening of Sunday 17th November 2024

It is Monday the 18th just after 5pm as I type. It is fresh but mild outside if that makes sense, and with no rain. We await potential snow as does the rest of the country, especially those in high places. So I may soon see my first snow on the Isle of Mull.

Was down on Main Street earlier, about a couple of hours ago, to do some shopping at the Coop, and it is cheese cake for pudding tonight!

Looking down Main Street this evening

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Isle of Mull Cheese (Sgriob-ruadh Dairy Farm and Distillery)

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A walk with The Boss today for lovely coffee, cheese and venison toasties, and cake at the Isle of Mull’s very own cheese factory (and distillery.)

The Glass Barn (photo courtesy of Isle of Mull Cheese.)

Yes it was a bit nippy and windy, and we got hit with a rain squall as we walked up from the house, but it was worth it - for the food, the café interior, its shop, and the wonderful company of my wife.

Isle of Mull Cheese is well know and produces wonderful cheese; spirits from the whey by-product of the cheese production. The site is one in the same as the dairy, so a wonderful experience for a family and children.

The interior is rustic, as though from a classic Constable painting or Cider with Rosie. It feels to be transported back to olden days, or days of youth. For me another discovery to be found on Mull.

The Glass Barn (1st photo courtesy of Isle of Mull Cheese.)

The walk back saw no rain but great views looking out and over into the Sound of Mull. I got to say hello to a moo cow.

The view from the dairy farm. And a moo cow.

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Peter Cobley

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A friend has encouraged me to write about myself, showing all the positives I have. Well here goes.

Marrying Claire in Kingussie in 2017.

I’m 53, and today - Friday 18th October - marks my moving permanently to Tobermory, Isle of Mull, to be with Claire my wife, who now teaches there. All very exciting. And she’s on route via Loch Lomond as I type.

Me as a Person

A really nice chap who takes pleasure in helping people wherever he can. A firm proponent of the so called Golden Rule, the premise of which is simply to treat people as you’d want to be treated yourself.

I’m spiritual and believe strongly that all humans have a shared association and form part of nature, and ultimately the Universe. That life is about trying to do what is right, whilst accepting and forgiving the flaws we all have.

I’m well educated and well read, gulp, and keep on learning.

I volunteer where I can to give back, and after a number of enhanced DBS checks have worked with:

OCD Action

Change Grow Live (CGL) Tameside

ANEW

Give what has been freely given to you!

Costa Coffee Oban.

I have my business found us that I have worked hard at for over 10 years.

  • I have good ethics and am used by leading people and companies in the Regions - Microsoft, Dentsu, Channel 4 to name drop.

  • Half the business is head hunting/search and selection at senior level for the advertising, media, marketing industries.

  • Why? If you read my LinkedIn profile, you’ll see that I’ve held senior roles in advertising businesses, both offline and online.

  • I therefore have a black book of contacts to die for, and closely understand how to set an advertising business up, and run it successfully.

  • I have, always had, a knack for working with people and commanding their trust.

  • The other half of found us is Consultancy, Commercial, Sales and Marketing, or plain Non-Exec’ Director support, which I have good experience in, and deliver results.

  • This ties into the close work I carry out with the Management School at Lancaster University.

Look me up and ask me to help your business, yourself, your career. I’d be delighted to!

www.foundus.co.uk

http://linkedin.com/in/petercobley

I’ve achieved bloody good results for people, businesses, non-profit organisations, and I am keen to emulate this from the Isle of Mull.

And you know what? I am proud to shout about it from Oban, where I’m sat now.

Day 1 of the Saunders.

My passion, as is my wife’s, is fell running. With outdoor swimming (way before it came fashionable) and cycling, though we prefer touring.

Look me up on Flickr. I’ve taken some smashing photos over the years of the GR20 across to ultra fell races.

In repose at the half way camp.

Day 2 Start of the Saunders.

Penultimate check point.

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Finding a Balance.

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What actually is balance? Life has me thinking on this, especially as we are all taught to have a healthy work/life balance. I’d like to crack open this misnomer as I’d call it.

A couple of photos of the Crinan Canal by Lochgilphead from a walk earlier today.

Where does your journey start?

I believe in life as one holistic existence and there is no private or public life. Just life and of how we live it. We need to really know ourselves (see further) in order to understand, live, and change our lives; so displacing the modern society model or artifice of private life and work as separate entities. This is social conditioning that dictates we live life on society’s, other’s terms, and that work, on average, takes more then 50% of one’s life.

We ought in fact to live life fully and not dissect it or split it and thus ourselves, willingly giving more to work as though it is a separate life to our own real one.

So how do I deconstruct thework/life structure that so many of us live by.

Happiness!

I believe in happiness and that one should pursue what makes us happy. All will fall into place after that. So one should think of what makes us happy. Because surely this is a more sound pursuit. And this then becomes the realm of dreams!

Which so often is conditioned out of us from childhood. You must get a job, a house, a career, get married….. if you can please read the familiar book Walkabout by James Vance. And failing that watch the film staring a young Jenny Agutter.

For dreams read:

https://www.foundus.co.uk/talk/a-scottish-adventure-dreams-fulfilled-what-is-your-dream

We need to be aware of nature and nurture, of us and our place in our environment, of whether we want to be subject to others and what they say. Have you really thought of whether your values and beliefs are those of others instilled in you from young? Work/life balance - where did you learn this and why?

Have you thought, really thought what you actually stand for, believe in, are? This can be quite difficult but worthwhile. Why two diametrically opposed parts to life in the form of work and non-work?!? Can you say to yourself and describe, “my life is… and I live my life to live my dream of….”

