Covid

 For just over a week, I had the doubtful pleasure of having a corona-virus infection. Fortunately, I took all available vaccinations, so the effects were not too severe. Fatigue, shortness-of-breath and general malaise. The dreaded double line on the lateral flow test said it all. I was pleased when it returned to single-line working, to use a railway expression. Apart from the physical unwellness, Covid also gives you a sense of anxiety, as in 'how bad is this going to get'. I hope not to get it again - but that's out of my control.

Remembrance

I always make a point of observing Remembrance Sunday in November, the anniversary of the end of the First World War.

Being Dutch, I also make a point of observing the Remembrance of the Dead of the Second World War in the Netherlands. This evening at 8pm, wreaths will be lain by King Willem Alexander at the National Memorial in Dam Square in Amsterdam, with a heavy focus on the victims of the Holocaust.

Of the 8.7 million people who were living in the Netherlands in 1939, 110,000 were killed in the gas chambers of the Nazi concentration camps. That equates to 1% of the population at the time. Why were they killed? Mostly because they were Jewish.

May 5th in Holland, incidentally, is Liberation Day, when the commander of the occupaying Nazi German forces surrendered to the Dutch authorities, ending 5 years of brutal occupation.
This is a memorial at Camp Westerbork from where thousands of Dutch Jews were deported to Auschwitz and other extermination camps during WW2.One of them was a 14-year old girl called Anne Frank.

Ferries galore

 Hardly. Ferries have been in the news for quite some time now, and this winter has been nothing short of jaw-dropping. Cancellations, frequent redeployment of vessels, annual refits that have stretched to months rather than a fortnight - all boiling down to an ageing fleet that has not been renewed in a timely fashion. 

So, last week, Pentland Ferries lent us their MV Alfred. This fact was repeated six time in First Minister's Questions at the Scottish Parliament ten days ago. However, whilst she is still trying out berths for size up and down the west coast, her sister ship MV Pentalina suffered engine failure and ran ashore at her Orkney base of St Margaret's Hope last night. All sixty passengers, as well as six dogs, were taken off the vessel using the local lifeboat and made it ashore safe and well. The ship was towed to her berth and is awaiting inspection by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency as to her seaworthyness (having just been issued with a ticket to that effect a fortnight ago), and the Marine Accident Investigation Branch. It is hoped she can quickly return to service. 

The ferry jinx obviously doesn't just affect us on the west coast; the north coast is similarly afflicted.

Covid-19

Today is the third anniversary of the first lockdown in the Covid-19 pandemic. We shall all remember that period vividly, but more to the point, we shall never forget those lost to the disease. Here in the UK, some 200,000 died of coronavirus, which was not brought under control until the end of 2021, when vaccinations meant the restrictions could finally be lifted. All that was still far in the future, that strange Monday in March 2020. 

No shops open, other than those deemed essential, such as supermarkets. What normally only took me 10 minutes now took me 90. Queuing outside Tesco as far back as Ferry Road. Once in the shop, keep a 2-metre distance to the customer in front. Bring a list, drawn up in sequence of items on the shelves, and don't you dare forget that item in aisle 4, because once past, you'd need to ask a member of staff to pick it up for you. No doubling back allowed. Then, a long queue for the check-out.

Masks were not yet compulsory, that came in the following July. Public transport at a virtual standstill, travel only being permitted if absolutely essential. Buses only available for essential workers, and the Thursday evening clap-a-thon for the NHS. As we have since learned, these rules were blithely ignored by those at the top of (UK) government. The deathrates skyrocketed to a frightening 1,500 a day across the UK. 

Spring 2020 was very sunny, and there was ample opportunity to go out for the daily hour's exercise. It was so strange, the normally busy streets of Stornoway empty of people - something previously only seen on a Sunday. Shops closed, and hardly anybody about. The usual events of summer, such as the agricultural shows and the Hebridean Celtic Festival, were all cancelled. No visitors to the island - at all.

I have come to call the year 2020 the Year of Silence.

