Scottish & Irish Drinking Customs

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Adam Whyte-Settlar

Re: Scottish & Irish Drinking Customs

Legg inn av Adam Whyte-Settlar » 16 feb 2007 07:30:00

"Eric Stevens" <eric.stevens@sum.co.nz> wrote in message
news:fti9t2dcqvvpvuat3b7u3l9558s828e4uk@4ax.com...
On Fri, 16 Feb 2007 01:57:22 +1000, "Adam Whyte-Settlar"
grawillers@westnet.com.au> wrote:


"Eric Stevens" <eric.stevens@sum.co.nz> wrote in message
news:pqp6t2dvqa0dnl5cnpaj2g00h7ejnb41ul@4ax.com...
On Thu, 15 Feb 2007 02:01:04 +1000, "Adam Whyte-Settlar"
grawillers@westnet.com.au> wrote:

GEeeeeeeez! 38C and 98%.

I've had that in in Sydney ... and it was raining and blowing 45 knots
(full gale). I was wearing a suit and trying to look professionally
respectable when I turned up at a meeting.

Know what you mean. Anyone caught wearing a tie here gets carted off to
the
dog pound pronto.


My problem was that the meeting was in an airconditioned multi-story
office building. Everyone else had turned up in air conditioned cars
and parked in the basement. None of them had exposed themselves to the
real climate going on outside.

Yeah - the problems are almost exactly the same as life in a cold climate
but in reverse.
It's perfectly possible to go for weeks without going outside. The Malls are
all A/C'd as are the enclosed car parks and cars. At home the garage
connects directly to the house etc.
Mine doesn't, and our A/C in the current house is woefully inadequate.
It does have it's good points however. Like the toilet seat is always warm
for example - makes the tropics very popular with the ladies.
At home clothes washing is kept to a minimum - one pair of shorts every
couple of days about does it.
All the warm water you need straight out of the 'cold' tap too. No need for
blankets.
The wildlife is astounding too - just wish it would stay outside.
But when I do a bit of fruit picking to keep fit we start at 5.30 and finish
at noon - by which time it's already unbearable. Then it gets really hot til
about 4pm.
It's OK right now - about 31C and 65%. Great for sitting on the verandah
drinking beer.

A W-S

Adam Whyte-Settlar

Re: Scottish & Irish Drinking Customs

Legg inn av Adam Whyte-Settlar » 20 feb 2007 06:08:38

"Cory Bhreckan" <coryvreckan@NO_SPAM.verizon.net> wrote in message
news:fu%Ah.4268$E71.2479@trnddc04...
Adam Whyte-Settlar wrote:
"a.spencer3" <a.spencer3@ntlworld.com> wrote in message
news:skHAh.6966$fa.137@newsfe1-win.ntli.net...

"Adam Whyte-Settlar" <grawillers@westnet.com.au> wrote in message
news:45d33e61@quokka.wn.com.au...

Some friends of mine saw a full grown python dead on the road recently -

it

stretched from one side of the road to the other and was so thick they
had
to drive partly on the verge to get over it. They grow to 23ft long and
as
thick as a man's waist eventually. At that size they can swallow a man
whole.

A very small man.

And? Did I say a big man? I did not.
Any Dundonian and most Govanites would be fair game.


The longest snakes in the world, Python reticulatis (Reticulated python.
SW Asia) do not eat the biggest prey. Nor does the largest, Unectes
murinus (Green anaconda, South America).

Yes yes - I know all that (as of yesterday) Sheesh - there's always one
smartarse who thinks it's clever to spoil a good yarn with facts.

Got another Python story just off the press.
This was in a house in the bush near Atherton, about 10 miles from here,
sometime last week.
This woman wakes up in the dead of night to sounds of her spoilt little dog
(that sleeps in the bedroom - yuk) making muffled whimpering noises.
She reaches down to it's rug at the side of the bed and her hand comes to
rest not on something soft, warm and fluffy but on something thick, cold and
scaly.
She freaks out and screams - waking hubby.
She switches on the light and there's a sodding great 4M Python with the
face of her darling little Fido about to disapear down it's throat. She and
hubby leap out of bed and he grabs it by the neck and she grabs it by the
tail (still connected to the whimpering, now airborn, dog's face) and
between them they manage to unwrap the thing from around Fido and pry open
the snake's jaws. Amazingly the dog seems to be OK - at least not crushed -
and still holding the snake stretched one at each end they wrestle it
outside, across the garden, and it's one, two, three and heave the bugger
over the fence into the woods.
This all takes a minute or two as you might imagine and when they return,
somewhat weak at the knees, to the house to check on the dog.
But, dear reader, on the floor in the lounge they find ANOTHER 4M Python
waiting for them! Probably the other's mate.
Only this one has a large fat bulge in it's middle.
Thinking that this bastard has nabbed the dog while they were disposing of
the first one they run back through to the bedroom to check and discover
Fido is still alive and kicking.
It took them a while to work it out but it eventually dawned on them that
Fido's fluffy, much-drooled upon and dog-wreaking, stuffed, life-sized toy
is missing.
They can only presume that the Python could smell Fido on it, took it for
the real thing, crushed it and scoffed it.
I think that Python got the one, two, three treatment too.
No word on the health of the toy dog as yet but the prognosis isn't good.
Can't imagine the snake is feeling that great either.
And *I don't care* if that story is technically accurate.
I tell you it's a jungle out there.

Another little true story from just a couple of hours or so ago. I'm still a
bit shaky.
I was sitting here in my sparse little office checking my fan mail first
thing when I caught this movement out of the corner of my eye.
On the tiles, less than a metre from my bare feet was the first and biggest
real live TARANTULA I've ever seen.

Now I 'know' that tarantulas get a bad press and they are not really deadly
and they only rarely eat birds. However, I wasn't using the rational part of
my brain from that point on and merely relied on my primal instincts.
The books say: "...the bite is painful, as the fangs are large and as long
as those of many snakes. Severe illness sometimes results and nausea and
vomiting for six to eight hours have been reported from bites..." Which is
bad enough, but what they don't say is that certain lily-livered
arachnaphobe pussies would die of a ****ing heart attack if the bloody thing
so much as touched them. I believe I fall squarely into the latter catagory.
In fact I *know* I fall squarely into the latter catagory.
Take a look at this and I think most sympathetic souls will appreciate why.

http://www.outback-australia-travel-sec ... antula.jpg

I searched out a suitable weapon - which turned out to be a plank of wood 4
inches wide and fully 9ft long. Damned if I was getting any closer than
that. As it happened it barely had time to rear up before I flattened the
poor thing.
It took me about another hour just to pluck up the courage to sweep the body
into the dustpan and chuck it outside. By that time I had managed to regain
some small measure of control over the rational part of my brain and figured
it probably wouldn't attack me.

I wasn't taking any chances as just last night we had another bloody great
wolf spider in the bedroom wardrobe (the press *they* get *is* justified)
and I missed it with the floor-polisher (which broke) and had to hop about
frantically trying to whack the big ugly sod with my slipper from the
relative safety of the bed . They can really move when they have to.
Fortunately so can I.
What is really worrying about the tarantula is I just can't figure out how
something damn near the size of a side-plate and with a body as thick as a
cigar got *into* the house in the first place. We are religious about
keeping the snake/insect screens closed at all times and I can't find a gap
anywhere.
Maybe they are already in the house somewhere and just waiting their chance
to pounce.
It's getting to be beyond a joke. My heart isn't a young as it was. I'm
thinking of moving back to NZ with the dear little redbacks and whitetails.

A W-S

Eric Stevens

Re: Scottish & Irish Drinking Customs

Legg inn av Eric Stevens » 20 feb 2007 22:19:06

On Tue, 20 Feb 2007 15:08:38 +1000, "Adam Whyte-Settlar"
<grawillers@westnet.com.au> wrote:

"Cory Bhreckan" <coryvreckan@NO_SPAM.verizon.net> wrote in message
news:fu%Ah.4268$E71.2479@trnddc04...
Adam Whyte-Settlar wrote:
"a.spencer3" <a.spencer3@ntlworld.com> wrote in message
news:skHAh.6966$fa.137@newsfe1-win.ntli.net...

"Adam Whyte-Settlar" <grawillers@westnet.com.au> wrote in message
news:45d33e61@quokka.wn.com.au...

Some friends of mine saw a full grown python dead on the road recently -

it

stretched from one side of the road to the other and was so thick they
had
to drive partly on the verge to get over it. They grow to 23ft long and
as
thick as a man's waist eventually. At that size they can swallow a man
whole.

A very small man.

And? Did I say a big man? I did not.
Any Dundonian and most Govanites would be fair game.


The longest snakes in the world, Python reticulatis (Reticulated python.
SW Asia) do not eat the biggest prey. Nor does the largest, Unectes
murinus (Green anaconda, South America).

Yes yes - I know all that (as of yesterday) Sheesh - there's always one
smartarse who thinks it's clever to spoil a good yarn with facts.

Got another Python story just off the press.
This was in a house in the bush near Atherton, about 10 miles from here,
sometime last week.
This woman wakes up in the dead of night to sounds of her spoilt little dog
(that sleeps in the bedroom - yuk) making muffled whimpering noises.
She reaches down to it's rug at the side of the bed and her hand comes to
rest not on something soft, warm and fluffy but on something thick, cold and
scaly.
She freaks out and screams - waking hubby.
She switches on the light and there's a sodding great 4M Python with the
face of her darling little Fido about to disapear down it's throat. She and
hubby leap out of bed and he grabs it by the neck and she grabs it by the
tail (still connected to the whimpering, now airborn, dog's face) and
between them they manage to unwrap the thing from around Fido and pry open
the snake's jaws. Amazingly the dog seems to be OK - at least not crushed -
and still holding the snake stretched one at each end they wrestle it
outside, across the garden, and it's one, two, three and heave the bugger
over the fence into the woods.
This all takes a minute or two as you might imagine and when they return,
somewhat weak at the knees, to the house to check on the dog.
But, dear reader, on the floor in the lounge they find ANOTHER 4M Python
waiting for them! Probably the other's mate.
Only this one has a large fat bulge in it's middle.
Thinking that this bastard has nabbed the dog while they were disposing of
the first one they run back through to the bedroom to check and discover
Fido is still alive and kicking.
It took them a while to work it out but it eventually dawned on them that
Fido's fluffy, much-drooled upon and dog-wreaking, stuffed, life-sized toy
is missing.
They can only presume that the Python could smell Fido on it, took it for
the real thing, crushed it and scoffed it.
I think that Python got the one, two, three treatment too.
No word on the health of the toy dog as yet but the prognosis isn't good.
Can't imagine the snake is feeling that great either.
And *I don't care* if that story is technically accurate.
I tell you it's a jungle out there.

Another little true story from just a couple of hours or so ago. I'm still a
bit shaky.
I was sitting here in my sparse little office checking my fan mail first
thing when I caught this movement out of the corner of my eye.
On the tiles, less than a metre from my bare feet was the first and biggest
real live TARANTULA I've ever seen.

Now I 'know' that tarantulas get a bad press and they are not really deadly
and they only rarely eat birds. However, I wasn't using the rational part of
my brain from that point on and merely relied on my primal instincts.
The books say: "...the bite is painful, as the fangs are large and as long
as those of many snakes. Severe illness sometimes results and nausea and
vomiting for six to eight hours have been reported from bites..." Which is
bad enough, but what they don't say is that certain lily-livered
arachnaphobe pussies would die of a ****ing heart attack if the bloody thing
so much as touched them. I believe I fall squarely into the latter catagory.
In fact I *know* I fall squarely into the latter catagory.
Take a look at this and I think most sympathetic souls will appreciate why.

http://www.outback-australia-travel-sec ... antula.jpg

I searched out a suitable weapon - which turned out to be a plank of wood 4
inches wide and fully 9ft long. Damned if I was getting any closer than
that. As it happened it barely had time to rear up before I flattened the
poor thing.
It took me about another hour just to pluck up the courage to sweep the body
into the dustpan and chuck it outside. By that time I had managed to regain
some small measure of control over the rational part of my brain and figured
it probably wouldn't attack me.

