Closing the day

Eleven minutes to eleven in the evening as I start to write this post. My header pictures has been changed once more, and this time it is not a landscape picture - it is quite typical of this time of year. The time was 8pm yesterday evening, and I went to the shop to try to get a copy of my daily rag (the Press and Journal). It had of course sold out hours before. The street is in an industrial area of Stornoway - yes, those are private homes on the right of the picture. I like taking pictures at night, and have devoted an entire set to them on Flickr.com.

I have sorted out my subscriptions on Google Reader, and noticed quite a few blogs that were on there which were no longer in existence. The mess, caused by my ill-advised link-up to Blogger, has been sorted - I have a group of blogs that I monitor regularly; the rest are a repository of links.

Spent the afternoon and evening watching an episode of Colombo and one of Poirot. And managed to find the score for the tune for Poirot, so I can now play it on the keyboard. Should be interesting. For now, we're heading into a week with a lot of wet weather. November here we are.

Illicit drugs, the advisor and the government minister

At the moment, the British government is involved in what I can only describe as an unseemly row of the 'screaming' variety. He is at loggerheads with the head of the drug advisory council (I should really say: former head) on the classification of cannabis as an illegal drug. The government have reclassified cannabis to category B, up from the less severe category C. The advisory council have advised the government to downgrade cannabis, but the government have declined to follow this advice. The head of the council, Prof Nutt, has attacked the government over this decision. The government in turn, has asked the professor to resign - which he has done - for interfering in government policy and acting outside of his remit.

This is very harmful to all parties involved. Other members of the advisory council are quitting as well. At lunchtime, we were treated to the spectacle of a Home Secretary raising his voice on BBC TV to put his point across that he really felt the council acted out of order.

Rather than sitting down behind closed doors, and if necessary shout their heads off at each other, this is now being conducted in the full glare of the media spotlight. As a result, the credibility of both government and council is undermined. The misuse of cannabis, an illegal substance, is a major problem in society across the world. In my personal opinion, cannabis should remain classified as a category B substance. On its own, it is a harmful substance. Smoking it is more harmful than tobacco, as the amounts of tar inhaled are far higher. Cannabis can bring on florid (overt) schizophrenia in those individuals predisposed towards that incurable condition. Furthermore, there are thousands of people who can tell the horror story of a relative or friend using cannabis, then as a result, moving on to the use of heroin or cocaine. Cannabis is not an innocent "soft drug".

However, it should be borne in mind that its use is widespread, and a pragmatic approach, along the line taken by the Dutch authorities, might work. Cannabis is a proscribed substance in Holland, but the authorities will not prosecute anyone found in the possession of a quantity, sufficient for their own personal use. They also do not prosecute the owners of so-called coffeeshops, where cannabis can be purchased in small quantities. Anyone found in possession of large amounts of cannabis, clearly intended for supply, will be prosecuted with the full force of the law.

There is this misconception that cannabis is legalised in Holland. It is not. And anyone returning from Holland to the UK or any other country, in possession of a small, user's, quantity, will be liable to prosecution and a criminal record.

Sunday 1 November

A wet day in Stornoway. Not as wet and windy as is currently the case in northern England and southern Scotland - more than 2 inches of rain and winds up to 60 mph. Autumn is now firmly in charge.

I am very displeased with Blogger and Google Reader today. First of all, I am unable to manage my Followed blogs on Blogger, and when I tried to do that on the Reader, it messed up my arrangement of blogs on there. I have nearly 400 subscriptions (not all blog, but put that count at 350). Adding Blogs I Follow was a big mistake. Things rearranged themselves, and I'm find myself going through that unwanted addition to put it all back.

Some football fans, travelling by train from Edinburgh to Aberdeen last night, were dressed up as sheep. Those in the UK will be familiar with an advertisement, showing a railway station and a train full of sheep - and one man. The fans decided to have even more fun and set one "sheep" alight. Two people were hurt and taken to hospital in Kirkcaldy, on the Fife coast. Others were arrested and are assisting police with their enquiries.

