OBSERVATIONS FROM SCOTLAND                            28 May 2008                                GM1SXX

SXX meets  "The HOG!"

Not often do I actually get to meet readers of my web pages in person, but so it was with me last week.  I had an email arrive from Nicolas Pike ('Don't tell em your name Pike!'... LA2QAA) M1HOG.  Nick maintains an interesting radio related website M1HOG's Website  ... the reason I got in touch with him some considerable time ago.  I can recommend a visit to Nick's site.  It's a little like Observations in terms of humour but far more skilfully presented.

So, Nick contacted me by e-mail to say he'd be working in the West of Scotland at a hospital and would I like to meet him.  Of course! I *always* like to meet people, so we made some arrangement to contact each other by mobile phone on Friday when he finished work and before he caught his flight back to Luton Airport from Glasgow.  I took the afternoon off, cycled home at lunchtime chucked a cup of tea down my throat and walked into Paisley. Nick phoned in due course and we met up in Paisley near the rail station. Both of us being in need of sustenance, we headed to Gabriel's bar for some food and drink. Much chewing of the fat then ensued before we left Gabriel's and headed to Hamishes' Hoose for more beer. It was a very enjoyable afternoon for me, certainly much better than being stuck at work!  Topics of discussion included ... where to source components, 'the Dragon Scope'.. see Nick's website for that, licensing,  and all the usual stuff. It's been cold and miserable here for a while so sightseeing was definitely off the agenda. I believe Nick will be back in this area working later in the year, so maybe we can meet up again for more ale, food and stories.

In my normal life, one problem is in putting names to faces, but for me, it was far nicer to be putting a face to a name. I work in a large community college and although I know most of the many hundreds of staff members 'to look to', I certainly don't know all their names, although I do try to remember them all.  With radio amateurs, it's usually the other way around... putting faces to callsigns or voices.  I certainly have met people at radio rallys I've recognised entirely by their voices.  Hey, it's a funny old life.  It was a very pleasant alternative to actually working on a dreary Friday afternoon and I hope we can meet up again when the weather is a bit more pleasant.  I could do with a lot more time to swap stories and ideas.  I think as radio amateurs, we should do more of this sort of stuff. It was a good and encouraging experience for me.

73 AL.
GM1SXX