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Dave John Posts: 22335 Joined: 27th Feb 2011 Location: England | quotePosted at 20:08 on 21st June 2014 Bit of a scam really but a good ploy by the internet provider, lets face it most people have 'smart' phones now and I suspect a lot take laptops and i-pads on holiday nowadays, so a bit of a money maker. But trust a 'retired' custodian of the law to find a loophole!! There can be no chance for any of us law abiding  citizens. Nice to know that you a loving and supportive wife !!!! Enjoy your walk and hope the silence is broken if only by the highland cattle. The games sound like a fun day out, look forward to reading more tomorrow |
rustyruth Posts: 18773 Joined: 23rd Oct 2012 Location: England | quotePosted at 21:07 on 21st June 2014 It is a scam Dave, we have 5 devices with us, that would have been £25 if we'd have wanted to connect all of them legally so to speak. It's like your home broadband provider charging you monthly for every internet enabled device in your house, it just wouldn't happen. Anyway, I've left the phones on 3G and the laptop is asleep, we've only got until Tuesday so hopefully I'll be able to keep both iPads connected. I won't be going fishing again for a while |
Vince Hawthorn Posts: 12758 Joined: 19th Apr 2010 Location: UK | quotePosted at 22:37 on 21st June 2014 Another couple of drama packed days then of one sort or another ,but still the weather is behaving, already a holiday to remember. Re the fish saga- you didn't take pictures as well by any chance? If you did you could always frame an A3 enlargement so that David does not feel quite so bad. |
| rustyruth Posts: 18773 Joined: 23rd Oct 2012 Location: England | quotePosted at 23:12 on 21st June 2014 We've got pictures of my fish Vince, with me holding them, begrudgingly taken with my camera. I'm sure they'll end up on one of David's fishing forum web sites soon enough. I've already whizzed them across from my iPad to his so I assume he has plans. He can't use any of the Photoshop type apps so he can't shrink them or put himself in my place without my help. He is actually a very good fisherman, he fishes for the West Yorkshire Police team (they're all retired now none of the younger ones are interested) the team won the National championships in Portsmouth in 1999, beating the rest of the UK and NI, funny thing was that year I was one of the team of 4 Edited by: rustyruth at:21st June 2014 23:13 |
| rustyruth Posts: 18773 Joined: 23rd Oct 2012 Location: England | quotePosted at 20:46 on 22nd June 2014 Sunday dawns to yet another fine and sunny day. We decided the idea to visit the Lorne Island Games in Oban might be a good one being as the day is so nice. No sandwiches today, thought we'd try our luck with what was in offer at the games. The games started at 11.00am so we set of at 10.30am for the drive along the road through Glen Lonan to see our friends the Highland Cattle. We found them blocking the road as usual, but this time it was the car in front of us having all the trouble getting them to shift, the light coloured calf had been strategically placed by it's mother to cause maximum disruption and total gridlock, well of two cars anyway. Having cleared the cow jam we arrived at Mossfield Park in Oban bang on 11.00am, we were mugged by a very small female army cadet for £2 for the car park and £1 for a brochure. As we were queuing for the tickets we were approached by two very burly but smiley ladies brandishing leaflets and stickers with the word YES printed on them. Not wanting to argue and explain we were English resident in England we ended up wearing a sticker supporting the independence for Scotland campaign. We did notice though that the elderly gents dishing out the tickets both had English accents, and both were wearing the stickers. From what we've seen this last week I reckon there are going to be an awful lot of English people living North of the border voting for an independent Scotland - but we'll see. We arrived in time to see the five a side under 16's Shinty, which looked very much like Hockey but more dangerous. One of the teams goalie obviously hadn't turned up so someone's dad had been stuck in goal - that team lost. Then it was time for the under 16's girls Rugby, this was also a strange affair, all the girls from both teams were friends, they were all sat together chatting before they started trying to kill each other on the pitch. They sat chatting and laughing at half time, and the game ended suspiciously in a draw. The word fix sprang to mind. Now it was time to check out what was described in the brochure as "The Heavies" and they were. Very, very large hairy man in kilts, chucking heavy stuff around. There were women too, big but not so hairy. The events started off with the youth Caber