Not even 5:00AM and I’ve already been up an hour having gone to my bed last night not much after 8:00PM. I do hope this isn’t going to become a habit, Wednesday found me at the same carry on, up at 4:30 through no choice of my own. Mind you at least I managed to turn that bout of insomnia to my advantage by going along to Torran and collecting some empty gas cylinders as I’d had it in my mind to go to Sconser quarry and collect some stone chips for a Pal. Sure I wasn’t actually planning to do this until the 9:55 sailing but doing it sooner would give me more of the fine day ahead that was forecast to do other stuff outside. I was getting a little pi55ed off with the incessant rain the last few days.
So Bonzo and I boarded the Mule and wobbled down the track to collect empty Calor gas cylinders and load them into the trailer long before most sane people were switching their alarms to snooze. It was still pi55ing with rain but that was supposed to clear as the sun rose. Molly sat patiently in her cage in the back of the Land Rover while we two went on our ‘mission’. The daft wee dog is terrified of missing out out on a trip in the car and as soon as I try and leave the house she’s waiting at the door no matter what. Hobbling to the back of the nearest vehicle and whining to be let in no matter what I’m doing. I gave up trying to leave her in the house ages ago so these days she spends a good part of most days quite happily sleeping in a car. Of course if I actually go anywhere she whines the whole way.
It’s been a while
After loading up and lashing the cylinders into the trailer we headed for the ferry, it was still quite early but I figured I’d walk the dogs at the ferry terminal as Molly copes better on the pavement, it was still raining 
Before going to the quarry we nipped into Broadford for fuel and broccoli 
dunno what it is about broccoli but whenever I go to the Raasay store it’s gone
Being in no particular rush I stopped at the piece of ground opposite Scalpay that we used to call the ‘Red Shed’. The red paint that once adorned the tin shed that gave it its name have turned to rust long ago but this is where we came ashore when travelling off the island when I lived there 30 years ago. It looks as if they have been having a big clear up as my old ex army Series II was there along with the estate’s Series III that I spent many a happy hour underneath welding it for the MOT.
I bought the Series II SWB along with a Series III SWB hardtop from the Kishorn fabrication yard when it closed in the eighties and used to use them runabouts on the privately owned island. It was an auction with sealed bids and unfortunately I won both, the diesel Series III I brought with me to Raasay when I left in 89. I believe it still languishes in a shed somewhere on Raasay but the 24V petrol stayed behind until thirty years later it found its way to Skye The LWB 4 cylinder petrol above is a completely original, one owner and has only got a guaranteed genuine 49K on the clock!
Not what I asked for
The once regular visitor to the quarry arrived on the weighbridge for the first time in over three year and I’m sure she’s put on weight Previously she only weighed 3.2tonnes with an empty trailer, perhaps it was the full tank of diesel
I dunno how but I asked for 20mm stone chips but ended up with 20mm all in concrete aggregate which is great for mixing concrete but not what I wanted. Of course they offered to reload me but it was still raining and I couldn’t be bothered messing about with the trailer’s tipping mechanism to tip it and decided to take it anyway. Well you can never have too much concrete mix can you? Of course this meant I would have to tow it back home to unload it and then return for the chips but hey it was still raining and what else would I be doing
Even with the schools back and the weather pish the ferry was still full of tourists with November just days away!
The first trip up Calum’s road with the ‘Old Girl’ grossing over 5tonnes was not a success, my electric fan wasn’t working and with the south wind up my ar5e their wasn’t much air over the radiator to cool it. Not having any tools to look at my fan I decided to leave the trailer in the empty Dun Caan car park and go get the Disco.
Halfwits
Leaving the empty trailer with its full load at the end of the car park I arrived back half an hour later to find this feckin’ idiot jamming me in! with the entire car park empty the friggin clown had reversed into the space immediately in front of the trailer
After ten minutes of frigging around I did mange to hitch up and drive out without scratching the buffoon’s Toyota and it had almost stopped raining
By the time I’d tipped my load and caught the 2:30 ferry back to Skye it had stopped raining
So I finally got my 2tonnes of chips, caught the 16:15 ferry back, dropped off the trailer complete with stones at my Pal’s house got home fed dogs, pigs, self and went to bed! It’s 7:00AM now black as pitch outside and I guess I should be thinking about feeding pigs and fixing my fan.
