Friday 02/12/05

Cloudy morning, with rain setting in at 1pm. The English Channel is suffering force 10 storms, with the barometer down to 965 mbar. Up here, 600 miles away it's 985 mbar. At the eastern end of the Channel, pressure is ALSO 985 mbar, but that's a distance of only 200 miles. Result: strong winds. The paper reports on last night's meeting regarding health service reform and says it was heated at times. It also refers to the showing of Rocket Post. The timberboat I mentioned a few days ago, the Celtic Spirit, was on its way from Estonia to Northern Ireland when her cargo shifted and she developed a 10° list. This was reported to the Coastguard, who ordered her to put into Stornoway to restow her cargo. This was still in progress last night, but this morning I found that the ship had left. Have commenced another weblog, this time on the Island Blogging site of BBC Scotland. I'm writing the Arnish Lighthouse Blog under the Western Isles, specifically Lewis. I am using the name "Arnish Lighthouse" because this lighthouse stands at the entrance to Stornoway Harbour and oversees everything that comes and goes into port. It also looks out over town and island. The Polish workers at the Arnish Yard are to be laid off this week, because the contract for the construction of wave generators for Portugal has been completed. No further contracts are on the book, but this one kept 110 people in a job since August. Forgot to mention that the Christmas lights were officially lit last night in a festive celebration. Stalls were set out in Francis Street. Heard that once more, the Scottish Executive doesn't know. It cannot tell us how many people are on methadone in Scotland, and how successful that is in weaning drug addicts off heroin. It's not the first time that I've heard "dunno" from them on a health-related issue. Cloud breaks in the evening.