The Grey NATO – 330 – From The Hebrides With Love
Published on Thu, 22 May 2025 06:00:00 -0400
Synopsis
In this episode of The Grey NATO, host Jason Heaton recounts his recent 10-day trip to Scotland, particularly focusing on his time in the Outer Hebrides and Isle of Skye. The trip combined work (shooting content for an upcoming UK watch brand) with pleasure, as Jason and his girlfriend Christie explored the dramatic landscapes through hiking, swimming, and driving a Land Rover Defender. Jason details their adventures including free diving in cold waters, hiking the Queerang on Skye, and experiencing the unique culture and cuisine of the region. The trip had its challenges, including a stomach bug that affected both travelers and a missed flight in Amsterdam due to time zone confusion. The episode concludes with final notes about a documentary on North Shore lifeguards and a Toronto bank robber story.
During the "Risk Check" segment, Jason discusses wearing his CWN1 watch throughout the trip, while James shares his experience modifying his Doxa Diving Star 200T with a mesh bracelet. The hosts also discuss their upcoming schedule changes due to James's impending fatherhood.
Links
Transcript
| Speaker | |
|---|---|
| Jason Heaton | Hello and welcome to another episode of The Grey NATO. Loose discussion of travel, adventure, diving, driving gear, and most certainly watches. This is episode 330 and it's proudly brought to you by the always growing TGN supporter crew. We thank you all so much for your continued support. And if you'd like to support the show, please visit thegreynato.com for more details. My name is Jason Heaton, and I'm joined as ever by my friend and co-host, James Stacey. James, good to be back in the seat here chatting with you. Yeah, thanks. Thanks. Yeah. |
| James Stacey | I know you're a little beat up after your trip, so this maybe won't be the highest energy or longest episode, but we had a long one last week. A big shout out to Brock and Chris for coming on and kind of filling your shoes for an episode. But how have you been? Trip was good, I assume? Trip was great, yeah. |
| Jason Heaton | And I will give a shout out to Chris and Brock for... for filling in last week. I listened to it on my first dog walk back in town here yesterday, and I thought it was great. Really fascinating episode and full of all stuff I like, you know, diving and watches and Land Rovers. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, it was really fun to have them on. And you and I were actually just chatting before we clicked record about a couple other guests that we're planning to have on the show in the next little while. Obviously, for those of you listening, we're now right at the end of May. This puts me within about a month of my wife's due date. So we are going to drop off the radar for a bit. probably two weeks and then come back with some guest episodes but we will have updates on that plan in future episodes so just keep listening we'll keep you posted and we'll obviously drop some details into the slack once we have like a full plan right now you know we have about a month until the kid is due so that's a not so much a concern as much as a consideration for a summer schedule |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, it's crazy, man. I mean, I just I can't believe I was remarking about this recently that the years were almost at the halfway point of the year and summer is here just like that. And it's crazy because I'll get into it in a bit about my trip. But when when we left to fly away back on whatever it was, May 8th. um, it was downright summery weather here. I mean, it was hot and then we were gone and Scotland was utterly beautiful. The weather was perfect, um, which is apparently not typical over there. And now I'm back and it's, it is cold here. I, you know, I'm not sure what it is in centigrade, but I think it was like 40 degrees here, Fahrenheit this morning, you know, you know, hovering in that, you know, within 10 degrees of the freezing point and sideways rain. I mean, it's really nasty here. So I feel like I just came back and skipped summer altogether. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, we had days at the cottage this weekend. That's what I did this past weekend. I just went up to the cottage. So it was the May long weekend for Canada. Just went by. And obviously it's Memorial Day weekend coming up for the States. So shout out to those celebrating Memorial Day and to those for Victoria Day here in Canada. So we had a chance to be up there and just kind of kick around. And it was right on the edge of being warm enough to like go for swims and get in the water and that kind of thing. But it is still that early season where like... It was, you know, three Celsius overnight. And today it's going to be 15. And 15 is great if you're in the sun and there's no wind. But if you're in like jeans and a t-shirt and it's windy, that's pretty cold. Yeah. So yeah, it is that time of the, it's that last couple of weekends where you really want it to be summer. You want to be in like full summer mode, but it's the mornings are still spring. The evenings can definitely still be spring. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, so it was a good trip, but I have to admit, if I sound a little low energy today, I'm kind of running on fumes. I had a bit of a stomach bug late last week. I'll get into it in a bit. Well, not in too much detail, don't worry. But it kind of depleted my energy. I didn't eat much and then made a bad choice and went for a... Pretty vigorous hike on Friday and just got totally ran my batteries down and then had to get up early the next day and drive back to Inverness to drop the Land Rover off and catch a train back to Glasgow and then do an evening meet up and then get up the next morning and catch a 6 a.m. flight. And I got home Sunday evening. And, you know, yesterday was kind of recovery day, did a few things, but like, I feel like I just need a few days to just like crash out and just recover. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, you probably do, man. I mean, I've definitely read about, I don't remember the term, but I read a story, maybe it was something you sent me like from Wall Street Journal or something. there's a term or like a concept for the idea that you store up so much need for a vacation that when you go on it, you don't actually relax. You have all this energy that you want to spend that isn't like working energy. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James Stacey | It's like recreation energy. And certainly I've had it where like, you suddenly have a week off or whatever the timeframe is. And you're like, I got to do all the things. I got to do 20 projects. I've got to fix my diet. I've got to work out more. I've got to, you know, got to make sure I got... |
