We spent a week on Arran, a family favourite holiday destination. As it’s a family trip, radio and hill walking takes a backseat, but we did plan one outing. My daughter and I would do Mullach Buidhe (GM/SI-027) on the west side of the island, an 8.5 km round trip from Pirnmill - with a convenient corner shop for a suitable reward afterwards.

Weather in the week has been mixed but it was meant to be a nice dry afternoon, although quite windy. 

The walk starts off going through some trees and ferns before coming out into a vast, and wet, grasslands. We made our way up the eastern ridge, with the intent to do the summit then come back down the western ridge to form a loop. 

Unfortunately, at around 500m the wind was absolutely relentless and a struggle to walk it. After a little way and knowing it was another 200m+ to ascend, I decided it wasn’t a good idea to continue and so we turned back. We were maybe only 600m from the summit, but it’ll be there next time. It was a squelchy walk back, but the views were still good. We could see the three paps of Jura in the distance. 

Not wanting to miss out on some radio time, I decided to setup on the beach in Blackwaterfoot. This happens to be in two POTA parks, GB-1447, Arran coastal way, and GB-4447, Arran Geopark (which seems to cover the entire island). 

40m was pretty rough, and interestingly my 41’ random wire didn't tune on 20m - I guess the beach ground is different than a hilltop - but I had another antenna with me and used that counterpoise. However, the best band was 17m, with several US stations and a P2P with a couple on holiday in Trinidad and Tobago! I could hear Uruguay strongly on 15m, but they had many callers so I wasn’t going to be heard with my 10W from the KX2. 

Aside from these phone photos, I only took film with me on this holiday…we will see how that decision turns out!

Once my dad visited me and brought his own mug. Made me laugh, because I could see that being me one day. 

At home I have a mug for my morning tea, and one for my evening tea. That’s usually enough for work days, and at weekends there’s others to pick from. 

We try to limit ourselves to one shelf for mugs, otherwise it gets ridiculous, even though I drink plenty. So when the new cat mugs arrived, something else had to go. A cherished kids mug that’s faded to almost white? my favourite morning tea mug? Could be any, and there’s no shame in getting rid of the precious favourite. It did its job and now it’s time to move on. (Maybe shouldn't have bought some in the first place but that’s another story). 

I don’t like novelty mugs, but generally don’t mind anything else. Often favouring volume over design, but this yellow one I’ve found really hits the spot. A good size, a good weight and the bold colours are straightforward. I’ll be making the most of this. 

Here are some other favourites from the past and present. 

What’s yours? ☕️

Software

A desktop teleprompter. Why not. 

Gliss. ASCII art from 3D models. Reminds me of Dwarf Fortress. 

FreeCCR - open source film negative converter.

Sifty - clean up Windows.