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I had a pleasant surprise when I got Highland Fuel's bill for 500 litres of heating oil delivered on 10 Sep, it was 59.40 pence per litre which compares favourably with 68.91 pence per litre for the 500 litres that was delivered in early July. However, petrol and diesel are still the same price.

I had another pleasant surprise when, thanks to the , I discovered that when I began to draw my state pension in June, Maureen's pension should have risen from 42 pence (yes, fortytwo pence!) per week to 60 percent of my state pension. I telephoned a very helpful lady in the Pensions Department who informed me that Maureen should have automatically received her pension increase and that her new pension will be backdated to June.

I went into Kirkwall this week for an appointment with the ENT specialist at Balfour Hospital, I left with a prescription for lots of medicine and an appointment in January 2009. I had time to do a little bit of shopping and decided to treat myself to a meal in the Albert Hotel. I was horrified to discover that a pint of Guinness now costs three pounds twenty pence! Thank goodness I can still brew my own at home for about thirty pence a pint.

At the end of August I noticed an inflatable dinghy and several people in immersion suits on the beach at the Ayre of Myres just down the road from us and wondered what on earth was going on - were they the survivors of a shipwreck or members of an extreme sports club? The truth was much more mundane but still interesting, they were carrying out a survey of the Harbour Seal population.

I played the organ for a wedding on Sat 6 Sep. Whilst the rest of UK was being drenched in rain and battered by high winds the Stronsay wedding party had a day of bright sunshine, no rain and just a little fresh breeze. Driving home after the wedding I was amused to see about 50 sheep crowded into a corner of the field opposite the Community Centre and staring intently at the cars arriving for the wedding reception in the Community Centre; perhaps one of their former associates was featuring on the menu.

The weather is playing havoc with the seasons, crocuses have been blooming outside Sunnybank farm since late August, they are either very late or very early!

The Orkney Science Festival came to Stronsay on 11/12 Sep. I opted out of the tours of Stronsay (too much walking!) and the lunch but I did go to the well-attended evening lecture on the "Stronsay Beast". Geneticist Dr Yvonne Simpson gave an extremely interesting talk on the history of the beast (which was 55 feet long!), covering what it could and what it could not be. Dr Simpson is hoping to obtain permission to send a small sample of the surviving bits of the beast to a DNA testing laboratory in Florida which has a database of all known shark species, this will prove that the beast was or was not a shark. If it was a shark then the database should show whether it's a known species or a new one; if it wasn't a shark then the DNA will be used to try to determine if it matches any known species. If permission to take the samples is given the results should be available by the end of the year. After the lecture we were able to help devour the mountain of food left over from lunch.

We had a laugh last week when the postman delivered a flyer from Scottish Gas promoting their central heating boiler maintenance plan etc. Scottish Gas don't seem to be aware that the only gas on Stronsay is in the form of cylinders of propane or butane gas; and, as far as I know, there is no "mains" gas on mainland either.

When Maureen puts down fresh water for Surrey she (Surrey, not Maureen!) has developed the habit of lying down in front of the water dish and watching it intently for some time before rapidly moving forwards and drinking. Perhaps Surrey thinks that the small ripples indicate the presence of some live food in her bowl?

Recently the Scottish Government announced the abolition of carpark fees for hospitals in Scotland (except for the PFI ones). The decision will have little effect up here as parking at Balfour Hospital in Kirkwall is free, if you can find a spare parking space that is.

When I left the RAF in 1973 I trained as a Radio Officer at Bletchley Park so I was interested to see that there is a, the home of the "code breakers" in World War 2. The has just received a $100,000 donation by data protection expert PGP Corporation and IBM but more cash will be needed for years to come.