[BITList] HUGH

[HUGH]

Sunday afternoon,

It's been an interesting couple of days.  Most recently, late last night Outlook Express started to play up - wouldn't open, wouldn't close, lots of swearing.  This continued until an hour ago, when on clicking Alt/Ctrl/Del half a dozen times in anger to see what the hell was up, all of a sudden, 75 instances of Task Manager were running, and they obediently closed when I asked them to.  From then on Outlook Express has not only opened on request, but like lightning, instead of its previous dilatory manner.  And now I can access Internet Options and actually set these, instead of getting a popup telling me permission to do this has not been set on this machine, etc.  Like the weather, these things can only be accepted as part of nature.

Yesterday afternoon I had a tour round RFA Fort Rosalie (used to be Fort Grange) at Greenock.  She was built by Scotts, sailed in 1976.  I worked on her predecessor, the Resource, with Scotts, but I recall nothing about the other. There was open access to the bridge, but only as far as the grating inside the ER access door, looking down on the 8-cyl Scott Sulzer.  A man with 2 stripes was there to keep us there and answer questions.  She carries 12 engineers, plus refrig engineer, etc.  The current ER log was on display outside, and could be thumbed through. They still observe beers for the million counter, and many other anniversaries. I suggested they bottle the ER smell and sell it - I found it quite nostalgic.  I met a few ex-colleagues.

At night we went down to Largs for the finale of the Vikingar! Festival, commemorating the Battle of Largs. Bands of Vikings carrying spears and fish suppers were walking about eyeing up likely wenches to carry off.  Four of us stood on a deserted beach about 1/2 a mile across the bay from the Pencil monument and the temporary enclosure where the re-enactment of the battle would take place.  There were too many people already at the enclosure to make the trek round the bay worthwhile.  Nonetheless, a steady stream of hopefuls walked round from then till the event started about 7.30.  By 8.30 our deserted beach was absolutely full of people.  Though the battle of Largs ended in a defeat for the Vikings, from what we heard of the commentary coming clearly across the bay, the re-enactment ended in a draw.  So they fought it over again a couple of times.  The event ended with the most spectacular fireworks I've ever seen.

Hugh.

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