Monday 27/06/05

Today, the American ladies, Susan, Katie and Ginny, will be heading back to Washington DC. There was a bit of confusion about their flights, but that got sorted. On Wednesdays and Fridays of the weeks from now until September 3rd, we'll have 3 ferries a day. They leave here at 6.15, 12.40 and 19.00, arriving back at 12.15, 18.35 and 0.45. Mrs B is delighted with that prospect (not), because it means that guests going on the early ferry will have to leave at 5.30 a.m.. The weather is not great today, dreich is the word. Over the last two nights, it's been fairly gloomy around sunset time, 10.30pm. There is a man in this town who walks his dog from his car. In wet weather, I can see a wee white dog going up and down the causeway, followed closely by a light coloured vehicle. This is apparently someone in the money, who cannot be bothered to invest in a brolly or waterproofs. Ministers of the church sometimes conduct services on the wards in the hospital. As from now, they are required to ask for consent from all on the ward before proceeding. And they have to wash their hands before touching anyone. The Monday morning newsbulletins on Isles FM relay the usual weekend crimewave. Drugs, children found in possession of alcohol, cartheft, smashed windows and drunken behaviour. It appears that a Landrover collided with a deer on the A858 just west of Lochganvich late on Saturday. Car was damaged, but nobody was hurt, even the deer just ran away. Mrs B had a domestic disaster with the Americans who reported breaking a bed. They are well built, these young ladies, and they were mucking about. We suspect they flopped on the side of the bed and broke the spar on the side of it. The Americans duly went on their plane at 2.25, whilst mrs B's son organises a repair of the bed. Is that what you call "having a crack"? Unearth a Gaelic phrasebook in the Baltic Bookshop. Heard that a ship had lost power in the Minch near the Isle of Rum and had requested a tug. Tug went off at full steam - only to turn up off Norway. Meanwhile, the vessel concerned was left drifting in the Sea of the Hebrides. Well done.