Yay!
Back from a glorious road trip down Scotland and England, and across France into almost the heartland of Switzerland, using motorways, A-roads, B-roads and two different international ferries, from Dover to Calais, and from Cherbourg to Portsmouth.
Caught up with family, friends, business contacts, celebrated old and young lives, grieved with an old friend for the loss of a son in his early twenties, felt proud of my Mum for having braved and recovering well from a year of major surgery including a new knee joint.
Last but not least, rejoiced in the sounds, smells and colours of spring and early summer.
The palette was bright yellow, yellow-orange, bright red, pale purple, pale blue, bright blue, every hue of green under the sun, every hue of grey in the sky, every shade of white, cream and pale pink on shrubs and trees that one can imagine. And every now and then there was a splash of bright, almost screaming pink – azaleas and rhododendrons and fresh-leaved blood beech.
Glorious.
Glad to be home, a bit tired, and needing to catch up.
Hoping to post some photos here, soon, or on flickr. Sadly, I'll never be able to bring you the scent of a field of rapeseed in full bloom, or that of pale lilac...
Still, watch this space if you will...
Hugs
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Light and happiness
Thousands of candles can be lit
from a single candle
and the life of the candle
will not be shortened
Happiness never decreases
by being shared
(Buddha)
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
The Geese
the geese
this sunny midweek
morning
a flattened
undulating w
of some fifty
greylag geese
appears high up
a dotted line dark against
the
deep blue sky
purposefully they
head north-west
laughing at each
other
high above me as
they
fly toward their
summer fields
i stare and laugh
back at them
my heart soars in
wonder
are they the geese
that
visit kilmore glen
in early spring
late summer
in synch with
tides that feed
the salt marsh of loch feochan?
©
MPJ, Oban, 11Apr2012
Saturday, April 07, 2012
Children need to be out in the open air
http://youtu.be/SWE6EOmXLZM
When I was growing up – admittedly in a rural area – we were sent out to play in a woodland or in the fields for hours on end, an apple the only provision. Supervision? What supervision? We were trusted to be home by mealtimes. I don't think anything very serious ever happened to any of us. We explored a "big cave" that had probably once been a fox den or was maybe simply a hollow left when a boulder tumbled down the steep slope after a heavy rainfall.
We were allowed to develop our natural instincts and learnt to trust them.
The worst that ever happened was a very young boy falling off the garden swing at his house. He broke his arm and was a hero in plaster for several weeks. I was about four at the time. When I was about nine, a friend swung me around, holding on to one of my arms and one of my feet. The landing was a bit rough and I scraped the top of my other foot. Sore for a few days, but the memory of that exhilarating flight in mid-air has remained with me ever since.
I have unforgettable memories of playing Indians, clambering up trees and ambushing our persecutors with tiny pebbles, of lugging big rocks into the middle of shallow streams, building dams to have a dip in a proper pool. Those were communal efforts that taught us the fine art of communicating to achieve a common goal. There was much shouting and laughter and we all got wonderfully brown tans in the process. Although suncream was unheard-of until much later, I don't recall ever having sunburn or heatstroke or anything of the kind.
When I was growing up – admittedly in a rural area – we were sent out to play in a woodland or in the fields for hours on end, an apple the only provision. Supervision? What supervision? We were trusted to be home by mealtimes. I don't think anything very serious ever happened to any of us. We explored a "big cave" that had probably once been a fox den or was maybe simply a hollow left when a boulder tumbled down the steep slope after a heavy rainfall.
We were allowed to develop our natural instincts and learnt to trust them.
The worst that ever happened was a very young boy falling off the garden swing at his house. He broke his arm and was a hero in plaster for several weeks. I was about four at the time. When I was about nine, a friend swung me around, holding on to one of my arms and one of my feet. The landing was a bit rough and I scraped the top of my other foot. Sore for a few days, but the memory of that exhilarating flight in mid-air has remained with me ever since.
