Jonners

There's just no real appetite to take the game forward in Shetland, either from the players or the office bearers. It's a shame for the Shetland public which turned out in such huge numbers for the Island Games Final. I really thought the fitba team really brought the people of Shetland together in a massively positive way that I have never seen - it beat the pants off Up Helly Aa!

I wouldn't mind if there was another plan in the offing about how Shetland football is going to move forward, but there's nothing.

I think the term 'resting on their laurels' is quite apt here.

Just noticed that the most users ever online here at Shetlink at one time has shot up to a massive 74 and it happened the other night at 12:48am on Sunday morning to be exact. That's a bit weird isn't it? Why so many people logging on then? Was there a webchat with Njugle or something at that time that nobody told me about?!

You would be right if it was a double road that was being built.

 

but it is basically just a resurfacing contract with better passing places from what I understand. I dont think they are even strightening the road at all as it will follow pretty much the exisiting road alignment.

Thanks Twerto - please excuse my ignorance, I'm just going by the letter in the paper which amused me greatly. I especially liked the bit about the 'friendly dog' that runs out on the road and might be at risk of injury or worse if traffic moved more quickly!

some bits I think were rubbish like the bit when they are so happy that she dropped a dress size. What type of message was that?

Totally agree. The film had a bit of morally ambiguous tone but the bit when they celebrated the fact she was down to what I think is a British size 8 was horrendous. You could laugh at Meryl Streep describing Anne Hathaway as fat because that is obviously ridiculous. And I liked the bit with the English assistant who was on a diet that involved eating nothing except a small cube of cheese before fainting.

I liked The Devil Wears Prada - and I'm a guy, albeit quite a metrosexual one! (where's my lip balm?)

Sure it was whimsical to an extent, and some of the characters were a bit annoying but overall I thought it was funny, sharp, Meryl Streep was pretty brilliant and - ok - Anne Hathaway is fairly easy on the eye. New York also looked fantastic.

I haven't seen the History Boys but have now heard from various sources that it's quite good. I saw the trailer and thought it looked rubbish though, on the basis that all the 'school-boys' looked as if they were about 30 years old.

(** MOD EDIT ** Title changed from "Papa Stour Road" on 16/02/07 to allow further expansion of thread.)

Interesting letter in the Shetland Times this past Friday from a man in Papa Stour unhappy about upgrading the road in the island. Plenty of people have questioned the amount of cash being spent on this sort of thing before, but this is the first time we've really heard from someone on the island saying it's not a good thing.

I've always thought that rolling out superb infrastructure throughout Shetland is a bit of a double edged sword. Sure you want to encourage prosperity by doing stuff that will help business, but sometimes I think this has been done in a way that totally ruins the charm of rural places and actually would work against the prosperity of a place in the long term. Hulking huge urban pavements and double tracked roads in rural areas does nothing for the look of a place. Over on the west coast of Scotland the rural places have roads that are basically falling apart but in a way that seems ok. It's sort of what you expect and even want from such a location. I'm the biggest Shetlandic patriot you could meet but I have to admit that the scenic beauty of Shetland falls short of the west coast islands, and in many ways we're not doing Shetland any favours by trying to suburbanise places like Papa Stour.

Maybe I'm a soft-hearted old sentimentalist - or just a mentalist - but I think places like Papa Stour should maintain a rustic appearance. It's never going to be an urban metropolis so we shouldn't push it in that direction. I think business could be done there but it should be business that fits - tourism, hospitality, organic food production and so on.

I sometimes think that in Shetland people in various areas worry a great deal about getting a fair slice of the oil money pie, and that if one part of Shetland gets something then all the other places are entitled to that something as well, regardless of whether or not it really makes any sense. Sure the people of Papa Stour are as entitled to public money being spent on them but could it not be done in a wiser way? For example, how about start up grants for people who can operate some sort of small business from the island.

Yeah, where are they?!

Just to clarify that I do appreciate the Shetland News website - I just don't appreciate it when it's not giving me any news!

I actually think the Shetland Times did an excellent job of reporting the story.

It was based on facts and quotes from people within the Unst community about their thoughts on the whole thing.

