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I had a fantastic time down south. Just one day of rain, the full moon was lovely and it was so warm. Then we came home. The ferry called twice on Tuesday, but hasn't docked since. Today the Isle of Arran tried but it doesn't have the power. Tomorrow Calmac will try again. I heard they were going send the Isle of Mull but rumour has it the Isle of Mull is running on just one engine. It wasn't on the Mull run today because of problems with some life rafts. Lord of the Isles also had problems with ropes and propellors so it wasn't easy for Calmac bosses. Meanwhile our favourite skipper Captain Billimore and The Clansman are having a cushy time down on the Clyde. The removal men discovered the library today, the plumber has watched nearly every video and the joiners, who weren't due to leave until today anyway, have drunk all the Budweiser.

Back at home some panes of glass jumped out of the greenhouse. I'm amazed the whole lot didn't go once the wind could get in. Olvin has patched it up with plywood and a lot of G-cramps. I wonder how long he'll manage without them in the barn. The greenhouse is a heavy galvanised frame and it took ages to scrape all the old putty off before we glazed it. I'm not good with putty, I did my first greenhouse with putty and said never again. So we got those nice people from Screwfix to send out tubes of sticky silicon stuff. The kind of sticky stuff that clogs the nozzle of the gunge gun as soon as you use it, and miraculously unclogs itself when you put it down and oozes a trail of stickiness just where you want to stand. It gets all over your hands and the middle of the panes of glass and your T-shirt and runs out just before you do the very top bit and the stepladder is wobbling and your knees are stuck to the top rung. And most annoying of all, it doesn't stick well to galvanised metal which is just typical! Still, I'm sure the fresh air was good for the garlic.

A bit of a fib, as it isn't anything to do with our whale, but the bottlenose whale which died in the Thames. I inherited a once-read Saturday Guardian and was drawn to the story about the London whale, which died while they were trying to take it out to sea. Once it was dead it became 'the Queen's whale' bracket alert (Where have I heard that before?) and the Natural History Museum got involved. The bones were removed and frozen and then sent to our friends at the Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh to be cleaned. They had hired a 'bone cleaning facility'. Now what would you use one of those for during the infrequent times when there isn't a handy whale skeleton needing polishing? To clean a whale skeleton you need lots of warm water and Persil. Unilever are very happy, expect a new kind of soap advert soon. This whale was destined to be a research specimen, yielding lots of scientific DNA, to be compared with DNA from other bottle-nose whales. DNA is a bit of a mystery. It is too small to see and yet the police can find loads from one hair sample or a bit of slobber, but in the rarefied world of the whale scientist a whole skeleton is needed. However, Londoners have more collective clout than Collachs, and their whale is going on display, very briefly, at the Guardian's Newsroom. You can get free tickets to go and see it next week. So perhaps there is still hope for a public appearance by our whale.

Looking at that title I'm tempted to do a tws-type blog, but no, I had a plan and I'll stick to it.
I had to ask for three nights off last week. One was for digi darkroom where we sort of did desk top publishing, so I now know why some of the pics I try to put in the Coll mag won't go, or at least, I now know what the 'image stats' should say. One night we went to Ballyhogh for a hosts meeting. Doug handed out mug-shots of all the volunteers who stayed with us and details of where they are going. I recognised quite a lot of ours. Two mug-shots were tiny, Doug said he couldn't get them to get any bigger, he should have come and been the token male at digi darkroom. Last night was book club and I was feeling very smug. I finished the book at least a week before we were due to discuss it. I still feel guilty looking at past book club books which haven't been finished (or started). And I walked. It wasn't very far but with being virtuous it is the thought that allows you to have the extra slice of pizza (with haggis) after a lot of roast lamb at home. Anyhow the wimmin only outnumbered the men two to one, which might explain why 'Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance didn't become the next book. The odd thing about book club is I read everything, or I thought I did, and yet I don't seem to have read any of the books everybody else reads. I thought everybody had read 'Zen and etc', but no, I was in a minority of two and two chapters. Anyhow, once we had got the book discussion finished we could talk film. I watch very few films so I listen, or try to change the subject. James Dean only made 3 films, several book club people had seen them all!

I read this week that social scientist Gunnar Heinsohn has a theory that when countries have a glut of citizens under thirty it invariably results in violence. 60 out of 67 countries with such youth bulges are undergoing civil war or mass killing. Apparently, if we wait long enough, the demographics will sort out todays debate about Islam. Why am I writing this on IB? On Coll (pop 170ish) about 45 kids are under 16, and practically all of them were at the Christmas party and in a group photo. But does anyone seriously think they will get along better together if we have more pensioners on the island?