A New Year

I must admit that when I decided to start The Isle of Bute Blog things were quite different around me.

For one, I had a much more positive outlook, and was surrounded, or in touch, with people who were similarly positive. While that’s still true of the dependable few (and I hope those that may look in here recognise themselves, even though one of the negative aspects is a desire to retain some anonymity), there is a downside in that it’s given be a reference point in the past, and that has simply served to show how everything around me seems to decline, with little evidence of improvement. Even trying the “Ah well, it’s a New Year, let’s try a fresh start” failed miserably when I missed the New Year, and the following days, finding myself with not interest in anything else other that the bottle of pain-killers needed after some infection exploded within my gum, meaning no sleep, and nothing but more pain when i tried to eat. Still, once the flare-up decides to flare-down, there’s always the positive aspect that things might subsequently only get better.

One of my self-imposed rules was to waffle primarily only about Good News, or current events and items that might perhaps let a bit of dark humour in the form of satire or sardonic wit (that’s sarcasm with bit of humour) be exercised, and to avoid the issue of ferries and transport, in negative terms at least.

None of those really worked, or perhaps they worked too well… the Good News tended to be rather local and/or specialised, and not really of general interest; while there were quite a few opportunities for the occasional exercise of the satirical literary muscle, I’m afraid one instance of it being taken in the wrong spirit and moved into the personal domain was enough to waste it, as the idea was only to attract interest (for both sides, as it were) not generate any animosity or ill will. Ferries and transport are always easy meat when looked at in detail in an island environment, but it’s difficult to write any sort of neutral commentary when faces with the endless griping, moaning, wailing, and beating of chests from BFUG (Bute Ferry User Group), who seem to have but one purpose, and will never pay CalMac a compliment for anything, unless through extremely clenched teeth. (See what I mean about trying to write about ferries?)

I should just dump this idea as a bad, sad joke, but I still seem to be bloody-minded enough not to give up without a fight, so it will live on for a while too, if only to provide me with somewhere to drop interesting items for my own benefit, so I don’t forget them, or can look back and see roughly when they happened.

Since last year seemed to be marked by people with forums and photo sites being subjected to heavy-handed visits from the Boys in Blue – whatever happened to Free Speech and Public Comment (and here I am being quite distinct and excluding libel, which anyone that partakes of deserves all they get for abusing the privilege of Free Speech) – which all thankfully appeared to amount to nothing more than bluster, there won’t be anything sensational to be found here, unless… it’s proven and justified. I would love to drop some 3 letter acronyms in here as a hint, but even that would give too much away, so no fun there either. Oh well.

We’ll see what can be trawled up when I feel a bit better.