Saturday 17/03/07

After a reasonable start, the weather turns quite unpleasant. Go out for some shopping, and it’s mild and calmish. Leave the Baltic Bookshop and find that the wind has picked up to a near-gale, and hail and snow is strafing the streets. Curtains of hail sweep Cromwell Street, hunching shoppers into submission. Buy two new T-shirts at Mackays, and trawl the stationers’ shops for record cards of a size that nobody appears to stock. Pick up lottery tickets in Woolies, then leave the town centre. My hanky flies down an alleyway beside a restaurant (which I won’t name). I have to retrieve it from the edge of a puddle that shows a foam of food remains. Eugh!! The wind is very cold. Four ships are sheltering in Broad Bay. The ferry is cancelling its 5.15 sailing out of Ullapool this evening. Some say it may not return until Tuesday. Supper tonight is roast lamb with vegetables, very nice. No winnings on the lottery. The BBC wasts hours of its time on a selection for that tired old chestnut, the Eurovision Song Contest. It is hosted by that tired old fart Terry Wogan, who gets the name of the winning group wrong. Had more fun watching Comic Relief, where Prime Minister Tony Blair took on Lauren Cooper, officially known as comedienne Catherine Tate. Am I bovvered? Dozens of versions turn up on YouTube.