91Èȱ¬

Hi Buzz,
Your favourite bar boy finally got his mop removed. Not entirely willingly, and maybe a tad more than was intended. Be very very careful not to 'rest your eyes' in the presence of the Islay boys and the East End mob. There is no chance it will have grown for the Coll Association Dinner (in Glasgow) in a fortnight, so take your camera!
I'm going south for a week, and can come back with exciting tales of Essex! Much less glamourous than Estonia, or apartments in medieval walls in Spain. If the SNP win and Scotland gets independence will going to England count as going abroad, even if it is just for tax purposes?
Out at the airport the terminal building has leapt ahead, up to roof trusses. The weather isn't helping but this bit is being done by Coll builders.
The band are recording a CD, and would love some photos or video. If any swallows took pics in the summer please let them know. They need stuff for the CD sleeve. They'd love advance orders with cash as well!!

T’Islay boys went away on Saturday. They wanted t’name check. There is Lance, who isn’t from Islay, or Scotland but down where they play silly rugby; Dean, who came from Great Yarmouth; Colin from Paisley, but grew up on Islay, which probably explains most things; and Pete, who is a genuine Islay boy, used to make cheese and is named after his uncle. T’boys did a fair t’ middling job tidying up t’road. If there was more of t’gravel it would be tidier, and if t’extra money had been allocated earlier t’road at t’west end would have less of t’bumps and t’patches. T’accent on t’bit of Islay they come from is a bit odd. I think it is a homage to Shaun from Manchester. Colonsay folk will understand.
They might be back in a couple of weeks, or next Spring, or not at all. They might all be on St Helena, or half of Coll might be on a pub crawl on Islay. We were a bit confused; apparently it isn’t possible to sample alcoholic beverages on Islay, and then drive to the next hostelry. How does that work? Surely the whole point of a choice of pubs is to be able to choose!? Anyhow we have been invited over (several times). I think there is a water-plane taxi thing, which probably won’t use the runway. I think Coll should twin with Islay, we could get some more road signs. I’m a bit upset our Airport sign isn’t in Gaelic and Polish.

The terminal building is getting its roof, the roller shutter door has been fitted and next week the plumber comes in. The airport isn’t on mains water. Anyone building on Coll is having to jump through hundreds of hoops to get approval for drainage and sewage systems (septic tanks) and also for private water supplies. I haven’t seen the officials checking out the airport yet. The builders are back next week too, so the quiet winter is still on hold.

Time because I've got some time to spare, and because it's been several days since the last, but actually there isn't much to say.
The Hydro are in to fix some dodgy electric poles. Apparently the insulators crack because of the salt in the air and the electric earths through the pole until it gets hot enough to burn. It would take longer to burn if the pole wasn't impregnated with tar (FC is going to have a field day with that sentence) but then the pole would rot instead. Any how I'm not so bothered about turning lights off if the power is going to heat the outdoors, in fact, maybe I'll ask them to put a pole in the house! They spent today watching the lightening waiting for the lights to go out (hasn't happened yet).

I'm disappointed IW hasn't spread the word about the Tiree wind turbine mast. There is a mast up kitted out with sensors to measure windspeeds at various heights. It should be visible from Coll, but I didn't notice it when I was at Crossapol. The first 24 hours would have generated £1400 gross for the community. It has to generate pretend money at the moment to persuade the banks it will make real money if they lend the money to put it up properly. Confused? Here on Coll there is going to be a croft of baby turbines. (Croft equals very small farm, only part time) A deal was done reducing the price of 1.5 kW turbines by 25% if at least 5 were ordered at the same time. I think 11 or 12 are expected at the moment. The price for the turbines is good (I hope, we seem to have ordered one; dodgy place, hanging around the pier) but they only come in 12, 24 or 48 volts, so the trick is to use the electric direct (preferably as heat) rather than mess about with batteries and inverters. Now power equals volts times amps or current squared times resistance. Somehow this tells someone we need 4 heaters wired in parallel and in total we will get 1.5 kW max when the wind blows. Which is better than a kick in the head. I think we'll wait until the guinea pigs put theirs up first.

Meanwhile the bar has acquired not one but two flat screen TVs. I'm not impressed. 91Èȱ¬ Ceefax won't work and I don't know the ITV sport numbers so the football results are withheld.