Another fail I’m afraid. Hill of Garvock is an easy 1 pointer with a 20 minute stroll from the parking area on the B9120 road to St.Cyrus, just off the A90. Forecast was for rain early, clearing later in the morning. The reality turned out to be horizontal rain all morning, with visibility on the hill at about 100 yards. One aim was to get a S2S with Fraser MM0EFI who was nearby on GM/ES-080, so given the foul wx I decided to just do a minimal activation on 2m. The way from the car park was over a gate, which alarmingly had a “Bull in Field” sign on it. Fraser assured me this was just the estate being unfriendly, so I carried on up, albeit keeping eyes and ears open for thundering beasts, numerous fresh cowpats indicating their likely presence. With limited visibility, if I couldn’t see them, they couldn’t see me.
After a few more gates, the old tower at the summit finally appeared through the mist and rain. There were some cows much further downhill but nothing near the top.
I started to make up my 2m yagi in the shelter of the tower wall, putting my small box of bits on a ledge. Half-way through, fumble-fingers knocked the box down and the entire contents scattered around my feet. Unfortunately, a bolt for the feed point slid down a crevice in the tower foundations and on my first retrieval attempt it disappeared completely from view. No spares. I stood, dripping, half-built yagi in hand. “ I DON’T BELIEVE IT!”
Not my best morning. I texted Fraser with the bad news, packed up and trudged back through the rain to the car. Always a next time and I will pack the appropriate spares - I hadn’t bothered with spare feed point bolts before as they are reasonably big, so easy to spot if dropped in heather. Heyho……
Bad news Simon. I was actually telling my 2 m FM contacts, "keep your radio on, GM4JXP will be on in about 20 minutes ". You would have managed with a handheld too, lots of local contacts for a change.
Ill put up a wee report later on, as something special happened on GM/ES-080 this morning. 
My latest ‘Victor Meldrew’ moment was a couple of weeks ago. I walked up a nice little one-pointer, Moel Gyw GW/NW-053 with my handy, only to find I’d forgotten my external Tracer battery AND the handy battery was flat!
Because the handy doesn’t hold a lot of charge, I usually use the 4Ah Tracer & don’t bother charging the handy. Ho hum, still it was a lovely afternoon & a very enjoyable walk.
Hence why I often sit on the floor (especially after a wee dram or three). I can fall no further. 