If you're in the States

Don't forget to put your clocks back one hour - we already did that in Europe last week, so you can do it as well. Trust me, you can.

A 78-piece set of cutlery

Was removed from a woman's stomach, according to The Sun newspaper. Not one of my regular sources of information (their claim to fame is a bare-chested lady on page three). However, the woman who was the subject of the newsitem in the Sun had been swallowing forks and spoons, so had to go under the knife (sigh, I know) to have them removed. It appears she was suffering from a psychological disorder.

A year ago today

All our blogs were being erased from AOL's servers. A few days ago, Yahoo closed down their Geocities websites, but at least they were being archived. Our journals were summarily deleted. Why they could not just be archived as well is beyond me. The result has been a depletion of regular bloggers, if only because a large number of us have moved on to Facebook and a few to Twitter. Others have simply stopped blogging. A great shame, and very poor customer service from AOL.

Anyway, let's not look back in anger, and move forward.

Tomorrow is All Hallows, when we remember those that went before us. Let us keep in thought those who are trying to come to terms with a loss of a loved one, whether this be recently or in the more distant past.

Saturday 31 October

Happy Halloween to all who celebrate. Please keep it nice.

Typhoon Mirinae has barged through the Philippines, and has left 10 people dead in Quezon Province. The storm is currently headed west, away from the archipelago, and will reach Vietnam in a few days' time. Mirinae is the 4th typhoon to hit the Philippines within 2 months. As you know, I monitor tropical cyclones closely. My relays on the Tropical Cyclones blog make for dreary reading, and hide the impact such systems have on people on the ground. The Philippines are squarely in the firing line, and flooding is always the most severe impact that typhoons have there. The website of the Philippine National Disaster Coordinating Committee, which yielded the above casualty figures, reveals what actually happened.

This entry is dedicated to the memory of
Sarah Mae Vargas and Rodrigo Rodriguez, Camarines Norte; hypothermia
- Louie Alano, Catanduanes; Hypothermia
- Flora Estacion, Camarines Norte; Drowning
- Tirso Ramos, Cavite; fell from roof
- Edsel Laviña and Roderico Cabardo, Laguna; drowned
- Marge Taiño and Julieta Zagure, Laguna; pinned under collapsed wall
- Edwin Capayas, Quezon; drowned

Friday 30 October

Wet and windy today, and it will get a lot windier before the day is out. We are under warning for a gale this afternoon, after this load of rain has gone through. It is autumn and don't we know it. Typhoon season continues apace in the Pacific, with typhoon Mirinae barreling into the Philippines, bringing winds of 100 mph and double digit (in inches) rainfall figures.

The Internet could see the advent of website addresses in scripts other than Latin (what you are reading now). Russian, Arabic and Chinese will be introduced on November 16th, and URL's in those scripts will appear by the middle of next year. Half of all internet users use an alphabet other than Latin.

More later.

The Archers - Phil Archer's actor dies

To those in the UK, Radio 4's soap opera "The Archers" is an institution. First aired in 1950, the agrisoap is an almost daily companion after the 7pm news, with the strains of Arthur Wood's "Barwick Green" heralding the start of 15 minutes of trial, tribulations, love, hate and intrigue. The Archers is the longest running soap, nearly 60 years on radio. One of its principal characters was the patriarchal Phil Archer, portrayed by Norman Painting - and the BBC announced this evening that he has died at the age of 85, following a 9-year battle with bladder cancer. Painting wrote nearly 1,000 scripts for the series, and recorded his last episode on Tuesday. This will be broadcast on 22 November.

I have listened to the Archers for 26 years, and although "Phil Archer" had only rarely been making an appearance, I was sorry to hear that the actor, Norman Painting, had died.

