Caledonian-MacBrayne: Some Balance Called For.
Posted: Wednesday, 11 June 2008 |
Comments
Hi again, IIL, or should it be TIC (tongue in cheek), Any ideas why the top CALMAC bloke has resigned? for personal reasons, mmm, perhaps you can enlighten us more, You didn't have anything to do with it did you?? Calmac praise?. Yes, I love the staff, they are always warm and friendly and helpful. One captain in particular always attempts to get into Coll, whatever storm and tempest comes his way. Without Calmac, I don't know what our islands would do.
Squidgy the Otter from let's dig deeper
A very well conceived and produced blog. It is true that nobody wants to know if the ferry sails on time 98% of the time,that's not news, it is the remaining 2% that the media & public get in a lather over. May God bless Calmac and all who sail with her.
King Gog from The Palace
Personally, just like Barney, I would not dream of going between the islands, certainly not to Bute, on anything but my own boat, unless I come in on my little Skyhawk. Coll International, here I come.
mjc from NM,USA
"Now you may say "Who are we to talk"? Well, we can vouch for all this from personal knowledge, gained at several Calmac dinners and other functions." Says it all. Its not what you know...
Flying Cat from dahling, how simply supah!
To briefly answer your point, "Squidgy", (are you a child?), "Hughie" is retiring purely for personal reasons and we wish him all the best. He will now be able to devote more time to his own wife and children, and, of course, his beloved shinty. Sadly, his efforts to get us to speak Gallic were not successful! As for "Flying Cat", we thought that you had promised to leave, so pleased to have you back
J and M from Bute
Send "Hughie" all my love, he is well known on Coll too. and yes, J and M from Bute, I am extremely youthful !!!
Squidgy the Otter from The Kindergarten
How could a cat resist such a glorious tarradiddle!
Flying Cat from taking the pils
"efforts to get us to speak Gallic" ...? Surely a typo? Gallic as a reference to the lingo that Carol abuses out there in Languedoc Rousillon? I assume you meant Gaelic, but why can't you learn it? Oxford U. P. puts out a nice little booklet plus CD on how to acquire the language without benefit of guga. # Squidgy, without Calmac the islanders would do without it, or the island would do without the islanders. Such is life.
mjc from NM,USA
J and M:are you two "real"?
carol from over here
In response to your plea - my own experience of Calmac has been nothing but friendly helpful staff - when I was stranded in Oban last August bank holiday they were so helpful and got me back to Mull pronto - I have to say, I havent had a bad experience - but in this day and age you only ever hear the complaints - very rarely do you hear praise - so this blog is a step in the right direction - well done!
Wild Freckle from Mull - not isolated thanks to Calmac
OK, I've now read three of your blogs. I did bite the hook offered in the first one, but I'm not biting anymore!
J R Hartley from Riverbank
Learn Gaelic? But no-one on Bute uses this, to our knowledge. And what is "guga"? We have quite enough on our plate trying to understand some of the existing local dialects (based on Glasgow vernacular, I understand, which explains all.) We are pleased to see the Calmac tributes. You know, we have always thought that Calmac should have a company song - something stirring, and evoking the beauty of the islands and the elegance of the ferries. I may mention this at the next function. M is very good at poetry, and still has a rhyming dictionary somewhere.
J and M from Bute
Guga is to haute cuisine what rhymes are to poetry. Be nice: keep your mouth closed when you eat guga, and don't declaim your poetry loudly. # I agree with JR Hartley and others: you folks are as real and as likely as lively dinner conversation at Balmoral.
mjc from NM,USA
Shall we be honest? Gaelic these days is for tourists and well-meaning incomers. And Cal Mac may still inconvenience us occasionally when the wind blows but compared to the 70s they are so efficient as to be unrecognisable.
Locale from Local
Hi Locale, glad the CalMac service is to the liking of its clientele. Yes, the old days are not always that hot: give me the Eurostar over the old Dover-Ostende/'Calais ferry any day.
mjc from NM,USA
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