You might not be able to see what this is, but it is the mock up of Scotty boy's space suit. I am going to make the final jacket with sleeves instead of it being sleeveless. It looks great in real-life, so 70s! 
They have been largely disinterested in me and have shown a wee bit more interest in Jason but Bonnie & Clyde have returned to our house for a holiday while their mum and dad are on holiday themselves. As I say, they have shown little interest in us but hopefully they will be a bit more cuddly in the next couple of weeks. Watch this space for more videos and photos from the scary cat lady...
A difficult task indeed. It was huge and looked really heavy. I have a couple of videos of the competitors; an unsuccessful attempt and the winning throw. It's the first time I've ever seen it happen in real life!
We eventually got a cup of tea on the ferry. Can you imagine that there wasn't a cup of tea to be had in easy reach of our picnic spot at the Highland Games? I was choking for one with my lunch but the tent near us only sold, "Cans of Juice £1.10". Harumph.
These girls (and boys) were fantastic. It was a dancing competition and they would come in groups of 4, dance for a couple of minutes and then the next four would come on. They all had such grace and poise and I knew it would take a great deal of concentration to make it appear so lightfooted. I enjoyed it a lot and I was a little disappointed that the dancers didn't get the same attention from the comperes as the strongmen did. Och well. That's my feminist rant over.
This second video is a bit more close up. If we had a bit more room, we might have taken a seat over this side, but it was all squashed in over that side and we were off to find the Mackays...
Here we are at the Bute Highland Games! Hooray! I have to admit that I was initally disappointed with the stalls at the Games, there was no Farmer's Market and I thought there would be some organic burgers or something. Or some home made chutney or the like. No, the stalls were like ones at the Barras, two ferra pound! Considering it was £6 to get in and there was about 5000 people there, I would have thought that they could have at least made some nice banners for the stall holders - some of them were written in black marker pen. It was only initial disappointment; as soon as I had a smuggled in sip of wine from my volvic bottle, I warmed to it all completely!
The Strongman competition was one of the main events on Saturday and consisted of throwing various sizes of shot putt, the Scottish hammer, throwing a weight over a pole and the famous caber toss. There were some international competitors, a Dutchman, a German, some local boys and a couple of guys from Arran and the borders. They all wore kilts and looked like bouncers. Curly hair in the photos above is only 17!
It was a nice wee short ferry crossing, about 30 minutes and we sat outside for the whole journey on the top deck - really blew the cobwebs away. It was nice to catch up with Andrew and meet Rhoda (who had spent some years in Japan) and here are a couple of videos of the boat doing a pretty fast reverse both on the way out of the Wemyss Bay harbour and in the Rothesay harbour at the other end.
Two things I didn't expect to see on Saturday were a clown running a 10km road race and some men wrestling with no tops on. I saw both at the Bute Highland Games.
Sorry. Completely forgot to take a picture of it before I guzzled it down - it was quite a beast to look at. And that was just the tail. Those things on the plate there are the tail bones from each of our tails. It was a right good meaty fish, very tasty and with brilliant texture. Jason roasted it and it just peeled off the bone. Absolutely delicious. It was down from £12.74 to £3.51 in ASDA. A complete steal. A total WOW dinner. Here's a picture of some of them just out the sea... Handsome fellas, eh?
Anyone who knows me and Jason will know that we have raved about Japan since returning from a holiday there in April. The place is amazing and reinforces your belief in humanity on a daily basis. That sounds a tad pretentious but I can't express enough how it is actually the case. On the first day of our holiday, we came to the conclusion that it was as if Japan was designed by a 5 year old. It's a storybook place. So it came as no surprise when Sylvia got this lovely little note from a Japanese seller on ebay. I wasn't surprised by it but it did invoke memories of Japan. Everyone in Japan dedicates this level of attention to themselves, each other and their work. Summed up in a note.
So, wee brother is going to Bestival - http://www.bestival.net/ NOT SUITABLE FOR WORK - and each year they have a theme. This year is SPACE and those Bestivalians take their themes very seriously. Apparently, all the festival-goers dress up. So, a request came in from Scotty boy to see if I had any ideas. I loved the idea of this......
Early astronauts. Those guys were plucky! Check those outfits. They wouldn't keep you warm walking down Sauchiehall Street on an autumn's day so how the heck were they meant to work in Space. So I got some silver fabric, some orange fabric and I'm going to fashion together a shiny jumpsuit and jacket. Woohoo! Pics to follow.
It was glorious weather for Tracy and Colin's wedding at the lovely Duck Bay Marina. I've often thought the Duck Bay doesn't look much from the outside and I had never been in it, but what a surprise. It is a gorgeous hotel venue - Tracy had told me that as soon as Colin and her peeked in the window one day, she knew that would be the place for her wedding. And I could see why. Having a whole day of sunshine meant that we could sit outside all day on the deck as well. It was a beautiful wedding, Tracy looked gorgeous, Colin's speech was perfect and the food was delicious. Melon, lentil soup, roast beef and yorkshire pudding, cranachan and coffeee - yum!
You have to visit the Islay blog - found at the right side of the page - to hear about the recent Islay adventures. Suffice to say that it was different again! Day-old calves, afterbirth, hidden fruit & vegetable gardens, paddling in the sea and birling around at a Céilidh. Wonderful stuff. Again. Who knows what will happen on the next Islay excursion!