Let’s get one thing clear. We have just one life. Not a ‘work’ life and ‘personal’ life, just one.

(From There is no ‘Work-Life Balance’ — there’s just Life by Ant Murphy.

The article I quote one makes for good reading and nails key points I wish to make, and of how my views have changed. I don’t necessarily agree with all Mr Murphy says, but I certainly agree with his last paragraph.

We just have ‘life’ and we get to choose how we spend it. Life’s too short to have anything less.

Know thyself" is a philosophical maxim that means to fully understand oneself, including one's emotions, desires, and abilities.

It is best known from being inscribed on the Temple of Apollo in Delphi, Greece.

Could your life be a wobbly Jenga tower? Work and non work life in cosmic conflict as one never pleases the other. Do you have that constant feeling of chasing your tail? Of never quite achieving? That’s how I was. It was hard, but I collapsed my old tower and rebuilt. But I rebuilt no tower to rival other towers. I live and breathe and am Me, and being Me is an exposition of my dreams. I am authentic to others and myself. True to myself as to where I can be, and for that matter want to be. I am beholden to none.

You need to know yourself first, understand what you really believe in and want. On doing this you can seek your happiness, and life will fit into place for you. Work and other elements come under your control to deliver upon the dream, versus you being under their control.

Happiness rubs off on people as they see a liberation from worldly woes we thought we suffered from.

You have choice and many of us forget this. We let life (environment) make choices for us, including what we believe in.

And with choice we can live life knowing ourselves, look for and give happiness, and achieve dreams in one or many actions. We are not spread thin or in conflict for example by trying to live two very different lives - that of work and private life, or of parent, child, brother, sister etc. We can live as us and be free to chose. We can choose our role in life.

We have choice. We have action.

Making Wise Decisions

“Questions are never indiscreet; answers sometimes are.”

—Oscar Wilde

Over and over again, we circle the same thoughts in our minds, certain that if we keep chewing on them, we’ll be better able to make important decisions. Should we commit ourselves to a new relationship? Is it time to take a new job? Do we need to stand up for a principle?

The harder we try to make that “perfect decision,” the tighter and more obsessed we become. It starts to feel like the most important decision of our lives. The very process of decision making becomes a problem.

Instead of recycling the same thoughts, let us ask, “What’s the worst thing that can happen if we choose a given path today?” “Is this decision in sync with ourselves and our recovery?” “Will it work for today?” When we answer these questions, our choices are clear. And when we make positive, healthy decisions, the cycle of worry can stop. Our lives are more serene, more productive, and more calm.

Today help me to keep my perspective. No decision is without risk—but few are irreversible.

This inspiration is from

Body, Mind, and Spirit: Daily Meditations.

© 1990 by Hazelden Foundation. All rights reserved.

Quoted from the app Inspirations.

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A Scottish Sojourn.

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Deep in the forest above Lochgilphead.

Sojourn means temporary stay. And I find myself for a month in Lochgilphead (look at a map) prior to Oban, and then Tobermory.

It’s a lovely little place next to Loch Gilp and the entrance to the Crinan Canal. A place of happiness and epiphany for me, but that’s another story.

I’m soon to catch up for a couple of hours with my wife Claire as she’s leaves Loch Tay where she’s been with family to Oban, then onto Mull. She’s in good spirits and that makes me fuzzy warm.

I can now say that I have finally physically, mentally, and emotionally departed England. Mind you I will need to get down there to retrieve possessions that are spread between Denton, Macclesfield, and Coatbridge. So much for being organised. Special thanks to the esteemed Lee Wyatt for watering my plants.

I, my life, found us my business, plus wifey embark on a new chapter with fun adventures ahead. That is both exiting and to the met with trepidation. What will happen? Who knows! But I feel alive again, like I have not felt alive for years.

I’ve learnt a lot since July, faced challenges, and learnt to be grateful for what I have, and those who care for me. And I realise I am rich. Very rich.

A selfie of Loch Gilp.

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Jealous, but not really....

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I am jealous, but not really. In fact excited. So what’s this all about a cow (coo in Scotland.)

A coo.

The Wifey, She who must be Obeyed, The Boss, Teach, Run for the Hills, Mrs Cobley, Mrs C, Yeah Baby, and a variety of other names went out for a walk last night after school. Above Tobermory is a track into the countryside where there is a radio mast. She drove up there, parked, and walked, and what photos she sent, what photos.

I was jealous because I was not there with Claire, who I miss a lot, whilst bathed in miserable weather in Dukinfield, and suffering from this infernal cold and cough. But after a great sleep having taken a Lemsip I feel more sprightly this morning and have not hacked a cough out and fingers crossed. So jealously pivoted to excitement at knowing that my new home is not that far away.

This last photo really sums up living on Mull and Claire must have been very near Ardmore Bay to the north of Tobermory looking across the sea to Ardnamurchan Peninsular on the mainland. Just stunning, with plenty of hills (Munros) to explore.

Today is a mixed one with two hours volunteering over lunchtime with OCD Action as I help facilitate a general OCD support group. Then after that I’m working on myself with some CBT for my own OCD via Silvercloud, and will soon also receive some one to one sessions via Oldham Talking Therapies, for which I am grateful. And I am certainly grateful for the NHS and always have been for what it does and continues to do. So it is with sadness that I see it creak and groan to the extent that it does with such damage riven through it by the failed private policies of the Conservatives. I am not saying Labour will have the solutions, but we can only hope.

And I will be one of the lucky ones who has been able to pay for private health needs, has received work medical insurance, and benefited from NHS services. And will receive just as much and more in a more sparsely populated area and probably better funded service in Argyll and Bute.