Remarkable
Posted: Thursday, 01 February 2007 |
A couple of things caught my eye in recent days.
I am very pleased that they are finally going to upgrade that horrible little road between Habost and Kershader in South Lochs. It's a winding single-track road, not just blind bends but also blind summits. I'm not sure how its new alignment will run (anybody got access to a map of it?), but it'll link the two-carriageway sections coming in from Sildinis to the west and Garyvard to the east.
I can't but smile at the huffing and puffing down at the airport over the statutory teabreaks of the poor airtraffic controllers. So you have to wait for half an hour in your plane because the controller needs to have a break? What do you prefer, collisions in mid-air or being a few minutes late? Seriously though, I'm sure the shift pattern can be adjusted to accommodate scheduled flights to start with, I mean we're not talking Heathrow Airport here.
The RSPB has asserted that the number of jobs that will be generated if the Lewis Windfarm is built is less than suggested by developer LWP. RSPB says 70, LWP makes it 233. The RSPB has now come under fire for speaking with forked tongues, as it is in favour of a large scheme up in Shetland. Slight difference though. The Shetlanders WANT their windfarm, and it's not on environmentally sensitive ground. The Lewis windfarm appears to be NOT wanted by the islanders here.
Anyway, it's February now and I'm very pleased at the longer evenings, or more to the point: afternoons. Had this beautiful sunset a week ago
And when I was down at Goat Island, I found this sorry looking boat at the water's edge.
I am very pleased that they are finally going to upgrade that horrible little road between Habost and Kershader in South Lochs. It's a winding single-track road, not just blind bends but also blind summits. I'm not sure how its new alignment will run (anybody got access to a map of it?), but it'll link the two-carriageway sections coming in from Sildinis to the west and Garyvard to the east.
I can't but smile at the huffing and puffing down at the airport over the statutory teabreaks of the poor airtraffic controllers. So you have to wait for half an hour in your plane because the controller needs to have a break? What do you prefer, collisions in mid-air or being a few minutes late? Seriously though, I'm sure the shift pattern can be adjusted to accommodate scheduled flights to start with, I mean we're not talking Heathrow Airport here.
The RSPB has asserted that the number of jobs that will be generated if the Lewis Windfarm is built is less than suggested by developer LWP. RSPB says 70, LWP makes it 233. The RSPB has now come under fire for speaking with forked tongues, as it is in favour of a large scheme up in Shetland. Slight difference though. The Shetlanders WANT their windfarm, and it's not on environmentally sensitive ground. The Lewis windfarm appears to be NOT wanted by the islanders here.
Anyway, it's February now and I'm very pleased at the longer evenings, or more to the point: afternoons. Had this beautiful sunset a week ago
And when I was down at Goat Island, I found this sorry looking boat at the water's edge.
Comments
You obviously have no idea how ridiculously tightly regulated ATCOs are these days. Perhaps you should take the trouble to find out. A controller can lose his/her licence if he/she breaks the regulations with any regularity. It's the inflexibility of a system designed to cut the overwhelming stress on busy stations, applied to tiny places off the radar of such as write the rules, that causes the problems. That, and an almost constant outstripping of demand over supply over many years.
Flying Cat from under a flight path
FC, If you had taken the trouble to read the paragraph properly you would have gleaned that I totally agree with you.
Arnish Lighthouse from Stornoway
Were there any containers washed up from the boat?
Donald and Calum from Beachcomber Cottage Port of Ness
I did. It's not a case of adjusting shift patterns.
Flying Cat from in a fluff
Arnish, the problem is that if ATCs do not take breaks, they could be reprimanded and, if accidents occur while they are on duty rather than sipping tea on mandated breaks they (and their employers) could be liable (overtiredness, stress etc). Same as with long haul truck drivers etc. in the States. Isn't there also a rule (as in the States, I think) that any tower needs two controllers on duty at any one time?
mjc from NM,USA
If lorry drivers have tachographs, should flight controllers at Stornoway and Callanish International Airports have strubagographs? (Strubag, pronounced "stroop-ak" - gaelic for cup of tea).
Annie B from the usual
Ooooooh happy memories AnnieB! Dear Lillian Beckwith who did soo much for the western Isles with her fun-poking at the quaint natives, just loved a good strupak with one of her neighbours. Though why they ever spoke to her, I'll never know.
Flying Cat from A literary corner
If memory serves, Lilian Beckwith was frogmarched out of Elgol, Skye, after she ridiculed those that took her to their hearts and hearths. I no longer read her books.
