The Grey NATO – 238 – Scotland Trip Report And Lewis Heath of anOrdain Watches
Published on Thu, 11 May 2023 06:00:00 -0400
Synopsis
The episode starts with Jason Heaton and James Stacey discussing their recent trips - Jason visiting Vancouver and the Kootenays region of British Columbia, and James taking a trip around Scotland. James provides a detailed account of his journey through Scotland, including meeting fellow listeners and watch enthusiasts in Glasgow, touring the Anordain watchmaking facility, driving around the Scottish Highlands in a vintage Land Rover Defender, and experiencing various outdoor adventures and local hospitality.
The episode also features an interview with Lewis Heath, the founder of Anordain, who talks about the brand's ethos, their emphasis on enameling and artisanal watchmaking, and their recent collaboration with Hodinkee. The interview provides insights into Heath's background, the origins of Anordain, and their approach to watchmaking.
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Transcript
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| James Stacey | Hello and welcome to another episode of The Graynado, a loose discussion of travel, adventure, diving, driving, gear, and most certainly watches. This is episode 238, and it's proudly brought to you by the ever-growing TGN supporter group. We thank you all so much for your continued support, and if you're listening and interested in supporting the show, please visit thegraynado.com for more details. James, it's good to be back in the chair here behind the mic. It's been a while. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. It feels like we haven't talked in a while. I definitely like, you know, I've, I've, I followed the, obviously the, the main topic for this show today is kind of a download from Scotland and your, your recent trip out there. And I, uh, I followed along on, on Instagram, but I mean, when you're on vacation, like we don't chat every single day, like we might otherwise. And, uh, I'm, I'm excited to hear about how it went. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, it was a great trip. And I guess we got back, uh, what's Tuesday. We got back last Thursday, so I'm still. Still battling a little bit of jet lag, but it's much better coming this direction. I don't know the logic and I've given up trying to, you know, put any logic to jet lag, but on the way over there, it was hours were weird, you know, getting up and sleeping and then coming home has been actually quite pleasant. I don't mind going to bed at eight 30 and getting up at four because it gets light here around five o'clock these days. And I like mornings. And so I'm kind of enjoying it, kind of enjoying a good eight hours of kind of jet laggy sleep and some nice mornings. |
| Jason Heaton | That's nice. I'm recording this extra remotely. We record almost all of these remotely, of course, but I'm currently on the West Coast in an area called the Kootenays near Nelson, B.C., visiting my brother. So I'm also dealing with jelly, but we just decided we've been out for six or seven days, my wife and myself, and we just decided to essentially keep East Coast time. Oh, sure. So it's, it's a little bit sleepless cause you're up a little later, you're visiting with people and doing stuff, you know, low and local time. But we've been getting up at, you know, six, uh, here so that we can be on, on time for, you know, hours with Hodinkee and that sort of thing. But I've taken a couple of days off and the only thing I'm doing today is recording this and then we're going to head up to a hot springs, but I've had a good, it's been a great like a week as of today. uh, out on the West coast. So nice. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. Change of scenery is good, isn't it? I mean, no matter what, where you could be across state line or, or, you know, flight within the country. And it's like, it's just refreshing seeing new people and yeah. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. And speaking of that, I mean, I see some old friends, saw some new people. We both did hangouts in, in our, in our given spaces. So tell me about the meetup on the 23rd. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, that was funny. I mean, speaking of meeting new people, um, or just seeing different people, uh, I didn't really know what to expect. And we flew in, uh, to Glasgow on the 22nd of April. And then this, this meetup was the following evening on the 23rd. And, you know, we talked about it a few episodes ahead of time and ask people to write and say if they were coming or not. And we got a good response, but I just wasn't sure. And, um, it was a great turnout. We had, I didn't really do a head count, but I would say between 25 and 35 people maybe. And it was, it was upstairs in a private room above a really great, um, pub or restaurant called the Finiston in Glasgow. I mean, it was, it was kind of your, your typical, uh, typical watch meetup with a lot of Scottish accents. And, and it was great, but you know, as, as it goes with these things, I mean, it was really not really about watches at all. It was more about, um, just hanging out and meeting. There was a lot of, I saw some TGN kerchiefs and t-shirts and nice, you know, NATO straps and, and, you know, familiar names, I guess, from, from listener questions and from Slack and from emails. you know, too many people to name, of course, but, but I got to meet Tom from Clements watches and he brought a couple of his watches that I hadn't actually seen in person. That was fun. And then, uh, Kenneth from Arkin, you know, you met him in Geneva and he came and, uh, he brought, uh, he brought one of his, um, instrumentum watches, which I finally got a chance to try out. Um, and he let me kind of take it around Scotland after that, which was, uh, which was a blast. Um, what a, what a cool piece and what a great guy. And then afterwards, After the event, Ghoshani and Kenneth and I went across the street to the Ben Nevis pub and it's just this great whiskey bar with there was like this impromptu little band playing in the corner and we had a whiskey and then parted ways for the day. But yeah, it was so great to meet all these people. Chris McRiddle came and a fellow named Austin flew over from Ireland for it. And then, um, Riley, uh, and his wife, Chelsea, um, who are from the U S but he's stationed currently in the Cotswolds in England with the air force. He, they made like a five hour drive up to see us. And that was good to see him. I've seen him, uh, kind of all over the place. Now he came to Minneapolis once and so, yeah, it's been, it's been fun. That's great. Yeah. And you know, I just got to throw out thanks to everybody who came once more and also to, to Lewis Heath, um, whose interview, um, we'll run a little later in this episode from Honor Dane and David from Scottish watches, who both kind of worked together to organize the space and round up some extra people. And, you know, that, that local connection really, really made a difference. |
| Jason Heaton | And so, you know, thanks to those guys, but, uh, yeah, on, on the same, on the same sort of trajectory for me, like I came out to Vancouver, uh, to do a little bit of work with Jason Gallop at Rolldorf. Uh, we're doing a bigger story, but my grandfather's watch, which he spoke about, on, uh, the recent episode that he was on, but you know, there's going to be a written story that I had alluded to. So out here working on that and getting the photos we need and that kind of thing. And just figured we'd throw it up on Instagram. If people wanted to swing by the new shop, it was open to the extent that he could have some people in. And I was surprised. I thought maybe, you know, five, 10 of the guys I already knew in the city would rock up and we'd have a normal hangout. It would, it was kind of compressed where I wouldn't have to see one or two of them for coffee here and two others for drinks there would all be in one spot. And man, it was probably like about the same as what you had, like probably between 30 and 40 people. Nice. Um, over the course of a couple hours, had some pizza, had some local beer and met, got to meet a handful of new folks, uh, that, you know, we we've only known either from emails or from slack and that sort of thing. So it was really nice. Some great watches showed up. you know, got to kind of close the loop with some new friends that again, we only kind of know digitally. And then a handful of kind of the old, uh, crew from, uh, my Vancouver days also showed up. So it was great to see pretty much everybody. It was, it was just a really fun time. Uh, some great cameras, lots of great watches and a ton of great conversations. And some people made like also, yeah, some pretty significant transit to make it there. Wow. So a huge thank you to everybody who showed up to that. I know that myself and, uh, Jason and Mary from, uh, Roaldorf all, you know, very thankful for the, the turnout and for the camaraderie of the event. It was, uh, it was really fun. |
