“I own a café in Kirkwall called Café Lolz and I was expecting to open and work for about 12 hours a day. during the games, but it actually turned out that because all the venues had food outlets at them there was hardly anybody in the street, which meant I could close at my normal time which meant we could all meet up at events and go and watch everything.
“We were at the track every night. I’ve never watched athletics in my life. The most un-sporty person, unless it’s a rugby ball involved, and so we had friends that were participating, a really good friend won gold in the bowling. I’ve never watched bowling in my life and now I’m a bowling fiend.
“We had all the football teams coming here for pastries from Gozo. I’d never even heard of Gozo, and the men’s and the women’s teams. So, we had a lot of them coming in in the morning when they had time.
“There were so many different venues, but the procession coming down from the Bignold Park all the way down and by the time they got here, it was, we were greeting nearly, it was so emotional and like, when Orkney came past it was just, like, honestly, it gives me, it’s given me the shiver’s now.
“But I mean, we spent every night at the track, all our pals, we all were there in and sitting there with our shorts on until half eight at night it was utterly fantastic. It was just natural; it was like a carnival atmosphere. I had no idea what to expect.”
Memory added on December 19, 2025
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