Arnish Lighthouse from Stornoway
A bit childish, your comment about the air collisions, "Arnish". How often do you see two planes in the sky at the same time here? If you had to work for a living and fly a lot as part of your job, you'd realise that a half-hour delay often messes up connections at other airports, leading to more expense and often an unwanted overnight stay. It also doesn't help in trying to promote the Outer Hebrides as a modern place to live and work in, if the airport has to shut down due to a lack of staff on duty. I suppose having a 2+ year holiday in Stornoway and not actually working for a living changes your perspective on reality somewhat...
Archie Nicholson from Working in the real world
I could be an ATC, I'm sure I could, although I'd want longer tea-breaks and a Kick-Cat
Tws from Nottoofarfromtheairport
Archie, is this not getting a tad too personal? # Archie: does British tower control regulations require two ATCs on duty at any one time, even in such relatively quiet places as, say, Sumburgh or Kirkwall?
mjc from NM,USA
mjc: no. I work for the council (cue joke about "who doesn't") and "Arnish's" blogs are widely read and discussed by many of the employees, some of whom here in Stornoway know who he/she is. Free speech and opinion, both positive and negative, are good and essential in a democracy. It is also good that "Arnish" has chosen to settle here for an extended while. However, what gets mine, and others, backs up are some of the catty and negative comments, plus orders on how local taxpayers money should be spent. Anyone can sit in an armchair and criticise. It's harder I guess to actively contribute, either financially, voluntarily, or in some other community support capacity. I have nothing person against "Arnish" and wish him well in his endeavours. I just have more respect for people who "do", as well as "say", within the community.
Archie Nicholson from Working in the real world
Have they not done the exams for drinking tea while operating their computers? Maybe they should employ women at the airport? Apparently my Aunie Ina says they can do something called multi tasking that is beyond Donald and myself.
calumannabel from Flightpath Cottage, Fivepenny
As one who understands the problem from the inside. I can assure everyone that the controllers concerned are not skiving and do try to make the rules work for the travelling public but there is only so much flexibility in the regulations. At the end of the day breaking the rules can cost one's livelihood. They also suffer from the disruptions as they, like everyone else, need and wish to to travel from time to time. Mjc in answer to your query, no there is no requirement for two controllers on duty at any one time at small airfields in UK there are, however, very strict rules governing working times which includes maximum shift lengths, time off between shifts, limits on numbers of shifts (particularly early starts and night shifts) and patterns of rest days and leave. It is this complexity which is at the root of the rostering problems at Stornoway and I might add that it would not need many staff to resign or fall sick for the same problems to occur elsewhere in the Highlands and Islands.
Hyper-Borean from A glass house
Multi tasking is what some students try to do, reading their assignments and listening to the radio/music at the same time. They find out, in the end, that they know the tunes and the lyrics but not what Shakespeare or Hopkins wrote.
mjc from NM,USA
I have it on good authority that the Kirkwall controllers get chocolate cake on their birthdays, but tea-drinking whilst on the desk can be hazardous. Tommee Tippee feeder cups might solve the problem. The controllers would have to have bigger ones than the assistants....... Something to do with the pecking order.
Flying Cat from Susie's Caf茅 Loca
Stornoway Airport have made themselves a laughing stock and done no favours to an island that is already viewed as being weird and backward.
Janette from The real world
Am pleased to have set off a discussion with this post. I'm sorry to hear that Janette from The real world feels that Lewis is weird and backward, which is an assertion I disagree with. Up here you got to do things yourself (which even applies to your blogger), because more often than not, nobody else will do it. Or there IS nobody to do it, whereas on the mainland there will be somebody around. In reply to Archie Nicolson's remarks - my remit is stated at the top of this blog. The flurry of comments to this very post bears that out.
Arnish Lighthouse from Stornoway
Poor Janette. Do you not get out much?
