A trip in the lifeboat to collect some people from the Scottish mainland. Something to do with an anchor recovered by them and now donated to our lifeboat museum. I skipped the bit at the museum. Sea pretty choppy.
First run for a while. Car repaired! Thanks Trevor. Took the bike for a ride.
Absolutely beautiful day. My car bits have arrived too.
Beautiful day, T-shirt weather (almost). Cleaned Westburn. :-(
Started moving furniture in (and out) of Westburn ready for Alex and Ella. I wasn't going to charge them rent but apparently their insurance company will pay rent so perhaps I will now! Wet and windy in the afternoon.
THE RTA COURSE
Ordered a used bumper and new light fitting; total cost £137.50, less than what I expecting and much less than the cost of new parts from SAAB. Trevor has offered to fit the parts and repair the dents. In the afternoon I was off to Kirkwall with Donna for tomorrow's Fire Brigade RTA course. We met other course attendees at the hotel and (predictably) got very drunk. I vaguely remember texting people at 3am, sorry to those.
Kevin's JCB and driver were subcontracted to the Water Board when I hit them. Kevin is going to try and get some compensation for me, the road works should have been signposted before the bend. I went on-line and found some car breakers and asked them for quotes. I found out the cause of the Taxi not starting (an intermittent problem); starter motor sticking when the battery is not fully charged. Solution: tap it with a metal rod.
In a rush for my ferry and the taxi wouldnt start so I pushed it out of the way and took the SAAB instead. Lot of ice on the road and as I negotiated Melsetter corner the car skidded. No big deal, I can and do recover from skids, unfortunately for me one of Kevin Kirkpatrick's JCBs was digging a trench just round the corner and I hit it. No damage to the JCB obviously but I split my front bumper, broke the indicator/side light lens and a minor dent on the wing and bonnet. Oh, and I got some minor whiplash too. This was my first ever road accident. The rest of the day was uneventful.
Some snow again along with sleet hail and some sun!
Snow gone too, washed away by rain. Alec and his family have accepted my offer to move into Westburn until Crowtaing is rebuilt. The whole island has rallied round them. They've been given money from the fire fighter's benevolent fund and people have donated clothes and stuff to them too. Many of the islanders have been washing clothes for them, the ones that were smokey but could be saved.