I have unforgettable memories of playing Indians, clambering up trees and ambushing our persecutors with tiny pebbles, of lugging big rocks into the middle of shallow streams, building dams to have a dip in a proper pool. Those were communal efforts that taught us the fine art of communicating to achieve a common goal. There was much shouting and laughter and we all got wonderfully brown tans in the process. Although suncream was unheard-of until much later, I don't recall ever having sunburn or heatstroke or anything of the kind.
Friday, March 23, 2012
Urgent Action for Hana Shalabi, Palestinian hunger striker
Amnesty International Urgent Action Update – Palestinian hunger striker’s health declines
Further information on UA: 71/12 Index: MDE 15/013/2012 Israel/Occupied Palestinian Territories, Date: 13 March 2012
Amnesty International calls for URGENT ACTION as Palestinian hunger striker’s health declines
Hana Shalabi’s detention order has been reduced to four months, but an Israeli military judge has yet to rule on her appeal. She has been on hunger strike since her arrest over three weeks ago. Her health is deteriorating.
Following a judicial review on 29 February 2012, a military judge decided on 4 March to reduce Hana Shalabi’s six-month administrative detention order by two months. Her detention order now ends on 16 June 2012 but could be renewed. She remains on hunger strike, which she initially began to protest against ill-treatment during her arrest on 16 February 2012 and then continued in protest at her detention without charge or trial. On 23 February, she was ordered to spend a week in solitary confinement as punishment for her hunger strike, but after four days was put in a cell with other detainees where she remains.
Her lawyers appealed the four-month order and a hearing was held at the Military Court of Appeals on 7 March 2012. However, the military judge postponed a decision after the military prosecution objected to the request for her release, citing “secret evidence” justifying Hana Shalabi’s detention, which they refused to reveal for “security reasons”, making it impossible for her to effectively exercise her right to mount a legal challenge.
A doctor from Physicians for Human Rights – Israel visited Hana Shalabi on 8 and 12 March 2012. The doctor reported that she is growing weaker by the day, that her muscles have begun to atrophy and that she is suffering from spells of dizziness and loss of consciousness.
Hana Shalabi has not been allowed family visits since she was arrested. Her father was prevented from attending the military court hearing on 7 March, and was thus unable to see her.
Please write immediately, before 20 April 2012, in English or your own language [remember, polite and calm is more effective, and you may wish to incorporate extra information given below]:
• Calling on the Israeli authorities to release Hana Shalabi and other Palestinians held in administrative detention immediately, unless they are promptly charged with an internationally recognizable criminal offence and brought to trial in full conformity with international fair trial standards;
• Urging them to allow Hana Shalabi regular access to her lawyers, family and independent medical care, and to ensure she is treated humanely at all times and not punished in any way for her hunger strike, such as by being placed in solitary confinement.
PLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE 20 APRIL 2012 TO:
• Military Judge Advocate General
Brigadier General Danny Efroni
6 David Elazar Street
Hakirya, Tel Aviv,
Israel
Fax: +972 3 569 4526
Email: avimn@idf.gov.il
Salutation: Dear Judge Advocate General
• Commander of the IDF – West Bank
Major-General Nitzan Alon
GOC Central Command
Military Post 01149
Battalion 877
Israel Defense Forces,
Israel
Fax: +972 2 530 5724
Salutation: Dear Major-General
• And copies to:
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence
Ehud Barak
Ministry of Defence
37 Kaplan Street, Hakirya
Tel Aviv 61909,
Israel
Fax: +972 3 69 16940
+972 3 691 7915
Salutation: Dear Minister
• Also send copies to diplomatic representatives accredited to your country.
Please check with amnesty international if sending appeals after the above date. This is the first update of UA 71/12.
Further information: http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/MDE15/013/2012/en
Palestinian hunger striker’s health declines
Hana Shalabi is from the village of Burqin, near Jenin in the north of the occupied West Bank. According to her family, she had plans to study nursing at al-Rawda College in Nablus before she was arrested on 16 February 2012. She was taken to Salem detention centre for interrogation and transferred the next day to HaSharon detention centre in northern Israel. On 23 February 2012, she was given an administrative detention order, signed by a military commander, stating that she would be detained for six months. A military judge who reviewed the order reduced it to four months on 4 March. According to her lawyer, the Israeli military authorities allege that Hana Shalabi is involved in activities that pose a security threat to Israel.
