Those who were on the ferry to Stornoway last night (Monday 5 January) will be familiar with the sounds of children enjoying themselves - and with the sound of the crewmember asking their parents to stop them running around the ship and taking control of them please. Oops.
Your blogger has returned from a fortnight's spell away for Christmas and New Year, first time in 5 years I was not in Lewis for the festive season. Last November was the 4th anniversary of my stint in Lewis, and am still enjoying it. This week may see me around some of the island's cemeteries once more - carrying a film camera. Digital one is undergoing repairs after dying over Christmas. I would never have made the number of pictures I took with the digital camera (18,000 to date) with a film camera. That would have cost £5,000, not to mention the hours in the library scanning them all in.
Once more, best wishes for 2009.
I am not at all adverse to making very pointed, blunt even, remarks to parents about their brats if they disturb the peace of the upstairs observation lounge by arriving and subsequently charging around disrupting all and sundry.
ReplyDeleteThere are plenty of places besides the observation lounge (jumping in The Minch Jacuzzi at the stern of the ship, for example) where they could rumpus without undue disturbance!
The crew should clap them in irons, I'm sure they have the power to do that when at sea. Put 'em in the brig. Keelhaul 'em. Parents, too... Digital cameras are just amazing, aren't they, AL? You can get the picture just right without worrying about wasting film, and you get instant feedback.
ReplyDeleteThe digital era is certainly amazing and amazingly convenient. Yet - as a 2008 blogger harped back - the dabbling in solutions and watching as a photgrpah slowly took shape, illumed by the red safelight - that was REAL photography. We are all wimps these days.
ReplyDeleteI'm kind of guessing you don't have any brats of a certain age Mr Fourex! While 'good' parents will make every effort to keep their children occupied during a long and tedious journey, some are less clued up than others. As with brats in restaurants, parents should always go armed with drawing materials/small toys and the intention NOT to just ignore their own offsprigs at the expense of others' peace.
ReplyDeleteHowever its one thing to go out for a meal and cut and run if necessary, and quite another to ignore your little kiddies on a ferry journey because you just can't be a***d!
Cat sitting on fence...
Yes I returned on same ferry.......and it was VERY noisey for a while with kids being allowed to run very free......swinging past my reclined chair with minor contact made but full scowl issued. I am father of near 8yr old and 14 yr (also 33 and 31 yr old) and would not have let my kids run so free.....it all got very silly. 1 parent was observed (by 3 witches who nearly spat fire) and myself to be well into a bottle of red and a snooze which although yum is totally out of order as her kids were biggest brats/offenders of the lot. We live in such a PC age that there was no advantage in any interventions.....shame really!!
ReplyDeleteI then found my car and after finger-crossing found she started up beautiful........BUT......after passing Kinloch (8miles out of Stornoway but another 17 to my house) I lost power/broke down....oops!!! Mobile phone useless as no signal....lights on in distance so made way up to Soval Lodge and knocked on door...very kind/helpful Mr and Mrs Macleod (Murdo/Eima) gave me phone use for Recovery and supplied coffe and biscuits along with great chat about life on Lewis......many thanks for your Human Kindness
Got recovered home about midnight (thanks Callum from Macleans/Arnol Recovery)....car is now in Stornoway being diagnosed and I am stranded in Gravir but happy enough to use bus (big adventure) tomorrow or by weekend
Big blowing storm on its way so feels like home!!!!
Peace and Love
RJG...Gravir
This discussion reminds me of one of the reasons I chose Sweden in which to bring up my kids.
ReplyDeleteBarney, surely in Sweden you have to stay indoors for at least 9 months of the year? Our news today told of schools closed because it's too cold for the children and warned people to stay indoors while the temperature was so low. Musn't fall over apparently because the ambulance services are overstretched. That's England for you!
ReplyDeleteMind you all those folks up in the Scottish Islands are having a heatwave at the moment and probably don't understand how 'we' (not me) are sufffering.
Oh we do...and we do so sympathise, really we do...:-D
ReplyDeleteLes, it has been a bit nippy for a few days - around -5oC that o is degrees so -5oC is NOT - 50 degrees C. When we used to have real winters then -20oC for more than 10 days consecutively was thought to be chilly and -30oC was definitely cold - but not that marrow-gnawing, horrid coldness of a Fife North Easter, but a champagne-like exhilaration - as long as you had your long johns on and a warm bonnet or beanie and good gloves.
ReplyDeleteOh really Barney, what sort of a way is that to encourage the parental units to settle in Fife? And here we are with Anorak Towers on the market, thinking of moving to the beggar's mantle...you're just not selling it:neutral:
ReplyDeleteEffCee, just around the corner to St. A.s is the delightful East Neuk, where the sun never stops shining, the folks keep eatin' possum an' the golf courses are among the finest in the world. The worst of the NE wind is stopped by the Ness, so that part of Fife is definitely OK.
ReplyDeleteYou can sign me up for the East Neuk, Barney. It's a lovely place!
ReplyDeleteJill,
ReplyDeleteYou, me, the East Neuk... what more could a man want?
Perhaps, Jill and Barney, you could take yourselves off to the East Neuk of Fife together ;-)
ReplyDeleteArnish, that is what I was hoping to imply ... nice to know that one is not the only innocent on IB.
ReplyDeleteTo Jill
... a jug of wine, and thee
Beside me in the wilderness....
OK, the EN is not exactly a wilderness but poetic license, you know. An if a certain otter should accuse me of using that quote last year, she would be right! But it is just so usable!
There's a cat or two missing from the equation...
ReplyDeleteBarney, we'd definitely need a cat or two. And a dog, but you could provide one of those. A cosy neuk...
ReplyDelete