| Jason Heaton | see all my friends and drive everywhere i can and then before you know it like yeah you had a very full vacation but you're also really tired it's kind of reminds me of of you know you get in that mode of um over the holidays you know in the winter when you take some time off you know a couple of weeks off and then when it's time to get back to it at the beginning of the year some people are go back really energized and ready to jump in and i'm like I need to ease into things. And we were gone for 10 days. I mean, it's not an insignificant amount of time to be overseas kind of doing different stuff. So yeah, I'm still in adjustment period, but feeling good. It was a great trip that we can get into shortly here, but maybe we should dive into some risk check before we talk a bit about my trip. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, I'm down for that. What have you got on this week? |
| Jason Heaton | You know, I'm wearing the watch I wore on the trip and hardly took off other than for the project I was there for. And that's the CWN1. I've just been wearing it. It was my first actually opportunity to take it traveling. Um, you know, you've traveled with yours a fair bit already and it's, it's just such a great travel watch because it's so, yeah, so good. You know, it's so unassuming, it's accurate, it's, uh, you know, rugged enough. And then I, I really enjoyed using the bezel to track a second time zone. It really made a big difference. And, uh, you know, I've kind of just taken that for granted when we, you know, kind of developed and designed this watch that way, but it really kind of shown, uh, kind of came into its own on this trip. So I, I enjoyed it and I, I just, uh, Haven't dug into the watch box to pull anything else out yet. So it's still on my wrist. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, it's such a goodie for sure. Well, that's great. And definitely a good watch for a trip back to the UK. Yeah. Can't fight the logic there. Yeah. For me this week, I'm wearing my Doxa Diving Star 200T. Oh, nice. Summer watch. A thread came up on the slack. Very great summer watch, which I was actually already had on my wrist when this thread came up on the slack. But one of the guys, Matt, who goes by ToolXTime in the slack as well, He was asking for suggestions for various 18 millimeter strap options for his 200T. And, you know, people were sharing a bunch of different ones. And, you know, I think Crown & Buckle has a ton of great options for NATOs at 18. And then he just kind of casually asked, like, if there's a shark mesh that would work with the standard Doxa clasp, that would be awesome. And I was like, why didn't I think of that? Yeah. It's a great idea. So I went and checked, and the Doxa Clasp is secured by standard pins at the terminus points. And it doesn't taper, so they're 18. So I was pretty quickly able to fit the mesh into the Doxa Clasp, which has micro-adjust. It's really nice. And all I had to do was, because the clasp is quite a bit longer, the Doxa one versus the stock clasp on this, it's literally a mesh... strap from etsy i will put the etsy store in the show notes but i don't believe they still carry this strap it was the cheapest most simple i mean it's shark mesh like it's it's just little loops of metal and apparently the class doesn't even matter if you're going to use the doxa one anyways very basic clasp, very similar to like the old WGN 28s from Amazon, which I've owned a couple of, but 18 is a little bit harder to find. And I was able to, you know, fit it on, realized it was now way too big because the clasp is quite a bit longer. Yeah. And just take the Dremel out and chop off a few layers of links and put it back together. And I wore it all weekend. And I just like, there's something for me. And I know it's not canon. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James Stacey | I know it's a little bit like wearing your Rolex off of the Oyster or on the wrong Rolex bracelet or whatever. But I really like a Doxa on a mesh. Yeah, it looks great. For me, it's like, it's the exact, it's like when a 50s car has white walls. Yeah, right. Maybe it didn't leave the factory with those tires or whatever, but it just works. Yeah. And like I think a Doxa on rubber will always look right. But the funny thing is, is the 200T is so small in its overall proportions that an Isoframe totally overpowers it. Oh, totally. It's just way too much. Like you put an Isoframe on an 800Ti or, you know, one of the Kronos or maybe an Aquastar, but it just doesn't work on these smaller ones. So having... a strap that's so comfortable. There's no strap that deals with sweat like a mesh. And the fact now that I have micro adjust and the ability to like turn my wrist and see the Doxa logo, like all of that's rad. So big shout out to Matt, Tool X Time on Slack for the inspiration. But that's, I'm wearing the Diving Star on the mesh and I'm probably going to wear it a ton. It makes me kind of think it'd be cool to buy like a 24 millimeter mesh and fit it on the Aqualand. But I guess then you'd have to have it, you know, PVD coated or something to match the color and that sort of thing. But it would look cool, I think. That would look cool. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James Stacey | There's something about dive watches on a mesh strap, but especially that like late 60s to the early 80s of dive watches was like, I think it's the 70s largely. And I know that the 200T is a late 60s design, which is fair, sure. Yeah. But yeah, there's something like when I see like an Aubrey Era Doxa on a mesh, that's always exciting, like a 600 and that kind of thing. So yeah, I'm pretty happy with it. |
| Jason Heaton | I will admit I've never warmed up to mesh and I've gone on record saying that, but there was one watch and you can probably guess which it is that... that came on, on mesh, uh, even the re-released version that, that still haunts me. And I, I owned one of these. It was the, the Ploprof 1200. Um, you know, the one that they also amazing on a mesh. I mean, it, the mesh that Omega had with that watch. Yeah. When I had mine, I got it on the rubber, which was beautiful and I loved it. Um, but I don't know, that, that, that heavy kind of thick Omega mesh with that big clasp. It just, it just looked so good. I'd, I'd, I'd rock that. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. Ploprof is definitely still in the, in the cards someday. I'm hoping there's just, there's a, maybe something happens with watch collecting where people suddenly don't have that much interest and it can, it could just be mine. Yeah. But I think they're, I think they're just, they're such cool watches. And, and I agree. They look amazing on the rubber or the mesh. And I think that's a great like kind of flagship for this idea of like that era of dive watch, chunky, toolish, on a mesh, deals with sweat, deals with, you know, tough, easy to wear, looks like dive gear. I love all of it. Yeah. It's great. Yeah, yeah. Speaking of stuff that's good, let's get into the trip from Scotland. It was your trip. Where would you like to start? |