Hana Shalabi was previously arrested by the Israeli authorities on 14 September 2009 and spent 25 months in administrative detention without charge or trial. In a response to Urgent Action letters from activists, the Israeli Embassy in the UK wrote that Hana Shalabi received an administrative detention order on 29 September 2009 “based upon intelligence information regarding her involvement in dangerous activities including planning to commit a terrorist suicide attack”. She was released on 18 October 2011, a few days before the order was due to expire, in the Israeli-Hamas prisoner swap which saw the phased release of 1,027 Palestinian prisoners and detainees in exchange for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. She has never been charged with any offence.
Hana Shalabi went on hunger strike to protest at being detained without charge the day she was arrested. According to her lawyer, Hana Shalabi says that she began the hunger strike to protest at being strip-searched by male Israeli soldiers after her arrest.
According to her lawyer, Hana Shalabi was kept in solitary confinement from 23 until 27 February as punishment for her hunger strike. Hana Shalabi’s lawyer filed a request to the Israel Prison Service (IPS) to transfer her to the Ramleh prison hospital where she could receive medical treatment.
Under the system of administrative detention, detainees’ rights, as guaranteed by Articles 9 and 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Israel is a state party, including their rights to be informed promptly and fully of the reasons for their detention, to be presumed innocent, to examine and have examined the witnesses against them, and to be tried in public, are consistently flouted. The evidence against the detainee is heard by a military judge in secret, without either the defendant or their lawyer being given access to the evidence or able to challenge it, whether at the first judicial review of the administrative detention order, at the Military Court of Appeals if an appeal is filed, or at the Supreme Court of Israel if an appeal for a hearing is filed there. Furthermore, no prisoner or detainee should be forced to undergo a body search conducted by members of the opposite sex , which constitutes a violation of the right not to be subjected to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment and the right to privacy and is also in breach of international standards relating to the rights of detainees and prisoners, including the UN Rules for the Treatment of Women Prisoners and Non-custodial Measures for Women Offenders.
Amnesty International has long called on the Israeli authorities to end the practice of administrative detention. Administrative detainees held on account of their non-violent political opinions or activities should be released immediately and unconditionally; others should be released or charged with an internationally recognizable criminal offence and promptly tried according to international standards.
According to the IPS, there were 309 Palestinian administrative detainees as of 31 January 2012, though the number may have increased since. There are currently 24 Palestinian Legislative Council members in administrative detention. One man has been held in administrative detention for five years.
Further information on UA: 71/12 Index: MDE 15/013/2012 Israel/Occupied Palestinian Territories, Date: 13 March 2012
Amnesty International calls for URGENT ACTION as Palestinian hunger striker’s health declines
Hana Shalabi’s detention order has been reduced to four months, but an Israeli military judge has yet to rule on her appeal. She has been on hunger strike since her arrest over three weeks ago. Her health is deteriorating.
Following a judicial review on 29 February 2012, a military judge decided on 4 March to reduce Hana Shalabi’s six-month administrative detention order by two months. Her detention order now ends on 16 June 2012 but could be renewed. She remains on hunger strike, which she initially began to protest against ill-treatment during her arrest on 16 February 2012 and then continued in protest at her detention without charge or trial. On 23 February, she was ordered to spend a week in solitary confinement as punishment for her hunger strike, but after four days was put in a cell with other detainees where she remains.
Her lawyers appealed the four-month order and a hearing was held at the Military Court of Appeals on 7 March 2012. However, the military judge postponed a decision after the military prosecution objected to the request for her release, citing “secret evidence” justifying Hana Shalabi’s detention, which they refused to reveal for “security reasons”, making it impossible for her to effectively exercise her right to mount a legal challenge.
A doctor from Physicians for Human Rights – Israel visited Hana Shalabi on 8 and 12 March 2012. The doctor reported that she is growing weaker by the day, that her muscles have begun to atrophy and that she is suffering from spells of dizziness and loss of consciousness.
