ARmy Rumour SErvice

We had a few days to spare last month and 3 young teenage children to occupy, so I was casting around on the internet looking for an interesting place to stay on the west coast of Scotland.

Anyway, I chanced upon Tom McClean's website for his bunkhouse at Ardintigh round the coast from Mallaig. Reasonably old and bold types will remember the ex-Para and SAS Tom's adventures in the late 60s to 80s. First man to row single-handedly across the Atlantic, record holder for the smallest boat to be sailed over the Atlantic and living on Rockall in several large boxes for a few months. Younger chaps can read up here: ...

Clif bars have been around for almost 20 years in the US and are currently available only in their homeland, Canada and the UK. They are aimed squarely at the outdoors activity market and embrace the all natural and mainly organic ethos across their full range which includes Clif Bars for pre and post exercise, gels and chews for use whilst on the move and there are also products aimed specifically at women and children.

This review is written from a long distance fell running point of view, but I note from the ubiquitous Facebook page that Clif goods have found a strong following in cycling and swimming circles as well: ...

Just over a quarter of a century ago I had the good fortune to be posted to Berlin as a proper Cold War Warrior in the role of a Tour Officer with Brixmis. The job involved driving around East Germany, shaking off the Stasi tail, and ‘keeping a close eye’ on all things Soviet and military, whilst trying not to get caught in embarrassing circumstances. Sleeping arrangements were rough and ready and usually involved finding a quiet and mossy dingly dell in a forest, where, using bungees and green string, a poncho would be strung up to form a basha. ...

It's always nice to have the opportunity to wear women's clothing, so I was thrilled to receive from RVOps a lady's Speed Q vest made by the renowned Swedish outdoor equipment company, Haglofs.

My initial difficulty was one of sizing, both my wife and I reckon we are usually of medium build, but the Haglofs medium top was definitely too small for each of us. RVOps exchanged the top by Freepost with excellent efficiency and a large one arrived shortly afterwards. Even this is a tad on the tight side and I'm beginning to think that Haglofs' clothing sizes tend to be on the small size. This may well be to do with the fact that they are aimed at seriously active athletes. Anyway, having promoted my wife to 'large' and survived, we've both used the recent cold weather to test the vest. ...