Wednesday 08/02/06

A cold but bright start, temperature 4C. Showers are about, moving along on a northerly breeze. Nonetheless, it's a nice sunny morning. Good program on Radio Scotland between 11 and 12, about the effects of passive smoking. In a bar where only two cigar smokers were present, the nicotine levels in the saliva of the barmaid rose from 1 to 2.7 nanograms per ml [1 ng = 1 billionth of a gram]. At 12.00 a shower moves down, with a faint rainbow. Manage to snap starlings on the birdfeeders. The feed from the webcam is interrupted at 1pm because of a fault on the Camstreams network. There are 0 watchers on the whole of camstreams. Until that, about 80 viewers from around the globe have been to watch Stornoway's weather. Countries include Chile, Slovenia, Brazil (as ever), Alaska. Go to Somerfields and encounter an acquaintance along Newton Street (the man who came firstfooting on New Year's Night), who is very, very drunk. It's only 3.30pm. He made a beeline for a half-full bottle of whisky which had been left on the seawall. He managed to utter the grand total of three whole sentences in the five minutes it took me to walk to Somerfields. Get a Chinese ready-made meal from the supermarket, to celebrate 1 year with Mrs B. It's been a rollercoaster year. The meal goes down well, and she supplies the wine.