Tuesday 15 December

Fairly bright day, interspersed with light showers. These don't show up on the weather radar, but do get you wet when outside. It's rather windier in Australia, where tropical cyclone Laurence is skimming the northwestern coast of the continent with winds of 85 to 120 knots (100 to 135 mph).

Cheques are to be phased out in the UK by 2018. Apparently, the number of cheques written by Britons has fallen by half over the past 7 years. Concerns have been expressed by the elderly and support groups, saying that many are uncomfortable using plastic and/or the Internet; also, more than a billion cheques are still being written each day.

Here in the Western Isles, concerns have been expressed for fuel prices. Scottish Fuels have reestablished their monopoly in fuel supplies, after taking over a rival, Brogan Fuels, who recently set up a fuel supply network here. Petrol prices in Stornoway are currently about £1.20 per litre ($10 per gallon), higher than on the mainland, and higher than in other areas of northern Scotland, served by the same tankerboat that brings us our petrol &c.

I have to wait for BA to confirm (or not) that my flights on December 22nd are cancelled, before I can do anything about it. With 1 million other people, both inside and outside the UK, about to be inconvenienced, it is going to be a wretched experience travelling this Xmas.

Journey from hell

Remember that quote from last February? My epic, 44 hour, journey from Holland to Stornoway? Last February, it was 7 inches of snow that caused it. I can see a repeat coming up when I fly to Holland for Christmas next week. British Airways cabin-crew are going on strike from December 22nd to January 2nd. Perfectly timed to cause the maximum of disruption, and an excellent example how to shoot yourself in the foot. Like turkeys voting for an early Christmas. "Oh we're really reluctant to strike", like hell you are. Nearly a unanimous vote in favour.

3636 days down, 17 to go

and the Noughties will be over. The BBC have compiled a set of drawings (note: PDF file, 8MB) depicting the decade which is coming to an end in a fortnight's time. What are your memories of the 2000/2009 decade?

The main one for everybody is of course 9/11. 

Monday 14 December

An overcast and at times wettish day in progress here in the Western Isles. The temperature has shot up to nearly double figures, after the weekend's frosts. A blast from the east is in the offing, but located where we are (near the sea, and as far west as you can get in Britain), I'm not expecting major wintery problems.

I am getting heartily sick of the sight of former UK PM Tony Blair, pontificating on television about the almost religious justification for the war in Iraq in 2003. He'll be called to the inquiry into that war in 2010, and we'll hear a lot of spinning by that time.

Here in Scotland, a baby boy of 4 months had to be airlifted from the Isle of Rum (15 miles west of Mallaig) for treatment in hospital in Stornoway. He was transferred in the early hours of yesterday - the local news website has no further word on his condition.

I hope that the fog has lifted sufficiently to allow us our mail today; the papers were in at any rate, after nothing came through on Saturday. One contact told me that visibility near Inverness was down to 50 yards on Saturday.

Sunday 13 December

Sunny and very cold today, with some high clouds. We had a hard, overnight, frost, which saw the thermometer down to -3C, and it's only just above freezing now. Rain will be coming in the next 24 hours, which should turn roads in the north of Scotland into ice rinks. Later in the week, a cold blast will arrive straight from Siberia, and the whole of the UK will be in the grip of frost. The Western Isles will probably come up the least cold, as the air will have travelled across the North Sea and the Minch.

The Southern Hemisphere is buzzing with no fewer than 4 tropical cyclones (hurricanes). Cyclone Laurence is going to do something very unpleasant to Western Australia in just under a week's time. As the forecast stands, this will be at least a category I hurricane which looks like it will make landfall near Port Hedland, between Perth and Broome on the west coast. Cyclone Cleo has resurrected west of Mauritius, and I notice a lot of visits to my TC blog from there. Mauritius is NOT under threat. Another cyclone is traversing the central Indian Ocean between Cocos Island and Diego Garcia, whereas number 4 is making straight for Sri Lanka, north of the equator. Cyclone Ward does not carry strong winds (about force 9 to 10), but as per usual does bring copious amounts of rain.

