Tree down at the Bught Park, Inverness.

It was a stormy night... not a dark one, aside from the power being off for the latter part of it. The moon frequently appeared through the clouds, and there were a few large sparks during the cloudy spells. You could hear the gusts approaching. They roared through the trees, before slamming into and around the houses. Lots of strange creaks, groans, whizzing, and other noises from inside and outside the house. Power went off early in the morning, some time before me waking up at four a.m. Got up half an hour later to investigate what sounded like a wheelie bin bouncing on concrete. It had been. Fortunately it had retained its contents. I'd had visions of my rubbish being spread amongst the neighbours shrubs and hedges. Everything else was okay. Located the wind-up radio for listening to the road reports later. With the number of trees blown over and blocking roads, and various bridges being closed (including the Kessock one, for a while), I lingered in bed, reckoning best wait a bit until it eases, and it sounded like the College would be closed. Eventually news came through that it was.

With mostly electric heating, and it not having much of an overnight charge, it was a while before I relinquished the cosiness of the duvet and blanket. House was about eight degrees C. Things calmed down outside by lunchtime, and I cycled into town for some shopping, drop off some bits, and a swim. "Great, only two of us in the lane." Trouble was, that I'd chosen the lane with Mr Angry in it...

He didn't seem to like being overtaken. As I was doing a minimum of six lengths to his four, being overtaking was a frequent occurrence for him. He appeared to go out of his way to block me from passing at the ends of the pool... where most decent folk do the opposite, and allow faster swimmers to pass by. Had it been busy, I wouldn't have been able to pass at all. Things came to a head on one length when I sped past him a distance before the end of the pool. Was well clear of him, touched the end, turned, and pushed off, only to have him swim directly into my legs. I was taken aback, and confused as to how we'd collided, as there was no way he could have caught up, or not seen me. I realised afterwards that it could only have been deliberate. And to top it all, he became stroppy. Don't know if he didn't quite understand how the lanes worked, or was having bad day, as he wouldn't listen to any reason. But I kept civil, and took none of his bullying nonsense.