KT Tunstall

Tent drying

The 'NOB' shop
KT Tunstall

We had a visit from one of our friends from the Bridge World, Maureen Dennison a former World Champion. She came at a time when not only were the Olympics on TV but also the Dounby, Vintage and County shows were on the island so she had plenty to go and see. The Dounby show I had offered to erect the tent for the John Rae Society, which we did in the rain the evening before. This was the first time we had used this tent and so the process was not a smooth as it perhaps should have been! The rain continued the next day for most of the show and so it come 3:30 most of the stalls were packing up. I was away helping out at the Blue Door charity shop at the time so was not involved in this process, but once this was done we were left with a soaking tent cover that needed drying out. I offered the use of my decent sized garage and Norman and I tied it from the rafters to drip dry, a process that I finished off a few days later when the sun came out by constructing a temporary frame out of scaffold planks and paint tins to allow the air to get under the tent canvas.

With Maureen leaving us we now have no visitors booked for the rest of the year. Anna is working hard and is fairly stressed at the moment because of the run up to the World Bridge Championships which this year are in Poland, but once that is over we plan to have a bit of ‘us’ time.

Today is a rather sad day as it is the last day of the Ness of Brodgar dig for this year, and hence the end of this year’s ‘NOB Shop’ where I have been helping a couple of mornings a week as well as at the open days. I enjoy the comradery of the site and helping out although as I explain to Anna spending a whole morning being nice to visitors is very tiring! This year the helpers have a sign written Hi-Vis Jacket to use and despite looking a bit like a car park attendant it does help when asking people for money when you have convinced them to buy a square on a map of the dig. This is to help finance the dig which costs some £10,000 a week to run, these squares collect enough for two weeks digging. With the end of all the shows and the closure of the Ness dig the island is starting to slow down and prepare for the winter although there is plenty of time yet for a Indian Summer, please!

Last night Anna and I went Kirkwall to the Fusion Nightclub, no it’s ok we having regressed to our youth and gone on the ‘pull’ but we had tickets for the rather splendid KT Tunstall who is during a world tour and I guess being Scottish, just had to do a gig in Orkney. The venue is quite intimate and was pretty packed, the show was great with a lot of her new music form a new album ( the reason for the tour I guess ) mixed with her older hits. We had a great evening.