Celebrities

I am heartily fed up with "celebrities" and "sports personalities" and the fact that their lives get splayed out on all the news media you may care to think of. The X-factor, Strictly Come Dancing, I'm a Celebrity, Get me out of Here, Big Brother, for heaven's sake. Even the mainstream news media, like the BBC and broadsheet newspapers are full of it.

Tiger Woods. He has been unfaithful to his wife and smashed his car outside their home. In other words, Tiger is daft. He is in the public limelight, as he is a good golfplayer. Doesn't he realise that when you live in a glass house, you can't afford to throw stones around? Doesn't he realise he is a role-model to young people and others around the world? However, why the hospitalisation of his mother in law had to be broadcast is beyond me.

Jade Goody. She died earlier this year of cervical cancer, but had climbed to prominence as being the dumbest Big Brother contestant ever seen. However, she did the right thing by putting her illness, treatment and death on public display. Why oh why do we have to be regaled to the fact that her husband, to whom she got married in the weeks before her death, has a season ticket to the dock in the criminal court?

Can't we have a day, a week, a month, a year (or even longer) without celebrity c**p?

Christmas decorations 2009

For the 5 years that I have been in this island, I have watched the Christmas decorations in Stornoway decrease in size and luminosity. Every year, one or other part of it no longer appears. Anyway, here are some pics of this year's display.


2009 / 2008

Visit to Coll and Back - 11 December

In the afternoon, I took the bus north to the villages of Coll and Back [marked as its neighbour Vatisker on above map], situated across the water from Garrabost. Upper Coll has a memorial cairn, but until my visit yesterday, I did not know what it was for. It turned out to be a monument to the Land Raiders of 1921, who appropriated land from landowner Lord Leverhulme. Another memorial, to the same cause, stands at Gress, 2 miles northeast of Coll.
The main objective of my trip was (once more) to photograph the war memorial at Back. 


Land Raiders' Memorial, Coll


Coll Beach


Back War Memorial


Back Free Church (and carpark)


Vatisker


Birds on a wire, Back


Abandoned machinery


Horse in croftland

Visit to Garrabost - 11 December

Ruined house


View along the main road


Church of Scotland


Free Church of Scotland


Point War Memorial


Entrance to Point War Memorial


Garrabost is a crofting township in the Point area of Lewis, 5 miles east of Stornoway. It is noteworthy that this small community has two churches, as shown above; the Church of Scotland is the mainstream church, the Free Church of Scotland was split off the CoS in the 19th century. Other schisms have occurred since, and continue to occur. A Church of Scotland has a musical instrument; the Free Church does not allow such frivolity. They sing psalms with a precentor, who sings out a line and the congregation follows suit, at its own pitch and tempo. This recording, taken at the Royal National Mod in Stornoway in 2005, demonstrates what it sounds like.

The objective of my journey was to photograph the war memorial for the Point District. I took detailed pictures of the four panels.

Saturday 12 December

Bright and sunny this morning, with only wispy high clouds about. It is cold outside, after the overnight temps dropped close to freezing. Tonight, a sharp frost is expected, with the mercury down to -6C in places in the Highlands. Count myself fortunate that I'm on the coast, so any frost won't be quite so severe.

Spent the past half hour compiling the latest hurricane bulletin for the southern hemisphere. Things are really livening up, with a cyclone about to form near Darwin in Australia, another one spinning up north of Fiji and a third forming in the middle of the Indian Ocean. The cyclone that is off the coast of India will make landfall south of Chennai in the course of tomorrow - that is of course a late northern hemisphere system. A tropical cyclone is the same as a hurricane, for reference.

More later

Friday 11 December

Brilliantly sunny day, but only 6½ hours of sunshine to enjoy. Went to Garrabost, 5 miles east of here, to photograph the war memorial for the Point district. In the afternoon, I travelled on the bus north to Back, 5 miles away, for the same purpose. At Coll, the village before Back, I located the memorial I kept seeing on passing through - and found it to be a Landraiders' Memorial, along the lines of the one at Gress, 2 miles to the north.

Pictures not yet available, will post those later tonight or tomorrow.