Hana Shalabi has not been allowed family visits since she was arrested. Her father was prevented from attending the military court hearing on 7 March, and was thus unable to see her.
Please write immediately, before 20 April 2012, in English or your own language [remember, polite and calm is more effective, and you may wish to incorporate extra information given below]:
• Calling on the Israeli authorities to release Hana Shalabi and other Palestinians held in administrative detention immediately, unless they are promptly charged with an internationally recognizable criminal offence and brought to trial in full conformity with international fair trial standards;
• Urging them to allow Hana Shalabi regular access to her lawyers, family and independent medical care, and to ensure she is treated humanely at all times and not punished in any way for her hunger strike, such as by being placed in solitary confinement.
PLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE 20 APRIL 2012 TO:
• Military Judge Advocate General
Brigadier General Danny Efroni
6 David Elazar Street
Hakirya, Tel Aviv,
Israel
Fax: +972 3 569 4526
Email: avimn@idf.gov.il
Salutation: Dear Judge Advocate General
• Commander of the IDF – West Bank
Major-General Nitzan Alon
GOC Central Command
Military Post 01149
Battalion 877
Israel Defense Forces,
Israel
Fax: +972 2 530 5724
Salutation: Dear Major-General
• And copies to:
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence
Ehud Barak
Ministry of Defence
37 Kaplan Street, Hakirya
Tel Aviv 61909,
Israel
Fax: +972 3 69 16940
+972 3 691 7915
Salutation: Dear Minister
• Also send copies to diplomatic representatives accredited to your country.
Please check with amnesty international if sending appeals after the above date. This is the first update of UA 71/12.
Further information: http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/MDE15/013/2012/en
*****
Additional Information on URGENT ACTION (UA 71/12):Palestinian hunger striker’s health declines
Hana Shalabi is from the village of Burqin, near Jenin in the north of the occupied West Bank. According to her family, she had plans to study nursing at al-Rawda College in Nablus before she was arrested on 16 February 2012. She was taken to Salem detention centre for interrogation and transferred the next day to HaSharon detention centre in northern Israel. On 23 February 2012, she was given an administrative detention order, signed by a military commander, stating that she would be detained for six months. A military judge who reviewed the order reduced it to four months on 4 March. According to her lawyer, the Israeli military authorities allege that Hana Shalabi is involved in activities that pose a security threat to Israel.
Hana Shalabi was previously arrested by the Israeli authorities on 14 September 2009 and spent 25 months in administrative detention without charge or trial. In a response to Urgent Action letters from activists, the Israeli Embassy in the UK wrote that Hana Shalabi received an administrative detention order on 29 September 2009 “based upon intelligence information regarding her involvement in dangerous activities including planning to commit a terrorist suicide attack”. She was released on 18 October 2011, a few days before the order was due to expire, in the Israeli-Hamas prisoner swap which saw the phased release of 1,027 Palestinian prisoners and detainees in exchange for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. She has never been charged with any offence.
Hana Shalabi went on hunger strike to protest at being detained without charge the day she was arrested. According to her lawyer, Hana Shalabi says that she began the hunger strike to protest at being strip-searched by male Israeli soldiers after her arrest.
According to her lawyer, Hana Shalabi was kept in solitary confinement from 23 until 27 February as punishment for her hunger strike. Hana Shalabi’s lawyer filed a request to the Israel Prison Service (IPS) to transfer her to the Ramleh prison hospital where she could receive medical treatment.
Under the system of administrative detention, detainees’ rights, as guaranteed by Articles 9 and 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Israel is a state party, including their rights to be informed promptly and fully of the reasons for their detention, to be presumed innocent, to examine and have examined the witnesses against them, and to be tried in public, are consistently flouted. The evidence against the detainee is heard by a military judge in secret, without either the defendant or their lawyer being given access to the evidence or able to challenge it, whether at the first judicial review of the administrative detention order, at the Military Court of Appeals if an appeal is filed, or at the Supreme Court of Israel if an appeal for a hearing is filed there. Furthermore, no prisoner or detainee should be forced to undergo a body search conducted by members of the opposite sex , which constitutes a violation of the right not to be subjected to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment and the right to privacy and is also in breach of international standards relating to the rights of detainees and prisoners, including the UN Rules for the Treatment of Women Prisoners and Non-custodial Measures for Women Offenders.