I wasn't taking any chances as just last night we had another bloody great
wolf spider in the bedroom wardrobe (the press *they* get *is* justified)
and I missed it with the floor-polisher (which broke) and had to hop about
frantically trying to whack the big ugly sod with my slipper from the
relative safety of the bed . They can really move when they have to.
Fortunately so can I.
What is really worrying about the tarantula is I just can't figure out how
something damn near the size of a side-plate and with a body as thick as a
cigar got *into* the house in the first place. We are religious about
keeping the snake/insect screens closed at all times and I can't find a gap
anywhere.
Maybe they are already in the house somewhere and just waiting their chance
to pounce.
It's getting to be beyond a joke. My heart isn't a young as it was. I'm
thinking of moving back to NZ with the dear little redbacks and whitetails.

.... and earthquakes. Don't forget the earthquakes. Australians are

terrified of earthquakes. Not that I've felt one here in Auckland for
very many years. Volcanoes now, that's another matter :-)
http://www.gns.cri.nz/what/earthact/vol ... index.html



Eric Stevens

Adam Whyte-Settlar

Re: Scottish & Irish Drinking Customs

Legg inn av Adam Whyte-Settlar » 21 feb 2007 07:29:11

"Eric Stevens" <eric.stevens@sum.co.nz> wrote in message
news:pkomt21m7bpr0prgqvvokrlrqv4b2kp894@4ax.com...

It's getting to be beyond a joke. My heart isn't a young as it was. I'm
thinking of moving back to NZ with the dear little redbacks and
whitetails.

... and earthquakes. Don't forget the earthquakes. Australians are
terrified of earthquakes. Not that I've felt one here in Auckland for
very many years. Volcanoes now, that's another matter :-)
http://www.gns.cri.nz/what/earthact/vol ... index.html


I felt a half decent earthquake when I was living on the south island near
Christchurch a few years ago.
I remember that in my panic to get under a doorway I did more damge to my
house than the earthquake.
One of the problems they throw up is that there is never a right-angle left
in the house once it's experienced a half dozen - makes renovations a real
pain.

A W-S

Eric Stevens

Re: Scottish & Irish Drinking Customs

Legg inn av Eric Stevens » 21 feb 2007 22:20:14

On Wed, 21 Feb 2007 16:29:11 +1000, "Adam Whyte-Settlar"
<grawillers@westnet.com.au> wrote:

"Eric Stevens" <eric.stevens@sum.co.nz> wrote in message
news:pkomt21m7bpr0prgqvvokrlrqv4b2kp894@4ax.com...

It's getting to be beyond a joke. My heart isn't a young as it was. I'm
thinking of moving back to NZ with the dear little redbacks and
whitetails.

... and earthquakes. Don't forget the earthquakes. Australians are
terrified of earthquakes. Not that I've felt one here in Auckland for
very many years. Volcanoes now, that's another matter :-)
http://www.gns.cri.nz/what/earthact/vol ... index.html


I felt a half decent earthquake when I was living on the south island near
Christchurch a few years ago.
I remember that in my panic to get under a doorway I did more damge to my
house than the earthquake.
One of the problems they throw up is that there is never a right-angle left
in the house once it's experienced a half dozen - makes renovations a real
pain.


Strangely enough, only a few hours after I wrote the email to which
you are responding, Auckland experienced 3 earthquakes over a period
of about 3 hours. I didn't feel any of them although all kinds of
shock-horror-panic was reported in the paper. In any case, all three
were tiddlers and were felt over a very small range.

Christchurch is a different story. The city is only about 150km from
the Great Alpine Fault http://www.kiwizone.org/volcano/atectonic2.htm
which has a history of periodically unleashing a BIG ONE.

Now, Christchurch is built on an extensive alluvial plain and swamp

http://www.eqc.govt.nz/research/researc ... p_105.aspx

"Section III of the report considers surface ground damage which may
occur associated with an earthquake. The greatest concern for
Christchurch, located near a saturated, sand and silt rich,
prograding coastline, is the potential for liquefaction. This
phenomenon occurs when the tendency for loose granular materials to
compact during earthquake shaking results in a pore water pressure
increase, and reduction or total loss in strength. This may cause
subsidence, foundation failure and damage to services. Analysis
shows that large areas of the city are underlain by sands or silts
which, if sufficiently loose, would be highly susceptible to
liquefaction. Although insufficient soil testing has been carried
out to characterise densities in all areas, extensive investigation
has been done in the central city. Some silts and sands in this
area are loose and extremely vulnerable to liquefaction."



Eric Stevens

Adam Whyte-Settlar

Re: Scottish & Irish Drinking Customs

Legg inn av Adam Whyte-Settlar » 22 feb 2007 11:57:27

"Eric Stevens" <eric.stevens@sum.co.nz> wrote in message
news:mncpt2do3p2jjkdhmf734egprjp0ldi4kr@4ax.com...
On Wed, 21 Feb 2007 16:29:11 +1000, "Adam Whyte-Settlar"
grawillers@westnet.com.au> wrote:


"Eric Stevens" <eric.stevens@sum.co.nz> wrote in message
news:pkomt21m7bpr0prgqvvokrlrqv4b2kp894@4ax.com...

It's getting to be beyond a joke.


I felt a half decent earthquake when I was living on the south island near
Christchurch a few years ago.

Strangely enough, only a few hours after I wrote the email to which
you are responding, Auckland experienced 3 earthquakes over a period
of about 3 hours. I didn't feel any of them although all kinds of
shock-horror-panic was reported in the paper. In any case, all three
were tiddlers and were felt over a very small range.

Christchurch is a different story. The city is only about 150km from
the Great Alpine Fault http://www.kiwizone.org/volcano/atectonic2.htm
which has a history of periodically unleashing a BIG ONE.

Now, Christchurch is built on an extensive alluvial plain and swamp

silts and sands in this
area are loose and extremely vulnerable to liquefaction."

Yeah - I was very aware of that when I was living in the place. It's just a
matter of time. The sooner the better IMO - it must rank as the most
disgusting 'city' in the western world - it's certainly one of the most
polluted.
Likewise it's very susceptible to a tsunami - especially as someone has come
up with the brilliant idea of removing all the sand dunes on New Brighton
beach so the seafront hotels and houses get a sea view.
They deserve all they get really.

The Highlander

Re: Scottish & Irish Drinking Customs

Legg inn av The Highlander » 23 feb 2007 10:22:31

On Tue, 13 Feb 2007 01:47:13 +1000, "Adam Whyte-Settlar"
<grawillers@westnet.com.au> wrote:

"The Highlander" <micheil@shaw.ca> wrote in message
news:i85vs25erqmt3t5olqen58dfmd4kg16phn@4ax.com...

Dram is actually the Highland-English word for Gaelic "Drama" a shot
of whisky. Depending on the company, the actual measure might vary
from a shot glass to a quarter tumblerful - or a full tumbler if you
were drinking with my Great-Uncle Walter and he mistakenly handed you
his glass... I can assure you that didn't happen too often!

Seeing as it's on topic for the thread it's worth my mentioning once again
that in the Western Isles - particularly in Harris and Bernerey - I was
often served straight whiskey in a tea cup.
The best dainty china tea cups of course, but filled to within a half inch
of the top as though it were a cup of tea without milk as it were.
No-one else in the company seemed to think this was at all unusual - even
though it was often around lunch time when it was served and in otherwise
perfectly respectable households too.
Who was I to argue? I don't take milk in tea either.

A W-S


See! There are some very wholesome customs in the Western Isles,

despite your insistence that it's a den of rapacious thieves. You
mustn't judge everyone by Bryn! (or me, I suppose - seeing that Bryn
is a lot tougher than me...)

The Highlander

Faodaidh nach ionann na beachdan anns
an post seo agus beachdan a' Ghàidheil.
The views expressed in this post are
not necessarily those of The Highlander.

The Highlander

Re: Scottish & Irish Drinking Customs

Legg inn av The Highlander » 23 feb 2007 10:24:54

On Mon, 12 Feb 2007 11:39:42 -0600, Deirdre Sholto Douglas
<finch.enteract@rcn.com> wrote:


Adam Whyte-Settlar wrote:

"The Highlander" <micheil@shaw.ca> wrote in message
news:i85vs25erqmt3t5olqen58dfmd4kg16phn@4ax.com...

Dram is actually the Highland-English word for Gaelic "Drama" a shot
of whisky. Depending on the company, the actual measure might vary
from a shot glass to a quarter tumblerful - or a full tumbler if you
were drinking with my Great-Uncle Walter and he mistakenly handed you
his glass... I can assure you that didn't happen too often!

Seeing as it's on topic for the thread it's worth my mentioning once again
that in the Western Isles - particularly in Harris and Bernerey - I was
often served straight whiskey in a tea cup.

Gad, I remember seeing that a _lot_...particularly
if those doing the serving were Wee Frees. I
suppose, if you're trying to disguise your tippling,
whisky and tea are close enough to the same
colour...might be hard to explain why you're
reeling and singing after a cup of tea, but one
can always blame "allergies". :-)

Deirdre

It's called "Highland Hospitality"!

Elsewhere it's called an excuse to have a drink.

The Highlander

Faodaidh nach ionann na beachdan anns
an post seo agus beachdan a' Ghàidheil.
The views expressed in this post are
not necessarily those of The Highlander.

The Highlander

Re: Scottish & Irish Drinking Customs

Legg inn av The Highlander » 23 feb 2007 10:29:37

On Mon, 12 Feb 2007 12:51:05 -0500, "Frank" <tip1@hotmail.com> wrote:

"Deirdre Sholto Douglas" <finch.enteract@rcn.com> wrote in message
news:45D0A65F.1AE82F88@rcn.com...


Adam Whyte-Settlar wrote:

"The Highlander" <micheil@shaw.ca> wrote in message
news:i85vs25erqmt3t5olqen58dfmd4kg16phn@4ax.com...

Dram is actually the Highland-English word for Gaelic "Drama" a shot
of whisky. Depending on the company, the actual measure might vary
from a shot glass to a quarter tumblerful - or a full tumbler if you
were drinking with my Great-Uncle Walter and he mistakenly handed you
his glass... I can assure you that didn't happen too often!

Seeing as it's on topic for the thread it's worth my mentioning once
again
that in the Western Isles - particularly in Harris and Bernerey - I was
often served straight whiskey in a tea cup.

Gad, I remember seeing that a _lot_...particularly
if those doing the serving were Wee Frees. I
suppose, if you're trying to disguise your tippling,
whisky and tea are close enough to the same
colour...might be hard to explain why you're
reeling and singing after a cup of tea, but one
can always blame "allergies". :-)

Deirdre


I can remember my Mom and her friends sitting down to have a special pot of
tea. When they all left, they apeared to be a lot happier then when they
came. i was only a boy of about 10 years old...............It sure seemed
funny to me.

At ceilidhs old women have to be persuaded to have a dram, but once

it's in their hand, it's tossed down their throats with all the aplomb
of a piper at a wedding...

The Highlander

Faodaidh nach ionann na beachdan anns
an post seo agus beachdan a' Ghàidheil.
The views expressed in this post are
not necessarily those of The Highlander.

The Highlander

Re: Scottish & Irish Drinking Customs

Legg inn av The Highlander » 23 feb 2007 10:40:00

On Sat, 10 Feb 2007 18:18:52 -1000, "D. Spencer Hines"
<poguemidden@hotmail.com> wrote:

I also drink Talisker, we have two bottles -- but my wife and I both prefer
Lagavulin -- and I recently bought two cases for us -- which we plan to
drink slowly over the next year.