Thursday 29 October

Overcast with only the odd drop of rain. Although it is only ten past four, it is already getting dark and in a minute, I'll have to put on the lights. The lighthouse across the bay is already working, as is the beacon in the shipping channel beside it. Temperatures are quite acceptable for late October, with the mercury at 14C.

A St Kilda centre is likely to be built in Lewis. A project group has researched three applications, from Leverburgh (Harris), Cleitreval (North Uist) and Mangersta (Lewis), for locations for such a centre. Placing it in St Kilda itself is not practicable, due to the remoteness of the archipelago - 45 miles away in the Atlantic, and more often than not inaccessible as a result of inclement conditions. Mangersta is a small township in the far west of Lewis, 40 miles west of Stornoway. On a clear day, St Kilda is visible from there. The island was evacuated in 1930, at the request of the population. At the centre, to be built at Mangersta, life and culture on St Kilda is to be celebrated.

Wednesday 28 October

A quiet day with not much happening in the world of the Western Isles. It is milder than of late, with the mercury at the dizzying height of 13C / 55F. The birds are all aflutter around the birdfeeder, and the starlings are going to town on a lard-based feeder. When the sun rises again tomorrow morning, they'll have the added benefit of a feeder full of peanuts and another lard ball on the tree. The squabbles and squeaking around the tree will be even louder than today's, I'm sure.

BBC Highland's newsreader garbled up the name of a particular breed of sheep, which forages on St Kilda. Rather than calling them by their proper name of Soay Sheep, he referred to them as Soya [sic] sheep. This had to do with a unique breed of mouse, the St Kilda field mouse. The house mouse of those islands died out shortly after people left in 1930.

Piracy remains a major problem in the Indian Ocean, east of Somalia. A yacht, carrying an elderly British couple, has been seized by the pirates and is being tracked at a distance by a European Naval Force. Meanwhile, closer to home, a skull-and-crossbones flag that had been flying over Inverness was lowered after a former seaman protested, saying that piracy was no laughing matter. The Jolly Roger had been hoisted because of Halloween, this coming Saturday.

Festive?

Now that the clocks have gone back, my routine is moved back one hour - the hurricane updates are always issued at the same times, 0300, 0900, 1500 and 2100 hours GMT. However, having moved from GMT+1 to GMT means that I issue the bulletins on the Tropical Cyclones blog one hour earlier by my own clock. Currently, there is only typhoon Mirinae which will hit the Philippines over the weekend. It has been a busy season, but only in the Pacific. The Atlantic is as quiet as a mouse.

The sun is now setting at a quarter to five, and this will regress to half past three by Christmas. November is not my favourite month, and don't start on that "looking forward to Xmas" lark. I was brought up, looking at Christmas as a family affair, going to church in the morning (or for the Watchnight service the evening before), then have a huge meal with the family in the afternoon. And prostrate yourself before the Holy Gogglebox in the evening. Giving presents used not to be customary in Holland. Pressies would come on 5 December for the feast of St Nicholas. I am fed up with the commercialism that surrounds Xmas, it renders the occasion cheap and tacky.

Here in Stornoway, the Christmas lights will go up in the main shopping precincts, Francis Street, Point Street and Cromwell Street around December 1st. They will be illuminated during a festive ceremony on a Thursday evening, if it isn't pouring with rain or blowing a gale. Here are a few images from 2006 - the illuminations of following years were far less impressive due to cut-backs.

Tuesday 27 October

Day 300 of the year 2009. Only two months left until Christmas, and the shops will explode with Xmas paraphernalia on 1 November. First though, we've got to get Halloween out of the way.

Today is wet in Stornoway as a large area of rain passes through from the Atlantic. It appears to be restricted to Scotland only, if I look at the rainfall radar. It's not warm, 10C. Yesterday, the birdfeeder was filled up and hung on the tree, and the sparrows and starlings did not take long to discover its delights. More than half a dozen birds flutter on and around it at any one time. The strange thing is, they tend to disappear at lunchtime.

