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/