The saga of the trailer tyres continued. Various “scrappies” in Glasgow were visited without success until one of them put me onto a place in Shettleston (near where we bought the slates for the house) where an old tyre was unearthed and fitted for nothing. Another phone call got us a new tube and an interesting chat with a local in his local and a generally good feeling about ordinary people in Glasgow. It took half a day but the trailer is just about functional but I’ll probably end up replacing the suspension units just to be able to fit better tyres.
Although it didn’t fill up straightaway because we had so little rain, the new drainage arrangements for the bottom pond appear to have worked. Suse is now thinking about lining the top pond which would allow us to work out some improved edging but it will have to be pumped out and I’m not doing anything until I get a new pair of wellies.
Suse went to her annual Tai Chi course in Stirling and I helped fit a new velux window into Aiden’s room. We teamed up at Balloch and had some first class kayak coaching on Loch Lomond from Kayak Bute. We refreshed our paddling techniques and practised rescues and both came away feeling more confident about being able to cope. So much so that we are planning to paddle around Bute in the middle of September. Suse’s return from Stirling with a laptop with a dodgy screen triggered a bit of soul searching about a replacement. I think we both fancied an iPad but we soon realised that we still run software which just can’t be loaded into a tablet and I couldn’t find out if there are now apps that would do the same thing; so we ended up buying a new laptop with Windows 8. I wasn’t very impressed initially but after a bit of research, it may be starting to grow on me. The laptop has had its moments one of which resulted in me taking it back to Glasgow (on the bus) only to find that it worked perfectly in the shop. The concessionary card (Thank you, Mr Salmond) was fantastic and I couldn’t fault the bus services. Still haven’t a clue what the problem was but all is well now.
The orienteering in Moray was in top notch areas and although Suse’s blisters were troublesome, she enjoyed it and towards the end, I even began to believe that I knew what I was doing. The event had made efforts to involve local groups and businesses and I particularly enjoyed the evening chat with local craft brewers speysidecraftbrewery.com and windsweptbrewing.co.uk On the rest day, we also had a nostalgic trip to Findochty with Val Finch with a lovely pub lunch in The Admirals.
We dashed south after the event, teaming up with Emily, Richard and Caitlin en route to a family wedding in the north east of England. A couple of days in York catching up with Neil and Dorethy (who introduced us to the Ukelele Orchestra of Great Britain) were rounded off with a flying visit to the Festival Fringe in Edinburgh.
Back home the garden needed some tlc but is definitely filling out and colouring up. The spell of good weather has ended and we’ve been dodging squally showers which threatened to affect the Tarbert Harbour Centenary celebrations. The inaugural 10k race (Suse helped with the time keeping) was actually dry and a quick transfer to the village hall allowed the Harbour Board to ply us with free drink and food. In the evening, we nipped into Lochgilhead to a Cabin Fever gig and to join the crowds cheering the fire walkers on The Green. So all in all, not a bad day. Thanks everybody.