Stirling MG Club is an informal club for MG owners in the Forth Valley. We aim to organise themed runs in the area and to link-up with trips planned by other MG Clubs in Scotland.
Our own runs are held on the last Sundays of the month. These begin at 10.00am at Dobbies Stirling, on the A84.
Our occasional planning meetings are held at The Golden Lion Hotel on the first Thursday of the month at 7.30pm. Phone first (number in MGOC magazine) or contact us through the blog to confirm.
When we were planning the day, mid-May promised good weather.
In the event it rained and was so cold that if I hadn't been involved in running the occasion, I would have stayed at home. Many others decided the same thing to the extent that the largest contingent was the Aberdeen MGOC who had started out much earlier in the early morning sunshine.
As in previous years, we called the event The Gathering o' the Clans but our numbers were such that Johnnie Cope wouldn't have had much trouble at Prestonpans. We ended up with 30 cars and fifty people.
Some late arrivals aren't featured here
I had coined the motto Nemo mg impune lacessit, based on the
Scottish Royal Crest (Wha Daur Meddle wi' me) or more literally, No-one
attacks mg with impunity. No-one else thought that this was clever or
funny.
The plan was Gathering from 11.00am with Full Assembly by
12.00 noon. Lunch was available in the Café or other outlets - several visitors even had
picnics in the hope of a sunny day.
There was an optional Boat Trip using the Wheel 14.10. Here's a video of the wheel in action:
My hand-out noted 'Please sign-up and pay for the 14.10 sailing under the blue umbrella. MGOC discounted price £6.50 or pay full-price (£8.95) at the desk'.
With the high wind, our blue patio umbrella blew away and was broken
Here it is flapping forlornly after being tied to a stand-pipe.
You can see that Morven has abandoned the chair and little table in favour of a clip-board.
Here she is with our crack security team (thanks to Paddy our son for volunteering)
I had completed a Risk Assessment which concluded that the biggest risk was theft of the ticket-money but I included 'Please take care when moving around cars and when walking near the canal' in the hand-out just to be safe.
At 13.30 we all met in the cafe for a special MGOC 40th Birthday celebration. I made a speech to welcome the visitors
and was shown how to cut the MGOC 40th birthday cake
After cheers and cake, twentyfive of us trooped outside for the boat-trip. Photos were taken:
And we boarded the Antonine. Archimedes was already in use.
We saw some of the members leaving as we ascended:
Coincidently, there was a sponsored abseil for a local charity and a young man who had arrived with a member volunteered. Some of us had an informal whip-round and boosted the charity's funds by £30.
The safety team organising the abseil were not the usual grizzled ex-marines:
The hardy few, mostly hard-tops or TFs, seen from the returning boat:
Our next club-run will feature Roman forts and roads. See you at the cafe on the 26th May.
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