The highlights of Hurricane Bawbag

Well, it got a bit blowy last night, didn't it?

At least it did in Scotland where gusts of wind up to 165 mph were measured in the worst storm for over a decade.

Virtually all schools in west and central Scotland were closed by midday and the disruption and damage caused seems to have been at a minimum. That's not to say it was safe out there. One friend spoke of scaffolding being blown down from flats and breaking windows, another of chasing his greenhouse round his garden.

There will be some who say that it was only a wee bit of wind, and we should have just got on with it. We will never know how many lives getting people off the roads as much as possible saved. I'm just grateful that we are not waking up to much worse headlines of death and destruction. I do have to hand it to Nicola Sturgeon. She is a very reassuring presence when there's a crisis on, exuding calm and competence. She was the same during Swine Flu. Whatever political differences I might have with her, she deserves credit for heeding all the advice and making the right calls.

Scotland has taken a bit of a battering - high winds, heavy rain and snow and still 60,000 people or so have lost power but we're pretty much in one piece.

Social networking sites and blogs were abuzz with talk of the storms. We had the traditional not entirely serious live blog from Love and Garbage.  Some comic christened the storm Hurricane Bawbag. For those of you unfamiliar with the Scottish vernacular, a bawbag is, well, our word for scrotum. And to be honest, it's a better word. Anyway, within a short while, #HurricaneBawbag caught the internet's imagination and was soon a global trending topic on Twitter and had its own Wikipedia page.

Some of the images of the day were caught by tommyreckless on You Tube.  The "Sensational Alex Salmond Gastric Band" song is hilarious. Do enjoy.



At the end of the song is a glimpse of what became known as the Oh My God Trampoline - the full version of that little episode is here.



Of course, all the people who put these things together were snuggly and warm inside. We need to think about those who had to go out, or who were out there clearing up damage or trying to restore power. And never far from my thoughts at this time of year are people who struggle to keep warm because they can't afford to heat their houses.

So there you have the main highlights of Hurricane Bawbag. The biggest disappointment I had was that George Alagiah didn't use this colloquialism on the BBC News. Neither did most other broadcasters, though - STV were particularly coy around the name. I reckon it was probably worth risking the complaints, but never mind.