Author Archives: Don

Having Javier and Bainzie pop in to the site put me back to my XJR1300 years which lasted from 2000- 2010 plus a few dabbles in the years that followed.

The annual club meet for coffee at the Broadway Hotel in the Cotswolds was always guaranteed to bring out some heavy metal —

and sumwun had to keep them all in line —

Especially when you had tearaways like Bainzie there – 4th from left in the shades – he was the best tailgunner in the biznez when the pace got hot and a few fell by the wayside —

Did I see Tony here on the left – just checking his bollocks as usual – last time we ran together was from Matlock and we didn’t get far on that occasion before a bunch of us were spread up the road! A Suzuki riding Loonie from Manchester coming fast on our side of the road round a blind bend wiped us out. It took two armed polis – two ambulances and a whole lot more to clean up that mess.

What else have we got?

Mad Mick on the right and Ollie with their Yellow Perils at Ravenglass in the Lakes – the faster red bike is mine. Poor Ollie there in the centre had recently returned from a trackday on a circuit in the south of France. Having discovered the freedom of the race track the XJR was in the proccess of being exchanged for a go-faster Ducati. He lost his life when hit by a car just a couple of days after this photo was taken — a sad loss.

H-mmm – that memory detuned me a bit – I will dig a few more pics out when I have time because every ride didn’t end badly – even if an over-exhuberant Lampy did make a habit of killing lamposts and bursting holes through stone walls —

Now would you just look at this lil beauty new arrived from it’s German manufacturers and handed to me by the helpfull ferryman t’other day.

She should give the wee bike and I a whole new lease of life as the original would barely cope with any rider over 12 stones (old money) and I weigh considerably more that that.

Can’t wait to bolt her in there and try her out — Don

Loki – named after the Norse God of Mischief – here he is guarding my walking stick while I take his photo on the hill behind our house —

He emerges from his kennel every morning as shiny as a shiny thing and at eleven months old he is a picture of health and happiness and looks as if butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth —

Particularly when he has a toy in his teeth – stolen from the wee collie dug next door.

Yes he can be a handful but he is well worth the effort.

Just had to stop on my way into Oban this morning and take a pic of this fine fellow feeding at the hay rack ‘abune them a’ as our bold Rabbie wrote in an early poem in reply to a letter from a Mr McAdam of Craigen-Gillan —

‘I’ll cock my nose abune them a – I’m roos,d by Craigen-Gillan!’

Looking across a calm Oban Bay under beautiful blue skies to the Isle of Kerrera and the mountains on Mull between wild snow showers today —

Feels good to be alive on a day like this.

Castle Stalker on Loch Laich by Appin – North Argyll. Back in the 14th century it was the home of Clan MacDougal – Lords of Lorn and also of Dunollie Castle on the outskirts of Oban. They had the misfortune to back the wrong side when Bonnie Prince Charlie arrived from exile in France on an ill-fated mission to reclaim his throne for the Stewarts leading to the rout of the Highland clans by the Hanovarian backed English at Culloden in 1745.

Pity I did’nt have my shovel with me today as I could have dug up the pot of Macdougal gold at the end of the rainbow – buried there by the defeated clan after King Robert the Bruce took his revenge at the Pass of Brander for an earlier mugging by the MacDougals in Strathfillan.

I’m taking a chance with this Post as we’ve recently had a trigger happy dame from the States posing in the National Press with a ‘Wild’ Blackface Ram she claimed to have shot on one of our neighbouring islands.

Now these guys aren’t exactly ‘wild’ as most of them have been bottle fed from babyhood and hand reared to become the fine specimens they are today – such as the fine fellas we spotted above Loch Tay during a recent visit to the area.

I hope you readers understand when I don’t give an exact location – just in case our lady decides to visit with her hunting rifle at the ready. Hell these Highlanders over the fence are so tame you could knock them down with a stick if you were so inclined.

It’s a beautiful part of Scotland tho’ —

But the way things are going I’m pretty sure that this proud but hornless woollyback is quite happy with his situation.

Somehow I don’t think our gun toting ‘lady’ would consider mounting this unadorned ‘Head’ on her wall back home.