Cosy Up

The weather’s turned windy, cold, dull, with the occasional spot of rain.  So kick off your shoes, snuggle up in your favourite chair with a warming cuppa while enjoying the heat from the stove and watch the flames dance. Have a good and relaxing day everyone :) Susan

Heb Hop!

Who’d-a-thought it eh? hahahahaha My Emperor Hubby doing his stint of gardening lol  Have a good giggle and day, Susan :D

Own Up!

OK ... who did it?  Who snaffled the last page outa the book?  Yeah, there I was, amongst thousands of others, glued to Dragon’s progress, when the crucial last moment arrived and PINGGGGG! Off went the screen again in a LOS (Loss of Signal) from the ISS.  That’s where I ended up watching most of the berthing process occur, with SpaceX coverage alongside.  But to swipe the last few minutes or even seconds of Dragon’s docking would have miffed me bigtime, but for the fact live coverage at all is such a privilege.  Amazes me that rockets zoom into space and synchronise at high speeds with another array of spacecraft, the result of years of pre-programmed manoeuvres.  Simply fascinating and quite mind boggling.  I loved watching it all (except the LOSs) but eavesdropped on on-screen chatter via the various chat platforms, like Facebook; Twitter etc.  Some of the comments were hilarious and kept us all going.  I couldn’t participate, as ain’t a member of these forums.

After a solid 6 hrs of viewing, I zonked and this morning is pay-up time with every bit of my body grumbling. I guess it’ll be little bursts of exercise throughout the day, whether I like it or not. But sleep beckons.  At least the stove is lit, though am thinking of renaming it the furnace. I put one too many logs on it last night, for an all-night burn, before shutting it down for sleeps.  Hmmm – would have been OK if the wind hadn’t perked up a bit, so windows had to be re-opened in an attempt to cool the place down. However, when I wakened this morning, there were still fragments of embers and the whirry gizmo was still turning.

Didn’t switch the telly on at all yesterday and methinks it might be same again today as I’m becoming reacquainted with the gentle sound of the flames.  Awww they were beautiful last night – great, long, amber streaks of light.  It was very comforting - and amusing as the three of us, me, hubby and Aurora the cat, sat watching the display, speechlessly mesmerised.

This coffee needs to be stronger as it’s not waking me up like it should. Have a good day wherever you are :) Susan

Rocket fuel-strength coffee

Yaaaaawwwwwwwwn! Oh scoos me, that escaped.

Been on automatic pilot this morning – fed the cat, lit the stove, made a cuppa, booted the puter and am all systems go – chuckling. Takes at least an hour to get going, so just as well am up in the wee small hours yet again. Should be well and truly awake by the time the Dragon is grabbed by the ISS. YES! About 9pm GMT last night NASA gave the ‘set to GO’ and I’ve got SpaceX and NASA ready on the monitor.

NASA TV begins live coverage from 8.30am GMT http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html

SpaceX from 11am GMT http://www.spacex.com/webcast/

Needless to say I’ll be glued to it, probably NASA coverage, as it shows Dragon’s run up to the grappling gizmo. The science, technology and wonder of it all, will never cease to amaze me.

In the meantime, I’ll be on the Shipping site, watching the floating world of fishing boats, ferries and tankers http://www.shipais.com/currentmap.php?refresh=2&count=10&map=Hebrides I monitored the fishing boat that gave me the giggles yesterday with its destination marked as ‘Prawns!’  Hope their catch was abundant. They deserve a well earned rest.  Jings, but they work long hours! I know the work is hard too and not for the weak-hearted. I am curious about the various boundary lines, some in the middle of nowhere that seem to be distinct traffic lanes.  Also, why some boats appear to go to a pale colour on screen – does that mean they’ve slowed down a bit? Some even vanish from the monitor! Lots to learn, but will have fun doing so. Nearly had kittens watching a monstrous oil tanker plough its way through The Minch – there were a few smaller vessels nearby, which in reality were likely miles apart, but on screen appear close enough for crews to hop aboard and have a cuppa tea and swap some good ole yarns.

Had to have the windows open nearly all of yesterday and well into nightfall, until a winged bug flew in. Hmph! It took a dive between me eyes and specs! Then flew around goodness knows where. I can’t help but wonder if it got macerated in the whirry thing above the stove. Yuck! Will have to get some sort of window screens for the warmer weather (we live in hope lol)  Aurora constantly jumps on the window sill inspecting the garden for predators (neighbouring cats) with her snout poked through the slightly open window. Ragdoll cats are not blessed with a sense of danger, so letting her out is a no-no, unless on a harness. Once she dragged me across the garden chasing a stray cat – she is big and powerful. I, on t’other hand am not strong and there’s not a lot of me, so I had an involuntary run around the garden while screaming for hubby’s help haha

 
Talking of gardens, there’s a plethora of little spikes appearing rather rapidly. They’re green and ... yep ... the grass has started growing, so mowing will be on the cards soon.  Time for more coffee methinks and an eye on what’s where on the ocean and up in space. Enjoy your day, Susan :)

