I have a time-share week in Aviemore I bought in 1987, if that's of any relevance?
And I used to play shinty for Tayforth Camamanachd, as well as my secondary school team. I was once knocked unconscious in Kingussie when my head intercepted a caman (shinty stick) in full swing. It was entirely my fault; I also played a lot of football at the time, and I momentarily forgot which game I was playing and attempted to header the shinty ball in mid flight...just as one of my opponents was tacking a full-blooded swing at it. I recall coming around a few moments later, and being very concerned that my gushing blood was ruining their nice green pitch.
After a fruitless search in the village for a doctor, I actually returned to the pitch to rejoin the game. For a very brief spell, I enjoyed great freedom on the ball, my unfortunate marker (who had initially thought he'd killed me apparently) being too scared to tackle me in case I was stupid enough to repeat my earlier folly. We were both teenagers - I do hope he recovered enough to enjoy a reasonable playing career after that. Eventually though, I had to come off again, when I started seeing three balls on the pitch. The worst thing was that they were taking the school sports photographs the following day, and mine was the only face in the shinty team picture covered in Elastoplasts.
Anyway, I digress. Welcome, madjock!