| Jason Heaton | I think a good place to start is I was there for, I don't want to call it a super secret project, but it sort of was because it involves a forthcoming dive watch from a UK brand. I had been invited along to help out with some launch materials and content. for this project. And I was with this, um, small crew of guys and my girlfriend, Christie came along as well. And we added on to the trip, which I'll get into a little bit after, after I talk about this early bit. Um, but we were in the outer Hebrides and, um, one of the guys on the team was Brad Wakefield, who Brad, you might recognize the name. He, um, he's contributed a couple of questions in the past for our crew Q and A episodes. Yeah. Brad lives in the south of England, and he's a really talented photographer. And he was a photojournalist, did some work in the news industry for the Times of London and some other big papers over there, publications. He's done wedding photography. He's done dive photography. And he was the first person I thought of. And so he joined for this trip. It was really great to meet him and get along with him. And as an avid TGN listener, he brought up very early in the trip. He said, you know, this trip is truly has everything that TGN is about. It has all the elements that you guys talk about at the top of the show because it had travel, adventure. diving driving gear and watches so um you know i can kind of go through or you know touch on each of those in terms of what we did but uh our trip started out in the outer hebrides which if you're not familiar um it's this you know group of islands that are kind of off the west coast of scotland And specifically, we were staying in a house, kind of a small group that I was with. We had rented a house on the island of Scalpe, which is just over a bridge from the more well-known island of Harris, which is technically called the Isle of Lewis and Harris. But Harris is the island that's known for its tweed. You might be familiar with Harris Tweed. There's also a distillery on the island, and we rented this house. Just got up to three days of adventures there. And that involved some open water swimming in the sea near a really beautiful lighthouse. We hiked into an eagle observatory. You know, did some epic driving on some pretty rough kind of single lane roads. I was driving a... a rental Land Rover, a Defender that we sourced from a place called Wild Tracks, which is near Inverness and drove that from Glasgow all the way to the ferry and then across to the islands. And that was kind of our chariot for the duration of this trip, which made it extra fun. So yeah, there was some hikes and Defender driving and ocean swimming and free diving. It was really, really amazing and kind of interspersed with just hanging out with a really fun group of people. and um the hebrides if you get a chance uh it's really a worthwhile place to go it may seem a little far-flung and hard to get to but it's it's pretty easy once you're in scotland the ferry system seems to be you know really well organized and multiple ferries a day and that sort of thing so the kind of the thing that might surprise people is if you If you Google the island of Harris, you'll probably find some aerial photos of this famous beach called Luskintyre, which is often considered one of the top five or ten beaches in the world, which seems really counterintuitive given given where you are. But it's this gorgeous crescent shaped white sand beach with beautiful, bright blue water, just a stunning place. And these These beaches are kind of peppered all over Harris and several of these other islands. So that was a really surprising thing to encounter over there. You picture kind of rugged coastline and sideways rain and that sort of thing. But we had some downright summery weather to the point where I spent a lot of time in shorts and got a bit of a sunburn. In addition to the kind of hiking and swimming and diving and that sort of stuff, we ended up also on one of the days taking a ferry over to some nearby islands called Bernara. And from there, you can drive on these causeways that connect other islands. So causeway being like a long, narrow... in some cases, one lane road that, that crosses between islands. And, and Brad was able to fly a drone and get some pretty amazing footage there. And, uh, we ended up on, on this Island, kind of the furthest point that we got to as an Island called Ben Becula. And there was a movie, um, uh, the name escapes me now. It was, it was a film about, it was a true story, actually a documentary or not a documentary, but a docudrama about this. shipwreck that came ashore back in I want to say the early 20th century that was full of whiskey I believe it was either bound to or coming from Jamaica and it had all sorts of Jamaican banknotes and you know many thousands of bottles of whiskey that ran aground and the local population ends up salvaging this uh this shipwreck. And then the, when the government sends its, you know, kind of tax collectors to, to claim duty on, on what they had salvaged, uh, you know, the, the locals kind of keep it hidden and it's sort of this humorous tale, but that's, that's where it was set on Ben Becula. So it was, um, it was kind of a fun place to, to wind up there and, uh, uh, kind of made for a, a fun little coda to the whole story. But, um, |
| James Stacey | And it's your first time out in these areas? |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. So I was in Scotland a couple of years ago, as some people might remember, also in Glasgow and then over in kind of the Highlands and onto the Isle of Skye. But the Hebrides, I'd never been to. And I was, you know, ever since I'd first heard of the Hebrides, probably when I was a kid, it always struck me as this like wild, remote place. And I'm kind of fond of wild, remote places. And so it was really great to finally get out there and kind of experience this and When you go to these places, you just realize how different the world is from the one you're used to. Life just becomes progressively simpler. The things you deem important are stripped away. You see people living a very simple life. It's a rustic life. It's not in any way... less quote unquote civilized than what we have here it's just it's just simpler because things take longer to get there it's just harder to source things so people tend to kind of live on a smaller footprint and kind of are more at the mercy of and kind of live with the the elements and the weather and and as i said the weather was great but what's really cool out there is that especially this time of year is they're at 56 degrees north latitude and so the