Preparedness for when

Goldiegirl

GreyQueen wrote: »

I spent a fortnight on the Outer Hebrides (travelled the whole length north to south), end of August and early September, a few years ago.

It was lairy; started with Gale Force 9 on the first night and stayed pretty wild. It was brilliant and I've never had a more radiant complexion with all that soft water and being buffetted around on the hills all day.

Did a bit of laundry outside one of the blackhouse hostels but even with double-pegging it was too wild and I had to bring my stuff indoors or it would have been over the sea to Skye before you could blink.

Loved it there. Particulary loved the reaction of fellow southern Englishers when asked where I was going on my holibobs; they were more enthralled by OH than trips to Thailand.

Actually, come to think of it, you could have flown to Thailand faster than I made my way up to Lewis.............

I will admit to being obsessed with the Scottish Highlands and Islands.

I've always been quite interested, but a few years ago I was thrilled to discover that a great grandmother on my dad's line was from Tain, in north East Scotland, and my interest has mushroomed since then

By complete coincidence, I had booked a round Britain cruise for the following summer, and one of the ports was only a few miles from Tain, so I was able to have a very brief look.

We were scheduled to go to Orkney too, but couldn't call there due to adverse weather.

I hope to travel north again some day.

[Deleted User]

Pollyjuice wrote: »

I have one of those stoves Bedsit Bob keeps on about and 8 gas canisters

They are excellent stoves.

It's like cooking on a gas hob, rather than a camping stove.

The heat is evenly spread, rather than having a hotspot, as you tend to get with miniature backpacking stoves.

mardatha

Was it Invergordon Goldie?
They've evacuated the rigs now, only skeleton staff left on.

GreyQueen

Mar, you've mentioned Scottish weather forums a few times before, would you mind pointing us towards them, please? I know I'm a long way from the Promised Land, but I am interested as to what's happening.

mardatha

http://forum.netweather.tv/topic/78624-scotland-regional-discussion-29112013/page-16#entry2854146

Think you might have to sign up...is a very friendly forum, not one argument ever
If you cant see the forum, its Scottish Regional Discussion

Goldiegirl

mardatha wrote: »

Was it Invergordon Goldie?
They've evacuated the rigs now, only skeleton staff left on.

Yes it was:)

We had a lovely walk around the town, and in the afternoon went on a coach trip to Dornoch, and came though Tain on the way back. Also went to Glenmorangie whiskey

pineapple

We are bound to get a power cut here since I only just got my twigs set up - lit up like a Christmas tree in fact! :rotfl:
Wind is furious - the wind chime is doing somersaults. We've got horizontal rain too.
Just looking at the news - flood warnings, power cuts.... Was planning a supermarket run but wondering whether I should even be taking the car out :huh:.
I see they are raising the pension age yet again. But our economy is allegedly picking up. So there will be plenty of jobs for people over 65 including those who have to move from manual work and who can't afford to retire with no state pension. Yeah right...
Stay safe in this abominable weather kiddies.

[Deleted User]

Isn't karma a wonderful thing? My eldest DD had to buy a new cat tree for Pushkin Cat as he'd grown too big to fit his kitten one and as the kitten one is still perfectly good, just too small He Who Knows has brought it home and we've freecycled it here. Now last week I bumped into a friend I hadn't seen for a while who is also the besotted owner of a woodstove which they have been running on palletts from a local source which has now ceased to be available and she was asking me if I knew a good log supplier. What has this to do with kitten trees? Well, we had a couple of requests for the kitten tree, one of which was accompanied by the message hope you and yours are well. We didn't recognise the name(it turns out the person concerned has remarried and has a new surname) but offered and were accepted. This lovely lady has had several things from us before and with her new husband runs thier own business and posts a few times a year offering free palletts to collect from the business premisis. We mentioned our friends when she rang us to arrange collection and the upshot is that my woodburner friend now has a regular and free source of fuel for the forseeable future, brilliant!!! Good thing karma eh? Treat it well and it treats you well in return, Lyn xxx.

Wyre

Morning all, I hope all are well and those up north are safe. It sounds awful and they are only expecting it to get worse it seems, as they have closed all the rail lines.

I am just back from Ald!. I picked up some of these https://www.aldi.co.uk/en/specialbuys/thursday-5th-december/product-detail/ps/p/technical-ski-gloves/ and these https://www.aldi.co.uk/en/specialbuys/thursday-5th-december/product-detail/ps/p/mensladies-winter-boots/ . The gloves are gorgeous, so warm (it is bitter out today) and the boots fit like a dream. No they aren't the most expensive in the world but if they see me through this winter, I can save next year for a more expensive pair. If they last longer then bonus! Just need to get some gaiters. Seeing as Hubby is off tomorrow, I may see if he will take me to the outlet centre, perhaps I can bag myself a bargain!

Stay warm and safe xx

GreyQueen

pineapple wrote: »

We are bound to get a power cut here since I only just got my twigs set up - lit up like a Christmas tree in fact! :rotfl:
Wind is furious - the wind chime is doing somersaults. We've got horizontal rain too.
Just looking at the news - flood warnings, power cuts.... Was planning a supermarket run but wondering whether I should even be taking the car out :huh:.
I see they are raising the pension age yet again. But our economy is allegedly picking up. So there will be plenty of jobs for people over 65 including those who have to move from manual work and who can't afford to retire with no state pension. Yeah right...
Stay safe in this abominable weather kiddies.

Keep indoors would be my advice. If you run over a fallen branch you could damage your car or flying debris could damage yourself.

Only a slight breeze here. It clouded over at some point in the night, although I could see a frost sparkling on the cars outside before bedtime, and we now have what I have heard referred to as a "mackerel sky", meaning that pattern of clouds mean to look like the scales on the fish.

Dunno what will happen but I doubt it'll stop me making my way into the office. Hope our Scottish friends have their power on and will check in with us later. Take care, Mar, WCS, WLL and all the others.

Feeling a little p'd off about the autumn statement as I'm not sure if my state pension age has just jacked up from 67 to 68 or not; am in my very late forties. So that's only 7-8 years longer than my mother, then.

Was talking to a bloke the other day who was grumbling that he 'only' had £500 per week as a new pensioner and couldn't get any help with his rent or council tax. I tried to dredge the deeps of my soul for some sympathy but couldn't find right a lot, TBH.

ETA; spoke too soon, wind starting to strengthen and just heard a few whoo-whoo gusts around the Towers. Batten down the hatches!