Royal Highland Show

After being cooped up in the hotel all week at least week's Produced water event, the best thing for me was a day out in the open air with all sorts of farm animals.
Fiona and her gang allowed me to tag along on their annual trip to the Highland Show in Ingliston in Edinburgh.
Again its was a  beautiful morning but an early start as we left Troon at 0830 to head east and try and avoid the worst of the traffic.
We made good time and weren't too badly affected by the traffic and met up with her pals by 1030. We then headed around the young farmers exhibition then onto the crafts and then quick through the horses and into the cows.
The horse were all in stalls facing outward so you could see them but with the low light not take great photos (unless you used a flash, which I didn't want to risk) The cows were all in rows but facing inward so really all you could see were cow bums. Some on the ends could be photoed but again i decided against the use of a flash so none came out great...
I just like the contrast between the tiny calf and the bull...

There were a lot of Shire horses with carriages, both single and double axle ones. And since they were outside they didn't need the flash. Seeing these huge animals is well impressive, especially working as a team. They only had single pairs so it never got as dramatic as the Budweiser hitch of four pairs, but you certainly know when a team is coming.

As with all shows there is also the new farm machenery. Its amazing how complex and high tech some of these machines are - GPS and satNav to ensure full even seeding. The tradional colours of blue for Ford and red for Massey Ferguson don't seem to hold the balance any more with a good selection of colours across the board. There what even looks like the Brokeback  Barnyard entry:

Until you realise its for Breast Cancer Awareness.

What really amazes me is the increase in size of these machines. the green Kramer could probably park under the Pink beast

A jar of Jelly beans

Just back from a week in Aberdeen at our annual Produced Water Workshop. This was the event held over from April due to the ash cloud.
It was a busy week - Tuesday Alick and I provided a training course on oil in water measurement; Wednesday and Thursday were the Workshop itself; and Friday was our Produced water Club meeting.
It was quite an interesting meeting but the one thing which no one mentioned (on the record) was the Gulf of Mexico. It will be interesting to see what happens there once the immediate problems have been addressed and it will be interesting to see how it affects the way the rest of us work.
One thing which was consistent though the 4 days was the jelly beans. Someone in the hotel's management though tit would be a good idea to put out individually wrapped Jelly Belly jelly beans on each table. Sadly they look like hard sweets and not too many were eaten by the delegates. Whatever were left were 'rescued' and 'liberated' by us. By the end of the week I had over a litre of the beans!

Airborne

Ciaran suggested we go out for a cycle ride yesterday - he's finally beginning to realise that life is not all xbox.
He actually suggested a long though easy run along Cycle Route 7 from the house north through Irvine to the harbour, back along the same path, past the house and down to Barassie beach, along the front, out to the end of the runway at Prestwick and back via Fullerton Woods. All in all about 25 miles. We decided to bring lunch and invite Fiona along.
It was a lovely day, though a bit cool when you were out of direct sunlight. The sun was enough to burn though if like me you avoid suncream.

 After we ate we headed back along route 7 towards Troon and down to the beach. North Beach was reasonable quiet with the wind surfers out and the barbecues just beginning. South Beach was a mes though - I haven't seen that many people down there in ages. Despite the cycle path (why do some people insist on walking on the only bit specifically marked out for bikes?) we made cautious progress past the throngs to the top of Fullerton Drive where Ciaran called a stop due to a dodgy water bottle. When we started up again Ciaran should have brought us over the bridge and then back along to the path to Prestwick but he forgot.Straight away about 3 miles snipped from the cycle. We continued on into Fullerton woods and had a break up by the swing park where Fiona came to the rescue with a bag of sweets.
After finishing the pack we headed off again with Ciaran and I enjoying a simple chase when suddenly disaster struck. Ciaran decided to brake suddenly, too suddenly for me. I hit the back of his bike and flipped over him and it landing on the verge on my right shoulder with the bike pretty much still on me. It was all quiet for a moment while we got our breath back and took stock.
Luckily neither of us was hurt but were both bruised and shaken. Initially Ciaran was concerned that I would be mad but the potential seriousness meant I was simply grateful that we were ok.
Even his bike survived though mine didn't quite. The front tyre was completely flat, blown by the impact (I hope. I haven't had the opportunity to get it looked at yet). Fiona and Ciaran headed off to get the car then collected me as i walked the last mile and a half home.
Ciaran's ankle is sore though he had to be reminded later that evening when he was jumping up and down; my leg is badly bruised and my shoulder is quite sore, though I don't think anything serious. Oddly my hand is quite sore,along my little finger of my left hand. Hopefully the bikes will be OK as we are taking them to Arran with us at the start of July...

