Friday 03/02/06

It's a fairly quiet day once again, with variable amounts of cloud, see picture above. Temperatures have risen nice and high, to about 9C / 48F. It would appear the Clansman ferry is with us for a while. Continue to work on the Iolaire project. I have found the names of 204 casualties and 52 survivors. Some of the bodies were found as far away as Lochs, 12 miles to the south; others have never been located. It is very sad to see the faces of all those young men, who virtually all perished in that disaster on New Year's Day 1919. I have 65 images. Even after 87 years, it still carries a punch.

At 7pm, I accompany mrs B to a Burns Supper in the County Hotel, hosted by local MSP (Member of Scottish Parliament) Alistair Morrison (Labour). Mrs B goes with trepidation, as the last dinner in the County had been a disaster. We are the first to arrive at 19.10. I get us a drink, and await developments. Alistair Morrison and his guest Margaret Curran (the Labour Chief Whip in the Scots Parliament) arrive by about 7.50. Next we're served cockaleekie soup (something with chicken en leek). After a considerable wait, the haggis is piped in. One man addresses the haggis using a Robert Burns poem. A haggis consists of a sheep stomach, stuffed with mashed up internal organs, such as heart, lungs and liver. Laced with onions, salt and pepper and cooked for 3 hours. It's served with tatties and neeps (potatoes and mashed turnips). I wash it down with plenty of wine, to be oblivious to the contents of the haggis. It's basically offal. A raspberry sweet concludes proceedings. Margaret Curran delivers a very good speech, ridiculing George Galloway. He is an MP for a London constituency, who is in parliament on a ticket of opposition to the war in Iraq. He went into the Big Brother House, for the sake of publicity, but was reduced to an object of ridicule. One of the events that brought that on was a scene where he was imitating a cat, lapping imaginary milk from the hands of a female contestant. Miaow. It's a pity, because Galloway is a fantastic orator, who even managed to outwit US Congress. Mrs Curran tonguelashes a local party worker and cracks some rather good jokes. After supper, the dining room gets transformed into a dance hall of sorts. I meet various people, such as the councillor for Payble (North Uist), who is trying to get a Sunday ferry from Berneray to Harris. Others include local MSP Alistair Morrison and former MP Calum MacDonald. After a strip-the-willow and a number of yarns, I accompany mrs B home at 12.30 a.m.. Outside the Sea Angling Club, a man shouts obscenities against Roman Catholics - not very nice. Apparently, Rangers FC have lost their latest match
0-3, so someone isn't happy.