Maybe that's why we were together so long...
I like geeks. Which would explain why the former Mr Rakky and I were together for six years. His geekdom took on many guises, most of them fantasy / scifi / computer related. But my favorite of his quirks was he had no TV and only listened to long wave radio...

We were at a particularly geeky pub quiz (Sunday night, Holyrood Tavern in Edinburgh if anyone else ever visited it)and the last question in the fiendishly difficult last round was... "For 31 points, name all the shipping areas surrounding Britain and Ireland." A collective groan went around the pub. But not from our table, oh no. Mr Rakky grabbed the pen with a glee not seen since he found an eigth of dope down the back of the sofa and proceeded to name all 31. In order.

I know that there are probably many people who can do this, but nothing matched seeing the joy on his face that a piece of esoteric knowledge, honed over the years, had finally come in useful and won us eight pints of beer...
(Rakky (forgot her password) The muffin maverick, Tue 11 Mar 2008, 14:56, 11 replies)

I was...
..utterly delighted when the storm was coming a couple of days ago and the gale warnings at the start of the shipping forecast went all the way round from Viking to Hebrides.
( XCDinglyGoodCakes looks like we've got ourselves a reader, Tue 11 Mar 2008, 15:08, closed)

Did he
hum "Sailing By" before giving his answer? That would have been good.

"Dah, de dah de de dum....Lundy, Fastnet, Irish Sea...."
( K2k6 has a proper job these days, Tue 11 Mar 2008, 15:13, closed)

Of course...
He also drew me a little schematic of the British Isles on the back of a beer mat and marked the approximate position of all the shipping areas. But then warned me that it "wasn't exactly to scale..."

:)
(Rakky (forgot her password) The muffin maverick, Tue 11 Mar 2008, 15:18, closed)

You should have been very proud of him.
If I ever have children the boys will be named Cromarty and the girls will be named Utsire. If I have a dog it will be called Dogger. Or Tyree Automatic, which is also a good name for a dog.
( crackhouseceilidhband Fuck off back to Mumsnet, Tue 11 Mar 2008, 15:25, closed)

CHCB
Presumably twin girls would be North Utsire and South Utsire?
( K2k6 has a proper job these days, Tue 11 Mar 2008, 15:27, closed)

^
abso-bloody-lutely.
Middle name, "Gail".
( crackhouseceilidhband Fuck off back to Mumsnet, Tue 11 Mar 2008, 15:29, closed)

I was (am) very proud of him
And I actually think naming kids after shipping areas is pretty cool. But he wanted kids named after Lord of the Rings characters. Maybe that's where things started to go wrong...

He's still one of the oddest, yet coolest people I know!

EDIT: he's also the only grown man I know who has mittens on elastic threaded through his coat.
(Rakky (forgot her password) The muffin maverick, Tue 11 Mar 2008, 16:09, closed)

^^Maybe
but surely one would draw the line at naming a kid "Channel Light Vessel Automatic" :-)
( K2k6 has a proper job these days, Tue 11 Mar 2008, 16:46, closed)

Now I want a dog just so I can call it Dogger. Or Cromarty maybe.

But a cat would have to be called Dave, or Albert or perhaps Norman.
( chickenlady b3ta's very own Elizabeth Taylor, Tue 11 Mar 2008, 17:21, closed)

But what was Fitzroy called?*
I've done all the sea areas in a pub quiz. I got the standard reaction too: my team were ecstatic, the rest of the pub went very quiet and lairy.

*Finisterre
(all my scars face forward possesses 2.5% of a hyperalloy combat chassis, Tue 11 Mar 2008, 17:48, closed)

Macrihanish
is a name I find fascinating when the shipping forecast gets round to it; I wonder what it's really like there?
( uncle bastard is twanging a dan moi, Tue 11 Mar 2008, 22:23, closed)