Festive?

Now that the clocks have gone back, my routine is moved back one hour - the hurricane updates are always issued at the same times, 0300, 0900, 1500 and 2100 hours GMT. However, having moved from GMT+1 to GMT means that I issue the bulletins on the Tropical Cyclones blog one hour earlier by my own clock. Currently, there is only typhoon Mirinae which will hit the Philippines over the weekend. It has been a busy season, but only in the Pacific. The Atlantic is as quiet as a mouse.

The sun is now setting at a quarter to five, and this will regress to half past three by Christmas. November is not my favourite month, and don't start on that "looking forward to Xmas" lark. I was brought up, looking at Christmas as a family affair, going to church in the morning (or for the Watchnight service the evening before), then have a huge meal with the family in the afternoon. And prostrate yourself before the Holy Gogglebox in the evening. Giving presents used not to be customary in Holland. Pressies would come on 5 December for the feast of St Nicholas. I am fed up with the commercialism that surrounds Xmas, it renders the occasion cheap and tacky.

Here in Stornoway, the Christmas lights will go up in the main shopping precincts, Francis Street, Point Street and Cromwell Street around December 1st. They will be illuminated during a festive ceremony on a Thursday evening, if it isn't pouring with rain or blowing a gale. Here are a few images from 2006 - the illuminations of following years were far less impressive due to cut-backs.

Tuesday 27 October

Day 300 of the year 2009. Only two months left until Christmas, and the shops will explode with Xmas paraphernalia on 1 November. First though, we've got to get Halloween out of the way.

Today is wet in Stornoway as a large area of rain passes through from the Atlantic. It appears to be restricted to Scotland only, if I look at the rainfall radar. It's not warm, 10C. Yesterday, the birdfeeder was filled up and hung on the tree, and the sparrows and starlings did not take long to discover its delights. More than half a dozen birds flutter on and around it at any one time. The strange thing is, they tend to disappear at lunchtime.

Yesterday, the trial began at the International War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague, Holland, of former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic. Mr Karadzic refused to be present at proceedings, claiming he needs another 10 months to prepare his defence: which he is planning to conduct himself. The trial was adjourned until today, when it will be decided whether to impose counsel on Mr Karadzic (which he has already rejected). The delaying tactics by Mr Karadzic have been met with anger by the relatives of those killed by Bosnian Serbs in the Yugoslav conflict of the 1990s.

The fall of Srbrenica in July 1995 was one of the worst atrocities of that bloody war, and the involvement of Dutch UN troops, who appeared to collaborate with Bosnian Serb forces, still sits very uneasily within Dutch defence circles. In 1995, I myself worked for the Dutch MoD, and know a serviceman who was at Srebrenica.

Monday 26 October

Overcast with occasional drizzle this morning. Things are going to deteriorate, with more wind and rain for tomorrow. More leaves to sweep up by Wednesday in other words.


The BBC is reporting that the planned upgrade to the power-line between Beauly (near Inverness) and Denny (near Stirling) is recommended for approval by MSPs. The current line carries 132 kV, which will be increased to 400 kV. The pylons are expected to be 200 feet / 60 metres tall each, and there will be 600 of them along the length of the current powerline. The planning application for this upgrade has been the subject of a public inquiry, the report of which was submitted to Scottish Ministers 8 months ago. The application attracted 18,000 objections.

The upgraded powerline is important for renewable energy projects across the Highlands and Islands, as it will convey electricity, generated by these projects, to users in the Scottish Central Belt and into the UK National Grid.

Objectors have stated that this will irrevocably harm the iconic landscape of the Scottish Highlands, and adversely affect tourism. They also think that alternative options have not been sufficiently explored.

This issue is controversial, and involves high stakes, politically and economically. The Beauly to Denny powerline is part of a policy to cover Scotland's [sic] energy needs, without recourse to new nuclear powerstations.

The relevance to Lewis is high. A number of renewable energy projects are in the pipeline for this island, including a 39-turbine windfarm at Eishken, and a smaller 6-turbine project some 5 miles outside Stornoway. Similar schemes have been mooted for North Tolsta, Ballantrushal and the West Side between Shawbost and Dalbeg. Other schemes include a tidal barrage at Shader (although is probably only going to generate electricity for local consumption) and a wave-energy project off Great Bernera. In order to get this power to mainland consumers, a powerline will also have to be constructed between Little Loch Broom (Dundonnell) and Beauly, as well as a subsea cable (referred to as an interconnector).

