Tyndrum, Crianlarich, Loch Earn, Strathyre.

Just back from a 3 day jaunt up to Tyndrum. I left the caravan on Pinetrees caravan site in Tyndrum last week as I was returning to go off and meet the Wigan fishermen on their annual pilgrimage to Crianlarich. In attendance were Sam the Wigan Publican, his cousin Bill the Butcher, Roger the Crisp Delivery man, Paul the Best fisherman in Europe, Billy Timber Dick and Mick the Maniac. We met up on Wednesday evening for a wee refreshment in The Rod and Reel pub to plan the activities for the next couple of days.

So up at the crack of dawn on Thursday and travelled down to Loch Earn, where I took part in some fishing for the first time in 40 years. I caught the tiniest wee brown trout ever, which was duly returned to the water to fight another day.

On Friday in his usual'wait till I tell you whos playing where mode' Joe The Tiler called to say that Jock the Box was playing in Strathyre, so the Inn at Strathyre was the venue that night. If he had called earlier I would have moved the caravan down there for the night, instead of a 50 mile round trip from Tyndrum and a game of dodge the deer in the early hours. However a great time was had by all.

Tyndrum, The Drovers, Invercoe and the Clachaig.

Last weekend Joe the Tiler, Stevie Cabletie, Veronica, the Jelly Baby and Me went off to seek some music in the west highlands and what fun that was. Friday was in the great wee site in Tyndrum called Pinetrees. After going to Paddies for some food and of course some booze we got a taxi to the Drovers where we had a great time annoying the tourists and the barstaff.

On Saturday after a light breakfast we headed north to the Invercoe campsite in Glencoe. In the evening we found ourselves in the Clachaig watching Shennanigans, who are a very good 2 piece band.

Thanks to Banjo Mick for very kindly running us back from the Drovers to Tyndrum, to Murdo Morrison for getting us a lift on the Citylink coach on Saturday and to Veronica for not drinking and driving us to the Clachaig.

Isle of Mull Music Fesival.

Hi Folks, sorry for the delay in posting this. The Mull music festival took place
23rd,24th and 25th April. In attendance was, Akkie, Roy, Jingles, Stevie Cabletie, Veronica, Joe the Tiler, Joe the Dancing Joiner and me.

First we will chat about the reason for the delay. I either lost (which I doubt) the memory card from my camera, or someone took it from the camera, probably after I annoyed them by blinding them with the flash then having the cheek to ask them to take a picture of us. Anyway, Akkie has kindly given me some pictures from his camera to put on here.

Akkie, Roy, Jingles and myself were holed up in a caravan up at Lochnameal, which is about 3 miles from Tobermory up a dirt track about one mile long. The location and the caravan were excellent but trying to get into where the action was going off was a bit hard mostly due to the fact that taxis drivers didnt like their vehicle being wrecked driving up the bumpy dirt track.

On the Saturday we all decided that drinking and watching horse racing was what music festivals are all about, so we all met up at our gaff. After a while drinking and, due to the lack of a betting shop up that bumpy lane, we thought that we would have some fun picking a horse by number on the next races, placing a pound bet on the table. The agreement was that the person with the closest number to the winning horse lifted the money. Oh what fun!!! After a while the hunger set in and I as the appointed chef for the evening had to carefully place the steak pies and pizzas in the oven, and cook some beans. Easy this cooking lark. One thing you must remember with gas cookers with a white metal lid is to turn the gas off before you close the lid, the other equally important part of this proceedure is not to place a plastic bread bin on the afore mentioned cooker lid, because they melt. The woman who owned the caravan charged us £60 for the damage, I'd have been cheaper treating the company to a slap up Indian meal.

The festival was great as usual and we are all looking forward to next year already.