| James Stacey | Was this the first time you'd seen the new shop? |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. Yeah. This is, this is the first time I've seen the new shop. So they're, they're, you know, around the corner and I saw the, you know, what's essentially just a rubble pit for where the old building, the, you know, water street hotel is now, uh, but they're in a great location. The shop is beautiful. It's like weirdly almost identical to the old one, but kind of reversed. Um, and you know, he's got a Brody, a new watchmaker in there and they're working and getting everything going. It's a, I think it's going to be good for them. Uh, it's a nice location, a very long standing business in the community, you know, now in its third location. So it was, it was great to get out there and to get some photos, uh, of Jason and the watch in the space and the rest of it. So, uh, I think it'll be a pretty successful story once I put the rest of it together, but that's only. You know, one, one piece of the puzzle for that watch. So having a good time putting that together. Yeah. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. |
| Jason Heaton | And then, yeah, other otherwise, um, you know, obviously I want to get to a bunch of different details about your trip, but I'll, I'll get some of the Vancouver stuff out of the way here. I'll be home by the time this airs. So again, we spent a few days in Vancouver and then a few days in the Kootenays. Uh, I've been doing a few little hikes, uh, kind of visiting the area, trying out some of the good restaurants. It's, it's Nelson in, in the kind of surrounding areas. Really beautiful played a really fun half round of golf yesterday. Wow. In Castlegar, uh, absolutely gorgeous. My brother's a huge golf nerd, so it's always fun to get out with him. The stakes couldn't be lower when I'm swinging, but we had a good time. Oh, I also got a chance, you know, I knew I was coming out here and was going to be kicking around and wanted to kind of change some of the feel of the photography a bit. So when I was in New York, I can't remember if I talked about it on a previous show, probably not. Cause we had Thomas on, but, uh, I picked up like a 21 millimeter lens. Oh, so normally I'm shooting 35 or yeah. 50 and the Q's a 28, but I only brought my M10 with me. And when I was in New York last, I picked up this Voigtlander, it's the 21 millimeter color scope bar is what it's called. It's an F4. And I thought it would be fun for a variety of stuff and kind of just mix things up. And it also gives me, so I now have 21, 35, 50 and 90, which is like a pretty nice range, but across four lenses. And it's this little tiny, not quite a pancake lens, but it is like minute. It changes the whole balance of the camera. We were doing some nice hikes along these kind of very rushing rivers, um, in the area. And I got a bunch of pictures. So I'm doing a swing by my Instagram or something to see those, or if you're on the Slack, I'll drop them into the photography channel in the next couple of days. |
| James Stacey | Very cool. |
| Jason Heaton | We have just, uh, this is my only piece of work for today. Um, other than, you know, you can never really escape email, uh, even if you're on vacation, but, um, beyond that, uh, we're going to go drive up to Halcyon this afternoon and check out the hot springs. And then tomorrow I kind of start the process of getting back to Vancouver and then waiting at the airport for a while to fly home. So that's when I'll be editing this episode. Yeah. Yeah. But that's what I've been up to for the last little while. I'm excited to dig into kind of the layout of your trip because you know, following it just on Instagram and the occasional text message, it sounds like you had just a great time and saw a good, a good bit of Scotland. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. And as, uh, as Mike Pearson, our friend told me before, before we left on this trip, he said, well, get ready to meet your new favorite country. Yeah, I'm surprised you came home. Yeah, he knew that I would, I would really latch on and feel right at home. And sure enough, it was, it was, it was predictably great, exceeded expectations. And we can certainly jump into it. But let's let's do a quick wrist check before we do. I could guess what you're wearing. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, I'm I just brought the Pelagos. Yeah, the 39. So still wearing that it's still on the post style strap. I brought the Apple Watch with me to try try a little bit more like the hiking stuff and that sort of thing. But I definitely don't want notifications that I don't strictly need when I'm taking a couple days off. So just the Pelagos. Other than that, I only brought my grandfather's watch and it's not one that I'm kind of actively wearing. It's more of an heirloom piece that I want to make sure we get this story done before. This is a watch that's experienced some calamity in its past. So yeah, just the Pelagos, which is perfect because You know, when you're traveling in and out of hotels, I don't want to take the watch off. I want to sleep with it on. Right. It is useful to know what time it is when you're waking up in the middle of the night, your brain's all kind of fried on a little bit of jet lag and that sort of thing. So great watch. Uh, you know, have had it in the pool. Uh, we'll get it in the, in the, you know, hot springs this afternoon. So it should be fun. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. Don't, don't bring the bull out of the hot springs. |
| Jason Heaton | No, I suppose. |
| James Stacey | Otherwise you'll be going back to Roaldorf. Yeah, exactly. How about you? I dusted off this Rolex Explorer, the 14270. It's a watch I just don't wear very much. And then I was just wearing it. I put it on yesterday and, uh, you know, it's, it's, it's such a simple watch. I've often said that I find the Explorer kind of boring, but, um, sometimes it's, it's kind of just what you want and it's, it just fits so well. So comfortable. I've just got it on the bracelet. Yeah. I'm not sure how many days I'll have it on, but it's, uh, it's fun to pull out and wear. I can, I can see the appeal. I know why people like this watch a lot. Yeah. Those are killer. Yeah, we got it from a co-worker of Ghashani's who it was kind of passed down from his father and had the box and papers. This one still has the green sticker on the back and just thought, you know, he was asking a very fair price at the time. This was a few years ago and we just picked it up and both of us share it, kind of wear it very sporadically, but it's just kind of a nice one to have in the collection because it's a great piece. Totally. Yeah. |
| Jason Heaton | Well, look, we'll get into the interview with Lewis Heath from Anordain in the next few minutes. Uh, I'm excited for that one, uh, for certain. And there's some kind of interesting, uh, ties to another thing that happened today, more in the Hodinkee space, which is cool. Yeah. Let's get into kind of the download of, of your trip. What, when, when you got there, what, what was the scene and where did you go? |
