Tuesday 16 February

A cold and overcast day, with a chilly easterly wind. Snow is making conditions difficult in the Highlands, but out in the west, we're not troubled with precipitation of any form.

Spent a few hours in Stornoway town centre this afternoon. Visited the local museum, which has a memorial plaque for Old Boys of the Nicolson Institute who died in the First World War. After a bowl or two of soup in the library cafe, I found a useful publication with more info about WW1 casualties. Accompanied a friend round shops brought the time round to 4 pm, and I was glad to get back indoors. It was very chilly indeed.

Locally, a planning application is to be submitted to install a tide bell at Bosta Beach in Great Bernera, 30 miles west of Stornoway. The bell is operated by tidal flows which move its clapper. Can't say the idea appeals to me terribly much, but then it won't disturb many people. Nobody lives at Bosta; there is a cemetery nearby, and I'm not certain that anybody visiting that will be taken with the notion. The tidebell won't make a very loud sound, I'm told.


Image courtesy Marcus Vergette

Ten years on-line

This month, it will be 10 years ago since I set my first steps on the World Wide Web. My Hotmail account records my first email on 1 February 2000. I still have that account, and it is active. No longer active is my pharmolo account with AOL; any email that comes into that inbox is automatically redirected to my adb422006 account with gmail. An email account with Yahoo is only used because of its link to my Flickr photo accounts. I set it up whilst staying in a place which blocked the AOL website.

I joined AOL for its dial-up ISP service in April 2004, and brought me the first experiences of social networking on-line. The News Debate Chat was a rough and ready affair, invaded at times by the less appetising elements in British society. Following my relocation to Scotland in the summer of 2004, this fell by the wayside for a while, as I changed to blogging.

AOL Journals allowed me to record my travels in the north of Scotland in the summer and autumn of 2004. A year later, the much maligned VIVI awards introduced me to the circle of journalers; the untimely death of Pam (his1desire) at Easter 2006 turned me into a full member of Jland.

Jland ceased to exist in October 2008, after AOL decided to scuttle its journals division. A fair few of us migrated to Blogger, but many others abandoned the community.

My ten years on-line has seen a marked change in my personal circumstances, much of which I have decided not to discuss on here. Reading back through the emails from 2000 to 2010, I can see that quite clearly. The biggest shock, which I did share, was the death of my mother, now nearly 2 years ago. I tend to operate on a "live by the day" basis, which means I do not make a forecast for the next 10 years.

The Internet has proved an invaluable source of information to me, and a way of meeting new people, new friends. The Internet has also caused me a fair bit of distress, both directly and indirectly. Not all my friends understand the concept of social networking involving people you have not met, and are unlikely to ever meet. The Internet has an extremely unpleasant dark side to it, the least manifestations of which are the spam emails. However, it is here, and here to stay. 

Monday 15 February

Cold and at times wet today, with wintry showers this afternoon. After a period of milder weather in the Hebrides, air from the Arctic is presently moving south across northern Scotland and will bring snow to the mainland. I'm typing this just after 5.30pm, but it's still light outside. Due to the poor light conditions though, the Arnish Lighthouse has been operating since 4pm.

(Image courtesy Reuters) Two commuter trains have collided head-on south of Brussels, near the town of Buizingen. Eighteen people are now known to have died, with nearly 60 injured. The local service from Quiévrain to Liège crashed into the service from Louvain to Braine-le-Comte. Initial speculation suggested that one of the trains had ignored a red light, but that has been branded as premature. Weather conditions at the time of the accident, 8.30 am local time, were poor with falling snow, but snow is a common occurrence in winter in Belgium and does not normally pose major problems on the rail network.

The Eurostar service between London and Brussels has been suspended until further notice, although trains do run as far as Lille, in northern France. It will take a considerable period of time to clear the wreckage from the tracks. This accident is rated as one of the worst in the history of the Belgian railway NMBS; a crash in the Netherlands in 1962 claimed 92 lives.

Sunday 14 February

Happy Valentine's Day, if you celebrate. It's been a very quiet day here in Stornoway, as is customary on Sunday. Apart from those going to or coming from church, little has moved. Only the clouds and occasional light rain. The ferry is presently on its way in, back from its normal single Sunday sailing.

Although I'm not much of a rugby fan, I couldn't avoid watching some of the Six Nations action this weekend. Scotland managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, after losing 24-31. They had been ahead 24-14 only 10 minutes before the end. Their opponents were Wales. Ireland were giving a hammering by France, losing 10-33. England was the only home country to manage a win, beating Italy 17-12 in Rome. I find rugby a very physical game, but at least you don't get all the daft backchat you get in football. Players listen to the referee, and that's it.

