Friday 26 September

Quite a nice day here, except for the strong wind - from the west at force 7 (30 mph). Sun is shining in between the clouds (see previous photo-post), but the mercury has taken a tumble from 15 to 11 C.

This morning I was in a radio studio at the BBC on Seaforth Road to record a voice-over for a documentary about the Lewismen who were interned at HMS Timbertown during the First World War. The producer wanted an English speaker with a Dutch accent - well, it seems I fit the bill. Didn't take long. The piece I spoke dealt with a funeral of one of the internees in the city of Groningen. The coffin was draped (and I quote the newspaper article from 1 March 1916) in the English flag. Before everybody shoots me down in flames, I should add that in the Netherlands all the British home nations are referred to as "England", and they smile about that silly rivalry between the English and the Scots. After many a moon observing life in Scotland, I do not regard the issue as a laughing matter.

Autumn has descended on the northern hemisphere, and the hurricane season is at its height. Well, in the Eastern Pacific at any rate, the Atlantic season is a bit of a dead duck. However, what cropped up in my tropical disturbance update at 4 o'clock: disturbance 91S, in the southern hemisphere. It is a heavily sheared system, meaning that the winds at different levels in the atmosphere are not blowing at the same direction or speed. For a tropical cyclone to form, shear needs to be low, and that system has considerable problems. Nonetheless, we'll see more southern hemisphere systems through our winter, starting in November.

Remember that play from the 70s or 80s? The Cheviot, the Stag and the Black, black Oil? Well, with all the to-ing and fro-ing about Scotland's oil I've decided to rename it: The Cheviot, the Stag and the Red, red Face. Whichever side you were on in the independence debate, neither came out smelling of roses at the end of it - unsubstantiated, hyperbolical claims about all sorts. Glad it's OVER.