| James Stacey | Yeah. So we spent the first two, two and a half days, um, right in Glasgow and we flew there via Amsterdam and then, uh, Lewis, um, met us at the airport and got us to, Our hotel right in Glasgow is a place called the Citizen M. Apparently it's a chain hotel in numerous cities, and it's quite nice actually. If you're in doubt and you're looking for a hotel and a city has a Citizen M, I do recommend it. It was a pleasant place to be. And then, you know, we had the event on Sunday evening at the Finiston. And then Monday morning, we got up and went over to Ann Ordain's studio, kind of their headquarters and offices. watchmaking space and, and got kind of a tour of that place. And, uh, I posted several photos on Instagram and I'm, I'm probably going to write up a sub stack with a few photos about that as well at some point. But so that was really fun. It's, it's such a unique watch company compared to others that I've visited. Um, mainly because their emphasis is on such artistry with the, uh, the enameling and, um, you know, to see the people, the people that work there and just a really pleasant crew. So we spent some time there. We sat down to do the interview, um, with Lewis and then, He took us out to, to the Land Rover. It's a, it's a 2004 Defender with the TD5. So it's a five cylinder diesel, um, long wheelbase, two door, um, that he graciously loaned us for, for the 10 days or so that we were making the rounds of Scotland. And then we headed off. We got right out of Glasgow and headed up, um, along the shore of Loch Lomond, which is a little, you know, I, having been used to driving a vehicle with the steering wheel on the right and a very familiar vehicle at that. wasn't a problem. And not even driving on the left side that, that kind of came naturally. But then, um, the difficult part of, of driving there is that how narrow the roads are. And I remember this from Wales too, but you know, you get like a stone wall on one side and then, you know, a lane of, of your own that is about the width of your vehicle and, and cars come in the opposite direction. It's a little, little nerve wracking, but, um, I think once we got past the windy bits past, uh, Loch Lomond, um, I was getting more comfortable and then we headed off to, uh, a beautiful area of the Highlands called Glencoe, which is probably familiar to a lot of people largely because of, um, of the movie Skyfall, which is where they filmed that scene where they're, uh, Bond and Em are driving the Aston Martin, the DB five to his childhood home. And there's that kind of well-known scene where they're going along this windy road through the mountains and they pull over to the side and they kind of stand next to the car and look off into the distance. And, um, It's a fairly famous scene and I actually had the GPS coordinates for that spot. And so we, we stopped there and kind of, you know, in my Bond nerd kind of way, I posed and Ghoshani took a picture and it was kind of that perfect, perfect kind of late, late, uh, late day sun and some moody clouds. And so it was, uh, it was a good place to start a good way to start the trip, uh, in Glencoe. Um, and then from there, I mean, we, we, we largely did, you know, I think I'd mentioned that this Land Rover Lewis had kind of outfitted with a sleeping platform in the back and some, some rough camping gear for us to use. And, and our plan was to book places a day or two ahead of time as we were going and not overly plan the trip so that we never quite knew where we were going to head the next day or even the two days later. Um, so our plan B was always to sleep in the back of the, of the Land Rover if we couldn't find a place to stay. Well, as it happens, we were able to find, lodging every night. And our preference was to, you know, sleep in a little cottage or something along the way. And that's what we ended up doing. And so in Glencoe, we found a neat little, kind of a little cottage there. And that was kind of the pattern for the rest of the trip. We just kind of booked places a day or two ahead of time. And so from Glencoe, after we bedded down for the night, the next day we had a full day and we went for a really nice hike, um, that a few people recommended, um, including at the, uh, not only at the hotel in Glasgow, but also at our event, um, a couple of people said, Oh, you should really hike the lost Valley. And so, you know, you can't do better than local Intel, uh, when it comes to for sure, good hikes and good name too. Yeah. And, and it has some history. There was kind of a clan, kind of a bloodbath, kind of a clan war, um, in this Valley that is up this steep gorge, you kind of climb and climb and climb up and over some rocks, and then you crest the top of it. And it's kind of a saddle between two mountains and you go down a little ways down the other side. And it's this bowl of a Valley that just opens up in front of you. And it's just a really tremendous place. And so we kind of lingered there and spent some time and, and then headed back. And we decided, you know, we had plans to go to Oban and maybe over to Isla to visit some of the, you know, the Petey Scotch distilleries and that sort of thing. But, uh, we made kind of a game day call and decided to head a different direction and went to the Isle of Skye. Um, to which you reach via a ferry from a town called Malig. And so we, we drove to Malig and, and, you know, Scotland is, it's a pretty compact country. So looking at a map, I had really no sense of how long it would take to get from point A to point B. And as it turns out, like to get from Glencoe to Malig was, you know, two hours with a kind of a T stop along the side of the road and a leg stretcher. Not too bad. Yeah. So we got there, got our ferry tickets and. walked around Malik a little bit, went to a bookstore and had a beer and kind of a beer garden. And as, as strange coincidences would happen, we're walking across the street, headed back towards the ferry terminal. And I hear Jason, Jason Heaton. And I said, I turned and I was like, huh? You know, who's this? And it was a guy ran across the road. Name's Edward. He's a TGN listener. And that's amazing. And there he was in this little town of Malag. We couldn't chat for long, but I said, you know what, you recognize the voice? He said, no, no, I, you know, I don't know something, but I recognize the way you look or something like that. And I was just flabbergasted. I was just shocked of all places. I thought meeting someone in Tobermory, Ontario randomly was, was a coincidence. This, this I think takes the cake, but Edward was actually off to, to catch another ferry over to the Noidart peninsula, which is a place that we would have loved to have visited, but didn't. And, and he was doing a, like an ultra run. Um, I think it was over a day or two, a couple of hundred miles, um, cross country, um, to raise, uh, money for, for a charity. And, um, so I started following him on Instagram and, and, uh, really impressive and really a nice guy. So Edward, if you're listening to this, uh, thanks for saying hi and good Anya for, for completing that, uh, that event. So that was really cool. That's so funny. Yeah. So we went to the Isle of Skye. We, we rented again, it was an Airbnb. I mean, we really had good luck with, with Airbnbs this time we were in this sort of annex on the back of what was called the boat builder's cottage. And it actually belonged to a guy who builds boats on Skye. And it was this old kind of stone cottage and we had kind of the backside of it. And on our full day in Skye, we, we had a pretty, pretty Epic day. We, we drove to a pretty famous landmark there called the old man of store, which is this kind of rock pinnacle. up on the side of a mountain. And, and it was a, it was the one day that was like full on rain all day. And, and we just kind of suited up in our rain gear and, and drove there and then, um, hiked up this very dramatic, sometimes steep, um, with, with beautiful views, um, up to this, this rock pinnacle and kind of went around it and back down. And, and it was a great hike. And, uh, and then after that we, we fittingly went to, um, we drove over to the Talisker distillery. And, uh, and check that out and tried a couple of, uh, whiskeys and bought some whiskey. And then near there, we just left the vehicle there and walked over to another place that a few people recommended. Um, thank you to everybody that did, uh, a little place up, uh, up the road from Talisker called, um, the oyster shed. And as the name suggests, it was, it's literally like, like, it looks like a warehouse, like an old tin roof. warehouse space and you go in and there's, it's not heated and it's, it's not comfortable by any means. And it's just these two young guys with, to my ear, undecipherable Scottish accents who just were like, what do you want? And we're like, we'll take