Aliens abducted you for your vital essences, Stuart – too bad you missed your favourite TV show, though…

As an athiest, I’m quite content to think this life is all there is, and that spooky goings-on are explainable rationally, or perhaps occur through entirely natural/physical processes which we just don’t have any knowledge of yet.

But few things have happened to me over the years which I just can’t explain.

In winter during the mid 1970s I was walking towards the ATC tower at RAF Kinloss, head down into a vicious northerly icy blizzard, when I looked to my left, and saw in the distance an RAF officer, also head down striding towards the tower, swinging a leather briefcase, and wearing an old-fashioned heavy greatcoat, which I thought was odd at the time. I knew we would probably meet at the same place at the tower, so kept my head down, but when I arrived there, there was nobody in sight, and only my footprints in the snow – even where I’d seen the officer walking.

In the 1980s, I had been searching Culbin forest, near Kinloss, for a Vickers Warwick which had crashed there in the 1940s. After a fruitless all-day search, I had given up, and was walking back to my car, and along a forested path I saw an animal I couldn’t identify hop into a grove of deciduous saplings. It looked and moved like a squirrel, but was jet black, and more the size of a small dog. Sure it wasn’t one of Scotland’s usual fauna, I followed it in to the grove for a better look, but when I got there, no sign of the animal, but laying before me was the remains of the Warwick – the beastie had led me straight to it in 7500 acres of forest!

A more recent occurrence happened in my garage a few years ago, while I was working on my motorcycle. My music playlist was fairly loud through my workshop computer, but above that I heard a sudden loud mechanical noise, like large cogs or chains flailing around, like clattering factory or farm machinery, but high up on the wall near the roof. Wondering what the hell was going on, I rushed out, thinking my farmer neighbour had crashed into my garage on his way to his fields. Nothing but silence outside, and my two German Shepherds (usually extremely alert to anything going on) were still asleep on the lawn. Going back into the garage baffled, I replayed the music track which had been on to see if it was corrupted or something, but it was fine…

Sad to hear the news – she played a key part in my formative years…;)

The only episode I’ve ever watched is 7.1 – and only because my Harley appears in it!

I’ll bet Savile couldn’t believe his luck at how trusting the media was – here’s a couple of childminding guides the BBC produced in the 1970s…

Al.
Have you ever been to V-4 Muscle Bike??
That’s for V-MAX, Magnas and Suzuki Maduras.
Harley riders are somethimes the target of a bit of mirth…..

I can appreciate any kind of motorcycle, but my old Electra Glide is THE only vehicle I’ve ever wanted since I was a kid.
Can’t see the point in high-powered bikes when our speed limit is so low – on the motorway I’m still passing most other road users, so my 38-year-old machine suits me fine, and the Scottish connection through the Davidsons just adds to the pride of ownership.
What other bikers think of me or my motorcycle doesn’t interest me in the slightest – it’s all down to personal choice. Funny thing is, at rallies, vehicle shows, etc, it’s always the owners of modern muscle bikes who have a chip on their shoulder about Harley riders – we couldn’t care less!;)

One of the most refreshing aspects of my US-based Harley-Davidson forum is that it is largely unmoderated. All you bleeding hearts who are so easily offended would be told to ‘Harden the **** Up’…

It’s all been kept quiet until recently, when a tribunal ruled that a Duchy wasn’t exempt from releasing information on their financial affairs to anyone requesting it through the Freedom of Information act.
About time all of these archaic feudal rights were completely abolished. The last two houses I owned have both been inside different ‘sporting’ estates which were owned by wealthy landowners, who thought they could do as they please.
The first tried to tell me I wasn’t allowed to keep caravans or motorboats on my own land, and wanted a payment of £5000 just for the privilage of buying a house that just happened to be on her estate.
In my current house, the local landowner tried to use a part of my land to develop more private homes, and the Land Registry were quite happy to sign it over to them on spec, without even consulting me.
Both estates retained all mineral rights on MY land, and all the access rights, so that any excess land I wanted to sell to anyone else would be worthless….

Monochrome images can’t impart the same amount of real information as a colour image, if it’s just information you want, but monochrome images can give the scene or object more subjective resonances which appeal to our sensibilities or feelings.

To me that colour image would furnish more accurate taxonomic data if the purpose was to differentiate between individual animals, or pelage characteristics, but the eyes in the monochrome version just say “You’re my next meal!”…