±«Óãtv

I've been playing around with various other blogging systems. Personal opinions follow.

* Typepad had lots of functionality, but if anything too much. It took too long and too much fiddling to get something up in more or less the format I wanted.

* Blogger (the Google one) was fun and easy to use, but didn't have enough functionality. I use it for a work blog. The Isle of Skye living blog is very well laid out, so it can be done.

* Livejournal I found too clunky. Also, the livejournal community seemed to be inhabited mainly by teens, and the system is much more oriented towards livejournal friends and less towards posting.

* Myspace: like livejournal, but more extreme. Output looks awful, and most of the other posters are about half my age.

* Wordpress am with at the moment. See Free and has a good level of functionality. I like the way of creating posts in this from inside a Flickr account. I'd like a better selection of templates though (some are just plain awful).

Do other bloggers on here use other blogging systems? Any particular favourites (and why)?

The blue flag people have theirÌýlist ofÌýthe, ahemÌýbest beaches in England, Wales and Northern Island for this year.ÌýThe ScottishÌýlist comes out in a few weeks.

The criteria for listing includes waste bins, toilets, lifeguards, and various other facilities. As the ±«Óãtv news story says: So if deserted beaches are for you, the Blue Flag is not an indication of quality.

In 2005, the number of beaches awarded a blue flag in Scotland was ... 7. Did the assessors allocate half a day to checking out Scotland's beaches? Or was it the lack of adjoining amusement parks, and other, ahem, facilities, that put them off?

Also in 2005, they awarded the beach at Bournemouth the title of the . Huh?

Here's a picture of the beach at Bournemouth, which apparently gets up to 100,000 visitors a day.

Now here's a picture of the beach at Scarista on Harris:

Which strikes you as being cleaner?

At least one person has some intelligence:

"Simon Calder, the Travel Editor of The Independent, believes Britain's best beaches are found in the Western Isles in Scotland.

He praised them for having the 'purest, clearest' water as well as 'dramatic seascapes', adding that they were 'probably the best in the world'.

'If you ignore the temperatures, you will find probably everything you would look for in a beach, from the quality of the sand to the pure, beautiful clarity of the water,' said Mr Calder."

Congratulations to Pauline Prior-Pitt who lives in North Uist. Last night, her North Uist Sea Poems won the Callum Macdonald Memorial Award for pamphlet poetry in 2006.

The website for Pauline is here:

Ferocious foxes terrorising the neighbourhood chickens? Randy rabbits spotted where they shouldn't be any? Nessie off Ness? Polar bears on Point?

Hebridean APE (Alien Pest Extermination) is now available for hire. Using state of the art tri-wheeled technology, our pilot and side gunner will detect, track and exterminate the pest of your choice.

Don't delay - hire the professionals today.