By Jim Smith - Clach Shoe Repairs

"The competition was run by Scottish Hydro-Electric in conjunction with MFR. There was a daily competition and you could win a £125 - £250 electrical prize. I was playing to get a video recorder worth £165 because I’ve got stacks of football on tapes still to watch because our recorder broke. We had to phone in each day when they played a special signature tune: ‘Summertime’, great for this time of year! Your name went into a computer and a draw was made in the morning and evening and if you got through on the programme you had to answer three questions. Every time you got through your name went through for the big draw at the end, the grand prize, the trip to Niagra Falls. We got through twice but didn’t manage to get all three questions right.

On the 22nd of December the news came through that Sylvie’s cancer was in full remission and we were just thinking of going on a holiday but we couldn’t afford to close the shop. Then on Thursday 24th December we were called by Ray Atkinson to say we had won the holiday. We’ll be flying to Toronto. There’s four nights accommodation in a four star hotel in Toronto followed by a bus trip to the falls where we’ll stay in the hotel which overlooks the falls. There is also five days car hire which should be fun because I’ve never driven on the right hand side of the road before."