DSH

Lux et Veritas et Libertas


I have your address - a corner of the garage will be all the
accommodation I need...

The Highlander

Faodaidh nach ionann na beachdan anns
an post seo agus beachdan a' Ghàidheil.
The views expressed in this post are
not necessarily those of The Highlander.

The Highlander

Re: Scottish & Irish Drinking Customs

Legg inn av The Highlander » 23 feb 2007 10:58:34

On Mon, 12 Feb 2007 23:13:19 +1000, "Adam Whyte-Settlar"
<grawillers@westnet.com.au> wrote:

"The Highlander" <micheil@shaw.ca> wrote in message
news:l39vs29o7r3pae9e6f9282l8k7252n3gta@4ax.com...
On Mon, 12 Feb 2007 00:55:52 +1000, "Adam Whyte-Settlar"
grawillers@westnet.com.au> wrote:


"The Highlander" <micheil@shaw.ca> wrote in message
news:vu1ts2lnu7rld4ha4ptitfq00ll8h6sfoi@4ax.com...

Chilling
Lagavulin (or any other great whisky) with ice means you lose a large
part of the 28 separate flavours some commoisseurs claim to be able to
detect.

Thanks for the tip - If ever I'm unfortunate enough to come into possesion
of the rot-gut I'll put it in the freezer for a week.

The mark of a great whisky is that if you add good quality water, the
quality of the taste remains constant and unpleasant tastes do not
intrude.

The late Lord Cromarty had a seperate tap for water just for adding to
whiskey.
It came from a burn spring a half mile or so up the Strath'.
Mind you, he only offered me decent whiskies that when one adds water the
flavours blossom - none of that west coast shite they use at the dentists
and in hospitals. The sort you seem to prefer.

A W-S

I knew him a lot better than you - his son, the present Earl and my
brother went to school together and his sister, the Lady Jean was my
mum's best friend - and if you got a dram out of him, you did more
than I ever did!

I know the present Earl better than I knew the old one unfortunately.
I got plenty of drams out of the late Earl I can assure you - usually in
Castle Leod when the Countess was out somewhere.
I was his nearest neighbour and we shared a fascination with trees and
woodlands. He often spoke on the subject in the Lords if you recall. I also
landscaped a fair part of the Castle Grounds over the years.
His step-son was a member of our mafiosa of failed Fettes rejects and
bitterly disapointing landed gentry's off-spring - there were dozens as
victims of the 60's back then.
I never got a dram out of John, his real son and the new Earl, though we got
along well enough I suppose. My ex of the time was (and still is I believe)
his PA as it happens, and his factor was my oldest friend whom I have known
from my days at Inverewe Gardens. Did you know Lady McConnachie (sp?) by the
way? She lived in the 'big house' at Inverewe and her nephew (now dead) used
to (allegedly) drop acid with me. : )
It was all a weirdly interconnected and quasi-incestuous community of
interests and bizzare family connections. All my aquaintances seemed to be
either Hippies or County and sometimes both.


Re: Lady McConnachie - I never met the lady; ar least I don't think
so. I have however helped myself to a particularly beautiful sprig of
flowers which a botanist friend later identified as Peruvian
Honeysuckle. An oddity the climate there. In fact about 200 miles
north of here, there's one of those freak valley hot spots which has
prickly pear cacti, a ton of sand and rattlers. It's always the
hottest spot in Canada, regardless of the season.

Mind you, one of the best nights I ever spent was at the Highland
Ball, held in Castle Leod. Everyone dressed to the nines in full
Highland dress, the pipers playing and a pretty girl who was staying
the night with us whispering in my ear as we danced that she couldn't
wait to get me home... Highland women are so controlling... That's all
I've ever been - a toy for women on the prowl - if you only knew how I
fought to keep myself pure for marriage...

Now let's get down to facts - the only whiskies made in the eastern
Highlands are starter kits for Whyte-Settlars - oops, sorry, White
Settlers. When you look at us handsome west Coast, half-Irish,
half-Viking men, naturally you have to concede that only a fiery
whisky like Talisker will do for us, who modestly style ourselves "The
Lords of Creation!"

I like 10 year old Macallan myself - better than the 18 year old IMO.
The Glenlivets and their derivatives and OK too - bit too easy to drink and
generally regarded as a ladies whiskey I'm aware but bear in mind I'm partly
from Hampshire not the Cuillins.

Sitting around in Blairgowrie or wherever it was that you were
flogging diseased spruce seedlings to unsuspecting landowners,

It was at Duffus Castle eckshully, and it was mainly hardwoods.

I can
just see you sitting down to your half-yoking with a cheesy sandwich
and your wee carton of East Coast whisky and a straw to sook it up!

Not at all - in fact it was a company joke that I used to carry a picnic
table and chair, a little gas cooker, kettle and all the ecoutraments for a
decent lunch in the back of the Disco when out on my rounds.

I knew you were a Highland gentleman at heart...

REAL MEN (aka Hebrideans) use that sort of weeny stuff for back rubs.
Don't give me your crac about west coast shite and dentists'
mouthwash; there are too many connoisseurs readng these posts to take
you seriously. By God, if my mother was still alive, I'd put her round
to you to straighten out your attitude!

Tell you what - you send me a bottle of whatever it is you're killing
yourself with and I will guarantee to send you an honest,
straighforward, impartial appraisal based on years of experience
sucking back the finest whiskies! Lagavulin, Ardbe, Bowmore, Talisker
- what more could you want from one whom you know to be a Highland
gentleman who would never steer you wrong? What could be fairer than
that? And don't try to weasel out of it by sending me their mere label
names - put your whisky where my mouth is!

BTW, have you put in your application to the EU for reforestation
grants. They have several trillions to give out, and it has to be all
taken up before the year-end.

Been there - done that. About 100 applications in all.
I'm more into lazing about in the tropics and making a fortune property
speculating these days - it's a full time job in this heat.

By the way - I had my first life and death struggle with a ****ing Taipan
the other day.
Damn thing was in the kitchen first thing in the morning!
It was under the fridge and as I walked towards it to get the milk it
slithered out and took up a defensive posture in front of it.
BIG mistake.
I hadn't had my first cup of coffee yet, let alone my second!
Anyway, I considered if it was worth risking my life in order to get the
milk for all of two seconds before deciding that - yes - of course it was, I
can't stand black coffee first thing.
I decided on my trusty spade as a weapon. Not ideal for tackling a 3' snake
but it's the weapon I am most familar with as a result of all my lethal
battles with baby rabbits in the Market Garden years ago. It made me feel
more confident than anything else I could find in the shed at short notice.
Anyway, as I edged towards it the bastard made a dive at my leg at precisely
the same instant as I tried to cut it's ****ing head off with the spade so I
actually caught it about halfway down it's back. It was wriggling like a
chopped worm but I managed to keep it pinned down and eventually cut it in
half. There's a surprising volume of blood in a snake - I hadn't expected
that.

The Russian Spetznaz (special forces) carry entrenching spades, which
look quite harmless, but they have sharpened edges and not only do the
Spetsnaz use them to fight with, but they can also throw them with
unerring accuracy. Best handled with machine pistol on full Rock 'n
Roll...

It was a bit of a shock to discover that being cut in half merely slowed it
down a bit and this time it was *really* pissed off. I took a fair bit of
frantic Highland dancing and another well aimed jab to just behind it's head
to kill it.
Three peices of still squirming dead snake stayed where they were (more or
less) til I'd had my two cups of coffee then I scooped up the peices out of
the back veranda door.
Strangely enough, apart from my blood running cold and every hair standing
on end when it first came out from under the fridge, I was icy calm until it
was actually dead. Then my hands started shaking so much I didn't even have
to stir in the sugar. What a start to the day - fair wakes you up having yet
another near-death experience before breakfast.

I've also had *four* huge poisonous spiders in the house in the last five
days. Only had one up to this point but the rain seems to have brought them
all out. There is still one in the house somewhere as the last one I missed
with my patent spider swatter and it hit the ground and (I swear) disapeared
into thin air before my very eyes. They can shift when they need to. They
can jump as well as sprint you see. I'ts really nerve-wracking knowing it's
inhere somewhere and you have to be constantly vigilant - no reaching into a
dark room and flicking a light switch for instance - you have to check that
there is no spider on it first. Nearly got caught out like that already. You
only do it once.

Another little surprise this afternoon was when I put on my shoe at the back
door. I *always* check for spiders and there never is one but of course this
time I didn't check for some reason and when I put my foot in a felt this
huge lump in the toe of the shoe.
Freaked out.
Pulled it off rapid style.
Shook it and this huge 'Rhino Beetle' about 3 inches long fell out and went
scurrying off in a huff.
Hope I'm not boring you too much with all this crap.
Better go.

You're not, I am filled with wonder that you chose to live amid such a
venomous menagerie!

A W-S

A W-S



The Highlander

Faodaidh nach ionann na beachdan anns
an post seo agus beachdan a' Ghàidheil.
The views expressed in this post are
not necessarily those of The Highlander.

The Highlander

Re: Scottish & Irish Drinking Customs

Legg inn av The Highlander » 23 feb 2007 11:10:39

On Mon, 12 Feb 2007 20:55:41 GMT, Cory Bhreckan
<coryvreckan@NO_SPAM.verizon.net> wrote:

Adam Whyte-Settlar wrote:
"The Highlander" <micheil@shaw.ca> wrote in message
news:l39vs29o7r3pae9e6f9282l8k7252n3gta@4ax.com...



I like 10 year old Macallan myself - better than the 18 year old IMO.
The Glenlivets and their derivatives and OK too - bit too easy to drink and
generally regarded as a ladies whiskey I'm aware but bear in mind I'm partly
from Hampshire not the Cuillins.

I keep a bottle of Macallan 12 around for variety. Aberlour 15 isn't bad
either, I grab it when it's on sale. I suppose Glenlivets aren't too bad
in time of drought or when someone else is buying but they certainly
aren't worth the price IMHO.

I suppose I should confess yet again that I usually drink Catto, which
was originally an Aberdeen whisky but now operates out of Glasgow.
I've been drinking it and Ballantines for 20 years or more. Teachers
is 51% malt, the most malt in any Lowland whisky according to their
advertising, and as none of the other distillers quibble with their
claim, I assume it's the truth, but I like the two above-mentioned
better.

Talisker is a rare treat - although I did have a couple of drams a
week ago at a friend's place, and Lagavulin is something I drink with
reverence, usually feeing that it may be my last as the price
continues to head skyward at Mars Explorer speed...



The Highlander

Faodaidh nach ionann na beachdan anns
an post seo agus beachdan a' Ghàidheil.
The views expressed in this post are
not necessarily those of The Highlander.

The Highlander

Re: Scottish & Irish Drinking Customs

Legg inn av The Highlander » 23 feb 2007 11:14:31

On Tue, 13 Feb 2007 17:22:10 GMT, Cory Bhreckan
<coryvreckan@NO_SPAM.verizon.net> wrote:

Adam Whyte-Settlar wrote:
"Eric Stevens" <eric.stevens@sum.co.nz> wrote in message
news:nol1t29trk8t18g18a4gccpq516mpqnlbj@4ax.com...

On Mon, 12 Feb 2007 23:13:19 +1000, "Adam Whyte-Settlar"
grawillers@westnet.com.au> wrote:

--- snip ----


By the way - I had my first life and death struggle with a ****ing Taipan
the other day.
Damn thing was in the kitchen first thing in the morning!
It was under the fridge and as I walked towards it to get the milk it
slithered out and took up a defensive posture in front of it.
BIG mistake.
I hadn't had my first cup of coffee yet, let alone my second!
Anyway, I considered if it was worth risking my life in order to get the
milk for all of two seconds before deciding that - yes - of course it was,
I
can't stand black coffee first thing.
I decided on my trusty spade as a weapon. Not ideal for tackling a 3'
snake
but it's the weapon I am most familar with as a result of all my lethal
battles with baby rabbits in the Market Garden years ago. It made me feel
more confident than anything else I could find in the shed at short
notice.
Anyway, as I edged towards it the bastard made a dive at my leg at
precisely
the same instant as I tried to cut it's ****ing head off with the spade so
I
actually caught it about halfway down it's back. It was wriggling like a
chopped worm but I managed to keep it pinned down and eventually cut it in
half. There's a surprising volume of blood in a snake - I hadn't expected
that.