two dozen of, you know, whatever oysters you recommend. And they just shocked them, put them on a big tray. And we, you know, gave us some hot sauce. We went to a picnic table in this little shelter, um, out of the rain and just sat and wolf down, uh, wolf down these oysters and kind of looked at the view out the window. And that sounds good. Like heaven. It was a good day. It was a really, really good day. And then, uh, and then from there, we, we'd been getting advice from, uh, kind of an online friend that I hadn't met. Um, but I'll talk about him in a bit. Um, his name is John and John owns a Campbell's of Beaulieu, the shop that we visited in, in the town of Beaulieu. And, and we'd been chatting over WhatsApp kind of during the trip. And when I, when I said anything you recommend, like that opened the floodgates and he, I just got tons of responses from him just with suggestions. And then he said, if you do one thing, you have to go to apple cross and drive the, uh, the apple cross pass. It's a road that in Gaelic, um, is Baloch Nabah, which means the cow drivers pass or something like cattlemen used to, to take their, their herds over this mountain pass. And it, it rises from sea level, um, pretty much up to 2000 feet and then down again to sea level. And, Windy switchbacks, single track, um, steep drop-offs, you know, rocks on one side, steep drop-offs. And, and, you know, if you encounter another vehicle on the way coming the other direction, one of you has to back up to a widening spot on the road and the road is a bit rough and you have to use low gear to get down some of the steep grades. And so it was, it was a really dramatic. Place to drive, um, and really fun to do it in the Land Rover. And we were there on a weekday, so it didn't have some of the weekend traffic that I've been told, uh, can make things a little more difficult there. And, uh, that sounds wild. I like it. And it ends at a, at a, at a little place. You can't even really call it a town. There's just like one old pub hotel. They're called the apple cross in with seven rooms upstairs and a pub downstairs. And we, we managed to get a room there for one night and had a great meal and they had a fire going in the pub. And, um, we went for a little walk there and, uh, and then the next day we, we drove out again and via a different road kind of along the coast and then headed over towards the top of Loch Ness and Inverness area and a little bit north of there to a town called, um, uh, Dornoch, which is, and I had never heard of it and, uh, it's on the North sea. So it's kind of on the opposite coast of that part of Scotland from where we'd been spending time. And again, you know, just got a little rental place and then went into Dornoch and had some dinner. And then we, we went to, there's an old castle there that's been converted to a hotel and there's this incredible whiskey shop there called, um, Carnegie whiskey sellers. And, and we were there just 10 minutes before closing on a Sunday. And the guy that runs the shop, you know, he apologized for arriving so late and he said, no problem. And like, so he like closed the store and took us in this back room and just started pouring things and letting us try things and explaining all the whiskeys. And one of the things we wanted to do was, was get some whiskeys that we could bring home that maybe we couldn't find in the U S and he helped us do that. And, and he, they have this arrangement where they'll ship uh, you know, certain number of bottles back to the U S and you don't have to pay the VAT VAT tax. And then you just pay them to handle the shipping. And so they haven't arrived yet, but we're expecting six bottles that we bought there of some really interesting stuff. So that's awesome. Should last us for a good long time. Um, yeah, we did some more hiking, went to pubs. How was the weather throughout all this? Like I said, you know, on that, the, the only day that it rained was when we were on sky and we did that, that hike up to the old man of store. Otherwise we had kind of mixed, I mean, it was every once in a while you get a little bit of a few drops, but otherwise we had, you know, if you look at the photos, you wouldn't even think it's Scotland because it's like blue sky and sun. And that's great. Great timing. So that was great. And, and then, as I mentioned, uh, as we were kind of headed back South on our way back to Glasgow, we stopped through Beaulieu, which is a little town, not far from Inverness. And I'd wanted to visit Campbell's of Beaulieu, um, for a long time. And, uh, if you recall the, That Jerry can mini bar. That's where that came from. I sent you one of those. And, um, and John's a big, uh, the owner's a big kind of Land Rover and watch guy. And, uh, he welcomed us there and gave us kind of a tour of the shop. And that's so good. He was wearing an old vintage Smiths and, and, uh, he's got, you know, Lego Land Rovers all around and his, his own defender 90 parked out front. And yeah, just try it on a few things. Uh, got a couple of sweaters and a cap and. And just hung out there. I mean, it was the kind of place I could have stayed all day. It's just as a very kind of warm homey sort of feel. And the photos were great. Yeah. Yeah. And then, uh, from there we ended up going to, uh, kind of headed back towards Glasgow and we wanted to come via the Cairngorms, which is a huge national park in Scotland. Um, very mountainous, um, some, some great hikes and lakes and things. And, uh, we, we found another Airbnb, which I think was the absolute winningest Airbnb I've ever had and probably ever will have. It was this little cottage in a small town called Boat of Garton named because it's on this little river called the Garton River. And there used to be a ferry boat that would take people across. So it was always kind of named that. And it was a little cottage belonged to, it seems to be a, had good luck with people named John in Scotland, but the, the owner, John was, was a very pleasant guy and lives across the street. Um, and it was really this old cottage that he had bought this property, uh, 15 years ago. used to live there himself and kind of cleared all the brush that the cottage he said was ready for demolition, but he wanted to kind of restore it. And it had this lovely fireplace in the living room and just loaded bookshelves with, you know, all sorts of interesting books. And then there was a fireplace in the bedroom, which was, which is always fun, you know, to kind of go to sleep to a nice crackling wood fire. And then on our last night, we'd been chatting with, with John off and on via the Airbnb kind of messaging service. And I said, Hey, if you want to stop over tonight, you know, and have, have a drink with us later on, please do. So he wrote, he arrives with this bag with like five bottles of Scotch and, and he stayed till late. And it was the last night before we had to drive back to Glasgow. And we had big aspirations for, you know, kind of an early morning and boy, that went right out the window. I mean, we, as, uh, as someone said later, um, it resulted in a, uh, a foggy morning in the Glen, I guess is how the, uh, how the Scots, uh, call a hangover or maybe just feeling a little foggy the next day. So, um, sure. But yeah, it was, it was a great Airbnb and, uh, and I'd love to go back and spend a month there and write a book or something. Sounds so good, man. And then on the way back the last day, the last drive to, to get back to Glasgow, we took, um, a road that again, John from Campbell's recommended, but also our dear friend, uh, Henry Catchpole had done a video on this several years ago when he was with Evo and, He calls it the, his favorite road in the UK, if not the world, which is very high praise. I think very, uh, and Henry had driven it years ago in, um, the N four 30 Aston Martin produced this amazing video. Oh, of course. Yes. I remember that video and the road is called the old military road. And it's from, I believe the 1700s. Um, and of course it's paved now, but again, it's, I mean, it's like a roller coaster of a road. It goes up and over mountains and past ski stations and, you know, windy bends through small towns. And I mean, it's just like, yeah, it's, it's truly as a road that lives up to the high praise, uh, from Henry and others. And so, yeah, that, that took us out of the Highlands and got us back to, to Glasgow, um, in one piece, you know, with, with this old, uh, this old diesel Land Rover, which, which did great for the whole trip. It was really, uh, really fantastic. |
