It feels like it anyway.
It's cold and windy but at least the sun is shining.
Here is the road up then down to my good pal William's place in South Lochs. It is the most wonderful area although the roads are somewhat tortuous at times. I think it#s there anyway. looks like his road - a first gear approach and what have you.
From time to time we visit Bill and Gemma at their lovely place in Cromor - the back of beyond. It's a bit of a trek but well worth it to see these two lovelies. However, recently they have been visiting Stornoway for various reasons so we have been having lunch with them at the Bridge Centre Cafe.
The snap is not good I know. A 20mm lens, Foma400@8-- does not make a good look.
You may well have seen this before but since I like the snap so much it gets another showing.
Of course it is my pal William from a few years back. It's a paper darkroom print from a paper neg. I used an old soviet fkd camera - all gaffer tape and elastic bands - with a shutter which consisted of an air activated [i blew into a rubber tube] barn-door type thing that barely missed Bill's nose as it opened. Great fun. The shallow depth of field was caused by the close-up lens I'd taped in the camera without any other lens in front of it. Don't know why I didn't do this more often!
Not quite as spritely as he once was but lovely all the same.
Taken at his home with an old minolta 505 and kentmere 400 film.
Bill is not so sprightly as he once was but he is still a delight to visit. Here's a snap from our last flying visit.
Eve and I enjoyed a fine dining experience with our good friends William and Gemma the other day. Over at Balallan Bistro. The Bistro is in an old school - a school that Gemma used to teach in a while or two back. The food was excellent as were the views and the company.
I shall aim to go again.
2011 and everything. Bill was well and took us on a wild goose chase over yonder moor looking for something - something that escapes my mind now. We had a fine time by the look of it. Now William is somewhat unwell and cannot enjoy these sort of jaunts but he's cheerful all the same and we will have been to see him by the time you read this.
Yes, I know there a flaw on the neg - a white line down Eve's trooser leg but I left it like that to remember the camera - a lump of a Soviet Kiev 6c with fantastic glass but dodgy mechanics. The camera doesn't work at all now.
William and Gemma joined us for a fine post-lockdown lunch at the Harris Hotel - an establishment I'd never frequented before. It was raining at the time. The mist lay across the hills of Harris as we passed by. I snapped it up.
Lunch was actually ok. Not fantastic but then these sort of places often cannot dial in to Vegetarian cuisine. On the other hand the company was excellent and that's what we went for.
Found this lovely film image of my former work mates William and Alec, here enjoying putting the world to right in An Lanntair back when.
Oh what fun we had. What a team. We sometimes knew what to do and how to do it as well.
Luckily I am still in touch with the fine fellows. Alec lives just over bay outside our house and William lives in the virtual paradise of South Lochs,
I know this lovely man. It's William and he lives in a lovely place by the sea with his equally lovely wife Gemma. You might have met William here before. He appears from time to time. I love this man but sadly he is not quite at his best these days.
Bill and I worked together for a few years rushing round the island at night, tangling wires and balancing arials as we sought to wire the island's miscreants up. I mean, we were trying to set up monitoring of said peeps although not without hassle.
It didn't always work - the locality and the landscape often getting in the way of a developing technology. The peeps were sometimes less than lucid or cooperative although I have to say most were friendly. We had fun though. Mostly.
William stopped working the job some years ago while I slogged on with new technology with the help of my other colleague Alex.
We stay in touch - and why wouldn't you? Such a lovely man.