Yesterday, the trial began at the International War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague, Holland, of former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic. Mr Karadzic refused to be present at proceedings, claiming he needs another 10 months to prepare his defence: which he is planning to conduct himself. The trial was adjourned until today, when it will be decided whether to impose counsel on Mr Karadzic (which he has already rejected). The delaying tactics by Mr Karadzic have been met with anger by the relatives of those killed by Bosnian Serbs in the Yugoslav conflict of the 1990s.

The fall of Srbrenica in July 1995 was one of the worst atrocities of that bloody war, and the involvement of Dutch UN troops, who appeared to collaborate with Bosnian Serb forces, still sits very uneasily within Dutch defence circles. In 1995, I myself worked for the Dutch MoD, and know a serviceman who was at Srebrenica.

Monday 26 October

Overcast with occasional drizzle this morning. Things are going to deteriorate, with more wind and rain for tomorrow. More leaves to sweep up by Wednesday in other words.


The BBC is reporting that the planned upgrade to the power-line between Beauly (near Inverness) and Denny (near Stirling) is recommended for approval by MSPs. The current line carries 132 kV, which will be increased to 400 kV. The pylons are expected to be 200 feet / 60 metres tall each, and there will be 600 of them along the length of the current powerline. The planning application for this upgrade has been the subject of a public inquiry, the report of which was submitted to Scottish Ministers 8 months ago. The application attracted 18,000 objections.

The upgraded powerline is important for renewable energy projects across the Highlands and Islands, as it will convey electricity, generated by these projects, to users in the Scottish Central Belt and into the UK National Grid.

Objectors have stated that this will irrevocably harm the iconic landscape of the Scottish Highlands, and adversely affect tourism. They also think that alternative options have not been sufficiently explored.

This issue is controversial, and involves high stakes, politically and economically. The Beauly to Denny powerline is part of a policy to cover Scotland's [sic] energy needs, without recourse to new nuclear powerstations.

The relevance to Lewis is high. A number of renewable energy projects are in the pipeline for this island, including a 39-turbine windfarm at Eishken, and a smaller 6-turbine project some 5 miles outside Stornoway. Similar schemes have been mooted for North Tolsta, Ballantrushal and the West Side between Shawbost and Dalbeg. Other schemes include a tidal barrage at Shader (although is probably only going to generate electricity for local consumption) and a wave-energy project off Great Bernera. In order to get this power to mainland consumers, a powerline will also have to be constructed between Little Loch Broom (Dundonnell) and Beauly, as well as a subsea cable (referred to as an interconnector).

Should final approval be granted by Scottish ministers (very likely), then we are likely to see the construction of the Eishken Windfarm go ahead at pretty short notice, and the same will apply to the Pentland Road scheme.

I do not believe that windfarms will bring long-term, sustained employment to the Isle of Lewis. There will be short-term work in the construction of the windturbines and electricity infrastructure. Once the turbines are in place, only a handful of people will be needed to monitor and operate the windfarm. The community benefits of the Eishken windfarm are spurious, in my opinion, as they require a massive cash injection from said community - and Lochs is not exactly the most affluent area in this part of the world.

The environmental impact will be substantial. I am restating my assertion that although nobody is entitled to a view, views is what attracts tourism. That being a mainstay of the island makes a shore-based windfarm a good example of a shot in the foot.

Although the final decision rests with Scottish Ministers, I cannot imagine that approval for the powerline upgrade through the Highlands will be taken lying down by its opponents.

Reading of blogs

Well, the number of posts to be read on Google Reader has once more climbed above the 100 mark, so tomorrow I shall head that way once more. There are a number of journals that I keep a close eye on, including those highlighted on Call for Support. Other people I monitor through Facebook. Getting slightly square-eyed (my bodyclock says it's 11.25pm, although the wall clock calls it 10.25pm). More tomorrow.

