Sunday 09/04/06

At 7.15, a snow shower falls, but when I rise rather later, the sun shines. Some showers hover within sight, but none fall here as yet. The very first ferry ever to sail to Harris on a Sunday arrives in the rain at Leverburgh at 10.10. Nobody is at the pier to protest at the arrival of the Loch Portain [pronounce: Porshten], as they are all in church for the communions. Only some tape, a policeman and a placard saying "Keep the Sabbath Holy" are in attendance. Some 20 passengers, one a Berneray resident along for the historic ride, are travelling this morning. One other person was going up to Stornoway to visit a relative in hospital. Although no protest is being held today, the local councillor, Morag Munro, has said that there are 6 more days in the week in which to protest. Calmac deny they are going to start on the Ullapool to Stornoway run on Sundays. The item features on the national bulletins of BBC News, where the journalist in question pronounces Uist as Yooweesht, contrary to the normal Yoowist. As it's a nice afternoon, I head off for a walk up Smith Avenue, down Springfield Road to Anderson Road. I turned left into Anderson Road, but found myself heading west, towards the hospital. I want to go east, so turn 180 degrees. Came back down Moss End and Seaforth Road, cutting through Newton via Bells Road and Inaclete Road. Mrs B serves me supper. A distant ship sits below the horizon, only its superstructure is visible. Not a lot on TV. We get satellite TV (Sky), which gives 500 channels. Some of them only through supplementary subscription (sport, films, s*x), i.e. not. All those channels, and nothing worth viewing. At the end of the day, I prefer radio.