days were really long i mean it was light until close to midnight and what we found was that you can you know kind of lays away the first half of the day and uh and still end up going for you know a pretty long vigorous you know ambitious hike at you know four in the afternoon and still still be safe and not have to worry about running into darkness so that that's like it's like the inverse of hiking in uh in colorado yeah right you don't need to be done by lunch you might as well start after a nap oh yeah totally yeah yeah it was amazing that's very cool yeah i assume the hiking is outstanding yeah it is great um and i think the better hiking that that we experienced was actually after kind of this three days on in the hebrides was over and we headed back and kind of parted ways with the team and And Christy, my girlfriend and I, we ended up on the Isle of Skye after taking the ferry back over from Harris and rented a cottage. And we spent a good three days there. And it was situated at the very northern end of Skye, which is just a gorgeous island. I think... I think people that know Scotland and maybe even live in Scotland maybe have gotten a little bit jaded. It's probably like, oh, you know, those in the U.S. might be familiar with something like, you know, I don't know, in this area at least, like the Wisconsin Dells or Door County or I suppose maybe near you, you know, places like Tobermory where it's like, okay, everybody goes there. It's kind of the... the holiday escape. Um, um, whereas, you know, they think, Oh, there's so many other places to go, but having been to sky, this was my second time on the Island. There's something really magical about it. There's just the vistas, the viewpoints, the hiking, the. just the just the vastness of it um is is just really special and and yeah the hikes there are pretty amazing we um kind of took it easy on the first day to get settled into this cottage but then on the second day we were there we drove maybe 20 minutes to this trailhead at this area called the queerang and i'm not sure if i'm pronouncing it right maybe it's choirang which is this loop hike that goes around this steep, very narrow valley of kind of pinnacle rock formations with these steep drop-offs and these kind of steep cliffs and views out over the ocean. And... It was truly one of the most magical things to have been. It is truly, truly amazing. Once we got up past the people that come to park and walk up to the main overlook and take a few photos and leave, once you get past that, and because it was late in the day, we hardly saw anybody. We'd go for long stretches where we just had this entire trail to ourselves and hiked along the top of this huge dome of kind of grassy slope really high up with these sheer drops. And then you descend down on the other side, down through this kind of steep valley with these pinnacles and little pools of, you know, small ponds and lakes and stone fences and the sheep everywhere. And it was it was it was really, really beautiful. One of the top five hikes I've done, I think. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, I mean, I'm kind of jaw-dropped by the images here in Google Maps. I'll include this in the show notes, but look, I understand the next sentence is going to sound like I need a tan and to go outside and touch some grass, but it looks like something out of... out of like breath of the wild, like a, like a, uh, you know, absolutely almost fake in the images looks incredible. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, it truly is. And, and, um, you know, Christie commented like, why did they film Lord of the Rings in New Zealand? Cause like you could have done it right there. It's truly is. It has that vibe though. For sure. Totally does. I mean, or Mordor or something, you know, it just like, uh, it just has this, who are the horse guys, the riders of Rowan. Yeah. Yeah. So, well, I got to back up here because actually we, you know, when we were kind of sourcing our provisions for the few days that we were on Sky, we drove into this charming little town called Portree, which is kind of a well-known kind of tourist hub on Sky. Really quaint with a beautiful harbor and little shops and restaurants and things. We went to pick up some groceries and then we had heard about this fish market called Just Hooked. And it lives up to its name because it's the freshest fish. I mean, it's all locally caught like that day. And we went there and just were spoiled for choice and ended up taking back some freshly caught sea trout and then some cod. Oh, wow. And brought that back. So the night after we were done on the Queerang with that hike. um, I cooked up this, this sea trout, um, along with some kind of roasted vegetables and some rice. And when we had that, and it was just, it was just such an amazing meal. And, uh, um, it just kind of added to the whole thing, you know, to have this kind of fresh, locally sourced seafood that had never been frozen, um, which is such a nice luxury for someone who lives in, lives where I do currently. Um, you just, you just don't get that sort of thing regularly here. The town is also very beautiful. Goodness sakes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, cool. Scotland's an amazing place. I, I, I would almost say, you know, somebody mentioned, um, someone that I met over there that I'll get to, um, when I talk about our meetup, um, just said, you know, I think get the feeling Scotland is, is your favorite country. And, you know, if I wasn't a good patriotic American, I would, I would, I would agree with that. I think it truly is a place that, um, that I'd love to go. And, you know, as probably many people do, we started looking at. you know, the housing prices and things like that. You know, you start to see cottages for sale and you're like, I wonder if this is something we could do. But anyway, so that was good. But then things took a bit of a turn because I woke up the next morning and I was not feeling well. |
| Unknown | And it wasn't the fish. |