Should final approval be granted by Scottish ministers (very likely), then we are likely to see the construction of the Eishken Windfarm go ahead at pretty short notice, and the same will apply to the Pentland Road scheme.

I do not believe that windfarms will bring long-term, sustained employment to the Isle of Lewis. There will be short-term work in the construction of the windturbines and electricity infrastructure. Once the turbines are in place, only a handful of people will be needed to monitor and operate the windfarm. The community benefits of the Eishken windfarm are spurious, in my opinion, as they require a massive cash injection from said community - and Lochs is not exactly the most affluent area in this part of the world.

The environmental impact will be substantial. I am restating my assertion that although nobody is entitled to a view, views is what attracts tourism. That being a mainstay of the island makes a shore-based windfarm a good example of a shot in the foot.

Although the final decision rests with Scottish Ministers, I cannot imagine that approval for the powerline upgrade through the Highlands will be taken lying down by its opponents.

Reading of blogs

Well, the number of posts to be read on Google Reader has once more climbed above the 100 mark, so tomorrow I shall head that way once more. There are a number of journals that I keep a close eye on, including those highlighted on Call for Support. Other people I monitor through Facebook. Getting slightly square-eyed (my bodyclock says it's 11.25pm, although the wall clock calls it 10.25pm). More tomorrow.

Halloween 2009

Found one of Donna's tags for Halloween on my Photobucket account, and decided to put it in the sidebar, until 1 November. Other Halloween images below. The one with the wee black cats is a bit sad: some years ago, an American animal welfare charity banned the sale of black cats around Halloween, as the poor things were known to get subjected to abuse. It's not just animals that are abused: vulnerable people are known to be targeted by people acting outside the good spirit of Hallowee for bullying and harassment.

Sunday 25 October

Did you put your clocks back last night? If you didn't, you either forgot or were in the USA.
The usual post clock-change jetlag pervaded this morning, not helped by the dreich, wet, grey and uninspiring weather conditions. Only now, an hour and a half before sunset, has the rain let up. One of those non-descript Sundays. The ferry left, as per schedule, at 2.30pm.

Over in Orkney, a member of a lifeboat crew had to be airlifted to hospital after he was injured during a call-out. The Kirkwall lifeboat was making his way to the island of Stronsay when it encountered a particularly high wave, and the man was injured in the resulting lurch. The marine casualty, a yacht whose anchors were not holding, was attended to later in the night.

Still on issues lifeboat related (I get a feed from their call-outs), a group of youngsters decided not to call 999 when their boat got into difficulty, as they were afraid of getting into difficulty with the police. Fortunately, people ashore had their wits about them and called the Coastguard. After their rescue, the teenagers were given their dreaded lesson in marine safety. Something also afforded to the drunk skipper of a yacht, which ran straight onto a breakwater in Devon.

Down in the Isle of Skye, volunteers have been draping the parapets of the Skye Bridge (linking Kyle of Lochals on the mainland to Kyleakin in Skye) in knitwear. Stitches on the Bridge spans 400 yards of bridge in very colourful creations. Pictures and further info on their website.

Saturday 24 October

What started as a bright morning has turned into a very wet afternoon. The rainfall radar shows red colours over northern Lewis, indicating very heavy rainfall. The low pressure centre is situated between Northern Ireland and the southern Hebrides and is moving northeast across Scotland. It will give us another wet day tomorrow, but a ridge of high pressure building in from Iceland should usher in a nice Monday. Yesterday's glorious weather is now but a distant memory.

Don't forget to put your clocks back tonight if you're in the UK and Europe; the USA keeps DST until next Sunday, November 2nd.

Visit to Tolsta Chaolais

It was a brilliantly sunny day today, which saw the mercury up to 15C and me out and about in the island. At 2.30pm, I joined the bus to Carloway and 45 minutes later I was dropped off at the road-end at Tolsta Chaolais. This is a small village, off the main road, about 2 miles south of Carloway on the west coast of the island. It has its own small graveyard, and after a 40 minute walk and a wee bit of detective work, I managed to locate it near the coast. TC is situated in a valley beside its own loch, see pictures.