I was worried that the Times would do the traditional Shetland thing and try and turn a blind eye to the story and bury it in a tiny paragraph on page 18 rather than publish a fully rounded update that everyone wanted and newspapers are supposed to do. I'm glad I was wrong.

Clearly the family must be going through hell but a report in the Times is hardly going to make things any worse. The article could be a positive thing as it clarifies and puts in context how things stand at the moment. Publicity about any case can do no harm.

In these ridiculous times we live in there's no point ruling anything out, and it seems the people of Unst think the same. Anything could have happened to this man. I know that it's vaguely preposterous to imagine he was kidnapped but this could have happened. Who knows what motive someone might have.

I just can't agree that the Times has struck a tabloid tone on this one. They put it on the front page because it is newspaper tradition to put the story of most interest on the front page. The piece was sympathetic to the man and in no way sensationalised the story, despite the fact this is a sensational story that has got everyone in Shetland talking. Yes people have gone missing in Shetland before, but I fail to recall someone as high profile as Sandy go missing, certainly in recent years.

I don't have the paper to hand but I seem to remember that the headline was very poor. Something along the lines of 'Unst Man's body still not found', automatically presuming he is dead, along with some very poor grammer.

I've looked again at the paper and there's no such headline.

Crofter, you are right. This is what the Shetland Times said:

"But police have eliminated from their inquiries two cars which were seen and heard driving through Baltasound at around 5.20am on Monday last week. Mr Macaulay, 49, had been working during the night at the PURE Energy Centre at the Hagdale industrial estate. He was last seen in his office at 11.25pm on Sunday and is believed to have used a computer at 5am. But police said this week the people in the mystery cars had "genuine reason" for being on the road at that time."

But this information about the cars is completely contradicted by what the police were saying on Radio Shetland tonight. The copper in charge of the investigation said on the radio that the two cars have NOT been eliminated from the investigation. Which raises at least two questions: Why did this misinformation get out in the first place? And if it was a simple mistake why did the police not seek to put out the correct information sooner? The story appeared this past Monday on the Shetland Times website that the cars had been eliminated, and this is now Friday and the cars actually still haven't been accounted for. Is it just me or has loads of valuable time been wasted here? What's going on?

If that is the case Mr Twerto then you can come and join me on my own personal xmas do on the 21st. Will that keep you happy?

Get a room!

According to the Shetland Times website the two cars that were seen passing by the Hagdale estate at the time of the disappearance have now both been ruled out of the investigation.

Don't know what game you were watching but Ferguson was entirely anonymous in my opinion. Fletcher and Hartley were far better on the day.

Considering none of them touched the ball in the first half I thought Hartley was a bit overwhelmed, while Fletcher was excellent - great pass through for the McFadden sliced shot - and Ferguson was very good as the match wore on, even passing the ball forwards at times!

I've never truly understood how the Shetland News website operates. Presumably it gets cash from the myriad of businesses and sponsors that advertise on their pages. It must make some money - I've yet to meet a journalist who works for the good of his/her health! I know they ask for people who read the website to donate money but I doubt this would generate much income. I know very few people who would willingly give their hard earned cash to a private company for a service which is already free. I don't think a pay-per-view Shetland news service would work, but I could be wrong.

I think it's a bit poor that the Shetland News website is closed for the moment. I've never heard of any 'daily newspaper' stopping production simply to allow staff to take their leave.

I know it's only two guys that work there, but could they not have hired a freelancer to mind the shop for the couple of weeks they're away?

Just doesn't seem a very professional attitude to me. I guess it's symptomatic of them being the only daily morning portal for getting Shetland news, as I don't think the Shetland Times daily news is very good - one story a day usually. And I know Radio Shetland has a comprehensive news service, but that only broadcasts at night.

I'm writing this from the stance of someone who lives outside Shetland and misses out on the joys of SIBC!

Aargh! I knew there was something on the telly last night I should have watched.

Is it getting repeated? Sunday afternoon or something maybe?

Ended up watching a bit of Jonathan Ross later on with the New York Dolls. Car crash telly at it's very worst/best.

So let me get this straight.

Bairns ride around on Shetland ponies carrying baseball bats and from time to time they take a swing at a ball perched on some sort of stick? And as the bairns get bigger the horses involved get bigger ultimately resulting in adults atop of Clydesdale horses presumably?