I once knew someone who woke up to find his Siamese cat playing with a
very pissed off Tiger snake on the foot of his bed. Fortunately he had
a loaded shotgun by the side of his bed and managed to do for the
snake while avoiding the cat and his feet. It didn't do much for the
bed clothes though and I think it was about two days before the cat
came back home.



I like the loaded shotgun by the bed idea - though I would have shot the cat
too.
According to a local chap that visited the next day it's illegal to kill
them! I was supposed to call the 'snake-man' at *my* expense and have it
captured and removed.
That'll be shining bright.
If they stay out of my way in the garden I won't bother them either, but any
lethal snake that has the cheek to enter the house uninvited - it's life is
forfeit no messing.
I wonder if I can get a shotgun licence here - the spade made several deep
chip marks in the floor tiles and I got into trouble from the bidey-in over
that. Typical - she can deal with the next one herself.

Do you think a shotgun blast will be better for the floor tiles (not to
mention the rest of the room when the shot ricochets)?

Adam normally only uses a shotgun for crowd control when overwhelmed
by ladies - at least that's the line I was fed...

The Highlander

Faodaidh nach ionann na beachdan anns
an post seo agus beachdan a' Ghàidheil.
The views expressed in this post are
not necessarily those of The Highlander.

The Highlander

Re: Scottish & Irish Drinking Customs

Legg inn av The Highlander » 23 feb 2007 11:20:48

On Thu, 15 Feb 2007 02:53:05 +1000, "Adam Whyte-Settlar"
<grawillers@westnet.com.au> wrote:

"Cory Bhreckan" <coryvreckan@NO_SPAM.verizon.net> wrote in message
news:gAmAh.2639$g82.1214@trndny09...
The Real Fifeshire Bimbo wrote:
"Adam Whyte-Settlar" <grawillers@westnet.com.au> wrote in message
news:45d067de@quokka.wn.com.au...

HUGE snip:

Another little surprise this afternoon was when I put on my shoe at the
back door. I *always* check for spiders and there never is one but of
course this time I didn't check for some reason and when I put my foot in
a felt this huge lump in the toe of the shoe.
Freaked out.
Pulled it off rapid style.
Shook it and this huge 'Rhino Beetle' about 3 inches long fell out and
went scurrying off in a huff.


Snakes, spiders and rhino beetles! You can have your tropics. We're
looking forward to 30 cms of snow and nary a critter in sight!


Hope I'm not boring you too much with all this crap.


Not at all! Only grateful I don't have to deal with all those exotic
creatures!

Cheers, Helen

And to think that Adam expects to find fifteen suckers to move into the
snake pits that he plans to build.

I'm not doing the actual building - I'd get sued for sure.
I'm just dividing the land and putting in the services.
And even that's a real long shot. Being on Pacific time doesn't help
either - if you enquire why a certain council official hasn't returned one's
phone calls for over two months one is branded as a whinging Pom. "You're
not in Scotland now y'know - we do things differently here' etc.
Actually - I wouldn't mind so much if they *did* do things differently it's
that they *don't* do things differently that gets frustrating.

You're right about the land though - I only walked it once and was smacking
the grass and weeds in front of me with a big stick at every step. Theory is
the vibrations scare most of the snakes away under cover. Unfortunately some
species havn't heard about the theory yet and are 'very aggressive' (as the
books put it) and will stand their ground and even attack from some
distance. At least the hospitals and clinics are pretty much geared up for
rapid treatment - not many people actually die these days but I doubt it's
much fun either. This particular area is (literaly) crawling with all kinds
of them.
Oh! - reminds me - I heard a funny story a couple of weeks ago of a teenage
girl passing out pissed as a parrot on top of her bed late one saturday
night and waking up a couple of hours later to find her left arm already
down the throat of a 4 metre python.
Freaky or what?
It's hard to get your arm out of a python apparently, because it's teeth are
curved back the way like barbs (?). Whatever - her rescuers had to cut it's
head off and then cut it again along the side to it's mouth to get it off.
I don't think she was seriously hurt - just a little anxiety-induced
permanent psychosis I would suspect.
Some friends of mine saw a full grown python dead on the road recently - it
stretched from one side of the road to the other and was so thick they had
to drive partly on the verge to get over it. They grow to 23ft long and as
thick as a man's waist eventually. At that size they can swallow a man
whole.

The shark attacks get by far the most publicity as the gaping wounds make
for great colour TV and half the white kids just about live one the beach so
it's everyones nightmare. However, in reality it's not snakes, spiders or
sharks but the crocs that kill the most people.
The crocs tend to live in the rural areas up north (though there are still a
good few round Cairns too) and mostly they take only Aborigine kids from the
river banks at remote Abo' communities called Didgerigawogga or whatever so
no-one really gives a toss. In fact I've heard a few approving murmurs from
some of the less 'multicultural' locals at times. It makes the local papers
but they never send a TV crew like they do when young whitey gets his leg
bitten off at Surfers Paradise.

Anyway - that's your bedtime story for tonight - I'm off.

A W-S


Fascinating stuff - my life feels very dull after all that!


The Highlander

Faodaidh nach ionann na beachdan anns
an post seo agus beachdan a' Ghàidheil.
The views expressed in this post are
not necessarily those of The Highlander.

The Highlander

Re: Scottish & Irish Drinking Customs

Legg inn av The Highlander » 23 feb 2007 11:30:37

On Tue, 20 Feb 2007 15:08:38 +1000, "Adam Whyte-Settlar"
<grawillers@westnet.com.au> wrote:

"Cory Bhreckan" <coryvreckan@NO_SPAM.verizon.net> wrote in message
news:fu%Ah.4268$E71.2479@trnddc04...
Adam Whyte-Settlar wrote:
"a.spencer3" <a.spencer3@ntlworld.com> wrote in message
news:skHAh.6966$fa.137@newsfe1-win.ntli.net...

"Adam Whyte-Settlar" <grawillers@westnet.com.au> wrote in message
news:45d33e61@quokka.wn.com.au...

Some friends of mine saw a full grown python dead on the road recently -

it

stretched from one side of the road to the other and was so thick they
had
to drive partly on the verge to get over it. They grow to 23ft long and
as
thick as a man's waist eventually. At that size they can swallow a man
whole.

A very small man.

And? Did I say a big man? I did not.
Any Dundonian and most Govanites would be fair game.


The longest snakes in the world, Python reticulatis (Reticulated python.
SW Asia) do not eat the biggest prey. Nor does the largest, Unectes
murinus (Green anaconda, South America).

Yes yes - I know all that (as of yesterday) Sheesh - there's always one
smartarse who thinks it's clever to spoil a good yarn with facts.

Got another Python story just off the press.
This was in a house in the bush near Atherton, about 10 miles from here,
sometime last week.
This woman wakes up in the dead of night to sounds of her spoilt little dog
(that sleeps in the bedroom - yuk) making muffled whimpering noises.
She reaches down to it's rug at the side of the bed and her hand comes to
rest not on something soft, warm and fluffy but on something thick, cold and
scaly.
She freaks out and screams - waking hubby.
She switches on the light and there's a sodding great 4M Python with the
face of her darling little Fido about to disapear down it's throat. She and
hubby leap out of bed and he grabs it by the neck and she grabs it by the
tail (still connected to the whimpering, now airborn, dog's face) and
between them they manage to unwrap the thing from around Fido and pry open
the snake's jaws. Amazingly the dog seems to be OK - at least not crushed -
and still holding the snake stretched one at each end they wrestle it
outside, across the garden, and it's one, two, three and heave the bugger
over the fence into the woods.
This all takes a minute or two as you might imagine and when they return,
somewhat weak at the knees, to the house to check on the dog.
But, dear reader, on the floor in the lounge they find ANOTHER 4M Python
waiting for them! Probably the other's mate.
Only this one has a large fat bulge in it's middle.
Thinking that this bastard has nabbed the dog while they were disposing of
the first one they run back through to the bedroom to check and discover
Fido is still alive and kicking.
It took them a while to work it out but it eventually dawned on them that
Fido's fluffy, much-drooled upon and dog-wreaking, stuffed, life-sized toy
is missing.
They can only presume that the Python could smell Fido on it, took it for
the real thing, crushed it and scoffed it.
I think that Python got the one, two, three treatment too.
No word on the health of the toy dog as yet but the prognosis isn't good.
Can't imagine the snake is feeling that great either.
And *I don't care* if that story is technically accurate.
I tell you it's a jungle out there.

Another little true story from just a couple of hours or so ago. I'm still a
bit shaky.
I was sitting here in my sparse little office checking my fan mail first
thing when I caught this movement out of the corner of my eye.
On the tiles, less than a metre from my bare feet was the first and biggest
real live TARANTULA I've ever seen.

Now I 'know' that tarantulas get a bad press and they are not really deadly
and they only rarely eat birds. However, I wasn't using the rational part of
my brain from that point on and merely relied on my primal instincts.
The books say: "...the bite is painful, as the fangs are large and as long
as those of many snakes. Severe illness sometimes results and nausea and
vomiting for six to eight hours have been reported from bites..." Which is
bad enough, but what they don't say is that certain lily-livered
arachnaphobe pussies would die of a ****ing heart attack if the bloody thing
so much as touched them. I believe I fall squarely into the latter catagory.
In fact I *know* I fall squarely into the latter catagory.
Take a look at this and I think most sympathetic souls will appreciate why.

http://www.outback-australia-travel-sec ... antula.jpg

I searched out a suitable weapon - which turned out to be a plank of wood 4
inches wide and fully 9ft long. Damned if I was getting any closer than
that. As it happened it barely had time to rear up before I flattened the
poor thing.
It took me about another hour just to pluck up the courage to sweep the body
into the dustpan and chuck it outside. By that time I had managed to regain
some small measure of control over the rational part of my brain and figured
it probably wouldn't attack me.

I wasn't taking any chances as just last night we had another bloody great
wolf spider in the bedroom wardrobe (the press *they* get *is* justified)
and I missed it with the floor-polisher (which broke) and had to hop about
frantically trying to whack the big ugly sod with my slipper from the
relative safety of the bed . They can really move when they have to.
Fortunately so can I.
What is really worrying about the tarantula is I just can't figure out how
something damn near the size of a side-plate and with a body as thick as a
cigar got *into* the house in the first place. We are religious about
keeping the snake/insect screens closed at all times and I can't find a gap
anywhere.
Maybe they are already in the house somewhere and just waiting their chance
to pounce.
It's getting to be beyond a joke. My heart isn't a young as it was. I'm
thinking of moving back to NZ with the dear little redbacks and whitetails.

A W-S

You'd better think about that - some NZ fishermen have just caught a
humoungous squid which is apparently longer than a whale.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6385071.stm


The Highlander

Faodaidh nach ionann na beachdan anns
an post seo agus beachdan a' Ghàidheil.
The views expressed in this post are
not necessarily those of The Highlander.

The Highlander

Re: Scottish & Irish Drinking Customs

Legg inn av The Highlander » 23 feb 2007 11:33:02

On Thu, 22 Feb 2007 20:57:27 +1000, "Adam Whyte-Settlar"
<grawillers@westnet.com.au> wrote:

"Eric Stevens" <eric.stevens@sum.co.nz> wrote in message
news:mncpt2do3p2jjkdhmf734egprjp0ldi4kr@4ax.com...
On Wed, 21 Feb 2007 16:29:11 +1000, "Adam Whyte-Settlar"
grawillers@westnet.com.au> wrote:


"Eric Stevens" <eric.stevens@sum.co.nz> wrote in message
news:pkomt21m7bpr0prgqvvokrlrqv4b2kp894@4ax.com...