| Jason Heaton | So, man, from all those different spots, it really sounds like a perfect trip. |
| James Stacey | It really was a perfect trip. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. Yeah. What are, what are like a generous support from so many different parties to make sure that you had like a proper Scottish welcome everywhere you went? |
| James Stacey | Oh yeah, man. That's so cool. Yeah. Lewis, um, who, who lent us the Land Rover, he, um, you know, we asked if he had a cooler that we could use to put groceries and stuff in and he kind of stocked it with a few, a few local favorites. He had some smoked kippers that were in a, uh, kind of a vacuum sealed pouch and then a haggis. He actually gave us a haggis, um, and said, you guys have to eat this. And we were, you know, a little skeptical, um, but I was willing to try. And so, uh, I think it was our first or second night where you kind of arrived at the cottage we were renting a bit late and didn't have a chance to go to the grocery store. So I said, well, I'm going to make the, I'm going to make the haggis. And so I sliced it and, uh, and kind of sauteed it in a pan with, uh, I put a little whiskey in with it to kind of moisten it up and cut some apples into small pieces. And it was actually pretty darn good. So, um, that's my own, my own twist on, on haggis. You can, Um, you can, you can call that, uh, the Heaton Haggis recipe, but it turned out pretty good. |
| Jason Heaton | So, well, Hey, speaking of Lewis, you want to get to this interview you recorded with him? |
| James Stacey | Yeah, let's do it. Um, Lewis Heath, again, I mentioned is, uh, kind of the founder of Unordained. He's an interesting guy lives in, in, up in the Highlands, uh, in Scotland, even though he's not from Scotland originally, he kind of moved around the UK when he was younger. He came to Unordained from another company that he, um, co-owned, uh, which was an audio company. They actually made, um, headphones. Okay. Um, and, and he's kind of trained as an architect and product designer and, uh, really a fascinating guy really has a diverse set of interests, you know, in terms of Land Rovers and good food and Scotland and, and watches. And he gave us a nice tour of on our Dane. And so we sat down for, I'd say probably about a 25 minute chat. Hope you enjoy it. So here without further ado is Lewis Heath. All right, Lewis Heath from Unordain. Welcome to the Graynado. Thanks very much, Jason. |
| Lewis Heath | Nice to be here. |
| James Stacey | We're sitting here on a rare sunny moment here in Glasgow. I just had a nice tour of Unordain, and it's such a fascinating, it's very different from other watch companies I've visited. And I'm just curious, first of all, maybe you can tell a little bit about your background and how you ended up in this business. |
| Lewis Heath | Yeah, so I started out in architecture. studying architecture and then after I graduated I went into product design. So I had a bit of experience there. But the watchmaking really came from a desire to do things in one place rather than design one in the UK and then send things out to Asia to get made. Because that's what my last job was involved. And so I had an interest in watches and I always thought it'd be, you know, be interesting things to do, but really it was what watchmaking kind of allowed in terms of facilitating production and development and design in, in, in one space. So, um, I think you, you could kind of get that, I think feeling when you go around the studio, it's, it's, um, it's a bit of a hive of activity and experimenting. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. And it feels like almost like a how to describe it, like an artist's cooperative or something. It feels like sort of artists with very distinct different talents and interests all kind of working together. And I feel like that might trickle down from the top a little bit. I'm wondering if it sounds like you came into this with an interest in developing kind of a different way of working and a challenge of developing this product in the UK and watches are obviously fascinating, but do you, do you come to it from like this long standing passion or interest in watches? Were you a collector or anything like that? |
| Lewis Heath | No, no, not at all. I mean, I was interested in watches. I think when I started out from architecture school, I, uh, I, my taste in watches was very much, uh, uh, kind of Bauhausy and, uh, like the Max Bill watch and the bronze and things like that. And I, you know, I had like my architectural education was, was very, uh, sort of mid century modernist. Um, so, I thought things like Rolexes were hideous and gaudy. I mean, that's obviously changed since I've got more into watches. But no, I think I came from that background. But a lot of the people in the company don't have an interest in watches, but have a huge interest in their aspect of watchmaking. So the jewelers, even actually, it's interesting, the watchmakers, you'd think they'd know everything about watches, but they know everything about how watches work. And they'll be fascinated by things that you or I probably have never come across inside a watch. But they couldn't tell you what the reference number of this or that is. So they have a different, you know, they don't maybe read the magazines that you or I might. So everyone comes at it from a different place. And it is really interesting. |
| James Stacey | So given that, I mean, I'm seeing a definite upsurge in interest and kind of chatter about kind of British watchmaking. Where do you think Anordain fits into the scene, if that's even possible to answer? |
| Lewis Heath | We're kind of, I'd say on the fringes probably is fair to say. I mean British watchmaking is interesting in that it has become very popular lately, or become very talked about. But the reason, There are some companies doing amazing things. Frodsham in London, I mean, they've got a team of about 20 as well. And they're doing, I mean, they make their own spring bars. I mean, no one makes their own spring bars. But they go to that level. I mean, they are experts at kind of black polishing. I mean, they're fantastic. You've got the Struthers in Birmingham, those two, who are doing amazing work. Obviously, you've got Roger Smith on the Isle of Man. And then as up here, but I think we're the only people like that kind of, there is watchmaking here and that's them. But I think the people who do a lot of talking about it and maybe not making things that they're marketing things, you know, and, and we're in, you know, we're in Glasgow and it's quite nice to be outside of the watch, whether it be Switzerland or British watchmaking, you're just kind of, we're in a little bubble and we, we kind of try and solve the problems we've got with whatever we're doing in that day and you get absorbed in it and it's nice to be away from everything I think so. Yeah we do we work with each other and we've I mean that that machine behind me is from Frontier so we we have a good relationship with these people and it's it's it's nice but it's it's so for for me and for us here I think British watchmaking is about that and people who do things but those aren't the guys that you'll hear about when people talk about British watchmaking I think. |
| James Stacey | It also seems like your existence sort of on the fringes of British watchmaking, um, despite or because of that, uh, there's a lot of talk about Honor Dane. I mean, I see great reviews and articles and even last night we had a little get together, um, in Glasgow and I had mine, my model one on the table and people, Oh, is that an Honor Dane? You know, picking it up and looking at it. And, and so there's a gen general interest in, in the brand. Um, and it seems like you have a pretty extensive wait list now. Company seems to be doing pretty well. |
