Independent Leyton Orient Forum

BIGRON wrote: ↑Fri Feb 18, 2022 2:24 pm Can't see rhe women making the curling final

Max B Gold wrote: ↑Fri Feb 18, 2022 10:24 am

Highwood Man wrote: ↑Thu Feb 17, 2022 10:36 pm

Max B Gold wrote: ↑Thu Feb 17, 2022 8:27 pm

Fun fact No 3

When you drive along the coast towards the premier Scotch seaside resort of Girvan, often referred to as the jewel in the crown of the Ayrshire Riviera, and look out toward the Ailsa Craig in the month of July one will see many potato fields located between the road and the sea

These fields yield the best tasting free Ayrshire tatties you are ever likely to taste in your life.

Note: it is best to park up at the golf club and approach the fields on foot from the beach. Do NOT, repeat, DO NOT under any circumstances approach from the roadside in your vehicle unless you can evade the over protective and unwilling to share fermers.

You seem to know a lot about this part of the world Max. Were you born in these parts? My Dad was born just up the road in Maybole. As a lad, I remember going out on a boat trip to Ailsa Craig possibly from Girvan to get a close up view of it. And totally agree about Ayrshire new tatties. Nothing like them!

From 1971 to 1974 our family had a caravan in Girvan and we spent all of the school summer holidays, weekends, Easter hols etc there.

In those days it was a bustling, vibrant town with all sorts of things to keep kids occupied. Sports days at the Victory Park, The New Seekers at the Beach Pavillion football, swimming putting competitions, organised games on the beach, fishing, golf, hill walking, staging raids on the penny falls machine at the amusements in cahoots with some local kids. It was a site to behold. Two kids would bump the machine and 4 others would grab the coins as they dropped and leg it as the owner tried to get out from behind the change kiosk and chase us. It was carried out with all the precision of a bank raid.

I used to hang around the harbour in the afternoon when the fishing boats arrived and help the fishermen load new boxes onto the boat and was rewarded with a couple of fish which I took round to the back door of the Chinese restaurant and sold to buy fishing tackle or sweets or a cheap ornament that said "Girvan" on it as a gift for my gran. I got them all back when she died.

So yes I know the area quite well and still go there on day trips. Last summer me and Mrs Eva Gold were there 6 times sunning ourselves on the beach as I swam in the sea and tried to catch the flounders just like I did almost 45 years ago. One of the few things the town still has going for it is that the Furstenbergs in Asda are usually around 10p a bottle cheaper than Asda in Binwood or Morrisons.