It's getting to be beyond a joke.


I felt a half decent earthquake when I was living on the south island near
Christchurch a few years ago.

Strangely enough, only a few hours after I wrote the email to which
you are responding, Auckland experienced 3 earthquakes over a period
of about 3 hours. I didn't feel any of them although all kinds of
shock-horror-panic was reported in the paper. In any case, all three
were tiddlers and were felt over a very small range.

Christchurch is a different story. The city is only about 150km from
the Great Alpine Fault http://www.kiwizone.org/volcano/atectonic2.htm
which has a history of periodically unleashing a BIG ONE.

Now, Christchurch is built on an extensive alluvial plain and swamp

silts and sands in this
area are loose and extremely vulnerable to liquefaction."

Yeah - I was very aware of that when I was living in the place. It's just a
matter of time. The sooner the better IMO - it must rank as the most
disgusting 'city' in the western world - it's certainly one of the most
polluted.
Likewise it's very susceptible to a tsunami - especially as someone has come
up with the brilliant idea of removing all the sand dunes on New Brighton
beach so the seafront hotels and houses get a sea view.
They deserve all they get really.

I live on an island in an earthquake zone, parts of which could be

liable to experience liquefaction in the event of the next earthquake
being a major one...

The Highlander

Faodaidh nach ionann na beachdan anns
an post seo agus beachdan a' Ghàidheil.
The views expressed in this post are
not necessarily those of The Highlander.

a.spencer3

Re: Scottish & Irish Drinking Customs

Legg inn av a.spencer3 » 23 feb 2007 14:13:50

"The Highlander" <micheil@shaw.ca> wrote in message
news:sjgtt2lhjsrfmakrb3que34a6787b80er9@4ax.com...
I live on an island in an earthquake zone, parts of which could be
liable to experience liquefaction in the event of the next earthquake
being a major one...


So there's hope yet! :-))

Surreyman

Adam Whyte-Settlar

Re: Scottish & Irish Drinking Customs

Legg inn av Adam Whyte-Settlar » 23 feb 2007 17:40:37

"The Highlander" <micheil@shaw.ca> wrote in message
news:rgftt2drc3pqrp759laaaj69oartg9neai@4ax.com...
On Tue, 13 Feb 2007 17:22:10 GMT, Cory Bhreckan
coryvreckan@NO_SPAM.verizon.net> wrote:

Adam Whyte-Settlar wrote:

By the way - I had my first life and death struggle with a ****ing
Taipan
the other day.

I wonder if I can get a shotgun licence here - the spade made several
deep
chip marks in the floor tiles and I got into trouble from the bidey-in
over
that. Typical - she can deal with the next one herself.

Do you think a shotgun blast will be better for the floor tiles (not to
mention the rest of the room when the shot ricochets)?

Adam normally only uses a shotgun for crowd control when overwhelmed
by ladies - at least that's the line I was fed...

And it's more or less true but I only use the single barrel 4/10 for lady
control.
Despite being marooned in the colonies I'm still a gentleman at heart.

Adam Whyte-Settlar

Re: Scottish & Irish Drinking Customs

Legg inn av Adam Whyte-Settlar » 23 feb 2007 17:42:01

"The Highlander" <micheil@shaw.ca> wrote in message
news:sjgtt2lhjsrfmakrb3que34a6787b80er9@4ax.com...
On Thu, 22 Feb 2007 20:57:27 +1000, "Adam Whyte-Settlar"

silts and sands in this
area are loose and extremely vulnerable to liquefaction."

They deserve all they get really.

I live on an island in an earthquake zone, parts of which could be
liable to experience liquefaction in the event of the next earthquake
being a major one...

Delighted to hear it.

Adam Whyte-Settlar

Re: Scottish & Irish Drinking Customs

Legg inn av Adam Whyte-Settlar » 23 feb 2007 17:51:10

"The Highlander" <micheil@shaw.ca> wrote in message
news:q7gtt2pr6gn5hb8arj8mslojj58jcectp4@4ax.com...
I'm
thinking of moving back to NZ with the dear little redbacks and
whitetails.

A W-S

You'd better think about that - some NZ fishermen have just caught a
humoungous squid which is apparently longer than a whale.

It's not a humoungous squid, it's a 'colossal squid'.
Not only that but apparently it's not a 'squid' at all.
It's in a class of it's own.

Bit like the platypus and the spiny anteater I suppose.
They lay eggs and suckle their young.
How dare they?!
Very inconveniant for the biologists.

However, nothing daunted, when the biologists had got over their indignation
at the 'extraordinary miracle of nature' represented by the habits of the
aforementioned duo they resolved the issue by creating an entire *order*
with only those two species in it.
For the benefit of lurking Merkans perhaps I should explain that that is a
bit like creating an entire country with a population of two people.

The platypus and anteater continue to lay eggs and suckle their young
utterly unperturbed by all the fuss in much the same way as they have been
doing for millions of years before biologists evolved from their distant
relations.

Adam Whyte-Settlar

Re: Scottish & Irish Drinking Customs

Legg inn av Adam Whyte-Settlar » 23 feb 2007 18:05:58

"Josiah Jenkins" <josiah-jenkins@dsl.pipex.com> wrote in message
news:eontt2ttgtd06qh0387k9hldainh0llbd4@4ax.com...
Whilst perusing Usenet on Fri, 23 Feb 2007 09:58:34 GMT, I read these
words from The Highlander <micheil@shaw.ca> :
"Adam Whyte-Settlar" <grawillers@westnet.com.au> wrote:
snip

. . . I am filled with wonder that you chose to live amid
such a venomous menagerie!

Easy-peasy for him !

He's got all those years of living/working with Tinks
and Keelies in the North east behind him and he posts
to scs, doesn't he ?


Not mention the PFD of course.

The spiders are no ****ing joke. They tend to assume a presence out of all
proportion to their size and number.
I keep seeing that bloody tarantula in my mind's eye over and over.
I have taken to sending the PFD ahead of me to switch on the bathroom light
in case there happens to be a venomous arachnid specimen poised in the dark
on the light switch. (there sometimes is!)

I was attracted by the hype of 'the best weather in Oz' etc. It might well
be so but Lord knows what the rest of the country must be like if that's the
case.
It's beautifull here for sure - especially since it has greened up with the
recent rains - but there is no way I'm spending more than a year or so in
this Whyte man's grave of a climate.

Adam Whyte-Settlar

Re: Scottish & Irish Drinking Customs

Legg inn av Adam Whyte-Settlar » 23 feb 2007 18:09:50

I was often served straight whiskey in a tea cup.

See! There are some very wholesome customs in the Western Isles,

'Some'?
I only know of one - the above.

despite your insistence that it's a den of rapacious thieves. You
mustn't judge everyone by Bryn! (or me, I suppose - seeing that Bryn
is a lot tougher than me...)

Is Bryn a Highlander?! That explains a lot.

The Highlander

Re: Scottish & Irish Drinking Customs

Legg inn av The Highlander » 23 feb 2007 19:08:37

On Sat, 24 Feb 2007 02:42:01 +1000, "Adam Whyte-Settlar"
<grawillers@westnet.com.au> wrote:

"The Highlander" <micheil@shaw.ca> wrote in message
news:sjgtt2lhjsrfmakrb3que34a6787b80er9@4ax.com...
On Thu, 22 Feb 2007 20:57:27 +1000, "Adam Whyte-Settlar"

silts and sands in this
area are loose and extremely vulnerable to liquefaction."

They deserve all they get really.

I live on an island in an earthquake zone, parts of which could be
liable to experience liquefaction in the event of the next earthquake
being a major one...

Delighted to hear it.

I'll bet! Even so, you're still not getting my Teddy Bear!


The Highlander

Faodaidh nach ionann na beachdan anns
an post seo agus beachdan a' Ghàidheil.
The views expressed in this post are
not necessarily those of The Highlander.

The Highlander

Re: Scottish & Irish Drinking Customs

Legg inn av The Highlander » 23 feb 2007 19:11:53

On Thu, 15 Feb 2007 06:42:16 -1000, "D. Spencer Hines"
<poguemidden@hotmail.com> wrote:

They swallow randy goats whole?

Hmmmmmmm...

Well, then they should certainly have no problem at all in swallowing "La
Nilita".

DSH

<choke>

Oh! What an unkind cut!

Lux et Veritas et Libertas

"Adam Whyte-Settlar" <grawillers@westnet.com.au> wrote in message
news:45d47fcf@quokka.wn.com.au...

"...Sherman Minton in Giant Reptiles cites a killed amethystine python
near Cairns, Australia measured at 28ft long..."
http://forums.waterwolves.com/index.php ... ode=linear

They swallow full grown goats whole as a late morning snack.

A W-S



The Highlander

Faodaidh nach ionann na beachdan anns
an post seo agus beachdan a' Ghàidheil.
The views expressed in this post are
not necessarily those of The Highlander.

The Highlander

Re: Scottish & Irish Drinking Customs

Legg inn av The Highlander » 23 feb 2007 19:17:16

On Wed, 14 Feb 2007 16:26:32 GMT, "a.spencer3"
<a.spencer3@ntlworld.com> wrote:

"Adam Whyte-Settlar" <grawillers@westnet.com.au> wrote in message
news:45d33231@quokka.wn.com.au...

"The Real Fifeshire Bimbo" <htr@AwaAnBileYirHeid.com> wrote in message
news:53e8gsF1saob7U1@mid.individual.net...
"Adam Whyte-Settlar" <grawillers@westnet.com.au> wrote in message
news:45d067de@quokka.wn.com.au...

HUGE snip:

Another little surprise this afternoon was when I put on my shoe at the
back door. I *always* check for spiders and there never is one but of
course this time I didn't check for some reason and when I put my foot
in
a felt this huge lump in the toe of the shoe.
Freaked out.
Pulled it off rapid style.
Shook it and this huge 'Rhino Beetle' about 3 inches long fell out and
went scurrying off in a huff.

Snakes, spiders and rhino beetles! You can have your tropics.

It's the spiders and the humidity that get to me. At least you can have a
square go with a snake but the spiders are sneaky wee b******.
Or rather sneaky BIG b******. We have fine-mesh insect screens on every
door and window in the house but I swear the spiders can walk through
walls.
I can't figure out how they are getting in. There's been five in the last
couple of weeks which is seriously not funny.
I've always had this irrational fear of spiders anyway but here it's
different. Here I have a perfectly *rational* fear of spiders.
Irrational is better.

The rhino beetles are great - just amazing creatures - but in a curry not
in
your shoe.
In fact the other night there was a thing that looked like a big
mange-tout
on legs, a giant stick insect about 7 inches long, ( just a baby) some
enormous greenish purple beetle that I've never seen before and a big
praying mantis all within about a couple of feet of each other on the
garage
wall.
So long as they stay out of the house we all get along just fine.

We're looking forward to 30 cms of snow and nary a critter in sight!

I've been reading about you all disapearing under ten feet of snow over
there.
Lucky sods. It peaks at about 34C here almost every day.
We've got A/C in the bedroom but it's going outside that's the killer.
What is hard to get used to is when it rains and one drives down the hill
2500 ft to Cairns for the weekly shopping, with the A/C on max, and it
looks
and feels like a dreech day in a Scottish February - and then you stop and
get out in the coastal mango swamp hell of summer in tropical Cairns.
GEeeeeeeez! 38C and 98%.
It nearly floors me every time. It's like opening the oven door - glasses
steam up and one is instantly weak-kneed, drenched in sweat and totally
knackered after ten steps.
What's worse is I smoke ciggies so I have to sit *outside* the pub in the
beer garden for up to 2 hours - sans A/C obviously - while the PFD lugs
the
tatties and stuff back from the various open-air veggy markets.
I tell you it's a killer.