| Lewis Heath | We've been here. I think it's not not by design. I have to say I mean it's nice that things are going well but it's very much we're doing something that that we found interesting and we and I think we myself and the team as well approach things in a very like in a way that we'd want to. We've created a company that is a company that we'd want to work with if we were a customer I think and just We're not good at marketing at all. We don't do marketing. I think we've just done something interesting. People obviously, luckily, seem to like it. If they didn't, we'd be stuck. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, you're right. I don't see a lot of marketing. Maybe you advertise. |
| Lewis Heath | We've not done advertising or we don't have any marketing or sales people. It's just people who kind of facilitate making and |
| James Stacey | distributing what we produce. The vibe I get with Anordain reminds me of another, shall we say, in the best possible way, quirky, smaller brand that's gotten bigger, Nomos. Oh yeah, yeah. Nomos, over the years I've seen, I like their designs, they're very clean, they're very different than other brands are doing. And the way that they present themselves is very much in a almost playful way. have put out some interesting sort of publications and specific versions of their watches and I sort of see a... Yeah, I'm a big Nomos fan, so that's the very nice thing to say. |
| Lewis Heath | I think they are very much grounded in design as well and that's where they came from, that's where our companies come from too, so there's probably similarities. |
| James Stacey | Your brand is largely known for the enameling, the enamel dials. I think you know, having met a bunch of the team just now, you know, you pull, you've pulled them from art schools and, and, you know, different, different lines of work that is outside the watch industry, which is, uh, obviously it lends this, this vibe to the company. I'm sure you've given it thought, but how, how will Honor Dane evolve? Will you continue the kind of push the envelope of, of the artistry? Will you move further into watchmaking, um, in terms of movement design, different complications? How do you do that? How do you? |
| Lewis Heath | Yeah, it's a really interesting question. I mean, we've got a lot of demand for the products we do at the moment. And that's always presented to some degree an issue because our development of new products is done by the same people who produce our current products. The enameling team is doing that and the watchmakers. And so we've had to make quite a conscious decision to separate out. It's approximately 30% of the time is spent on on development now. And that's what I think that's what everyone finds interesting here is trying new ideas and seeing how much we can kind of push our abilities with it happening. So very much the future is going to be about that. And watchmaking is a big part of that. This room we're in at the moment has been home to one of our Watchmakers who's just been doing module development for the past two years. And there'll be more interesting things coming out in the future, but it's still gonna stay hopefully within this idea of things being kind of good value. So yeah, there's a lot happening. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, so speaking of evolving the company, I mean, It's a happy coincidence that the day that this episode goes live is a day that Honor Dane has a collaboration launching with Hodinkee, a special project. Can you tell us a little bit about that watch? |
| Lewis Heath | Yeah, absolutely. It's something very special. It's kind of a progression of our development in dial making. And it is what we believe is a kind of a world first, if you like. It's the first time this has been done. And the watch itself is a sunburst dial, but it's a hand engraved sunburst. So it's actually been every single line in this sunburst dial has been cut by hand. And that can't really be understated, the kind of difference that makes when you compare that to a machine. Normally sunbursts are done with a wire brush or stamped if they're deeper. But cutting each one by hand with an engraver is every line is deeper and it's cut, but it's also polished at the same time with the engraver. And yeah, we have one person who's been doing this constantly for over a year. And it's, I mean, it's physically, I mean, it's very tiring, but it's also the concentration involved is remarkable. Each style has It's, they were counting them today. It's every eighth of the dial has 150 strokes in it. So, um, the masses, it should be straightforward. But, um, it's, it's each, each silver dial that's engraved is two days of work. And then we use on average three dials to make one enameled finished dial. Um, and due to the, kind of the, the, the nature of the work, the kind of The physical challenges of it, two days a week of that and then three days of enameling. So if you actually work it out, it's taken us, we make about one a month of film. But because it was such a special thing and we'd kind of, you know, there's nothing new about sunburst dials or enamel dials or any of these things, but this combination that we'd never seen before, we thought it would be nice to be able to launch it in a way that would be, people would, kind of take notice perhaps, um, rather than us just putting it into the mailing list and, uh, but it has gone, I mean, the, the, the tricky thing about it is that we've, we've worked out this very kind of organized and I think very fair waiting list system where you kind of, it's first come first served and, and, and we did say we weren't going to do any limited editions, but this predates that system by, by, you know, it's, I think we've been on this for, for 18 months now at least. Um, so it is, it is, a little bit tricky in that we can make one a month. And you know, if we're trying to make 50 watches a month and everyone asks for one of these, it's going to be, it's going to cause some problems. So, so I'm hoping it's, it's more of a kind of a showcase of what, what we've been able to do. |
| James Stacey | Um, yeah, I saw some examples of, of, uh, the work, um, in the studio and it's, it's pretty amazing. And given the, the waste, if we want to call it that, that happens with enameling just because of the process. Does that mean that some of those hand engraved dials, when they're enameled, they have to be discarded? Yeah, they'll be... What a shame for the engraver. That's amazing. |
| Lewis Heath | It is. Yeah. I mean, I can't quite imagine that either, to be honest. |
| James Stacey | It's like Sisyphus or something. |
| Lewis Heath | Yes. |
| James Stacey | Pushing the rock up the hill. Yeah. Yeah. That's an interesting idea that this new type of dial has come out, that you're bringing this out. And I'm curious, like, how is, how are ideas generated? Is, is you have this team of artists that, that most didn't come from watchmaking. They came from, from jewelry and from, um, art schools. And did they come up with their own ideas where they say, you know, I think we could do, um, you know, I'm trying to think of, of, you know, other, I mean, in the future, some of the sort of inlaid techniques and things. I mean, I, I suppose they could approach and say, I think we could do a dial with, you know, whatever else. |
| Lewis Heath | Yeah, it's I mean, there's, there's ideas kind of come from everywhere. A lot of I mean, I say this a lot, but one of the lovely things about working and creating things in the in terms of manufacturing, and also designing things in the same place, is that when something goes wrong, you see how it's gone wrong. And sometimes what happened is potentially better than what was meant to happen, you know, or you can fix the problems. But I mean, things like the fume technique that we developed, that was the first ever And that came from warping. So the silver base buckled in the middle, and the middle became lighter. So we realized we could create this domed silver base. And so we went through working out how you create something that didn't buckle, but was domed in the middle. And that gave us the Fermi technique. So that was an experiment. And I mean, there's just a huge breadth of knowledge that When you started on Ordain, did you have this vision from the start that enamelling would be... |
| James Stacey | Was that your vision, like enamel dials are going to be our calling card? |