Bonkers, as Njugle said. Do they drink red tins in Hawaii? It sounds like something worth staging at next years Big Bannock cavalcade. And then the Shetland team could travel to Hawaii for a World Series decider against their hosts!

I saw it the other day too but I was disappointed by it after some decent reviews. I thought the characters were too one-dimensional and unlikeable apart from the little girl and Grandad - and he dies half way through. I just came away thinking this is too whimsical, not funny enough and although it seems to be trying to make some sort of profound moral message it doesn't make this message at all clear. Is it saying it's alright to be freaks? It's alright to be a dysfunctional family as long as you love each other in the end? Child beauty pageants are things of hideous horror? Having said all that, I think the little girl that plays Olive is brilliant.

That is just complete b******s. People in Guernsey will actually think that's true. I hope The Shetland Times or Radio Shetland do something with this to put the record straight.

I feel that the problem is the prevailing attitude to drink in Shetland. If it's OK to be agressive or ill or passed out due to drink at age 20, then why not 15, or 10 or 5? If most adults give a nod and a wink to adult alchohol abuse then of course youngsters will follow suit. We can surely find more meaningful or exciting ways to spend our leisure time than getting pissed! Surely we Shetlanders have more imagination than that?

Great point Mag.

I think as a society now we almost applaud the idea of somebody getting out of their faces drunk. It used to be a bad thing to be out of control drunk, but now it's the done thing and there's nobody in society - in any sort of position of credible respect - that says getting blootered is in any way bad.

Since Shetland is failing to get anywhere in terms of competing in Scottish domestic football perhaps it is now time to look at the bigger picture.

Gibralter has won a court case that will allow them to join the ranks of San Marino, Faroe, Andorra et al and play in the Euro and World Cup qualifiers.

Following San Marino's 13-0 thrashing from Germany it seems there will be even more clamour for a qualifying group made up of these diddy nations. We could be part of this!

Believe it or not this could make sense. FIFA will be receptive as they will want a decent number of diddy nations in this group, Shetland would get more regular football at a decent level, and travelling to San Marino to follow Shetland would beat the pants of a dreary match away at Inverurie Locos!

I know, I know, my tin hat is at the ready - but we can afford to think big, can't we?

On another tangent completely did anyone else notice the picture on page 35 advertising 'The Truman Capote Talk Show'? It's a dead ringer for Councillor Leonard Groat, who is pictured on the front page. Slightly more sinister perhaps - and he's wearing a hat - but the glasses are the same!

The tag-line of, "share in a unique, bitchy and heart-breaking evening", could also be attributed to your average SIC meeting! (although SIC meetings do tend to take place in the mornings)

And on the same day in 1944,the Holocaust diarist,Anne Frank,was sent to Auschwitz,while somewhere over war-torn Europe,George Bush senior succesfully ejected from a burning aircraft. The first event was truly tragic,and given the erratic and unstable presidency of the USA today, perhaps the second was also.

Is that the view of The Shetland Times though? I'm all for a bit of colour in the local paper but I'm not so sure about contributors putting forward their own personal opinions unless it's done in an exceedingly witty or charming way, especially when it comes to politics or religion.

I think it's fairly odious that George W Bush is President of the USA but to bemoan the fact his father didn't die in WW2 is pretty odious in itself, I would argue. At the very least I don't think it fits in very well with the tone of the rest of the paper and I sometimes wonder if the editor of The Shetland Times bothers reading some of the stuff the contributors write.

Can I just say that the wild salmon can wander the ocean depths only to return to the river it was hatched in to breed. Considering some humans have a problem finding their way home after a night at the pub perhaps fish have more brains than we thought.

Justme - are you indirectly advocating cannibalism?

I think fish should really be classed as a sort of half-way house between animals and vegetation. They really have no clue as far as I can make out of the greater scheme of things. I see their 'harvesting' by fishermen in much the same way as I see someone harvesting their crop of barley. Since adopting this mindset I have found eating fish far more pleasant.

Although I still eat red meat and poultry I do feel slightly hypocritical eating them as I can't think of many things more horrifying than a slaughterhouse.

Delting - http://www.deltingfc.co.uk/