Friday 27/10/06

Grey day, with increasing winds after midday. Mrs B heads off into town for a few hours, whilst I catch up with things on the Net. The wind picks up to force 7 by 2pm, and the ferry is very late departing for Ullapool: 3.15pm. Normal departure time 1.45pm. Major disruption in power supplies to the far north of Scotland, following 90 mph winds overnight. The damage caused by flooding becomes clear when the floodwaters recede in Dingwall and Kirkwall. Four bombs were washed up by the floods near an old airplane base at Alness. One man drowned after his boat capsized on a loch. A fishing boat is missing in the central North Sea, with one crewmember found dead in the water. Another 3 are unaccounted for. The mother of Molly Campbell, the 12-year old who went to Pakistan to be with her dad, has been refused legal aid, which makes it very difficult for her to contest the custody battle raging in a Lahore courtroom. Supper is microwaved chicken biryani. I spend some time improvising tunes on the keyboard. Saw a picture of flooding on Junction Road in Kirkwall, a street I know very well from my four week sojourn there in September 2004.