Remember the toilet-paper shortages? 16 March 2020


Queueing system outside Tesco, 26 March 2020


Cromwell Street, Stornoway, 3.10pm, 26 March 2020


Closed shop, Bells Road, Stornoway, 26 March 2020


An Lanntair, 2 May 2020


In praise of the NHS, 21 May 2020


A sunny but derelict South Beach carpark, 6 May 2020

In memory of all, lost to the Covid-pandemic, here in UK and around the world. 

Metagama

In 1923, some 400 islanders left Lewis for Canada on board the steamer Metagama. They went in search of a better life in the New World, following the losses incurred by the island's population in the First World War and the sinking of the Iolaire on New Year's Day 1919, when 201 men drowned. Quite a few emigrants returned to the island of their birth, when they found circumstances in America less than they had anticipated. Apart from the Metagama, the SS Marloch sailed from Uist in a similar spell of mass migration.

The centenary of these seminal events is commemorated across the Western Isles. A memorial is currently being constructed at Lochboisdale; schools are putting on performances of theatrical plays on the subject.

Picture courtesy Adam Bell on Flickr.com.

Calanais Ùr

My eye was drawn to this job vacancy - no, I'm not applying.

In two years' time, a new visitor centre is to be built at Calanais, adjacent to the Stones. For some time now, the old centre struggled with capacity problems, in the car & coach park, in the centre itself and round the Stones. Next year, big cruiseliners will be able to dock at Glumag Harbour here in Stornoway, and hundreds of visitors will be bussed to the prime visitor attraction in the isles: the Callanish Stones. A new centre, carpark, cafetaria and access experience will be built there, and they need a person to manage the delivery of that. I think an annual salary of £40k is a little meagre, if it will result in a world-class facility. I'm all fine with that.

There is one line in the write-up that made me sad, in a way. "Provision of ticketed, time-allotted visits will help to sustainably manage the visitor flow and therefore the footfall at the Stones".

Ah.

I would like to turn the clock back to 1976, and my very first visit to the British Isles. During that scorching hot summer, we found ourselves bombing down the A303 in Wiltshire, and Stonehenge loomed into view. We parked up and wandered to and among the Stones. No fences, no visitor centre, no tickets, no fees. Unfortunately, it became necessary to fence off the area around the Stones, a visitor centre was built and you are now charged a pretty hefty fee of more than £20 . I understand why, the reasons were sometimes quite negative.


I somehow envisage the Callanish Stones turning into the Stonehenge of the North. Fences, tickets, a tourism hotspot of Stonehenge proportions. Yes, I'll be the first to acknowledge that tourism is a pillar in the islands' economy, and the Glumag development and the very necessary refurbishment at Callanish are needed to improve the tourists' experiences here. 

But like most islanders, I have been known to wander around Callanish at midnight around the summer solstice


Or at any time of the day or night, at any given day in the year

Yes, progress is necessary if life in the islands is to remain sustainable. I'd be the first to welcome visitors and share the island experience with them, I've been known to do that before now. I shall soon wind my way down the fifteen miles to Callanish, before it's all turned upside down.

Whoever gets the job of Project Delivery Manager, I wish them every success, and hope it all goes smoothly. I am looking forward to visiting the new facility, ticket in hand, from 2025 onwards. I hope those who flock from the floating hotels in the Glumag, bussed down the A858, get an idea what the Callanish Stones mean to us. Not something along the lines of "Oh, it's Tuesday, so this must be Callanish".

Reworded books

I read that Roald Dahl's (children's) books have been reworded to appease the queasy in this world. Fat has been replaced by enormous, and the words black and white have been exponged. It rather reminds me of the Sinterklaas debate in the Netherlands, where after many decades Black Peter has become politically incorrect. It is a children's story, quite innocent. And to change wordings from the 1960s to please the adults of the 2020s, just because our perceptions have changed displeases me. It puts me in mind of Germany in the 1930s, where books were burned that did not meet with the approval of the Hitler regime...