Tuesday 27 November

A very cold day, with the mercury only briefly getting above 4C / 39F. There was some sunshine, but that had no impact on the temperature. We continue to enjoy days of nice cloudscapes, even if that does mean showers here and there. I by no means envy the people in floodstricken areas of England and Wales, and express my condolences to the family and friends of the elderly lady who drowned in the flooding of St Asaph, Denbighshire today. St Asaph is a small city, southwest of Chester and was nearly swept away in severe flooding.

I have spent the afternoon preparing a few texts for publication (read, make up into a nice book for myself); only one of these will make it on the open market, namely a selection of my writings. The other text is a private diary of some of my trips in the north of Scotland in 2004.


On the Cape Wrath peninsula, August 2004

I continue to monitor the slow progression of tropical storm Bopha, the 26th of the Northern Pacific season. However, it is still stuck at low latitudes, only 4 north. The system is not expected to move above 10N within the next five days. So, I'm presented with a lesson in the geography of the Federated States of Micronesia. I had heard of Pohnpei, Chuuk, Yap and Palau before. But not of their constituent islands, such as Nukuoro, Losap or Puluwat.