21st May: Islay Bound

It's 11.30am and I'm aboard Caledonian MacBrayne's Hebridean Isles bound once again for the Hebridean Island of Islay.

After hosting a whisky tasting last night in Kendal, I finally got my head down for a couple of hours at about 3am. I parked the van a little of the beaten track and made myself as comfortable as I could amongst the various boxes of whisky, wines and other luggage bound for Islay.
As I type, the sea mist that we have been shrouded in since leaving the tiny port of Kennacraig, is slowly burning off giving way to bright sunshine, hopefully a sign of good weather to come to last us through the Islay Festival of Malt and Music 2010.

I'm accompanied by various old favourites on my mp3 player....Pale Saints, The Wedding Present....even Radiohead's Kid A is getting a run out at last. Blimey, I must be in a good mood to be giving the last one a blast!

I've bumped in to a few whisky enthusiasts already. They were keen to know about our new Queen of the Moorlands Rare Cask bottlings and I promised to crack a bottle or two open for them later in the week.

No pics at the moment I'm afraid, but I'll put that right when Pointon arrives with his laptop and therefore the interweb along with it.

It'll be good to get Glen over to Islay again...he's had a tough job of it lately, not least because his shocking, and frankly quite unnecessary handling by one of the local fishing clubs. In my honest and very personal opinion, the members of it's committee who placed their votes against a top bloke, an angler that is nothing short of a huge asset to the club and furthermore it's members, ought to be thoroughly ashamed of themselves.

It seems freedom of speech is a concept that has gone right out of the window in some quarters, a great shame given the effort over the last hundred years that our predecessors put in to protecting it. Please, if you read my blog and you see or read something you don't like, make sure you choose not to visit again.

In week two I'm really looking forward to my family joining me at Bunnahabhain where we intend to have a very sunny holiday, a big party and a bit of a well deserved break together, for the first time in a very long time indeed.
Oh...and I'll have reached the dreaded 40 by the time I get back.

Pic courtesy of Mark Unsworth of Islay Studios

Slainte

Woody