Thursday 01/06/06

Breakfast at 10 am, on a grey and windy day. As I'm a little the worse for wear, I'm not up to much. It's supposed to be 15 C outside, but doesn't feel like it. News comes through that the Duke of Rothesay, Prince Charles, is visiting the Isle of Rum. The Phoenix Trust, which the Prince patronises, is having a look round Kinloch Castle on Rum to see how they can assist in the £6m restoration of the building. The Kinloch Castle Friends Association gives more information, as does a separate entry in this journal. I direct the Canadians to the Iolaire Monument, after which they go on to meet more long-lost cousins. I get the regional papers in. The Gazette is full of the non-compost mentis fracas on the Lochs Road last Saturday. A senior member of the Health Board could be summarily dismissed for breach of confidentiality. Three patients died of cancer, after follow-up investigations and treatment recommendations did not reach their GP following their admission to hospital in Stornoway and a subsequent diagnosis of cancer. In one instance, the discharge letter took a mere 8 weeks to reach the GP. Normal is 1 week maximum. Total breakdown of communication, total meltdown of the organisation. I go for an amble up the Goat Island causeway, looking round the boats on the island. A minibus full of workers (from Poland, Byelorus and the Baltic states) for hares past and pulls up outside the fish processing plant. Mrs B's granddaughter comes to collect the clothes her granny ordered for her. The young lady will be 11 in August. The Canadians don't come back until after midnight, but we still lay on a ceilidh until 1.30 a.m.