Saturday 21/01/06

Very nice start to the day, bright but not sunny. There are chinks in the cloud. The efforts to rescue the whale in London continue. At low tide, it is hoisted onto a barge, and taken down to the Thames Estuary. Thousands throng the riverbank and bridges to watch. One bridge even had to be closed to traffic. Unfortunately, just before the animal was due to be released into the North Sea at Margate, it suffered a seizure and died. The whole operation costed 50 to 100 thousand pounds. On the worldwide weather front, there are some interesting things going on. Australia reports a cyclone (Daryl), along the coast between Exmouth and Roeburne in Western Australia. Russia has a cold snap, with temperatures at -34C in Moscow, and a whopping -68C at Verchoyansk, in Siberia. Calcutta in India is nippy, and its 7C is actually lower than Stornoway's maximum of 9C. East Africa shivers in temperatures as low as 16C. The Russian deepfreeze looked set to march west, but is unlikely to reach the UK now. Go to Somerfields at 4pm for some shopping. Lottery tickets prove useless. At 6 pm, I'm sent to mrs B's brother-in-law up the road with some baking. He offers me a dram and a good yarn or two. Return to Mrs B an hour later, much the worse for wear, and enjoy a good supper.