| Jason Heaton | No, because, well, and I don't want to, you know, reveal too much here, but. But Christy had had a stomach bug on the first day when we were still out in the Hebrides. And so while we were out doing the photography, the team and I, she kind of stayed back and convalesced in the cottage we had there. So she was able to recover while we were out working. But I think I must have picked up the bug. I was pretty ill that next day. Without going into too much detail, I was nauseous for half the day. Christy was all set to go for a solo hike, but I had looked at this place that we had talked about going and I thought, I just can't miss that hike. I just have to go. Looking back, it was really not probably the best decision because the first half of it was... was fine. I kind of, I kind of rallied. I did okay. Even though I'd had like, you know, one half piece of dry toast and a half cup of tea and thought I could, you know, do a five, you know, five mile hike on that. Um, which I couldn't. Um, but we started out, it started out really positively that there's this place called in Scotland, there are these little buildings called Bothys that are, hikers' respites. They're like little, I don't even call them cabins, little structures sprinkled throughout the country in the highlands where hikers can sort of take refuge from storms or sleep overnight. And there was one that used to be a Coast Guard lookout up on top of this cliff in this area called the Rua Hunish, which is at the very northern tip of Skye. And it overlooks the ocean and people do whale watching from there. And it's just got these dramatic views. And so we hiked up to that, kind of took this little detour and hiked up there and visited a couple of backpackers that were spending the night there and took a few photos. And then things took a bit of a turn. We were hiking back down to kind of get back along the shoreline and head back. my energy level just plummeted and I was just, just, just sort of stumbling, you know, putting one foot in front of the other through this kind of boggy slogging, um, kind of coastal boggy marshland that was butting up next to these volcanic rocks along the shore, which was a very beautiful area. But I just, I, I was just, um, just at the end of my. end of my energy levels and and so that i think that just kind of did me in but uh it was uh all in all it didn't really detract from the trip and and made it back and uh yeah it all turned out pretty well well the plus of uh you know a landscape photo is nobody can tell how sick you feel on the other side of the camera you'd be largely asleep fully fully supine just hit the tree yeah right There was one, there was one point just, just because, you know, it's part of our, you know, what does they say? It isn't an adventure until something goes wrong. Um, you know, I was, I was, it was the point where I was like, you know, you go on ahead. I'll just, just leave me here. I'll, I'll, you know, make it back or I'll, I'll just keep slogging along. You go, you know, find the nearest road or something like that. And I was, I was lying almost in a fetal position on this little hump of. dry turf and and i just kind of opened my eyes long enough to kind of lean over and vomit right next to me and kind of go back to sleep it's just this it was such i mean you know that you know you're in it for a bad hike when you're actually vomiting while you're hiking yeah um so i think you know uh i i we finally made it back to this rental cottage and i climbed into bed fully clothed kicked off my hiking shoes and like fell immediately asleep immediately asleep and um With the prospect of getting up the next day and having to drive back to Inverness, across the Isle of Skye, back onto the mainland. It was going to be a two and a half hour drive to drop off the Defender and then catch a train back to Glasgow, etc. And I just did not know how I was going to make it. |
| James Stacey | you know all turned out well and um yeah it went fine this is where you run into the crucial question yeah which i have asked in in other cities around the world not in scotland to be fair but this is where you really have to know like does scotland have blue gatorade because blue gatorade fixes everything It'll at least get you home. |
| Jason Heaton | Well, it would have made for some interesting stuff in the output. Interesting color. Yeah. A little bit of drama. Yeah, exactly. Right, right. Yeah, yeah. It was great. Well, that sucks, man. Yeah, yeah. Made it back to Glasgow. Spent the night there, which was... its own interesting thing because that night this was this was just on this past saturday and um as people who listened to the last episode last couple of episodes as well as were on the slack know i was organizing a bit of a local tgn meetup with whoever wanted to join and ended up uh We checked into the hotel in Glasgow. I had kind of rallied. I'd gotten some energy back and took a shower and we walked over to this place. It's called West Brewing. It's in the Templeton Business Center, this beautiful building just beyond the kind of downtown Glasgow. The timing was such that that night was the night that the Glasgow Celtics football club had apparently won their league. And there's quite a rivalry in Glasgow between the two teams, the Rangers and the Celtics. And it divides down, apparently, down religious lines. And there's some politics involved and football colors. So we were warned. When we arrived in Glasgow, there was a helicopter hovering overhead, this huge police presence. Streets were shut off. And there were thousands of people in the street, drunken revelers, throwing beer bottles around. The street was littered with broken glass and green smoke bombs going off. I mean, it looked like a war zone. And so we hiked through the epicenter of this to get to this beer hall to meet... um what turned out to be kind of a fun small group of people um who also braved the scene to get there yeah wow and uh and had a really great time so it was it was saturday night spent a couple of hours just sitting outside at a picnic table having beers and i got to meet some some fun folks um And I just want to say a quick thanks. There was Austin and Justin and David and Craig and Avril and Cameron and his wife, Sam. Robert showed up briefly. And of course, Christy came with me and we just sat out and just had an absolute blast. It was a beautiful night. That sounds great. Got a little chilly later. I gave away some TGN stickers and. kind of did a drawing for two of our coveted blue TGN caps, which, uh, which were graciously received and worn. And that was really fun. And, uh, yeah, it just, it turned out to be kind of cap off. It was really a great trip because then we had to get up at three o'clock to catch a taxi to the airport the next morning and for a 6am flight, um, which came with its own bit of adventure. But, uh, yeah, it was, uh, it was, it was, it was just, it was just a great 10 days in Scotland. Really, really amazing. |
| James Stacey | Dude, that sounds so nice. I can't wait. Did you take a camera? Did you take the cue with you to get a lot of photos or not this time around? |