Amnesty International has long called on the Israeli authorities to end the practice of administrative detention. Administrative detainees held on account of their non-violent political opinions or activities should be released immediately and unconditionally; others should be released or charged with an internationally recognizable criminal offence and promptly tried according to international standards.
According to the IPS, there were 309 Palestinian administrative detainees as of 31 January 2012, though the number may have increased since. There are currently 24 Palestinian Legislative Council members in administrative detention. One man has been held in administrative detention for five years.
Amnesty International, International Secretariat
Peter Benenson House, 1 Easton Street
London WC1X 0DW
United Kingdom
Peter Benenson House, 1 Easton Street
London WC1X 0DW
United Kingdom
Friday, January 13, 2012
It's Mental Health Awareness Week
Hiya
A friend/fellow translator/interpreter has made me aware via facebook that it is
Mental Health Awareness Week.
He posted this:
"Depression, anxiety and panic attacks are NOT a sign of weakness. They are signs of having tried to remain strong for way too long. ...
Did you know that 1 in 3 of us will go through this at some point in our lives? Share the support! Let those who struggle know they're not alone, that they are loved and surrounded by a lot of people who care."
I know so many people who suffer from recurrent bouts of depression; I've been a sufferer myself ... Let's lift the stigma still attached to this invisible illness.
"Mental Health Awareness Week 2011 saw us raise awareness of the importance of sleep." – information I found on the Mental Health Foundation's MHAW website last year helped me enormously get on top of my own massive and long-standing sleep disorder.
While I'm not where I'd like to be, I'm getting there.
And now the focus is on how to cope with stress and how to be mindful. There's a good 4-week on-line course at this link.
Thank you for sharing and caring.
Peace!
A friend/fellow translator/interpreter has made me aware via facebook that it is
Mental Health Awareness Week.
He posted this:
"Depression, anxiety and panic attacks are NOT a sign of weakness. They are signs of having tried to remain strong for way too long. ...
Did you know that 1 in 3 of us will go through this at some point in our lives? Share the support! Let those who struggle know they're not alone, that they are loved and surrounded by a lot of people who care."
I know so many people who suffer from recurrent bouts of depression; I've been a sufferer myself ... Let's lift the stigma still attached to this invisible illness.
"Mental Health Awareness Week 2011 saw us raise awareness of the importance of sleep." – information I found on the Mental Health Foundation's MHAW website last year helped me enormously get on top of my own massive and long-standing sleep disorder.
While I'm not where I'd like to be, I'm getting there.
And now the focus is on how to cope with stress and how to be mindful. There's a good 4-week on-line course at this link.
 |
| Waterfall in the Musdale glen (Glen Feochan) – in spate, 2 Jan 2012 |
Peace!
Sunday, January 08, 2012
2012 has brought some wild weather
In the three-and-a-half-and-a-bit years I've been in these parts of Scotland, the last eight days have brought the highest number of storms with lightning and thunder ever. It started at about 3am on New Year's Day (Sunday, 1Jan), when – in Oban town centre – distant lightning was soon followed by the rumble of thunder. Small hailstones followed. The night was unsettled, with rain, hail, wind, more thunder and lightning until daylight.
In the afternoon, I visited some friends up in the Benderloch area: they had been at the "epicentre" of the storm, with a bolt of lightning and a simultaneous massive crack of thunder taking out their entire communication system and their electricity.
It was to prove a devastating electrical storm that left vast areas of Argyll without power and without communications.
Elsewhere in Scotland, as BBC Scotland's very interesting review shows – here – things were a great deal worse, with the Isle of Bute probably worst affected as they were completely cut off for four days!
In Oban, I was fortunate enough to have just minor power cuts lasting mere minutes. And no damage apart from half the roofing of the garden shed having been ripped to shreds and flying through the garden, with a big piece eventually landing on my front porch!
