Infiltrator

You should see it at quarter past three on a friday afternoon.

 

Makes what you went through this morning seem like a leisurely sunday drive.

Aberdeen is fine, it depends what you're used to. I was in shetland last week (don't mention the weather ) and it was like life (and the driving) was being lived in slow motion. Like I said, it depends what you're used to, and at the moment I seem to prefer life to have a a bit more buzz.

That said, the worst driving I've ever witnessed was in shetland and it was someone who had lived there for many years and in their line of work they really should have known better - a health professional overtaking at a 'graceful' pace on a blind bend on the kames.

2nd worst was a P plate driver going the wrong way around the roundabout at the entrance to aberdeen airport good thing it was 5 in the morning.

I picked up a copy of this recently for a few pounds, it gives a good insight into island life just before oil and the subsequent community reactions.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/books/dp/090619105X

Might be useful background reading.

From their website, an explanation of the slogan

'Vizion is the art of seeing the invisible.*

The idea behind Vizion Air is strong: we do what we do best. Visualizing the invisible. Give added value to an existing service. Bringing back forgotten values and making aviation inspiring again. That is the reason why we've created the only tailor-made boutique airline for you: Vizion Air. (*Jonathan Swift)

With Vizion Air, we have a tool in hands to shape the entire journey to your dreams: the aircraft we use are largely controlled by us. We run the show. And we do not easily say 'No' to any idea to make your journey even more inspiring. You can instantly book your own aircraft, or lay back and let us inspire you with the things in life that passionate you. With our partners we create you every possible journey.

Dear god , it's a bus with wings, pretty sure this'll be lost on the bears..

Ironically give it a couple of days and it probably will become invisible as it's circling sumburgh in thick fog trying to land.

I watched the Fokker taking off at the other end enroute to LSI, I wondered what the writing on the side was - and now I've seen it I'm none the wiser Looks like a corporate slogan with a poor translation into english.

^COMAH puts a stop to any accomodation anywhere near the terminal, given the new accomodation block at Sella Ness I'd guess that's about as close as they can get - and then moorings and services become the issue.

Found this on youtube, hadn't seen it before, some familiar faces

I reckon 1972/3 - anyone put a better date on it?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JIQTCoJ5Rc

 

Bottom line is that 99.99% of these people are decent, honest and, law abiding.

 

That's 1 in 10,000 people, I doubt you'll find anywhere in the world where you could find a group of 9,999 decent honest law abiding folk, maybe oil construction workers have changed somewhat from the ones I used to work with

Ramping it up a bit maybe

hang on a moment orkney has an inter connector. daft question then why not route ours there. maybe even have a stop off point on fair isle. its got to be cheaper than a long undersea cable.

 

it does look as if orkney is well ahead of us. as usual.

I think you'll find the business case for a cable to the mainland versus a new power station stacked up in Orkneys case - I doubt it had anything to do with Orkney being more forward looking, SSE are very clearly profit focused.

The last stats I saw (and posted previously on here) declared that 1 in 3 people in employment in shetland are employed directly by the council, and I think we can assume that many of the 2nd persons out of the 3 have an income largely funded indirectly by council money from employment supporting council services.

I appreciate some extra services are required because of the remote location, but that aside, surely in a relatively small economy like shetland, having such a large percentage of the personal income in the isles coming from a local employer that then has fairly limited potential to raise fresh revenue from outside the local economy must eventually lead to a bust?

The Question is,who has benifited from the councils mis-management ?

 

I'd argue just about everybody in Shetland has either directly or indirectly.

And I've said for years that I believe the councils strategy from way back is all based around a fear of depopulation of the isles once the oil business finally fades away.

The sheer amount of well paid council funded jobs and gold plated infrastructure projects can only be sustainable with a sizeable income from outside the isles - e.g. oil and gas, or the Viking windfarm.

Even in a well strapped down static caravan, I wouldn't want to encounter one of the big storms that seem to hit the isles every two or three decades.

I remember the 92 storm, there was a destructive storm on the 20th December, followed by the record breaking storm on the 31st. I was in Lerwick, we only recorded gusts to 93 mph, but it was still pretty scary, I remember dry stone dykes that had stood for over 100 years being blown over on Foula.

The 93 storm wasn't as extreme in strength - it was the relentless nature of the storm, January saw 25 days of force 9 and above gales.

http://www.landforms.eu/shetland/storms.htm

My advice for anyone living in a static caravan on Shetland would be to pitch it in as sheltered a place as possible (old quarry would be ideal), strap it down well and then strap it down more, keep a close eye on the weather forecasts, and have a contingency plan in the event things get too hairy.

