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Hi Buzz
John Fraser won the East End fishing (of course). There were more crew than boats, but 3 from the village entered and I gather it was a successful day. All the mackerel were sardine-sized, but in large shoals so catch weights were better than the village competition.
The East End won the tug of war at the show. They beat the Airport crew in three pulls. It is the first time I saw two grown men play 'paper scissors stone' to decide who called when the coin was tossed. Ewan won 'paper scissors stone' (with stone, of course), lost the toss and got the losing end, and then won the first pull. However, determination and stubbornness are valued characteristics up east, and with the majority of Coll cheering on the home team the East won the next 2 pulls.
The road race was re-routed (to find a road) and Ben from project came in first. All the kids got Magnums for running, I might take part next year. The crowd got more colourful as the new hall fundraising team sold very bright orange, yellow and blue pirate T-shirts. The beer tent steadily sold Piper's Gold and Somerled and also five boxes of Magners, which has become this year's drink, and will have been responsible for doubling our recycled glass. Angus MacPhail and the band got a bit held up on Mull, but the kids played the fiddles and boxes, and Stuart played the pipes, and the band played on past 2-30 and I didn't get to bed until four so it was a cracking day and night. The only disappointed person was my mum, who carefully dug up her spuds, selected the show entries, put the discards in the sink to eat and the good ones aside, and discovered Martin had cooked the wrong ones!

I'm on the lookout for a half naked man. On my way to work I pass the usual things; views of the sea, the odd bit of decent road, and signs marking former passing places (now large muddy holes). These signs breed every autumn when Paddy comes over from Tiree and puts more up. They are white diamonds and in the dark they reflect light very efficiently so you can see them marching off across the bog on a moonlit night. On my bit of west-end road they aren't that useful as we have (had) a lot of clearly visible passing places but they cheer me up in the dark. One of them has acquired a jersey. As I passed it I thought it was very public-spirited of some-one to pick up a dropped jersey and put it where it is clearly visible. However, half a mile later by the quarry bend there are three black and white posts, and one of them has a check shirt on it. I'm wondering what the mystery man was doing to get so hot he started to strip off his clothes, but left them neatly hanging up! I must head out east and see if there are any more items of clothing.

By the village hall a sign has been put up. 'Coll Inca trail starts here. No access to wheeled vehicles'. I haven't worked out yet whether it refers to the complete lack of tarred road, because the Incas didn't invent the wheel they didn't need smooth roads, or whether it is because of the runway. I think the Incas built huge patterns on the ground, which are only really visible from the air and look like giant runways. Of course they hadn't invented the aeroplane either so they didn't need runways. Apparently no-one wants to fly planes to Coll so we may not need a runway either. Just as well, as rumour has it the tar hasn't set yet, ten days after it was laid. The technical term is too much inhibitor.

Tonight it is the Tobermory to Coll yacht race. We had a cracking night in the bar last time they came in.

PS You can vote for the Coll Hotel as a local food hero on the Uktvfood website. They say the Coll Hotel is in Shetland so I suppose my journey to work is pretty quick really.