But my BT landline and broadband were constant and strong throughout, and as I cook/heat with gas and have a woodburning stove in the sitting room, I was never too worried anyway.
But the Vodafone mobile signal was down, no coverage at all, from probably 2Jan (not sure because my visitor and I were out travelling in areas where I wouldn't expect to have a signal) until late afternoon on 6Jan – the longest down-time since I got my first mobile phone a few days after 11Sep2001.
Slowly, the news trickled through that a vast area was without Vodafone coverage – whereas O2 and other providers seemed to be doing just fine!
It was quite an interesting experience to try and find out what was going on with Vodafone. They have a clumsy website where you have to trawl through a lot of fine print to find what you need.
I ended up compiling a list of sites/masts/cells that had no Vodafone mobile phone coverage:
Faults Board: http://forum.vodafone.co.uk/t5/Faults-Board/bd-p/6
Site 41693-KA9–Prestwick, Strathclyde - 3G Sit...
Site 6268-IV5-Portree, Skye-Site down
Site 3719-PA15-Greenock, Renfrewshire–Site W...
Site 06235- PH36-Acharacle, Argyll – Site down
Site 05486 - ML11 - Lanark, Lanarkshire – Site down
Site 8532 – G63 – Blanefield, Glasgow – Site down
Site 37831 – FK10 – Linlithgow, Fife – Site down
Site 6264 – IV48 – Sconser, Isle of Skye – Site down
Site 18014 – EH34 – Pencaitland, Edinburgh – Site ...
Site 07652 – PA34 – Oban, Argyll – Site down
Site 06268 – IV51 – Portree, Isle of Skye – Site d...
Site 31824 – CF44 – Hirwaun, Mid Glamorgan – Site ...
Site 10055 – KA15 – Beith, Ayrshire – Site down
Site 6216 – PA34 – Kilmelford, Argyll – Site down
Site 5466 – KY15 – Ceres, Fife – Site down
Site 32492 – KA18 – Logan, East Ayrshire – Site down
Site 72762 – PA14 – Port Glasgow, Inverclyde – Sit...
Site 6800 – PA73 – Kilninian, Argyll and Bute – Si...
Site 286 – TD1 – Galashiels, Scottish Borders – Si...
Site 8364 – KA19 – Maybole, South Ayrshire – Site ...
Site 3496 – PA2 – Paisley, Renfrewshire – Site down
Sites 38202 & 5988 – G75 – East Kilbride, South Lanarkshire –
Site 30146 – KA30 – Largs, Ayrshire – Site down
Site 5145 – DG8 – Sorbie, Dumfries and Galloway – ...
Site 3743 – KY11 – Dunfermline, Fife – Site down
Site 5439 – PA36 – Bridge of Orchy, Argyll and Bute – since 16Dec2011??? 4Jan2012: "This issue is still being currently investigated in association with the fault listed here." ==> leads to next item on list here:
Site 5432 – 5439 – 6294 6309 – 6910 – 10193 – PA33 – Dalmally – Site down – since 31Dec2011!!!
Site 6211 – PA22 – Glendaruel – Site down
[and on and on and on...]
If you're interested in more details, go here and here and scroll down – the two threads make for quite a bit of interesting reading (and have 191 and 473 views, respectively, as I type – a lot compared with other posts on the Vodafone eForum).
I'm looking forward to a phone call from the Vodafone guys to hear what happened and to find out how their service can be improved.
Of course these were exceptional circumstances, but why other mobile phone providers seemed unaffected while Vodafone went down all over Scotland needs to be investigated, surely!
One group of people who deserve our admiration is the firemen and electricians and engineers who were out there in the worst possible weather conditions, braving high winds and dangerously waterlogged terrain to restore power and communications, clear trees from roads and train tracks and help the country get back on its feet.
Finally, you may be reassured to know that the weather here is now mild and Thursday was like a spring day, with lovely sunshine and dry most of the day – and one lovely creature here thoroughly enjoyed the heat (see above).
