I'd like to apologise, publicly. The poor woman went for some peace and quiet, and what did she get? Two eejits rolling-up in a campervan, blaring out the Eurovision song contest.
It was May 20, 2006, and the location was a quiet lay-by on the south side of Loch Ness. I don't quite remember why, but, we had a short-lived tradition of listening to, or watching, the Eurovision Song Contest. I certainly treated it as an ironic exercise, and a great deal of scoffing was involved. We neither had a television, nor did we receive a TV signal at home. So, we decided to travel to somewhere scenic, that also had a TV signal. We chose Loch Ness as an appropriate location, and why not?
At that point the campervan still had a TV installed in a cabinet above the driving area (shortly afterwards, the TV was removed to give us more storage space). When we arrived at the lay-by we didn't initially see the small car which was also parked there. It wasn't until I got out of the campervan that I saw the small, inconspicuous car. A woman was sitting in the driver's seat, in a partially reclined position, and she was reading a book. The car had a local registration plate. For the reason stated earlier, we couldn't test the TV reception at home. Consequently, there was a lot of machinations involved with putting up the antenna, and tuning the TV. Of course, this also involved lots of shouting: "move it left a bit", "no, it was perfect before", "hold it steady" and "you've got it". Some alcoholic drink may also have been involved.
The woman was able to persevere with her book during all the set-up commotion, but, once the song contest started it was too much. She immediately drove off, presumably to find a quiet spot without eejits.
Dear lady, wherever you are now, please accept my sincere apologies. I'm sorry we ruined your solitude.