| Lewis Heath | Or what was kind of the... No, no, it wasn't. I can remember, because I think we were talking about this recently, and I actually now remember not having vision and being quite worried about that, you know, because everyone thinks you start a company, you've got this clear vision of what's going to happen. And I was fascinated by making things, and I just wanted to make something here. And, you know, And when we were looking at watches, I was interested in what could people in Britain do, you know, strap makers. Straps could be made by people making belts and CNC machines for cases and all that stuff. And dials were going to be made by coin makers, so mints, you know. And so I went down to Birmingham and there was a coin there with enamel on it, a commemorative enamel coin. And it was really striking. It was a bright red poppy on there. And that's kind of where the idea came from. I thought, let's try and do some enameling. And we tried for about a year with a company there, and the tolerances were never good enough. So I went to the art school and put a job ad up, and we had one applicant, Adam. And he was luckily very good, and he spent the next three years just chipping away at this. But the idea was taking this very traditional craft of enameling and kind of fuse it with interesting design and colors and things that maybe weren't in the kind of watchmaking, you know, historically there. You know, we deliberately went, avoided doing white styles to start with and just went in for things like pinks and blues and you get all these, you know, I mean, the thing about enamel that's really special is color. You know, it's, there's nothing that will render color like enamel. It's just, it's amazing. And so just to do white dials seems to be a shame. So that's kind of where we came from. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. Yeah. I was, I was going to ask if, if there was something particularly Scottish about the brand other than the name, which is named after a lock up North from here and your previous answer makes me think that maybe it's not Scottish historically, but the fact that it was born out of some artistry from people from around here? |
| Lewis Heath | Yeah. I mean, I'm obviously from my accent. I'm not, I'm not originally from here. I've been in Scotland for 20 years, but I'm not Scottish. Um, I think, I mean, you can, like we're seeing, there's a lot of talk of British watchmaking and it's often I, you know, it can be a label that people use to sell things and we, we definitely avoid any kind of using the Scottish or British or anything like that. But the company does generally have a, I mean, the pool of people here are mostly from Edinburgh College of Art, Glasgow School of Art, maybe Grayson, up north. And so they've come up through their creative education with similar tastes and ideas. And so there is this shared language here that is peculiar to Scotland, I think. And so I think generally there is that aspect of it being Scottish. I mean, we've got, you know, we've got French, we had Portuguese, Martin is Ukrainian, one of the enamelers. I mean, there's, there's a, there's a pretty mixed bag here. |
| James Stacey | You mentioned you're not Scottish and we've talked about this, but you, you're currently living here and moving a little bit away from, from watches. You, you, you have a property that you're sort of developing up North. |
| Lewis Heath | Yeah. It was, it was during the pandemic, we had three, three small children in our second floor flat with no school. And that was the point where we decided this would be a good time to go, which I think a lot of people did at that time. But no, we've got a croft, which is a croft. People think of a croft as a little cottage. But actually a croft is a legal designation for a piece of land that you have to live on or live within 32 kilometers of and work the land. So it's it's it's a it's a peculiar thing to not all of Scotland but I think it's just the Highlands and a couple of the other parts. But it's a really good idea. I mean it's to stop people from I suppose just building a big house. Yeah. And not visiting it. So yeah. Now my wife and kids live there and I commute. So I'm there at the weekends and here in the weeks. |
| James Stacey | Keeps you busy. Keeps getting your hands dirty as opposed to, you know, during the week. |
| Lewis Heath | It's a lovely break. I mean, it really is just, um, yeah, it's kind of night and day from being in the city working and then you're up there. So I get to play at being a farmer for a couple of days, which, uh, yeah, it's good. |
| James Stacey | And speaking of that, you, uh, you recently, uh, acquired this old Land Rover that you graciously lent us for our journey around Scotland. That came out of a bit of a mishap with your pickup truck, I think. |
| Lewis Heath | Yeah, well it wasn't a pickup much. I was driving my little Skoda I keep at the station back from its M&T and the brakes failed on the motorway and I managed to get off the motorway to this industrial estate and I was a little bit shaken up. I think I probably more than I realized and I ended up buying a Defender. uh, without having asked anything about it other than it looked like it wasn't rusting. Um, but it was great. I mean, so far that's what it's been. It's been perfect. So I'll let you know. Um, yes, yes. So, uh, yeah, there's the, there's now a bed in the back of it and, uh, and a cool box with a Haggis in which you're going to eat. |
| James Stacey | We're terrified. |
| Lewis Heath | It's really, are you, I promise nothing to be scared of. Uh, it will be, it will be good. |
| James Stacey | Well, I want to kind of close with something I've started doing with different people that we're chatting with. It's sort of a quick fire round of just short answer questions, just about various topics. So coffee or tea? |
| Lewis Heath | Oh, both. I mean, it's morning and afternoon. Yeah. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. Mountains or sea? Like mountains. |
| Lewis Heath | Really? |
| James Stacey | Yeah. OK. You just mentioned haggis, but your most favorite or strangest food love? |
| Lewis Heath | Oh, a Peking duck. Yeah, homemade Peking duck. Yeah, it's my dad used to make it for from and it was a every birthday. So Oh, wow. |
| James Stacey | Okay. Okay. Do you have a favorite movie? |
| Lewis Heath | I always used to like the English person actually, which I know is maybe an odd one these days. |
| James Stacey | But yeah, that was a that's my favorite movie. Actually. I love that movie. |
| Lewis Heath | All right. But my wife and I realized that was a joint favorite movie when we met as well, which is a yeah, it was a love that movie. It's a good and actually the the author Michael and Dante's |
| James Stacey | The book is fantastic as well. Yeah. Yeah. From Sri Lanka, actually. Yes. Yeah. I remember that. Favorite travel destination or maybe favorite one or one that you'd like to visit? You can answer either or both. |
| Lewis Heath | I have to say I, the older I get, the more I like coming home actually, the more it's nice to be up in the Highlands. Yeah. Um, but I wouldn't let, that's not a proper answer. Um, I don't, I, I, I really like this, this, I love going to foreign countries, and I know this sounds awful, but going to supermarkets. Because you go in, and then there's just all this stuff you've never seen before. And that's very exciting. So any country I go to, I find exciting. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. I like home as a travel destination, because it's true. It does become a destination when you're abroad. |
| Lewis Heath | You always end up there. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. If you weren't doing what you are now, what would you want to do? Or what would be kind of a dream job, or something maybe you wish you'd done, or maybe still might do? |
| Lewis Heath | Yeah, I think when I was at university, I thought I was going to. do something to do with the kind of public spaces and architecture, trying to improve public spaces. That was my plan and then I kind of got sidetracked. So maybe something like that. |
| James Stacey | And then one last question. I'm borrowing this from the show Desert Island Discs. If you were on a desert island and you could have one kind of luxury item. |
| Lewis Heath | I should know that I listened to it as well, but I never thought about what I'd take. Probably a fishing rod I think. Yeah. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. Yeah. Do you fish currently? |