Tolsta Chaolais graveyard


Friendly kitty

Friday 23 October

Beautiful morning with bright sunshine and not a breath of wind.
I did not watch last night's Question Time, but am pleased that the man from the BNP got a good roasting. Which is all I'll say on the matter.

For more than 40 years, a debate has been going on in the UK whether it should adopt the same timezone as the rest of Western Europe. At the moment, clocks in Great Britain are 1 hour behind Europe. A trial of 'double summertime' was abandoned in the 1960s after protests from those in Scotland, who experienced sunrise at 10 in the morning. Safety concerns were the prime consideration. Now, a prominent historian has said Scotland should be left on its own "tundra time" (I quote), whilst the rest of the UK goes one hour forward. Nice one. Two different timezones within the one country, one account of latitude, is ridiculous. Yes, the US has at least 4 timezones, but that is because it stretches across at least 60 degrees of longitude. The UK only straddles 9 degrees at a stretch. Furthermore, I think it is rather insulting to suggest people cannot work out 1 hour's time difference to work out when appointments are, as Mr Horne suggests. Mr Horne, in my opinion, should emigrate to the tundra to contemplate his utterances prior to making them.

Java Update

Two days ago, I was prompted to update the Java on my computer to version 6.0, update 16. The result has been a bit of a disaster, and I have now completely removed Java. When clicking links that look like they have some javascript behind them, they did not work. They did work upon removing the Java. And ceased working when Java was reinstalled. So, if anyone out there has any ideas how to sort this, I'd be much obliged.

Did someone say - forums? Can I reply - chocolate teapot?

Ferry helps yacht

Last night, the Caledonian MacBrayne ferry MV Clansman was on passage from Oban to Barra, when it came across a yacht whose mast had suddenly broken. This happened in the Sound of Mull, northwest of Oban. The ferry stood by the vessel, the Morwenna, until the RNLI Lifeboat came down from Tobermory to give her a tow into Mull. More here


Image courtesy Nick Brannigan via Hebrides News

Thursday 22 October

A nice bright morning, with a lot of contrails in the sky. I'm having a job with the hurricane updates at the moment, because Hurricane Neki is headed for the Papahanaumokuakea (pronounciation) National Monument northwest of Hawaii. Will have to look it up, never heard of it before. Intriguing names like French Frigate Shoals abound there.

There is a lot of fuss over the presence of the far-right British National Party on the Question Time programme on BBC1 tonight. A bit too much fuss. The BNP advocate the involuntary removal of all aliens from Great Britain. They do have elected representatives on local councils and in the European Parliament, and are (as such) a legal political party. The BBC is legally speaking correct in its stance to give the BNP a place on the debating programme, even though few people subscribe to its policies. They err very closely on the side of legality, shown by the fact that they were forced to accept non-British-born membership applications.

Parties like the BNP thrive in a climate where government policy is seen to be failing, and particularly at times of economic hardship, like at present. The fact that the BNP has elected representatives should be a wake-up call for the Westminster administration to look at race relations within the UK. They have improved, but not enough. Failure to act, or even take cognisance of the reasons for the popularity of the BNP, can (in extreme circumstances) lead to a danger to life. By giving this party a chance to air their views on national TV, those of us with a properly working brain can see what they stand for. And decide not to support them.

No, I'm not watching Question Time. I never do.

Sunset

We had a colourful sunset here this evening, and I share a few of the pics I took between 5.30 and 6.00pm.

Wednesday 21 October

After a wet start, the weather has very slowly brightened up through the day. Now, half an hour before sunset, the sun has appeared from under the cloud cover and bathes the area in a golden glow.

Rumours that Al-Megrahi has died are untrue. The man, convicted Lockerbie bomber, was recently released from prison in Scotland back home to Libya, on humanitarian grounds.

And the bomb squad was out in Stornoway this afternoon to deal with a suspect device. No news on the nature of this device, just a lot of fuss in one of the town's streets.

Relationships

Kathy made an interesting observation on my previous post "Change" - does writing blogposts form relationships between people?

I think it does. Very much so. The "Call for Support" blog is demonstrative of that, as we share the sad and the happy, the triumphs and disasters in our lives. And sharing such does form a bond. The blogs being abandoned means the bond is weakened if not lost. I don't think that Facebook could really replace that, and certainly Twitter cannot. We'll have to see how things pan out.