Ice Cream at the Loan's Gala

Today was the annual Loan's Gala day, and in what seems to have become the local tradition the Cubs and Scouts were out raising funds - the Cubs by selling ice cream and the Scouts by breaking plates.

When I say Cubs and Scouts I am being quite loose with the term. Dave and I  only saw 3 cubs the entire day. The Scouts fared a little better with Colin having 3 scouts around.
We have an easy plan - sell ice cream to the punters. We also have cans, but we focus on the ice cream. We used to also do popcorn - that was an earner until the popper broke down a few years back. The scouts offer 10 golfballs for 50p to fling at the crockery pinned to the back wall - a great stress releaser.
Despite being stuck in the tent for the entire day, it seemed a great day. The weather was quite nice, though a little breezy. Just the sort of day that needs an ice cream cone. The event started at 1300 and for the next 2.5 hours straight we sold our entire stock. First to finish were the flakes for the 99s. But we could offer chocolate sauce as an alternative. Then the cones ran out and we had to proceed with disposable cups. But finally the last of the ice cream ran out and we had t let the queue know.
For the next hour we sold out stock of cans - the burger van were selling theirs for £1 but ours were only 80p so 2 scouts with a cooler stood near the top of the burger van queue and emptied the cooler twice.


Dave just emailed to say we made almost £160 profit ! Well done us.


 

Falkirk Wheel

Since it was a lovely day Fiona, Ciaran and I headed out to the Falkirk Wheel. Ciaran and I hadn't been for a while and Fiona had never been there. As the wheel joins two canals, be decided to bring the bike with us and get some miles in on the level paths.

The wheel is pretty amazing (even from a non technical geeky point of view). Originally, a series of 11 locks were required to get traffic from one canal across the 35m height difference to the other, a process that would take most of the day. Now, the wheel will do it in about 4 minutes (well only the first 24 metres), for little power use.
Traffic from the Forth & Clyde canal come into the basin via a lock. They then enter the gondola which will then close, sealing the boat and its water in. At the same time the upper gondola has its own boat or is simply full of water. The clever bit is that provided the water level in both gondolas remain equal, the weight in both are equal. (Archimede's Principle).Power is applied to simply push the two balanced gondolas around. Once at the top the gondola hatch open and the boat sails out onto the viaduct. This is still 11m lower than the Union canal due to the Antonine Wall, a Roman wall built to keep the Scots away from the soft Italians.
To avoid the wall the canal goes under it and the adjacent railway line and opens into a pond where two of the original locks had been moved to, allowing access to the Union canal.

We had a pleasant cruise on the canal with a trip up and luckily back down again on the wheel. Despite it being such a tourist attraction, that was never in the original plan. use of the waterways has been increasing over the years and when the Millennium Commission asked for proposals for improving the use of the canals, reconnecting the 2 canals was suggested.

After our little boat trip and our lunch, we collected our bikes and headed along to the Union canal (so we climbed at least 35m) and then headed towards Polmont. There was a reason why we chose the Union Canal - its a contour canal so, apart from the 2 locks at the end of the wheel,  it should be totally flat.
Off we headed and it was totally flat, but was flat by cheating. One bit which it should have gone over or around, it went through, leading us into the 630m Falkirk Tunnel.

 This was dark, wet and slippery, and we took the advice about dismounting, despite the handrail. We hadn't gone too far on the other side of the tunnel when we realised how late it was getting, considering that we still had more than an hours drive home after we got back to the car.
By the time we got back to the tea room we were pleasantly tired so we soon packed the car and headed home.
All in all a great day but only 12miles cycled. I will need to get my distances up in time for Maggies next year.

Trim the Tree

Next door have got the tree people in. the trees are too big for the garden and are putting a lot of pressure onto the fence and the roof of my shed - usual problem the people who planted them forgot that they grow to be quite a bit bigger then when they are planted.

So we've had two guys here this afternoon with chainsaws "trimming"
The scene before:(taken in July and August '09)

The impact on the garden is amazing! The extra light makes the garden almost unrecognisable.

Of course, now the grass will grow back here...
Naturally there are downsides. The magpies living in the trees have been forced out. They are currently trying to force out the magpies living in the trees to the front of the house, with some amazingly loud battles going on.