Two funerals and a wedding
Posted: Sunday, 18 June 2006 |
...or is it the other way around?
Big week on Canna. Chaps came to fix power, something to do with the Pier line widget thingy wotsit…still none the wiser really. However…success! Anyway, if anyone can explain what was going on three quarters of the way through The Russia House (apart from our generator packing in) and how it ended, let us know. What happened to Dante? Did Katya get off with Sean Connery?
Mystery guests arriving for celebrations (imminent) Rumours are flying…there will be music and much merriment no doubt.
Low cloud playing havoc with sat. broadband. Meanwhile, some more photos...
Big week on Canna. Chaps came to fix power, something to do with the Pier line widget thingy wotsit…still none the wiser really. However…success! Anyway, if anyone can explain what was going on three quarters of the way through The Russia House (apart from our generator packing in) and how it ended, let us know. What happened to Dante? Did Katya get off with Sean Connery?
Mystery guests arriving for celebrations (imminent) Rumours are flying…there will be music and much merriment no doubt.
Low cloud playing havoc with sat. broadband. Meanwhile, some more photos...
Comments
Very nice pictures indeed. What is in the first and third pictures(i.e. where taken?).
mjc from NM,USA
1st pic is Coroghon Prison and the Rocket Church, and across to Skye, from Sanday across the bay. 2nd is an un-named stack E. of Dun Mor, on the south side of Sanday, with Rum in the background. There are loads of sea caves round here and susans o' puffins this time of year.
cannablog from canna
Heard that Canna's former owner, John Lorne Campbell, is due to be reburied on the island on June 21st.
Arnish Lighthouse from Stornoway
How did the wedding go?
e from Edinburgh
Ahoy!! Re Russia House..... This might help... Bartholomew "Barley" Scott Blair, a middle-aged and heavy drinking head of a modest, family owned British publishing company, regularly attends book sales fairs in Moscow. On one such occasion, business friends cajole him into joining them on a drunken retreat to a dacha in the Moscow woods. Discussion turns to politics and Barley finds himself talking boldly of patriotism and courage, of a New World Order (this prior to the breakup of the Soviet Union), and an end to cold war tensions. One attentive listener (Goethe in the book/Dante in the film) asks him privately if he truly believes in the possibility of such a world. Barley convincingly says that he does. Months later, a beautiful Russian woman named Katya, seeks Barley out at the book sales fair to get him to publish a manuscript for her friend Yakov, which is in truth a complete rundown on all the Soviet nuclear capabilities and atomic secrets. The manuscript has a cover letter to Barley, saying this is Yakov's way of serving his country, by hastening the day when democracy will come to the Soviet Union. However, Barley is not available (he is off getting drunk in Portugal) and she gives the package to a sales agent with instructions to forward it to Barley. The agent reads the manuscript and recognizes the potential value of such a document, if it is in fact authentic; alternatively, it could be a Soviet ruse to ferret out Western concerns and weaknesses. When the sales agent is unable to locate Barley, he ultimately turns the package over to British authorities, who eventually become very interested. The British Secret Intelligence Service, specifically the "Russia House", then wants Barley to contact Yakov with a list of verifying questions to determine if the document is as valuable as they hope it is. Barley is content to stay out of the matter, but is manipulated into undertaking the mission. He grows fond of Katya and schemes of a way to get her out of the Soviet Union. Over several meetings with Katya and/or Yakov, Barley realizes his informant is growing nervous and very likely under KGB scrutiny. The U.S. and British intelligence services decide one more meeting is needed to verify the authenticity of the data, but Yakov is suddenly "hospitalized"; supposedly he is physically exhausted from working so hard. Barley and Katya suspect he may already be dead and it’s a KGB scheme to draw them out into the open. A message says Barley must bring "a final and exhaustive" list of questions on Soviet research that they want information on. Barley makes contact with one of his Soviet publishing associates who he knows has connections in the KGB and arranges a meeting with the KGB handlers of Yakov. Although the CIA / SIS set up a major surveillance operation of the meeting site, Barley goes missing along with the last set of questions, presumably taken prisoner and held as a spy in Lubyanka Prison. Weeks later, Barley shows up in Portugal with no explanation of his absence. The CIA / SIS are not inclined to subject him to interrogation, reasoning that the KGB has already worn him down, gotten the information they needed, and taken the money. They are resigned to the fact that the "manuscript" was KGB bait and they fell for it. The truth is that Barley traded the questions for freedom for Katya and her family. The philosophical Barley Blair reasons that governments are not the only ones who can manipulate and betray, and some things are more important than the games that spies play with others' lives.
seastar from sweltering in the med...
For your interest the boat in the last photo is 'Rosa & Ada' an oyster smack built in Whitstable in 1903 and is drop dead georgous! She is to be seen all over the west coast in Summer and is available for charter out of Troon Marina. See (www.rosaandada.com) for more pictures of her. I have no connection with the owner or his business but if you would enjoy sailing on a piece of real British heritage…
Doug Lamont from Eaglesham
Another fine drying day!
RSS Feed