Next week, I intend to revisit the local museum to take pictures of a memorial plaque there. I do have photographs of it, but cannot read the names on it. I went to the library yesterday, which was rearranged a few weeks ago. Where is the local history section? Well, that's been put in the middle of the place, and you have to walk around with your reference books to find a table to work on. Not a vast improvement.

Saturday 13 February

Overcast with some light rain here and there. An old-fashioned Atlantic depression near Greenland is slowly sinking south, and will pass across the UK after tomorrow. It will grind to a halt over England, leaving us with easterly winds and possible snow early in the new week.

Apart from the screen of the laptop, the printer is now also going on the blink. If I want to print pictures at any quality better than draft, the result is a third of the normal height - in other words a squashed picture that bears more resemblance to a television test card. Anything else feeling like collapsing??

My camera has gone in for repairs, and I hope to be reunited with it early in March. Meanwhile, I am using a friend's camera.

Winter Olympics

A shadow was cast over the start of the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada, after a luger from Georgia was killed in an accident. He crashed, following which he was catapulted over a wall and slammed into a pole. A decision is to be taken whether the luge competition will proceed as planned.

Hurricane update - 12 February

Tropical cyclone Rene is currently traversing American Samoa, east of the dateline. The storm will gain intensity and impact the southern islands of that archipelago as equivalent of a category I hurricane. NOAA Pago Pago is issuing warnings. I am keeping a very close eye on the forecast track for this storm, as it appears to be making a beeline for the North Island of New Zealand in 5 or 6 days' time.

Screen

Posted last night about my malfunctioning screen. This is what greets me at start-up:

Friday 12 February

Nice and bright today, with the odd light, short shower. The latter was not in the forecast, but it did not bother anybody much. Three herons were having it out in the corner of Stornoway Harbour that I overlook. There was also this continuing battle to outwit the seagulls, who will swoop in to gobble up any bread left outside. The trick is to place it under bushes or against a tree trunk. Gulls want to have space around them to spread their wings, and enclosed spaces make them nervous. A tree trunk constitutes an enclosed space, to their mind.

I was shocked to read the list of service cuts, proposed by our local council. It is one thing to keep the council tax at the same level, a policy imposed by the Scottish Government in Edinburgh, it does mean that less money is coming in each year - on account of inflation.

Sunset was once more stunning:

Screens

Over the past 6 months, the screen on my laptop has been showing increasingly interesting colour schemes, which bear little resemblance to what the computer part of it has been putting out to it. After doing a few DIY diagnostic tricks, it turns out to be a hardware fault. Screens on laptops are prone to break or fail, so I went onto Amazon and ordered a replacement LCD screen. This arrived in the mail this morning, so I sat down and took the screen part to bits and installed the new LCD. You can well imagine the sinking feeling when I switched the laptop on afterwards - only to be greeted by a mitigated version of the same bl**dy fault.

As regular readers are aware, I have been going on dozens of flights over the past 21 months (a journey to Amsterdam involves three flights) and I had my laptop in my case - which goes into the hold. Hold luggage is subjected to a frightful battering, and I suppose something has been damaged at some stage.

I'll have it fixed at some stage, but it's not a major problem. I fortunately have the use of an external screen - which allowed me to ascertain that it was the screen going wonky.

Sunset notes

The sun set a quarter of an hour ago, but not in the blaze of glory we had yesterday evening. A light shower passed by just at that moment.

The US are all preoccupied with their snow storms, so much so that a hurricane-related blog is talking about nothing else. Bit of a disappointment, if they miss that steady procession of hurricanes in the South Pacific: Oli, Pat and now Rene. The Pacific is certainly not living up to its peaceful name.

In Scotland, the Deputy First Minister (Nicola Sturgeon) is under political fire after she wrote a letter to a court on behalf of a constituent who has been found guilty of fraud. Again. Having been imprisoned in the 1990s for stealing benefit cheques whilst a postmaster, the suspect has now been claiming £80,000 in benefits he was not entitled to. As a member of parliament, Ms Sturgeon can expect to be called upon to write letters on behalf of constituents in circumstances as described above. Whether it is wise to do whilst holding a senior position in the government of the day is questionable. Ms Sturgeon will explain herself to the Scottish Parliament on February 24th.

Thursday 11 February

Nice day with increasing amounts of sunshine. Temperature +7C, which is quite decent for this time of year. If you have snow, please take care.