| Lewis Heath | I do. Yeah. I'm not as much as I used to be. I fly fish and it's a very, very relaxing. Yeah, I like it when I get time. It's been a while. |
| James Stacey | Lewis Heath, thank you so much for joining me on the Graynado and also thank you for lending me your soon-to-be, you know... You can never know how it goes, yes. Hopefully well. And the Haggis, yes. Okay, thank you so much. Thank you. |
| Jason Heaton | Okay, thank you so much to Lewis Heath of Ann Ordain and congrats obviously on the new launch. I think a very beautiful and special thing. Hit the show notes if you want to see any of that, but a huge shout out to Lewis, not only for supporting Jason on this incredible trip, but also taking a few minutes to get us a nice, fun little interview there for the show. So yeah, super cool. Can't wait to cross paths with Lewis again. He's a great guy and we're big fans of the brand. Yeah. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, it was great. And speaking of the Hodinkee LE that we talked about briefly, I had a chance to see the dials, some of the dials that have been worked on, and it was pretty astounding. you know, I'm not usually kind of a dial nerd or look into the details of, of kind of high watchmaking, but it was very impressive. And, um, contrary to what you might think, the fact that this episode is running like on the day of launch and, uh, and the kind of your affiliation with Houdinki, it was a complete coincidence. |
| James Stacey | I think he just said, here's this thing we're doing for Houdinki. And I was like, what? And lo and behold, it, it launched, uh, I think yesterday or today. So it's, uh, that's really awesome. |
| Jason Heaton | I knew of the watch a little while ago. Like I knew that it was, there was a, an Ellie happening, but I hadn't seen the strict details until you were already in Scotland. And I didn't want to put any pressure obviously on Lewis. I also don't know what his like, you know, what he signed with Houdinki, all that kind of stuff about talking about it. But then, uh, when you said, Oh, we recorded it, it'll come out the same day as the watch. I was like, Hey, sometimes these things work out. I, you know, it's one of these things. I don't know if I'll ever actually see one little dial, let alone a watch. Uh, not many made and the response. was almost ridiculous. Yeah. Uh, to, to like shout out obviously to, to Lewis and his team for making a really gorgeous kind of special watch that people are pumped about, but also just to like the general level of the execution of the layout and everything else for, for Hodinkee, I think was, was pretty cool. And I think it's a good one. I hope it's one I get to see at some point. Yeah. Yeah. Good luck to anyone who tried to pick one up. I know there weren't that many in that interest is pretty high. So yeah. I don't know, man, I, we were saying just offline there for a moment between the end of the interview and the start of this little bit that it just sounded like such a great trip. And like, you really kind of threaded the needle in terms of time and support and having the ability to have the Land Rover. You have this like very high level of autonomy that allowed you to really like explore the landscape, but super happy for you and Gashani sounds like a great one. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, it'll definitely sustain us for, um, for a while now, you know, it's nice to have kind of one big trip in a year. And this, uh, this really felt like something that'll kind of keep us going through the summer. So good times. |
| Jason Heaton | That's great. You want to put a bow on it with some final notes? |
| James Stacey | Yeah, sure. Um, the, the day that we were leaving, uh, Glasgow airport happened to be May 4th. And it was the day that, uh, a new book came out, um, by Charlie Higson, who was an author who had written a series of books under the young bond kind of label. He was doing sort of these, these kind of prequel books, um, about James Bond as a young person, like set back in the 1930s when he would have been like a school age boy. And, uh, and he wrote a book, um, that was kind of commissioned by the Ian Fleming family called On His Majesty's Secret Service. And it was meant to coincide with the coronation. And so the book was released on the 4th. I actually downloaded the audio book in the airport, um, as just before we flew out and I listened to it. pretty much on the entire flight home. That's a pretty quick read. And, uh, and it's really good. So, you know, we, we talked about the Kim Sherwood book, uh, double or nothing, uh, several months ago, and that, and that was well-received and a good book. I think this is right up there. I think it's a, it's a brisk pace. It's a, it's a really good plot that he put together in a very short amount of time, um, in time for the coronation. And I'm not, I'm not going to give anything away about the plot, but if you're kind of into, you know, the whole bond, um, book thing or films and the whole kind of Bond universe. I think this one would be worth, uh, worth checking out. I think it was, uh, it was fun to read kind of almost in real time because it actually literally takes place on the day that the book was released. So it was, it was a fun read. So yeah, check it out on His Majesty's Secret Service by Charlie Higson. |
| Jason Heaton | That's awesome. Sounds like a good one for sure. I could use a, another reader and the audio would be a great way to do it, I assume. Yeah. |
| James Stacey | And he reads it and he does a good job. So yeah. |
| Jason Heaton | Oh, killer. That's always fun. Yeah. Well, look, mine's a quick one this week because it's actually just a kind of an echo or a follow up from the previous episode we did with Thomas Holland from Throttle House. In that we talk about the production of and the release of, you know, the show came out a few days after the release of part one of this desert road trip they did. So it's kind of a, you know, a three part series in the guise, the format of like a big Top Gear, old school sort of like Top Gear, travel in inexpensive cars. In this case, not that inexpensive, especially for James, but the, um, the second part has come out. It's called the road to enlightenment. And I just wanted to shout it out because I enjoyed the first episode. I thought it was great. Five stars, whatever, whatever you want to say. But the second one was even better. Uh, it's just really nicely produced. It's super funny. The cars are great. I think they have a, you know, kind of a fantastic chemistry. And given that we had Thomas on last week, if you decided not to listen to that one, because it was out of our norm, You know, we like to occasionally have a guest host on, uh, when one of us can't be in an episode and Thomas was around and I think he did a lovely job on the episode. Totally different vibe than, than a normal episode, which I think is really fun, but more specifically this, this kind of three part series they're working on. If you've already watched one and two, the third part will come out in a few days time. I believe on on Sunday following the launch of this episode on the 11th. So check it out. It's super good stuff. If you're if you're a fan of the old school sort of Top Gear format, the big road trips or the transcontinental races, I think you'll get a kick out of this. It's a it's really nicely done, but better than you're going to expect for YouTube these days, for sure. Which I think is kind of a high bar to begin with. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, yeah. Nice. I'll have to check that out. And you know, my my Sincere thanks to Thomas for filling in for me last week when I was gone. I haven't actually had a chance to listen to the episode, but I certainly will. And yeah, it's nice to mix things up a little bit and bring somebody new in. |
| Jason Heaton | As always, thank you so much for listening. If you'd like to subscribe to The Show Notes, get into the comments for each episode, or consider supporting the show directly, which can even net you a brand new TGN signed NATO, please visit TheGreyNATO.com. Music throughout is Siesta by Jazz Art via the Free Music Archive. |
| James Stacey | And we leave you with this quote from Bruce Chatwin, who said, Travel doesn't merely broaden the mind, it makes the mind. |