Flying Cat from looking sympathetic
Dear, dear Janette! I have not heard one bad thing about Stornoway and the island. It is true that the weather has been rather cloudy, and smoke signals don't work that well in such weather (in fact our airport closed down not so long ago because of extreme weather conditons, but not as long as the disorganized wimpy folks at Denver Airport, Colorado!). Anyone for a cup of tea? No chocolate cake today, i am afraid.
mjc from NM,USA
?yliad deredrum dna depar teg elpoep erehw eno eht morf er'uoy ecalp "dlrow laer" taht si...ereh drawkcab taht er'ew kniht eannid I wonk'y ,ettenaJ ,hcO
Not Janette from Turbinia, Lewis
To Archie Nicholson from working in the real world, since when did working for the council become working in the real world? Working in the PRIVATE SECTOR IS WORKING IN THE REAL WORLD not a sanitised, cushy, easy-going, loadsaholidays tax payer funded job in the council. You spend too much time reading the rule book and not enough time actually doing what you are paid to do, which is work. The reason half of the council staff are there is because no private employer would have the work-shy, skiving lay-abouts that they are. So Archie you get into the real world and work in the private sector, where everything isn't to hand and sometimes you have to improvise and even do extra hours to get a job done, without being paid for it. Now THAT IS THE REAL WORLD Archie not your world.
An ordinary bloke from Not working in the Council
The Island was only viewed as being weird and backward about 20 years ago, roughly the same time as I emigrated to Lewis, coincidence or what???
Tws from The Croft Lewis
"An ordinary bloke" (another person who is not proud enough of his comments to put his own name next to them). The council carries out over a thousand different functions across the Western Isles, not just emptying your bins, keeping your school open, gritting your road, keeping the street lights on and putting up signs. I bet you'd be the first on the phone to complain if/when something wasn't delivered. The council is like any PRIVATE SECTOR (your caps) company; there's hard workers in here who put in the extra, people who do the 9 to 5, and people who have a good skive at every opportunity. Probably the same in your company - if you work? - and most others.
Archie Nicholson from Working in the real world
Methinks it's a coincidence, TWS, don't you (eh?! eh!!).
mjc from NM,USA
The lights here switch themselves on at night, usually, I don't go to school, what signs? Gritting the road, well that's alright, but try getting anything uplifted that is a different matter. One more thing, I'm way too mean to be on the 'phone complaining, and stop using ( my caps). You never mentioned holidays, pensions, sick pay, over ordering of everything from paperclips to vehicle parts, why ?
An ordinary bloke from Isle of Lewis
More serendipity, I'd say!
Flying Cat from under a flight path
To Mr False Identity: Why? Because all of those things take place in the PRIVATE SECTOR (still your caps). Looks like having a constant whinge at the council makes you feel happy. Very good. Very productive. There's elections in a few months; will you be standing as clearly you feel you could do a much better job?
Archie Nicholson from Working in the real world
All Lewis needs is for Hyper-Borean to join TWS - or maybe he is there already? # By the way, TWS, I have a funny feeling that your wish for a "kick cat" was not a typo (in the US, the last time I ate the stuff, it was a Kit-Kat). As I have said before, you clearly like to live dangerously. Next thing you know you'll be stuck in that contraption being built on Orkney Mainland ....
mjc from NM,USA
Archie, you are so easy, peezy, lemon, squeezy. STILL MY CAPS, oh and ( still my brackets) Welcome to MY WORLD Archie. LOL
an ordinary bloke from thewhitesettlerland
Me! Join TWS! Heaven forfend, it would contravene EU regulation GOM/13/2006 which only allows for one grumpy old man per Island (archipelago if population falls below limits as from time to time defined) or remote mailand settlement.
Hyper-Borean from A nebulous state
mailand settlement, Hyper-Borean? One which can be reached by Royal Mail (is it still called "Royal" Mail, by the way?). Surely not an ordinary typo, Hyper-B.?
mjc from NM,USA
mjc I am certain Tws meant exactly what he said. I was merely maintaining a dignified silence as befits a dignified cat.
Flying Cat from in a fluff
Any greater silence or more profound dignity, FC, in face of such blatant provocation, and you will be transmogrified into Egyptian stone, stored in the British Museum, and at risk of being sent back to the land of King Farouk.
mjc from NM,USA
Yup. Typo. Sorreee.
Typo-Borean from The naughty corner
If you know of any better bedtime reading than Lillian Beckwith's books on Bruach, please share them with me.
Alicia Macnamara from Axixic, Jalisco, Mexico
Lillian Beckwith was a genius. Her books are poetic, funny and just a wonderful place to be. She should be featured on the B.B.C. How about a Woman's Hour Feature or a serialisation? It's high time.
Richard from Suffolk
I have been in Lewis since late 2004 and am observing life on this fascinating island from an outsider's perspective. I look out at the lighthouse every day - as it looks out over the island and the sea. 
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