I'll make a longer post later, but want to display this expression of team support on a website displaying information on tropical weather. At the top, it says: NOTE: AMSR-E data back in sync, WHO DAT!!!!

Wednesday 10 February

A bright and sunny day, even feeling warm. The mercury made it to +8C, the warmest in the country. Went for a walk to the Iolaire Memorial, which is 45 minutes' walk away by Holm Point, about 2 miles south of my position. The route takes me through the village of Lower Sandwick, past Stoneyfield Farm and through an area of incredibly thorny gorse. A gravel path leads to the memorial itself. Visibility was absolutely stunning: I could make out the hills near Broadford in Skye, 75 miles to the south. The sun set in a blaze of colours around 5.10pm.


Sunset

Hurricane update - 9 February

The South Pacific is seeing one tropical cyclone after the other this season. After Oli, there is now Pat. This system, a strong category I hurricane, will pass through the South Cook Islands, along the 159th degree longitude west. Northwest of American Samoa, another tropical disturbance is brewing up and I wouldn't be surprised to see yet another cyclone on the maps by this time tomorrow.

The South Pacific is home to a scattering of small islands, but in the three or four years that I've been monitoring hurricanes, there have never been this many systems passing through. The reason is the current El Nino situation, which brings elevated seawater temperatures in the western and central Pacific Ocean. El Nino is now abating - which is not good news for the Atlantic hurricane season. The strange coincidence is that El Nino tends to suppress the formation of hurricanes in the Atlantic, so 2010 might see a more lively season than 2009.

Picture post

Sunset 9 February




Piece of cake, anyone?


Gloves drying on the line

Tuesday 9 February

Today is the fifth anniversary of my stint here in Stornoway. It is a bright day, but we already had a shower on one side of the house. Our regular ferryboat, the MV Isle of Lewis has returned from its refit. The relief boat Clansman is on its way across from Ullapool. Will see whether it will also do the afternoon / evening run; probably will.

Two years ago, a British Airways Boeing 777 crash landed at Heathrow Airport due to the formation of ice crystals in its fuel systems. Fortunately, nobody was seriously hurt. The pilot, who no longer flies, tells of his experience. It was indeed miraculous that there were no casualties.

Having had pretty extensive flying experience in the past 21 months, albeit on small planes and short routes, I am of course aware of the inherent risk of flying. As I was waiting for my first flight last Tuesday, the television screen at Amsterdam Airport showed footage of plane crashes. I think I left a comment on Twitter, saying that is not something I prefer to watch while waiting for a flight. However, back in 1987, the Herald of Free Enterprise ferry sank at Zeebrugge. A few months later, I was due to cross the North Sea on another ferry service, and people asked me if I wasn't scared to sail. No. If anything happens, it will, and it is safer to take a ferry, or take a plane, than it is to cross the road or drive a car.

More later.

Crunch

The Isle of Arran ferry collided with the pier at Kennacraig, on the Kintyre peninsula, at 9.30 am last Saturday. The 14 passengers were disembarked safely, and nobody was injured. Damage was said not to be severe, and the ship was able to make its own way to the Clyde for repairs. Flickr user md93 took pictures. Not severe??

Automatic door

Is this truly an automatic door? I'm being pernickety here, but in my mind, an automatic door opens when you approach it...


Stornoway Library

Monday 8 February

A bright but cloudy day (the two can occur at the same time!) here in the Western Isles. It is cold this morning, but not a lot of wind. Whatever wind there is comes from the east, and it will blow in more cold this week.

This morning, I listened to our local radio station Isles FM to hear the local news. There was no local news. So, I looked up my local news website Hebrides News, which did list some news. However, I suppose it is no great deal that the secondary school here is narrowing the choice of courses for its senior pupils.

The South Pacific is spawning one tropical cyclone after another: today, Pat is brewing up east of American Samoa and will be threatening the Cooks Islands as well as French Polynesia. Pat will reach category I on the Saffir Simpson scale.

More later.

Sunday 7 February

A bright and at times sunny day, but feeling cold in the wind. Went for a walk in the Castle Grounds (see previous post), where things were still very much on a wintry footing. The snow has only been gone for a few days, so very little to see in terms of crocuses or snowdrops. Afterwards, a lunch at a local restaurant. By 3pm, it was homeward bound. The streets were Sunday-deserted - although it was past ferry departure time. In the hour or so before 2.30pm, people who are travelling to the mainland will have passed through the town. It appears we had the best weather in the country; there will be snow in the east this week.