Award

Jeannette (Outside Looking In) has given me the Valued Blogger award. At this particular moment in time, I cannot make a choice who to pass it on to. I am very remiss in keeping up with journals reading, but I would like to dedicate it to all of you who are currently battling ill health and / or serious disease.

Picture sites

Apart from storing my pictures on flickr.com, I am now also keeping a photo journal on blipfoto.com. The title is Castle Town, bearing in mind that Stornoway has a castle, and so has my home town in Holland. Blipfoto only allows 1 picture per day, but gives you the opportunity to write a blogpost with the pic. For reference, I have put my Dutch pics on a different Flickr site, with the username Veluweman. I am considering merging the two, if only not to have to pay the Pro fee twice. 

Hurricane update - 10 December

A developing tropical cyclone is located northeast of Darwin, Australia. The system, prosaically entitled 92P, is traversing the Arafura Sea, parallel to the northern coastline of Arnhem Land. BOM Australia has placed portions of the coastline under tropical cyclone watch. Please follow the link for details.

Thursday 10 December

A bright and sunny day, if not very warm. The mercury reached 9C this afternoon, but is currently nosediving towards freezing (2C at the moment). The tanker is delivering another load of petrol, diesel and other fuels.



This afternoon, I was in Borve to sample (with others) the delights of the Borve House Hotel, which serves a very creditable lunch (and other meals). Borve lies 17 miles north of Stornoway, on the road to the Butt of Lewis. The drive there, out by bus, back by car, was very scenic in the low, December light. Returned to Stornoway at 4pm, in time to admire the Christmas decorations. I'm going out at some stage this week after dark to picture them. Here are some of this afternoon's photographs.


Point Street, Stornoway


Sunset near Barvas


Borve


Barvas Moor road

Wednesday 9 December

A lively day in terms of weather, with a thunderstorm at sunrise (9 am) and a second downpour at midday. It got so dark at 12 o'clock that the lights had to be put on. Only for the sun to come out 15 minutes later. Never a dull moment in this neck of the woods.

I've been trawling this town's stationery shops for photo paper, and finally managed to locate some at a half-decent price. I also got myself a diary for 2010, again at a lower price than I had originally anticipated. The successor to Woolworths in Stornoway, a shop called Wee W, was a tad disappointing when I looked for the above two items.

AOL / Time Warner is now once more just AOL. The business is worth only 10% of the value it had in 2001, and has lost 80% of its dial-up subscribers. Nonetheless, dial-up provision still accounts for 43% of its revenue. Not from me, at any rate - I quit AOL as a dial-up subscriber in May 2008, and abandoned its web-services after AOL jettisoned its Journals service in November 2008.

Pictures of this week so far

How do you mean, no ferry?


Decorations in the porch outside the front door


Christmas Tree


8.08 am this morning, fifty minutes before sunrise


An hour later...

Christmas decorations - intro

“Good news is that I truly out did myself this year with my Christmas decorations.  The bad news is that I had to take him down after two days.  I had more people come screaming up to my house than ever.  Great stories.  But two things made me take it down.

First, the cops advised me that it would cause traffic accidents as they almost wrecked when they drove by.
Second, a 55 year old lady grabbed the 75 pound ladder almost killed herself putting it against my house and didn’t realize that it was fake until she climbed to the top (she was not happy).  By the way, she was one of the many people who attempted to do that.  My yard couldn’t take it either.  I have more than a few tire tracks where people literally drove up my yard."

Hierarchy - apologies for language

Tuesday 8 December

Put up the Christmas tree and other decorations last night. Tonight at 7.30, Stornoway's Christmas illuminations will be lit up, provided they have not been blown away in today's gale. Although it is 'only' a force 7, the southerly direction means that there is too much of a swell going in the Minch. I see some impressive waves crashing by the lighthouse, across from my position.

Was in town this morning to purchase printer ink (ouch), stamps (ouch) and what not. Anyone wanting a Christmas card from me, please leave a comment and I'll get back to you to make arrangements out of sight of the whole Internet.

Have got some pictures and images to post, which I will put up in following posts. Bear with me.