Crabs captured on Oban pier

It's been a long day, especially since I hardly slept, worried that we would miss our 06:15 alarm, breakfast at 06:45, and the ferry from Castlebay to Oban at 07:55. In the event, all went to plan and apart from some anxiety at Glasgow Queen Street station (where it looked like we might be in competition for bike space on the train to Waverley) we've had a lovely day.

We played two games of Scrabble on the ferry. I almost won the first one (I now know that 'to yerk' means to beat vigorously), but I did win the second. Nevertheless, I lost the holiday series by two games. More interesting on the sunny ferry journey was a fabulous display by a dozen or so harbour porpoises in the waters between Coll and Ardnamurchan.

The weather was beautiful in Oban so we enjoyed our lunchtime prawn sandwiches (from the Oban Seafood Hut next to the ferry terminal - highly recommended) outside sitting on the harbour wall. Despite all the warnings, Mr hazelh almost lost his lunch to a predatory seagull. It swooped down while we were distracted by one of its co-muggers preparing for an attack elsewhere.

In the gap between lunch and catching the train to Glasgow, I went shopping. Meanwhile Mr hazelh read his book on a bench and guarded the bikes. I bought a pair of trousers in Fatface (20% off) and in the Rogerson clearance shop a pair of short brown Ecco 'stomping' shoes for winter wear (50% off). I also browsed the charity shops, but resisted any further purchases.

Then I had an unplanned blipmeet!  A lady struck up a conversation with me at the entrance to the railway ticket office. She had a camera around her neck, she admitted to owning another camera, she reeled off its specification, and she fitted the 'blip demographic'. I tentatively asked 'Are you a blipper?' When she recovered from my question, she revealed her identity as Meconopsisblue. As luck would have it, our seats on the train were just across the aisle from each other, so we enjoyed some chat on the 3 hour journey to Glasgow. I am looking forward to reading Meconopsisblue's account of this encounter when she updates her journal later today - and (2 hours later) here it is!

My blip shows a selection of crabs ready to be shelled for customers at the Seafood Hut.

Oh, and I should say that Regula, who appeared in one of my extras yesterday, is now a blipper!

No exercise today other than short walks and rides between boats and trains.