| Jason Heaton | I didn't take a camera. I was so laden with gear this time and I knew that I'd be kind of in front of the camera for much of this trip that I didn't take a camera. But I was posting regularly on Instagram stories and I've got a couple of posts up from... from the Hebrides and from, from sky and I'll keep trickling out stuff as they come. And I know that, you know, Brad was going to send me some outtakes that, that, you know, photos he can share and maybe I'll put some of those up, but, uh, yeah, it was, it was really great. And, and, you know, I didn't really even touch on the diving portion of things, but when we were over on Scalpe, uh, that Island where we were staying, this, this lighthouse where we did a little bit of kind of swimming and diving. It's just this beautiful protected little cove with kind of a pebble beach that descended into what was a quickly deepening kelp bed. And there were anemones and jellyfish and starfish and pretty good visibility. And Brad and I got in the water and we just kind of did about 20, 25 minutes of free diving in what was really quite chilly water. But it was really worthwhile. It was really a fun outing. And just neat to say that I've done that. It was really, really cool. |
| James Stacey | That's super cool, yeah. |
| Jason Heaton | See any local wildlife? Well, the wildlife in Scotland largely amounts to just more sheep than there are humans. And we saw some goats and cows and things. And plenty of birds. What was really amazing is, I don't know if you get, apparently they're quite widespread, but the bird that seemed to be the most prevalent in everywhere we went was the cuckoo. And we never saw it, but you just hear them all the time. And it's the classic cuckoo. like cuckoo clock call and, and cuckoos are everywhere there. |
| Unknown | Huh. |
| Jason Heaton | Um, apparently they're, they're in some parts of the world, including Scotland, because there weren't a lot of trees where we were, um, they're ground dwelling and, um, yeah, it was pretty surprising. It was pretty neat. And they're kind of have this melodic, you know, sound that's kind of the soundtrack for the whole trip. |
| James Stacey | I'm fairly certain we don't have those around me. Yeah, I don't think we have them here either. Because, you know, we've become a real... Do you use that Merlin Bird ID app? |
| Jason Heaton | I have a different one. |
| James Stacey | I've got an Audubon app, but... Well, anyways, we use the Merlin one, and whenever we walk around at the cottage, we just leave it running. Oh, yeah. And it gives you... And then if you're curious, you just kind of open it and go like, oh, interesting, you know, house swallow or whatever. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James Stacey | And I have not come across a... cuckoo. So that's interesting. It'd be fascinating to hear one in the wild, especially if you're not seeing them. They must be down in the grass that way. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, and I don't think you'd even need an app to identify it because it is the classic cuckoo. It sounds just like a clock. It sounds like a clock, which feels like a really silly thing to say. It sounds like a clock, yeah. |
| James Stacey | It's a deeply unserious sound for a bird to make at this point. That sound has been attributed to kind of goofy little beautiful clocks. Yeah, right. You know, from one part of the world. That's funny. |
| Jason Heaton | Um, and then I guess to touch on the, you know, the, I mentioned I was wearing the CWN one and then there was a watch that was certainly the subject of the first half of the trip, but I can't really talk about yet. But, um, uh, then the, the kind of the driving portion of it was, uh, this, this rental defender that, that we had, it looked really good in the photos all the time. It was, it was, um, it's things started out rather inauspiciously because The first one that Wild Tracks provided was this kind of sharp 110, kind of blue and white, that the guy who was overseeing this trip had picked up ahead of time and it broke down on his way back to Glasgow and they had to actually bring a replacement, which turned out to be this kind of all... dark gray, um, more, much more serious looking one, um, that, that ended up being the one that we drove. And it was, I would say it's a, so if you, if you know your defenders, there was, they're kind of defined by the eras in which the company was owned by different, different brands and different engines were used. And if you think about mine, which is a 93, the one I have here, um, it's, it's a 200 TDI. So it's this kind of small tractor like, um, four-cylinder turbo diesel engine. And then they moved to a five-cylinder TDI, which was a great engine. That's what I drove there a couple of years ago. And then in the early 2000s, when Ford took over Land Rover, they started fitting a Duratorq diesel engine in. It was like a 2.4 liter. turbo diesel called the Puma engine. And that's what this one had. So it was probably an early 2000s and quite a difference from the Defender I'm used to driving here. You know, in terms of kind of the scale of it, I was really happy to be driving a vehicle that I'm used to, especially in a country where you're driving on the other side of the road and unfamiliar conditions. It's nice to kind of know the dimensions of your vehicle from the one you have at home. Um, but this one was, it was much quieter. You could actually carry on a conversation while you're driving at kind of modern gauges, uh, six speed transmission, um, you know, manual gearbox and, uh, and just a much more powerful engine. I, I'm not sure what the horsepower of the Puma engine is, but it's, you know, it's, we're not talking. probably not even over 150, you know, horsepower, but that definitely is better than what I've got. And just has really ample torque. Like you can be going uphill and, you know, fifth gear and it pulls pretty well and it's quiet and, uh, and it was great. So it turned out to be a really good, um, good vehicle for the journey. And it, you know, of course it carried a lot of stuff. So it was, uh, it was a lot of fun. It was good. |
| James Stacey | That's great, man. That sounds really good. Let's see. 122 horsepower. There you go. For the 2.2. Yeah. It was also available in a 160 horsepower version, which might have been what you had. Possibly. But the 2.4 Puma diesel is apparently about 120. Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised. |
| Jason Heaton | I mean, again, I think the... So got to be aggressively geared. Yeah, I think mine, my 200 TDI probably has barely over 100 horsepower, which, you know, these days we're so used to huge horsepower numbers. And I think when you throw in, you know, a turbocharged diesel engine, I think, you know, horsepower numbers are a little deceiving. It's all torque. And so that's where the difference is made. But yeah, it was... It was definitely a faithful vehicle for the drive, and it was a lot of fun. Made for good photo ops, too. |
