Sunday 19 December

The disruption on the travel front is showing no signs of abating. Again hardly any flights leaving the main London airports, with thousands of people unable to go on their Christmas breaks. Personally, I am booked to travel to Holland on Tuesday, through Heathrow and Gatwick. That's proving to be a mistake. The situation is so dire, that I have rebooked my outward journey to go straight from Edinburgh to Amsterdam. I count myself lucky that there was still a seat, and I don't mind having to wait for a number of hours. The alternatives were growing thinner and thinner on the ground, with Eurostar no longer accepting new bookings before Christmas and the English rail network subject to delays and cancellations. I am planning to return to Stornoway on Wednesday 5 January 2011.