Only about a month to go before it starts cooling down again though.
Gets as low as to peak at 24C in the winter up here - I'll have to dig out
the old warm T-shirts again.


I didn't realise Cairns = Lagos in climate?

Impossible stuff.

Move.

Surreyman

Ah, so you're originally from Nigeria!


Now I understand...

The Highlander

Faodaidh nach ionann na beachdan anns
an post seo agus beachdan a' Ghàidheil.
The views expressed in this post are
not necessarily those of The Highlander.

The Highlander

Re: Scottish & Irish Drinking Customs

Legg inn av The Highlander » 23 feb 2007 19:32:09

On Fri, 23 Feb 2007 12:38:02 +0000, Josiah Jenkins
<josiah-jenkins@dsl.pipex.com> wrote:

Whilst perusing Usenet on Fri, 23 Feb 2007 09:58:34 GMT, I read these
words from The Highlander <micheil@shaw.ca> :
"Adam Whyte-Settlar" <grawillers@westnet.com.au> wrote:
snip

. . . I am filled with wonder that you chose to live amid
such a venomous menagerie!

Easy-peasy for him !

He's got all those years of living/working with Tinks
and Keelies in the North east behind him and he posts
to scs, doesn't he ?

-- jjj

I've already taken cover, waiting for Nebulous to read your appraisal
of his beloved homeland... Don't forget that Nebulous is a medical
professional and has the means to return you to your church choir as a
soprano. During the only phonecall I've had with him, I thought he
sounded extremely competent.

Still, counter-tenors are back in fashion...

The Highlander

Faodaidh nach ionann na beachdan anns
an post seo agus beachdan a' Ghàidheil.
The views expressed in this post are
not necessarily those of The Highlander.

The Highlander

Re: Scottish & Irish Drinking Customs

Legg inn av The Highlander » 23 feb 2007 19:35:08

On Sat, 24 Feb 2007 03:05:58 +1000, "Adam Whyte-Settlar"
<grawillers@westnet.com.au> wrote:

"Josiah Jenkins" <josiah-jenkins@dsl.pipex.com> wrote in message
news:eontt2ttgtd06qh0387k9hldainh0llbd4@4ax.com...
Whilst perusing Usenet on Fri, 23 Feb 2007 09:58:34 GMT, I read these
words from The Highlander <micheil@shaw.ca> :
"Adam Whyte-Settlar" <grawillers@westnet.com.au> wrote:
snip

. . . I am filled with wonder that you chose to live amid
such a venomous menagerie!

Easy-peasy for him !

He's got all those years of living/working with Tinks
and Keelies in the North east behind him and he posts
to scs, doesn't he ?


Not mention the PFD of course.

The spiders are no ****ing joke. They tend to assume a presence out of all
proportion to their size and number.
I keep seeing that bloody tarantula in my mind's eye over and over.
I have taken to sending the PFD ahead of me to switch on the bathroom light
in case there happens to be a venomous arachnid specimen poised in the dark
on the light switch. (there sometimes is!)

I was attracted by the hype of 'the best weather in Oz' etc. It might well
be so but Lord knows what the rest of the country must be like if that's the
case.
It's beautifull here for sure - especially since it has greened up with the
recent rains - but there is no way I'm spending more than a year or so in
this Whyte man's grave of a climate.

God's name - the poor PFD... Our hearts bleed for her. Does she ever

read your posts? What is the secret of your hold over her - her sense
of compassion?

The Highlander

Faodaidh nach ionann na beachdan anns
an post seo agus beachdan a' Ghàidheil.
The views expressed in this post are
not necessarily those of The Highlander.

Cory Bhreckan

Re: Scottish & Irish Drinking Customs

Legg inn av Cory Bhreckan » 23 feb 2007 19:38:39

The Highlander wrote:
On Sat, 24 Feb 2007 02:42:01 +1000, "Adam Whyte-Settlar"
grawillers@westnet.com.au> wrote:

"The Highlander" <micheil@shaw.ca> wrote in message
news:sjgtt2lhjsrfmakrb3que34a6787b80er9@4ax.com...
On Thu, 22 Feb 2007 20:57:27 +1000, "Adam Whyte-Settlar"
silts and sands in this
area are loose and extremely vulnerable to liquefaction."
They deserve all they get really.

I live on an island in an earthquake zone, parts of which could be
liable to experience liquefaction in the event of the next earthquake
being a major one...
Delighted to hear it.

I'll bet! Even so, you're still not getting my Teddy Bear!

Give him your spider, he likes spiders.

The Highlander

Faodaidh nach ionann na beachdan anns
an post seo agus beachdan a' Ghàidheil.
The views expressed in this post are
not necessarily those of The Highlander.


--
"For the stronger we our houses do build,
The less chance we have of being killed." - William Topaz McGonagall

The Highlander

Re: Scottish & Irish Drinking Customs

Legg inn av The Highlander » 23 feb 2007 20:01:26

On Mon, 12 Feb 2007 10:57:08 -0500, "Frank" <tip1@hotmail.com> wrote:

"Thunderbird" <donmarion@shaw.ca> wrote in message
news:1171294735.766799.132540@v45g2000cwv.googlegroups.com...
On Feb 10, 7:55 pm, The Highlander <mich...@shaw.ca> wrote:
On Sat, 10 Feb 2007 14:29:55 -1000, "D. Spencer Hines"

poguemid...@hotmail.com> wrote:
In Scotland, the drinking custom is toss down a shot glass of whisky
and follow it with a beer "chaser" Typically, this is known as a "half
and a half" - a half gill (old measure) of whisky and a half pint of
beer.

Pogue Highgonader

Only half a pint? Back in Ulster, the standard order used to be "a pint
an a wee one".

Alan Crozier

That's because you're all piss-up artists.

I'll bet you never seen the phrase "a sober Irishman" in print.

Its antithesis on the other hand...

--------------------------------

That makes Good Sense.

A GILL is FOUR fluid ounces, or 118.294 milliliters -- so half a gill is
just right for the shots of Lagavulin I enjoy sipping slowly -- limiting
myself to no more than three.

But I follow up with water, rather than beer, after each one.

Ah. so we have taught you something after all! Cleansing the palate
and tongue between glasses lets you start afresh with each new glass.
Three is also a good number to stop at, as the tastebuds tend to close
down at that point and all the balance and subtle aromas are lost.

There can be nothing more déclassé than gulping down a fine whisky -
except for adding 7-Up or ginger ale, at which point, one puts the
decanter away and offers the guests something cheap and nasty, like
Queen Anne, or Paddy's Cork Whisky (Ireland); the choice of culchies.

Fine malts should also be drunk at room temperature. Chilling
Lagavulin (or any other great whisky) with ice means you lose a large
part of the 28 separate flavours some commoisseurs claim to be able to
detect.

The mark of a great whisky is that if you add good quality water, the
quality of the taste remains constant and unpleasant tastes do not
intrude. A cheap whisky will rarely remain constant once watered, and
some fade away completely into tastes more reminiscent of the inferior
poteen, where the only desirable factor is high alcohol content. In
other words, an unpleasant vodka sensation with oak and tannin
flavours.

I must say that when my wife and I went camping in the Rockies, (we
usually drank Talisker malt from the Isle of Skye - it goes down
singing anthems) the pure water running off the glaciers into the
local, highly-oxygenated fast running streams, were absolutely perfect
for watering down whisky when drinking round a campfire.

We once found a mineral spring tasting mildly of soda about 40 miles
into a national park called Wells Gray and we bottled all we could and
had whisky and perfect soda every evening.

http://www.clearwatervalley.com/wells_gray.htm

DSH

Lux et Veritas et Libertas

Fortem Posce Animum

The Highlander

Faodaidh nach ionann na beachdan anns
an post seo agus beachdan a' Ghàidheil.
The views expressed in this post are
not necessarily those of The Highlander.

Watering your scotch? Shocking! Too watery as it is.
Should be sipped.

Putting water in one's Scotch is normal in Scotland for the usual
reason - it makes it last longer!

As for those who do the boilermaker thing, they might as well be
drinking the Japanese version of scotch.

Boilermakers are looking for the effect, not the taste...........What ever
gets you there does the job..........

Veering slightly off topic, do any of you recall a 1940's movie called
"Tight Little Island"? I believe its original title was "Whiskey
Galore" and was based (loosely) upon an actual case (no pun intended)
of a ship laden with whiskey being grounded off one of the western
isles. All those years ago, but I still recall it as one of the
funniest I've ever seen.

Recall? It was the salvation of the Hebrides as old people were dying

from a lack of whisky as it was all being shipoped to the US to pay
for weapons! That was when we were ordered never to speak English to
anyone in a uniform; the place was crawling with revenuers for years
afterwards, trying to find the Golden Hoard. I never lost the habit;
whenever the cops turned up at the door looking for my still, I was
always mute and deaf, leaving everything to my pretty wife to handle,
as she got on better with cops than did I.

The bastards changed the rules too - the whisky was legitimate
salvage. Oh for the good old days when hunting down revenuers and
murdering them was a sport enjoyed by all...

In 1975 my wife read me an item from the local Canadian paper which
said that the Isle of Eriskay where the whisky ship ran aground in
1942 had finally applied for a pub licence, as all the whisky was
finaly gone. But here's a professional tip - Hebrideans always bury
valuable things at the back of caves - so if you're ever in the Outer
Isles, bring a spade... A lot of older fellows died without ever
revealing where they had hidden their personal cache..

Outwitting the revenuers was a local industry in the Highlands;
probably still is.

Read these:

http://members.shaw.ca/micheil/oisinn/gaidseirean1.htm

http://members.shaw.ca/micheil/oisinn/gaidseirean2.htm

http://members.shaw.ca/micheil/oisinn/gaidseirean3.htm

http://members.shaw.ca/micheil/oisinn/gaidseirean4.htm



The Highlander

Faodaidh nach ionann na beachdan anns
an post seo agus beachdan a' Ghàidheil.
The views expressed in this post are
not necessarily those of The Highlander.

Eric Stevens

Re: Scottish & Irish Drinking Customs

Legg inn av Eric Stevens » 23 feb 2007 21:30:28

On Fri, 23 Feb 2007 10:30:37 GMT, The Highlander <micheil@shaw.ca>
wrote:

On Tue, 20 Feb 2007 15:08:38 +1000, "Adam Whyte-Settlar"
grawillers@westnet.com.au> wrote:


"Cory Bhreckan" <coryvreckan@NO_SPAM.verizon.net> wrote in message
news:fu%Ah.4268$E71.2479@trnddc04...
Adam Whyte-Settlar wrote:
"a.spencer3" <a.spencer3@ntlworld.com> wrote in message
news:skHAh.6966$fa.137@newsfe1-win.ntli.net...

"Adam Whyte-Settlar" <grawillers@westnet.com.au> wrote in message
news:45d33e61@quokka.wn.com.au...

Some friends of mine saw a full grown python dead on the road recently -

it

stretched from one side of the road to the other and was so thick they
had
to drive partly on the verge to get over it. They grow to 23ft long and
as
thick as a man's waist eventually. At that size they can swallow a man
whole.

A very small man.

And? Did I say a big man? I did not.
Any Dundonian and most Govanites would be fair game.


The longest snakes in the world, Python reticulatis (Reticulated python.
SW Asia) do not eat the biggest prey. Nor does the largest, Unectes
murinus (Green anaconda, South America).

Yes yes - I know all that (as of yesterday) Sheesh - there's always one
smartarse who thinks it's clever to spoil a good yarn with facts.

