The Mantis

Went over to Islay at the weekend. First time since 2009. No Eagles or Otters or Hen Harriers and not much distillery action either. Got a tasting at Ardbeg but not a tour.

Just back from a weekend in Islay. Will probably post a few pics in the Scottish Islands but here's a wee Heron with a dab or some sort of flattie.

Wee trip to Leith on Sunday in the blue hour.

One from yesterday

Yeah that was just a wee joke that escalated when your dotting mate got involved. Looking at the islands threads etc you'd soon realise I'm fanatical about Scotland. You don't climb all the Munros without getting wet. This guy has an interesting graphic though to show where the rain is. Next time you get an English guy telling you how wet Scotland is, tell him East Lothian is about as dry as kent.

I don't buy that one (pardon the pun). I remember Rangers experimented with that around 1971, I mean the circles, not the photoshopping, or cutting and pasting as it was then. But if you look at older programmes (Hearts in this case) it doesn't happen. I don't think it's been altered at all btw.

For even more balance about these extortionate prices. Wifey is going away in October for a few days so I booked the Rob Roy Hotel in Aberfoyle, which I know already and it’s none too salubrious... but £55 for a single including breakfast. Handy for Loch Ard and Loch Rusky which is popular with the photographers. You’re in Erskine... I was there this morning shooting the Waverley from up on the bridge. Wee roll and sausage at Caulders first. Then went on to Lyle Hill in Greenock to catch it again. And I can tell @Rudolph Hucker it was absolutely glorious and I never needed any waterproofs.

Aye, it must be a bit like the swear filter on here, it’s just a robot. You can have a laugh trying to smuggle an email past it. Funny but with my Islay booking I could access the phone number, can’t remember now but booking.com had left it in somewhere, must have been an area that they didn’t check.

They're all at it anyway and that includes the likes of eBay and Paypal, it seems they get a huge cut in proportion to the little they actually do, although they've got you over a barrel as without them you couldn't really market anything easily. Gumtree a noble exception. If you see what I wrote above, about the wife's house in Lewis, she's on TripAdvisor and Home Away or whatever. They make it near impossible to contact anybody direct until they've paid, and their fee is about £120 (for a week's rental) which you sometimes have to forfeit in a cancellation even if it's the guest's fault, so she spends hours on the phone getting it sorted.

Just for balance... Off to Islay on Friday with my mate. £90 for a twin room, decent quality B&B in Bowmore. TBF, we intended going last April, it was £120 on booking.com pre-covid, but after cancelling it the B&B gave us a direct booking.

Aye like him (I think anyway) I had a good few years of committee experience. And I’m knocking on towards the state pension but you seem to have memories going even further back than me hence me ribbing you about the age thing

Jeez, nae offence Tut, but I had gained the impression it could easily be the other way around

Cheers for that. Just checked and my photo was May 2018 and definitely the same place as @Otis Blue.

I was at Ibrox that day and the man with the wee barrow put up the half times, 0-4. Everybody thought it was a mistake or just his wee joke. Nobody expected teams to beat Jock Stein's Celtic back then, especially in a Final. Plenty people would have expected them to come back and win the game. But Rovers, people at least thought they had a chance with the team they had.

Oh no, you'll kick yourself when you see how close you were! It's hidden from view from the car park. You go just a wee bit further on and it's in a wee sort of bowl. Hmmm... I went there 2 years ago and I found the Shankly thing nae bother by just driving straight up the road (I think), but I never realised there was anything else. Carried on to a Muirkirk game though and found Ladeside Park after a bit of a struggle.

Aye that scene is quality. I've got a box set and 'Faimly' is episode 2 on there and on Netflix, but according to Wiki, it was originally episode 4, and 'Waddin' was last. The different theme music on Netflix annoys me a bit. Not that the original music was great.