tossing, there was only one boy who could actually lift the caber let alone toss it, so he won. Then followed a series of events throwing different things, hammers, large rocks, hammers on chains, heavier hammers than the previous hammers. All very entertaining, but we did notice a pattern, the same half dozen people were in every event. There were some track and field events too. The 800 metres run had only two entrants, so no one got the bronze medal. The long jump pit appeared when a man with a wheelbarrow tipped out a pile of sand at the side of the running track, raked it smooth and that was it, until a dog came along and cocked it's leg on it. On the whole an entertaining experience, but we were left with the feeling that the entire event had been bodged together for a bit of fun rather than anything too serious. But maybe that's the way these things should be. After all everyone seemed to be having a genuine good time. Apart from one small Scotsman who I asked about the history of the hammer throwing and the Highland games and was promptly told that hammer throwing is not Scottish at all, and the games don't have a history, they've only been going a couple of hundred years. I shut up. The only disappointing thing about the day was the food - I won't go into details but it was dire, we should have taken our own like we normally do, but you live and learn. Around 3.30pm things were starting to wind down so we decided to have a drive to see if we could find out how to get across to the island of Kerrera that sits just off the coast at Oban. We found the road eventually after inadvertently driving into the local A&E followed by the Fire Station. We followed the single track road to a place called Gallanach which looks out towards the island, across the aptly named Sound of Kerrera. There we spotted the foot passenger ferry on the far bank. There was a button to press to summon it across, but we thought it a bit much to have him come across, pick us up, go back across for us to say "this is nice" and take us back again. So I took a photo instead and we drove back to Taynuilt via the main road this time. So we've had roast chicken for tea, David has gone off down to the pier on the loch for a couple of hours fishing. I did get asked if I wanted to go and watch, note the word "watch" but I declined in favour of staying here to write this. It's our last day tomorrow, we plan on visiting the Inverawe Smokehouse and maybe have a meal out at the Lochnell pub in the village of Connel, but we'll see what tomorrow brings. |
| Dave John Posts: 22335 Joined: 27th Feb 2011 Location: England | quotePosted at 21:18 on 22nd June 2014 Sounds like another entertaining day, even if the 'games' do seem to be very 'local', but they can provide some of the best entertainment with no real out and out rivalries. Never really been into Connel but the bridge over the river is a marvelous construction |
| Vince Hawthorn Posts: 12758 Joined: 19th Apr 2010 Location: UK | quotePosted at 21:21 on 22nd June 2014 That sounded a very entertaing day with sights and sounds not normally experienced. The way you write your daily diary up shows that it has been a great time and with the humour chucked in it makes an entertaining read down this end of the country. Hope the last full day is as good as the rest have been. |
| rustyruth Posts: 18773 Joined: 23rd Oct 2012 Location: England | quotePosted at 21:32 on 22nd June 2014 Thanks Dave, Vince The bridge at Connel is a marvellous piece of engineering Dave, and very spectacular. The Falls of Lora have been disappointing on this visit because the weather has been too tame, plus we've never driven passed at the right state of the tide which doesn't help. Maybe tomorrow evening I might catch it right. |
| Dave John Posts: 22335 Joined: 27th Feb 2011 Location: England | quotePosted at 21:45 on 22nd June 2014 Well I have to agree with Vince it has been a really good diary, interesting, informative, entertaining and not without humour, albeit most of the humour directed at your nearest and dearest  I got a bit to live upto now for my next diary which will hopefully commence 19th July |
| rustyruth Posts: 18773 Joined: 23rd Oct 2012 Location: England | quotePosted at 21:50 on 22nd June 2014 That's the day we go to.....here we go again I can never spell it, Aberystwyth for 6 days, so we might both be writing away. David and myself have always been experts at poking fun at each other, it's the way we are. If he were writing this he might just mention that I've set the smoke alarm off every single evening whilst I've been cooking tea. I'm so accurate with it he's started calling it the timer It's called the sausage alarm at home !! |
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I'm not allowed, and my fishing rod has been taken off me 