Got another Python story just off the press.
This was in a house in the bush near Atherton, about 10 miles from here,
sometime last week.
This woman wakes up in the dead of night to sounds of her spoilt little dog
(that sleeps in the bedroom - yuk) making muffled whimpering noises.
She reaches down to it's rug at the side of the bed and her hand comes to
rest not on something soft, warm and fluffy but on something thick, cold and
scaly.
She freaks out and screams - waking hubby.
She switches on the light and there's a sodding great 4M Python with the
face of her darling little Fido about to disapear down it's throat. She and
hubby leap out of bed and he grabs it by the neck and she grabs it by the
tail (still connected to the whimpering, now airborn, dog's face) and
between them they manage to unwrap the thing from around Fido and pry open
the snake's jaws. Amazingly the dog seems to be OK - at least not crushed -
and still holding the snake stretched one at each end they wrestle it
outside, across the garden, and it's one, two, three and heave the bugger
over the fence into the woods.
This all takes a minute or two as you might imagine and when they return,
somewhat weak at the knees, to the house to check on the dog.
But, dear reader, on the floor in the lounge they find ANOTHER 4M Python
waiting for them! Probably the other's mate.
Only this one has a large fat bulge in it's middle.
Thinking that this bastard has nabbed the dog while they were disposing of
the first one they run back through to the bedroom to check and discover
Fido is still alive and kicking.
It took them a while to work it out but it eventually dawned on them that
Fido's fluffy, much-drooled upon and dog-wreaking, stuffed, life-sized toy
is missing.
They can only presume that the Python could smell Fido on it, took it for
the real thing, crushed it and scoffed it.
I think that Python got the one, two, three treatment too.
No word on the health of the toy dog as yet but the prognosis isn't good.
Can't imagine the snake is feeling that great either.
And *I don't care* if that story is technically accurate.
I tell you it's a jungle out there.

Another little true story from just a couple of hours or so ago. I'm still a
bit shaky.
I was sitting here in my sparse little office checking my fan mail first
thing when I caught this movement out of the corner of my eye.
On the tiles, less than a metre from my bare feet was the first and biggest
real live TARANTULA I've ever seen.

Now I 'know' that tarantulas get a bad press and they are not really deadly
and they only rarely eat birds. However, I wasn't using the rational part of
my brain from that point on and merely relied on my primal instincts.
The books say: "...the bite is painful, as the fangs are large and as long
as those of many snakes. Severe illness sometimes results and nausea and
vomiting for six to eight hours have been reported from bites..." Which is
bad enough, but what they don't say is that certain lily-livered
arachnaphobe pussies would die of a ****ing heart attack if the bloody thing
so much as touched them. I believe I fall squarely into the latter catagory.
In fact I *know* I fall squarely into the latter catagory.
Take a look at this and I think most sympathetic souls will appreciate why.

http://www.outback-australia-travel-sec ... antula.jpg

I searched out a suitable weapon - which turned out to be a plank of wood 4
inches wide and fully 9ft long. Damned if I was getting any closer than
that. As it happened it barely had time to rear up before I flattened the
poor thing.
It took me about another hour just to pluck up the courage to sweep the body
into the dustpan and chuck it outside. By that time I had managed to regain
some small measure of control over the rational part of my brain and figured
it probably wouldn't attack me.

I wasn't taking any chances as just last night we had another bloody great
wolf spider in the bedroom wardrobe (the press *they* get *is* justified)
and I missed it with the floor-polisher (which broke) and had to hop about
frantically trying to whack the big ugly sod with my slipper from the
relative safety of the bed . They can really move when they have to.
Fortunately so can I.
What is really worrying about the tarantula is I just can't figure out how
something damn near the size of a side-plate and with a body as thick as a
cigar got *into* the house in the first place. We are religious about
keeping the snake/insect screens closed at all times and I can't find a gap
anywhere.
Maybe they are already in the house somewhere and just waiting their chance
to pounce.
It's getting to be beyond a joke. My heart isn't a young as it was. I'm
thinking of moving back to NZ with the dear little redbacks and whitetails.

A W-S

You'd better think about that - some NZ fishermen have just caught a
humoungous squid which is apparently longer than a whale.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6385071.stm

Let me offer a small prayer for the geographically deprived. :-)


The fisherman may have been from New Zealand but New Zealand is not to
be found in Antarctic waters.



Eric Stevens

Adam Whyte-Settlar

Re: Scottish & Irish Drinking Customs

Legg inn av Adam Whyte-Settlar » 24 feb 2007 16:21:10

"Eric Stevens" <eric.stevens@sum.co.nz> wrote in message
news:bkjut2h09ova73ou86l7kqiaq3narjf5i9@4ax.com...

Let me offer a small prayer for the geographically deprived. :-)

The fisherman may have been from New Zealand but New Zealand is not to
be found in Antarctic waters.

No - It just feels that way when the southerlies blow.

Eric Stevens

Re: Scottish & Irish Drinking Customs

Legg inn av Eric Stevens » 25 feb 2007 00:31:32

On Sun, 25 Feb 2007 01:21:10 +1000, "Adam Whyte-Settlar"
<grawillers@westnet.com.au> wrote:

"Eric Stevens" <eric.stevens@sum.co.nz> wrote in message
news:bkjut2h09ova73ou86l7kqiaq3narjf5i9@4ax.com...

Let me offer a small prayer for the geographically deprived. :-)

The fisherman may have been from New Zealand but New Zealand is not to
be found in Antarctic waters.

No - It just feels that way when the southerlies blow.

Softie. :-)




Eric Stevens

The Highlander

Re: Scottish & Irish Drinking Customs

Legg inn av The Highlander » 25 feb 2007 10:35:07

On Fri, 23 Feb 2007 18:38:39 GMT, Cory Bhreckan
<coryvreckan@NO_SPAM.verizon.net> wrote:

The Highlander wrote:
On Sat, 24 Feb 2007 02:42:01 +1000, "Adam Whyte-Settlar"
grawillers@westnet.com.au> wrote:

"The Highlander" <micheil@shaw.ca> wrote in message
news:sjgtt2lhjsrfmakrb3que34a6787b80er9@4ax.com...
On Thu, 22 Feb 2007 20:57:27 +1000, "Adam Whyte-Settlar"
silts and sands in this
area are loose and extremely vulnerable to liquefaction."
They deserve all they get really.

I live on an island in an earthquake zone, parts of which could be
liable to experience liquefaction in the event of the next earthquake
being a major one...
Delighted to hear it.

I'll bet! Even so, you're still not getting my Teddy Bear!

Give him your spider, he likes spiders.

The problem is that we don't have anything particularly venomous in
BC. How about a large grizzly bear with massive blood-stained fangs?

The Highlander

Faodaidh nach ionann na beachdan anns
an post seo agus beachdan a' Ghàidheil.
The views expressed in this post are
not necessarily those of The Highlander.


The Highlander

Faodaidh nach ionann na beachdan anns
an post seo agus beachdan a' Ghàidheil.
The views expressed in this post are
not necessarily those of The Highlander.

The Highlander

Re: Scottish & Irish Drinking Customs

Legg inn av The Highlander » 25 feb 2007 10:36:26

On Sat, 24 Feb 2007 09:30:28 +1300, Eric Stevens
<eric.stevens@sum.co.nz> wrote:

On Fri, 23 Feb 2007 10:30:37 GMT, The Highlander <micheil@shaw.ca
wrote:

On Tue, 20 Feb 2007 15:08:38 +1000, "Adam Whyte-Settlar"
grawillers@westnet.com.au> wrote:


"Cory Bhreckan" <coryvreckan@NO_SPAM.verizon.net> wrote in message
news:fu%Ah.4268$E71.2479@trnddc04...
Adam Whyte-Settlar wrote:
"a.spencer3" <a.spencer3@ntlworld.com> wrote in message
news:skHAh.6966$fa.137@newsfe1-win.ntli.net...

"Adam Whyte-Settlar" <grawillers@westnet.com.au> wrote in message
news:45d33e61@quokka.wn.com.au...

Some friends of mine saw a full grown python dead on the road recently -

it

stretched from one side of the road to the other and was so thick they
had
to drive partly on the verge to get over it. They grow to 23ft long and
as
thick as a man's waist eventually. At that size they can swallow a man
whole.

A very small man.

And? Did I say a big man? I did not.
Any Dundonian and most Govanites would be fair game.


The longest snakes in the world, Python reticulatis (Reticulated python.
SW Asia) do not eat the biggest prey. Nor does the largest, Unectes
murinus (Green anaconda, South America).

Yes yes - I know all that (as of yesterday) Sheesh - there's always one
smartarse who thinks it's clever to spoil a good yarn with facts.

Got another Python story just off the press.
This was in a house in the bush near Atherton, about 10 miles from here,
sometime last week.
This woman wakes up in the dead of night to sounds of her spoilt little dog
(that sleeps in the bedroom - yuk) making muffled whimpering noises.
She reaches down to it's rug at the side of the bed and her hand comes to
rest not on something soft, warm and fluffy but on something thick, cold and
scaly.
She freaks out and screams - waking hubby.
She switches on the light and there's a sodding great 4M Python with the
face of her darling little Fido about to disapear down it's throat. She and
hubby leap out of bed and he grabs it by the neck and she grabs it by the
tail (still connected to the whimpering, now airborn, dog's face) and
between them they manage to unwrap the thing from around Fido and pry open
the snake's jaws. Amazingly the dog seems to be OK - at least not crushed -
and still holding the snake stretched one at each end they wrestle it
outside, across the garden, and it's one, two, three and heave the bugger
over the fence into the woods.
This all takes a minute or two as you might imagine and when they return,
somewhat weak at the knees, to the house to check on the dog.
But, dear reader, on the floor in the lounge they find ANOTHER 4M Python
waiting for them! Probably the other's mate.
Only this one has a large fat bulge in it's middle.
Thinking that this bastard has nabbed the dog while they were disposing of
the first one they run back through to the bedroom to check and discover
Fido is still alive and kicking.
It took them a while to work it out but it eventually dawned on them that
Fido's fluffy, much-drooled upon and dog-wreaking, stuffed, life-sized toy
is missing.
They can only presume that the Python could smell Fido on it, took it for
the real thing, crushed it and scoffed it.
I think that Python got the one, two, three treatment too.
No word on the health of the toy dog as yet but the prognosis isn't good.
Can't imagine the snake is feeling that great either.
And *I don't care* if that story is technically accurate.
I tell you it's a jungle out there.

Another little true story from just a couple of hours or so ago. I'm still a
bit shaky.
I was sitting here in my sparse little office checking my fan mail first
thing when I caught this movement out of the corner of my eye.
On the tiles, less than a metre from my bare feet was the first and biggest
real live TARANTULA I've ever seen.

Now I 'know' that tarantulas get a bad press and they are not really deadly
and they only rarely eat birds. However, I wasn't using the rational part of
my brain from that point on and merely relied on my primal instincts.
The books say: "...the bite is painful, as the fangs are large and as long
as those of many snakes. Severe illness sometimes results and nausea and
vomiting for six to eight hours have been reported from bites..." Which is
bad enough, but what they don't say is that certain lily-livered
arachnaphobe pussies would die of a ****ing heart attack if the bloody thing
so much as touched them. I believe I fall squarely into the latter catagory.
In fact I *know* I fall squarely into the latter catagory.
Take a look at this and I think most sympathetic souls will appreciate why.

http://www.outback-australia-travel-sec ... antula.jpg

I searched out a suitable weapon - which turned out to be a plank of wood 4
inches wide and fully 9ft long. Damned if I was getting any closer than
that. As it happened it barely had time to rear up before I flattened the
poor thing.
It took me about another hour just to pluck up the courage to sweep the body
into the dustpan and chuck it outside. By that time I had managed to regain
some small measure of control over the rational part of my brain and figured
it probably wouldn't attack me.