Can't argue with most of that TBH, but here's a counter argument anyway. Iceland, The Faroe Islands and Norway have prices to make your eyes water, and the weather's not the best. But they are class destinations so people bite the bullet and just pay. They're practically fighting off the tourists. The first two have very limited accommodation although they're getting there. Scotland's in that bracket. You're from Scotland, so you take it for granted. You don't see it through Dutch or German or even English eyes. Correct me if I'm wrong but you seem to be assuming anybody would pick Corfu given a choice. A good example is - my missus and her sister inherited their parents' house in Lewis (I'm not from there, I'm from Midlothian). I'm in a hillwalking club, and a camera club, so I started offering mates rates at say £300/week. The wife and sister were embarrassed at that and tried to suggest £200 would be enough. Because they take it for granted. Meanwhile the average tourist going there for a week thinks they've died and gone to heaven. They are heartbroken having to leave at the end of the week. That's all in the past. Once the sister in law smelt the first few dribbles of cash, they started doing it properly, TripAdvisor and all that shite (against my wishes). With all the booking fees plus cleaners you really have to charge £700-800 pw. But nobody turns their nose up at that. They come back. All summer it gets booked up so we can hardly get a slot for ourselves (and incidentally nobody in their right mind would choose to holiday in Scotland in July/August if it wasn't for the school holidays. Just look at the weather stats. April/May/June for me any time, or even Sept/Oct). You can't underestimate the pull of the history, the scenery, the castles, the wildlife, the distilleries. If you've ever got into a conversation with a Dutch tourist about whisky, you'll know what I mean. And a lot of people actually like the hills with mist on them. I remember walking near Bridge of Orchy and I met an English family. They were pointing at this speck about a mile up in the sky which was a Golden Eagle and it had obviously made their holiday... like you I probably wouldn't spend my annual leave either, just several short breaks, but that's probably true in any country.

A man like you needs to get down to Castle Douglas with the camera and visit Bellymack for the Red Kites, and Dee marshes just up the road for the squirrels, woodpeckers, nuthatches etc. I would say the kite experience is far better than Black Isle or Argaty. Plenty Red Deer in Galloway too. Also if you're into hillwalking it's as craggy as parts of the Highlands and The Merrick is a decent high altitude walk without being very difficult.

Doesn't look so bad at all. Pretty lucky then - I've been going for many years, sometimes 3-4 times a year and only witnessed the helicopter thing once, maybe twice. Seen one or two lifeboat drills too.

I've been twice before but that was in 1994 and 2009. It'll be mainly distilleries if open, and a bit of bird watching (should have been late April before it was cancelled). I've got an old mate who used to do all the driving when we were doing the Munros in the 1980s, as he had a 5 series BMW 2.8i. He's just turned 83 so I'm driving him. He was a bit of a surrogate dad to me I suppose. He still cycles a bit but I don't think that'll be on the agenda.

Ah you poor bugger... Mrs Mantis and I went over on Fri 31st teatime crossing and I spent nearly the whole time on deck as you didn't need to wear your mask there. No food being served so went to the Seafood Shack in Ullapool first. Whole week was very breezy and showery though. Coming back on the 7th was wet but not as bad as you got, spent the whole trip in the quiet room and managed a short kip. Got a good run down the road but Ballinluig was shutting an hour early at 7.30 so we were fecked and just went home. Here's a pic from the first crossing.

Yeah those Junior games in June always attracted a load of them with the wee rucksack and the DSLR cameras round the neck (why do they need an SLR?). Don't forget the poly bag for the mint condition programme, and the other copy to write on. I was at a game at Prestonpans when that groundhop was on. 2 of them went round the park with clickers to count the crowd, while others were dodging about trying to confuse them. When I was on the committee at Whitehill this silly c**t turned up quoting train times and asking if the bus that passed the ground would get him into the Waverley to catch the 1750 to Nottingham or wherever. We told him to relax, and have a couple of pints in the social club and we'd see if there was anybody that would give him a lift into town. That wasn't good enough for him though, he just hopped about like a cat on hot bricks, doubt if he caught much of the action on the pitch. We got one of them every couple of weeks as they were ticking off the LL.

I'll fetch you some tissues Here's a wee bonus

Ah no, Too young, more of a spectator I don’t know if it was coming from the East of Scotland Or not, but as a 14 year old it was a bit of a culture shock to see all these men queuing outside an off-license at 10 to 3 when they might miss the kick off or all the programmes might be sold out Eventually I graduated onto pints of Tartan, I was never a devotee of the Electric Soup.

Don’t forget the VP and the El-D !