Yesterday was a mixed bag, but a lovely full moon in a starry sky in the early night. Today was a bit wet in patches but getting drier as the day wore on. The cloudy sky was orange with an indirect sunset as a friend and I drove into Oban at about 4pm. Tomorrow looks set to be dry and lovely again – just right for a good day's work, eh!
In the afternoon, I visited some friends up in the Benderloch area: they had been at the "epicentre" of the storm, with a bolt of lightning and a simultaneous massive crack of thunder taking out their entire communication system and their electricity.
It was to prove a devastating electrical storm that left vast areas of Argyll without power and without communications.
Elsewhere in Scotland, as BBC Scotland's very interesting review shows – here – things were a great deal worse, with the Isle of Bute probably worst affected as they were completely cut off for four days!
In Oban, I was fortunate enough to have just minor power cuts lasting mere minutes. And no damage apart from half the roofing of the garden shed having been ripped to shreds and flying through the garden, with a big piece eventually landing on my front porch!
But my BT landline and broadband were constant and strong throughout, and as I cook/heat with gas and have a woodburning stove in the sitting room, I was never too worried anyway.
But the Vodafone mobile signal was down, no coverage at all, from probably 2Jan (not sure because my visitor and I were out travelling in areas where I wouldn't expect to have a signal) until late afternoon on 6Jan – the longest down-time since I got my first mobile phone a few days after 11Sep2001.
Slowly, the news trickled through that a vast area was without Vodafone coverage – whereas O2 and other providers seemed to be doing just fine!
It was quite an interesting experience to try and find out what was going on with Vodafone. They have a clumsy website where you have to trawl through a lot of fine print to find what you need.
I ended up compiling a list of sites/masts/cells that had no Vodafone mobile phone coverage:
Faults Board: http://forum.vodafone.co.uk/t5/Faults-Board/bd-p/6
Site 41693-KA9–Prestwick, Strathclyde - 3G Sit...
Site 6268-IV5-Portree, Skye-Site down
Site 3719-PA15-Greenock, Renfrewshire–Site W...
Site 06235- PH36-Acharacle, Argyll – Site down
Site 05486 - ML11 - Lanark, Lanarkshire – Site down
Site 8532 – G63 – Blanefield, Glasgow – Site down
Site 37831 – FK10 – Linlithgow, Fife – Site down
Site 6264 – IV48 – Sconser, Isle of Skye – Site down
Site 18014 – EH34 – Pencaitland, Edinburgh – Site ...
Site 07652 – PA34 – Oban, Argyll – Site down
Site 06268 – IV51 – Portree, Isle of Skye – Site d...
Site 31824 – CF44 – Hirwaun, Mid Glamorgan – Site ...
Site 10055 – KA15 – Beith, Ayrshire – Site down
Site 6216 – PA34 – Kilmelford, Argyll – Site down
Site 5466 – KY15 – Ceres, Fife – Site down
Site 32492 – KA18 – Logan, East Ayrshire – Site down
Site 72762 – PA14 – Port Glasgow, Inverclyde – Sit...
Site 6800 – PA73 – Kilninian, Argyll and Bute – Si...
Site 286 – TD1 – Galashiels, Scottish Borders – Si...
Site 8364 – KA19 – Maybole, South Ayrshire – Site ...
Site 3496 – PA2 – Paisley, Renfrewshire – Site down
Sites 38202 & 5988 – G75 – East Kilbride, South Lanarkshire –
Site 30146 – KA30 – Largs, Ayrshire – Site down
Site 5145 – DG8 – Sorbie, Dumfries and Galloway – ...
Site 3743 – KY11 – Dunfermline, Fife – Site down
Site 5439 – PA36 – Bridge of Orchy, Argyll and Bute – since 16Dec2011??? 4Jan2012: "This issue is still being currently investigated in association with the fault listed here." ==> leads to next item on list here:
Site 5432 – 5439 – 6294 6309 – 6910 – 10193 – PA33 – Dalmally – Site down – since 31Dec2011!!!
Site 6211 – PA22 – Glendaruel – Site down
[and on and on and on...]
If you're interested in more details, go here and here and scroll down – the two threads make for quite a bit of interesting reading (and have 191 and 473 views, respectively, as I type – a lot compared with other posts on the Vodafone eForum).
