A perfect morning commute!

 Whilst this summer  the weather has not been that great this morning was an absolute belter!

What amazing views on the coast...

Here is some film riding to work on the Royal Enfield...

More soon...

Genesis Scottish Open Golf 2024 Renaissance. Club

 

It's time again for the Scottish Open at work, busy busy last few weeks prepping coarse ready for the week long event and this year the coarse is looking amazing, hats off to an amazing team of Greenkeepers and what they have achieved in the last 12 months with changes made and new bunkers constructed, in a Country of dying Industries and trades today I can happily say Greenkeeping in Scotland - The home of golf is a strong as ever,

I will add more pics to this post as the week goes on but here are some pics from early morning starts and evening out on coarse with approx 30 odd volunteer Greenkeepers from other clubs who get paid accommodation and food for the week to help out a 20 Greenkeeping team here. Even I work 14 days straight!, as it is the time of year we all take our job very seriously and although the coarse is imacculate we always say it can still be better and we never rest on our laurels  

Up at 3am and leave 3:30am for work to arrive 4am and get ready for 4:30 prep as Group, then out on coarse for Sunrise 4:45am

Here is a film from Monday,

I enjoy the week and split shifts while tiring I enjoy as only for a week and something different, esp enjoyable if the weather plays game and I can use the Enfield 350!

So that film was from Monday, previous day I got the chance to fly the Drone around over the coarse and as most of the contractors had now left and prior to players practicing Mon and Tues it was perfect chance with weather calm, here is a 5 minute edited film to Boards Of Canada track Dayvan Cowboy

And longer full unedited 20 mins of drone footage

Film from the Man cave after it all over

More soon...

The History of my Hotchkiss Willys M201 Jeep

 

Exciting news folks regarding the history of my Willys Jeep!

So rewinding back I could not find out why my jeep did not have the usual French Government contract numbers from when it was produced - a MALT number and other details , and why it is actually blue underneath? all was revealed after some Google translate and questions I asked were answered on a French M201 Facebook page

Watch this!...

So there you go, my Jeep was actually produced in 1969 not 1965 as the UK logbook states, and it is the 5th last EVER produced Willys MB...

Think about that out of nearly 650,000 WW2 Jeeps - half of which are Willys MB`s (other half Ford GPW`s) then 27,300 odd French manufactured Willys MB`s (under licence) it is one of the last, 

One of 6 known Civilian French Willys MB`s - a C201,  and the only C201 in the UK!

Cool eh?

I am not selling it, painting it blue, or probably not painting it sand a s a lot of work to do...

But keep using it and enjoying it...

It was a dream come true to own a Willys Jeep and I want to keep that dream alive and live it...

More soon...

Solo beach patrol at John Muir Country Park

 

Mid June, and it does not feel like June with the variable temps and showers most days...

Thrift...

Good to get back to basics and the simple pleasure of a bike ride locally and a few pics on the phone and no video editing...

it's a Monday and G is away in her van for a few days as a week off and bagging some more Munro's while I'm at work mid week, so I got out a wee solo cycle on the Pugsley around John Muir Park, 

it was mid tide so could not get out too far across the mud flats after I crossed the salt marsh under a chorus of Skylarks stopping at the remains of the Matilda tank wreck, parked out here for live fire practice after WW2 there is not much left of the wreckage.  Supposedly there were 3 tanks used but were cut up for scrap once destroyed.  Who knows if some of the wreckage is buried in the sand dunes behind last Spike Island grew in size in the last 80 years, maybe stuff will appear again after storms etc...

Wrecked pillboxes and anti glider pole bases are scattered around the bay and if you look around you should find a souvenir from the live fire practice that went here from WW2 until the 1950s...

A .303 was todays find...

The point is roped off for birds nesting for summer so it was down a softer than normal beach and back through the park as the tide came in filling the bay...

No film today, just a back to basics easy bimble cycle and chill out Monday, Scottish Open Golf championships is in 3 weeks time so one more weekend pff before things get real busy for a couple of weeks....

More soon...

Hope to get back to blogging more again soon...

The last two years has seen this regularly updated blog pretty much halted as I got sucked into the world of being a YouTuber with a monetised channel after I bought my Royal Enfield Classic 350 and a fiIm i made after 4 months ownership whet viral and I started to get payed to post films!, sound great doesn't it? get paid to do your hobbies and pasttimes....

Well a year later and despite loads more subscribers  - 5000+ now and a few new subs joining daily I am making exactly the same amount despite doing a hell of a more filming, editing and replying to comments left - which I do not mind doing so and is the least you can do when folk take the time to leave a nice comment,  but it seems having an overload of films after the NC250 motorbike trip gave me the realisation that it does not really pay for the time your actually putting in, when I am still earning the same amount as last year,

And I am cutting back the amount of time spent filming and posting etc and want to actually get back to posting simple blog posts and have a record of pictures to look back on,

The blog hardly gets comments left and a hell of a lot of spam crap and I know the Google Police will prob scald me as they own YouTube but I think the only people actually making any decent money is folk who use Patron and sites like that, and YouTube is now just full of Adverts you cannot skip, too much adverts!, 30 second long adds now...

I have also proved a few things regarding view numbers on films I unknowingly to you used exactly the same title and wording as similar films which one has had 4 million views!, I changed the title to my own title after 36 hours but just wanted to see if it got mega views and it did not - that was the WW2 Gerry can film by the way that has stalled at 800 odd views...

Maybe I am just being jealous or bitter about other channels getting massive views?, I am not a jealous or bitter person if you know me... more just a bit disappointed...

Anyways here is a ManCave update where I mention all this ...

I promise to try get a weekly blog post back up again folks,  

Cheers Bruce

Vanlife; 3 days in Northumberland...

 We headed down the coast over the border to Northumberland for a couple of nights in the van and stopped over at Morpeth where a new campsite has been created on some of the former RAF Morpeth Airbase, we had a fun time cycling the fatbikes on some fantastic beaches in some fantastic weather!

The pictures are not in order and not sure why they do not load in order off the computer, but I am not spending ages individually uploading each pic!

What I will do is put he films at the end under the photo dump...

Film one unpacked we cycled down past RAF Boulmar stopping at the gateguard Phantom before heading onto the beach for a look about..

Next day we rode along Drudge Bay... fantastic coast and great beach riding!

And finaly a drone film while G got her paddle board out...

A fun couple of days away and good to get cycling again on the coast!

More soon...