Really?

Remember back in 2007 he was only fined £350 for his involvement in obtaining cannabis... unfortunately can't find an archive for that.

[***Mod edit - removed cut and pasted text from a news article. A copy of the article can be found here. ***]

Well put Gibber, you've potentially got the plot for a 21st century rewrite of the Old Testament

If Shetlink did Oscars you'd be top of the nominations for 2013.

 

 

No, what I was meaning was are all guizers going to get named and shamed in the local press if we get banned for whatever reason.

For breaking an up helly aa rule, probably not, for an incident that could have been reported to the police, it certainly looks thats the way they're going.

There's lots of complaints every year to the committee, mostly for squad etiquette - late to halls, too many folk missing, leaving a hall before another squad arrives. In these cases the squad leader gets it in the neck and can receive a ban (ours did one year).

The ‘jokes committee’ seem to have not quite thought all this through properly, which has had a very serious impact on all concerned. Laughing at other’s misfortune so publicly is simply ignorant and appears to have been designed to cause hurt (which it has).

 

‘It’s never too late to mend’

What misfortune are you on about? Misfortune suggests the subject was innocent and I'm not aware anyone has said that is the case.

Assuming you're referring to the original bill issue, the subject of this public humiliation was on the committee for 15 years and was happy to stand by and watch many other folk have fun poked at them so why should anyone show any sympathy?

What was printed on the bill was amusing for 5mins and quickly forgotten, it was the action that the person took that's become the bigger issue - and you continue to drag it out.

Given the nature of the allegation, I doubt if anyone other than the subject could have leaked the detail to someone linked to the jokes committee, maybe they should just have kept quiet.

What petty insignificant nonsense.

 

Weel I`m just a peerie bit worried dat I might go oot on UHA night hae a good dram in me (as you do) an maybe faa ower on tap o a hostess be accident an she pits in a complaint, am I gain tae be hauled up in front o da committee and geen a lengthly ban an me name plastered ower da paper.

Maybe the alternative is to be hauled up in front of the sheriff on a drunk and disorderly charge - I'm guessing this is what the committee are trying to avoid? they probably need to demonstrate that they have some sort of control over how folk behave on the night.

Has anyone who is complaining about this actually written to the councillor that instructed it to be done?

What a ridiculous idea, it's a much better idea to debate it with an anonymous bunch of folk who it doesn't affect or who couldn't care less.

smileyface and bigfoot seem to have a remarkable interest in this particular issue. They've also only just signed up, and have only posted on this thread

 

 

I think you’re a bit of a ‘Pink Panther’ i.e. a bumbling detective?

Merely stating the facts, the core of good detective work.

This whole issue had largely 'sunk without a trace' off Shetlink until smileyface 'salvaged' it and 'launched' it back into the public awareness.

smileyface and bigfoot seem to have a remarkable interest in this particular issue. They've also only just signed up, and have only posted on this thread

So am I reading he got a 10 year ban?

Serves him right, after his very public 2005 debacle and now trying to censor the bill, maybe he'll take the hint.

The bill has been critisised in the last few years for losing it's cutting edge humour - the very threat that someone can censor what's on the bill strikes at the very core of one of the most unique local features of the whole festival.

It was also good to see a steward telling someone, curled up on the floor in a sleeping bag, to move from the space between 2 rows of recliners.

Are they trying to stop folk from sleeping in sleeping bags on the floor altogether?

I find the reclining seats impossible to sleep in and the floor is more comfortable in my opinion.

 

yet again lerwicks health needs seem to be higher that us country folks.

 

So where in the news artice does it say this?

The impression I got was that it was bringing the local rural service into line with the national service.

http://www.shetnews.co.uk/news/6355-nhs-cutbacks-hit-rural-gps

Why has it been so laclustre so far, bad facilities, bad choice of acts, what?

Maybe it's just another Baroc - big ideas, plenty cash, but no real clue about the local economy or demand.

Probably too big for another Chinese restaurant, but well placed for a new coal store.

http://www.shetnews.co.uk/news/6351-mareels-future-hangs-in-the-balance

 

Looks like our esteemed councillors might have given Mareel another handout to protect their 'investment'

Well that is a surprise, I predicted it would be a couple of years before they needed a further public handout, another money pit to add to their fleet.