I'm looking forward to a phone call from the Vodafone guys to hear what happened and to find out how their service can be improved.
Of course these were exceptional circumstances, but why other mobile phone providers seemed unaffected while Vodafone went down all over Scotland needs to be investigated, surely!
One group of people who deserve our admiration is the firemen and electricians and engineers who were out there in the worst possible weather conditions, braving high winds and dangerously waterlogged terrain to restore power and communications, clear trees from roads and train tracks and help the country get back on its feet.
Yesterday was a mixed bag, but a lovely full moon in a starry sky in the early night. Today was a bit wet in patches but getting drier as the day wore on. The cloudy sky was orange with an indirect sunset as a friend and I drove into Oban at about 4pm. Tomorrow looks set to be dry and lovely again – just right for a good day's work, eh!
Thursday, December 08, 2011
A bit of Xmas cheer via HMS Ocean/Mariah Carey
Hi all
Hope your run-up to the Holiday Season is a good one, peaceful, happy, with as little stress as possible.
Here's something that's putting smiles on the faces of thousands of viewers. As you know, I'm not a fan of the military, airforce or navy – anywhere. But if my hard-earned taxpayer's pennies contribute towards this kind of peaceful activity, I'm all for it!
Enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDZcGz4vmJc&feature=colike
May 2012 be a happy, peaceful, healthy and prosperous year for you all!
Hope your run-up to the Holiday Season is a good one, peaceful, happy, with as little stress as possible.
Here's something that's putting smiles on the faces of thousands of viewers. As you know, I'm not a fan of the military, airforce or navy – anywhere. But if my hard-earned taxpayer's pennies contribute towards this kind of peaceful activity, I'm all for it!
Enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDZcGz4vmJc&feature=colike
May 2012 be a happy, peaceful, healthy and prosperous year for you all!
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
In memoriam Barbara Joy (21Dec1948-12Nov2011)
For Barbara
I never saw you dance
but when the shocking news came you were dying
I saw what looked like your gown's swirly hem
among the clouds and rainbows
and felt you out there smiling
I don't know if you swam
but as friends and family meet in remembrance
I on a distant shore think of you all
an otter comes and plays in the still sea and
on the rocks as though to tell me all is well
while I stand blinded by tears of grief
my heart upwells with gratitude
to have known you and been allowed to bask
in all your love and laughter
your vast and easy kindness
unseeing I send out my thanks
for the laughter and the love you had
so generously shared with those around you
thank you, dear friend, for having lived
it is so hard to let you go so soon
but we will keep you in our hearts
and see your step
and hear your voice
and feel your touch
in distant waves, in distant clouds, in distant rainbows
PS: A day after writing these lines I learn
that my Goddaughter gave birth to a
little girl – hours after your family and
friends gathered to remember you and your life.
One cycle ends, another begins...
that my Goddaughter gave birth to a
little girl – hours after your family and
friends gathered to remember you and your life.
One cycle ends, another begins...
© MPJ, Oban Bay, Scotland, Sat. 19Nov2011
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Mary Edna Fraser – Global Climate Change, A Primer, with batik artwork by MEF
Friendships are a wonderful thing!
I'm indebted to my old English friend Maggi for pointing me in the direction of Charlestonian artist Mary Edna Fraser.
Her images are just stunning. Have a look for yourself, here:
http://maryedna.com/gallery/batiks/our-expanding-oceans/
And if you click on the title of this post, you'll be taken to the book by Orrin H. Pilkey and Keith C. Pilkey, with batik artwork by MEF, Global Climate Change, A Primer
MEF is also on facebook – as am I...
I'm indebted to my old English friend Maggi for pointing me in the direction of Charlestonian artist Mary Edna Fraser.
Her images are just stunning. Have a look for yourself, here:
http://maryedna.com/gallery/batiks/our-expanding-oceans/
And if you click on the title of this post, you'll be taken to the book by Orrin H. Pilkey and Keith C. Pilkey, with batik artwork by MEF, Global Climate Change, A Primer
MEF is also on facebook – as am I...
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