Tuesday 25th May.
Two fine days in a row!
Someone must've pulled the cork and let the genie out of the bottle!
The girls took James' car and headed to Kirkwall for a Girls' Shopping day.
James wasn't feeling too crash-hot after yesterday's excursion/exertion so decided to blob for a bit to catch up on e-mails etc.
Charlie also spent time on the pooter; working out accommodation for us upon our return to Scotland, while I swotted up a book I'd bought the other day about Orkney in general.
Truly fascinating...a history that predates Egyptians, Greeks, Aztecs...and they've got the artefacts to prove it.
James surfaced around 10:00, so we headed out to Warkmile (sp) Cove, they took the dog for a walk down on the beach while I stayed in the car swotting my book.
On again to Kirkwall for lunch, where I ordered tomato soup and a sandwich,
It duly arrived, I took one look and said: That doesn't look like tomato soup.
"No, We've run out of tomato; that's onion."
Splutter! Onions, celery, leeks are anathema to me; get that shit out of my sight! (Leeks are the worst...just the smell of them and I'm dry-retching...can't help it.)
"Oh. So what do you want to replace the soup?"
Squid rings.
Which duly arrived...after James and Charlie had finished their meals. They were squid rings, not onion rings, but they'd been cooked in the same vat as onion rings...betcha boots...I could taste it...not good.
And then they had the temerity to try to charge for my soup?!?!
Yeah right!
Okay...backtrack a bit to Tankerness and Rerwick Head, the site of gun emplacements protecting Scapa Flow during WWII.
We wandered around here for more than two hours, raising more questions than we could supply answers.
I must try to find out more about (relatively modern) land-based defensive gunnery architecture.
Then headed back toward Kirkwall. I had noticed a dead tractor farm opposite the airport the other day that had a pretty cool looking Fergy 35X in front of the main building; so when Charlie said "Shall we call in?" I couldn't say 'No.'
Crikey am I glad we did! The owner, Stevie Ross, gets his main source of income from honouring guarantees on and servicing JCB equipment in the Orkneys...but the man's crazy. He's an idiot. In the nicest possible way. A man after my own heart. One helluva decent bloke with a wicked sense of humour. I could get on well with this fella.
Charlie had to come and virtually prise us apart so as to get back in to town to meet the girls.
(During our conversation Stevie told me that there are only fifteen dairy farms still extant on Mainland Orkney...there's just no money in it anymore.)
But Stevie had given me an important contact name and number in Kirkwall; a fella who can supply brand new 35X body panels. Imagine that...a Kiwi comes to Orkney, (of all places,) meets a fella who knows a fella, who can supply impossible to source obsolete tractor parts manufactured in Belgium, (of all places,) and can ship them to me.
Home | Electrical Suppliers | Kirkwall | Derek Ryrie UK
Of all the improbable scenarios; this one takes the biscuit.
Jane and James were very patient with me while I found Derek Ryrie's place of work and ordered the parts I need...thanks people; much appreciated!
O frabjous day, calloo callay...one very happy Kiwi kid went back to the hotel.