Stri son Saorsa Rally

Well for once I actually turned up, where I was supposed to, at nearly the right time! All cheers tae Big Bri for keepin me on track.
After the aborted attempt to get to the Ravin' Mad in Orkney a couple of weeks before hand, there some mightly pissed off peeps that desperately needed the comforts and attentions of a descent rally. Now as anyone who knows F3 can tell you, we likes our comfort, food and of course our beer (or Dr Jack, or the Capt., or pretty much anything we can get hold of!). And as rally sites go, this one was shaping up to be a cracker. A HUGE marquee and a 2 minute walk from the pub... this was all sounding good until you tried to ride your bike across the park to the pitch. The Aberdeen MAG committee did an excellent job with this site but even rolled a few times the park was more like a ploughed field. Not in anyway funny, but I don't think anyone dropped a bike the whole weekend, but I am sure some one will correct me if I am wrong.
Pitching up was kinda exciting, as I had my new Khyam semi ridgid dome tent (you know the "quick" erect tents). HA! 40 blooody minutes to figure the thing out, but there again, I am not the brightest penny in the pile. As is tradition amoungst F3 members, a beer was had to celebrate getting the bikes to the rally, and more to celebrate getting the tents up, and more when some friends old and new arrived. Basically it was shaping up to be a cracking weekend.
Meeting up with some Al, Seth, Chris, etc in the park just meant that me, Bri and the twins were half cut before the rest of the club arrived (nothing wrong with that - at least not yet).
Off tae the pub and then things started to get silly... the bar looked like your typical village pub, you could imagine it on a busy friday night with 2 old codgers, one at either end of the bar on their "personal" bar-stools, each with a wee dog sitting under the chair growling at the dog at the other end... THEN WE ARRIVED! Full marks to the pub staff for putting up with us from the word go, and a special mention to Jenna for keepin' the beer comin'! We really appreciated it (for pretty much the whole weekend).
After many hours of drinkin' and debauchery, it was off tae the Marquee to see what the band were like. Ignition were pretty good for a Friday night band, and I know I was dancin' at some point so they must have been top notch (or not, drunk I will dance to and with pretty much anything). Seth from FBPEC of Scotland / Aberbronx MAG gets a special thanks for the Turbo Vimto at the bar... I think I will pass on this at the next rally! Good night on the Friday.

Saturday didn't so much dawn, as land with a frozen thump, 'twas bloody chilly during the night, and took a while to warm up to actual moving during the morning. Unfortunately there were casualties from the friday night - AL, WE BROKE YOU! but there again, we kinda broke Big Brian as well.... hope you have both recovered from your exploits by now, and no doubt, we will have Brian's verision of the rally here in due course.
Saturday day time was spend, as normal, wondering about making sure you were sober before venturing out for a wee run the bikes. Returning from this pointless exercise - it's no fun when your head hurts - was a welcome relief and the opportunity to re-start the party helped enormously.
After a few beers in the bar (thanks again Jenna), it was off to the village hall this time, but not before being accosted by an unnaturally taller than normal WJ... still wearin' your woman's boots eh John?
Now the hall at Lumsden was smaller than the marquee (hint hint for next year folks), and was pretty much filled out by 8pm, so all the latecomers had to settle for standing around the bar (not a bad plan IMHO). First up were a strange choice, a 4 piece all female Ceildh band. They tried their best to get the crew up for all manner of dances, but they were always on a hiding to nothin'... now in my experience, bikers will jig about to almost anything, but Ceildh music needs a lot more beer than most had had. You can check out a quicktime movie of the dance that did happen here!
Next band up were Full Hog. Excellent band we first saw at P in the Park 2004. Good choices of covers, and good enough banter.
I can never remember who won what trophies at a rally, for that check out BIKERS1 as Al, always seems to get the details.

The raffle this year was a shock as I actually won a prize! As well as the usual stuff there was a pair of orange thongs... well being me I had to try them on didn't I... don't know who all has photies of this but try Al on BIKERS1 at the above link, or try Wee Johns Report on the Saints & Sinners site. Now I am not a big fan of the end of the night at rallies, as I tend to be too drunk to really remember them, but this year I am on a mission for no blank spots (eh Bri). And this year I succeeded.
A great rally thanks to the great efforts of all the MAG volunteers and the people of Lumsden. Thanks for putting up with us, and hope you will have us back again.
Bob
p.s. Brian will be spending in some more photos and correcting this text at some point!