Every forum needs a Humour Section...

[Mick Harper]

I trust you are going to let the rest of us into the secret.

[Boreades]

Re Edin burgh / fort

It was probably the broch or burh or burgh or burg or bourg or borrow of the tribe called the Dini or the Deni or something like that.

Unless it is the borough of good king Edin of course.

Is that like Edin's Hall Broch?

Edin's Hall Broch (also Edinshall Broch; Odin's Hall Broch) is a 2nd-century broch near Duns in the Borders of Scotland. It is one of very few brochs found in southern Scotland. It is roughly 28 metres in diameter ... In the late 18th century this site was called "Wooden's Hall or Castle" .. Edin's Hall Broch is one of the most southerly broch survivals, which are more typically associated with Northern Scotland

Edin, Odin or Wooden?
Take your pick. or Pict.

Is Odin English?
List of places named after Odin

[Boreades]

Executive Memo

From : Head of TME facilities management team
To: All TME inmates

Effective immediately

With the release of a landmark EU tax test case, our understanding from the legal beagles is that TME can now follow the Google model and base its European operational HQ wherever it damn well likes.

We appreciate this may come as a surprise to some, especially those who have (for tax reasons) become accustomed to a diet of Guinness and Potato, Fish 'n' Chips or Yorkshire Pudding with Curry Sauce. But M'Lady Boreades craves good Grave, proper pate and Chaource cheesy comestibles. We'll be shipping out to the new improved Chateau Boreades, to a place with space for more hens and less children, tout suite.

The good ship SS Boreades is being made ready to cast-off the mooring lines as we speak. We have a new navigation officer aboard, a Mr Leslie Philips. He assures us that to reach the best Grave growing region, it's just a case of heading for the Medoc and then left-hand down a bit.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graves_(wine_region)

From now on, it's gonna be French megaliths all the way baby! We'll try and keep the progress reports topical, with a pit stop near Carnac at Quiberon, to replenish the ship's rations of Breton beverages.

P.S. to the accounts department : we'll send the bills to the usual correspondence address in Knotting Hull.

[hvered]

The Wiki article says that Graves wine for export trade began with Eleanor of Aquitaine, wife of Henry II. Eleanor came up elsewhere, to do with the rather mysterious Rolls d'Oleron navigation law code.

Follow the Rolls and bon voyage to you all.

[Mick Harper]

By coincidence, I have just sailed my own boat 'The Condor' over to the Channel Islands and back.

[Boreades]

Sit.Rep. 2017:07:13 22:30 Zulu time

The good ship SS Boreades departed Plymouth on the tide, with the crew in good spirits. Bound for Brest as the first port of call with an outgoing cargo of Rattler and Pasties. But no sooner had we crossed The Bridge and cleared Drake's Island (keeping well clear of our arch-enemy the infamous Brittany Ferry) than we received a distress call. It has just come to our unwelcome attention that some ne'er-do-well has put Borry Dale on the market. Or Gleann Bhorghdail as the locals know it. Or Glenborrodale as the Sassenachs know it.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... 3-75m.html

This here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glenborrodale
says :

Glenborrodale Castle was built as a guest house by Charles Rudd, the main business associate of Cecil Rhodes, and was later owned by Jesse Boot, who was the proprietor of the Boots chain of chemist shops.

A Boots B&B?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glenborrodale

Glenborrodale is on the Ardnamurchan peninsula. Borghs, Burghs and Brochs all over the place!

This
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ardnamurchan#History
claims:

Adomnan of Iona records St Columba visiting the peninsula in the 6th century, and gives the impression that it was settled by Irish Gaels at that time. He records three instances of signs performed by Columba on the peninsula. Adomnan records in one instance that he prophesied to his companions the death of Kings Báetán mac Muirchertaig and Eochaid mac Domnaill before news arrived the same day at a place called 'paradise bay' to tell them the news.

More Roman priests sticking their noses into my Gnostic clan's business?

The SS Boreades is bound for Falmouth for supplies and orders. It may need to divert to points north on a mercy mission. I shall have to send ma wee cousin MacBoreades on ahead to claim ancient rights and repossess the place as the new Boreades clan HQ. Or at least secure the cellars and its vitally important stocks of Uisge Beatha. Mind you, I dare say the heating bill would be even bigger than M'Lady's personal wine budget. She might not approve of such frivolous waste.

Ardnamurchan has the highest concentrations of Gaelic speakers on the mainland, with 19.3% able to speak the language.

Tisi, looks like you'll have to come out of retirement and come along as an interpreter. Will ye noo come along as the new James Robinson Justice?

[Boreades]

Good news chaps!

Part 1 - Ma wee cousin MacBoreades has reported that Glenborrydale castle is next door to a very fine producer of the uisce beatha.
http://www.adelphiselection.com/

Part 2 - I'm just negotiating an advance payment from a publisher for a new book :
50 Shades of Megaliths

Hopefully there will be plenty enough for the new Northern Château Boreades, with enough left over for a wee dram or two.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... 3-75m.html

[Boreades]

Good news chaps!

All this crawling round old megalithic sites gets a bit tiring on our old knees and elbows. Exactly the same reason (I'm told) that crop circles have got closer and closer to pub car parks. What we need is some really clever way of doing it remotely, on a reasonable budget. Eh voila!

Have you ever wondered what it takes to build a machine like NASA's Curiosity rover, part of the Mars Science Laboratory project? Now students, hobbyists and enthusiasts can get a taste of what it is like to construct a scaled-down version of a rover using plans and instructions from JPL's Open Source Rover Project.

With the successful past and current rovers, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California built a mini-rover ("ROV-E") to engage the public.This rover is brought into classrooms, museums and school events to demonstrate rover mobility principles first-hand.In response to this enthusiasm, JPL engineers have designed a rover model that could be assembled by the next generation of engineers from commercial, off-the-shelf (COTS) parts for as little as $2,500



https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=7204

If Harpo can bung us a few quid from that TME Pension Fund (last seen heading for the Channel Islands), we can built one here at the TME Research Labs (aka Château Boreades wine cellars) and have one crawling over megalithic sites for us in next to no time, while we sit in the comfort of whatever we find comfortable and watch it live over the interweb.

[Mick Harper]

It is not heading for the Channel Islands, it is kept in the Channel Islands to keep it one step ahead of internet hackers. Computers are not allowed on Sark.

[Boreades]

It's more than a year I last asked where the TME Pension Fund had gone. I'm beginning to suspect the TME Police will need to start making some enquiries, or proceeding in an orderly direction ... mind how you go.

Meanwhile, it's been that time of year for the TMS Official Works Christmas Party. Thanks to Tisi, we'd still got a small stash of TME Social Funds that The Management hadn't got their sticky fingers on, or made it "disappear".

Being carefully pecunious, we'd opted for the Three-In-One package in a moving venue. Here's a pic we took earlier of the "moving venue" - it's one of the new solar-powered electric trams. We're just waiting for the sun to come out.



It's called the Three-In-One package because the same people tripled-up as Catering, Entertainment and Paramedics. Just as well, after trying an excess of the food and drink, we needed the paramedical aid.

We're still not sure how Harpo blagged his way in there as the Entertainments Officer. How we laughed when he told us that story about the English Language!