I wasn't taking any chances as just last night we had another bloody great
wolf spider in the bedroom wardrobe (the press *they* get *is* justified)
and I missed it with the floor-polisher (which broke) and had to hop about
frantically trying to whack the big ugly sod with my slipper from the
relative safety of the bed . They can really move when they have to.
Fortunately so can I.
What is really worrying about the tarantula is I just can't figure out how
something damn near the size of a side-plate and with a body as thick as a
cigar got *into* the house in the first place. We are religious about
keeping the snake/insect screens closed at all times and I can't find a gap
anywhere.
Maybe they are already in the house somewhere and just waiting their chance
to pounce.
It's getting to be beyond a joke. My heart isn't a young as it was. I'm
thinking of moving back to NZ with the dear little redbacks and whitetails.

A W-S

You'd better think about that - some NZ fishermen have just caught a
humoungous squid which is apparently longer than a whale.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6385071.stm

Let me offer a small prayer for the geographically deprived. :-)

The fisherman may have been from New Zealand but New Zealand is not to
be found in Antarctic waters.

You must be a whizz at map-reading!

Eric Stevens


The Highlander

Faodaidh nach ionann na beachdan anns
an post seo agus beachdan a' Ghàidheil.
The views expressed in this post are
not necessarily those of The Highlander.

Eric Stevens

Re: Scottish & Irish Drinking Customs

Legg inn av Eric Stevens » 25 feb 2007 20:49:59

On Sun, 25 Feb 2007 09:36:26 GMT, The Highlander <micheil@shaw.ca>
wrote:

On Sat, 24 Feb 2007 09:30:28 +1300, Eric Stevens
eric.stevens@sum.co.nz> wrote:

On Fri, 23 Feb 2007 10:30:37 GMT, The Highlander <micheil@shaw.ca
wrote:

On Tue, 20 Feb 2007 15:08:38 +1000, "Adam Whyte-Settlar"
grawillers@westnet.com.au> wrote:


"Cory Bhreckan" <coryvreckan@NO_SPAM.verizon.net> wrote in message
news:fu%Ah.4268$E71.2479@trnddc04...
Adam Whyte-Settlar wrote:
"a.spencer3" <a.spencer3@ntlworld.com> wrote in message
news:skHAh.6966$fa.137@newsfe1-win.ntli.net...

"Adam Whyte-Settlar" <grawillers@westnet.com.au> wrote in message
news:45d33e61@quokka.wn.com.au...

Some friends of mine saw a full grown python dead on the road recently -

it

stretched from one side of the road to the other and was so thick they
had
to drive partly on the verge to get over it. They grow to 23ft long and
as
thick as a man's waist eventually. At that size they can swallow a man
whole.

A very small man.

And? Did I say a big man? I did not.
Any Dundonian and most Govanites would be fair game.


The longest snakes in the world, Python reticulatis (Reticulated python.
SW Asia) do not eat the biggest prey. Nor does the largest, Unectes
murinus (Green anaconda, South America).

Yes yes - I know all that (as of yesterday) Sheesh - there's always one
smartarse who thinks it's clever to spoil a good yarn with facts.

Got another Python story just off the press.
This was in a house in the bush near Atherton, about 10 miles from here,
sometime last week.
This woman wakes up in the dead of night to sounds of her spoilt little dog
(that sleeps in the bedroom - yuk) making muffled whimpering noises.
She reaches down to it's rug at the side of the bed and her hand comes to
rest not on something soft, warm and fluffy but on something thick, cold and
scaly.
She freaks out and screams - waking hubby.
She switches on the light and there's a sodding great 4M Python with the
face of her darling little Fido about to disapear down it's throat. She and
hubby leap out of bed and he grabs it by the neck and she grabs it by the
tail (still connected to the whimpering, now airborn, dog's face) and
between them they manage to unwrap the thing from around Fido and pry open
the snake's jaws. Amazingly the dog seems to be OK - at least not crushed -
and still holding the snake stretched one at each end they wrestle it
outside, across the garden, and it's one, two, three and heave the bugger
over the fence into the woods.
This all takes a minute or two as you might imagine and when they return,
somewhat weak at the knees, to the house to check on the dog.
But, dear reader, on the floor in the lounge they find ANOTHER 4M Python
waiting for them! Probably the other's mate.
Only this one has a large fat bulge in it's middle.
Thinking that this bastard has nabbed the dog while they were disposing of
the first one they run back through to the bedroom to check and discover
Fido is still alive and kicking.
It took them a while to work it out but it eventually dawned on them that
Fido's fluffy, much-drooled upon and dog-wreaking, stuffed, life-sized toy
is missing.
They can only presume that the Python could smell Fido on it, took it for
the real thing, crushed it and scoffed it.
I think that Python got the one, two, three treatment too.
No word on the health of the toy dog as yet but the prognosis isn't good.
Can't imagine the snake is feeling that great either.
And *I don't care* if that story is technically accurate.
I tell you it's a jungle out there.

Another little true story from just a couple of hours or so ago. I'm still a
bit shaky.
I was sitting here in my sparse little office checking my fan mail first
thing when I caught this movement out of the corner of my eye.
On the tiles, less than a metre from my bare feet was the first and biggest
real live TARANTULA I've ever seen.

Now I 'know' that tarantulas get a bad press and they are not really deadly
and they only rarely eat birds. However, I wasn't using the rational part of
my brain from that point on and merely relied on my primal instincts.
The books say: "...the bite is painful, as the fangs are large and as long
as those of many snakes. Severe illness sometimes results and nausea and
vomiting for six to eight hours have been reported from bites..." Which is
bad enough, but what they don't say is that certain lily-livered
arachnaphobe pussies would die of a ****ing heart attack if the bloody thing
so much as touched them. I believe I fall squarely into the latter catagory.
In fact I *know* I fall squarely into the latter catagory.
Take a look at this and I think most sympathetic souls will appreciate why.

http://www.outback-australia-travel-sec ... antula.jpg

I searched out a suitable weapon - which turned out to be a plank of wood 4
inches wide and fully 9ft long. Damned if I was getting any closer than
that. As it happened it barely had time to rear up before I flattened the
poor thing.
It took me about another hour just to pluck up the courage to sweep the body
into the dustpan and chuck it outside. By that time I had managed to regain
some small measure of control over the rational part of my brain and figured
it probably wouldn't attack me.

I wasn't taking any chances as just last night we had another bloody great
wolf spider in the bedroom wardrobe (the press *they* get *is* justified)
and I missed it with the floor-polisher (which broke) and had to hop about
frantically trying to whack the big ugly sod with my slipper from the
relative safety of the bed . They can really move when they have to.
Fortunately so can I.
What is really worrying about the tarantula is I just can't figure out how
something damn near the size of a side-plate and with a body as thick as a
cigar got *into* the house in the first place. We are religious about
keeping the snake/insect screens closed at all times and I can't find a gap
anywhere.
Maybe they are already in the house somewhere and just waiting their chance
to pounce.
It's getting to be beyond a joke. My heart isn't a young as it was. I'm
thinking of moving back to NZ with the dear little redbacks and whitetails.

A W-S

You'd better think about that - some NZ fishermen have just caught a
humoungous squid which is apparently longer than a whale.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6385071.stm

Let me offer a small prayer for the geographically deprived. :-)

The fisherman may have been from New Zealand but New Zealand is not to
be found in Antarctic waters.

You must be a whizz at map-reading!

I only have to look out the window.

Eric Stevens


The Highlander

Faodaidh nach ionann na beachdan anns
an post seo agus beachdan a' Ghàidheil.
The views expressed in this post are
not necessarily those of The Highlander.



Eric Stevens

Adam Whyte-Settlar

Re: Scottish & Irish Drinking Customs

Legg inn av Adam Whyte-Settlar » 03 mar 2007 12:56:39

"The Highlander" <micheil@shaw.ca> wrote in message
news:rqcut212pgf2sa8qql2bq851cl2dis2qdq@4ax.com...
On Sat, 24 Feb 2007 03:05:58 +1000, "Adam Whyte-Settlar"
grawillers@westnet.com.au> wrote:


"Josiah Jenkins" <josiah-jenkins@dsl.pipex.com> wrote in message
news:eontt2ttgtd06qh0387k9hldainh0llbd4@4ax.com...
Whilst perusing Usenet on Fri, 23 Feb 2007 09:58:34 GMT, I read these
words from The Highlander <micheil@shaw.ca> :
"Adam Whyte-Settlar" <grawillers@westnet.com.au> wrote:
snip

. . . I am filled with wonder that you chose to live amid
such a venomous menagerie!

Easy-peasy for him !

He's got all those years of living/working with Tinks
and Keelies in the North east behind him and he posts
to scs, doesn't he ?


Not mention the PFD of course.

The spiders are no ****ing joke. They tend to assume a presence out of all
proportion to their size and number.
I keep seeing that bloody tarantula in my mind's eye over and over.
I have taken to sending the PFD ahead of me to switch on the bathroom
light
in case there happens to be a venomous arachnid specimen poised in the
dark
on the light switch. (there sometimes is!)

I was attracted by the hype of 'the best weather in Oz' etc. It might well
be so but Lord knows what the rest of the country must be like if that's
the
case.
It's beautifull here for sure - especially since it has greened up with
the
recent rains - but there is no way I'm spending more than a year or so in
this Whyte man's grave of a climate.

God's name - the poor PFD... Our hearts bleed for her. Does she ever
read your posts? What is the secret of your hold over her - her sense
of compassion?

Nothing so emotionaly complicated. It's mainly fear based on brutality.
An agonising death from a funnel-web bite is as nothing to the suffering she
would endure should she dare to defy me.
I lived in the Highlands for over 20 years remember. I learned a thing or
two from the local christians.

Robert Peffers.

Re: Scottish & Irish Drinking Customs

Legg inn av Robert Peffers. » 03 mar 2007 13:12:06

"Adam Whyte-Settlar" <grawillers@westnet.com.au> wrote in message
news:45e96268@quokka.wn.com.au...
"The Highlander" <micheil@shaw.ca> wrote in message
news:rqcut212pgf2sa8qql2bq851cl2dis2qdq@4ax.com...
On Sat, 24 Feb 2007 03:05:58 +1000, "Adam Whyte-Settlar"
grawillers@westnet.com.au> wrote:


"Josiah Jenkins" <josiah-jenkins@dsl.pipex.com> wrote in message
news:eontt2ttgtd06qh0387k9hldainh0llbd4@4ax.com...
Whilst perusing Usenet on Fri, 23 Feb 2007 09:58:34 GMT, I read these
words from The Highlander <micheil@shaw.ca> :
"Adam Whyte-Settlar" <grawillers@westnet.com.au> wrote:
snip

. . . I am filled with wonder that you chose to live amid
such a venomous menagerie!

Easy-peasy for him !

He's got all those years of living/working with Tinks
and Keelies in the North east behind him and he posts
to scs, doesn't he ?


Not mention the PFD of course.

The spiders are no ****ing joke. They tend to assume a presence out of
all
proportion to their size and number.
I keep seeing that bloody tarantula in my mind's eye over and over.
I have taken to sending the PFD ahead of me to switch on the bathroom
light
in case there happens to be a venomous arachnid specimen poised in the
dark
on the light switch. (there sometimes is!)

I was attracted by the hype of 'the best weather in Oz' etc. It might
well
be so but Lord knows what the rest of the country must be like if that's
the
case.
It's beautifull here for sure - especially since it has greened up with
the
recent rains - but there is no way I'm spending more than a year or so in
this Whyte man's grave of a climate.

God's name - the poor PFD... Our hearts bleed for her. Does she ever
read your posts? What is the secret of your hold over her - her sense
of compassion?

Nothing so emotionaly complicated. It's mainly fear based on brutality.
An agonising death from a funnel-web bite is as nothing to the suffering
she would endure should she dare to defy me.
I lived in the Highlands for over 20 years remember. I learned a thing or
two from the local christians.


Oh no! Not that! Not a threat of exposure to the Wee, Wee Frees? Not even

you could be as low as that. Jings!
--

Robert Peffers,
Kelty,
Fife,
Scotland, (UK).

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