buttondiva

Hi folks, been following with interest all of your adventures with jealousy. Am now regrettably resident on the mainland - economic reasons and all that.
Still an islander/country girl at heart though! I mean, we cannae see the stars at night due to streetlights and this morning I was woken up by the traffic at 5am....
Enjoy every sunset, wild storm and community ceilidh - it makes up for all the down sides I promise.

Anyway - am logging on for some help. I am invovled with the Audience Council for Scotland with the BBC. We advise the BBC Trust on all manner of audience 'issues' and also have to respond to lots of consultations on all manner of things to do with the BBC service i.e. what we watch, how good it is, and how it needs to develop!

We are running a small 'consultation' on the BBC website, bbc.co.uk and would welcome your input to this. You can follow this link to fill it in - please fill in the form on the page - dont go to the main BBC Trust consultation as its less interesting and useful. Our Scottish version is the one I want you to complete!!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/aboutus/acs/consultation/

THANKS and KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!!

Getting on and off Gigha has become rather unpredictable due to high tides and strong southerly winds. For over a week we have had major disruption to the ferry service. The school kids have already missed quite a few days of school - although I suspect they are not complaining.
Due to work being based on the mainland at the moment I am more dependent on the ferry than ever before. I have become obsessed with the met office website - inshore waters forecast (the BBC forecasting continuing to let us down..). Last week I arrived for the 12 noon ferry last week to witness it hot tailing it to the south pier on Gigha with no passengers… It was blowing a hooley, but they could at least have taken us with them!! So, I settled down to work in the car on the lap top all afternoon, hopeful that we would have a teatime sailing - all the builders were on the island and I was sure the ferry staff would make an effort to get them off. Even though the wind was constantly dying down, no sign of a ferry and eventually we found out that the crew had decided not to sail - leaving about a dozen of us stranded (including tourists). Other tourists destined for a few nights in the Hotel had already given up.

But all was not lost. Kenny spotted a fishing boat at the pier on Tayinloan and negotiated a trip over to Gigha for us all. They were more than happy to take 6 locals, 5 tourists and a dog over!

The sailing was magnificent. The wind had dropped back, we had porpoises sailing along side us and a wonderful sunset. We had a whip round for the boys, who were embarrassed to take money. Not only did we get a lift, but they gave us some fish for our tea – so Monkfish was on the menu that night!! It was truly a marvellous way to arrive on the island. Stepping onto the island was even sweeter when remembering that we were saved another night away from home.

With the forecast for next week not looking any better, its fingers crossed as not only do I lose money - the company I work for loses face when no one turns up for meetings. If global warming continues to give us these strong but warm winds the islanders will need to campaign for a better ferry service to safe guard the future of the island. No ferries means no trade - either way and without that we have no island.

The solstice is past and I've declared it winter. Aside from the increasingly dark nights, our infestation of daddy long legs and the howling gales outside - the main indicators are the return of my vests (which tuck into the pants - no thongs here!) and polo necks. Brrrr - it was only a few weeks ago that we were swimming in the sea...Its scary how quickly the seasons can change.
The last glut of tourists (all 5 of them) have hit the island with the advent of the Glasgow bank holiday weekend.
Soon the ferry will be on the winter timetable and then its back to sleepy sunday afternoons.
How do other islanders cope with the long winter nights? Inspiration needed!
Yours thinking of hibernation....

HI there - some flavour of the start of the race. Despite the rammy - the rafts did set sail and disappointingly for those watching there were no capsizers... Joe did have to evacuate ship towards the end and walk home -but that was to avoid coming last - coward!!
We need more entrants from other islands for next years - but hey, we might even make more of an effort to publicise it too!
Happy days.....
Buttondiva

Hi fellow islanders, hope the summer is treating you all well. I am trying to upload a photo of the Gigha raft race. It went well with a staggering 11 rafts entered (and believe me it was staggering that some were able to float...). There were some excellent entries - folks had gone to some effort in preparing their rafts (the Austrian girls deserve a special mention for their tropical entry and for stimulating some of the lads into action - ah, but that is another blog for another day...).
We have fewer such events on gigha than other islands and we need to get more going as it was great fun. We even had a swimming competition for the hardy (read daft) who were willing to brave the icy waters. Not to worry, there was the BBQ and beer to warm folks up afterwards.
Next event is a football competition - Scotland vs the World. Hopefully our 'girly footballers' (these are girls - though some of the lads could also come into this category...) will be taking part! Scotland vs The World will be followed by another BBQ (gosh, I can feel the rain clouds gathering already) and some (shock horror) live music.
Oh - dont forget the gigha Music Festival on 9-11 Sep - lots and lots of live acts and good time promised!
Hopefully a picture of a raft will accompany this blog - could not upload the ones I wanted since they were over 200K - most of my photies were!!

More photos as promised...
Dont know what has happened to all of our gigha postings - they seem to have been washed away with the tide....perhaps Mike can sort this one out??
We've lost all of Rhoney Rhos wonderful musings!

All quiet on Gigha today. Quite unusually its a misty isle with not enough wind for the Dancing Ladies (wind turbines) - so nae dancing on Gigha at the moment,but perhaps later on after a few nips something will stir...

Looking forward to a long hot summer on this paradise isle - arent we all??

Hey - we are having a raft race on Sat 23 July at 12 noon for any other interpid islanders who wish to take up the challenge???
Post your interest here!

Hope you like the photo - if you want more, let me know and I'll post it. New to all this blogging business so not sure how it all works..

Saturday night on Gigha and ensconced in front of Live 8 with a wee swally of vino blanco. The last time round I wasnt legal and the event had more edge - or perhaps I am getting old?? Didn't the acts spend longer performing. Queen were on for ages yet these young ones pop off after 2 songs or so. Is it going to make any difference? Who knows, but its given us all something to watch on the telly on a Saturday (beats the lottery show hands down - but did I win the bonus ball this week??).
The bonus ball competition run by the shop (in aid of the Trust) is the closest Gigha gets to legalised gambling - we have considered setting up a bingo hall in front of Coel Mara (serve folks right for complaining about housing going up...) but probably wouldnt get planning permission!
First blog from Gigha and cannae compete with Rhonie Rho - but who can (more power to yer elbow lass...)
Over, out and beyond hope...
Button Diva