| James Stacey | Oh, yeah, for sure. It suits that area really nicely. Totally, yeah, totally does. Really, really nicely. Man, that sounds like an absolutely killer trip. And, like, I got to say, the more... I mean, look, every time I go to the UK in general, and obviously most of the time that's to go to England. But every time I go, I do have an amazing time. And it does feel like the kind of place where I would quite happily live. Yeah. I don't mind the rain. I loved Vancouver. There's no reason I wouldn't love that area. But I definitely need to get Scotland on the list for Sarah and I in the future. Oh, definitely. Yeah, everybody should. It's so good. Because, you know, went a couple years ago for an event with Hodinkee, like a Grand Seiko thing that we did. And it was a good time, but it was a day. I think we were there for a day and a half. Yeah, yeah. But, oh, the other thing I meant to ask before we move on with final notes and let you get on with what I assume will be a really nice afternoon nap. And drink any great whiskey? Anything remarkable? Because Isle of Skye makes some of our favorites. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, we had some Talisker and some Jura, some 14-year-old Jura that we brought along. We didn't, but the guys who kind of helped out with this project had at the house in the Hebrides. And that was kind of an evening... evening nightcap sort of thing and then uh before we left harris um i mean right next to the ferry dock um or terminal is the isle of harris distillery and we we stopped in there and actually bought and brought home um they're actually quite well known for their gin which is uh infused with sea kelp of all things um i was able to try that with dinner make it sweet or sort of just earthy Yeah, I would say a little of both. I mean, I'm not sure what else is in there. I'm not sure I could taste the sea kelp. But not as like floral or piney. Right. Yeah, exactly. Okay. Interesting. So I brought back a bottle of that and then a bottle of scotch and a bottle of whiskey from there as well, which I haven't cracked open either. We'll definitely be savoring that because it's a long way to bring it home. Absolutely. The funny thing is that, just to button up on the trip here, is the way back we were sitting at the Amsterdam airport on our layover and totally exhausted. We both took naps on benches and then got up and had a coffee and a little breakfast at this cafe. And we're sitting there feeling really smug because our gate was about 50 yards away. It was really close by. And we're thumbing through photos on our phones, laughing, just having a good time. And all of a sudden, Christy says, oh, my gosh, it's 1245. And our flight was departing at 1255. And we like ran from the table. Well, I will sheepishly admit this is such a rookie mistake. And for someone like on a podcast about time and watches and especially someone who is wearing a travel oriented watch, this is highly embarrassing. So please spare me the derision. Um, we forgot about the time change between Glasgow and Amsterdam, which is a one hour ahead time change. Yeah. Plus we forgot about that. And so there we were sitting having, you know, relaxing and we forgot to set our watches ahead and of course not using our phones to tell time. Um, we, we missed our flight. So we, we ran to the gate, saw the jetway pulling away from the plane as you do, you know, as you see kind of a cliche movie scene in the movies, in the movies. Um, They said, you're going to have to rebook. So we walked over to the transfer desk at KLM and fortunately were able to get on the next flight, which was amazingly two hours later and also a direct flight to Minneapolis. So all things considered, it turned out well, although I think in the whole debacle, my baggage didn't make the transfer and so it came a day late and I was a little concerned because those... those bottles of, uh, of nice Hebridean alcohol were tucked into my, my, my to me. Um, and, but they did survive the journey cause it arrived yesterday. So all's well that ends well. And, uh, and yeah, it was a good, uh, it was a good trip with lots of good stories to tell both, you know, kind of of the good and the horrific. |
| James Stacey | That's great, man. I'm so glad. It sounds like a full 10 days and definitely you've had a nice restful vacation that earned you a bunch more rest when you came home. |
| Unknown | Yes, indeed. |
| James Stacey | So that's great. But yeah, not wanting to run the clock on your day of recuperation. Want to jump into some final notes? |
| Jason Heaton | Sure, yeah. |
| James Stacey | Why don't you go first? |
| Jason Heaton | I've got to rest my voice a bit here. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, for sure. So mine this week is a very long story, but it won't take me that long to talk about it. It came to me via Slack, via my buddy Paul Hubbard, who's on the Slack, and he included it because it has several direct references to the movie Heat, which is my favorite movie, a movie I talk about way too much, certainly on this podcast. film clubs etc but the story comes from toronto life and it's called the hold up artist and the kind of subhead is to fellow tourists he met around the world jeffrey schumann was a semi-retired developer with a bright smile and even tan and a fat wallet in truth he was a legendary bank robber on the run from the toronto police and the u.s marshals inside the rise and fall of the vaulter bandit This is a really good story. Obviously, it hits home. A bunch of his robberies were like within minutes of places where I have lived or spent a lot of time in the last few years. But a very interesting guy that had sort of in some ways had kind of absorbed the sort of Neil McCullough idea of not having too much in your life that you couldn't run away from if the heat was right around the corner. I will say it's an extremely long read. I read it for a second time last night. Probably takes the better part of a half hour. You know, I would say like if you like the Patrick Rodden Keefe stories about crime and the world surrounding those crimes and that sort of thing, I think you'll enjoy this. It's not too tabloidy or anything like that. And they do a nice job of just kind of walking you through. his sort of main robbery and then the back history and then the history before that. And then, you know, jail time and the rest of this, it's, it's pretty fascinating. I enjoyed it quite a bit. |
| Jason Heaton | That's great. Wow. Yeah. I'll give this one a read. That's a, that's a long read, but, uh, sounds great. You know, it's always amazing when, you know, truth is almost better than fiction, you know, it's just like, uh, it's the kind of story that you, you just don't think could be true or comes right out of the movies. And here it is real right in your hometown. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, my hometown. And the other thing that's interesting is he really only ever made one major mistake in his robberies. And if he hadn't made it, there's a good chance they wouldn't have just found him. Wow. He was very good at the other elements, but he mixed up. I don't want to give anything away, but he had a robbery in 2015 in Mississauga, which is maybe 30 minutes from where I'm sitting. maybe less depending on the traffic, that tied him to something from his past and ended up being his downfall. Wow. Kind of a fun story and certainly one that I recommend if you find these things interesting. There's no violence. Nobody gets killed or anything like that. It could make an interesting movie one day, that sort of thing. Yeah, cool. It did not end anything like Heat, so that's a plus. Nice. |