Now that I remember

I forgot to say t’other day about an interesting site I found.  In truth, I didn’t find it, hubby did.  The sea haar was impeding the arrival/departure of any flights that day when I suddenly heard some sort of aircraft.  Hubby said it was a helicopter and sure enough it sat on the apron for a wee while before silence resumed.  I wondered where it went and what it was – to which hubby said, hold on, I’ll just check. ! He said it was a Coastguard helicopter that had likely come in to medivac someone out to Stornoway.  Blimey, I thought and asked how he knew all this, and he pointed me in the direction of a great website (if yer interested that sort of thing) about ships of all types sailing about in our waters.  I put a link to it in my LINKS list, but in case you missed it, here it is again.  http://www.shipais.com/currentmap.php?map=Hebrides

This morning while browsing through my usual haunts of weather, cardy stuff and now ships, I had a right good giggle.  There’s a boat (sorry guys if it’s a huge floaty thing) called ‘Nereus Ins172’.  On hovering over the small yellow boat shape, (or any of them) details appear about the name of the vessel, whether it’s moored, underway or fishing, speed, destination and other info.  Well, this one has a destination of ‘Prawns!’ hahahaha  Awww bless, I do hope they get a good catch.

In a previous life, I peeled the lil beggars while living in SW Scotland.  Here on the island, my dear bro used to pack them when they were’t able to go out fishing lobsters owing to weather conditions.  Having travelled all over the UK and abroad, my few months of prawn peeling did not escape entry onto my CV.  It became a great ice-breaker when attending interviews and I’m happy to say did not preclude me from getting the job I was after.  If they could have smelled me after a day’s work at the prawn factory, they might have reconsidered lol  8hrs working in ice-cold water eventually turned my slim fingers into plump sausage-like things.  I really believed typing was something of the past and never be able to do so again.  Ahhh not the case – things heal and I soon began working somewhere else, fingers having returned to normal.  I didn’t half learn a new vocabulary though and was initiated into the throng of workers by a tray full of waste from the peelings being flung over me.  I did the same back to the culprit haha  She didn’t try it again, but my make up was ruined for the day.  Yep, along with the 4 woolly sweaters, 3 pairs of trousers, as many socks as would fit in my wellies, I still put on me mascara and lippy.  Those were the days ...

 
Back to today.  The stove had exhausted itself completely, I managed to gut, polish and light it afresh.  A nice wood aroma is filling the air and I’m going to sit back, sip a cuppa and watch the ships pootle about on the map.  Then it’ll be time to watch the Dragon (yeah I watched the Falcon lift-off yesterday – awesome!) being grappled by the ISS (8am GMT on NASA TV) before docking proper.  Have a good day, Susan :)
p.s. Been watching the ‘Loch Portain’ ferry en route to from Berneray to Leverburgh.  Have travelled that route fairly often; it’s beautiful. One day I asked a crew member (turned out to be the Captain) why the boat made so many zig-zags (13 of them). I was promptly and matter of factly educated out of my ignorance by being told they were ‘Alterations of Course’.  He wasn’t smiling – but I was, and thanked him.  It’s a journey through very rocky waters, and somewhere I have a book that gives the names of most of the rocks.  Fascinating reading. :)

UPDATE!

Oh fiddle-de-de! Owing to the hiccups Dragon endured yesterday, the arrival at the ISS is not expected until Sunday :/ Dunno times yet, but the SpaceX site has an interesting widget showing where Dragon is flying above now. http://www.spacex.com/webcast/

In like a lamb

Well, there’s hardly enough of a puff of wind to move a floating feather.  March has most certainly come in like a lamb and as the old saying goes, out like a lion.  The latter remains to be experienced, though I hope it tip-toes out as quietly as it has arrived.  We’re in a mist again ... a real pea-souper, though I think that has changed to cloud according to one forecast.  Last night it lifted before sundown and even showed off bands of blue sky.  Although it didn’t rain, fence wires, washing lines and metal gates were laden with heavy raindrops caused by the dense, water-filled air.  The street lights aren’t on yet, so I’ve no idea what it’s like out there at the moment.

I crawled out of the goose-feather nest at ... 12.30am and am still wide awake at 5.05am.  Hmph!  I’d set the alarm to wake up at 4am to see the SpaceX CRS2 liftoff to the ISS.  Eejit ... I’d subtracted 5 hrs from the expected lift-off at 10.10 EST, instead of adding it on!  For anyone interested, live coverage will be shown on NASA TV from 1.30-4pm OUR time (GMT).  Here’s the link - http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html

Look on the left hand side for NASA TV and click on it.  I do hope the weather over there remains favourable for the lift-off.  It was very interesting hearing the pre-flight briefing, during which the anomalies of weather conditions were explained.  I’m not too good at remembering it all to share it (heck, I can’t remember to add hours instead of subtracting ... duh!), so that’s all I’ll say on the matter.

And it’s Friday! (Just double-checked that it is haha)  Despite not having been able to work for years, the weekend feeling sticks with me from the many years I did work.  So, have a good one and don’t work too hard if you have to and relax if possible, Susan :)