Halloween 2009

Found one of Donna's tags for Halloween on my Photobucket account, and decided to put it in the sidebar, until 1 November. Other Halloween images below. The one with the wee black cats is a bit sad: some years ago, an American animal welfare charity banned the sale of black cats around Halloween, as the poor things were known to get subjected to abuse. It's not just animals that are abused: vulnerable people are known to be targeted by people acting outside the good spirit of Hallowee for bullying and harassment.

Sunday 25 October

Did you put your clocks back last night? If you didn't, you either forgot or were in the USA.
The usual post clock-change jetlag pervaded this morning, not helped by the dreich, wet, grey and uninspiring weather conditions. Only now, an hour and a half before sunset, has the rain let up. One of those non-descript Sundays. The ferry left, as per schedule, at 2.30pm.

Over in Orkney, a member of a lifeboat crew had to be airlifted to hospital after he was injured during a call-out. The Kirkwall lifeboat was making his way to the island of Stronsay when it encountered a particularly high wave, and the man was injured in the resulting lurch. The marine casualty, a yacht whose anchors were not holding, was attended to later in the night.

Still on issues lifeboat related (I get a feed from their call-outs), a group of youngsters decided not to call 999 when their boat got into difficulty, as they were afraid of getting into difficulty with the police. Fortunately, people ashore had their wits about them and called the Coastguard. After their rescue, the teenagers were given their dreaded lesson in marine safety. Something also afforded to the drunk skipper of a yacht, which ran straight onto a breakwater in Devon.

Down in the Isle of Skye, volunteers have been draping the parapets of the Skye Bridge (linking Kyle of Lochals on the mainland to Kyleakin in Skye) in knitwear. Stitches on the Bridge spans 400 yards of bridge in very colourful creations. Pictures and further info on their website.

Saturday 24 October

What started as a bright morning has turned into a very wet afternoon. The rainfall radar shows red colours over northern Lewis, indicating very heavy rainfall. The low pressure centre is situated between Northern Ireland and the southern Hebrides and is moving northeast across Scotland. It will give us another wet day tomorrow, but a ridge of high pressure building in from Iceland should usher in a nice Monday. Yesterday's glorious weather is now but a distant memory.

Don't forget to put your clocks back tonight if you're in the UK and Europe; the USA keeps DST until next Sunday, November 2nd.

Visit to Tolsta Chaolais

It was a brilliantly sunny day today, which saw the mercury up to 15C and me out and about in the island. At 2.30pm, I joined the bus to Carloway and 45 minutes later I was dropped off at the road-end at Tolsta Chaolais. This is a small village, off the main road, about 2 miles south of Carloway on the west coast of the island. It has its own small graveyard, and after a 40 minute walk and a wee bit of detective work, I managed to locate it near the coast. TC is situated in a valley beside its own loch, see pictures.




Tolsta Chaolais graveyard


Friendly kitty

Friday 23 October

Beautiful morning with bright sunshine and not a breath of wind.
I did not watch last night's Question Time, but am pleased that the man from the BNP got a good roasting. Which is all I'll say on the matter.

For more than 40 years, a debate has been going on in the UK whether it should adopt the same timezone as the rest of Western Europe. At the moment, clocks in Great Britain are 1 hour behind Europe. A trial of 'double summertime' was abandoned in the 1960s after protests from those in Scotland, who experienced sunrise at 10 in the morning. Safety concerns were the prime consideration. Now, a prominent historian has said Scotland should be left on its own "tundra time" (I quote), whilst the rest of the UK goes one hour forward. Nice one. Two different timezones within the one country, one account of latitude, is ridiculous. Yes, the US has at least 4 timezones, but that is because it stretches across at least 60 degrees of longitude. The UK only straddles 9 degrees at a stretch. Furthermore, I think it is rather insulting to suggest people cannot work out 1 hour's time difference to work out when appointments are, as Mr Horne suggests. Mr Horne, in my opinion, should emigrate to the tundra to contemplate his utterances prior to making them.