Missing diver's identity confirmed

On October 3rd, a diver went missing whilst spear-fishing off Ardnamurch Point, on the Scottish mainland. Ten days later, the body of a man, dressed in a wetsuit, was found washed up on the shores of Loch Slapin in the Isle of Skye, 30 miles to the north. Police have tonight confirmed the identity of the man as that of Iain Rodger, a 66-year old man from Kilchoan in the Ardnamurchan peninsula, who had been reported missing by his wife on October 3rd.

My sympathies are with Mr Rodger's family and friends.

Change

This evening, as I was browsing my Twitter-feed, I noticed a message from Sandra about her dog, Jake. See Call for Support for details. The fact that I found this on Twitter was already an indication about the changes that have happened in our erstwhile community that we called J-land. Many have moved over to Facebook and use Twitter alongside. I browsed some of the blogs that were in Sandra's sidebar, and found many to be defunct or not updated since the move from AOL. Jan, who was once the figurehead of AOL Journals, has now not updated her journal since last June. And there are so many others like her.

Makes me quite sad in a way. But, such is life. Change happens, and not always for the best. Facebook is cluttered with the messages about various games, and I usually don't bother to trawl through all that. I am following about 140 people on Twitter, and as I glance at my Tweetdeck window, it is about as much as I can handle.

Just a memory from 3 years ago

Tuesday 20 October

Fairly bright today, although there is a cloud cover. The sun peeps through some of the cloud at times. The easterly wind is gradually increasing, but the gale we were promised is not likely to materialise on the coast.

The RNLI is now offering a service whereby you can be notified by text if your local lifeboat is launched - or any lifeboat indeed. They also relay on Twitter whenever they launch. The texting service involves a monetary donation for each text. I take an interest as I have an open view of the harbour entrance, and frequently see the lifeboat coming or going.


One of the most dramatic rescues I have witnessed myself took place 3 years ago. Within about 20 yards of me. I copy the entry from my Northern Trip journal for 1 July 2006:

... Just as we're having lunch, the sound of the helicopter becomes noticeable. The helicopter is right outside the house, hovering over the basin. Hotel Lima is tending to a yachtsman that we noticed earlier, struggling to control his boat in the force 6 winds. His boat lies overturned, and a winchman is going down to assist the hapless sailor. Newton Street very quickly fills up with spectators, the police are in attendance, directing traffic and all who are outside are drenched by the water which the helicopter's updraft is spraying around. The yachtsman manages to make dry land under his own steam - his own two legs. Meanwhile, the wrecked boat lies on its side in the basin, and slowly drifts towards its mouth. The lifeboat moves to the mouth of the basin and launches a dinghy. There is a sandbar across the basin, which makes it impossible for boats to leave it at low tide, and the tide is falling right now. The wreck is towed to Goat Island, where the damage is assessed. The boat is not holed, so it's left anchored on a mooring....

Classical music

Rachmaninoff
The link plays a recording of a record, which is more than 50 years old. Jose Iturbi, who died in 1980, plays Rachmaninoff's Prelude no 3 in c# minor. The recording is deeply personal, as it was one of the records that my mother gave to my father on his birthday in the late 1950s. Technical quality is not terribly good, and that's not just due to the method of recording - holding a mike in front of an audio speaker. The record itself is a tad crackly. This record set me off on a journey around the world of classical music, which I explored using the BBC World Service's programs in the 1980s and 90s. The late Gordon Clyde, who died last year, presented The Pleasure is Yours, until 1990, followed by Brian Kay and Gordon's personal friend Richard Baker. I recorded pieces of classical music on cassette tape - and that tally stood at about 200 tapes some 6 years ago. I have not added since.

I am a very critical listener, and entertain pop music only on sufferance, as the musical quality is usually measured in the negative ranges on a scale of 1 to 10. Exceptions apply, such as these guys from 1977. Did I mention I play the piano?

1956 or 1965?

I was looking up the 20th century concert pianist Solomon Cutner, who lived from 1902 to 1988. He was a gifted pianist, whose career was cut short by a stroke. This paralysed his right arm, but in spite of that, he managed to finish a recording session on which little evidence of the stroke can be heard. The Wikipedia article links to an obituary in the New York Times, which states that the stroke occurred in 1965. Everywhere else the date is given as 1956. Transcription error? Don't think so. The NYT also states that the pianist recorded in the 1960s, which is not correct.

Portrait courtesy Macconnect