Contemplating

The other day I walked past the local slaughterhouse (two streets away), and people were pulling in with trailers full of sheep. It was December 18th, and I remembered the ad in the local paper, announcing the opening of the abattoir that day. As I crossed the road, I distinctly heard a bang from inside the premises.

We all like food on our plates, and I like lamb with mint-sauce as much as the next person, but you don't want to know what happened between a happy, woolly sheep standing in a field and that chunk of meat on your plate.

This morning, the sun rose at 9.11 am. It will set again at 3.34pm this afternoon, making it the shortest day of the year - either today, or tomorrow. The sun will grace us with his presence for all of 6 hours and 23 minutes today. Just as well there are no clouds. The strange thing was that in the hour before sunrise, the mainland hills, 60 miles away, were as clear as a bell. After sunrise, i.e. now, I cannot see them at all.

Local council have egg on their face this week. In a civil action by a local company, they were ordered to pay £140k ($280k) in compensation, plus an estimated £100k in costs. Back in 1996, the company had tendered for a contract to provide streetlighting. It was the second lowest offer, but the council awarded the contract to its own contractor, the DSO. In doing so, it overlooked the fact that the DSO did not have the assets in place to carry out the work and had not budgeted for them. After the external company started litigation, a breathtaking litany of procrastination, obstruction and non-cooperation followed, which stretched for a decade. Last Monday, the court made the above decision, vindicating the company, which nearly went bust. It is alleged that that might have been the objective of the procrastination.