Ruthless sense of humour indeed.
I recall (perhaps incorrectly) that Rudi Carrell, a Dutch entertainer with a very successful career on German TV in the 70s and 80s (think Bruce Forsyth style shows with contestants), in contrast, always had winners on his show.
It was either 1st winner (Erste Gewinner) or 2nd winner (Zweite Gewinner).
That is so very Dutch. 
Thank you very much Paul, it’s been a great few days to end 2025. It was great to work you from Tighvein, always love giving out completes. Look forward to making many more contacts this new year.
73
You will have to visit one day Joop, always happy to do a joint activation 
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Thank you for the kind words Alan, it was great to work you from Foel Fenlli to share Christmas and New Year wishes on air! Look forward to many more QSO’s in 2026.
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Happy New Year to you and your family Colin - thanks for the lovely message. I have to find a way to tired the little ones out, hi!
Hope you’ll be able to make the GW day this year, would be great to see you again!
Enjoy your GM/SI visit, and I’ll listen out for you if you decide to activate a few SOTA summits.
73
Hahaa, thanks Robert. I also know a few more activators in the UK who aren’t scared of putting a few miles on their vehicle for SOTA, nor keeping it quiet 
it all adds to the fun in my opinion.
Was good to work you yesterday from Gyrn Moelfre - have to catch up soon!
73
Oooh that looks like a SERIOUS mini golf… I do like one…
That reminds me… I completely fluked it and won the indoor crazy golf (with beer) we did at Christmas in Liverpool for my work Christmas do… I wound up the proper golfers I work with by saying I didn’t know which end of the “golf stick” I should use…
No wonder they were mad. Those are the bats you use, not sticks.
Great write up and photos Ben. Thanks for the trip down memory lane, I was born and grew up on Arran, long before I got into ham radio, although I’ve activated a few of the summits on trips back. Sorry you picked up a few scars along the way, glad to see it didn’t spoil your trips or scare you off a return trip.
73
Rob
MM7RXH
VE3RXH/VE3JT
Hi Rob,
Thank you very much for the kind words, and what a lovely place you started life! Me and the XYL really liked Arran, it is also a good island for things to do for the children, they loved it!
I can quite easy forget about the scars, we had an awesome time.
I made sure I left one summit on the island to do, so we can visit for the third time, hi.
73, Ben
GW4BML
Hi Ben (and tribe)
Thanks for the memories of a more leisurely and much less productive trip to Arran some years ago (one of the highlights was the breakdown of the upper ramp machinery on the ferry’s arrival arrival at Arran so they started loading the return vehicles before they discovered how to let us down and out into the island..) We didn’t get to Goat Fell (let alone the more scary ones) but we did visit Holy Island and its bunting-festooned trig point. I didn’t notice that in your pictures so perhaps that is still on the list. The ferry boat was small and timing back not very reliable so don’t leave it to the last moment. A fellow passenger on the way back (a member of the Holy Island Community) was getting very worried as she was going to be late for a doctor’s appt and the ferry was apparently picking up school kids instead of her booked trip.. Perhaps your kayaking skills would be useful??
Keep up the good work and we have bagged a hill for the SOTA BBQ so it might be 3rd time lucky for me?? Here’s hoping. 73 Viki
The alternative, which I think Ben should take, is swimming from Kingscross to the lighthouse.
A mere 600m. 
I visited Arran twice for geological field trips from university mumble-something decades back. My memories of the place are mostly coloured by the rather grey damp weather we had, so they’re far less rosy than the place shown in Alex’s and Ben’s photos. The first one was a first-years’ basic field geology trip one Easter, and involved a little being bussed from one part of the island to another and quite a lot of tramping up hills and round coasts. The second was a third-years’ geophysics field course based around Lamlash bay, making use of seismic refraction survey equipment, gravity and magnetometer measurements, and a whole lot of plane-tabling. That trip was just before Xmas, and my return ferry was cancelled thanks to a storm so I had to wait a day longer, and only just got from Arran to Heathrow in time for my flight to Kenya…
I did one of those in first year. There were three one week slots, the first had torrential rain, the second had snow and blizzards and the third, which I happened to be on, was in glorious sunshine all week! I have similar memories of traipsing around a hill making little lines on a map to represent various rocks on the ground, but mostly following another person who had the foresight to bring a packet of biscuits with them.
Walking along some beach and seeing fossils of huge millipede type creatures was interesting. I did like fossils more than rocks.
However, I don’t recall much else from that week, probably due to the after hours entertainment we found for ourselves in the hotel bar each evening. I think we stayed in the, now closed, McLaren Hotel in Brodick. Oh, one more memory was hurtling along the tiny roads in a bus that was probably only doing 25 but felt like 60, and some sod at the back using their hard hat as a bucket as the ride was too much for them.
