Seil Chat

Anyone going across the water to this weekend's international sporting event?

The Dutch team were seen training heavily in the T&T last night I hear.

The Seil Island team have, after a heated discussion, decided that participation in this event could only have taken place once it is accredited by the IOC and has it's rightful slot in next year's Olympic games. All power to the Easdale enclave to get the sport recognised, but when it comes to the IOC, a grant or two doesn't buy many votes.
We, on Seil, are still purists and think that skimming is a better description of the genre, than skiffing, which is redolent of Cambridge undergraduates, afloat on the Cam, with a personable young lady aboard, trying to impress with their nautical skills.
That should raise a hackle or two.

The British call it 'stone skimming', the Americans call it 'stone skipping', the Irish call it 'stone skiffing' and the French call it 'ricochet'. In fact most countries have their own terminology for this ancient game. Confusingly the English also refer to it as 'Ducks and Drakes'.

The Guinness World Stone Skipping Record was 38 skips, established by Jerdone, in 1994 in Texas on the Blanco River near Wimberley.

The official world championships have been held by NASSA since 1989. It was NASSA who were instrumental, in first, defining what is a 'skip', and secondly, at the request of Guinness, suggesting verification guidelines. The I.S.S.F., the International Stone Skipping Federation, (NASSA's 'parent'), is the Official Guinness Adjudicator for stone skipping records. As far as I am aware the ISSF have not applied for inclusion in the Olympics and Easdale has not applied for membership of the I.S.S.F. and therefore must be deemed unofficial.

Oh well. Another Stone Skimming event, another robbery. A couple of years back it was the cash from the ferryshed; this year it was cash from the museum. It's not the winning that matters - it's the taking.

And the toilets at Ellenabeich got trashed over the weekend.

Great.

As usual there is no consideration given to the negative impact of such events on local people. They are simply expected to grin and bear it. There have been many problems associated with this annual event.

Articles in the OT and SoS declares it to have been a great event raising £s for community development (whatever that will be - it is likely that the commnity will be the last to know) but hidden at the bottom of a page there is a statement about the stolen money. At least this time the money was stolen from the organising body itself rather than from anyone else.

It should not come as a surprise to anyone that Eilean Eisdeal are not worried about the concerns or the welfare of the general public or even the Easdale Island community. This anti-social, top-down organization couldn't care less about the welfare of our local communities as long as they can make money for their benefit.

But what do they DO with all the £s they so triumphantly raise?? Pay a QC to try and make the Rock Residents have a wind turbine they don't want They're obviously not paying a cleaner to tidy up the hall (see jimcee's comment on SECC meeting post) which, it strikes me, they need to do because they've hacked everybody off so much by wanting to Rule the Rock that they're being left to do everything themselves.

It is indeed a mystery as to what happens to the money especially when EE don't issue any detailed accounts.

As for cleaning, the island in general needs a tidy up especially the land that EE are responsible for and in particular the dog fouling in the children's play area. Not a very welcoming sight for visitors to Alcatraz.