| Jason Heaton | How about you? What have you got this week? Yeah, so this is a bit of a follow-up from a final note or I guess something I talked about a few episodes ago and that was the Banff Mountain Film Festival in which there was a movie that was underwritten by Vare, the American watch company. I think it was called House of Bliss that ended up not being available to stream yet. I guess VAR might be releasing it some other time, but they've pulled it out of respect to the film festival. But we were made aware of another short film that VAR underwrote a while back, and it was called... North Shore Lifeguards Association, A Story of Purpose and Protection. And this is on YouTube. And it looks like it was released just at the end of April, which is obviously very recent. And I guess VAR is the official wristwatch sponsor of the NSLA. So North Shore, meaning North Shore in Hawaii, one of the most famous places in the world for surfing. And the lifeguards there are obviously doing very... dangerous and important work. And I'm, I've just always struck by, you know, like not to diminish lifeguards everywhere, but you know, when you think about a lifeguard, like at my local beach down the street here at the lake, it's, it's, it's a very different activity. Like where These guys are having to do breath hold dives and go out in extremely huge waves to save people from really horrific accidents and riptides and that sort of stuff. And this is about a seven and a half minute video that kind of goes into this long tradition and legacy of lifeguards that work there and have worked these beaches there. And it's beautifully shot. And I thought it was really cool. So check it out. I think, you know... We haven't talked about VAR a lot on this show, but I'm starting to kind of, it's starting to kind of raise my awareness. I'm starting to learn more about the brand and, you know, the watches seem impressive. I haven't really handled one in person, but I really like what they're doing and kind of their whole vibe and that they're, you know, supporting this type of stuff. So check it out. Yeah, it's called North Shore Lifeguards Association, a story of purpose and protection on YouTube. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, I watched this last night before I went to bed, and it's really beautifully shot, tells the story really well. It gets a lot done in seven minutes, which is remarkable. And just these guys are so impressive because it's this... There's something about the really hardcore lifeguarding, which maybe is what you were touching on a moment ago, but there's something about it that really mixes... This thing that feels not so serious, like being on vacation, you're at the beach going for a swim with something that's like the most serious. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James Stacey | Like these guys are living an entirely different day than every single person that they help. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James Stacey | You know what I mean? Yeah. Like totally different scenario. And I've always been fascinated by these, the really daring jet ski rescues. You know, if you miss what you're judging, you're either going to hit something or hit the person you're trying to save. Yeah. And 10 feet, 20 feet to the other side is where the... water is going to kill you as it smashes you into a rock wall or into a reef bed that you're not even seeing. It's really gnarly to have that. I guess the only comparison is usually when you see rescues in the mountains, it's because the weather is bad. So you don't have this beautiful setting in which this really scary thing is happening. You have this really scary setting. in which something scary is happening. But you watch these surf films, and even when it's going fine, it's so easy to not be confronted by the general danger of surfing and water because it looks so Hawaii, Hang Ten, luau, that sort of thing. These guys are like consummate professionals that all basically have the same look in their eye as fighter pilots and special forces guys. They all have a thousand yard stare because they've been thousand yard staring for a long time. It's super impressive. |
| Jason Heaton | You're so right. And I think to compare them to fighter pilots or mountain rescue guides or whatever. Yeah, firemen. But yet, you look at them and they're living in this beautiful place wearing swim trunks. You know, like they have board shorts on and tattoos and they're like just all... 15 years older than you think. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. They're all beautiful. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, I know. |
| James Stacey | And it's like... They all look like they're made out of stone. |
| Jason Heaton | I go to work wearing swim trunks and yet I'm doing this like incredibly dangerous job, like basically naked, you know, putting myself in harm's way. It's it's pretty amazing. Yeah. Good video. So check it out. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, that's great. Great. Great suggestion. Definitely worth watching. And big shout out to Veyer. Obviously, I got a chance to hang out with Austin and them at the Vancouver Timepiece show and just, you know, very excited about what they're making. And I do think that they are one of the one of the brands really nailing the like sub thousand dollar price point. Granted, we're not the only people who might consider that because some of their stuff can be kind of hard to buy. But I just think they make a really solid product. And I know that they do so for a price that feels more 2015 than 2025. Yeah, true. All right. Well, that's an episode. Sure is. Yeah, time for you to, I don't know, take a nap or sit in the sauna or something. Maybe get into that whiskey and, you know, call the rest of today a write-off or something. |
| Jason Heaton | I don't know. It's up to you. |
| James Stacey | Who knows what we could do with free will. Yeah, right. But yeah, great episode and nice to have you back. And I'm glad that Scotland was so much fun. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, good to be back. |
| James Stacey | All right, well, as always, thanks 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 grab you a new TGN sign NATO, please visit thegraynato.com. Music throughout is Siesta by Jazar via the Free Music Archive. |
| Jason Heaton | And we leave you with this quote from Billy Connolly, who said, there are two seasons in Scotland, June and winter. |